Wavelab taking ages to handle audio interfaces

Recently I upgraded my PC from a dual RME MADI FX to a dual RME Aox-D system. But I use Wavelab 13.0.10 with my RME UFX III.

Previously Wavelab took ages to start up. I suspect because of the many channels the Madi FX setup has. Now Wavelab takes even longer to fully start up. It even has more channels to be scanned. It seems to be an exponential problem.

I do hope Steinberg will look into this since waiting for minutes on an end is unsustainable for my work. In the mean time I’m using Audacity to edit my masters.

WaveLab does not scan any Audio device while being launched, unless you start with the Startup Assistant and you have the audio device scanning enabled (this is ON by default, but you can hide the panel, and at next launch you won’t have a scan).

Without the startup assistant with device scanning, the first access is when you start playback or record.

This being said, I have a RME UFX+ and the access is very fast. Hence, I think the problem is not where you think it is.

Thank you for reply.

I’ve created a support ticket so it will be looked at.

It took a good 30+ minutes for the startup screen to pop up. I’ve now selected the UFXIII but when I change the channels it again takes ages. So there is something in Wavelab that doesn’t take into account that my system has many channels. I’m not against having a slow configuration. But starting up the program and using it shouldn’t take 30+ minutes every time.

Cubase doesn’t have these issues. Other DAW either.

This is absolutely not normal. There are many, many WaveLab users with RME hardware, and I have never heard about this.

Did you try to start without the Startup Assistant enabled?

Didn’t know you could bypass the Startup Assistant. But with it bypassed it did startup normally. It’s a workaround, but it doesn’t allow me to choose my project type. It’s the best workaround thusfar. That is really nice.

When I choose the audio options in the settings it takes roughly 17 minutes to get processed. And every change of audio interfacing will take another 17 minutes. And since I have all my mastering gear hooked up to the Aox-D interfaces it will quite a bit of time to configure that as external effects.

I guess when you are hitting the boundaries of computer audio you’ll run into edge-cases the developers didn’t know existed.

You can have the start-up assistant without audio scanning by clicking the button in the picture with the red arrow I showed you before.

I trust RME for so many years, they believe the problem comes from their side. Or at least you could ask them on their forum.

Could your problem be related to past audio devices with remaining side effect on your system?

Like I mentioned before. I have a strong believe it is related to the amount of channels for the selected ASIO device. Previously on the dual Madi FX the time I had to wait around 30 seconds. I went from 768 channels to 2048 channels and now the time takes about 17 minutes. This very much looks like an exponential problem to me. I could be wrong ofc.

Wavelab is the only audio program who has this issue. (With the exeception of SoundForge which wouldn’t start at all) Cubase works fine. I had to work with Bitwig for getting that to work with a dual RME setup. Because RME uses a proprietairy way to implement their ASIO drivers.

Currently for the Aox-D I’m using beta drivers because I had issues with my system. And RME provided me with those drivers which aren’t officially released yet. They have been working fine thusfar with Cubase and Bitwig. Besides a few side issues that are related to Dante (which I’m not using atm).

What are you using all these channels for?

Can RME reproduce your problem with WaveLab?

The channels are for the Madi and later on Dante connectivity. So no need for any patchbays when all hardware directly is connected.

I haven’t contacted RME since I don’t believe it has anything to do with their drivers. Besides the behavior of Wavelab 13 with two RME type of interfaces points to a N+1 issue.

Using a 2 channel RME card here but WL seems to be taking longer and longer to load in WL13. Yesterday it took 1.5 minutes to open the first time I opened WL. Any idea of what is going on???

RME UCX II here no problems at all, Wavelab 13 starts in few seconds.

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RME 9632 card here… I still have WL 12 on my computer and it opens quickly. WL 13 seems to be waiting for something before it loads all the way. FWIW

I’m using an RME UFX III and WL 13 loads up fine. I wonder if you have plugins that might be a problem.

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