If I were you - I would hang tight with WL7 for now.
I would wait until at least March 1 (probably longer) - as it’s highly likely that we will have much more info in a month.
As Timo has alluded to - seems WL9 is not coming during MusikMesse (april) - but actually earlier!
My guesstamate now is mid to late March.
VP
I wonder the same (I’m on WL 8.0.4) 
::
Mads
I don’t want to bring up comparisons with telecommunication or electronics companies, but could you please narrow down the time frame a bit?
You know, so that I can plan my days a bit better?
So which “Spring type” from the upper mentioned is it?
We can now rule out Musikmesse 2016 (though it will be a topic there). And the next AES is later as well.
Can we also rule out the North American Groundhog Day?
(btw - last WL .0 release was mid May 2013, with a usual 2-month Grace Period down to March of the same year // WL8.5 dropped June 2015 – I like that particular release cycle - more so than Cubase)
I think there are two things that would be good for WL users to know:
When is it safe to purchase or upgrade to 8.5 and be in the grace period to qualify for free WaveLab 9 upgrade?
Will there be a maintenance update to 8.5 at some point?
In my country, Spain, Spring comes on March 21 and knowing MusikMesse is from 7 April on, I believe Timo has narrowed very well the dates, isn’t it?
Of course, Spring can come earlier in some countries…
More important to me, would be to know if the “Batch Analyzer” got a RMS or better VU value readout with custom time frames (300ms bar minimum).
And an actual screenshot of the GUI would be nice. The teaser video was a bit too frantic IMO
thanks for the advice VP. i have been with WL7 for so long another month or two is not going to be too bad of a wait!
I think that’s the point of calling it a teaser:) I love what I see in there already - frantic or otherwise.
If they were going to spill all the beans - they would have. And they will - in due time.
But then of course the complaints will start immediately about how the new GUI is lame, or too dark, or too this or too that 
My favorite will be this one - (that I am 100% certain will be asked right away)
“Will it be possible to change the WL9 new GUI back to the WL6 GUI. I miss the old look and feel”
Poor ole PG just can’t win…
VP
Some careful pausing in the teaser shows a very cubase’ish look - dark, black, blue, metallic, way better than what we have now.
Anybody notice the strange square shaped thing around 00:26? Wonder what that is.
Look slick - hope they got rid of the sluggish 8.5 graphics as well
Well, at 0:17, we see the “Audio Editor” (or what looks to be the montage!), which does have some GUI ideas taken from the likes of other hosts that do freely attachable/detachable windows. So we will(!) see a full GUI overhaul after all. Not too sure if I’ll like it though. Then again, everything is better than WL7/8’s sometimes confusing windows and window handling (I hate clicking outside of WL and all my plugin GUI’s vanishing/closing).
At 0:20, we’ll see a new plugin called “Master Rig”, which looks like a combined concept that a lot of developers currently do as well. Think Ozone “lite”, or IK Multimedia with the Lurssen Mastering Module. I actually kind of like the look on that thing. Has something from current Native Instruments GUI’s. I’m curious what this will be about, and how good it will actually sound/perform (and if we can load it in Cubase as well if we copy over the VST3 files - please say yes). I don’t see this as a main selling point, but I’m sure (like CubEndo) that it will be made to be one. Though is the creation of this tool to counteract the 10 insert limit?
At 0:23, we see one new window - a “Wave Scope”. I do hope we can configure that to show smaller time frames, etc. Overall, this looks like a more “cleaned up GUI”, also different metering. And here is my biggest concern - can we fully configure the meters to our needs? Like: ballistics, color codes, reference levels? (please, please say yes!)
That big blocky thing at 0:25/0:26 looks like something for “easier positioning”? I sure hope this won’t be advertised as… cough - old Steinberg cats will get this… … er… “Groundbreaking”.
At 0:29, we seem to get a MASSIVE update on the routing. We can now use INSERTS and SEND, in Stereo, L, R, Mid/Side. Here is hope for proper multi-track recording capabilities in WL9!
At 0:32 - we get a new file handler
At least this is what I get out of the video.
My main concerns are still:
A bonus surprise would be, if Wavelab can now load WAV files, slice them, and generate REX. But… I think this is wishful thinking. Just like creating very, very basic Pure Audio Blu-Rays.
Actually - there is an AES “Conference” end of this week. Would this already count as “spring”?
(considering North American Groundhog Day and all)
Two questions. How much is it going to cost for current WL owners and what studio is that in the “teaser” ? It looks like mission control for a Mars landing.
Oh well just have to wait and see on the release date. I would rather they wait longer and get all the bugs out than sooner and have problems.
The GUI looks good in fact VERY GOOD now if it will only solve all the crashing problems I will be ecstatic.
MTCW
Oh yes - it’s nice with new features and GUI - but if the bugs don’t go away, it won’t give any real meaning!
Hope it’s solid, a Wavelab release to be proud of - both from a developer standpoint and of course for us users!
::
Mads
As per normal protocol - PG is usually on the case right away with a maintenance release or two - but in my usage - WL never really gets strong until about the third or fourth release.
In the case of V8 - I was not really comfortable with it until we hit 8.5.
As far as an upgrade price - it was 99 bucks last time. Cannot see why it would be more this time.
VP
Definitely hoping for the same…
(see my comment on VST3 implementaion)
Will WL 9 have complete, non restricted support for interleaved surround/multichannel files, surround plug ins and external multi channel inserts? This is what I need.
Well,that’s some great news!
Let’s hope that Wavelab’s workflow and GUI will be finally improved .It looks good from the video teaser ,why not tell us the new features included?
I am certain they will tell us all about it when good and ready.
Cheers!
VP
Mmmm … CubeLab? The soundtrack scared me so much I had to go lie in a dark room for a while. 
Would be nice, for references, since Wavelab has support for creating DVD-A, but DVD-A support dropped in most players I think, it’s the natural extension for the feature, and without need for compression, like Wavelab DVD-A. Currently using Cirlinca for Blu-Ray audio, after making hi-res wav/cue in Wavelab.
And, just as you said there would be - there is news…!! 
Thanks Timo…!
Looks like some great work you’ve been putting in there PG… the teaser is good; not long to wait for the real thing…!