Hi all,
i'd need your help for a mastering software.
I actually use wavelab 6.1, and it pretty works for what i'm doing now.
But two new things are happening : i need to be able to use natively flac files, AND i'd like to use recent vst plugs, like waves or izotope ones, and it seems to be impossible with my dear old wavelab.

So the question is : is there an other mastering soft wich is able to apply a plug IN REAL TIME, just like the "master section" of wavelab, where you can activate/deactivate the plug to hear the difference in real time... and so, choosing to render or not if it's not what you expect.

Thx in advance for your answers, and have a nice day ^^

 

hey. studio one pro has a dedicated mastering section , did you try that ? pretty dope

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 16, 2019

You might well find Samplitude most like Wavelab (as I remember it) and it comes with a whole shed load of really good plugs, metering and mastering support. It is however a complex package with a heavy learning curve. Studio One offers a dedicated mastering environment but it is heavily based on assuming you've built the songs in Studio One as well (but you can work around this).

To a very large extent the mastering tools should all be DAW agnostic, so actually almost anything will work for you, but my feeling from your post is tht Samplitude, if you're willing to do the learning, might be what you're looking for.

 

What's wrong with a newer version of WaveLab (Elements/LE)?
Audition would be another option with similar features and workflow.

If you're really looking for a wave editor, a sequencer-type DAW is maybe not the right kind of software.

 

If I got your question right, you can do this with every DAW.

My personal recommendation would be Reaper, because
- it's cheap as hell, if you want to go legit
- it comes with a bunch of third party plugins, only their GUI isn't used
- it has an internal bridge so you can use 32bit plugins in a 64bit DAW easily
- you can insert as many plugins as you want
- one feature I use very often is that you can select several (all) inserted plugins and switch their on/off status with a single key command. This way you can easily compare different plugins/setups.

 

It's made by Steinberg.

 

t racks 5

 

Myself: Im on Wavelab Pro 9.5 now and used it since v3 - which is IMHO the very best for mastering. So why not just buy Wavelab Elements whith all the new improvements since v6.1?

There´s a lot of Steinberg haters around here.... mainly because most Steinberg stuff hasn´t been cracked for years and therefore needs a dongle if you want them - you can test by asking for at 1 month demo!.... Your choice!!!!

My advise: Don´t listen too much to Steinberg haters! Spend the few bucks on the Elements version and get yourself a great mastering application

My 50 cents

Good luck @cooljess

 

No, we can remember it from before the dongle. Every version fixes some of the bugs and introduces a whole bunch of new ones. You spend the rest of your life being Steinberg taxed for a bug fix that never comes. There are people out there been using Cubase since the late 80's. Never had a bug free version. Ever.

The problem isn’t Cubase. Cubase could be quite good. After all, the team behind Presonus Studio One used to build Cubase. The problem isn’t Cubase, the problem is Steinberg, it’s culture, it’s history and the fact that Yamaha Music Corporation makes more money out of headphones than it does out of Steinberg, and there’s only so much attention span a bunch of Japanese golf club corporate executives can focus on an insignificant German subsidiary.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 16, 2019

Seriously @Fudsey Plange my statement was not addressed to you personally regarding Steinberg but based on general experiences I have here on people's attitude towards Steinberg.

I have actually used Cubase since the 1980s !! And it has always been protected with a dongle! There have been bugs during the many years (some versions worth than others I agree) but they´ve always been fixed!!

"Never had a bug free version. Ever": What about Studio One, Sonar, Samplitude, Logic............! No bugs ever?? Seriously......!!!

I dont really fancy dongles but they´re here and I have accepted the fact they´re here - they also have some benefits but that´s quite another story

Have a nice weekend

 

You have added seriously to your first statement! Why not adress it directly to my feedback?

 

Ok @Fudsey Plange .... you do it your way!

-The team building Studio One wasn´t a part of the Cubase project but the Nuendo project - period!!! Those two projects a in many ways very different!!!

-If you have a problem regarding the fact Yamaha makes more money on headphones than Steinberg software I can ony tell you this:
User support has never been better - period!

I´m waiting for you reply here ;-)

 

Last edited: Aug 16, 2019

So am I.

 

definitely Reaper, it's surprisingly capable for everything, mastering included!

1) mix snapshots (to quickly compare between different masters)
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/snapshots-sws-extensions-mixing
2) projects within projects (to import tracks, and master them as one full set comfortably)
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/reaper-subprojects
3) spectral editing (because sometimes cleanup is required, even at mastering stage sadly)
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/spectral-editing-reaper
4) "oldschool" tape effects processing (varispeed, reverse tracking, speed ramping etc..)
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/tape-effects-reaper
5) ultimate automation capabilities (because often mastering is the only chance to adjust volume and vibe of different song parts)
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/automate-anything-reapers-custom-actions
6) mid-side processing (because hey, it's mastering essential thingy)
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/ms-mastery
7) great performance with lots or heavy of plugins (again, mastering plugins are among most demanding to handle)
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/running-multiple-plug-ins
8) multi-band processing (crossover plugins are part of Reaper, again very useful for mastering specifically)
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/reaper-creating-multi-band-processors
9) custom themes for Reaper (you can even make it look like Cubase/Wavelab, sort of)
https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/2310/CubicPack3.zip
and much more....

 

Last edited: Aug 19, 2019

1) Wavelab uses VST. You are having some sort of issue if you can't load Waves- and iZotope plugins.
2) ALL DAWs and wave editors process audio in realtime. Fortunately the 90's didn't call to get their offline processing back.

 

Use Studio One Master Section or make a Template, special for mastering in any DAW, wavelab 6.1 is oldtimer, can´t all load plugins and you can´t use reverence tracks in wavelab, only in wavelab 9 pro but not so good like in any daw.

 

It has possibly (hopefully) been fixed by now, but Studio One had horrendous cpu management for third party plugins around the 3.5 update cycle and struggled horribly with anything from izotope, crashed all the time with anything from Image Line. It's why i went to Cubase and it was much more detrimental to getting things done than any bug I've ever experienced in Cubase.

I hear a lot of talk about bugs in Cubase but i hardly ever actually experience them, except for all the freeze/crash on exit crap, which periodically comes and goes.

Not intending to participate in DAW wars here, but since the two are compared so often, and Cubase is the one with a reputation for bugs, I thought it worth mentioning my own experiences.

 

Dont expect any kind of war based on the religion of DAWs from here..... My point was, first of all, the dongle/crack issue that seems to be a HUGE problem for some ppl when it comes to Cubase..... and then came in the whole issue regarding bugs etc from @Fudsey Plange!
Bugs, bugs and bugs everywhere - dongled DAW or not!! ;-)
NB: One of the reasons Cubase has a reputation of having a LOT of bugs could prolly be based on the fact it´s one of the most popular DAW for decades and therefore has a lot of serious users - what do I know?!?!?

 

I love it when the OPs (generally new members) open a thread and forget about it while all the regulars continue to throw in ideas and discuss among themselves.
Hey OP @cooljess where the %*%&$&^$ are you?