Why get Wavelab?

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tkingen

tkingen

Djembes Rock
When putting together a home produced cd project, is it worth it to drop the dollars to get Wavelab? It seems that you could just mix down to stereo tracks in Sonar, assemble them into a project, use your mastering toys, and then export the project to Pyro for burning.
Am I missing something here?
 
Well, SONAR was not dedicated to edit audio file at particular point of detail. It's great for all kind of MIDI work, Audio tracking and mixing (along with applying effects). But to edit the audio file at some point, you will need external wave editor. And tough I don't have Wavelab (I use CoolEdit Pro 2.1 and Soundforge 6), I think Wavelab offers the best mastering tools... Off course, the Almighty dachay2tnr will give you better answer. It's absolutely his field to explain...

;)
Jaymz
 
It's really a matter of preference and using the right tool for the right job.

As James said, Sonar is a great midi sequencing and multitrack recording program. Wavelab, OTOH, is a great mastering, wave editing and CD burning program.

Can you master and edit waves in Sonar? Of course you can (to some degree). Particularly if you have the right plugins available. However, you could also build a house with hand saws and a hammer. It's just a whole lot easier with power saws and a power nailer.

Much depends on how serious you are about your "hobby" and how much disposable cash you've got. At $400 or so, Wavelab is a tad on the expensive side. An alternative might be Sound Forge, which is not as good IMHO, but cheaper. And the cheapest alternative is to use Sonar.

Pick your poison.

BTW, I don't get commissions from Wavelab. I just think it's a great program (as is Sonar). :D
 
What separates a strong capable editor like Wavelab from a merely adequate one like Cakewalk/Sonar. Is it the visual detail? The cutting/moving tools?
 
Yes.



















:D :D :D

And other tools as well - e.g., DC offset measurement and correction, spectrum analyzer, sample rate and bit rate conversion, RMS volume analyzer, and so on.


But keep in mind, Wavelab is not just a Wave Editor.
 
Dachay or James, pardon my ignorance, but can you give a couple of specific examples of how you may work with Wavelab, Cool Edit or SoundForge?
I've downloaded demos of Wavelab and SoundForge, and found it very cool that they show up in the Sonar Tools menu. However, maybe it's just a learning curve, but I wasn't able to find 300.00 or 400.00 worth of use out of them. Of course, my lack of skills may have something to do with this!
Am I just missing the boat?

Thanks,
Terry Kingen
 
They will be on the Tools menu, so you can edit your audio clip on the fly without having to export the wave, open in CoolEdit, make necessary editing, save it, and re-open it in Sonar. Lets take an example. Say you have particular clip that a bit noisy (yes, it has higher noise level than other tracks). Click to selest the clip (highlighted), and select Tools --> CoolEdit. By means, you don't have to close SONAR, Cool edit will open contains the clip you mentioned. Do necessary noise reduction using CoolEdit's noise reduction function (which SONAR doesn't have it at all...). Make necessary editing as you like. Save it, then close CoolEdit. You'll be brought back to SONAR, and prompted that the clip was alltered by other application. You'll be asked whether you want to load the "new" file or leave the old one. Click yes. Now, you have replaced the old "noisy" clips with the one you just edited in CoolEdit....

Like dachay2tnr said, they are not only wave editor. You can do so many other function allowed by their own specific features which could takes alot of time in SONAR to do so (or even cannot be done with SONAR alone) :)

Hope it helps,
;)
Jaymz
 
James Argo said:

Like dachay2tnr said, they are not only wave editor. You can do so many other function allowed by their own specific features which could takes alot of time in SONAR to do so (or even cannot be done with SONAR alone) :)
Click to expand...
95% of my usage of Wavelab is for mastering and CD burning. The Wave Editing function is almost something like a bonus - but a very important bonus when you need it.

And while you could "master" in Sonar, it really isn't designed for that function and doesn't have the right complement of tools IMHO.

Whether it is worth spending $400 for that is really your own personal choice.
 
dachay2tnr said:
Whether it is worth spending $400 for that is really your own personal choice.
Click to expand...
But if you want to do the same thing (only better :D) go for Sound Forge 6 and it's CD Architect! ;)
 
I asked this same question a long, long time ago and dachay pursuaded me to buy Wavelab...and I've never regreted it once.

I now use it with Waves Gold bundle fx tools and together, it makes a very powerful mastering tool. But Moskus is right, CD Architect is winning a lot of friends with its easy burn toolset.

But for me, I will stick with Wavelab, my investment is made.
 
We're using wavelab with a few waves bundles and couldn't be happier with it. The spectral analysis tools are supreme as well! :D

ls
 
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