..............is now available for download.  Which is great news - specially if, like me, you have a CC121.  Oh, and it now adds 64 bit :)

Yes, some useful improvements, so I’m hoping the program will remain stable. Certainly took awhile after the update was announced for it to be released, but with only one to a few people working on it, that’s not surprising. Hope you find it useful, Peter....frank

PS: Any winter scenes in your area yet to photograph? No snow here on the coast yet, but we have seen a bit of frost.

No snow here yet Frank, just in Scotland.  Mind you, it’s cold enough, 34F where I live as I write, so snow could be on the way soon!

Same in London. Just frost. We had some sleet the other day but nothing deep, crisp or in fact, even!!

Now, do either of you have any experience with Wavelab Essentials. I wonder what it can do that cubase cannot and whether it would be sufficient for mastering my own demos in a better way than I do currently (which is using cubase to master and then Nero to write the cd but then Nero is reluctant to do serious cross fade work. ) I am hoping to get something after Christmas.
Thoughts??

Hi Wellie, up here in the Chilterns we had our first smattering of snow on Friday, though it soon went.

Interestingly, I also used Cubase for mastering and Nero for writing the disc.  Then I bought Wavelab Essentials and now use that to write the disc.  It does this job superbly, with many great features, much better than Nero, and is worth the cost just for that facility. As you would expect, wave editing features are also very good.

However, I have now been looking carefully at how Wavelab Essentials can be used for mastering, beyond Cubase.  Some of it is discussed in my recent thread on VST issues.  In that thread Frank suggests Ozone, which I have tried out in the past, and I am considering getting the recently released v5.

However, Cubase has very good compressors, EQ’s, reverbs and dithering. If you can use such tools fairly well, then one has to decide how much extra a package like Ozone offers.

I’m sure Frank and others will chip in!

And to you and all on the forum, have a Happy Christmas and a prosperous 2012!

Peter

Well lads, not a lot I can say here except to chip in with a few general comments...mainly because what one chooses and uses also depends on personal preferences. Wellie, I think you would definitely find a version of WaveLab useful. I, too, use Nero on my office PC for basic CD burning (and have for years), but you would find WL to be much more versatile when it comes to burning audio CDs. But the biggest advantage of using WL is, for me, its original intent...i.e. editing wave files.

One can master in Cubase, even if one doesn’t have Wavelab, so it isn’t essential to purchase the latter for only that reason. While one does have many good tools for mastering in either program, IMHO, extra plug-ins are still required to get the results one might wish to achieve. For that reason I have recommended Ozone, not because it replaces the need for people like Bob Katz or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of specialized hardware and software, but rather because it’s a wonderful overall affordable option for the average small studio owner, it works in BOTH Cubase and WaveLab, and IMO what it outputs is better than what is possible using only Cubase or WL. Having the three programs also offers an individual a number of options and a better opportunity to choose a work flow that suits them, rather being locked into working only one way.

Finally my only comment about the latest version 7 of WaveLab is that I’m still annoyed that Steinberg won’t provide a manual for it, and that the new version has been made more complicated and more difficult for new users to understand than it should have been. The WaveLab forum can be useful, but for those of us who have used WaveLab for years, there are still some misgivings. IMO, it’s certainly not as intuitive as Cubase.

And a Merry Christmas to you and your families as well, and I hope the new year brings you many joyous hours of making music, as well as good health, prosperity and much happiness.....................frank