Looking for Mac App to Replace WaveLab

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 6 Apr 2006 9:23 pm

I use WaveLab on an old PC for my CD mastering. I input a stereo song and manipulate it. Here are the features I use: <ol>[*]Leveling - I adjust the peak level of the song, usually to be close to 0 db. Sometimes I make a portion of the song louder or softer.
[*]Compression - the necessary evil of popular song. WaveLab has a very good compressor plug-in.
[*]EQ - sometimes parametric, sometimes graphic.
[*]Fades - there are some pretty nice controls that I use, mostly on endings
[*]wave editing - sometimes I cut out whole segments, or notch out glitches. [/list]
I'd like to do this step on my Mac, because I'm phasing out that old PC. Anyone know a good OS X application for CD mastering?

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/b0bxicon.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
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David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 6 Apr 2006 9:25 pm

Try Protools LE, the free version,

There should be some adequate plug-ins to handle 2 channel premastering.

The Waves L1 is very good for final levels.

Jam 6 will set the output of all your files individually to their highest output level based on the loudest section of the song.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 6 Apr 2006 9:43 pm

http://www.bias-inc.com

Anyone used Bias Peak Pro 5? Looks like it has features similar to WaveLab, plus some.

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 7 Apr 2006 2:21 am

I have an old version of Peak, and yes It has many tools included.
But I don't remember to use it too often...

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 7 Apr 2006 7:59 am

Bobby. I'm a beta tester for Peak and have been since they started in the mid/late '90s. Peak is among the very best 2 track editors there is. You can get very surgical with it, and get way down in there to manipulate two track audio. However, some of what you're wanting to do will require plug-ins beyond what comes with Peak alone, and that can begin to get expensive. Peak offers some nice plug-ins for additional cost, but you may want to consider a 3rd party like Waves. Essentially for digital mastering you're going to want good EQ, good compression, and finally good peak limiting for final loudness without clipping or "overs".

Another option would be to look into MOTU's Digital Performer. It is a fully functioning multitrack environment that includes a pretty decent 2-track editor (like Peak but not as in depth) that will also let you get down into the sample level and pencil out pops and clicks and whatever. Digi Performer also comes with some pretty nice EQ's, multiband compressor, and also a mastering style peak limiter. You can do all kinds of fade manipulation and editing. It's essentially a fully loaded variation of ProTools, but without all the politics and proprietary hardware limitations. I've been with DP for years, and personally I prefer it to PT for a number of reasons. It's a great program and a great company to be set up with. You can essentially prepare or master all your music in DP, and then use something like Jam to actually burn your master disks. You'd be pretty complete there. Then you'd also be compatible with just about any hardware interface you could ever want to use with it.

So based on your needs, I think I'd lean MOTU's DP5 + Jam. You'd have a great, fully loaded, multitrack recording, mixing, editing, mastering, and burning rig. It's also extremely stable software under Mac OSX.

Check out their latest release, DP5. Go to www.motu.com.

Brad

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 7 Apr 2006 9:35 am

I use Audacity for those tasks on my Powerbook, not sure about Compression.

The Ap is Easy and free.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

It's not "extreamly stable" as Brad's recomendation. It's crashed a few times, so be sure to SAVE often as you work.

I mostly use the Leveling to get max without clipping, and the fades. The cut and paste editing features are extreamly easy to use, just like a word processor. [This message was edited by Joey Ace on 07 April 2006 at 10:42 AM.]

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 8 Apr 2006 5:53 am

I have been using DP for decades,
and echo what Brad says.