For basic album mastering, I normally do the majority of my sonic processing via analog gear in other software, but I bring it in to Wavelab for the final sequencing, track markers, CD-Text/metadata, final touches, and final limiting. Wavelab also excels out outputting various formats easily such as DDP, 24-bit WAV, mp3, etc.
Sometimes I do master an album entirely “in the box” using Wavelab, I find it quite easy.
For this, you don’t need to do all your EQ and compression in the Audio Edit page. Layout your album files in a montage, and you can apply plugins to each audio clip in the montage, or an audio track (not CD track but the track that you place the audio file into). This allows the plugins to run in real time and not alter your original files, so you can make small adjustments until the last moment if needed.
You can also apply plugins like tape simulation, final limiting, and dither to the “montage master” which different than the Main Master Section. The “montage master” is saved as part of the montage automatically where as the main Master Section affects everything played in Wavelab unless you careful disable the master section for a certain file.
The only time I really use the Audio File mode and apply plugins to the main master section is when doing noise reduction and click removal because those are typically large CPU plugins that don’t work well when running live, and usually I just need to process certain parts of a file, not the whole song. The only things I typically process in the Audio Edit mode are things I know I will want permanent like trimming dead space, fixing clicks, pops, and noise, or rendering to another format.