PG,
I am facing this issue as well now in Wavelab 10.0.30. I have 2 projects that I needed to render since a couple of days and I’ve tried to find a way to do it, but each time I would export the 5 CD Tracks on each montage, exported files would have cuts/dropouts, changes in levels, etc. It has been a real nightmare to finally arrive at rendering all tracks of both montages free of such problems.
On one montage, I fixed 75% of the problem by unchecking the “Reset plugins before rendering” option in the audio montage Preferences. The biggest problem was a sound level drop and up again after the first second of audio, duration of around 1-2 seconds, then level came back up to normal. Impossible to render without the first CD Track having that dropout. The culprit plugin was an Acustica Audio Diamond Lift 2, in VST2 format (no VST3 at the moment). Audio level drop seems to be due to the time it takes for the plugin to “activate” after it is reset by starting the render. Unchecking the option did correct this issue however (but not the below problem on this montage as well).
On the other montage, I kept that “Reset plugins before rendering” option unckecked. Similar problem this time, but audio does not only drop in level, there is a complete cut/dropout for the same 1-2 second duration before audio gets back to normal. Moreover, there are little dropouts and cuts here and there in the audio files rendered. They are unpredictable in time and duration, and they do not happen for apparent reasons such as CPU overload or such, although the rendering is not a realtime process and should not be affected by CPU load. The culprit plugin is a Softube Weiss MM-1 Mastering Maximizer. VST2 plugin format creates that dropout at the beginning of the rendered file and possible others later in the file. VST3 plugin format does not seem to create that beginning dropout, but dropouts are much probable later in the file.
As you can understand, this uncertainty regarding the quality and reliability of the files rendered by Wavelab is something that must be addressed. Dropouts and other export problems may happen from time to time, but having to export 15-20 times each CD track or the full montange and listen to it attentively to make sure there is no problems on each of these numerous tries makes the software simply not functional for me and probably many of us. It really seems Wavelab is having issues currently with certain plugin formats, mostly VST2, but many others as well!
Let me know if I can do anything or procure anything that could help in determining what the issue might be!
Thank you so much for everything PG! 