Judging from my testing using LAME command line, this discrepancy between Wavelab mp3 timings vs the orig. wav in Reaper (and probably any other DAWs using LAME) will be solved if the Wavelab LAME encoding is made to include the LAME header and gapless info, no -t switch, as it’s done in other programs. Wavelab LAME mp3 times should then match the wav when opened in Reaper, as Reaper LAME MP3s do. And the Wavelab LAME will match the wav times when opened in Wavelab too, (unless it’s being decoded by the Fraunhofer in Wavelab, and doesn’t decode as expected).
All LAME made in other programs will decode correct length in Reaper as far as I know, because they have the LAME header and gapless info. If the LAME -t switch is removed in Wavelab, this would be fixed with Wavelab LAME too.
The Wavelab 9.5 Fraunhofer gapless MP3 doesn’t decode correct length in Reaper or Pro Tools (not sure why it doesn’t with Pro Tools because PT supposedly uses Fraunhofer, although I’m not using the most current PT). Silence delay and padding are added to the FH gapless in decode in those DAWs. The WL FH gapless does decode correct length in Cubase, probably because Cubase uses Fraunhofer. The only places I’ve found the WL FH gapless to be gapless/correct length is in Wavelab, Cubase, and iTunes.
LAME can be gapless in more players, and correct length in DAWs if this change is made in the way Wavelab makes LAME (don’t use the -t switch). That’s how every other program encodes LAME (no -t switch), and it really needs to be changed to be that way in Wavelab. It will solve the gapless problem, and it will solve the incorrect length problem in other DAWs.
Can this please be changed PG?