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Posted by: tonymiro Sep 18 2010, 12:04 PM

Sadie6 native is now shipping on a phased release - i.e. academic institutions, beta testers and pre-orders first then new orders from existing customers followed by new customers. As a beta tester we should be receiving the final release version very soon. Cost of the full version that includes mutli-track, surround, 9-pin control, DDP etc is @3500 Euros. This price reflects its intended use as a professional mastering and post-audio daw.

Native runs under Win 32 bit OS (but not home version for Win7), 64 bit version may follow.

We beta-tested 6 and it's got a very good workflow for mastering, particularly the trim window for x-fades etc and the ability to non-destructive editing in real time on the fly. (You can edit the audio stream as it is being recorded rather than having to wait until the recording has completed - this is particularly useful in post-audio for live broadcast.)

You can read more about it http://www.soundonsound.com/news?NewsID=13131

For our beta we tested:
OS
desktop 32 bit with 2 gig ram XP and on a notebook with 1 gig and Vista with no OS issues.

Sound interfaces
Audio interfaces used here included a standard Intel internal sound system, a Lavry Black external on USB2, an RME HDSP internal and a Phase26 on USB2. No issues.

VSTs
the full sadie vsts that come with the daw along with some others including Elephant, Sonoris MEQ and PEQ, Flux Solera and Pure, Equality plus a few others. We had one lock up but that was a demo vst that caused the lockup.

They've added a suite of vsts from Izotope subsequent to the pre-release candidate that we tested. Izotope suite is free in the package price but not having use it yet I can't comment on it.

Redbook
CDA DaO burns to a plextor premium 2 ok with cue sheet, ISRC, PQ and other data encoded ok, BLER and C2 and CU errors pass.
DDP burn to dvd fine. DDP image verified in Sonoris DDP reader.

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As we don't use Wavelab here this is just what I've been told rather than 1st hand:

For those not wanting to spend quite as much Steinberg have just released Wavelab 7 for around 800 Euros. This is probably intended more for the pro-sumer market.


Wavelab7 can now run on Mac as well as Win platforms but you'd need to check specific compatabilities. 7 also now includes DDP as part of the suite rather than it being an expensive cost addition.

More on Wavelab7 http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/wavelab.html .

(Before anyone says it yes I do know that Wavelab strictly speaking isn't a mastering daw but is a wave editor .)

Posted by: SirJamsalot Oct 6 2010, 09:43 PM

Wow. I read up on it a bit, as well as watched all the videos on the Steinberg site. This kind of thing is very intimidating
It seems like this is the kind of package I would need to (amatuerishly) master a demo CD or file to upload to a site. I know you don't use the product, but is this pretty similar to Ozone? I think they are similarly priced, so if you had my budget, which would you recommend between the two, or perhaps a 3rd option if you know of one?

Thanks!
Christian A.

Posted by: The Uncreator Oct 6 2010, 10:06 PM

The real-time editing sounds like it would be useful, I'd like to try that out.

I have never tried any Wavelab because "technically" its not a mastering DAW like you said, and the price is a bit steep, But from what I see it looks pretty solid.

Posted by: tonymiro Oct 7 2010, 11:24 AM

I've never used Ozone so forgive me if I'm wrong here Chris.

AFAIK Ozone provides a suite of 'mastering' plug-in effects. What it doesn't do is provide you with the ability to edit the waveform, do accurate x-fades fade in and fade out. Nor does it allow you to embed metadata, particularly/crucially PQ and ISRC. Without the latter two it's not able to set up and burn a Red Book CDA as DAO from within the program and so isn't a mastering DAW. What you would use it for is as a suite of plug-ins to compliment a daw capable of these things.

Note: if you do not burn ISRC and set PQ properly a reputable replication plant will reject your CD for any run deemed 'commercial' rather than 'demo' (ie more than 500) regardless of whether it otherwise passes their internal Eclipse fo all other issues.

Posted by: SirJamsalot Oct 7 2010, 05:19 PM

Understood. Thanks for the added info!
Christian A.

Posted by: The Uncreator Oct 8 2010, 12:29 AM

I use Izotope Ozone 4, its a great and amazing plug-in that can do alot when used sparsely and just right. Its a cheaper solution that can offer some great mastering results, but as a fully-functioning mastering DAW like the ones Tony mentioned here it wouldn't compare. If you got the cash for these, then there the better choice I would imagine, If not then Ozone is a great option.