Before even opening WaveLab, I upsample anything that comes in at 44.1k or 48k to 96k using RX. Anything that comes in at 88.2k or higher stays at that sample rate for the play/capture process and I make a montage at that sample rate. Usually it’s a 96k montage.
This solves the sample rate issue and makes it so one interface, and one computer can be used.
I use an RME AES interface that has 8 stereo AES ins/outs. This lets me feed all 3 of my DAC options that can then feed my analog chain. I determine which one feeds the analog chain via my Crookwood insert switcher. For example, my HEDD Quantum, Dangerous Convert-2, or Lyra 2 can be chosen to feed my analog gear, because the Reference Track is feeing all 3 AES paths at one time. All 3 DAC units are getting the signal at the same time, I just determine which one is passing signal on to the rest of my gear on my Crookwood. Most mastering consoles have more than 1 stereo input for this purpose.
Then in WaveLab, you can set up more than one input path to record back in to a montage track, so in real-time I can choose between my 3 ADC options and decide what sounds better for a song or project before recording it back in using the Input Monitor feature.
I play the unmastered audio from a Reference Track in WaveLab 10, out to my hardware which again, a Reference Track can feed multiple AES paths at one time. I can put Clip FX on the unmastered clips before going analog, but WaveLab doesn’t have plugin parameter automation.
Then of course I determine the right analog gear and settings.
Then I use a normal montage track to capture the analog chain back to a new montage track. The output of the montage capture track is just routed to normal 1-2 stereo output of WaveLab so I can monitor the sounds after the ADC while dialing things in, and of course after the capture to finalize. You can put a limiter in the Montage Output section to have a rough idea of what some digital limiting will sound like, but you don’t have to commit to it when capturing back from analog to digital. You can still fine tune the digital limiting and any other post analog but pre digital limiter Clip FX or Montage Output FX may be needed. And, you can do all this without the global master section being involved.
I also make a duplicate of the Reference Track that is feeding the analog gear, but then I send it out another AES path so that on my monitor controller (Avocet IIA) I can toggle between WaveLab which will be monitoring the ADC input, and compare with the fully unmastered version (no pre-analog plugins, no analog gear).
From there, you have many ways you can go to finalize things but that’s a quick overview of what’s possible.