Steinberg Wavelab 8.0 User manual

Operation Manual

Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Christina Kaboth, Insa Mingers, Sabine Pfeifer,

Benjamin Schütte

This PDF provides improved access for vision-impaired users. Please note that due to the

complexity and number of images in this document, it is not possible to include text descriptions

of images.

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a

commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by

this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except

as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied,

reproduced, or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written

permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Registered licensees of the product

described herein may print one copy of this document for their personal use.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective holders. For more

information, please visit www.steinberg.net/trademarks.

Release Date: June 18, 2013

3

Table of Contents

8 Introduction

8 The Help System

9 About the Program Versions

10 Typographical Conventions

10 How You Can Reach Us

11 Setting Up Your System

11 Connecting Audio

11 About Audio Cards and Background

Playback

12 About Latency

12 Defining VST Audio Connections

16 CD/DVD Recorders

16 Remote Devices

29 WaveLab Concepts

29 General Editing Rules

30 Startup Screen

31 Basic Window Handling

34 Selecting Audio

42 Sliders

43 Renaming Items in Tables

43 File Browser

45 Tab Groups

46 Peak Files

47 Companion Files

48 EBU Loudness Standard R-128

50 Program Overview

50 Command Bars

51 Status Bar

53 Context Menus

54 Time Ruler and Level Ruler

61 Value Editing

61 Drag Operations

64 Undoing and Redoing

66 Zooming

73 Managing Tabs

75 Presets

77 Saving a Picture of the Active Window

78 Log Window

80 File Operations

80 List of All Open Files Throughout the

Application Dialog

81 Recently Used Files

83 Favorite Files

85 Save and Save As

88 Templates

92 File Renaming

93 Deleting Files

94 Special Menu

95 Temporary Files

95 Work Folders vs. Document Folders

98 Uploading to SoundCloud

98 Copying Audio Information to the

Clipboard

99 Setting the Focus on the Current File

100 About Workspaces

101 Elements of a Workspace

101 Audio Files Workspace

102 Audio Montage Workspace

102 Batch Processors Workspace

102 Podcast Workspace

103 Control Window

104 Creating an Empty Workspace

104 New Workspace Dialog

105 Opening Files in a Workspace

106 Organizing Workspace Windows

106 Saving a Workspace Layout

107 About Tool Windows

4

112 Playback

112 Transport Bar

129 Playing Back Only One Channel

129 Starting Playback From the Ruler

130 Using the Play Tool

130 Playback Scrubbing

132 Timecode Window

133 Jog/Shuttle Function

134 Scroll During Playback

135 About Playback in the Audio Montage

Workspace

136 Speaker Configuration

139 Audio File Editing

139 Wave Window

150 File Handling in the Audio Files

Workspace

174 Changing the Audio Properties

176 Meta-Data

183 Silence Generator Dialog

186 Waveform Restoration with the Pen Tool

187 Audio Analysis

187 Error Detection and Correction

195 Global Analysis

206 Audio File Comparator

208 3D Frequency Analysis

211 Offline Processing

211 Applying Processing

212 Gain Dialog

212 Normalize Level Dialog

213 Loudness Normalizer

216 Pan Normalizer Dialog

217 Envelope Dialog

219 Fades in Audio Files

220 Crossfades

221 Inverting the Audio Phase

222 Reversing Audio

222 DC Offset

223 Time Stretching

225 Pitch Shift

228 Pitch Quantize Dialog

229 Pitch Bend

232 Resample

233 Effect Morphing

236 Audio Montage

236 Basic Terminology

237 Montage Window

240 Signal Flow in the Audio Montage

241 Creating a New Audio Montage

243 Creating an Audio Montage from an

Audio File

243 Import Options for Audio Montages

245 Missing Files in Audio Montage Dialog

246 Assembling the Audio Montage

259 Rearranging Clips

267 Clip Editing

299 Audio Montages Within Audio

Montages

305 Managing Source Files of Clips

311 Track Activity Indicator

311 Envelopes for Clips

323 Fades and Crossfades in the Audio

Montage

335 Clip Time Stretching

336 Clip Pitch Shifting

337 Effects for Tracks, Clips, and the Master

Output

353 About the CD Window

363 About Cloning Audio Montages

368 Snapshots

370 Mixing Down - The Render Function

372 Loudness Meta Normalizer

375 Navigator Window

376 Notes Window

376 About Groups

379 Backing Up Audio Montages

380 Multichannel Operations in the Audio

Montage

394 XML Export and Import of Audio

Montages

394 AES-31 Files Export and Import

398 Recording

398 Setting Up the Recording Dialog

399 Dropping Markers During Recording

400 Recording Dialog

408 Recording in the Audio Montage

Workspace

5

409 Master Section

410 Master Section Window

423 Rendering

430 Record From an ASIO Input

431 Smart Bypass

434 Saving a Master Section Preset

439 About Monitoring Background Tasks

441 About Dropouts

442 Markers

443 Marker Types

444 Markers Window

448 About Creating Markers

454 Deleting Markers

457 Moving Markers

457 Moving Multiple Markers

459 Navigating to Markers

459 Hiding Markers of a Certain Type

459 Converting Marker Types

461 Renaming Markers

462 About Selecting Markers

463 Selecting the Audio Between Markers

463 Binding Markers to Clips in the Audio

Montage

464 Exporting the Markers List as Text

465 How Marker Information is Stored

466 Metering

466 Metering Window

466 Real Time vs. Non-Real Time

467 Metering Monitor Modes

468 About Meter Settings

468 Multichannel Metering

469 Resetting the Meters

469 Using Presets in the Meter Windows

470 Level Meter

474 Loudness Meter

478 Phasescope

480 Spectroscope

481 Spectrometer

484 Bit Meter

486 Oscilloscope

487 Wavescope

488 Basic Audio CD

489 Basic Audio CD Window

492 About CD Markers

493 Preparing a Basic Audio CD

495 Opening CD Tracks for Editing

496 About Playing Back Files in the Track

List

497 Saving Basic Audio CD Tracks as

Separate Files

498 Saving Basic Audio CD Tracks as One

File

499 DVD-Audio

500 Structure of a DVD-Audio Project

500 DVD-Audio Formats

500 DVD-Audio Format Considerations

501 DVD-Audio Window

504 Preparing a DVD-Audio

506 Opening Audio Montages for Editing

506 Checking the DVD-Audio Conformity

507 Writing Operations

507 Write Audio CD or DDP Dialog

510 Erase Optical Media Dialog

511 About Writing Audio Files

514 About Writing Audio Montages

530 Write DVD-Audio Function

535 Data CD/DVD Projects

539 About Audio CD Formats

543 Spectrum Editing

544 Spectrum Display

545 Surgical Processing

548 Master Section Processing

549 Spectrum Editor Window

556 Defining a Region for Spectrum Editing

557 Processing Frequency Ranges via the

Master Section

558 Auto Split

558 Auto Split in Audio Files

562 Auto Split in Audio Montages

565 Loops

565 Basic Looping

566 About Refining Loops

576 About Looping Seemingly Unloopable

Audio

579 About Sample Attributes

581 Generating Signals

581 Signal Generator

585 DTMF Generator

6

588 Importing Audio CD Tracks

589 Import Audio CD Dialog

593 Importing Audio CD Tracks

594 Searching Track Names on the internet

594 About Ultra-Safe Mode

594 Converting Audio CD Tracks to an

Audio Montage

595 Converting Audio CD Tracks to a Basic

Audio CD

596 Batch Processing

597 Advantages of the WaveLab Batch

Processor

598 Batch Processing Meta-data

598 Overview of the Batch Processors

Workspace

604 About Off-Line Processors

606 Opening the Batch Processors

Workspace

607 Creating a Batch Process Document

607 Saving a Batch Process Document

608 Adding Files to a Batch Process

610 Custom Plug-in Chain vs. Associated

Master Section Preset

611 Adding Plug-ins to the Batch Process

612 Removing Files and Plug-ins from the

Batch Process

612 Changing the Order of the Plug-ins in

the Batch Process

613 Previewing the Effect of the Batch

Process

613 About Processing Open Files

614 Selecting an Output Format for the

Batch Process

614 Setting Up a File Location for the Batch

Process

615 Specifying an Overwriting Strategy

615 Naming Rendered Audio Files

616 Running and Stopping the Batch

Process

616 Batch Processing Status Icons

617 About Multitasking During the Batch

Process

619 Batch Conversion

619 Batch Conversion Dialog

620 Batch Converting Files

621 Batch Renaming

621 Batch Renaming Dialogs

622 Batch Renaming Files

623 Batch Renaming Markers

625 Batch Renaming Clips

626 Renaming Operation Categories and

Types

632 List of Renaming Operations

632 Preview Section

633 Range Parameters

635 Previewing and Performing All

Renaming Operations

635 About Regular Expressions

640 Podcasts

641 Podcast Workspace

646 Global Podcast Options

646 Creating a Podcast

647 Setting Up a FTP for Podcast Publishing

647 Publishing a Podcast

648 FTP Site Dialog

649 Checking the Podcast

650 Master Projects

650 Setting Up a Master Project

651 Saving a Master Project

651 Writing Files of a Master Project to Data

CD/DVD

652 Master Project Window

654 Customizing

654 Window Layout

660 Customizing the Wave Window and the

Montage Window

669 About Customizing Shortcuts

676 Plug-ins Organization

685 Variables and Text Snippets

687 About Scripting

710 Configuring the Software

710 About Global Preferences

720 Audio File Editing Preferences Dialog

725 Audio Montage Preferences Dialog

729 Settings Management

729 Multi-User Settings

730 About External Tools

7

734 Plug-in Reference

734 Built-in Plug-ins

739 Steinberg VST 3 Plug-ins

800 Sonnox Restoration Toolkit

809 Legacy Plug-ins

809 Dithering Plug-ins

812 ASIO Plug-ins

815 Batch Processing Plug-ins

825 Index

8

Introduction

The Help System

The detailed help system of WaveLab makes it easy to look up interface

features and get information from within the program.

Three main types of help are available:

• The help provides detailed information on the features and

functionality of WaveLab. You can set bookmarks, and use the

search function and index to quickly find information.

• “What’s This” tooltips give detailed information on the functionality

of a specific user interface element.

• The status bar at the bottom of each workspace window gives

detailed information on menu items when moving the mouse over

an item.

• In the Audio Montage workspace, the status bar shows what kind

of editing can be performed when using the mouse and modifier

keys.

Accessing the Help System

There are several ways of accessing the help system.

• To open the WaveLab help, select Help > Contents.

• To open the manual in PDF format, browse to the installation

folder. The documents are located in the Documentation folder.

• To show tooltips, move the mouse over an interface icon.

• To open the help for the active dialog, click the question mark icon

on the title bar (Windows) or in the dialog (Mac OS) to show the

Help button, and then click the Help button, or press [F1]

(Windows) or [Command]-[?] (Mac OS).

Introduction

About the Program Versions

9

• To use the menu help, move the mouse over a menu item. The help

text is displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the workspace

window.

• To see information on what kind of editing can be performed when

using the mouse and modifier keys in the audio montage window,

move the mouse over the montage window. The help text is

displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the workspace

window.

• To activate/deactivate the help texts on the status bar, select

Options (WaveLab menu on Mac) > Global preferences >

Display tab, and in the Workspaces section, select Display

status bar.

To open the “What’s This” help, you have the following possibilities:

• In any workspace, press [Shift]-[F1], and move the mouse over an

interface item, or select Help > What is this?.

• In a dialog, select the question mark icon on any title bar

(Windows) or in the dialog (Mac OS), and move the mouse over

an interface item or a menu option.

• Some “What’s this” tooltips have a different background color to

indicate that a dedicated help topic is available in the WaveLab

help. Click the link in the tooltip to open the corresponding

information in the help.

About the Program Versions

The documentation covers two different operating systems, Windows

and Mac OS X. Some features and settings are specific to one of the

operation systems.

This is clearly stated in the applicable cases. If nothing else is said, all

descriptions and procedures in the documentation are valid for all

WaveLab versions for both Windows and Mac OS X.

The screenshots are taken from the English Windows version of

WaveLab.

Introduction

Typographical Conventions

10

Typographical Conventions

Many of the default key commands in WaveLab use modifier keys, some

of which are different depending on the operating system. For example,

the default key command for Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] on Windows and

[Command]-[Z] on Mac OS X.

When key commands with modifier keys are described in this manual,

they are shown with the Windows modifier key first, in the following way:

• [Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key]

For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] means “press [Ctrl] on Windows or

[Command] on Mac OS X, then press [Z]”.

Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] on Windows or [Option]

on Mac OS X, then press [X]”.

NOTE

This manual often refers to right-clicking, for example, to open context

menus. If you are using a Mac with a single-button mouse, hold down

[Ctrl] and click.

How You Can Reach Us

On the Help menu in WaveLab, you find items linking to additional

information.

The menu contains links to various Steinberg web pages. Selecting a

menu item automatically launches your browser and opens the page. On

these pages, you can find support and compatibility information,

answers to frequently asked questions, information about updates and

other Steinberg products, etc. This requires that you have a web

browser installed on your computer, and a working internet connection.

11

Setting Up Your System

Before you start working, you need to make some settings.

IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT

Make sure that all equipment is turned off before making any

connections.

Connecting Audio

Your system setup depends on many different factors, for example, the

kind of project that you want to create, the external equipment that you

want to use, or the computer hardware available to you.

About Audio Cards and Background

Playback

When you activate playback or recording in WaveLab, other

applications cannot access the audio card. Likewise, if another

application uses the audio card, WaveLab is unable to play back. The

Windows MME driver is an exception from this.

You can run WaveLab together with other applications and always give

the active application access to the audio card.

To do so, select Options > VST Audio Connections, and on the

Options tab, activate Release driver when WaveLab is in

background.

Setting Up Your System

About Latency

12

About Latency

Latency is the delay between when audio is sent from the program and

when you actually hear it. While a very low latency can be crucial in a

real-time DAW application such as Steinberg Nuendo or Cubase, this

is not strictly the case with WaveLab.

When working with WaveLab, the important issues are optimum and

stable playback and editing precision. You should not try to reach the

lowest possible latency figures.

The latency in an audio system depends on the audio hardware, its

drivers, and settings. In case of dropouts, crackles, or glitches during

playback, raise the Buffer Number setting on the VST Audio

Connections dialog, or increase the buffer size in the ASIO control

panel, specific to the audio card.

Defining VST Audio Connections

To be able to play back and record audio in WaveLab, you must specify

how the internal input and output channels in WaveLab are connected

to your sound card and which device you intend to use for audio

playback and recording.

You can define the buffer settings for your device as well as set up

connections to external gear, such as external effects units. You should

select at least two channels for stereo playback and recording.

If you have no third-party audio card, you can select the Windows MME

driver or Built-in Audio (Mac) options. You can also use MME with most

third party audio cards, with the advantage that you can record and play

at different sample rates. However, Windows MME drivers do not allow

audio monitoring in the Recording dialog or multichannel operation, and

other drivers generally offer better sound quality and performance.

Setting Up Your System

Defining VST Audio Connections

13

Selecting an ASIO Driver

Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) is a computer device driver protocol

for digital audio specified by Steinberg. It provides a low-latency and

high fidelity interface between a software application and the soundcard

of a computer.

PROCEDURE

1. In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options

> VST Audio Connections.

2. From the Audio Device menu, select your ASIO driver.

The ASIO plug-ins tab and the Control panel button are activated.

3. Optional: Click the Control panel button and make your settings.

4. On the ASIO plug-ins tab, select the audio ports that are used for

recording and monitor input of the ASIO plug-ins.

5. Click OK.

Selecting a Windows MME Driver

PROCEDURE

1. In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options

> VST Audio Connections.

2. From the Audio Device menu, select the Windows MME driver.

3. On the Playback tab, select the audio ports that are used for

playback.

4. On the Recording tab, select the audio ports that used for

recording and monitor input.

5. Click OK.

VST Audio Connections Dialog

This dialog allows you to specify how the internal input and output

channels in WaveLab are connected to your sound card and which

device you want to use for audio playback and recording.

In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options >

VST Audio Connections.

Setting Up Your System

Defining VST Audio Connections

14

Global Settings

Audio device

Here, select the audio device that you want to use for playback and

recording audio. If you do not have a third-party audio card, you

can select the Windows MME driver or Built-in Audio (Mac)

options.

Control panel

When you select an ASIO driver, the Control panel button is

activated. Click the button to open the settings application of your

sound card, which is usually installed with the sound card.

Depending on your sound card and driver, this provides settings

for buffer size, digital formats, additional I/O connections, etc.

Refresh

This button causes audio devices to be evaluated again to reflect

device changes.

Playback Tab

This tab allows you to select and name audio ports that are used for

playback. If you are monitoring on a surround system, specify your

surround speaker outputs here. Furthermore, you can rename the

channels and set up the Speaker configuration to be able to switch

between different speakers.

Setting Up Your System

Defining VST Audio Connections

15

Recording Tab

This tab allows you to select and name your audio ports that are used

for recording and input monitoring. The inputs that you define here are

then available in the Recording dialog. Furthermore, you can rename the

channels and select the Speaker configuration.

External Gear Tab

This tab allows you to select inputs from and outputs to external audio

processing equipment. The name of this tab corresponds to the

installed driver, for example, ASIO plug-ins.

Options Tab

This tab allows you to specify the number of buffers and the control

driver functionality.

Buffer Number

Increasing this value improves the elasticity of audio streaming to

avoid dropouts.

MME Specific - Buffer size

Increasing this value improves the elasticity of audio streaming to

avoid dropouts. This is only available when an MME driver is

selected.

Setting Up Your System

CD/DVD Recorders

16

Initialize streaming engine at first use

Initializes the audio streaming engine when playback or recording

are used for the first time. If this option is deactivated, the audio

streaming engine is initialized at program startup.

Reset driver when changing sample rate

Resets the driver when sample rate is changed. When playback or

recording must be set to a new sample rate, certain audio device

drivers must be fully reset to work properly. This operation takes

some time.

Perform short fade-in/out when starting/stopping playback

Performs a short fade-in when starting playback and a short

fade-out when stopping playback. This avoids clicks that are

caused by waveforms that are not starting on a zero-crossing

point.

Release driver when WaveLab is in background

Closes the audio device when WaveLab is no longer the front

application. This allows other audio applications to use the same

audio device.

CD/DVD Recorders

For general instructions on installing internal or connecting external

recorders via USB or Firewire, please refer to the instruction manual for

your computer or your recorder.

Make sure to have the latest firmware version installed on your recorder

unit. For CD recorders, the existing firmware must support disc-at-once

mode. In addition, running a unit with older firmware can prevent you

from writing sub-index markers into the tracks, for example.

Remote Devices

You can use remote devices to remote-control WaveLab.

Several commands can be controlled with knobs and sliders of your

remote control device.For all commands that can be assigned to a

keyboard shortcut, a MIDI trigger can also be assigned.

Setting Up Your System

Remote Devices

17

Remote Devices Dialog

This dialog allows you to select a device to remote-control WaveLab,

and see and edit the control map of MIDI control devices.

In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options >

Remote devices.

Device Editing Tab

This tab lets you select a MIDI control device, see the control map,

assign WaveLab commands to MIDI controls, and import/export control

assignments.

Device menu

Select the MIDI device to edit. Select MIDI shortcuts for menus

to define the MIDI input port that is used for MIDI shortcuts. The

shortcuts can then be assigned in the Customize commands

dialog.

Select MIDI Control Device #1 - #10 to select a slot for a

connected MIDI control device. You can then assign a device by

selecting a MIDI input port and output port.

Setting Up Your System

Remote Devices

18

Active

Activates the selected device and scans the MIDI ports.

In-Port/Out-Port

Select the MIDI input/output ports of the device that you want to

use.

Edit map

Activates the edit mode of the MIDI control map for the selected

device. To leave the edit mode, click again.

Save

Saves the modifications that have been made to the MIDI control

map.

Undo

Undoes the modifications that have been made to the MIDI control

map.

Reset

If the map has a factory preset, clicking Reset resets all changes

that have been made to the map. If the map has no factory preset,

the map is cleared.

Import

Opens the file browser where you can select a map definition file

(XML file). This kind of file can be supplied by a MIDI device

manufacturer or another WaveLab user, for example.

Export

Lets you export a map definition file (XML file). This file can be sent

to another WaveLab user, for example.

Name

Lets you enter a map name.

Only display assignments

If this option is activated, the control map only displays the

parameters that are associated with a remote control.

Expand/Collapse

Expands/collapses the folder tree of the control map.

Setting Up Your System

Remote Devices

19

WaveLab action list

This folder tree lists the parameters that you can remote-control.

The top folder represent contexts. The related parameters can only

be controlled if the context is active. For example, if an audio file is

active.

A remote control can be used in several contexts if these are

exclusive. For example, parameters that can be used for an active

audio file or an active audio montage.

The Global folder contain the parameters that can always be

controlled.

Control editor - Save

If a control has been created or modified, click this button to save it.

Control editor - Undo

If a control has been modified, click this button to undo the

changes.

Control editor - Clear

Erases the selected control’s definition.

Control name

Lets you enter a name for the control. Each control must have a name.

Type

In the Type section, you can edit the type of the selected control.

When more than one type of control can be assigned to a

parameter, you can select a type from the first pop-up menu. You

can choose between relative and absolute editing for certain

parameters. For example, a master section slider can be

associated to a remote motorized fader (absolute editing), or to an

infinite knob (relative editing).

Several protocols are supported to interpret the MIDI messages.

You can select the protocol that you want to use from the second

menu. The MIDI learn function can automatically change this

protocol, according to the received MIDI messages.

Remote controls send messages but can also receive messages

from WaveLab, to light up a button or move a motorized fader, for

example. You can select the mode to use from the third menu.

Message

Activates the MIDI learn function. When activated, you can use the

control (knob, fader, etc.) on your MIDI controller. When MIDI

messages are received, they are analyzed after the MIDI activity stops

for several milliseconds. The result is displayed in the Message field.

This is then used by WaveLab as the control identifier.

Setting Up Your System

Remote Devices

20

Clear

Erases the MIDI event that identifies the control.

Conditions

A modifier is a WaveLab parameter that can be activated by a MIDI

control (for example, a foot switch) or a computer key

([Ctrl]/[Command], [Shift], etc.). By associating a remote control

with one or two modifiers, you can use a single remote control to

edit different parameters.

Options Tab

This tab lets you use the MIDI Learn function to assign a control of a

MIDI remote control device to a function.

Emulate mouse wheel

If this option is activated, the AI knob acts as a mouse wheel in the

WaveLab user interface, except for plug-ins.

Edit focused numeric field

If this option is activated, the AI knob can be used to edit the

focused numeric field that you find in many WaveLab windows and

dialogs.

Selecting a MIDI Remote Control Device

PREREQUISITE

The MIDI remote control device is connected to your PC/Mac.

PROCEDURE

1. In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options

> Remote devices.

2. On the Device editing tab, select one of the MIDI control device

slots or the MIDI shortcuts for menus option from the pop-up

menu at the top.

3. Select Active to activate the selected device.

4. From the In-Port and Out-Port menus, select a MIDI input port

and output port.

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