WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual Steinberger Wave Lab

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Operation Manual

Operation Manual by Anders Nordmark,
Revision for WaveLab Essential by Stefan Zachau
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.
All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of
Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered
trademarks.
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2007.
All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Editing in the Wave window

8
8
8

Welcome!
Key command conventions
How you can reach us

Requirements

10
10
11
11

This is what you need…
Computer requirements
About audio cards
About the System Information feature

Installing and setting up

13
13
13
13
16
16
16

Setting up the computer
Installation procedure
Register your software!
Program settings
Installing a CD/DVD recorder
Installation done! Where do I go next?
About the Tracer application

33
33
33
35
35
38
39
39
39
40
40
44
49
55

About this chapter
Creating new empty documents
Opening Waves
Window overview and adjustments
Setting the zoom factor
Navigating through the file
Snapshots
Setting the ruler start position
Working with a meter based display
Setting the wave cursor position
Selecting
Basic editing commands
File handling in Wave windows
Editing audio properties and file attributes

Playback and recording

57
59

Playing back
Recording

Overview

Metering

18
18
20

Get to know WaveLab Essential
The windows and what you can do with them
Find your way around in WaveLab Essential

64
64

Introduction
The meters

Basic methods

Off-line processing

22
22
22
23
25
27
27
28
28
30
31
31

Why you should read this chapter
Getting help
Undo and Redo
Working with windows
Dockable control bars
Speed menus
The status bar
Units of time and level
Setting values
Presets
About non-modal dialogs
Using the computer keyboard

68
68
68
69
69
71
72
73
74
74
74
75
75
77
78
78
79
79
80

Introduction
Applying processing
Level Normalizer
Gain Change
Dynamics
Level envelope
Fade-in and fade-out
Crossfade
Invert Phase
Reverse
Eliminate DC Offset
Waveform Restorer
Time Stretch
Pitch Correction
Harmonization
Hi-fi Chorus
EQ
Convert sample rate
Support for reNOVAtor™

4
Table of Contents

Master Section

139 Data CD/DVD Projects

82
82
83
83
85
88
89
91
93

Introduction
The Master Section window
About the signal path
The Master level pane
The Effects pane
The Dithering pane
Master Section presets
Rendering
The Monitor window

140
140
140
141
142

Batch file encoding

Basic procedure

Markers

98
99
99
100
100
101
101
101

Introduction
Creating markers
About the marker list
Marker appearance and visibility
Editing, converting and naming markers
Moving and duplicating markers
Deleting markers
Operations involving markers

148
148
150
152
153

143 Importing audio CD tracks
144

Introduction
Using the Label Editor
Positioning objects
Defining user variables
Printing labels

155 Analysis
156
161

Global analysis
3D Frequency Analysis

163 Podcasting
164
164
165
167

Introduction
The Audio CD Montage window
Assembling the Montage
Zooming and navigating
Playing back
Rearranging clips
Managing clips and source files
The volume envelope
Using fades and crossfades in the Montage
Adding effects to clips
The Meta Normalizer
Using markers in the Montage
File handling in the Audio CD Montage
Using video tracks
Mixing down – The Render function
Preparing the Audio CD Montage for CD burning

Introduction
Creating a new Podcast
The Podcast window
Publishing the Podcast

169 Sampling and creating loops
170
170
170
171
172
176

Introduction
Using WaveLab Essential with Steinberg HALion
Editing sample attributes
Basic looping
Using the Crossfade Looper
Using the Loop Tone Equalizer

178 Customizing
179
179
179
180
180
181

134 Burning an audio CD
135
135
135
136
137

Importing audio CD tracks into WaveLab Essential

147 Creating labels

103 The Audio CD Montage
104
104
106
109
111
113
117
117
121
124
126
127
129
130
131
132

Introduction
Creating a new Data CD/DVD Project
Source window settings
Destination window settings
The Write dialog for the Data CD/DVD

183
184
184
184
186

Introduction
Selecting a CD-R unit
Testing an audio CD before burning
Writing a CD
The audio CD format – Background information

5
Table of Contents

What is customizing?
Preferences
Folder editing
Saving the window layout
Styling WaveLab Essential – Wave windows
Styling WaveLab Essential – Audio CD Montage
windows
Working with window layouts
Setting default size and position for windows
Creating a Favorites menu
Customizable key commands
Organizing plug-in processors

190 Plug-in processor reference
191
194

About WaveLab Essential plug-ins
VST Plug-ins

203 Troubleshooting
204
204
204
205
205
206
206
206
206
207
207

General problems
Problems with opening files
Problems with saving files
Recording problems
Playback problems
Editing problems
Troubleshooting and precautions
Problems and solutions
Questions and Answers
Day to day precautions for trouble-free CD writing
Hardware and setup issues

209 Key commands
210
210
210
210
211
211
212
212
212

File handling
View
Zooming
Processing
Playback and cursor position
Selecting
Editing and Recording
Markers
Miscellaneous

213 Index

6
Table of Contents

1
Introduction

Welcome!
Congratulations on your choice of WaveLab Essential,
which is the audio editor of choice for any serious engineer or musician.
WaveLab Essential is continuously developed and refined,
in collaboration with our users – from professional audio
engineers to hobbyists. Your input helps making this program one of the most flexible and user-friendly ever!
Find out about the ease of use and workflow that makes
working with WaveLab Essential so effective.
Your Steinberg Team.

Key command conventions
Many of the default key commands in WaveLab Essential
use modifier keys. For example, the default key command
for Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] under Windows.
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]-[key]
For example, [Ctrl]-[Z] means "press [Ctrl] , then press
[Z]".
Similarly, [Alt]-[X] means "press [Alt] then press [X]".

How you can reach us
After having installed and launched the program, you will
find a number of useful Steinberg Web links on the Help
menu (“Steinberg on the internet” submenu). These allow
you to get online support, check for updates, get answers
to frequently asked questions, etc.
!

These features require that you have a working Internet connection.

8
Introduction

2
Requirements

This is what you need…

RAM
Since WaveLab Essential is disk based, the amount of
RAM does not limit the size of audio files you can work
with. Even with moderate amounts of RAM, you can have
many files open at the same time. However, when more
RAM is available, some processes can be accelerated by
WaveLab Essential.

To use WaveLab Essential you need the following:
• A PC with Windows XP or Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate (32-bit only) installed and ready.
An Internet connection is also required. For more details about the computer requirements, see below.

• A Multimedia PC compatible, 16-bit (or better) audio
card.

Processing power

By audio card we mean a card capable of recording and playing back
audio, using the computer’s hard disk as storage media. See “About audio cards” on page 11.

The difference between running WaveLab Essential on a
faster computer and a slower one is noticeable in many
cases:

To take advantage of WaveLab Essential’s more advanced features, you need the following:

• More real-time processing
The faster the computer, the more real-time plug-ins you will be able to
use.

• To utilize WaveLab Essential’s CD burning capabilities,
you will need a CD recorder.

• Faster “off-line” processing and analysis tasks

Your CD recorder must support the disc-at-once write mode.

Certain types of processing which make heavy demands on the computer will be completed more quickly on a faster machine.

• DirectX 9 or later must be installed.

• Screen updates

Computer requirements

Scrolling, editing and manipulating objects is “snappier” on a faster machine.

Below, the minimum computer requirements are listed,
with recommendations where applicable. The following
sections describe each system component (processor,
RAM, etc.) in more detail.

Hard disk
Audio files are relatively big. Approximately 10.6 MB of
hard disk space is used up for every minute of 16 bit stereo/44.1 kHz audio recorded. For 24 bit/48 kHz audio or
higher, the audio files are of course a lot bigger. Therefore
we recommend that you get the largest hard disk you can
afford. The speed of the hard disk will affect some of the
processing operations. This is mainly noticeable when you
work with very long files.

Minimum requirements
• Intel Pentium III/AMD Athlon 800 MHz (Intel Pentium IV/AMD
Athlon or AMD Opteron 2,4GHz or faster recommended).
• 256 MB RAM (1GB recommended).
• A monitor and video card with a resolution of 24 bit
(32bit recommended).
• Display resolution 1024 x 768 pixels (1280 x 1024 pixels and
a dual-monitor setup are recommended).
• 80MB of free hard disk space.
• Windows XP or Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate
(32-bit only).
• Windows MME compatible audio hardware (ASIO compatible
audio hardware recommended).
• CD or DVD ROM drive for installation (CD/DVD writer recommended).
• Internet connection required for product activation and the
Podcast feature.
• The Product can only be used on the system on which it was
activated.

In addition, a fast hard disk is absolutely crucial for CD-R
and DVD-R burning. If the hard disk is slow, your recorder
might not be able to write at its maximum possible speed.
!

10
Requirements

Do not use file compression on hard disks where audio files are stored!

About audio cards
WaveLab Essential works with any Multimedia PC compatible audio card. However, the audio quality varies dramatically between cards.
For serious work with WaveLab Essential, we recommend
that you get a card with the highest possible specifications.
However, if you use WaveLab Essential to edit files for
use with other hardware (such as a hard disk based recording system using its own audio converters) any loss in
audio quality that you experience when listening to the
files in WaveLab Essential (due to deficiencies in the audio card) will not affect the final audio files in any way.
For professional use (mastering, etc.) we recommend that
you get a card capable of playing back files in 24 bit resolution.

About the System Information
feature
After having installed and launched WaveLab Essential,
you can get a very detailed report describing your computer system by selecting “System Information” on the
Help menu. This function analyses your system and lists
operating system specifics; processor(s), memory, hard
drives, and much more. This is especially useful if you
need to contact Technical Support, since this allows you
to describe your computer configuration accurately.

11
Requirements

3
Installing and setting up

Setting up the computer

6. Finally, a dialog informs you that the installation was
successful.

Before proceeding, your computer should be set up and
the following items should be installed:

A restart may be requested – but if no dialog requests a restart it is not
necessary to do so.

• Windows (see “This is what you need…” on page 10 for details on which version to use).
• The audio card and its driver.

When the installation is finished, the program is found
among your other programs on the Start menu and/or the
desktop.

Checking the audio card

This completes the installation of your WaveLab Essential
program! But, you’re not really done yet…

To make sure the audio card will work as expected, you
can perform the following two tests:

Activating WaveLab Essential
After installing WaveLab Essential you can use the program for 30 days without any restrictions. After this period, you will have to enter your permanent activation
code. You will find this code in the “Essential Product Licence Information” document that is included in the
WaveLab Essential package. Otherwise, WaveLab Essential will not run anymore.

• Use the software included with the audio card to make
sure you can record and play back without problems.
• Use the Media Player application (included with Windows and described in the Windows documentation) to
record and play back audio.

Colors

Proceed as follows:

At this point you might want to check and for example
change the number of colors you use on your computer
screen. See your Windows documentation for instructions
on how to do this. The recommended setting for WaveLab
Essential is 24 or 32 bit mode (“True Color”).

1. Open the Syncrosoft License Control Center (which
can be found in the Start/Programs menu under Windows
or in the Applications folder on a Mac).
2. In the Syncrosoft License Control Center, open the
Wizards menu and select the “License Download” option.
Follow the instructions and enter your WaveLab Essential
activation code.

Installation procedure
Installing the software

You are now ready to permanently run WaveLab Essential!

The installation procedure unpacks all the files and automatically puts them in the right places.
1. Insert the CD-ROM disk in the drive.

The installation program should start automatically after a few seconds.
If, for some reason it doesn’t – for instance if you have “Auto Insert Notification” deactivated for your CD drive – perform steps 2-4 below. Otherwise, proceed to step 5.

Registering your software will make sure you are entitled
to technical support and kept aware of updates and news
regarding WaveLab Essential.

2. Launch the Explorer, open the “My Computer” window
or select “Run” from the Start menu.

Program settings

3. Locate and double click on the drive symbol for the
CD-ROM drive.

Before you start working, you should make some settings:

4. Double click on the “setup” symbol (setup.exe).
5. Follow the instructions on screen.

13
Installing and setting up

Audio card settings

Additional audio settings

You need to specify which audio card and driver you intend to use. WaveLab Essential can communicate with
the audio card via any of the standard protocols; ASIO,
MME or WDM.

There are other settings in the Preferences that affect audio playback and recording. We recommend that you try
the default settings before you change anything, since
these work well in most cases.

Selecting an ASIO driver

On the “Audio Card” tab, you will find the following settings:

1. Open the Preferences–Audio device tab.

• Playback Buffer Number and Size.

2. Select the ASIO driver from the “Playback device”
pop-up menu.

These determine how much RAM memory is used for buffering when
playing back. If you get playback problems such as dropouts or glitches,
you should try to increase these values.

Note that the “Playback device” menu heading has now changed to
“Playback/Record device” and the Recording device section has been
greyed out. This is because with ASIO, the same driver is always used
both for output and input.

3. If you click the “Control Panel” button the audio card
settings application (usually installed with the audio card)
for the ASIO driver opens.

With ASIO drivers, you may find these settings in the
ASIO Control Panel.

• Recording Buffer Number and Size (not available when
using ASIO).
These determine how much RAM is used for buffering when recording. If
you get dropouts in the recorded audio, you should try increasing these
values.

In the Control Panel you may find settings for buffer size, digital formats,
additional I/O connections, etc. depending on the audio card and the
driver.

On the Preferences–File tab, you will find the following
settings:

4. Click on the “Connections” button.
The ASIO Audio connections dialog will appear, listing all available channel inputs and outputs in WaveLab Essential. Select the channels you
want to use for stereo output and input.

• Disk block buffer size.
Governs the buffer size used when WaveLab Essential is reading data
from the hard disk. If you experience problems in a read intensive scenario (such as playing back an Audio CD Montage with a lot of simultaneous clips), you should try changing this value.
If you change this setting, playback will stop when you leave the dialog.

5. Close the dialog.
• When using ASIO, the playback resolution is set from
the ASIO driver (you may find a setting for this in the ASIO
Control Panel, depending on the hardware and driver).

• Use system cache.
When this is deactivated (default), WaveLab Essential reads files directly
from the hard disk, bypassing Windows’ file cache.

Therefore, the Playback Resolution settings will be greyed out.

Selecting an MME/WDM driver
!

1. Select “Preferences…” from the Options menu.
2. Click on the Audio device tab.

We recommend that you leave this option deactivated!

The option is available since it may remedy problems on certain systems
with slow disk drives. Note:

3. Select the audio card you want to use for recording
and playback from the pop-ups.

• If you activate this, avoid using large disk block buffer
size values!

If you only have one audio card you can also select the “Microsoft Sound
Mapper” options (the sound mapper is a “virtual audio card” which “maps”
all audio to your real card). However this does not let you take full advantage of the card’s driver when recording audio and is not recommended.

• After activating this option, you need to close and reopen all open files, for the setting to take effect!

4. Choose your “Playback Resolution”.

About latency
In the Playback section of the Audio device tab, you will
find an indication of the current latency (at 16bit/44.1kHz
stereo). Latency is the delay between when audio is “sent”
from the program and when you actually hear it. The la14
Installing and setting up

tency in an audio system depends on the audio hardware,
its drivers and their settings. It’s usually possible to reduce
latency by lowering the number and size of the playback/
recording buffers. However, please note:
!

4. Selecting the Temporary Folder item will show the current location where the temp files will be created in the
Folder field to the right.
5. Either type in the path to the directory or you can
browse the drives to locate and select the folder via a
standard Windows file dialog.

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 Essential. Here the important issues are optimum and
stable playback and editing precision. Therefore, you
should not try to reach the lowest possible latency
figures when working with WaveLab Essential. And
again, should you get dropouts, crackles or glitches
during playback, raise the Buffer Number setting on
the Preferences–Audio device tab.

Click OK to select a folder and exit the file dialog.

Peak and view memories
A peak file is a small file with the extension “.gpk” automatically created by WaveLab Essential each time a file is
modified or opened in WaveLab Essential (if it hasn’t been
previously). The peak file contains information about the
waveform, and determines how it is drawn in the wave
window.

Temporary files

View memory files (extension “.mem”) store view information relating to a specific audio file such as window and
scroll positions, etc. – see “Saving view settings” on page
54.

You also need to specify where WaveLab Essential
should store its temporary files. Temporary files are used
for certain operations, such as WaveLab Essential’s extensive Undo function (see “Undo and Redo” on page
22).
If you have access to more than one drive, saving your
temp files on a separate drive (not partition) can considerably speed up performance. For example, if your source
files are located on the C: drive, you could specify
D:\temp as temporary folder.

By default, peak files and view memory files are stored in
the same folder as the related audio file. Setting this to another folder on a different drive will also improve performance to a certain degree. Regardless of whether this
folder is on a different drive or not you also get the advantage of not having the audio file folder cluttered with nonaudio files if a separate folder is used.

This will not only improve performance, but also reduce
disk fragmentation.

This folder can be specified from the Folders dialog, either
directly or via the Preferences–Wave edit tab:

1. In Windows, create a separate folder in which to store
your “temp” files.

• Select Preferences from the Options menu and select
the Wave edit tab.

• If the “Save view settings in companion file” option is
activated, view memory files will be saved in the same
folder as the related audio file.

The folder should be on your fastest hard disk and
you should make sure you have plenty of room available on that hard disk (or partition). Putting the
“temp” files on a separate drive (that is, not the same
drive as your regular files) will speed up file operations considerably.

• If you select “Save in independent folder” you can click
the “Edit” button, which will open the Folder dialog with
the “Peak and view memories” work folder selected.
From here you can navigate to a new folder location to store the peak
and view memory temp files.

2. Select “Folders…” from the Options menu.
This opens the Folders dialog, where you can edit how various WaveLab
Essential folders are handled .

3. Click on the plus sign beside the “Temporary folders”
item (this is located in the “Work folders” category).

15
Installing and setting up

Installing a CD/DVD recorder

• Examine your WaveLab Essential directory and other
disks included in this package for files that might be useful
to you.

Hardware installation/connection

• If you run into problems, check the Troubleshooting
chapter in the Operation Manual.

For general instructions on installing internal or connecting external recorders via USB or Firewire, please refer to
the instructions that came with the computer, or the
recorder itself.

About the Tracer application

For WaveLab Essential, please just check the following
points:

In the WaveLab Essential directory created on your hard
disk during installation, you will find a folder called “Tools”.
Among other things, this folder contains a small application called Tracer. This is a diagnostic tool that tracks and
logs various procedures that WaveLab Essential executes
when it is launched, e.g. the loading of plug-ins.

• Make sure to have the latest firmware version installed in your
recorder unit. For CD recorders, the firmware you have must
support Disc-at-Once mode! In addition, running a unit with
older firmware might for example prevent you from writing CDText information into the tracks.

Should you run into problems with WaveLab Essential
and need to contact technical support, you can use the
Tracer application and pass on the information it displays
to the technical support staff. This could be of great assistance since it might be possible to see exactly which operation caused a problem.

Checking the installation of the CD/DVD
recorder
You might want to check that the recorder unit was actually found by the program. Proceed as follows:
1. Select “CD/DVD Information…” from the Tools menu.

• To use the Tracer, locate the file Tracer.exe in the Windows
Explorer and double click on it – or use the Run command on
the Start menu to browse for the file.
• After you have activated the Tracer application, launch WaveLab Essential.
• All loading procedures are displayed as plain text, and you can
copy this information and then paste it into, for example, an email.

The CD/DVD Info dialog appears.

2. Check that your recorder unit appears in the list to the
left.
The list will also contain any regular DVD-ROM drives, etc. If your CD/
DVD recorder isn’t listed, there’s either something wrong with the installation or the unit is not supported by WaveLab Essential.

Installation done! Where do I go
next?
There are three things we suggest you do:
• Read through the rest of this book and try out the different possibilities as you go along.

16
Installing and setting up

4
Overview

Get to know WaveLab Essential

The Audio CD Montage window

Welcome to WaveLab Essential!
This chapter is intended to get you acquainted with the
program. We will here briefly describe its fundamental
functions and main features, so as to point you in the right
direction on your road to mastering all of the possibilities
that WaveLab Essential offers.

The windows and what you can do
with them
Working with WaveLab Essential, you will encounter a
number of different windows that let you do different
things. Editing audio files, compiling files for burning CDs
or DVDs, applying effects and much, much more. This is
an overview of the main windows in the program.

This is an Audio CD Montage window. An Audio CD Montage lets you compile and edit multiple clips (references to
audio files on disk) on one or two tracks.
As you can see, the window consists of two panes. The
lower one is called the Track View, and this is where you
assemble the clips. The appearance of the upper pane depends on which of the six tabs at the very top of the window is selected. These tabs give you access to various
functions.

The Wave window

After you have imported audio files as clips into an Audio
CD Montage, you can arrange, edit and play back the
clips. You can also apply effects, fades or crossfades, and
much more, and last but not least, you can directly create
CDs. All in all, the Audio CD Montage is an excellent tool
for advanced music CD creation.
Read more about the Audio CD Montage and its features
in the chapter “The Audio CD Montage” on page 103.
This is a Wave window, a graphical representation of an
audio file. It consists of two parts – the lower is the Main
view, and this is where you can perform various audio editing operations such as copying, cutting, pasting, moving,
deleting, etc.
The upper part is the Overview and serves to let you easily
navigate through long files.
You can read more about the Wave window and the operations you can perform in it in the chapter “Editing in the
Wave window” on page 32.

18
Overview

The Data CD/DVD window

The Master Section

The Data CD/DVD window can be used for compiling and
creating data CDs/DVDs (discs that exclusively contain
computer data) and Mixed Mode CDs (discs that contain
both data and audio).
The window is divided into two panes; the upper is called
the source window, and the lower is the destination window. You drag files from the source window to the destination window, in which you can rename, remove and
move files before burning a CD or DVD.
For a detailed description of the Data CD/DVD window and
what you can do with it, see “Data CD/DVD Projects” on
page 139.

The CD/DVD Label Editor

This is a very important part of WaveLab Essential, called
the Master Section. It has a number of uses including:
• Adding real-time effect plug-in processors such as Chorus,
Reverb, etc.
• Applying effects to files so that they are permanently made a
part of the files (as opposed to using them in real-time).
• Monitoring and controlling the WaveLab Essential output
level.
• Adding dithering.
For details, see “Master Section” on page 81.
This window is the Label Editor. Here you can design and
print custom labels for the CDs or DVDs you create. You
can create labels for both the front and back of a jewel
case, as well as for the discs.
Read more about this in the chapter “Creating labels” on
page 147.
19
Overview

Find your way around in WaveLab
Essential

CD/DVD creation

Editing and processing

• Create an audio CD that can be played back in a regular CD player?

Where do I go if I want to…

You create an Audio CD Montage and insert audio files as clips into it,
with each clip representing one track on the audio CD (see “The Audio
CD Montage” on page 103).

Where do I go if I want to…

• Edit an existing audio file?
When you open an audio file, it appears in a Wave window, in which you
can edit it in various ways. See “Editing in the Wave window” on page 32.

• Create a data CD/DVD or a Mixed Mode CD/DVD containing audio, data and video?

• Compile and edit several audio files on two independent tracks?

You do this in a Data CD/DVD window. See “Data CD/DVD Projects” on
page 139.

Create an Audio CD Montage. See “The Audio CD Montage” on page
103.

• Create labels for the CDs/DVDs I make?
This is done in the Label Editor. See “Creating labels” on page 147.

• Apply processing to a wave file?

The above are just a few pointers to some of the fundamental functions in WaveLab Essential. While using them,
you will discover a multitude of other features and functions that let you make full use of the possibilities of this
amazing program.

The Process menu contains a number of options for manipulating wave
files, including fade-in/out, normalize, time stretch and much more – see
“Off-line processing” on page 67. You can also use the Render function
in the Master Section to apply effects to a file.

• Convert an audio file into another audio format?
There are several ways: You can use either the “Save as” command or
the “Save Special” command on the File menu (see “Saving in another
format (Save as…)” on page 51), or the “Render” function in the Master
Section (see “Rendering” on page 91). Finally, batch file encoding lets
you convert multiple files to another format – see “Batch file encoding”
on page 95.

Have fun exploring WaveLab Essential!

Playback and recording
Where do I go if I want to…
• Play back with real-time effects?
Effects are added in the Master Section, see “Master Section” on page 81.
In Audio CD Montages you can also add individual clip effects, see “Adding effects to clips” on page 124.

• Record new audio files?
Use the Record button on the Transport bar. The new file will appear in a
Wave window, see “Recording” on page 59.

• Record songs from an audio CD into WaveLab Essential?
You don’t – you import them directly from the disc. On the Tools menu
there is an option called “Import Audio CD tracks” (see “Importing audio
CD tracks into WaveLab Essential” on page 144).

20
Overview

5
Basic methods

Why you should read this chapter

For this reason, WaveLab Essential will need to store files
on your hard disk, in the folder you have specified for the
temporary files (see “Temporary files” on page 15). These
files are automatically deleted each time you close or save
the related document.

This chapter describes general methods that you will use
when working with WaveLab Essential. Getting accustomed with these procedures will allow you to work more
effectively with the program.

Limiting the Undo function

Getting help

If you run out of hard disk space or if you are applying processing to extremely long sections of waves, you might
want to put a limit on the Undo function (applicable to
Wave windows only):

WaveLab Essential comes with a detailed help system,
making it easy to look up procedures and descriptions
from within the program. There are two ways to access
the help system:

1. Select “Preferences” from the Options menu and click
the Wave edit tab.

• By selecting “Operation Manual” from the Help menu.

2. Uncheck the “Unlimited” option in the Undo/Redo
section.

This takes you to the help in Adobe Acrobat format (extension “.pdf”).
This PDF file contains all chapters of the manual including additional
sections describing plug-ins, key commands and troubleshooting procedures.

3. Change the Limit number to the desired value.

• By pressing [F1].

Undo and Redo
WaveLab Essential has an extremely extensive Undo function, applicable when working in Wave windows, Audio
CD Montages or the CD Label Editor. You can:

Clearing the undo
There might be situations where you have “collected” a
large number of undo possibilities that you know you don’t
need. You might then clear the whole undo “buffer” for
one file at a time. This will free up some primary memory
(RAM) but more importantly it will also delete all the “undo
files” from your hard disk, to free up space.

• Undo as many steps back as you like, by using the Undo
item on the Edit menu.
The only limitation is the available hard disk space. You can also use the
shortcuts [Ctrl]-[Z] or [F3] to undo. [F3] has the added advantage in that
you can undo even if a modal dialog is currently open.

1. Select “Clear undo” from the Edit menu.

• Redo as many steps as you like, by using the Redo item
on the Edit menu (or by pressing [Ctrl]-[Y] or [F4]).

A window appears informing you of how much RAM and hard disk space
you will gain by this operation.

Furthermore, each window has its own undo “history”, so
you can click on any window and undo the last changes
made there, even if you afterwards worked in another window.

About Undo and disk space
Many undo operations require no memory or disk space.
However, operations that modify actual wave data (like
time stretch, EQ, etc.) require that a file copy of the selected part of the wave is stored, so that it can be brought
back when you need to redo.
2. Click OK.

22
Basic methods

Quick window switching
!

• To “cycle” between all open windows, press [Ctrl]-[Tab]
or [Ctrl]-[F6].

Please note that this function works on one document at a time. It is only the undo buffer for the file in
the active window that will be cleared. Also note that
it only applies to Wave windows.

• If you release the [Ctrl] key, and use any of these commands again, you will switch to the previous window,
rather than the next window in the stack.

Working with windows

This allows you to quickly move back and forth between two windows.

Basic window handling

The document switch bar

WaveLab Essential follows the basic guidelines for the
Windows interface, which means standard “Windows
procedures” apply.

A quick way to switch between the open document windows is to use the document switch bar.

Closing Wave windows
You can close a document window by clicking its close
button, by selecting Close from the File menu or by pressing [Ctrl]-[W]. If document window(s) contain unsaved
changes, you will be asked whether you want to save
those changes before closing.

In this example, clicking on the tab will bring the “MoonProject”
window to front.

Ö You can position the document switch bar at the top,
bottom, left or right side of the screen by using the document switch bar submenu on the View menu.
This submenu also lets you hide the document switch bar, if you like.

Ö If you hold down [Ctrl]+[Shift] when clicking the close
button, the window closes immediately. Any changes you
have made will not be saved.

Panes
Several of WaveLab Essential’s windows are divided into
panes. Panes are separated by dividers. For example, a
Wave window can have two panes, the Overview and the
Main view.

Ö You can also close all windows in one go (either all
Wave windows, or all windows regardless of type), by selecting the corresponding option from the Windows
menu.
Minimizing Wave windows
WaveLab Essential windows are minimized like any other,
but there are also options for minimizing all Wave windows or all windows (regardless of type, as with closing,
see above), from the Window menu.

Panes

Dividers

Quitting
When you quit the program, and have files with unsaved
changes, the “Exiting with modified documents” dialog,
see “Save All” on page 52, appears. Selecting all files in
the list and clicking Save Selected, ensures that all
changes made to any and all files, are saved.
The panes and dividers in an Audio CD Montage window.

23
Basic methods

Adjusting the size of a pane
1. Position the mouse over the divider between the two
panes.
The pointer turns into a two-way arrow.

2. Drag the divider to adjust the pane size.
Hiding and revealing a pane
In some windows, a pane can be hidden altogether.
To hide a pane, drag the border between the two panes all
the way up or double click it. To reveal the pane again,
drag the miniature divider symbol down or double click it.
The normal Time Stretch dialog…
…and when “folded in”.

The miniature divider symbol

The Document icon
The Document icon

You can also hide/show the Overview pane in the Wave
window by pressing [O] on the computer keyboard.

“Folding” windows
If you find a window takes up too much screen space, but
you still don’t want to close it, you can “fold it in” by clicking on the fold-in icon on the title bar. For dialogs, you can
also double click on the title bar.

WaveLab Essential adds another symbol to some document windows, the Document icon. This is used to drag
the whole document to various other windows, such as
Audio CD Montages or Data CD/DVD windows.

The fold-in icon

Unsaved changes indicator

To return to normal size, just click again.
When you have made changes to a document window, an
asterisk will be displayed after the document name in the
title bar until you save the document.

24
Basic methods

Working with multiple windows

Windows sets, snapshots and Wave view
settings

You can edit the same data in more than one Wave window. Among other things this allows you to work on different sections of a wave file (for example the start and end),
without scrolling back and forth.

In addition to the above, there are other ways to manage
windows:

Creating a second window by dragging

• Snapshots store individual settings for one Wave window at a
time, which allows you to quickly move between various views
of a file. See “Snapshots” on page 39.
• Screen layouts store document window and dialog box positions and sizes. See “Working with window layouts” on page
183.
• View settings can be automatically stored (Preference setting)
when saving wave audio files. This will store all view settings
for an individual Wave window; i.e. window size & placement,
time ruler style, scroll positions, selection ranges and snapshots. See “Saving view settings” on page 54.

1. Make sure “Create windows using mouse” is activated
on the Preferences–Wave edit tab.

Dockable control bars

Ö The two windows are views of exactly the same data.
Any change you make in one Wave window is immediately apparent in the
other.

Creating a second window using menus
1. Make sure the desired window is the active one.
If it isn’t, click once in its title bar.

2. Select Duplicate View from the View menu.

2. Click and drag a rectangle in an empty area of the
WaveLab Essential window.

Various tools, shortcuts and commands are gathered on
“control bars” (strips with symbols). These can be used either as “palettes” (separate windows) or you can “dock”
them to the window edges.
The following control bars are available:

This must be of a certain minimum size or bigger. If you don’t get a new
window, try again with a bigger rectangle.

•
•
•
•
•

The Standard Commands
The Transport bar
The Wave toolbox
The Wave Snapshots control bar
The Marker toolbar

Docking a control bar
There are two ways to dock a control bar:
• Drag the control bar window (by its title bar) to any of
the sides of the application window and release the
mouse button.

Dragging a box like this will create a new window for this audio file.

The outline shows you the shape of the control bar at the docked position.

• Double click the title bar of a control bar to return it to its
last docked position.

25
Basic methods

4. Move the pointer over an item on the control bar and
wait a moment.

Please note that you can stack control bars and put them
side by side, to create any type of layout you desire.

A text showing the name of the button appears.

In this example, the Standard Commands, Toolbox and Transport control bars have all been docked to the upper part of the application window.
An example of a “Tip” pop-up for the control bar.

Turning a docked control bar into a separate
window

The various control bars

To “un-dock” a control bar, drag it out from the docked
position, or double click somewhere on its handle.

The Standard Commands

Ö Control bar windows are moved by dragging the title
bar, just as with any other window.
To drag a control bar on side of the application window, without docking
it, hold down [Ctrl] when dragging.

The Standard Commands bar supplies shortcuts for the
most commonly used menu items, as well as some unique
functions.

Showing/hiding a control bar
There are different ways to show/hide a control bar:

The Toolbox

• Pull down the View menu, select Control Bars, and from the
submenu that appears, select the desired control bar, or…
• Hide a control bar by clicking its Close box.

Changing the appearance of a control bar

The tools are used to perform various operations on the
data in the window, like selecting, playing, etc.

To change the shape of a control bar to either horizontal,
square or vertical, drag the right or bottom edge as when
resizing any other window.

The Snapshots control bar

To change the size of the buttons in the control bar, open
the Preferences–Environment tab and adjust the “Button
size” setting.

Finding out what a button on a control bar
does

This is used to store and recall window “layouts”, see
“Snapshots” on page 39.

1. Select Preferences from the Options menu and click
on the Environment tab.

The Transport bar

2. Make sure “Show Tips” is activated.
3. Close the Preferences dialog.
The Transport bar is used for various playback commands,
see “Using the Transport bar” on page 57.

26
Basic methods

The status bar

The Marker toolbar

This is normally displayed at the bottom of the screen, but
it can be hidden on the Preferences–Environment tab.

This is used for various commands related to markers, see
“Introduction” on page 98.

The status bar shows information related to the active window. Exactly what information appears depends on the
window type – for Wave windows it shows various information about the file. See “The status bar” on page 35.

Speed menus

• For some of the fields you can also click to perform operations
related to that field.
• The status bar also indicates the progress of operations that
take some time to finish.

Most displays have speed menus associated with them.
Ö To bring up a speed menu, right-click in the desired
area.
In the Wave windows for example, there is one speed menu for the level
ruler, one for each of the time rulers and one for each of the waveform
displays.

The Wave window main view “speed menu”

The Speed menus contain the same items that can be
found on the main menus, but some speed menus also
contain unique items.
!

When searching for a function, don’t forget to check
the speed menus in the window in which you are
working!

27
Basic methods

Units of time and level

Setting values

For rulers

In dialog boxes, you will find yourself adjusting values. The
following techniques apply:

You can specify the time and level (amplitude) formats for
each ruler in each window, by right-clicking on the ruler and
selecting a format from the pop-up menu that appears.

Typing values
As in most other Windows programs you can “tab to” or
click directly on a value and type in a new one.

Time formats
Menu name

Description

Using the spin controls/value fields

Time

Positions are shown as hours, minutes, seconds and
milliseconds. At large magnification factors, hundredths
of milliseconds are shown.

Values can be set using either the regular Windows spin
controls, or any of the other methods described below.

Samples

Positions are shown as number of samples. How many
samples there are to a second depends on the sample
rate of the wave. For 44.1 kHz for example, there are
44100 samples for each second.

Time code

Also called SMPTE. Positions are shown in the following format:
hours:minutes:seconds:frames.
The number of frames per second is set on the Preferences–Wave Edit tab.

Meter

Positions are shown as bars, beats and ticks, as specified on the Preferences–Wave Edit tab.

File size

Positions are shown in file size units, MegaBytes, where
the decimals represent kiloBytes.

The spin controls
The history pop-up

Level formats
Menu name

Description

Amplitude (level) is shown as a percentage of full level.

Amplitude is shown in decibels, a logarithmic scale
used in audio engineering.

Decimal

This is the actual value of the amplitude as stored in
computer memory (always displayed as 16 bits). Please
note that the range is from negative to positive with “0”
representing “no signal”.

• Clicking either arrow raises/lowers the value.
• Keeping the mouse button pressed over an arrow will “scroll”
the value.
• Holding down [Ctrl] makes the value change in larger steps.
• Holding down [Ctrl]+[Shift] changes the value to its minimum/
maximum.
• The last adjusted control can be changed using the [↑] and [↓]
keys, also in combination with [Ctrl] or [Ctrl]+[Shift] as described above.
• You can also click and hold in the value field and move the
pointer up or down to change values.
• Pointing in a value field will display the available parameter
range.
• The down arrow to the right of the spin controls brings up a
history pop-up where the last applied value change(s) in the
current dialog are shown and can be selected.

Ö To make a ruler format the default (to be used in new
Wave windows), you need to save it as part of the default
window style.
See “Styling WaveLab Essential – Wave windows” on page 180.

28
Basic methods

Using sliders and pop-ups

In effect processor panels

Many times, the most convenient way of changing a value is
using WaveLab Essential’s proprietary sliders and popups:

In the Master Section you will find either generic or custom effect panels for each effect processor. In custom
panels, values are adjusted using special methods, see
“The Effects pane” on page 85.

1. Click with the right mouse button on the spin control
(in some windows you can also double-click with the left
mouse button).

Using a wheel mouse

2. If a pop-up menu appears, select one of the options
on it.

If you are using a mouse with a scroll wheel or similar, you
can take advantage of the wheel for various operations in
WaveLab Essential:

3. If one or more sliders appear, drag the handle(s) or
click the arrows to set the value.

Scrolling

The setting is shown in the value box “behind” the slider window.

If you point at a waveform, the wheel scrolls the view horizontally.

In this case, four faders appear, one
for the integer and three for the decimals.

Zooming
If you hold down [Ctrl] and point at a waveform, the wheel
zooms the view horizontally.
If you hold down [Ctrl] and [Shift] and point at a waveform,
the wheel zooms the view vertically.

The value gets updated when you
move the sliders.

Changing values
If you point at an edit field in a dialog, the wheel can be
used to adjust the value.

4. When you have finished, click outside the slider window.
• If the value is “segmented” (for example divided into minutes
and seconds, etc.), more than one slider will appear, each
used for adjusting one of the “segments”.
• The slider window can be dragged to any position on the
screen, using the “title bar” at the top.
• The last-used slider can also be adjusted using the computer
keyboard:.

• If you hold down [Ctrl], the value changes in bigger increments.
• If you hold down [Ctrl]+[Shift] the value jumps to the minimum
or maximum.
Master Section
• When working in the Master Section window, the wheel
can be used to adjust the master volume.
You have to point in the Master Section for this to work.

These keys

Move the slider handle

[↑] and [↓]

One step up/down.

[Page Up] and [Page Down]

A few steps up/down.

[Home] and [End]

To the top/bottom.

Ö This functionality can be turned off in the Preferences–
Environment tab.

29
Basic methods

Presets

Creating a preset
1. Open the dialog you wish to use and set up the dialog
as desired.

Many dialogs in WaveLab Essential have either a Presets
tab or a Presets pop-up menu. If you think of the dialogs
as forms, presets allow those forms to be filled out automatically. WaveLab Essential comes with a selection of
presets for most dialogs that use them, but the real power
of presets becomes evident when you start creating your
own!

2. Click on the Presets tab or pull down the Preset menu.
3. Click on the name line and type in a name for the preset or click the Save As… menu item and type in a name in
the dialog that appears.
4. Where applicable, click the Add button.

Ö For some WaveLab Essential effect panels there is a
Preset button instead of a Presets tab or pop-up menu.
Clicking the button opens the Presets dialog which has
the same items as described below.

Modifying a preset
1. Load the preset you want to modify, as described
above.

Depending on how presets are displayed in a certain dialog (tab or menu) they are handled slightly differently, but
both cases are described below.

2. Make the desired settings in the dialog.
3. Click the Update button or click the Save item.

Deleting a preset
1. In the Presets tab, click on the preset you want to delete.
2. Click the Delete button.
Or…
1. From the Presets menu, select the option Explore presets.
2. In the Explorer window that appears, select the preset
file you want to delete and press [Delete].

Store temporarily and Restore
A number of presets in the Harmonization dialog

Some dialogs also allow you to quickly save and load up
to 5 presets with the Store temporarily and Restore menu
items. This is useful if you want to quickly test and compare different settings.

Loading presets
1. Open the dialog you wish to use and click on its Presets tab or pull down its Presets menu.

1. Select the option “Store temporarily” and from the submenu select the number under which you want to save (#1
– #5).

2. Select the preset you want to use.
3. Where applicable, click the Load button.

2. To quickly load the saved settings again, select the
corresponding number from the Restore submenu.

Ö A quick way to load a preset is to right-click on the
Preset tab and select a preset from the menu that appears.

30
Basic methods

Using the computer keyboard

How presets are saved
The presets are automatically saved when you quit the
program. The next time you load the program, the presets
are ready and waiting, just as you left them. Furthermore
the presets are “global” to all files. No matter which file
you are working on, you still have access to all your presets.

When you are working with WaveLab Essential, the computer keyboard has several different uses:

Transport controls
The Transport functions (such as Play, Stop, Record and
so on) can all be managed from the computer keyboard.
The keyboard commands for these functions are located
on the numeric keypad, to the right on the computer keyboard. See “Using the Transport bar” on page 57.

About non-modal dialogs
Many of the dialog boxes in WaveLab Essential are “nonmodal”. This means that the window behind the dialog can
be operated even though the dialog box is still up on the
screen.

Keyboard shortcuts
Shortcuts for menus

For example, when you have a Processing dialog up on
screen, you can still work with the Wave window and the
main menus. For example, this allows you to perform the
following operations without closing the dialog.

Many of the items in WaveLab Essential’s menus have a
computer keyboard equivalent – an “accelerator”, listed
on the menu. Some abbreviations might need an explanation:

• Play back the wave to hear the effect of any applied processing.
• Adjust the selection before re-processing.
• Use the menu to undo the last processing.

Abbreviation

Description

The numeric keypad. “KP 2” for example means
the “2” key on the numeric keypad.

BkSp

The Backspace key.

Keyboard commands

F1 to F12

The Function keys.

Windows normally does not allow you to select from
menus and use keyboard accelerators when a dialog box
is the active window. However, we have provided a few
special key shortcuts for the most crucial commands:
Key

Command

[F3]

Undo

Due to the large number of functions in WaveLab Essential, some key commands consist of double or triple key
strokes (known as “key sequences”). These are displayed
with the different keys separated by comma signs.
For example, “Alt+F12, T” means “hold down [Alt] and
press [F12], release, then press [T]”.

[F4]

Redo

Customizable shortcuts

[F6]

Play selection

[Shift]+[F6]

Activate loop and play selection

[F7]

Stop

[F8]

Play

You can define your own key shortcuts for a number of
functions in the program, see “Customizable key commands” on page 184.
Additional shortcuts
In addition to the above, there are key commands that are
not listed on the menus or in this manual. Check the Key
Commands chapter in the online documentation for a full
list.

31
Basic methods

6
Editing in the Wave window

About this chapter

Opening Waves

The Wave window is the heart of WaveLab Essential’s audio editing capabilities. This is where you view, play back
and edit individual audio files. This chapter describes how
to open and save audio files, how to perform wave editing
and how to handle the Wave window itself.

For a list of supported file formats, see “Supported
file formats” on page 49.

Using the Open dialog
1. Select Open Wave from the File menu, press [Ctrl]-[O]
or click the Open icon on the Standard commands control
bar and select “Wave…” from the pop-up menu that appears.

Creating new empty documents
If you want to start with an empty file, for assembling material from other files for example, proceed as follows:

2. Use the standard controls to locate and select the desired file.

Using menus

The file format pop-up allows you to only view files in a certain format and
the buttons in the upper left half provide various views of the files on the
disk.

1. Select New from the File menu, and Wave from the
submenu that appears.

3. Click Open.

Or, right-click the New icon on the Standard Commands control bar.

The Wave appears in a new window.

2. Fill out the dialog that appears.
See “Supported file formats” on page 49 for details about the various
options.

Below follow descriptions of the items/procedures which
are not standard for all Windows Open dialog boxes:

By dragging

The Recent Folders pop-up menu

This is only possible if the currently active window is a
Wave window (or if no document windows are open).

At the top of the dialog, you will find a pop-up menu which
lists the most recently accessed folders. Select one to
open it.

1. Make sure “Create window using mouse” is activated
in the Preferences–Wave edit tab.

The playback functions

2. Drag to make up a box in an empty free area of the
WaveLab Essential application window.

Once you have selected a file in the list you can audition it
by clicking Play. Click again to Stop.

This must be of a certain minimum size. If you don’t get a new window, try
again with a bigger box. The new window “inherits” its attributes from the
last active window. If no window is open, the dialog box settings for units
are used instead.

You can also have files play back automatically as soon as
they are selected. To do this, activate the Auto button.
Opening multiple files

About display options

As in many other Windows programs, you can select and
open as many files as you wish. The [Shift] key is used for
making continuous selections and [Ctrl] is used for selecting any combination of files.

There are a number of options that govern how a window
will look when it is first created. These are all found on the
Preferences–Wave edit tab.

When you click Open the selected files will be opened,
each in an individual window.
The Open in Audio CD Montage window option
If you check this option at the bottom of the dialog, the
file(s) you open will be placed in an automatically created
new Audio CD Montage.

33
Editing in the Wave window

Inserting a file into the current document

Using the Recent Files lists

You may have a file that you want to insert into an existing
file. The two must have the same attributes (e.g. sample
rate), or a warning will appear.

On the bottom of the File menu you will find one or several
hierarchical menu items that allow you to open recently
used document files. There are different submenus for different file types, as indicated by the menu items (“Recent
Audio Files”, “Recent Audio CD Montages”, etc.). Each
section holds up to twenty files. Selecting an item on one
of the submenus opens the corresponding file.

1. Locate the document into which you want to add material, and make it active.
2. If you want to add the file at some arbitrary position in
the document (rather than at the beginning or end), click
to move the wave cursor to that position.

Using Favorites

3. Pull down the Edit menu and select Insert Audio File
and then one of the options from the submenu that appears.

Just above the “Recent…” items is the Favorites menu.
This lets you create a “library” of files that you want to be
able to open quickly.

4. Select a file and click Open.

• The “Add current document” option, adds the currently
active document to the menu.

The file is added. If you used the “at cursor position” option, a temporary
marker is added at the insertion point.

The list is sorted alphabetically.

• “Validate list” checks whether each document on the
menu is still residing in the specified location on your hard
disk(s).

Using drag and drop
To open files from the Windows desktop, use one of the
following possibilities:

If a document can’t be found, it is removed from the list.

• Drag and drop the file(s) on the WaveLab Essential application window.

• “Clear list” removes all files from the menu.

• Drag and drop the file(s) on the WaveLab Essential program icon or a shortcut for it.

Opening Wave files from within other windows
You can also open files from Audio CD Montage windows. See the respective chapter for details.

If the program isn’t already running, it will be launched. This works even if
the application is running but minimized.

Importing tracks from an audio CD

To Nuendo

This is described in the section “Importing audio CD
tracks into WaveLab Essential” on page 144.

Ö It is also possible to drag and drop files from WaveLab
Essential to Steinberg’s Nuendo!
This should be done using the Document icon.

Opening files from the desktop
To open a file in WaveLab Essential by double-clicking on
it, you must have created an association between the file
format and the WaveLab Essential application.
• You can do this from within WaveLab Essential at any
time by selecting “Associate all files of this type with
WaveLab Essential” on the File menu–Special submenu.
This association is made according to the currently selected file’s format,
and will ensure that all files of this format always opens with WaveLab
Essential.

34
Editing in the Wave window

Window overview and adjustments
Left audio channel

• The “Selection length” field shows the length of the entire
wave if nothing is selected, and the length of the selection (in
brackets) if there is one. If you click this value with the right
mouse button the window zooms in on the selected range.

Overview

Sizing, moving and minimizing
WaveLab Essential uses standard Windows techniques
for resizing, moving, maximizing and minimizing windows.
See your Windows documentation for details.
Maximizing width

Right audio channel

Main view

Selecting the Maximize Width item on the View menu
makes the window as big as the screen (or any other factor) permits.

Zoom controls

About the window sections

The divider

Main view

The divider between the Main view and the Overview can
be dragged to change the view sizes. See “Panes” on
page 23 for details.

The lower waveform area is where the main action is going
on. It is here that you select, apply tools, drag and drop,
etc.

Setting the zoom factor

• There are both time and level rulers. These can be hidden and
displayed (see the ruler and wave display speed menus). You
can also set which units of time and level they show (see
“Units of time and level” on page 28).

About zooming
Horizontal zoom
• When you zoom out all the way the entire file fits the window.
• When you zoom in as far as possible, each sample will occupy
several pixels on the screen. This allows for single sample-accurate editing of waveforms.

Overview
The overview is mainly used for navigating through long
files. Since you can have different zoom factors in the two
areas, the Overview can display the entire wave while the
Main view only shows you a short portion.
The status bar

Zoom out all the
way to see the
entire wave.

The status bar can be hidden. This is done on the Preferences–Environment tab. The status bar provides the following information:
Mouse cursor position/Level

File format details (see “Supported
file formats” on page 49)

Wave cursor position/Selection length

Zoom in until
you can see
each individual
sample point,
for very detailed
editing.

Zoom factor

• The Wave and Mouse cursor time positions are shown using
the same unit of time as in the rulers and dialog boxes.
• Level positions are always shown in dB.

35
Editing in the Wave window

Vertical zoom

Using the Magnifying Glass tool

• When you zoom out all the way, the complete height of the
wave fits into the window. You can note this by checking the
ruler on the left side.
• As you progressively zoom in, the display will only show you a
smaller part of the total height. Exactly which section you see
can be adjusted with the vertical scroll bars. Again, check the
ruler to see which part of the waveform is currently shown in
the display.

The Magnifying Glass tool is used to specify any section
of the waveform and have it occupy the entire window.

The Magnifying Glass tool selected.

Selecting the tool

For example, to check the peaks of the waveform in great
detail, zoom in and scroll all the way up and down.

The Magnifying Glass tool can of course be selected from
the tool box, but there are two other options:
• When you hold down [Ctrl] and move the pointer over
the Main view, the Magnifying Glass is automatically selected.

Detailed view of
waveform peaks

This is just a momentary selection. As soon as you release [Ctrl] you get
the previous tool back.

• When you move the pointer over the overview, it turns
into the Magnifying Glass automatically.
Using the tool in the Main view

Using the zoom controls

1. Press the mouse button with the pointer somewhere in
the waveform.

Both the Main view and the Overview have horizontal and
vertical zoom controls. These behave just like scroll bars:

2. Drag left or right to make up a box, and then release
the button.
The area encompassed in the box now fills up the entire window.

Making a box like this…
Vertical and horizontal zoom
controls

…zooms in so that the
“boxed” area will span the
entire display.

• You can drag the handle to any position.
• You can click anywhere on the scale to move the handle
there.
• You can click on the arrows at either end to change the
zoom factor in smaller steps.
Either way, the zoom factor on the status bar is updated continuously.

36
Editing in the Wave window

Using the tool in the Overview

Using a wheel mouse

The Magnifying Glass can be used in the Overview, just as
in the Main view. However, even though you use the tool in
the Overview, it is the Main view that gets zoomed.

• If you hold down [Ctrl] and point at a waveform, the wheel
zooms the view horizontally.
• If you hold down [Ctrl] and [Shift] and point at a waveform, the
wheel zooms the view vertically.

You can for example use this as follows: keep the Overview zoomed out all the way and use the Magnifying Glass
tool to display any section in the Main view.

Using the Zoom menu
The Zoom submenu can be invoked from two places:

Mouse zooming

• From the main view menu.
• By clicking on the Zoom factor on the status bar.

Using the mouse, you can continuously change the zoom
factor by dragging:

It provides the following options:

1. Position the mouse pointer over the ruler in the Main
view.

Option

Description

Restore last zoom

Brings back the last zoom factor set using this
menu or the Magnifying Glass tool.

2. Press the mouse button and drag up or down.
The zoom factor changes continuously.

Dragging to change the zoom factor.

• To zoom with the cursor in a fixed center position, hold
down [Shift].
• To make vertical zoom adjust automatically to the peaks
in the waveform, hold down [Ctrl].

Overview

Zooms the view out as far as possible.

Zoom in 1:1

Zooms in so that one pixel (dot) on the screen represents one sample.

Microscope

Zooms in as far as possible, so that one sample occupies several pixels.

Zoom selection

Zooms the window so that the current selection
(see “Selecting” on page 40) fills the entire display.
You can also click the selection range (in brackets)
with the right mouse button on the Status bar.

Custom…

This brings up a dialog that allows you to enter any
zoom factor.

Optimize vertical
zoom

This changes the vertical zoom factor so that the
peaks are clearly visible. This adjustment is done
according to the section of the wave currently visible in the window, not the whole file.

Using the keyboard
A quick way to zoom the active Wave window is to use the
arrow keys on the computer keyboard: Press [arrow up] or
[arrow down] to zoom in or out (respectively) horizontally.
Hold down [Shift] and use the arrow keys to zoom in or
out vertically.

• To switch to scrolling, hold down [Alt].
This technique works very well in combination with the
fact that you can move the song position by dragging horizontally in the ruler. By dragging in both directions, you
can quickly find a certain position in the file and display it
at the desired magnification factor.

There are also additional key commands for zooming –
check the Key Commands chapter in the online documentation for a full list.

Using mouse zooming to its full effect requires some practice – but it is worth the effort!
Setting sensitivity for mouse zooming
On the Preferences–Environment tab, there’s a Sensitivity
setting for mouse zooming. The higher the value, the less
sensitive the function. You might want to raise this value
when you first try out the function.
37

Editing in the Wave window

Using auto zoom for Overview

Navigating through the file

This setting, found on the Preferences–Wave edit tab, allows you to have the zoom factor automatically adjusted,
so that it always shows the entire wave.

There are several ways to move the view to a certain position in the file:

1. Activate “Auto zoom for overview” in the Preferences
dialog.

Scroll bars
This is the most evident option. These work exactly as in
any other Windows program. Please note that the waveform scrolls while you drag the scroll bar handle.

2. Zoom out on the overview so that you see the entire
wave.
Now, when you resize the window, the overview zoom factor is automatically adjusted so that the entire wave is always shown.

Furthermore, WaveLab Essential uses proportional scroll
bars, that is, the size of the handle shows you how much
of the entire document you see. To get a feeling for how
this works, drag the horizontal zoom control while observing the size of the scroll bar “handle”.

Which part of the file do I see?
In the overview, a striped line called the “range indicator”
tells you which section of the file is currently displayed in
the Main view.

Centering the view vertically

Furthermore, the range indicator moves while you drag the
scroll bar handle. This means that by observing the overview you can easily find positions in the Main view when
scrolling, even though the Main view might be zoomed in
very closely.

If you have zoomed in vertically, you might want to center
the waveform view. To do so, double click in the level ruler.

Clicking in the Overview
If you click once in the Overview, the Main view is scrolled
so that the position where you clicked is shown on the left
side of the window.

Using the Scroll to menu
To bring up the Scroll to menu, either select “Scroll to”
from the Main view menu, or right-click in the Overview or
the Main view.
The difference between the methods is that the main
menu always affects the Main view, whereas the speed
menus affect either view depending on where you clicked.
The following options are available on the menu:
When you drag the scroll bar, the range indicator continuously
shows you which part of the wave is shown in the Main view.

The range indicator can be displayed at the top or bottom
of the overview, see “Range Indicator at top/bottom” on
page 181.

Option

Scrolls the view to

Start/End

The beginning or end of the wave.

Selection start/end

The beginning or end of the current selection, if
any.

Cursor

The wave cursor.

38
Editing in the Wave window

Setting the ruler start position

Clicking on the status bar
If you click on the cursor position on the status bar, the
view is scrolled so that the wave cursor becomes visible.

Normally, the ruler is set so that the beginning of the file
represents position “0”. However, for editing purposes
you may want to set the “0” position at some other point in
the file. The picture sequence below shows you how to do
this:

If you right-click instead, a dialog appears to let you specify a certain time position to scroll the view to.

Using a wheel mouse

1. Set the wave cursor where you want the “0” position.

If you move the wheel down the scroll bar will move forward and vice versa. You can also hold down the wheel
and drag the view in either horizontal direction.

2. Right-click
the ruler to bring
up this pop-up
menu.

Snapshots
Snapshots store the Main view’s “layout” – essentially two
things:
• How a window is scrolled (which part of the wave you see).
• The window’s zoom factor.

3. Select “Set
origin at cursor”.

If you move back and forth between various positions in a
file, or if you zoom in and out for detailed or overview editing, using snapshots will save you a lot of time. Snapshots
are created and managed on the Wave Snapshots control
bar, opened from the View menu.
To create a snapshot, you first set up the view as desired
(by scrolling and/or zooming). Then click the camera icon
on the Wave Snapshots control bar, followed by one of
the numbers. The snapshot is now stored under that button. The fact that the snapshot is used is indicated by a
red circle around the number.

The ruler start
position is
moved.

This snapshot is “programmed”.

Working with a meter based display

You use the same procedure to “reprogram” existing
snapshots.

If the material on which you are working is tempo based,
and you know the tempo, you can make the ruler show positions in meter format (bars, beats and ticks), to make it
easier to find musically related cutting points:

To recall a stored snapshot, simply click on its number on
the Wave Snapshots control bar.

1. Select Meter for the ruler time format, see “Units of
time and level” on page 28.

Ö Snapshots will be automatically saved with the individual file if “Save view settings in companion file” is activated in the Preferences–Wave edit tab, see “Saving view
settings” on page 54.

2. Open the Preferences–Wave edit tab.
3. Set the Time Signature and Tempo to match the file.
39

Editing in the Wave window

Using magnetization

4. Set the “Ticks per quarter note” setting to a number
you feel comfortable with.

If you have “Magnetize bounds” on the Options menu activated and drag the cursor on the time ruler, it will “snap”
to the following positions:

This might for example be the same value as that used by your MIDI sequencer.

• The start and end of the entire wave.
• The start and end of the selection.
• Markers (see “What are markers for?” on page 98).
In this example, a meter ruler with 96 ticks per quarter note is used.

Using “Snap Cursor”

Setting the wave cursor position

This function – which can be reached from the “Move cursor to” item on the View menu and from the main wave
display speed menu – moves the cursor position automatically for you. There are two options:

Many operations, such as playback and selection depend
on the current cursor position – for example, playback often starts at the cursor. The current cursor position is indicated by a vertical flashing line, both in the Main view and
in the Overview. There are various ways to move the wave
cursor:

• Move to the closest zero crossing (see “Snapping to
zero crossings” on page 42) to the left of the cursor position.
To get this effect, make sure “Snap to time unit” is turned off on the Options menu.

• By clicking once somewhere in the Main view or on the
time ruler.

• Move to the zero crossing closest to a major time unit.

If you have a selection, click on the ruler, since clicking in the waveform
deselects all.

For example, this can be to the zero crossing closest to a whole second
on the time ruler. To get this effect, make sure “Snap to time unit” is activated on the Options menu.

• By clicking and dragging in the time ruler.

In the last case, the “time unit” mentioned depends on
which type of scale is selected for the ruler:

• By using the Transport controls (see “Setting the start
point for playback” on page 58).

Option

• By using the “Move cursor to” menu on the View menu.
The options on this are similar to the “Scroll to” menu, see above. There’s
also a “Position” option which allows you to specify any position in the
format selected for dialogs and a “Snap Cursor” option described in the
section “Using “Snap Cursor”” on page 40.

Cursor moves to

Time

Closest whole second

Samples

Function not available

Time code

Closest frame

Meter

Closest whole beat

• By using the Cursor keys:

Selecting

These keys

Move the wave cursor

[←] and [→]

One “pixel” (screen dot) in either direction.

[Ctrl] + [←] and [→]

Twenty “pixels” in either direction.

[Home] and [End]

To the beginning and end of the
wave.

Almost all types of editing and processing you perform in
WaveLab Essential operate on the selection. There are
numerous ways to make a selection:

By dragging or [Shift]-clicking
• By using markers

The standard way to select a range in a Wave window is
to click and drag. If you drag all the way to the left or right
side of the window, it scrolls automatically, allowing you to
select larger sections than what can be shown in the window. The speed of the scrolling depends on how far from
the window edge you are.

Markers allow you to pre-define positions and move the cursor there, see
“What are markers for?” on page 98.

40
Editing in the Wave window

You can also press [Shift] and click in the Wave window
to make a selection between the position of the wave cursor and the click position.

To select…
The entire waveform

• If there are no markers, double click.
• Triple click.
• Press [Ctrl]-[A].
• Select “All” from the Select menu on the
Edit menu.

From the cursor to the following or previous marker

• Select “From cursor to previous/next
edge” from the Select menu (on the Edit
menu).
• Hold down [Shift] and double click between the cursor and the marker.

From the cursor to the beginning or end of the file

• Select “From cursor to start/end of file”
from the Select submenu (on the Edit
menu).
• Hold down [Shift] and double click to
the left/right of the cursor position.
• Press [Shift]+[Home] or [Shift]+[End].

All data between two start/end
loop or region markers

• Hold down [Shift] and double click on
either marker head.
• Click between the start/end region
markers and select the type (loop or generic region) from the Select menu on the
Edit menu.

Half or double the current selection length

• Select “Halve selection length” or “Double selection length” from the Select menu
on the Edit menu. These options are useful
if you are working with measures.

What was previously selected

• Select “Toggle” from the Select menu
on the Edit menu.
• Press [Esc].

Selecting in stereo files
If you are working on stereo material you can select either
channel or both so that you can apply an operation to one
channel only or to the entire stereo material. Which channel will be selected when you drag or [Shift]-click depends on where you position the mouse pointer, as
indicated by the pointer shape:
Position

Pointer
Shape

Description

Upper half of left channel

Only the left channel will be
selected.

Middle area

Both channels will be selected.

Lower half of right channel

Only the right channel will be
selected.

Ö To select a single channel by [Shift]-clicking, you need
to set the wave cursor in only one channel (by clicking in
the upper or lower part of the wave) and then [Shift]-click
in the same channel.
Switching the selection between channels
If you have made a selection, you can move this to the
other channel or extend it to both channels by selecting
the corresponding items from the Select submenu (on the
Edit menu). Or, you can press [Tab] to move the selection
between channels (if there is no selection, [Tab] moves
the cursor between channels).

You can…

Selecting in the Overview
You can select in the Overview, just as in the Main view.
To get the selection tool in the overview, hold down [Ctrl]
and move the pointer into the overview.

Selection shortcuts

Extending and shrinking the selection

There are a number of ways to quickly make certain selections (for many options there is more than one method):

Very often you will have made a selection only to find it isn’t
completely perfect. In this case you can extend or shrink
the selection. In fact you can very well use this as a
method: make a coarse selection with a lower zoom factor,
then zoom in and adjust the start and end in more detail.

To select…

You can…

The area between two consec- • Double click between them.
utive markers
• Depending on the type of marker, use

one of the last two options on the Select
menu (on the Edit menu).
The area between any two
markers

By dragging
1. Move the mouse pointer to the beginning or end of the
selection.

• Double click between two markers,
keep the mouse button pressed and drag
left or right.

It turns into a double arrow.

41
Editing in the Wave window

Moving the selection

2. Press the mouse button and drag left/right.

If the selection is the right length, but at the wrong position, you can move it:
1. Hold down [Ctrl] and [Shift].
2. Point at the selection and drag left/right.

Snapping to zero crossings
About zero crossings
If you cut out a portion of a wave and paste it in somewhere else, chances are there will be a discontinuity
where the two waves are joined. See the example below.
This discontinuity will result in a transient in the wave
when it is played back, which is perceived as a “click” or
“bump” in the sound.

Dragging the end of the selection.

Using [Shift]
• Hold down [Shift] and click outside (extend) or inside
(shrink) the current selection.

At this point, there
will be a click in
the sound, due to
the discontinuity in
the splice.

If you click inside the first half of the selection, this will change the start
point, if you click inside the latter half, this will change the end point.

Using the cursor keys
• If you hold down [Shift] and press the [←] or [→] keys, the
start or end of the selection is moved one pixel (screen dot) to
the left/right. If you also hold down [Ctrl] it is moved twenty
pixels instead.
• If you hold down [Shift] and press [Page Up]/[Page Down], it
will also move 20 pixels.
• If you hold down [Shift] and press the [Home]/[End] keys, the
selection will extend from the current cursor position to the
start/end of the file respectively.

To avoid this you need to make the splice at a zero crossing.
A zero crossing is – a point where the wave crosses the
zero level axis, the point where the wave is considered to
have “zero level”.
Furthermore we recommend that joins are made with the
splice points of the two waves heading from opposite directions to the zero crossing. That is, one should be on its
way up (below the zero level axis), and the other should be
on its way down (above the zero level axis).

Which end of the selection you change depends on which
end of the selection the cursor is closest to.
Exactly how much one pixel represents depends on the
zoom factor. If for example the zoom factor is “x1:64”, the
cursor keys alone move 64 samples, and together with
[Ctrl] they move 1280 samples.

WaveLab Essential can help!
If you wish, WaveLab Essential can automatically search
for zero crossings, and extend the selection “outwards”
(make it bigger at both ends) so that it begins and ends at
a zero crossing. Normally this will not be noted in the editing precision (since there are usually hundreds or thousands of zero crossings per second), but it will help avoid
“clicks” and “pops” and “bumps”.

Using the Select menu
The Select submenu (on the Edit menu) has a number of
options for extending the selection to various points in the
waveform.

42
Editing in the Wave window

But just making the selection start and end at zero crossings is not enough. When you actually perform the editing
operation (cut and paste or dragging, for example) you
need to make sure the material is inserted at a zero crossing. See “By dragging” on page 44.

The “time unit” mentioned depends on which type of scale
is selected for the ruler:
Option

Cursor moves to

Time

Closest whole second

Samples

Function not available

Setting up zero crossing detection

Time code

Closest frame

1. Pull down the Options menu and activate “Snap to
zero crossing”.

Meter

Closest whole beat

File size

Function not available

2. Select Preferences from the Options menu.

Using Magnetization

3. Click on the Wave edit tab.

If you have “Magnetize bounds” on the Options menu activated and create or adjust a selection, it will “snap” to the
following positions (or to the zero crossing closest to the
position, see above):

4. Fill out the “Snap to Zero crossing” options.
Checking the effect of Snap to Zero crossing
1. Make sure that “Off at high zoom factor” is not activated and zoom in until the zoom factor is 1:1.

• The wave cursor.
• The start and end of the entire wave.
• Markers (see “What are markers for?” on page 98).

2. Make a selection and observe how it is extended left
and right.

Level selections
For some of WaveLab Essential’s level processing functions, it is useful to make a selection not only in time, but in
level.

If you make a selection like this…

By dragging
1. Make a regular “time” selection.
2. Hold down [Shift].
…it is automatically
extended at both
ends, to the closest
zero crossings.

3. Move the mouse to the top or bottom of the selection
box.
The pointer changes into a vertical double arrow.

Snapping to time units
When “Snap to time units” is activated on the Options
menu, selections will automatically be extended to the left
and right so that they start and end at whole time units
(and also at the closest zero crossing, if that option is activated, see above). This allows you to easily make selections spanning a certain number of seconds for example.
!

Note that this means that you must drag across a
certain “time area” (for example more than half a second) to get any selection at all.

43
Editing in the Wave window

Basic editing commands

4. Press the mouse button and drag up/down.
Make a regular selection, move
the pointer to its top or bottom
and hold down [Shift]…

Mono/stereo
WaveLab Essential is totally flexible in its handling of stereo. All editing operations can be performed on either
channel or both.

Copying audio

…drag up/down,
and release the
mouse button.

The following operations allow you to make copies of sections of audio within the same file or from one file to another.
!

Please note that any existing markers (see “What are
markers for?” on page 98) in the source audio section also will be copied.

By dragging

If you then extend the selection time-wise, the level selection still remains the same.

1. Decide whether you want to use “Snap to Zero crossing” (activated from the Options menu) for this operation.

Extend to peaks

When this is activated, both the selection start and end as well as the
drop position will always occur at zero crossings. See “Snapping to zero
crossings” on page 42 for details.

To automatically set the level selection to the highest peak
in the current selection, make a time selection as desired
and select “Extend to peaks” from the Select submenu on
the Edit menu.

2. Make a selection.
3. Point at the selection, press the mouse button and
hold it down.
4. Drag to a position outside the selection (in the same
file) or to another Wave window.
When you have the cursor over a valid area, the pointer will turn into a
single or double waveform (see below). The status bar will show the exact position at which the selection will be inserted.
!

Make sure you don’t drop on a selection in the destination window, or you will perform a crossfade, see
“Crossfade” on page 73.

44
Editing in the Wave window

5. Release the mouse button.

Stereo/mono “conflicts”

The selection is inserted at the indicated point. The audio that previously
began at that point is moved forward so that it is now played after the inserted section.

Stereo/mono is handled as follows when you drag between files:
Dragged
section

“Drop”
wave

Action

Stereo

The dragged audio is always inserted into both
channels.

Stereo

Mono

Only the left channel is inserted.

Mono

Stereo

What happens depends on the vertical position
in the destination window at which the drop is
made. This is indicated by the cursor shape (see
“Selecting in stereo files” on page 41). The selection can be inserted into only one of the channels, or the same material can be inserted into
both channels.

Make a selection, position the mouse pointer over it…

Sample rate conflicts
If you copy or move audio from one window to another,
and the sample rates of the two files are not the same, the
copied/moved sound will play back at the wrong pitch
(speed). The program will warn you if this is about to happen.
While mixing sample rates can sometimes be used as an
effect, it is most often not desired. There are two ways to
get around this:

…drag and drop…

• Sample rate convert the source file to the same rate as the
destination file before doing the editing.
You might go back later and undo this conversion if necessary.

• Sample rate convert the destination file to the same rate as the
source file before adding the audio to it.
Please note that you are then partly “stuck” with this new sample rate,
since rate converting back and forth too many times is not recommended, see “Convert sample rate” on page 79.

…the dragged section is inserted at the drop point.

Using “Magnetize Bounds”

By using Copy and Paste

If you have “Magnetize bounds” on the Options menu activated when you drag, the cursor will “snap” to the following positions:

1. Make a selection.
2. Select Copy from the Edit menu, press [Ctrl]-[C] or
drag the selection onto the Copy icon on the Standard
Commands control bar.

• The wave cursor.
• The start and end of the entire wave.
• Markers (see “What are markers for?” on page 98).

3. If you want to insert the audio, click once at some position in the same file or in another file.
The wave cursor appears at that point.

4. If you would rather replace a section of audio, select it.
In this case, the position of the cursor is of no relevance.

45
Editing in the Wave window

5. Select Paste from the Edit menu or press [Ctrl]-[V].

Copied
section

The material you copied is either inserted at the indicated point (no selection) or it replaces the current selection (if you have a selection).

Paste
wave

Action

Stereo

Mono

Only the left channel is pasted.

Mono

Stereo

What happens depends on whether the wave
cursor is in one channel or both. The Paste can
either happen in one of the channels, or the
same material can be inserted into both channels.

Moving audio
The following commands allow you to rearrange the “order” of the audio in a file.
Make a selection, and select Copy…

By dragging
This is just like drag copying (see above). The only difference is that you hold down [Alt] and [Ctrl] while dragging
to move audio. The material you dragged is removed from
its original position and inserted where you drop it.
By using Cut and Paste
This is just like using Copy and Paste (you can for example
drag the selection to the Cut symbol on the Standard
Commands control bar – see above). The only difference
is that when you select Cut, the audio is removed from the
window. The material after the cut section will be moved
to fill out the gap.

…click for an insertion point…

Please note that to completely undo a move between
two files you must first undo the paste in the destination window and then undo the cut in the source window.

By nudging
…and select Paste. The copied section is inserted at the cursor position.

The Nudge tools

Stereo/mono “conflicts”

The Nudge left/right tools in the Toolbox (also known as
“Kicker tools”) can be used to move the audio in small
steps within a file.

Stereo/mono is handled as follows when you paste:
Copied
section

Paste
wave

Action

Stereo

If the wave cursor extends across both channels of the destination file, the material will be
inserted into both channels.

Stereo

1. Make a selection.
2. Click on the selection with one of the Nudge tools (depending on the direction in which you want to move it).

If the wave cursor is only in one channel, the
Paste will only happen in that channel. Material
from the left channel will be pasted in the left
channel and vice versa.

The audio is moved one pixel (screen dot). Exactly how much this is depends on how far you are zoomed in. If for example the status bar says
x1:256, the selection will be moved 256 samples.

46
Editing in the Wave window

Ö The moved section “overwrites” the audio originally at
that position.

Mix
This will blend the two files into each other, starting at the
selection (if you have one) or at the cursor position (if
there is no selection).

For example, when you nudge a selection to the right, silence will appear
before the nudged section while audio to the right will be replaced by the
nudged section. This is different from moving by dragging.

• When you select the Paste Special – Mix option, a dialog appears, allowing you to specify the desired gain for
the audio on the clipboard and at the destination, respectively.

Ö If you nudge many times in a row and then undo, all the
moves are undone in one go.

Repeating an audio selection

A setting of 0 dB means the level will be unaffected.

To repeat a section of audio, proceed as follows:

• All the data on the clipboard is always mixed in, regardless of the length of the selection.

1. Make a selection, select Cut or Copy and place a new
insertion point, just as when performing a normal Cut or
Copy (see above).

It doesn’t matter whether or not you have a selection in the destination
file when you paste.

2. Select “Multiple copies…” from the Paste Special
submenu on the Edit menu.

Deleting selections

3. In the dialog that appears, enter the number of copies
you desire (up to 1000), and click OK.

Delete
You can use the following methods to delete a selection
of audio:

Other Paste operations

•
•
•
•

On the Paste Special menu you will find some additional
options:
Overwrite
This will overwrite data in the destination file, rather than
moving data to make room for the inserted audio. The actual amount that will be overwritten depends on the selection in the destination file:

Select Delete from the Edit menu.
Click the Delete icon on the Standard Commands control bar.
Press [Backspace] or [Delete].
Drag the selection to the Delete icon on the Standard Commands control bar.

Trim
To remove all the audio except the current selection, select Trim from the Edit menu (or press [Ctrl]-[Backspace]).

• If there is no selection in the destination file, a section
with the same length as the pasted data will be overwritten.

Silence
The Silence function offers two different methods for inserting silence:

If there is a selection, the pasted data will replace that selection, just as
when making a regular paste.

• You can “insert” silence into a section, i.e. to space two sections further apart.
• Or, you can select to “replace” a selection or time range with
silence.

Append
This will add the pasted audio after the end of the file, just
as if you had placed the wave cursor there and selected
Paste.

Insert silence

Prepend

If you intend to insert silence, proceed as follows:

This will add the pasted audio before the beginning of the
file.

1. Make a selection that encompasses the range where
you wish to insert the silence.
2. Select Insert Silence from the Edit menu or press
[Ctrl]+[Shift]-[Space].

47
Editing in the Wave window

Replace selection

Converting from stereo to mono

If you intend to replace a specific range with silence, proceed as follows:

You may mix the two channels in a stereo file into a mono
document.

1. Make a selection that encompasses the range you
wish to replace with silence.

This can be done in two ways. Which method to use
mainly depends on whether you want to convert the entire
file or just a selection:

2. Select Silence from the Edit menu or press [Ctrl][Space].

By dragging

There are four ways to replace a section of audio with
silence:

1. Make a stereo selection.
2. Drag the selection out to the WaveLab Essential
“desktop”.

• Select it and select Silence from the Edit menu.
• Select it and click the Silence icon on the Standard Commands control bar.
• Select it and press [Ctrl]-[Space].
• Select it and drag the selection to the Silence icon on the
Standard Commands control bar.

3. When the pointer is outside the window, hold down
[Ctrl] and release the mouse button.
By saving (converting an entire file)
1. Open the stereo file.

Turning selections into new documents

2. Select “Save as” from the File menu and click the
Properties button at the bottom of the dialog to open the
“Audio File Format” dialog.

If you want to turn a section of wave into a new document,
proceed as follows.

3. Change the Channels setting to the “Mono (Mix)” option, but leave the other settings as they are.

1. Make a selection.
2. Drag the selection out of the window and onto an
empty section of the WaveLab Essential application window.

You can of course change the other settings too, but this will have other
effects, see “Saving in another format (Save as…)” on page 51.

Ö The other two “Mono (Mix)” options will also convert a
stereo file to mono, but the amplitude of the resulting file
will be attenuated by 3 or 6 dB respectively.

The cursor turns into a “new document” icon.

3. Release the mouse button.
The selection appears in a new window. You can also use this function to
create stereo waves out of mono waves, see below.

Since the mixing of the two channels when converting a stereo file to
mono might often result in the amplitude increasing to a point where clipping occurs, these two options can be useful to remedy such a situation.

Converting from mono to stereo

4. Click OK and save the file.

You may convert a mono file into a stereo file that contains
the same material in both channels, for example for further
processing into “real” stereo.

5. Open the file you just saved.

Swapping channels in a stereo file

1. Make a selection.

You may move the material in the left channel to the right
channel, and vice versa:

2. Drag the selection out to the WaveLab Essential
“desktop”.

1. Make a selection across both channels.

3. When the pointer is outside the window, hold down
[Ctrl] and release the mouse button.

Only the material in the selected section will be swapped.

2. Select “Swap channels” from the Edit menu.

48
Editing in the Wave window

File handling in Wave windows

Waveform restoration with the Pencil tool
The Pencil tool allows you to redraw the waveform directly
in the Wave window. This can be used to quickly repair
waveform errors.

This section describes file handling in the Wave window (i.e. handling audio files). File handling of other
document types (e.g. Audio CD Montages) is described in the respective chapter.

Supported file formats
WaveLab Essential can open and save audio files in a
number of file formats. The table below gives you some
basic information about the various formats available (note
that additional file formats may have been added after this
document was written).
• The Format column also lists the typical file name extensions
for each format.
• All sample rates are supported, for all file formats.
• All file types can handle mono and stereo.

This error in the right channel (red waveform) can be corrected quickly
by using the Pencil tool.

• The Pencil tool can be used if the Zoom resolution is set
to at least 1:8 (one pixel on the screen equals 8 samples)
or a higher resolution.
Resolution values can be set in the Zoom pop-up menu. You can open it
by clicking on the Zoom factor field in the Status bar, located at WaveLab Essential’s bottom window rim.

Format

Description

Wave (.wav)

The most common file format on the PC platform. If
you plan to load the files into any other PC program,
Wave files are a safe bet. 8, 16, 20, 24 bit and 32 bit
(float) resolutions are supported.

AIFF (.aif, .aiff, .snd) Audio Interchange File Format, a standard defined
by Apple Computers Inc. 8, 16, 20, or 24 bit resolutions are supported.
MPEG-1 Layer 3
(.mp3)

The most common audio compression format. The
major advantage of MPEG compression is that the
file size is significantly reduced, while there is little
degradation of sound quality. WaveLab Essential
can both open and save files in this format.
- Note that when you open an MPEG compressed
file in WaveLab Essential, the file is converted to a
temporary wave file that is much larger than the original compressed file. Therefore, make sure that you
have enough free space on your hard disk when
opening MPEG compressed files.
- When you save, the temporary wave file will be
converted back to MP3, so from a user perspective
the file handling is transparent apart from the size
difference mentioned above.

MPEG-1 Layer 2
(.mp2/.mpa/.mpg/
.mus))

MP2 (sometimes referred to as “Musicam files”) is a
common file format in the broadcast industry. With
regard to file sizes the same applies as with MP3
files.

Original Sound
Quality (.osq)

This is WaveLab Essential’s proprietary lossless
compressed audio format. By saving files in this format, you can save considerable disk space without
compromising audio quality. See “About saving
OSQ files” on page 51.

Sound
Designer II (.sd2)

This audio file format is used by Digidesign applications (such as Pro Tools). 8, 16 or 24 bit resolutions
supported.

Click here to open the
Zoom pop-up menu.

• Select the Pencil tool from the Toolbox and redraw the
waveform.
If you wish to redraw the waveform of both channels at once, press
[Shift] on your computer keyboard during the drawing process.

49
Editing in the Wave window

Format

Description

About temporary files

U-LAW
(.ulaw, .vox)

This is an audio encoding and compression technique supported by Windows and Web phones, using 8 bit resolution. The U.S. telephone system uses
U-law encoding for digitization.

As you work in WaveLab Essential, temporary files (file
name extension .$$$) used for Undo, etc. are created on
your hard disk, see “Temporary files” on page 15.

A-LAW
(.alaw, .vox)

This is an audio encoding and compression technique for telephony, using 8 bit resolution. The EU
telephone system uses A-law encoding for digitization.

You can decide whether these files should be in 16-, 24or 32 bit format. This is done on the Preferences–File tab.

Sun/Java
(.snd, .au)

This is an audio file format used on Sun and NeXT
computers. Files in this format can often be found on
the Internet. 8, 16 or 24 bit resolutions are supported.

ADPCM –
Microsoft/
Dialogic (.vox)

This is a format commonly used for games and telephony applications that offers a lower bit rate than
linear PCM and thus requires less storage space/
bandwidth.

Ogg Vorbis
(.ogg)

Ogg Vorbis is a relatively new compressed file format that is open and patent-free and offers very
small audio files maintaining comparatively high audio quality.

Text/Excel (.txt)

This is a text representation of a waveform. By saving an audio file as a text file and then opening it in a
spreadsheet application such as Excel, you can view
it in textual, decimal form and edit the sample values.
When you open a text file representing a waveform
in WaveLab Essential, it will be decoded and
opened as an audio file. Note that these files are not
compressed in any way, so they can get very large!
Therefore, avoid creating and opening extremely
large .txt files. Also note that when using 32 bit float
files, the .txt format is not 100% lossless – i.e. information may be lost! This is because it is not possible
to express a binary floating point value in textual
decimal form without some precision loss.

The higher this value, the better the quality of the temporary file. However, 32-bit files are also twice as big as 16bit files and take longer to process.
• If you ever plan to export your files in 24-bit or 32-bit format,
use this format or a better one (higher number) for your temporary files as well.
• Use 32-bit if you want to create files with levels exceeding
0dB.
• Even if you only work with 16-bit files, selecting 24-bit for your
temporary files can improve audio quality slightly.
• For less critical applications where speed and disk space are
crucial factors, use 16-bit temporary files.

Opening files
The various methods for opening an audio file in a Wave
window are described in the section “Opening Waves” on
page 33. Importing CD tracks from an audio CD is described in the section “Importing tracks from an audio CD”
on page 34.

Save and Save as – General information

Windows Media Au- Microsoft’s own compressed format. WaveLab Esdio (.wma, .asf))
sential lets you import/export audio in this format,
provided that you have Windows Media Player 9 (or
later) installed on your system.
Ensoniq Paris (.paf)

Ö When you save a new document for the first time, it
doesn’t matter whether you select Save or Save as.
The “Save as” dialog will appear, since you need to specify a file format,
folder, and file name.

Used by the Ensoniq Paris™ system (16 bit resolution).

Ö Once a file has been saved, you can continue to edit it
and then select Save from the File menu, or press [Ctrl][S], to update the file and make the changes permanent.

About 20-, 24- and 32-bit float files
You do not need a 20- or 24-bit audio card to take advantage of the fact that WaveLab Essential can handle 20and 24-bit audio files. Any processing or editing performed on the files is always done at full resolution, even if
your card doesn’t support the full resolution. For playback,
WaveLab Essential automatically adapts to whatever card
you have installed.

Ö If you want to specify a new name, location and/or file
format, you should select Save As from the File menu.
See “Saving in another format (Save as…)” on page 51.

Ö All save operations except “Save a Copy” clear the
Undo buffers, which means that after saving you cannot
undo or redo.

50
Editing in the Wave window

Automatic backups

If you change the sample rate, bit resolution and number
of channels, the following operations are performed:

For all save operations except a regular “Save”, backups
are created automatically if a file with the same name already exists.
If for example you select Save As and specify a file name
already used in that folder, the program will ask you if you
want to back up the existing file first. If you click Yes, the
first letter in the file’s extension will be changed to “~”.
“AIF” for example, will become “~IF”.

Saving in another format (Save as…)

Property

Action

Sample Rate

If a new sample rate is specified, a sample rate conversion will be performed (see “Convert sample rate” on
page 79).

Bit Resolution

If a different bit resolution is specified, the file is either
“truncated” down (e.g. to 8 bits), or “padded” up (e.g. to
24 bits).
If you are converting to a lower bit resolution, you should
consider adding dithering – see “The Dithering pane”
on page 88.

Mono/Stereo

If the file is converted from mono to stereo, the same
material will appear in both channels. If the conversion is
from stereo to mono, you can either select to only save
the left or right channel, or create a mix of the two channels.

If you want to change the format (file format, sampling frequency, bit resolution and stereo/mono status) when saving, proceed as follows:
1. Select Save as… on the File menu.

• If you only wish to change the bit resolution you can do
this directly in the “Audio Properties” dialog (see “Editing
audio properties” on page 55) instead and perform a standard save.

2. A regular file dialog appears where you can specify a
file name, folder and a file format (see “Supported file formats” on page 49).

• For high quality mastering purposes, it is not recommended to change the sample rate and number of channels this way, but instead use plug-ins and functions of the
Master Section (see “The Effects pane” on page 85).

3. If you wish to change other attributes of the file (e.g.
mono/stereo status, bit resolution or sample rate), click
the button at the bottom of the dialog.
This opens the Audio File Format dialog where you can specify the desired properties of the converted file.

• For the available compressed file formats (MP3, MP2,
WMA and Ogg Vorbis), you can select “Edit…” from both
the Encoding and Attributes pop-up menus in the Audio
File Format dialog.
This opens additional settings dialogs, where you can specify various options such as bit rate and compression method, and also enter text tags
for the file.

Ö It is also possible to convert several files to another
format in one go (batch encoding).
See “Batch file encoding” on page 95.

Ö Note that you can also save as WMA files, MP3 files
and MP2 files via the “Encode to…” options on the Save
Special submenu.
About saving OSQ files
OSQ (Original Sound Quality) is a lossless audio compression format, which can significantly reduce the audio
file size without affecting the audio quality at all.

The Audio File Format dialog

4. After making the desired settings, close the Audio File
Format dialog and click Save.
A new file is created. The original file is not affected by the operation.

51
Editing in the Wave window

Save All

• You can save any audio file as an OSQ file by using the
Save As function.
The audio will play back exactly the same as in the original, uncompressed file.

• Similarly, if you open an OSQ file in WaveLab Essential
and save it as an uncompressed audio file in its original
format (e.g. WAV), the audio will play back exactly the
same.
• You can also convert several files to OSQ format in a
batch. See “Batch file encoding” on page 95.

Save selection as
This is a menu item on the Save Special submenu. It
works exactly as Save As, except that only the current selection is saved as a new file.

The Save All dialog

This menu item brings up a dialog that allows you to save
some or all of the open documents, in one go.

Save a Copy
This item, also on the Save Special submenu, allows you
to save a copy of the file, in its current state, without affecting the original. A regular file dialog is used as with
Save As.

The list displays all open documents that currently contain
unsaved changes. The “Show paths” check box allows
you to display/hide the complete file paths.

Save left/right channel as

Only the selected files will be saved.

1. Select /deselect files by clicking on them or by using
the Select/Deselect button.

These two menu items are also located on the Save Special submenu. They allow you to save each channel individually, into a separate file. A regular file dialog is used as
with Save As.

2. Click “Save selected”.

Revert to saved
This menu option, on the File menu, allows you to revert
the file back to its last saved state (actually, the last saved
version of the file is loaded from disk). This can be used as
a kind of “super undo” which undoes all the changes
made to the file since it was last saved.

This menu command is used when you have been editing
“dual mono” files for example, and wish to save the channels into separate files.

1. Select “Revert to saved” from the File menu.
2. Click “Yes” in the warning dialog that appears.
The file is restored to its previously saved state.

52
Editing in the Wave window

Renaming files and documents (Rename)

The dialog contains the following items:

The Rename function is available from most WaveLab Essential documents, not just Wave windows. The function
is however of particular importance when renaming audio
files. If you rename an audio file outside WaveLab Essential, and this file is referenced to an Audio CD Montage or
Data CD/DVD project, the reference will be lost the next
time you open the document that references this file.

Item

But WaveLab Essential allows you to handle file renaming
in an intelligent way so that all the documents that reference this renamed file are automatically updated! This
works as follows:
Ö All open documents that reference the file or document to be renamed will be automatically updated to reference the new name.

Description

Name text field

This is where you type in the new name.

Change folder

It is also possible to change the folder location
of the file when renaming. If Change folder is
ticked, you can navigate to a new location. Note
that this is only possible within the same drive
partition.

Keep as default path

If you check this option, the same path will be
selected the next time you open the dialog. This
is useful if you need to move several files successively.

Extension pop-up

The file extension can be changed, but only if
corresponds to the original file format (certain
file formats can have different possible file extensions, e.g. “aif” or “snd”).

Deleting files and documents

E.g. if you rename an audio file named “India” to “Sitar”, all currently open
documents that reference the file “India” will be updated to reference the
file as “Sitar”!

It is possible to delete whole files or documents from
within WaveLab Essential. This function is available from
the File menu and will delete the currently selected file or
document from disk. Make sure the file or document you
wish to delete is in focus.

For audio files, peak and marker files will also be renamed
accordingly.
• Documents that use audio file references are Audio CD
Montages and Data CD/DVD projects.

1. Select “Delete…” from the File menu.
A dialog appears as a warning, allowing you to cancel or proceed with
the operation.

• WaveLab Essential documents can also refer to the
names of other documents, e.g. a Data CD/DVD project
will contain references to Audio CD Montages.
This will work in the same way – if the document/project that references
the document to be renamed is open, the references will be updated.

To rename a file or document proceed as follows:
1. Select the audio file/document to be renamed.
Make sure all documents that reference this particular file are open. This
is not mandatory, but if they aren’t, the file references will not be updated.

2. Select “Rename…” from the File menu, or press [F2].
The Rename dialog opens.

2. Select whether to permanently delete the file or to
move it to the Recycle bin by clicking the appropriate button in the Method section of the dialog.
Only select to permanently delete if you are absolutely certain – you
won’t be able to retrieve the file!

• Any Data CD/DVD project that is open in WaveLab Essential and has a reference to this file will be updated accordingly.
The file will get removed from the Data CD/DVD project(s).

53
Editing in the Wave window

• However, if a file is being referenced by a currently open
Audio CD Montage, you will not be able to delete the file
and a warning will appear.

About “lossy” and “non-lossy” compression
There are two types of compression methods. When you
use a “non-lossy” method (like saving as an OSQ file –
see above), all information about the file is preserved,
which means that when you decompress the file, you get it
back exactly as it was.

In addition, you will not be able to delete the file in the following circumstances:
• If it is currently copied to the clipboard.
• If a part of it is has been pasted into another file that is open.
• If the file is open in another application.

However, most audio compression techniques are “lossy”.
This means that once the file has been compressed, some
information has been lost. This type of compression always results in some kind of audio degradation, albeit in
many cases a very small one.

• Deleting an audio file will also automatically delete its
peak and marker file names.

Saving view settings

WaveLab Essential can also import any file supported by
ACM, provided that the correct ACM drivers are installed.

WaveLab Essential can automatically save all settings associated with a Wave file. This includes:
•
•
•
•

Window size and position.
Zooming.
Scroll position.
Snapshots.

The view setting information is stored in a companion file
(extension “.mem”) either together with your audio files or
in a separate folder.

If you need audio file compression with uncompromised audio quality, you should use the OSQ (Original Sound Quality) lossless audio compression
format instead (see “About saving OSQ files” on
page 51).

Exporting to encoded formats
The menu item “Encode (ACM)” uses the Microsoft MediaTools technology to convert the file to one of a number of
compressed formats.

• This feature is activated/deactivated (on by default) in
the Preferences–Wave edit tab (“Save view settings in
companion file”).

1. Select “Encode (ACM)…” from the Save Special submenu.

If the feature is activated and you save a file, the settings
will be recreated exactly as you had them when later reloading the same file!

The dialog that appears is a MediaTools dialog, not a WaveLab Essential
dialog.

2. Select one of the formats from the pop-up in the middle and chose a setting for it from the pop-up below.

Compression encoded export formats

The dialog also provides possibilities for creating “presets” of formats
and settings, using the upper row of controls.

Apart from the formats available in the Save As dialog and
the Save special encode MP3/MP2/WMA options, WaveLab Essential allows you to export files in a number of
compression encoded audio formats, suitable for multimedia, web publishing, etc. (see “Supported file formats” on
page 49). The basic functionality for this is part of a software technology called Microsoft ACM (Audio Compression Manager) which is included with Microsoft Media
Tools.

The options which are available depend on the original format of the file, its sample rate, the number of
channels, etc. However, we have noted problems
with some ACM drivers. Even though a certain format can be selected, an error message appears
when you try to save the file. If this happens, please
use another encoding method.

3. Click OK.

The number of formats you can export, depends on which
ACM drivers you have installed on your computer.

A regular file dialog appears.

4. Specify a name and location for the file, as with any
Save operation.

For more information, see www.microsoft.com/windows/
windowsmedia.

54
Editing in the Wave window

Note: When you export to compressed files using the “Encode (ACM)” option, the file that is created will technically
be a Wave file, regardless of the compression format (the
files will have the extension “wav”). But instead of the regular “linear” audio data that usually makes up a wave file, a
special audio data “chunk” is included that contains the
compressed audio.

• If you change the bit resolution the file will be converted to the
new resolution the next time you save it.

File attributes

This is normally not a problem, but something to be aware
of when planning for usage of files in other programs and
on other computer platforms.

If you select this option on the Edit menu, a dialog opens
in which you can specify various information about the
wave file.

There is no Undo for this item. If you save with a
lower bit resolution, the file is permanently converted.

Editing audio properties and file
attributes
Editing audio properties
Each audio file has a certain set of properties, that is, information about the sample rate at which it was recorded,
what the bit resolution is, etc. The “Audio Properties” dialog allows you to change that information.
There are two ways to bring up this dialog:
• Select “Audio Properties” from the Edit menu.
The Wave Attributes dialog

• Click on the properties information field, on the status
bar.

You can enter information on either the Standard tab or
the Broadcast Audio Extension tab. The information you
enter here is added to the header of the file, and thereby
labels it as either a Standard wave file or a Broadcast
wave file. A Broadcast wave file is essentially the same
thing as a Standard wave file, the difference is what information the file headers can contain.
• On the Standard tab in the dialog, you can enter information that will be displayed for instance when viewing
the file’s properties in the Windows explorer.
Ö Note that you can instruct WaveLab Essential to automatically fill out the text fields for “Originator software”
(WaveLab Essential) and “Creation Date” (the current), by
clicking the small buttons to the right of the fields.

The Audio Properties dialog

About changing the values
Changing the values in this dialog does not process the
file in any way, unlike Convert File (see “Saving in another
format (Save as…)” on page 51). However, the following
rules apply:

• On the Broadcast Audio Extension tab you can also enter information to be embedded in the file, such as title,
author, etc. A Timecode position is included in the file as
well. This makes it possible to insert audio at precise positions in other applications. By default, the Timecode position is set to the start position of the audio.

• If you change the sample rate, the file will play back at the
wrong pitch.

55
Editing in the Wave window

7
Playback and recording

Playing back

The Transport controls

Background information
About sample rates
If the wave file is recorded at a sample rate not supported
by your audio card you will not be able to play it back. You
might then opt to use sample rate conversion, see “Convert sample rate” on page 79. Also see “Supported file
formats” on page 49 for more on file formats.

Start
Point
Skip

Loop On/Off
Stop Point/Loop

About the playback cursor position and
appearance
Great care has been taken to achieve synchronization between what you hear and what you see (the wave cursor
position in the wave during playback). However, by nature,
this precision depends to a large extent on the audio card
and its driver. In case you run into problems you may want
to adjust the settings on Preferences–Audio device tab.

Record
Play
Stop
Goto End
Fast Forward
Goto beginning

About audio cards and playing in the background

Rewind

The Stop button

When you activate playback or recording in WaveLab Essential, it will “grab” the audio card so that other applications cannot access it. The opposite is also true: if another
application has grabbed the card, WaveLab Essential will
be unable to play.

The result of clicking on the stop button depends on the
current situation:
• If the program is stopped and you click the Stop button,
the wave cursor is moved to the beginning of the last start
position. A second click will move the cursor to the start of
current selection (if any and if this is located before the
last start position).

Ö If you want to run WaveLab Essential together with
another audio program, and make sure whichever application is active gets access to the audio card, activate the
“Release audio hardware…” option in the Preferences–
Audio device tab.

• If there is no selection, or if the wave cursor is already to
the left of the selection, it is moved to the beginning of the
file instead.

When you do, WaveLab Essential will “let go” of the audio card when
another application is made active (provided that this doesn’t happen
during playback or recording in WaveLab Essential).

• If there is no selection, and you activate playback from a
point and then stop so the wave cursor is to the right of
the original point, the cursor will move to the place you last
started when you click Stop again.

Using the Transport bar
Displaying the Transport bar

• If you click on the Stop Point/Loop button and activate
the “On stop, move cursor back to start” option on the
menu, the cursor will be automatically moved back to the
beginning of the selection when you click Stop (from playback).

If the Transport is hidden, select Transport from the Control bars submenu on the View menu.

If there is no selection, it will automatically move back to the place you
started from.

57
Playback and recording

Transport control settings for separate windows

About loop updating and short loops

By default, open windows in WaveLab Essential (wave
windows and montage windows) all use the same Transport control settings (loop settings, playback speed, etc.).
You can however choose to use separate settings for
separate windows if you want: open the Preferences–Audio device tab and make sure the option “Transport settings are global to all windows” is not activated.

The loop points are updated continuously during playback, which means that if you change the loop start or end
during playback, the loop changes. This is a great feature
for auditioning selection points for rhythmic material!
Please note that it takes some time for positions to be updated (0.3 to 1 second, depending on the file’s bit resolution and sample rate). If you don’t want to wait, activate
“Restart on loop/selection change” on the Options menu.
When this is activated, the loop starts over as soon as you
adjust the selection or move a loop start marker.

When this option is deactivated, the following transport
controls can be set differently for each open wave or montage window:
• Start point (see “Setting the start point for playback” on page
58).
• Skip (see “Skipping sections during playback” on page 58).
• Stop point/loop (see “Setting the Stop point/loop” on page
58).
• Loop On/Off (see “Looping” on page 58).

Also please note that WaveLab Essential handles playback of extremely short loops without problems. However,
the cursor position might not be updated correctly.

Skipping sections during playback
You can also have playback automatically jump past certain positions during playback. This way, you will be able
to audition what the material would sound like with certain
sections cut out, before the actual edits are made.

Setting the start point for playback
The Start point button on the transport brings up a menu
that allows you to specify where playback will start.

This selection is done from the menu invoked by clicking
the Skip button on the Transport bar.

For example, if you select “Play from start of file”, as soon
as you hit Play, the wave cursor will jump back to the beginning of the file and playback starts from there.

• If you have made a selection range, you can select “Skip
selection” to skip the selected area.

Setting the Stop point/loop

Play tool – Playing one or both channels in
stereo files

The Stop point/loop button on the Transport bar allows
you to select where playback should stop and whether it
should loop indefinitely.

Selecting the Play tool momentarily
The Play tool can of course be selected by clicking in the
Toolbox, but there are situations when you are working
with another tool and just momentarily want to use the
Play tool.

Automatic Stop
For example, if you select “Stop at next marker”, playback
will stop as soon as the program reaches a marker or the
end of the file, whichever comes first.

• To momentarily select the Play tool, hold down [Alt].
When you have finished playing, release [Alt].

Looping
Let’s say you have chosen “Loop selection” mode. Now, if
some piece of the wave is selected, this will be repeated
indefinitely (as long as you don’t start playback from a position later than the selection).

Using the Play tool

If no selection is made, the entire wave is looped.

2. If the wave is in stereo, move the pointer up or down to
decide whether only one channel should be played back.

The Play tool allows you to play back from any position:
1. Point at the position where you want playback to start.

Watch the cursor shape, it indicates what will be played back (L, R or
both).

58
Playback and recording

3. Press the mouse button.

• Press [F6].

Playback continues for as long as you keep the mouse button pressed,
or until the wave ends. After playback has stopped, the cursor will be
moved to the playback start position, making this a quick way to locate to
certain positions in the audio.

If you hold down [Shift] and press [F6], the selection will be played back
repeatedly (looped).

• Drag and drop the selection on the Play button on the
Transport.

Using the Playback Browser

Scrolling during playback

The Playback Browser feature helps you find a certain position in an audio file, by restarting playback repeatedly
when you click or drag to move the wave cursor.

The “Scrolling during playback” submenu on the Options
menu contains several options for how the view should be
scrolled in Play mode:

1. Activate playback using the regular Play function, or
select the Play tool.
Note that depending on your Preferences settings, Playback Browsing
may only be available for the Play tool.

Option

Description

Immobile view

This disables scrolling completely.

View follows cursor

In this mode, the waveform view will automatically change when the Wave cursor reaches the
right side of the window during playback.

Scroll wave (partial)

In this mode, the waveform view is scrolled continuously, attempting to keep the Wave cursor in
the middle of the view. However, if loop mode is
activated and the loop range fits on the screen,
no unnecessary scrolling takes place, allowing
for a more stable view of the loop. The program
will also “sense” the end of a file and stop scrolling when it is “in view”, rather than when the end
is reached.

Scroll wave (always)

In this mode, the waveform view is scrolled continuously, attempting to keep the Wave cursor in
the middle of the screen.

2. Click or drag in the ruler.
If you click, playback jumps immediately to the position at which you
clicked. If you drag continuously, a short snippet of audio from each new
position is played (looped).

Playback Browser preferences
On the Preferences–Wave edit tab you will find two preferences for Playback Browsing:
• The Sensitivity setting is used to determine the size of the
“snippets of audio” played back when you drag.
• When the “Restrict to Play tool” option is activated, Playback
Browsing is not available when you activate Playback using
the transport bar or computer keyboard.

Ö Note: these options do not apply to playback using the
Play tool, and the last two options require a fast computer
and graphics card.

On the Options menu you will also find an option called
“Stop after playback browsing”, which determines what
happens when you release the mouse button: playback
continues (deactivated) or stops (activated). Note that
when this option is activated, the cursor will automatically
be moved back to the playback start position on stop, allowing you to use this function for locate positions in the
audio.

If you get dropouts during playback, please select another Scrolling
mode.

Recording
!

Playing the selection only

For details on connections, recording levels, etc.
please refer to the documentation that came with
your audio card.

About automatic gain controls

There are several ways to play the selected part of the
wave only:

Some audio cards may have a feature which automatically
sets the recording level for the microphone input. This feature is often called AGC (Automatic Gain Control). For
“professional” results we recommend that you deactivate
this feature using the software that came with the card.

• Press the right mouse button in the Overview or the
Main view and select Play Selection from the menu that
appears.
• Hold down [Ctrl] and click on the Play button.

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Playback and recording

Please note that if you leave this feature activated, the Microphone input gain control in the Mixer (see later in this
text) will have less effect on the recording level.

4. Click the file format button at the top of the Record dialog, and decide on a recording format. WaveLab Essential lets you record directly into a number of different
formats (see “Supported file formats” on page 49 for details).

Preparations

In the Audio File Format dialog that appears, you can among other things
choose the desired format, sample rate, number of channels to record
and bit resolution.

To record a new file, proceed as follows:
1. Click the Record button, or press [*] on the numeric
key pad.
The Record dialog appears.

The Audio File Format dialog
!

If you choose a bit resolution not supported by your
audio card, you will not be able to record.

5. Click OK to close the Audio File Format dialog.
6. If needed, activate the desired recording options in the
dialog.
There are also additional settings in a separate dialog, opened by clicking the Settings button.

The Record dialog

2. Decide whether you want to record to a “named” or a
“temporary” file, by selecting from the pop-up at the top of
the dialog.

At this point, you can start recording (see “Start recording!” on page 61) if you like.

Temporary files are practical to use, since you don’t need to name the file
beforehand, you just “hit record and go”. On the other hand, you will
need to save the file at a later stage. Temporary files are always wave
files, while named files allow you to choose to record files in a number of
different formats. Also note that if you plan to make a recording over several minutes we recommend that you record a named file.

Setting up the mixer (MME/WDM drivers)
At this point you may want to click the Mixer button to adjust the relative volume of your card’s inputs.
Ö For the mixer to appear, you must have specifically selected the card on the Preferences–Audio device tab.

3. If you have selected one of the “Named File” options in
the step above, type in the path to the desired destination
for the file on the line below the pop-up or click the folder
button and specify a file location.

If the Input and Output are set to “Microsoft Sound Mapper” a mixer cannot be created.

Exactly what controls will appear in the mixer depends on
the card, but here are some possibilities:

If you activate the Auto number checkbox, a three-digit number will be
added to the file name. Starting at the number you specify in the value
field to the left of the checkbox, the Auto number will be increased in increments with each new recording, to prevent existing files from being
overwritten.

• Master Gain (output-fader)
• Synth In (input-fader plus on/off check box)
60

Playback and recording

• CD (input-fader plus on/off check box)
• Line (input-fader plus on/off check box)
• Mic (input-fader plus on/off check box)

You can reset the meters by clicking the Reset button –
this instantly resets all meters and numerical indicators, including the Maximum Peak and RMS values to the right in
the Level Meter.

In addition to the above, the card might have custom controls for monitoring, etc., which cannot be accessed from
the WaveLab Essential mixer. Again, please use the application(s) included with the card.
!

You can also select one of five presets for the Level Meter
on the pop-up menu next to the Reset button. These presets (containing settings for meter ranges, colors, etc.)
can be edited by selecting “Settings…” from the pop-up
menu. The options are described in the chapter “Making
settings for the level meter” on page 65.

Not all audio cards have a mixer application and can
therefore not access the WaveLab Essential mixer.
This is especially true with digital I/O cards.

Using the meters
In the lower part of the Record dialog, you will find a meter
display. This is useful for checking the input level, as well
as the frequency spectrum of the input signal.

Use the Level Meter to check the audio input level.
Adjust this (with the mixer controls or the audio
card’s applications), so that the Peak Level Meters
go as high as possible without ever reaching 0dB!

Checking disk capacity

Ö The meters in the Record dialog are “miniature” versions of the Level and Spectrum Meters in the Meter windows.

The Disk Capacity indicator above the meters helps you
make sure you have enough disk space for the recording.
This indicator shows the amount of available disk space
on the hard disk specified in the Named File path, or the
hard disk you have selected for your temporary files (see
“Temporary files” on page 15). Please note that this value
is approximate.

For detailed descriptions of the functionality and features, see “Level
meter” on page 64.

For the meters to register the signal, you need to activate
the Monitor checkbox. This can be done automatically, if
the option “Activate meters when opening record window” is activated in the Record Settings dialog. The popup menu in the lower left corner allows you to select between Level or Spectrum metering.

When there is less than ten seconds of available
hard disk space, the disk capacity indication is displayed in red.

Start recording!
When all the preparations are done, click Record to start
the actual recording.
• If you have selected one of the Auto-start options, the
recording will go into Pause mode (the Record button will
blink), until the specified Auto-start criteria are met.

• When the Level Meter is selected, horizontal bars show
the peak level (outer bars) and average loudness (VU, inner bars) of each channel.

When recording starts, the Record button will be “lit” and the Recorded
Time value will indicate how much you have recorded.

Values are also shown numerically. If the Phase Scope option is activated on the pop-up menu next to the Reset button, a Phase Meter is
displayed to the right of the Level Meter.

• If you have selected the “Auto-stop after given duration”
option, the “Remaining Time” value will indicate how much
recording time you have left.

• When the Spectrum Meter is selected, a “bar diagram”
will be shown, providing a continuous graphical representation of the frequency spectrum.

• If you like, you can pause the recording by clicking the
Pause button at any time.

See “Spectrum meter (60 bands)” on page 65.

The Record button will blink to indicate Pause mode. To resume recording, click the Pause or Record button again. A short section of audio just
before you resume recording (according to the Pause memory value in
the Record Settings dialog) will be captured.
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Playback and recording

• You can drop markers in the file during recording by
clicking the Drop Marker buttons.

name for the marker, or you can confirm that you want to use an already
entered name. The benefit of using this method is that the marker will be
dropped at the time position when you clicked the marker button, regardless of how long you take to type in a name for the marker.

See below.

• If you want to abort the recording, click the Discard button.
This terminates recording and discards the recorded file.

• When you have finished, click Stop. You can also have
recording stop automatically by using one of the Autostop options. Either way, the recording by default appears
in a new window behind the dialog.

Furthermore, this dialog also allows you to specify a delay value for the
marker. The marker will then be dropped at the position when you clicked
the marker button, minus the delay value you specify. So if you clicked
the marker button after 10 seconds of recording and specify a delay
value of 2 seconds, the marker will be dropped 8 seconds into the recording.

If you want to perform more recordings after the first, click
the Record button and record again. If you have selected
the Named File option, and the Auto number option is deactivated, you have to specify another file name to avoid
overwriting the previously recorded file.

Ö Note: if you insert two or more region start markers in
a row (with no region end markers in between), only the
last of these start markers will be kept (the first marker(s)
will be removed).

When you have finished recording completely, click the
Close button (in the lower right corner) to close the dialog.
Ö If you have created temporary files, and want to save
the file(s) permanently, click on each document you have
created and use Save As on the File menu to save each
one.

In other words, the last region start marker doesn’t become “permanent”
until you insert a region end marker.
The same goes for region end markers – if you insert several end markers
in a row, only the last one will be kept.

See “Saving in another format (Save as…)” on page 51 for details.

This is a very useful function, because it allows you to
“change your mind” when inserting markers during recording. For example, let’s say you are recording a continuous performance and want to mark all takes worth
keeping. At the start of a take you insert a region start
marker. However, this turns out to be a false start or a
flawed take. When the next take starts you insert a new region start marker again and the previous, unwanted start
marker is removed.

About dropping markers during recording

When you are recording, you can click the marker buttons
at any time, to add a marker to the recorded file. The yellow button will generate a numbered, generic marker (see
“The various marker types” on page 98), while the white
buttons will generate numbered, generic region start and
end markers.
If you want to name the markers you drop rather than using generic, numbered markers, you can do this in the following way:
• Type in the desired name in the box below the buttons.
You can type in a new name for each marker before you drop. This works
well if you know beforehand where you want to drop the markers and
what their names should be. If you want to be able to drop markers not
planned beforehand though, use the dialog that will appear each time
you click a button to drop a marker. In this dialog, you can either type in a

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Playback and recording

8
Metering

Introduction

• The Peak Level meters display the peak levels of each
channel, graphically and numerically.

WaveLab Essential offers very detailed and versatile metering, allowing you to monitor level and spectrum during
playback, and also featuring an oscilloscope display. This
chapter describes how to display, set up and use the various meters.

By default, the meter segments and numerical peak values are displayed
in green for low levels, yellow for levels between –6dB and –2dB, and
red for levels above –2dB. You can change both the colors and the
range boundaries if you wish, as described on “Making settings for the
level meter” on page 65.

Monitor playback

• The VU (Volume Unit) meters measure the average
loudness (RMS) of each channel.
These meters have a built-in inertia, evening out loudness variations over
a user-defined time span.
If you are monitoring playback, you will also note two vertical lines following each VU meter bar, seemingly “trying to reach” the current RMS
value. These lines indicate the average of the most recent minimum RMS
values (left line) and the average of the most recent maximum RMS values (right line). To the left, the difference between the minimum and maximum average values is displayed (the level value in brackets) – this gives
you an overview of the dynamic range of the audio material.

The meters reflect the audio being played back. Note that
metering occurs after the Master Section, which means
the results of effects, dithering and Master faders are
taken into account.
The meters can be used for monitoring all kinds of audio
playback: Wave windows, Audio CD Montage, audio CD
track lists, audition in file dialogs, etc.

The meters

Difference value

Recent minimum

Recent maximum

There are three different meters in WaveLab Essential,
each with its separate window. The meters are opened
and closed from the Analysis menu.
As with any standard window, you can resize the meter
windows by dragging the window borders, and fold the
windows by clicking the fold icons (or by double clicking
the title bars).

• If you are monitoring audio playback, the maximum peak
and loudness values are displayed numerically to the right
of the meter bars.

On the following pages, the available meters are described.

Numbers in brackets to the right of the Maximum Peak values indicate
the number of successive clips (0dB signal peaks). 1 or 2 clips can be
acceptable, but if you get a larger number, you should lower the master
level to avoid digital distortion.

Level meter
This meter window shows the peak level and average
loudness, in the following way:

Resetting the meters
You can reset the level meters by clicking the Reset icon,
or by selecting Reset from the Options pop-up menu. This
instantly resets all meters and numerical indicators, including the Maximum Peak and RMS values and the number of
signal clips.

Meter presets (see “Selecting meter presets” on page 65)
Reset button
Peak level
meters
VU meters

The Reset icon

64
Metering

Making settings for the level meter

Setting

Description

You can adjust the behavior, scale and color of the meters
as desired. It is also possible to save five sets of meter
settings as presets, for instant access. Proceed as follows:

VU meter –
Ballistics

These settings determine how the VU meter responds:
Resolution is the sample width of the “average window” for the VU meter (the number of samples continuously evaluated to calculate the average). The smaller
this is, the more the VU meter behaves like the peak
meter.
Range inertia determines the “average windows” for
the recent minimum and maximum value lines, and will
therefore affect how quickly these respond to changes
in loudness.

VU meter –
Color

The color button allows you to select the color for the
VU level meter.

1. Pull down the Options pop-up menu and select “Settings” (or click the “tool” icon).
The Level Meter Settings dialog appears.

3. If you want to store your settings for later use (or assign them to a preset), select “Save as…” from the popup menu at the bottom of the dialog, and specify a name
for the preset in the file dialog that appears.
4. To make the settings instantly available for selection in
the Meter window, use the “Assign to preset button” submenu on the pop-up menu.
5. When you are finished, click OK to close the dialog.
Clicking Cancel closes the dialog and discards any changes you have
made (even if you have used the Apply button to apply them to the
meters).

2. Adjust the settings as desired.

Selecting meter presets

By using the Apply button, you can check the results of your changes
without closing the dialog. The following settings are available:
Setting

Description

Global colors

Click these buttons to select colors for the meter background, marks (scale units) and grid lines.

Global range

This is where you specify the low and high end of the
displayed level range. Typically, you may want to create
a preset showing the full level range, and other presets
for detailed view of a smaller range.

Peak meter –
Ballistics

These settings determine how fast the peak level meter
falls after a peak (Release rate) and for how long the
numerical peak indication remains displayed after a
peak (Peak hold time).

Peak meter –
Zones

The color buttons allow you to select colors for the
peak level meters’ low, middle and top zones. You can
also define what should be considered “middle” and
“top” zones, by changing the “Middle zone from” and
“Top zone from” values.

VU meter –
Show

Allows you to activate or deactivate the VU meters.

If you have assigned your settings to the Preset buttons in
the Settings dialog, you can quickly switch between different level scales and display modes, by clicking one of the
Preset icons [1]-[5], or selecting the desired preset from
the Options pop-up menu.

Spectrum meter (60 bands)

The Spectrum meter shows a continuous graphical representation of the frequency spectrum, in the shape of a “bar
diagram” with 60 frequency bands.

65
Metering

Oscilloscope

The Oscilloscope is a “microscope” version of the level
meter, showing the area around the cursor position at
large magnification.
If you are analysing stereo audio, the Oscilloscope will
normally show the separate levels of the two channels.
However, if you activate the option “Show Mix and Subtraction” on the Options pop-up menu (or click the +/–
icon) the upper half of the Oscilloscope will show the mix
of the two channels and the lower half will show the subtraction.
Making settings
Selecting “Settings” from the Options pop-up menu (or
clicking the “tool” icon) will open the Oscilloscope settings dialog. Here you can adjust the display colors, and
choose whether Auto-zoom should be active or not.
When Auto-zoom is activated, the display will be optimized so that the highest level reaches the top of the display at all times.

66
Metering

9
Off-line processing

Introduction

Getting the most out of the non-modal dialogs
The processing dialogs are non-modal, which means they
stay on screen even after the processing has been applied. This, together with the Undo allows you to try different types of processing without ever leaving the dialog (or
even stopping playback!):

When we refer to off-line processing, we mean functions
that “permanently” alter the file, to make it sound more or
less different. This is in opposition to “real-time processing”, which makes the file play back differently, without
making any permanent changes to it. Real-time processing is described in the next chapter.

• When the dialog is still the active window you can use
the computer keyboard for the following operations:

Applying processing
Processing can be applied to a selection or to a whole file.
For certain processing operations processing the entire
file is necessary. This will be indicated in the respective
section.
Ö If “Process whole file if no selection exists” is activated
in the Preferences–Wave edit tab, the whole file will automatically be processed if no selection exists.

Key

Command

[F3]

Undo

[F4]

Redo

[F6]

Play selection

[Shift]+[F6]

Loop selection

[F7]

Stop

[F8]

Play

• While the dialog is still open (but inactive) you can select from menus and use other dialogs and palettes (for
example the Transport bar).

To apply processing to a selection, proceed as follows:
1. Make a selection.
Note that you will “Select All” to process the entire file. If the file is in stereo, you can apply processing to either channel or both, by selecting one
channel or both, see “Selecting in stereo files” on page 41.

• You can “fold in” and “fold out” non-modal dialogs, as
described in the section ““Folding” windows” on page 24.

2. Select the desired type of processing from the menus.

Presets

3. If a dialog appears, fill it out.

As described in the section “Loading presets” on page
30, you can use presets for most processing dialogs, to
save and recall settings. In addition, the program comes
with a number of useful presets for each processing option.

If the dialog uses presets, you can load one of them to fill out the settings
automatically, see “Presets” on page 30.

4. When you have finished with the settings in the dialog,
click the Apply/Paste/Process button.
The status bar shows the progress of the operation. If you need to interrupt a long process, click the “Stop” button on the status bar or press
[Esc].

Level Normalizer

Undo/Redo
No matter how long the selection is or how elaborate the
processing may be, you have access to unlimited Undo/
Redo for all processing. The only limitation to this is the
available hard disk space, as described in the section
“Undo and Redo” on page 22.

This allows you to change the amplitude (volume) of the
selection. The value is always related to the maximum level
that can be obtained.

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Off-line processing

Gain Change

Dynamics

This also allows you to change the amplitude (volume) of
the selection, just like the Level Normalizer. The difference
here is that the gain change is set in absolute numbers,
plus/minus the current level (which is indicated as 0dB).
This dialog allows you to tailor the dynamics of the audio,
to create effects like compression, expansion, limiting and
noise gating. Since dynamic processing of audio is a big
subject, we will not be able to describe all the possibilities
in this short text. Please study the included presets which
implement examples of the above-mentioned functions
and experiment with the controls to get a feeling for what
they do.

Clipping
This processor lets you do something that most other
functions in WaveLab Essential never do: introduce clipping.
Clipping is when the gain is raised to a point where distortion is added. While this is normally not wanted, mild clipping in for example the attack of a drum sound can add
some “punch”.

The Time Response controls
The settings in this section apply regardless of whether
you use the graphic editing possibilities or not. These controls govern how a variation in sound level in the material
affects the amount of processing.

If you try to raise the
level of a wave above
0dB (100%)…

The Attack parameter, for example, is related to the beginning of new sounds in the material (for example each new
“hit” in a drum recording). Raising the Attack time means
that more of the beginning of each sound (the attack) will
pass through unprocessed.

…it will get distorted
(the peaks are
“clipped”).

We recommend that you try the Auto feature first, and if
that doesn’t give the desired result, use the individual controls instead.

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Off-line processing

The Normalize controls

• If the curve starts at 45° and then tilts downwards from any
point, signals above this point will have a lower output level
than input level. In other words, a gain (compression) reduction is performed.

These are used to normalize the sound before and/or after
processing. Please note the following:
• The effect of all dynamic processing depends on the amplitude (level) of the material to be processed. Therefore, if you
process a number of files with slightly different levels (for example using presets or batch processing) the effect of the
processing will be different from file to file. To avoid this, activate “Normalize before”.
• On the other hand if you are experimenting with different settings, this means that after activating “Normalize before” you
may have to re-adjust the Threshold level. See “Level Normalizer” on page 68 for more information on normalizing.
• One reason for setting the “Normalize before” value to less
than 0 dB (full level) is if you are expanding, which might introduce clipping if the signal is too strong to start with.

Compression

• If the curve is tilted upwards instead, the output level will be
higher than the input level, which is referred to as expanding.

The Dynamics controls
When the Graphic Editing switch is deactivated, the dynamics processor works very much like a simple compressor. Use the Threshold and Ratio settings to set the
amount of compression.
About graphic editing
When the Graphic Editing check box is activated, you can
specify any input to output function. This allows you to
“draw” limiters, noise gates, expanders, etc. and combinations of all these. See the presets for examples.

Expansion

• The curve shows input level along the horizontal axis and output level along the vertical axis. With a straight line diagonally,
each input level is represented by the same output level (the
signal is not processed at all).

• If the curve is horizontally flat from some point, the output level
will be the same regardless of input level. This is referred to as
limiting.

No processing
Limiting

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Off-line processing

• If the curve starts out horizontally flat and then rises upwards,
signals in the flat area will be eliminated completely. This is
called (noise) gating.

2. Select “Extend to peaks” from the Select submenu on
the Edit menu.
The selection height now represents the level of the background noise.

3. Open the Dynamics dialog and set it up for graphic
editing.
4. Remove all breakpoints from the graph.
5. Click on the “Add point at level selection” button.
6. Add a second breakpoint, “manually”, to the left of the
one that just appeared.
7. Drag this second breakpoint so that it appears directly
below the other one, at the bottom of the graph.
See the noise gate example above.
Gating

Setting up the curve

8. Adjust the Attack, Hold and Release settings as desired.

• You can drag any breakpoint in the curve to any position, using the left mouse button.

9. Go back to the Wave window and select the section
to be gated.

• When you move breakpoints closer to the left side or
the bottom of the graph, you will note that the number of
positions is more limited. This is due to the nature of digital
audio, where, for lower levels, a smaller number of “bits” is
used to represent the data.

10. Open the Dynamics window and click the Process
button.

• You can add a new breakpoint by clicking anywhere on
the curve with the left mouse button.

Expert settings

11. Listen to the result, and if necessary, Undo, adjust the
settings and Process again.

The Dynamics dialog also has a special tab devoted to
“expert” settings.

• You can delete a breakpoint by clicking on it with the
right mouse button.

Level envelope

• The Reset button restores the curve to a straight line
with only one breakpoint.
• The “Add point at level selection” button adds a breakpoint at the level indicated by the current level selection
(see “Level selections” on page 43 and the example below).
An example of using “Add point at level selection”
The “Add point at level selection” function can be used to
create a noise gate with a threshold at a certain level. Let’s
say you have a recording of narration, with noise between
the phrases that you’d like to remove:

This dialog allows you to create a volume envelope which
can be applied to a selected range or a whole file.

1. Make a regular selection in a section that only contains
background noise.
The longer this selection, the more accurate the result will be.

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The dialog consists of a waveform view in the middle, with
an envelope curve (initially a straight line) running through
it. A vertical ruler displays the level change in dB, and the
horizontal ruler displays the time line. You can boost the
level up to 6 dB and decrease it down to silence.

Option

Description

Flip Horizontal

This will flip the current envelope horizontally (in
the time axis).

Smooth envelope

This allows you to create spline curves, for
smoother level changes.

Basic operation procedure

Fade-in and fade-out

By adding points to the envelope curve you can create an
envelope curve that will change the volume of the material
over time.

A fade-in is a gradual increase in level and a fade-out is of
course the opposite. There are two ways of applying fades
in WaveLab Essential: by using the Easy Fade function or
by using the Fade dialog.

1. Double click on the envelope curve to add a point.
A point will be added where you click.

Easy Fades

2. If you click on the point it will be selected (red color)
and by click-dragging you can move it in any direction.

The Easy Fade function allows you to very quickly apply a
fade-in or fade-out to an audio file, without having to make
any settings:

The curve changes accordingly in the waveform display.

• When you point the mouse in the display (or move a
point), the current position and level change is shown
continuously in the field above the display.

1. To create a fade-in, make a selection from the start of
the audio file to where you want the fade-in to end.

3. You can keep adding as many points as you like to the
curve.

Similarly, to create a fade-out, you should make a selection from the position where you want the fade to start, to the end of the audio file.

You cannot move a point past a another point in the horizontal direction.

2. Select “Easy Fade” from the Process menu, or press
[Ctrl]-[D].

4. You can select several points using [Shift] and move
them together.

A fade is applied to the selection. The shape of the fade is governed by
the Default fade/crossfade setting in the Preferences–Wave edit tab.

By clicking on the envelope curve itself (not on a point) you can move the
whole curve up or down.

Using the Fade dialog
Envelope functions in the dialog

The Fade dialog allows you to specify the desired shape
of the fade, and to create fade-ins or fade-outs anywhere
in a file:

The functions are selectable in three ways (the same options in all cases):
• From the Functions menu.
• By clicking the icons above the display.
• By right-clicking in the display.

1. Make a selection that spans from where you want the
fade to start to where you want it to end.
2. Select fade-in/out from the Process menu to open the
Fade dialog.

The following options are available in the dialog:
Option

Description

Deselect all points

This will deselect all selected points.

Delete selected points

Deletes all selected points.

Reset selected points

Resets all selected points to 0dB.

Reset whole envelope

This removes all added points.

Flip Vertical

This will flip the current envelope vertically (in the
level axis).

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3. Use the Type options to select a fade-in or a fade-out.

4. Select Crossfade from the Process menu.

4. Set the Offset and Damping parameters.

The dialog appears and crossfade slope indicators are shown in the current selection.

A graph in the waveform indicates the resulting shape. The Damping
value indicates how much the wave will be attenuated at the Offset point.
A 6dB Damping with a 50% Offset normally gives the most natural results. See “Crossfade” below for more details.

Crossfade
A crossfade is a gradual fade between two sounds, where
one is faded in and the other faded out. This function allows you to do just that. It also lets you create plain mixes
of two sounds.
Performing a regular crossfade
The material you want to crossfade can either be in two
different sections of the same file, or it can be in two different files.

5. Make sure that “Mix without fading” is not activated in
either section.

Since the crossfade is a type of paste operation, you must
start by getting the section into which you want to fade
(the later part of the fade) onto the clipboard.

The shape of the two curves is indicated in the selection. See below for
details.

6. Adjust the Offset and Damping parameters as desired.

7. Click the Paste button.

1. Select the section into which you want to fade.

2. Select Copy, from the Edit menu.
Now it’s time to move over to the section from which you
want to fade, which might very well be in another Wave
window:
3. Select the section from which you want to fade-out.
!

This selection cannot be longer than the selection
you just copied, or the program will not be able to
perform the crossfade!

Please note that if both waves already have full level
sections in the crossfade area (for example if you
have normalized both waves), clipping (and hence
distortion) might occur! If this happens, reduce the
amplitude of both waves by 3 to 6 dB and try again.
Also note however, that if one of the “Inverse of Fade
In/Out” boxes is checked, clipping can never occur.

How the fade is done
• As described above, the length of the fade is determined by
the size of the selection in the file into which you paste.
• The pasted material has to be longer than the selection you
paste “into” (or there won’t be enough material to finish the
fade).
• Any “excess” material in the copied selection will appear after
the fade (at “full level”). The wave is lengthened as needed.
• Any material that originally appeared after the selection in the
file into which you paste, will be moved so that it now appears
after the newly pasted material.

The length of this selection will determine the length of the
actual crossfade (check the length on the status bar). In a
typical case, this selection will be at the end of the wave.
See below for details.

About the curves
The design of the fade and crossfade curves is based on
psycho-acoustic research material, in order to give as
pleasant and harmonic a result as possible.
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1. Select the entire “restaurant” wave and copy it.

For each of the two sections – the fade-out and the fadein – you can select an Offset and a Damping value. When
you adjust these values, the curves in the wave are adjusted accordingly so that you can see what kind of crossfade you will get.

2. Make a selection in the “city” wave, from a point close
to the end.
The length of this selection is equal to the length of the fade.

3. Open the crossfade dialog, set both Offsets to 50%,
both Damping settings to -6dB, deactivate both “Mix without fading” options and click the Paste button.

The Offset factor determines where in the fade section the
file will play at its “mid level” (normally half the level, see
below).

The “city” wave is now lengthened, so that it starts as it originally did,
then fades over to the beginning of the “restaurant” wave and ends like
the “restaurant” wave.

The Damping parameters adjust the “steepness” of the
fade. For example, a -6dB setting for the fade-in will result
in a normal fade, where the level is half the original when it
reaches the Offset point. Values closer to 0dB will emphasize the beginning of the fade-in wave. Values closer
to -18dB will make the fade-in sound drop drastically at
the beginning of the fade.

Invert Phase
This turns the signal “upside down”, which is the same as
inverting the phase by 180°. No settings are needed for
the operation.
There is no audible change when you invert the phase of a
mono signal. However, if one channel in a stereo pair is
out of phase with the other, this will lead to artifacts such
as a drop in the bass register and a “blurred” stereo image.
The most common use for this function is therefore to fix a
stereo recording where one of the channels has accidentally been recorded out of phase with the other.

Here, the default -6dB Damping curves with 50% Offsets are selected.
This gives you a normal crossfade with the focus on the middle of the
fade.

Reverse
This function reverses the selection, as if playing a tape
backwards. No settings are needed.

Eliminate DC Offset
This function removes a problem that most often appears
due to mismatches between various types of recording
equipment.

In this example, the Offsets have been moved so that the focus of the
fade is more to the left. This means the fade-out is faster than the fadein. However, both Damping factors are still set to the standard -6dB.

Mix without fading

If you activate “Mix without fading” for either section, it will
play at full level throughout the entire fade.

This function should be applied to whole files, since
the problem is normally present throughout the entire
recording.

An example
Let’s say you have two environmental sound effects you
want to fade between, “city” and “restaurant”. You want to
fade from “city” to “restaurant”. The two sounds are in different windows.
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Time Stretch

A DC offset is when there is too large a DC (direct current) component in the signal. If the DC offset is really
bad, it can be visible as the signal not being visually centered around the “zero level axis”. However, the DC offset
can be significant without actually being seen.

Time stretch is an operation that allows you to change the
length of a recording without affecting its pitch. Actually
the standard term “time stretch” is a bit misleading since
you can of course also make the material shorter.
This function is most often used to make a section of audio fit in with some other material. Therefore this dialog is
set up exactly for that. You select the material to be
stretched and use the options in the dialog to find a
stretch factor (the “Percentage”). This is done by specifying the desired length, or the desired tempo, all according
to what the situation requires.

A wave with a serious DC offset

A DC offset is problematic for two reasons:
Opening the dialog

• It affects where the zero crossings appear, which in turn affects the smoothness of splices between audio files.
• Certain processing options do not give optimal results when
performed on files with a DC offset.

When you open the dialog, the following information
about the selection is displayed:

Checking for and eliminating DC Offset
The original length
in samples.

1. Select the wave you want to check and fix.
2. Select “Eliminate DC Offset” from the Process menu.

The original length
in seconds.

A dialog appears stating the amount of DC offset.

3. Click OK or Cancel.

The calculated original tempo according to the set length
and time signature.

Waveform Restorer
This lets you remove intermittent clicks and pops in an audio file. First make a selection encompassing the artefact
you want to remove, then apply one of the available methods. Usually, you will have to use a high zoom factor to be
able to locate and select the undesired element.

Specifying a percentage directly
If you know by how many percent you want to change the
length, you can enter this value in the “Percentage” field.
Calculating the percentage by specifying a new length

The Waveform Restorer lets you select one of several
available restoration methods. The selected method is described in the dialog.

• If you know the desired length in samples, adjust the
Samples value in the “Desired result” section.
• If you know the desired length in minutes, seconds and
milliseconds, adjust the corresponding value in the “Desired result” section.
Regardless of which you choose, the other values and the Ratio are updated accordingly.

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Calculating the ratio by specifying a time code range

Additional settings

If you want to fit the selection to a certain range, for example in a video or film sequence, you can specify the start
and end of this range as time code values:

Setting

Description

Quality

There are three Quality settings, “Quick Process”,
“Standard” and “High Quality”. The High Quality
mode provides very high quality pitch correction,
but the process will take longer. For most uses, the
Standard mode is probably sufficient.

Preserve pitch

When this option is activated, the pitch of the audio
material will not be affected when you apply Time
stretch. This is the normal mode of operation. If you
turn this off, the pitch will change proportionally
with the Time stretch ratio, much like when speeding up or slowing down a tape recorder.

Audio quantize

When this option is activated, the length of the resulting file will be exactly the one displayed in the
“Desired result” section of the dialog. When it is
deactivated, the actual file length may differ by a
few milliseconds.
If you don’t need this accuracy, you should leave
the option deactivated, for a slightly better audio
quality.

Rhythm accuracy

This is only available if “Standard” or “High Quality”
mode is selected. Set this parameter according to
whether the rhythmic feel of the audio material has
a high priority or not. If you set this to a high value,
the timing and rhythmic feel will be preserved as far
as possible, which is important for drum tracks, etc.
If you set it to a low value, the audio quality can be
slightly better, but sections of audio might be
moved slightly (in the milliseconds region) in the
process.

Enter the start
position here.

Enter the desired
end position here.

The other values and the Percentage are updated accordingly.
Calculating the Percentage by specifying a new tempo
If you know you want the selection to play back in a certain
tempo, after the stretch, proceed as follows:
1. If you know the current tempo of the selection, type it
in the Tempo field in the Source part of the dialog.
2. If you don’t know the exact current tempo, but the
length of the selection and the time signature, you can
specify these instead, in the Bars and signature fields, and
the Source tempo will be calculated for you.
!

Limitations

Please note for these operations to work properly,
the exact specified source tempo or length must be
selected. Any deviation from the real values will be
transferred to the stretched audio.

Time stretch is a very complicated Digital Signal Processing (DSP) operation. It requires complicated mathematical
operations and always affects the sound quality to some
extent:

3. Type in the desired tempo in the Tempo field in the
“Desired result” section.

• For speech, stretch factors within a ±30% limit will normally
provide very good results.
• For composite music, try to limit the range to ±10%.
• For sensitive material, like solo piano, try not to exceed ±3%.

Reset
The Reset button resets the Percentage to “100%”.

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Pitch Correction

Length compensation
This allows you to set how the length of the selection
should be affected by the operation.

Pitch Correction is a function which allows you to detect,
and to change, the pitch of a sound, with or without affecting its length.

• A setting of 100 means that the length will be the same after
the operation.
• A setting of 0 means that the program will behave like a tape
recorder does when the speed of its tape is varied. For example, if you raise the pitch by one octave, the sound will become
half as long.
• Intermediate values will give results in between these two extremes.
• For large transposition values, the lower this setting is, the
better the quality of the effect will be.
Additional settings
Setting

Description

Quality

There are three Quality settings, “Quick Process”, “Standard” and “High Quality”. The High
Quality mode provides very high quality pitch
correction, but the process will take longer. For
most uses, the Standard mode is probably sufficient.

Audio Quantize

When this option is activated, the processed file
will have the exact same sample length as the
original. When it is deactivated, the resulting file
length may differ by a few milliseconds.
If you don’t need this length accuracy, you
should leave the option deactivated, for a slightly
better audio quality.

Preserve Formants

When this option is activated, changing the
pitch of vocal material will give a more realistic
result. When you are processing non-vocal material, you should leave this option deactivated,
since it uses a slightly slower processing algorithm.
Warning: this algorithm might increase the signal level. If your audio material has a high level,
you may need to lower its level before pitch
shifting.

Rhythm Accuracy

This is only available if “Standard” or “High
Quality” mode is selected. Set this parameter
according to whether the rhythmic feel of the audio material has a high priority or not. If you set
this to a high value, the timing and rhythmic feel
will be preserved as far as possible, which is important for drum tracks, etc. If you set it to a low
value, the audio quality can be slightly better, but
sections of audio might be moved slightly (in the
milliseconds region) in the process.

Amount of shift
This allows you to specify the amount of pitch change in
semitones and/or cents.
Pitch detection
WaveLab Essential can analyze an audio selection and
detect the pitch of the audio. Click the “Find current pitch
of audio selection” button to perform the detection. The
found pitch is displayed below the button.
You also have the option to automatically compute the required pitch shift, based on the currently detected pitch
and the pitch specified in the value field below the “According to the current pitch, etc.” button. When the button
is clicked the “Amount of Shift” parameters are automatically adjusted to the computed pitch shift.

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Harmonization

Additional controls
Control

Description

Preserve level

When this is activated, the resulting audio will have the
same level as the original, even though a number of
voices have been added.

Create stereo
wave

If you are operating from a mono selection you can still
create a stereo wave by activating this option. The processed wave will then open in a new window.

Please note that by specifying very small pitch shift
amounts (a few cents only) and panning the detuned
voices hard left and right, you can create stereo material
out of mono recordings without a noticeable change in
pitch. Please try to keep a balance in the detuning. If for
example you set one voice to +5 cents, set another to -5
cents.
This is a variation of the Pitch Correction, which allows
you to create not only one shifted voice, but up to sixteen!

Hi-fi Chorus

Setting up the voices
1. Set the scroll bar to the voice for which you want to
make settings.
Which voice is currently shown is indicated just above the scroll bar.

2. Activate the voice by clicking the check box.
3. Set up the amount of pitch shift for this voice, by adjusting the Semitones and Cents values.
The maximum range is ±36 semitones (±3 octaves). The cents value adjusts the pitch within one semitone, that is, 50 means a quarter tone.

4. If you want one of the voices to play back the original
wave (at the recorded pitch), activate one voice for this
and set both its Semitones and Cents settings to 0.

This chorus works slightly differently from many others.
Often chorusing is achieved by delaying a copy of the signal, continuously varying the amount of delay and mixing
the delayed signal back in with the original.

5. If you are processing a stereo selection or if you have
activated “Create stereo wave” (see below), you can adjust the stereo position of the voice by using the Pan control.

While this is adequate for many purposes, WaveLab Essential takes a more natural approach to creating chorus.
Since a chorus effect is about making a recording sound
as if it was performed by many “identical musicians”,
WaveLab Essential takes just that approach. It multiplies
the recording up to 100 times and detunes and delays
each “voice” slightly and – if so desired – pans the voices
across the stereo image.

If you pull the slider all the way left or right, this voice will be played in that
channel only.

6. Use the scroll bar to select the next voice and set this
up like the first.
The text to the right of the Pan control tells you how many voices are activated.

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Presets tab
The Presets tab features a list of EQ presets, with self-explanatory names.
• To load a preset, select it in the list and click the “Load”
button.
• If you have modified a preset which you wish to save,
use the “Update” button.
• You can also save your own presets by typing in a name
and clicking the “Add” button.

Convert sample rate

This is a three-band equalizer with high and low shelving
filters and a full parametric mid-frequency band. The following parameters are available on the Settings tab:

This function allows you to change the sample rate of a recording. This is very convenient if you have a file that you
wish to use in a certain audio system and find that the file
was recorded at a sample rate this system doesn’t support. Please note that Sample rate conversion can also be
done as part of the Saving process (see “Saving in another format (Save as…)” on page 51).

Parameter

Description

Please note the following:

High Shelf Gain

Determines the boost or cut (in dB) of the high
shelving filter.

High Shelf
Frequency

Sets the frequency of the high shelving filter. Frequencies above this value will gradually be increased or reduced in level, according to the High
Gain setting.

Mid Shelf Gain

Determines the boost or cut (in dB) of the Mid
range EQ.

Mid Shelf
Frequency

Sets the center frequency of the Mid range EQ.
Frequencies around this value will be affected by
the Mid Gain.

Mid Q

Use this parameter to set the width of the Mid
range, i.e. how wide a frequency range around the
Mid Frequency should be affected by the Mid range
EQ. The higher this value, the “narrower” the Mid
range.

• Sample rate conversion from a low frequency upwards does
not improve sound quality. The high frequencies that were lost
due to a low recording frequency cannot be restored by a
conversion.
• When you sample rate convert down to a lower frequency,
high frequency material will be lost (this is part of the mathematics behind digital audio). Therefore, do not convert down
and then up again, since this will lead to a degradation in
sound quality (unless that’s exactly what you’re after). Instead,
use the Undo and Redo functions.

Low Shelf Gain

Determines the boost or cut (in dB) of the low
shelving filter.

Low Shelf
Frequency

Sets the frequency of the low shelving filter. Frequencies below this value will gradually be increased or reduced in level, according to the Low
Gain setting.

Performing the sample rate conversion
1. Select Convert sample rate from the Process menu.
This opens the Sample Rate dialog.

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2. Select the desired sample rate from the pop-up menu
and click OK.
If you want to change any other audio properties (e.g. the bit resolution or
stereo/mono status), you can do this in one of two ways:

• Open the Audio Properties dialog from the Edit menu and
make the desired settings (see “Editing audio properties” on
page 55).
• Open the Audio File Format dialog by selecting “Save as” on
the File menu and clicking the Properties button in the lower
section of the dialog (see “Saving in another format (Save
as…)” on page 51).
!

Sample rate conversion is always applied to the entire file. Any selection you have made is not used in
any way for this operation.

Support for reNOVAtor™
If this audio restoration plugin is installed on your system,
you can select it from the Tools menu.
This menu option is enabled if a wave window is open and
an audio selection is active (it can be both channels or a
single channel).
Selecting “reNOVAtor…” from the menu opens this plugin and the active audio range is edited. The plug-in window is non-modal, hence you can work in WaveLab Essential without closing the plug-in.
Go to http://www.algorithmix.com/en/renovator.htm for
more info.

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10
Master Section

Introduction

There are four slots for inserting effect processors. Effects can be
turned on or off with the On buttons, and reordered by dragging the
slots.

The Master Section is the heart of WaveLab Essential’s
“Real-time Engine” and the final block in the signal path,
before the audio is sent to the audio hardware (or to an
audio file on disk). This is where you adjust master levels,
add effect processors and dither.

Indicates that an effect is activated.
The Effects pane allows you to
add and manage effect processors. See “The Effects
pane” on page 85.

The settings and processors in the Master Section are
taken into account in the following cases:
Ö When playing back an audio file in a Wave window.

Indicates that the level faders are
active (any setting other than
0.00), or that the Mono button is
activated.

Ö When playing back an Audio CD Montage.
Note that the Master Section effects are global for all clips and tracks in
a Montage, as opposed to the individual clip effects.

Level faders.

Ö When using the Render function with any of the above.

The Master Level pane. This is
where you adjust the final output
level. See “The Master level pane”
on page 83.

The Render function writes the output of the Master Section to a file on
disk, allowing you to apply Master Section processing to a Wave or mix
down a Montage to an audio file. See “Rendering” on page 91.

Activate this for mono output.

About the “Use Master Section” option

Here you can insert a post-master
fader effect or other dithering plugins, replacing the internal dithering.

If you don’t need the Master Section at all, you can turn it
off completely by deactivating the Use Master Section
setting on the Options menu. This will save processor
power, but makes the following sections of the program
unavailable:

Indicates that dithering is on.
The Dithering pane lets you add dithering when mixing down to a lower
bit resolution. See “The Dithering
pane” on page 88.

• The Master Section window, including processors and dithering.
• The functions of the Monitor window.
• Audio CD Burning from the Audio CD Montage.

Options for the internal dithering
algorithm.

The Master Section window

Click here to render the output to a file.

Ö When you open the Master Section, active effect processor panels will also appear (if they haven’t been hidden).

To open the Master Section window, you can either select
it from the Specialized Windows submenu on the View
menu or press [Ctrl]-[F9].

To close the Master Section, select it from the menu again
or press [Ctrl]-[F9].

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Master Section

The Master level pane

Showing and hiding panes
You can independently hide the three Master Section
panes in any combination:
• Clicking on the Hide button for a pane will “fold” it, leaving only the pane title bar visible.
This is useful for saving screen space, if you e.g. don’t need to see the
Dithering settings. Note that the green indicator for the pane will still be
visible when the pane is hidden, allowing you to see at a glance whether
effects, master volume or dithering are used or not.

The Faders
The faders in the Master level pane govern the final output
level. Use these in conjunction with the level meters (those
next to the fader, or even better, the meters in the Level
Meter window) and the clip indicators to optimize the level
of the signal sent to the audio hardware.

• To show a hidden pane, click its Hide button again.
• Right-clicking (or [Ctrl]-clicking) a Hide button will hide the
other two panes and bring the clicked pane to view (if hidden).
• Double clicking a Hide button will hide or show that pane and
the pane(s) below it.

About the signal path
The three panes in the Master Section window correspond to the Master Section’s three “processing blocks”:
Effects, Master Level and Dithering. The signal passes
through these blocks from top to bottom, as shown in this
figure:

To adjust the level, use the following methods:
1. To make coarse adjustments, click a fader handle and
drag it.
You can also click directly anywhere along the fader scale to move the
fader handle there immediately.

Audio from WaveLab

Slot 1
Slot 4

Note that the signal passes
through the effects in series
(from top to bottom) – reordering the effect slots affects the
signal path.

2. For fine adjustments, click on the upper or lower half
of the fader handle.
This raises or lowers the level by a small amount.

• To reset a fader to 0.00 dB, press [Ctrl] and click anywhere on the fader.
When both faders are set to 0.00 (and the Mono button isn’t activated),
the Master level section will not affect the signal at all. This is indicated
by the green indicator for the Master pane going dark.

Master Level
Master Section meters monitor
the signal here.
Dithering
(or post-master effect)

Audio Hardware
(or file on disk)

It’s particularly important to avoid clipping (signal levels exceeding the available headroom), especially
when mastering. Clipping is indicated by the Master
Section’s clip indicators (see below) and by the
number of clip indicators in the Level Meter.

• You can control the faders using a wheel mouse.
This has to be activated in the Preferences–Environment tab.

Meters in the Meter windows
monitor the signal here.

The fader settings are shown numerically below each
fader.

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Master Section

About the Unlink mode

The Mono button

The Unlink button determines whether the faders should
be individually adjustable (indicated by a lit Unlink button)
or “ganged”. Normally, you will probably want Unlink deactivated, so that moving one fader also moves the other
by the same amount. Turning on Unlink allows you to correct improper stereo balancing by adjusting the channels’
levels individually. Note:

If you activate the Mono button, the two channels will be
summed to mono. Furthermore, the output level is automatically reduced by -6dB, to avoid clipping. The Mono
button is useful for checking mono compatibility of stereo
mixes, etc.
Ö If the Mono button is activated, the green indicator for
the Master level pane will be lit, even if the master level
isn’t adjusted.

Ö If you offset the faders (with Unlink turned on) and
then deactivate Unlink again, you can adjust the overall
level without changing the level offset between the channels.

This helps you avoid accidentally leaving the Mono button activated.

The Dropout indicator

In other words, moving one fader will move the other one by the same
amount, relative to its current setting. Note that the faders use an exponential scale – this means that when you move one fader, the other does
not follow in a linear fashion on the screen. However, the audio result is
what you expect.

This indicator lights up whenever WaveLab Essential fails
to properly play back as little as a single sample of the currently selected wave. A dropout is most likely to occur
when your computer does not have the processing power
to adequately handle all effect processors you have inserted.

Ö Fader offsets are not preserved at the end of the range
of movement.

To avoid dropouts, try the following:

The Meters

• Use fewer effects.

The Master Section meters show the signal level of the
signal before dithering (or any other plug-in you have applied post-master fader – see “Adding other plug-ins to
the Dithering pane” on page 89). Use these to get an
overview of the signal levels.

You might be running out of processing power.

• Consider “Rendering” the processing rather than running it in real time. Then master from the processed file
without any processors plugged in. See “Rendering” on
page 91.
Dropouts never occur when “Rendering” to a file.

• The numeric fields above the faders show the peak levels (the highest signal levels reached) for each channel.

• Do not process any files in the background while mastering digitally to a DAT for example. See “Working with
multiple files” on page 92.

They will hold these values until you click on them to reset them.

• The red “LEDs” above the meters are clip indicators,
which will light up whenever the signal clips (exceeds the
maximum available headroom).

• If neither of the above helps, please check the audio
card preference settings, you might need to adjust the audio buffer settings.

If this happens, you should lower the faders, reset the clip indicators by
clicking on one of them, and play back the section again until no clipping
occurs.
!

If a dropout occurs during a real-time mastering process
(and if your master needs to be flawless) we recommend
that you re-master. Stop playback, click on the dropout indicator to reset it, and try again.

For critical level metering, we recommend using the
Level Meter (see “The meters” on page 64). Not only
is this more detailed, it’s also applied after the whole
Master Section (after dithering) and will thus show
the actual signal level sent to the audio hardware.

Ö As mentioned above, this indicator lights up as soon
as even a single sample is not played back correctly. This
type of precision is not often required, but it’s there if you
need it.

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Master Section

The Effects pane

Selecting effects and managing slots
To select an effect plug-in for a slot, click on the slot (or
the numbered button to the right of the slot) and select an
effect from the pop-up menu that appears. Note that effects can be organized in groups (see “Organizing plug-in
processors” on page 186), in which case they will appear
in hierarchical submenus.

WaveLab Essential allows you to insert up to four effect
plug-ins in series (plus an additional, post-master fader
plug-in, normally used for dithering, see “The Dithering
pane” on page 88). Three plug-in formats are supported in
the Master Section:
• WaveLab Essential-specific plug-ins, included with the
program.
• VST plug-ins.
Steinberg’s VST plug-in format is supported by a lot of programs and
plug-in manufacturers. You will find a number of VST plug-ins included
with WaveLab Essential; other plug-ins can be purchased separately
from Steinberg or other manufacturers or in some cases downloaded
from the Internet.
Note that if you have additional VST plug-ins installed on your computer,
these can optionally be available in WaveLab Essential (provided that
they are installed in the “Shared VST Plug-ins” folder). Whether the effects in the “Shared VST Plug-ins” folder should be available in WaveLab Essential or not is set in the Preferences–VST tab. You can also
specify an extra VST plug-ins folder in the Preferences if you wish, meaning that you can have access to both the effects in the “Shared VST
Plug-ins” folder and the effects in some other folder containing VST
plug-ins.

Selecting an effect from the VST group.
!

The number of effects available on the menu depends on which plug-ins you have installed. It’s also
possible to globally deactivate or exclude effects you
don’t need, as described in the section “Activating
and deactivating plug-ins and groups” on page 187.

When you have selected an effect, it is automatically activated (the On button lights up), and its control panel appears as a separate window (see “Making settings – The
Effect control panels” on page 86 for more on effect control panels).
• You can turn off an effect (without removing it) by clicking its On button.

• Plug-ins that adhere to the Microsoft DirectX standard.
These are known as DirectX or DX plug-ins and are also widely available.

To activate the effect again, click the On button so that it lights up.

• To hide the control panel for an effect, right-click its On
button (or right-click the effect slot and select Hide from
the pop-up menu that appears).
A hidden control panel can be shown by right-clicking the On button
again (or by selecting Show from the same pop-up). You can also have
one effect panel shown and automatically hide all the other panels, by
right-clicking the Solo button for the slot.

• Clicking the Solo button for an effect will bypass all
other effect slots, allowing you to check the sound of that
effect only.
You can also bypass effects manually in their control panels – see below.

85
Master Section

• You can change the order of the slots (and thus the order in which the signal passes through the effects) by
clicking a slot and dragging it to a new position.

Bypass, Mute and Preset
As you can see in the figure above, the three buttons
above the actual panel are common to both kinds of control panel windows. They have the following functionality:

When you drag, a dotted outline shows the position of the slot.

• Clicking the Bypass button will temporarily bypass the
effect.
Unlike turning off the On button for the slot, the bypass function does not
free up any processing power. Note that you can bypass all effects except one by using the Solo button for a slot. It’s also possible to bypass
all effects by using the global bypass button in the Effects pane. Also
note that bypassing effects is for playback only, and does not affect rendering. To deactivate an effect when rendering, use the On/Off buttons
in the Master Section effect pane.

• To remove an effect from a slot, right-click the slot and
select Remove from the pop-up menu that appears.

• The Mute button turns off the signal output from the effect.

This is the same as selecting “None” from the effect selection pop-up
menu.

This means that you will no longer hear your signal because it won’t even
reach the next stage (either another slot or the master faders).

Making settings – The Effect control panels

• The Preset button allows you to select and edit presets
for the effect.

The control panel window is where you make settings for
an effect. Plug-ins can either have specialized control
panels (with any combination of knobs, sliders, buttons
and displays) or use standard panels.

This is described in the section “Working with effect processor presets”
on page 87.

Standard panels

A standard panel shows parameter names and values in
the display to the left. To make settings, use the slider beside the corresponding parameter.
Custom panels
An effect plug-in can actually have any control panel that
the plug-in designer desires. There are several examples
of custom panel plug-ins included with WaveLab Essential.
For information about the panels for additional plug-ins,
see the documentation for each plug-in.

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Master Section

Working with effect processor presets

About the effect plug-ins supplied with
WaveLab Essential

With WaveLab Essential comes a number of “factory presets” for the included processors, which you can either
select and use as is, or use as a starting point for your own
settings. Additional plug-in processors may provide their
own “factory presets”.

Included with WaveLab Essential is a large number of
plug-ins for all kinds of purposes, audio compression,
chorus, stereo enhancement, reverb, etc. The parameters
for each plug-in are described in the “Plug-in Processor
Reference” in the online documentation.

Ö To access the presets for an effect, click the Preset
button in its control panel window.

Installing additional effect plug-ins

The result and available functions depend on the type of plug-in:

If you have purchased or downloaded additional plug-ins
(VST or DirectX), you need to install these to be able to
use them in WaveLab Essential. Normally, plug-ins come
with an installer application of some kind, along with a
manual or installation notes – make sure to follow the instructions in these when installing the plug-in.

WaveLab Essential specific plug-ins
Applying and saving presets for WaveLab Essential specific processors works exactly as with any other preset,
apart from the fact that there are no preset “tabs” or menu
items as in dialogs. Instead, clicking the Preset button will
open a separate Preset dialog. The options in this dialog
are exactly the same as for dialogs with Preset tabs. See
“Presets” on page 30 for more details.

About installing DirectX plug-ins
Normally if the DirectX plug-in has been installed properly,
it will automatically be “visible” in WaveLab Essential. If it
isn’t, you need to “update the Windows registry” so that it
is. Proceed as follows:

VST-compatible plug-ins
VST plug-ins have their own preset handling. When you
click the Preset button for this type of effect, a pop-up
menu with the following options appears:
Item

Description

Load/Save Bank…

This allows you to load and save complete sets of
presets. The file format is compatible with Cubase.

Load/Save Default
Bank

This allows you to load the default set of presets
(as will appear when first loading the plug-in) or
save the current set of presets as the default bank.

Load/Save Effect

Lets you load or save one preset at a time. Also
compatible with Cubase.

Edit name of current
program…

This allows you to define a name for the preset,
which might be displayed in the panel (depending
on the plug-in).

Preset List

This allows you to select one of the currently
loaded presets.

1. In Windows, locate the actual plug-in file on your hard
disk.
These are “dll” (dynamic link library) files, which means they normally
have the extension “.dll”. Sometimes other extensions are used as well.

2. Drag and drop the file icon, either onto the WaveLab
Essential program icon, or somewhere in the WaveLab
Essential application window.
A dialog box will ask you whether you want to register the plug-in or not.

Organizing plug-ins
You can specify which plug-ins should be available in the
program and how these should be organized on the menus.
See “Organizing plug-in processors” on page 186.

DirectX plug-ins
Here, the same functionality is provided as for WaveLab
Essential plug-ins. In addition, you can import “native” presets created for the plug-in.

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Master Section

The Dithering pane

When should I apply dithering?
The basic rule-of-thumb is that you should dither when
moving to a lower bit resolution. One obvious instance of
this is when converting an audio file to a lower resolution
(e.g. preparing a 24-bit file for mastering to CD, which
uses 16-bit format).
However, even if you’re playing back or rendering a 16-bit
file to the same resolution, you need to dither if you’re using any real-time processing whatsoever in WaveLab Essential! The reason for this is that WaveLab Essential
works with an internal resolution of 32-bit (floating point),
for supreme audio quality. This means that as soon as you
perform any kind of real-time processing, the audio data
will be treated at this high resolution instead of the original
16 bits, thus making dithering necessary.

The Dithering pane allows you to add dithering to the signal before it’s sent to the audio hardware or to a file on
disk. You can choose between WaveLab Essential’s internal dithering algorithm or any external dithering plug-in of
your choice. First, some theory:

What is dithering?

Examples of real-time processing include level adjustments, any effects, mixing of two or more clips in a Montage, etc. In fact, the only time when a 16-bit file will be
played back at 16-bit resolution is if you play it without any
fades or effects, and with the Master Faders set to 0.00
(no level adjustment – Master level indicator turned off).

Dithering is a method for reducing quantization errors in
digital recordings. In the case of WaveLab Essential, dithering is applied when reducing the number of bits in a recording, for example when moving from 24 to 16 bits, and
when applying processing.
The theory behind this is that during low level passages,
only a few bits are used to represent the signal, which
leads to quantization errors and hence distortion. To the
ear, this is perceived as “graininess” during low level passages in a recording.

Selecting a dithering algorithm
To select and activate a dithering algorithm, click on the
arrow button next to the plug-in slot in the Dithering pane,
and select one of the options from the pop-up menu that
appears. The default option is “Intern” (WaveLab Essential’s internal dithering algorithm). However, you can also
add other plug-ins to this list, see “Adding other plug-ins
to the Dithering pane” on page 89.

When “truncating bits”, as a result of moving from for example 24- to 16-bit resolution, such quantization noise is
added to an otherwise immaculate recording.
By adding a special kind of noise at an extremely low level,
the quantization errors are minimized. Indeed, the added
noise can be perceived as a very low-level quiescent hiss
added to the recording. However, this is hardly noticeable
and much preferred to the distortion that otherwise occurs.

Once you have selected a dithering algorithm, dithering is
active (as indicated by the green indicator for the Dithering pane). It will apply to all playback (through the Master
Section) or rendering.

Ö The reason for the dithering block to be last in the
Master Section is that the output level must not be
changed after dithering a signal.

This is the same as selecting “None” from the effect selection pop-up
menu.

Ö To turn off dithering completely, right click in the slot
and select “Remove” from the pop-up menu that appears.

88
Master Section

Making settings

To make a plug-in available on the plug-in slot pop-up
menu in the Dithering pane, proceed as follows:

When dithering, there are no hard and fast rules for how to
set up the parameters – this largely depends on the type
of material. We recommend that you experiment and let
your ears be the final judge.

1. Pull down the Options menu and select “Organize
Master Section plug-ins…”.
A dialog appears, listing all plug-ins installed in your system. See “Organizing plug-in processors” on page 186.

Internal dithering

2. Locate the plug-in in the list.
Note that plug-ins can be placed in groups (folders) in the list – click the
plus sign next to a folder to view the contents of a group if needed.

3. Activate the checkbox in the PM column for the plugin.
PM stands for “Post Master fader”.

4. Click OK to close the dialog.
Parameter

Description

Noise Type

Determines the dithering method used:
In “Off” mode, no dithering is applied – use this as a
Bypass function.
The “Type 1” mode is the most “all-round” type of
method.
The “Type 2” mode emphasizes higher frequencies
more than Type 1.

Noise Shaping

This parameter alters the character of the noise added
when dithering. Again, there are no hard and fast rules,
but you may notice that the higher the number you select here, the more the noise is moved out of the ear’s
most sensitive range, the mid-range.

Output Bit
Resolution

Now, the plug-in will appear on the pop-up menu in the
Dithering pane, and can be inserted after the Master Level
faders (as with the regular dithering types). You make settings for the plug-in like you would for effects in the Effects pane. Note also that the plug-in will still be available
for selection as a regular, pre-master effect.

Master Section presets

This is where you specify the intended bit resolution for
the final audio, after dithering, regardless of whether
you will “Render” the settings or play back in real-time.
It is very important to set this to the correct resolution!
Dithering will change the sample resolution, but not the
sample size. E.g. when dithering 24-bit to 16-bit, the
file will be still be 32-bit in size, although only 16 bits of
information will have significance.
Hence, when rendering to a 16-bit file, specify the desired file resolution to avoid wasting space!

Adding other plug-ins to the Dithering pane
If you have purchased another dithering plug-in that you
prefer, you can use this instead of the internal dithering.
It’s also possible to insert some other type of plug-in in the
Dithering pane – it will be applied after the Master level
faders (possible useful plug-ins would be maximizers, limiters, etc.).
!

You can turn all settings currently made in the Master
Section into a preset. This includes which processors
were used, what settings were made for each one of
them, and dithering options.

Please remember that the meters in the Master Section monitor the signal before the Dithering pane! To
avoid clipping, check the Level Meter and adjust the
output level setting of the plug-in, if available.

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Master Section

Creating presets

Deleting a preset

To create a new preset, proceed as follows:

To delete a preset, select it in the list to the left and click
the Delete button.

1. Set up the Master Section as you want it.
This includes selecting Processors, making settings, and setting dithering options.

Using key sequences for presets

2. Click the Presets button in the Effects pane.

If you want to invoke a preset via a key command sequence, you can do this by defining key sequences.

3. Type in a name for the preset in the upper right corner.

A key sequence contains between one and three keys that
must be pressed in a certain order to recall the preset.

4. If you want the dithering options and Master level settings to be part of the preset, make sure “Save Dither/
Level settings” is activated.

Defining key sequences

This is the default.

1. Select the preset for which you want to create a key
sequence, and click the key sequence button.

5. Click Add.
Ö The presets are saved automatically when you quit the
program. The next time you load the program, the presets
are ready and waiting, just as you left them.

2. If you want to clear the current key sequence, click
Clear.

Loading a preset

4. Press the first combination of keys that you want to
use.

3. Make sure Catch mode is active.

To load a preset, select it in the list to the left, and click on
one of the Load buttons, depending on the desired load
method:

You can include modifiers ([Shift], [Ctrl], [Alt], etc.) if you like. There is
also a setting that makes the program distinguish between two modifiers
with the same label, on each side of the space bar.

• The Replace method replaces all settings in the Master
Section with the setting in the preset.

5. Proceed with the following key(s).

• The Mask method replaces only those slots in the Master Section that are actually used in the preset.

This is just a safety measure so that you don’t accidentally erase or add
to your current key sequence, when pressing more keys.

• The Append method fills the unused slots in the Master
Section with the settings in the preset.

7. Close the dialog.

6. Disable Catch mode.

8. Use the Default Key Action buttons to decide whether
your key sequences will invoke the “Replace”, “Mask” or
“Append” load method.

If there are not enough free slots available to load the entire preset, a
warning message will appear.

This setting is global to all Key sequences.

Modifying a preset
1. Set up the Master Section as desired.

Using key sequences

If you only want to adjust a few settings in an existing preset, you may
want to load this first, as described above.

Key sequences can only be invoked when the Master
Section Presets dialog is closed. Press the keys in the order they were entered in the dialog, and the preset is
loaded.

2. Go back to the “Master Section Presets” window.
3. Select the preset you want to overwrite with the new
settings.

Saving and loading preset groups

4. Click the Update button.

You can save one or more created presets as a preset
group for easy access. If you have added presets to the
Preset window and want to save them as a group, use the
drop-down menu at the bottom of the dialog to enter a
name for the group and save it.

• To update settings for the last loaded preset you can
[Ctrl]-click the Presets button.
This will save any changes without having to open the dialog.

90
Master Section

Calling up the Render dialog and filling out the
options

This function is useful if you are working on several
projects, since it makes for a convenient way to keep specific Master Section presets for specific projects well organized and easily accessible.

Click the Render button to call up the following dialog:

Rendering
While the Master Section can perform all processing in
real time during playback, it’s also possible to save the audio output to a file on disk. This is done with the Render
function.
There are several uses for Rendering:
• Mix down a complete Audio CD Montage to an audio
file.
This can be a goal in itself, but can also be necessary if your Montage
uses e.g. more effects than the system can handle in real time. By Rendering it to a file first, and creating a CD from this file instead, you can
avoid dropouts and CD burning failure.

The Render dialog for Wave windows (for information on Rendering Audio CD Montages, see “Mixing down – The Render function” on page
131).

• Mix down a file in a Wave window to a new audio file,
complete with Master Section effects, dithering and other
settings.

Here is what the options mean:
Range

You can freely choose the format of the new audio file, allowing you to
create an mp3 file and add effects at the same time, for example.

This is where you specify what part of the wave to render.

• “Apply” all settings in the Master Section to a file in a
Wave window.
This is the same as the previous option, but the Master Section processing will transparently and permanently be “applied” to the current file instead.
!

Option

Description

Selection

Process only the portion that is currently selected
in the Main view.

Whole file

Process the entire file.

Result

Rendering Audio CD Montages is described in the
Audio CD Montage chapter (see “Mixing down – The
Render function” on page 131). This section describes Rendering waves.

Here, you can choose whether the original wave file
should be changed (“applying” the Master Section settings) or whether a new audio file should be generated.

What is rendered?
When you use Render, all Master Section settings (effects, master levels, dithering, etc.) are included in the resulting audio file. In other words, what you hear is what
you get.
Ö One thing to note: the Bypass switch affects playback
only, while the effect On switches affect both playback
and Rendering.

Option

Description

Process in place

Modifies the original file. If you wish to keep the
changes, you need to save the file again. Note: if you
use this for adding effects to a file, you may want to
activate the “Activate Global Bypass” option on the
Schedule tab (see below).

No tail

If this is activated, the resulting file will end where the
original did, even if the processing adds material (like
for example echoes or reverb tails).

Copy markers

If this is ticked, the resulting new file will contain all
markers present in the original file.

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Master Section

Create named file

• The Priority setting lets you specify how fast the file should be
processed.

If this is activated, the resulting new file will be saved (not
temporary). The field below the checkbox allows you to
specify a name and location for the file, and you can click
the audio properties button to set the desired audio format. Clicking the “Rename as source” button will set the
file name to the same as the file being processed (but retaining any path you have specified above).
Ö If you click the audio properties button at the bottom
of the dialog, you open the Audio File Format dialog in
which you can choose the desired format of the file and
make settings for the conversion and encoding.

Relax
Background

The file is processed in the background, but priority is
given to audio playback and to your continued work on
other files. This makes WaveLab Essential as responsive
as possible, but slows down processing.

Background

The file is processed in the background but with a lower
priority given to your continued work on other files. This
makes processing faster but the program less responsive.
Try this mode when several files should be processed in
the background.

Fast

Processing is given a high priority. A fairly high-performance computer may be required to avoid dropouts in
playback.

Options on the Schedule tab
• The On Start options determine what WaveLab Essential
should do before rendering:
Stop playback

Any dropouts that occur as a result of too little processing power left will only affect the played file.
Files processed in the background will always be
free of dropouts!

Stops playback to free up some processing
power. This option is not available if playback is
already stopped.

Processing the file

Open Monitor window

Opens the Monitor window, see “The Monitor
window” on page 93.

Once everything is set up correctly, click OK to initiate the
processing. Or, if you change your mind, click Cancel.

Minimize window

The file window is minimized to free up screen
space.

Ö Tip: If you just need to process the current audio selection in place, you can press [Ctrl] while clicking on the
Render button. This will process the audio selection in
place without opening the dialog.

• The On Completion options determine what should happen
after rendering:
Beep

WaveLab Essential will beep to signal that the operation is completed.

Show
message box

WaveLab Essential will display a message to confirm
the operation. Click OK to continue.

Restore
audio window

Upon completion, WaveLab Essential will restore a
minimized window (see above) to its original size.

Activate
Global Bypass

WaveLab Essential will automatically activate the Bypass switch in the Master Section’s Effects pane (see
“Bypass, Mute and Preset” on page 86) upon completion. This allows you to play the processed file back after rendering, without hearing the effects “twice”
(applied to the file and activated in the Master Section).

Other settings are kept from the last time you accessed the dialog.

Working with multiple files
Once you have applied settings to one wave, as described below, you can continue with processing the next.
The processing of the first wave will continue in the background. This way you can apply processing to as many
waves as desired. Please also note that each wave can
have its own priority setting, as described below.
!

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Master Section

If you are rendering to MP3 format, you should only
render one file at a time.

The Monitor window

Process menu
Even while a wave is being processed, you can change its
settings. Position the pointer in the monitor window and
press the right mouse button.

This window allows you to monitor the ongoing processes
and check how hard your computer’s CPU is working with
various tasks.
To open this window, select “Monitor” from the Specialized Windows submenu on the View menu or press [Ctrl][F10].
The window has two displays, selected by clicking the
corresponding tab at the bottom of the window.

The Progress display
The following options are available:

The Progress display shows a list with the following columns:
Column

Description

Name

The name of each wave or montage being processed.

Progress

How much of the wave has been processed so far.

Remaining time

This indicates how much time is required to finish
the processing.

Priority Boost

The priority assigned to this particular processing
(see “The Priority setting lets you specify how fast
the file should be processed.” on page 92 and below).

Option

Description

Suspend/Resume

Suspends processing of the wave. The menu
option changes to Resume so that you can activate processing again. When a process is suspended, more CPU power will be available to
the other processes.

Suspend/Resume All

Halts/starts processing of all waves.

Relax Background, Back- Changes the priority status for the wave, see
ground, Fast
“Relax Background” on page 92.
Cancel

Cancels the processing operation for the selected wave, in which case the message in the
Priority Boost column reads Cancelled until
WaveLab Essential has performed all the necessary clean up operations.

The Performance display

The Performance display provides an overview of the processing power currently being used.

93
Master Section

• The yellow lines refer to the power used for providing input to
the Master Section, i.e. reading waves from disk. Please note
that the values are an approximation.
• The purple lines indicate the processing power that is required for all processors currently running in the Master Section. The shorter the line, the less the load on the CPU. This is
a very precise measurement.
• The blue lines reflect the processing power required by the
output device.
• There is also a number indicating processor usage in percent.
Customizing the Performance display
You can customize the way the processing information is
displayed. If you want to see more of what is going on, resize the window.
Other options are available if you position the cursor anywhere in the black part of the window and press the right
mouse button.

The following options are available:
• You can activate/deactivate the Input, Process, and Output information (see above).
• To get an exact (but not as smooth) picture of the processor
usage, deactivate Average.
• You can select a Zoom factor for the display (50%~400%).
• You can change the direction of the status information flow
(horizontal or vertical).

94
Master Section

11
Batch file encoding

Basic procedure

4. Select the destination folder for the converted files
from the corresponding pop-up menu.

WaveLab Essential can open and play both uncompressed and compressed files in a number of different formats, including WAV, AIFF, MP3, WMA (Windows Media
Audio) and OSQ (Original Sound Quality), which is
WaveLab Essential’s proprietary lossless audio format.

5. Select the desired destination format by clicking the
audio properties button at the bottom of the dialog.
This opens the Audio File Format dialog in which you can select the desired format and make settings for it.

It’s also possible to convert WAV or AIFF files to another
format. While this can be done by opening a file and selecting “Save As” or “Save Special/Encode” on the File
menu, you can also convert several files in one go (batch
conversion).
Proceed as follows:
1. Select “Batch file encoding…” from the Tools menu.
The “Encode audio files” dialog opens.

2. Click on the green “plus” symbol.
A file selector opens, where you can select the desired audio files (WAV
or AIFF). Files must have the same sample rate and number of channels
(e.g. stereo/mono).

Click here to add files.

3. In the file type pop-up select one of the available formats (WAV or AIFF) and then – in the file list – select the
desired files. If necessary, use the [Ctrl] and/or [Shift] keys
to select several files. Confirm your selection by clicking
“Open”.

6. For some compressed file formats, clicking on the arrow button to the right of the Encoding and Attributes
menus calls up dialogs where you can set the encoding
parameters and enter text strings.

This brings you back to the “Encode audio files” dialog.
!

Note that it is possible to simultaneously batch encode audio files of different formats, given that all the
files have the same sample rate and number of channels.

96
Batch file encoding

12
Markers

Introduction

About marker pairs
Two of the marker types come in pairs: Loop and Region.
Since you can’t have a region that starts but never ends, a
loop end point without a start, etc., special rules exist for
creating, deleting and moving these types of markers.
• Loop and region markers only have a functionality when
balanced.
You can enter just a start marker, but its purpose will be defeated by the
lack of a corresponding end marker. Furthermore, if you delete a start
marker, the corresponding end marker will also be deleted.

What are markers for?

About importing and saving loop markers

Markers allow you to save and name certain positions in a
file. You can use these positions later on in various ways:

There are a few points to be aware of when importing files
with loops into WaveLab Essential. This is because the
loops can be defined in two places: Wave and AIFF file
formats have the ability to contain loop points, and WaveLab Essential stores loop points as markers separately for
each file, in “.MRK” files. So, there’s a potential risk for
conflict:

• Set the wave cursor to a marker.
• Select all audio between two markers.
• Loop the section between two markers, etc.
There is no limit to the amount of markers you can have in
a file.
!

• When you import a file that has never been used in WaveLab
Essential before, and which contains loops, the loops are “imported” and displayed as loop markers (in addition, the sample
note and detune information described in the section “Editing
sample attributes” on page 170 is imported, if present).
• When you then save the file in AIFF or Wave format, the loop
points are stored, both as part of the actual file (so that other
applications can read them) and in the “.MRK” file (for WaveLab Essential).
• When you open a file that has been used in WaveLab Essential before, loop indications that were originally in the file, before you used it in WaveLab Essential, are ignored. Only the
loop information in the “.MRK” file is used.

This chapter describes how to use markers in Wave
windows.
Audio CD Montages have their own markers, see
“Using markers in the Montage” on page 127.

The various marker types
The following marker types are available:
Marker type

Description

Generic

This is mainly used for locating certain important
positions and for editing (for example selecting all
audio between two positions). Generic markers
can be created directly during recording if needed
(see “About dropping markers during recording”
on page 62).

Loop start and
end

These are used for defining loop points. This is
useful for editing purposes as well as when creating loop sounds (e.g. for samplers).

Region start and
end

Use these to define start and end points for generic regions. This is useful for editing purposes
and can be created directly during recording if
needed (see “About dropping markers during recording” on page 62).

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Markers

The Marker toolbar

4. Fill out the other options in the dialog and click OK.

This is a special control bar for markers. It can be brought
up from the Control Bars submenu on the View menu.
Go to previous
marker

Open marker list

Go to next
marker

Add new
marker
Add region markers

Drop Generic marker

Add loop markers

Creating markers
Dropping markers on the fly
To add a marker on the fly, proceed as follows:
The new marker appears at the wave cursor position.

1. Play back the file.

Dropping markers while recording

2. When the cursor reaches the position where you want
a marker, do one of the following:

You can drop markers during a recording. For example, if
you are auditioning some material while transferring it from
DAT tape to WaveLab Essential, you can add markers at
important positions, as they are coming up. The marker
types you can add are: Generic, Region start and Region
end. See “About dropping markers during recording” on
page 62.

• Press [Insert].
• Click the Drop marker button on the Marker toolbar.
• Select Drop Marker from the time ruler speed menu.
You can give the marker a proper name later.

Ö The markers dropped this way are generic.

Creating marker pairs from the Marker toolbar

Creating a marker from “stop mode”

To create a loop or a generic region, you can use the
Marker toolbar:

1. Set the wave cursor to where you want the marker to
appear.

1. Make a selection that spans the area you want to enclose by a marker pair.

2. Do one of the following:
• Click on the New Marker button on the Marker toolbar.

2. Click on the corresponding marker pair symbol on the
Marker toolbar.

• Click with the right mouse button on the time ruler and
select New Marker from the menu that appears.

Markers are added at the start and end of the selection.

• Press [Ctrl]+[Insert] as a shortcut for the “New Marker”
operation described above.

About the marker list

3. Select a marker type.

There is a marker list window that displays all markers in a
wave. This can be used for various purposes, for editing,
deleting and locating to markers, as described in the following sections.

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Markers

Opening the list

Hiding all markers of a certain type

To open the marker list, either select “Specialized Windows”/”Wave Marker List” from the View menu, or click
the corresponding button on the Marker toolbar.

There’s a special dialog for hiding markers of certain
types. To open it:
• Click with the right mouse button on the time ruler and
select Visibility, or…
• Open the marker list, click with the right mouse button
on a marker and select Visibility.
In this dialog you can show/hide markers of any type.

Editing, converting and naming
markers
The Edit Marker window can be used to change existing
marker’s properties. There are several ways to open this
window with settings for a certain marker:

The marker list

• To sort the list alphabetically, click on the “Name” heading.

• Right click on the marker in the time ruler and choose “Edit
Marker” from the menu that appears.
• Hold down [Alt] and double click on the marker.
• Open the marker list, select a marker and click with the right
mouse button on a marker and select Edit or press [Return].

• To sort the list according to position, click the “Position”
heading.
This is the default when you first open the window.

Marker appearance and visibility
Hiding marker heads
To hide/display the marker triangles from the ruler, click
with the right mouse button in the ruler and select Hide/
Show Marker Heads.
Changing the appearance of marker lines
To transform a marker into any other type, select that type
in the list to the left.

To hide the marker lines in the waveform, click with the
right mouse button in the waveform and select Elements.
From the menu that appears, set things up so that neither
Solid markers, nor Dotted markers are activated.

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Markers

To rename a marker, uncheck “Automatic naming” and
type in a name of your own choice. The name of the
marker will then be visible beside it. The name of the
marker will also be shown as a “tip” if you move the mouse
pointer over the marker head and wait for a moment.

2. Click with the right mouse button on the marker you
want to delete.
3. Select Delete.

Deleting all markers of a certain type
1. Click with the right mouse button on the time ruler.
2. Select “Delete Multiple Markers…”.
3. Check the marker types that you want to delete.
4. Click OK.

Operations involving markers

The name of the marker is shown as a “tip”.

• If the marker is a loop end marker you can change the
number of loop repetitions by unchecking Infinite and
specifying your own number of loops.

Setting the wave cursor to a marker position

Moving and duplicating markers

• Double click on the marker triangle.

To move the wave cursor to a certain marker, do one of
the following:
This is probably the most convenient option if the marker is currently visible in the window. This even works during playback!

To move a marker, press the mouse button over the triangle “Head” and drag to the new position.

• Open the marker list and select one of the markers on it.

Ö If “Magnetize bounds” is activated (see “Dropping on
markers (Magnetize bounds)” on page 102) the marker
“snaps” to the edges of the selection, the cursor’s position and the beginning and end of the wave.

This is probably the most convenient option if the marker is outside the
current view.

• Activate “Magnetize bounds” on the Options menu.
Click on the ruler close to the marker, or drag the cursor to
a position close to the marker.

Ö If you hold down [Shift] while dragging a marker in the
ruler, you will be duplicating it instead of moving it.

Browsing markers
You can move the wave cursor from marker to marker by
clicking the arrow buttons on the Marker toolbar, or by using the keys [4] and [5] on the numeric key pad.

Deleting markers
!

When you delete one marker in a marker pair, the
other marker will also be deleted.

Starting playback from a marker
There are several ways to make playback start from a certain marker:

Deleting one marker from the Wave window
1. To delete a marker in the Wave window, click with the
right mouse button on the head of marker you want to delete.

• Locate to a marker, as described above, and activate
playback from there.
• Double click on a marker in the marker list.

2. Select Delete.
Alternatively you can drag the marker out of the window.

• Select one of the marker related options on the Transport bar (see “Setting the start point for playback” on
page 58 for details).

Deleting in the marker list
1. Hold down [Ctrl] and double click in the ruler.
The wave markers window appears.

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Markers

Selecting between markers

Dropping on markers (Magnetize bounds)

To select all audio between two adjacent markers, double
click between them.

For any operation involving drag and drop of audio material you can use a marker position as start point for the
section you drop. This is useful when it is very important
that the dropped material is inserted at a very specific position.
1. Make sure Magnetize bounds (on the Options menu) is
activated.
2. Drag the selection, and position the mouse pointer
close to a marker line.

Double clicking here…

The “drag line” snaps to the marker line.

3. Make sure the marker line and the drag line appear on
top of each other, then release the mouse button.
If you point at a marker
when using drag and drop,
the audio will be inserted
there.

…selects the audio between the markers.

You can extend the selection to consecutive markers, by
continuing to drag to the left/right.
To select all audio between any two markers, double click
just to the right of the leftmost one, hold down [Shift] and
double click just to the left of the rightmost one.
Make this selection by double clicking as above…

…then press [Shift] and double
click to the left of the rightmost
marker…

Looping
Loop markers are primarily intended for creating loop
sounds (e.g. for samplers) as described in the section
“Sampling and creating loops” on page 169, but you can
use loop markers in various additional ways:
• Set up a loop and repeat it indefinitely during playback,
while editing material inside the loop.
For more information on playback and loops, see “Looping” on page 58.

• Set up a loop with a specified number of repetitions, to
check out how a repetition effect will sound.
• Note that you can nest loops, that is you can have loops
inside loops.
…to select all audio between the leftmost and rightmost markers.

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Markers

13
The Audio CD Montage

Introduction

The Audio CD Montage window

The Audio CD Montage is an environment that lets you
non-destructively edit, play back and arrange audio clips
as tracks on an audio CD. Features include clip-based effects, volume automation, wide-ranging fade and crossfade functions and direct audio CD recording.

The CD view selected in the upper pane

The Audio CD Montage is a great tool for mastering and
music CD creation, but also for general multimedia work,
radio spot production, etc.
Basic terminology
The Audio CD Montage can contain two stereo or mono
audio tracks. These provide a way for the user to structure
the work graphically, but should not be viewed as “virtual
tape tracks”.

Tracks

On an audio track, you can place any number of clips.
These are “containers” for the audio, and include a number of settings and functions such as volume curves,
fades, etc.

Clips

The Track View

About the two panes and the views
The Audio CD Montage window is divided into two
“panes”. The lower pane always shows the tracks and the
clips, while the upper pane shows one of six views, as
listed below.

A clip contains a reference to a source audio file on your
hard disk, as well as start and end positions in the file (allowing clips to play back smaller sections of their source
audio files). Any number of clips can reference the same
source file.

• You can resize the upper and lower panes by dragging
the divider between the panes up or down.
• You can choose to view the upper pane or the Track
View only, by selecting “Show tabs only” or “Show Tracks
only” from the main View menu.

In addition to audio tracks you can create a video track
(see “Using video tracks” on page 130) in the Audio CD
Montage.

To revert to the standard view (showing both panes), pull down the View
menu again and deselect the selected option.

• You select views for the upper pane by clicking the tabs
at the top of the Montage window (see below).
Apart from the actual displays, the different views may have different
menus and icon bars.

The following views are available:
View

Description

Edit

This is where you configure various options for editing, fading, selecting, etc.

Markers

This view allows you to add and manage markers in
the Montage. See “Using markers in the Montage”
on page 127.

Video

Displays the contents of the video track in the upper
pane of the Audio CD Montage. See “Using video
tracks” on page 130.

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The Audio CD Montage

View

Description

This is where you prepare for writing a CD directly
from the Audio CD Montage (see “Preparing the Audio CD Montage for CD burning” on page 132).

Files

Contains various tools for audio file management, including direct import of audio files into the Montage.
See “The Files view” on page 117.

Notes

• It is also possible to offset the ruler, so that “zero” is
somewhere other than at the actual start of the Montage
(this is done by selecting “Time offset…”).
The time grid
If you like, a “grid” can be displayed in the Track View,
consisting of vertical lines at every labeled position in the
ruler. To show or hide the grid, right-click in the ruler and
activate or deactivate the “Show Grid” option on the popup menu.

A standard notepad.

• If the Montage window is too narrow to show all tabs,
two arrow buttons are displayed in the upper right corner
of the window.
Use these to “move” the row of tabs so that you can see and click the
one you want.

Time grid activated

About naming
Most of the views contain one or several menus. To make
it clear which menu is meant in each case, we use the following syntax:
• X view : Y menu
For example, “Edit view : Options menu” means the Options menu in the Edit view.

The ruler
At the top of the Track View in the Audio CD Montage
window, there is a ruler, similar to that in the Wave window. To change the ruler format, right-click in the ruler and
make a selection from the pop-up menu that appears.

Selecting Meter format on the ruler pop-up menu

• Depending on the selected format, you can make detailed display settings by selecting “Time format…” from
this pop-up menu.

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The Audio CD Montage

Assembling the Montage

Handling tracks
Creating and managing tracks is done in the area to the
left of the tracks in the Track View (from now on called the
Track Control area). In the middle of this area is a button
with the number of the track. Clicking this button brings
up the track pop-up menu, which contains most of the
track functions.

Creating a new Montage
1. Pull down the File menu and open the New submenu.
2. Select the “Audio CD Montage…” item.
The Sample rate dialog appears.

3. Specify the preferred sample rate.
The audio files that you want to use in the Montage must have this sample rate.
!

If you plan to burn a CD from the Audio CD Montage,
you have to select the 44.1 kHz sample rate.

4. Click OK.
A new Audio CD Montage window appears, containing one stereo track.
!

If you have saved a template (see “Saving a Montage
template” on page 129), the Sample rate dialog will
not automatically be displayed (since the new Montage will use the sample rate saved in the template).
Adding tracks

Alternative ways to create a Montage

There are two different track types available in the Montage: audio and video (see “Using video tracks” on page
130).

There are other ways to generate a new Montage “automatically”:
• By importing Audio CD tracks directly to a Montage.

1. Click on the track number button for a track next to
where you want to add a new track.

When using the Import Audio CD tracks function on the Tools menu, you
can automatically create an Audio CD Montage playing the imported
tracks. See “Convert to Montage” on page 145.

The track pop-up menu appears.

2. Select one of the Add items at the top of the menu.

• By opening a Wave file and selecting “Create Audio CD
Montage from Wave” on the Edit menu.

You can choose what type of track to insert and, if an audio track is to be
inserted, whether the new audio track should be mono or stereo. By default, the new track is added below the focused track. If you wish to place
it above the focused track rather than below, press [Ctrl] when adding
the new track.

This option is also available in the Open – Wave dialog (File menu).

Moving tracks
To move a track up or down in the Track View, proceed as
follows:
1. Click on the track number button for the track that you
want to move.
The track pop-up menu appears.

2. Select “Move track up” or “Move track down”.

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The Audio CD Montage

Deleting tracks

By using drag and drop from Wave windows

To remove unwanted tracks, proceed as follows:

Select the audio section that you want the clip to refer to,
and drag the selection into the Montage window and drop
it on a track.

1. Click on the track number button for the track that you
want to delete.

A clip is created, named after the original audio file. You
can change the name of clips in the Audio CD Montage,
as described in the section “Renaming files and clips” on
page 117.

The track pop-up menu appears.

2. Select Delete track.
If there are clips on the selected track, you will be asked whether you really want to delete the track. Click OK to proceed.
!

• If you want to drag the whole audio file from the Wave
window to the Audio CD Montage, you don’t need to
make a selection first.

Deleting a track with clips will also delete the clips!
However, the audio files to which the clips refer will
not be affected. Also remember that you can recover
accidentally deleted clips by using the Undo function.

Instead you can click on the Document icon at the upper right corner of
the Wave window and drag it to the Montage.

• You can also drag files into the CD view’s track list.
Folding tracks
By inserting from open Wave windows

To save screen space, you can fold tracks that you don’t
need to have visible. This is done by clicking the arrow
button at the top left corner of the Track Control area.

If one or several Wave windows are open, you can rightclick an empty area on a Montage track and select any
open Wave from the pop-up menu that appears.
If several Wave windows are open you can also select “Insert all open waves” from the pop-up to insert them all.
By using Copy and Paste
1. In the Wave window, select the audio section that you
want the clip to refer to.
2. Select Copy from the Edit menu, or press [Ctrl]-[C].

Click on the arrow…

3. Make the Audio CD Montage window active. In the
Track Control area, select the track on which you want to
put the clip, then click at the desired position in the track.
This selects the track (as indicated by the highlighted Track Control area
to the left) and sets the Montage cursor position (as indicated by the vertical line).

…to fold the track.

To unfold a folded track, just click on the button again, or
double click anywhere in the folded track.

4. Select Paste from the Edit menu, or press [Ctrl]-[V].
!

Adding audio clips to the Montage
You can create clips by copying audio selections from
Wave windows into the Audio CD Montage. There are
several ways to do this:
!

You cannot add a mono clip to a stereo track or vice
versa. Also, the clip’s audio file has to have the same
sample rate as the Audio CD Montage.

Once you have added the desired clips from an audio file, you don’t need to have the original Wave
window open. Should you need to edit the original
(source) audio file, you can access it from the clip
speed menu, as described in the section “Editing
source files” on page 117 (any editing done to the
source audio file is immediately reflected in all clips
referring to the file).

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The Audio CD Montage

About the auto-grouping options

By dragging from the Files view
This way, you can add clips without having Wave windows open:
1. Select the Files view by clicking the Files tab.

The Track and Global auto-grouping icons.

The view now shows a file navigation environment, similar to the Windows Explorer.

The contents of the folder is shown in the right pane.

There are two auto-grouping options that can be used
when inserting clips. If any of these auto-grouping options
are activated in the Edit view, clips to the right of the insertion point will be moved to the right to “make room” for the
inserted clips.

3. Locate the desired audio file(s) and drag them to a
Montage track.

If you are adding several clips at the same time, these options affect the result in the following way:

2. Use the left pane to locate and open the folder containing the audio files you want to import.

• If “Track auto-grouping” is activated, clips on the same track,
to the right of the insertion point, will be moved to the right to
“make room” for the added clips.
• If “Global auto-grouping” is activated, clips on all tracks, to the
right of the insertion point, will be moved in the same way.

By importing files
1. In the Track Control area, select the track on which you
want to put the clip, then click at the desired position in the
track.
This selects the track (as indicated by the highlighted Track Control area
to the left) and sets the Montage cursor position (as indicated by the vertical line).

2. Right-click in an empty area on the track and select
“Insert audio file(s)…” from the pop-up menu that appears.
A regular file dialog appears.

3. Locate and select the file(s) you want to import, and
click Open.
The new clips are then added.

By copying clips from another Montage
If you have more than one Montage open, you can copy
clips from one Montage to another. This can be done either by using drag and drop (from the Track View) or by
using Copy and Paste. You can also use this method to
copy clips within the same Montage.
!

When dragging or selecting clips in the Track View,
you need to click at the appropriate mouse zone, as
explained in the section “About the mouse zones
(audio tracks only)” on page 113.

By dragging clips from the CD view
You can add clips (that are already used in the Montage)
by using drag and drop from the CD view’s track list.

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The Audio CD Montage

Zooming and navigating

• Click on the small Magnifying Glass icon to “zoom out”
– decrease the height of the tracks.

Horizontal and vertical zoom controls

This is the same as displaying one track more. When all tracks are visible,
this icon will be greyed out. Consequentially, if the Montage only contains one track, both Magnifying Glass icons will be greyed out.

• You can zoom in on a single track, making it fill the window.
This is done by clicking the numbered button to the left of the track to
bring up the track pop-up menu, and selecting “Zoom”.

Zooming with the Rubber Band tool
1. Click the magnifying glass icon in the top left corner of
the Track View.
The pointer takes on the shape of a “four-way arrow” with a magnifying
glass.

The zoom “levers” in the upper and lower right corners of
the Montage window work just like in the Wave windows.

2. Click and drag a rectangle in the Track View, to indicate the section you want to zoom in on.

Note that changing the vertical zoom does not affect the
height of the tracks. Rather, it affects the vertical magnification of the waveforms within each (audio) clip.

When you release the mouse button, the Track View is magnified, so that
the section in the rectangle fills out the display. Note that the magnified
view will include any tracks fully or partially enclosed by the rectangle.

Zooming in the ruler
As in the Wave windows, you can adjust the horizontal
zoom by clicking in the ruler and dragging the pointer up
or down with the mouse button pressed. Drag up to zoom
out and drag down to zoom in.
Ö If you hold down [Shift] while zooming this way, the
Montage cursor position isn’t affected.

Drag a rectangle and release the mouse button…

Changing the height of tracks
The height of the tracks (and thereby the number of tracks
displayed in the Montage window) is governed by the
track magnification controls in the lower right corner of the
Montage window.

… and the selection is magnified to fill out the Track View display.

3. Deactivate the Rubber Band tool by clicking the icon
again, or by right-clicking anywhere in the Track View.

• Click on the large Magnifying Glass icon to “zoom in” –
increase the height of the tracks.

• It is also possible to temporarily select the Rubber Band
tool, by holding down [Ctrl] and aiming in an empty area of
the Track View.

This is the same as displaying one track less. When only one track is displayed, this icon will be greyed out.

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The Audio CD Montage

Zooming in on a single audio clip

• You can drag the Track View rectangle to view other
sections of the Audio CD Montage.

If you want to study an audio clip in detail, you can zoom in
on it so that it fills up the track display:

• Clicking on one of the clip boxes outside the Track View
rectangle will make the Track View zoom in horizontally on
that clip.

1. Point at the audio clip.
Make sure you don’t aim at an envelope curve.

The number of tracks shown will not change.

2. Click with the right mouse button.

• Double clicking on one of the clip boxes in the Overview
will make the Track View zoom in horizontally and vertically
on that clip.

The clip speed menu appears, containing various clip-based functions
and settings.

3. Select “Zoom”, and from the submenu that appears,
“Whole Clip”.
The Track View zooms in on the clip.

• Right-clicking anywhere in the Overview will make the
Track View zoom out, so that the whole Audio CD Montage is visible.

Zooming and navigating in the Edit Overview

The Key Command for this is [J].

When the Edit view is selected (by clicking the Edit tab),
the upper pane shows an Overview of the Montage, with
clips displayed as boxes. You can use this Overview to
zoom in or out, and for navigating to other sections of the
Montage. This is done by moving and resizing the Track
View rectangle in the Overview:

• To identify a clip in the Overview, position the pointer
over its box.
The name of the clip is displayed.

Moving the Montage cursor
To move the Montage cursor, you can either click at the
desired position, use the Transport bar or use the computer keyboard.
• You can click in the ruler, in an empty section of the
Montage or within a clip (anywhere except in the mouse
zone used for copying clips by dragging, and on the volume envelope line).

The Track View rectangle

The mouse zone concept is described in the section “About the mouse
zones (audio tracks only)” on page 113.

• The Track View rectangle indicates the section of the
Montage currently displayed in the Track View.

• The buttons on the Transport bar work as in the Wave
windows.

• You can zoom in or out, vertically or horizontally, by resizing the Track View rectangle.

The Fast Forward and Rewind buttons scroll the playback position forwards or backwards, while the start and end buttons move the playback
position to the start or end of the Montage.

• The left and right arrow buttons on the computer keyboard can be used to move the Montage cursor in finer
steps.
If you hold down [Ctrl] and press the left or right arrow button, the Montage cursor will jump to the nearest clip edge (start or end position of a
clip). It is also possible to move the Cursor by using the Page Up, Page
Down, Home and End keys.
You can also resize the rectangle horizontally by holding down [Shift] and
clicking. This will instantly move the closest edge of the rectangle to the
clicked position.

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The Audio CD Montage

Undoing view and position changes

Playing back

There is a separate “Undo history” for zoom, view and position changes in the Audio CD Montage. This allows you
to undo one or several changes, in the following way:

Playback in the Audio CD Montage works in much the
same way as in the Wave windows.
Ö Audio tracks are routed through the Master Section.

• To undo the latest change to the view, click the green
left arrow to the left of the Track View ruler (or press [7] on
the numeric keypad).

This allows you to add global effects to the Audio CD Montage or use
the Render function to create a mixdown audio file (see “Mixing down –
The Render function” on page 131).

You can repeat this as long as there is any change to undo (as long as
the green left arrow is lit). This Undo history includes changes to zoom,
view and cursor position.

Mute and solo
You can mute or solo tracks in the Montage by using the
corresponding buttons in the Track Control area:
Solo

Mute

• Note that a track is muted when the green button is
dark.

• To redo an undone view change, click the yellow right
arrow to the left of the Track View ruler (or press [8] on the
numeric keypad).

• Note that a track is soloed when the Solo button is blue
(lit).

Maximizing the width of the Audio CD
Montage

• The Solo buttons are exclusive, that is, solo can only be
activated for one track at a time.

If you click the double arrow icon at the top left corner of
the Track View, the Montage window is enlarged horizontally to fill the screen.

The track activity indicator

The track activity indicator is located on the right side of
the Track Control area. This shows the volume level for
audio tracks. It is not intended to give exact level readings
but rather to provide an overview of which tracks are currently playing back audio, and at what approximate level.

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About the track gain faders

2. Select one of the “Play” items.
“Play clip” plays back the clip you clicked on.
“Play (with Pre-roll)” plays back the clip you clicked on, starting slightly
before the clip.

The track gain faders are located to the left of the track activity indicator in the Track Control area. They provide a
simple way of adjusting the level for all clips on an audio
track.
• The track gain is independent from both the volume envelope and the clip gain.
• The track gain can be lowered down to -48 dB, and increased up to 6 dB.

The clip speed menu

If you change the level by dragging the faders, the fader handles change
from grey to red/blue to indicate that the level is offset from the default 0
dB setting. If you point at the faders, the current gain setting is shown.

Playing back from the ruler
You can use the ruler to quickly locate to a position and
start playback from there:

• In the audio chain, the track gain affects the level post
any clip effects and before the Master Section.

• Double clicking in the ruler starts playback from that position.

• The track activity meter does not reflect the track gain
setting, nor is track gain reflected in the waveform.

Playback continues until you press Stop (or until the end of the Montage).

• Press [Shift] and drag a fader handle to change the level
for the left or right side of a stereo track separately.

• If you double click in the ruler and keep the mouse button pressed, playback will start from that position and stop
when you release the mouse button.

Press [Ctrl] and click on the fader to reset the level to 0 dB.

After stopping, the Montage cursor will return to the position where you
clicked. This is a handy way to quickly locate and audition positions in the
Montage.

Playing back individual clips and selections
When editing and rearranging the Audio CD Montage, it
can be useful to audition the individual clips and selections. This is done using the clip speed menu:

• If you single click in the ruler during playback, playback
will immediately jump to that position.
This even allows you to “jump” between different document windows.

1. Right-click on the clip you want to play back (make
sure you don’t click on the envelope curve, as this will open
another speed menu).
The clip speed menu appears.

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Rearranging clips

Activating Snap
In order to activate the Magnetic bounds option, you activate the Snap function by clicking the “Enable snapping”
icon in the Edit view (or by pressing [N] on the computer
keyboard).

About the mouse zones (audio tracks only)
Basic rearranging of clips in the Audio CD Montage is
done by clicking and dragging with the mouse. However,
the results of dragging with the mouse depend on where
in the clip you click. The different areas in a clip are called
mouse zones.
Top clip area

Upper clip area

Upper clip edge

Upper clip
edge

Lower clip edge

Lower clip
edge

Bottom clip area

Now, when you move or resize a clip and its edges (or its
cue point) get close to one of the Magnetic positions, two
things happen:
• The clip snaps to the magnetic position.
• A label is displayed, indicating what the clip snaps to.

Lower clip area

The mouse zones have the following basic functionalities:
Mouse zone

Description

Top clip area

Copy clip by dragging (see “Duplicating clips”
on page 115).

Upper, lower and
bottom clip area

Select clips and move clips by dragging (see
“Selecting clips” on page 113 and “Moving
clips” on page 114).

Upper and lower
clip edges

Resize clips by dragging the edges (see “Resizing clips” on page 115).

To deactivate Snap, click the icon again or press [N].

Selecting clips
Magnetic bounds

To select a clip (for copying, deletion, etc.), click in the
bottom clip area.

When you move and edit clips, it is often useful to have
them snap to other clips as well as to significant positions
in the Montage. To facilitate this, certain items can be
“magnetic”:
Item

Description

Start of
Audio CD Montage

The start of the Audio CD Montage.

Clip’s cue-point

A position within a clip that you set using the
clip speed menu (see “Using cue points” on
page 116).

Clip’s head

The start of a clip.

Clip’s tail

The end of a clip.

Audio CD Montage
markers

Markers in the Audio CD Montage window
(see “Using markers in the Montage” on
page 127).

Cursor

The Montage cursor position.

Selected clips are normally displayed in a different color. You can edit
this color, as described in the section “Defining custom colors” on page
182.

• You can select multiple clips by [Ctrl]-clicking.
This works in the same way as selecting multiple objects in other Windows programs.

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The Audio CD Montage

Moving clips

• Holding down [Shift] and clicking allows you to select a
range of consecutive clips (on the same track).

To move a clip, proceed as follows:

Again, this is similar to how you select ranges of objects in other Windows programs.

1. If you want to move more than one clip, you need to select these clips first.

Using the Select menu

2. Position the pointer over the clip, in the lower clip area.

The Edit view : Select menu holds several items for selecting clips:

The pointer takes on the shape of a “four-way arrow”.

3. Click and drag the clip(s) in any direction.
Option

Description

Select all clips

Selects all clips in the Montage.

• The clip(s) will snap to any activated magnetic bounds,
see “Magnetic bounds” on page 113.
• If you move clips sideways, the auto-grouping settings
are taken into account, as described below.

Select all clips at left of cursor Selects all clips with the endpoint to the
(selected track)
left of the Montage cursor, on the selected
track.
Select all clips at right of
cursor (selected track)

Selects all clips that start to the right of the
Montage cursor, on the selected track.

Deselect clips

Deselects the currently selected clips.

If you move the clip over another track, auto-grouping is temporarily disabled until you release the mouse button.

• If you click on a clip, keep the mouse button pressed
and then press [Shift], movement is restricted to vertical.

About selected and focused clips

This is useful if you want to move a clip to another track without accidentally changing its horizontal position.

The program makes a distinction between selected and
focused clips:

• You cannot move mono clips to stereo tracks or vice
versa.

• A selected clip is a clip you have selected using the any
of the procedures described above.

Moving with auto-grouping

Several clips can be selected at the same time.

There are two options on the Edit view : Options menu
that affect the result when you move clips horizontally:
Track auto-grouping and Global auto-grouping. There are
also separate icons for these options on the toolbar in Edit
view mode:

• The focused clip is the clip you selected (or clicked, or
edited) last.
Only one clip can be focused at a time. By default, the focused clip is
distinguished by a highlighted name label:

Track auto-grouping

Global auto-grouping

• If Track auto-grouping is activated when you move a clip sideways, all clips to the right of it on the destination track will be
moved by the same amount.
• If Global auto-grouping is activated when you move a clip
sideways, all clips to the right of it in the whole Audio CD
Montage will be moved accordingly.

Clicking on the selected clip to the right makes it the focused clip.

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About overlapping clips

• If Global auto-grouping is activated when you duplicate
clips, all clips to the right of the new copy in the whole Audio CD Montage will be moved to the right in the same
way.

You can move clips so that they overlap each other on the
same track. Please note:
• The tracks in the Audio CD Montage are polyphonic,
which means that each track can play back several overlapping clips at the same time.

Resizing clips
In this context, “resizing” means moving the start and end
points of a clip, so that more or less of the original audio
file is “revealed” with the audio source being “static”.

Overlapping clips will be transparent, allowing you to see the underlying
clips and their waveforms.

• To select an overlapped (underlying) clip, double click
in the bottom clip area.

As with other clip operations, the mouse zones determine
when this function is used, and the pointer changes shape
accordingly.

• There is an automatic crossfading option that automatically adjusts the volume envelope curves when you overlap clips.
This is described in the section “Using crossfades” on page 122.

The “Resize clips” pointer.

Duplicating clips

Resize clips

To make a copy of a clip, proceed as follows:

You move the clip’s start or end point to the left or to the
right:

1. If you want to copy more than one clip, you need to select these clips first.

1. Point at the left or right edge of the clip.

2. Position the pointer over the clip, in the top clip area.

It doesn’t matter whether you click in the upper or lower half of the edge.

2. Click and drag to the right or left.
• You cannot drag the edge of a clip past the start or end
point of the audio file it refers to.
• The clip edges will snap to any activated magnetic
bounds, as described in the section “Magnetic bounds”
on page 113.

3. Click and drag the clip(s) in any direction.
While you are dragging the clip(s), a dotted line indicates where the first
of the copied clips will end up.

• When you drag the right edge of a clip this way, the
auto-grouping settings on the Edit view : Options menu
are taken into account.

4. Release the mouse button.
• The clip(s) will snap to any activated magnetic bounds,
see “Magnetic bounds” on page 113.

As when copying clips, this means that if Track auto-grouping is activated, all the following clips on the track will be moved when you resize
the clip (so that the distance between the clip’s right edge and the next
clip on the track remains the same).
If Global auto-grouping is activated, the same is true, but for clips on all
tracks in the Audio CD Montage.

• You cannot copy mono clips to stereo tracks or vice
versa.
Duplicating with auto-grouping

Resizing all selected clips

If you are copying more than one clip at the same time, the
auto-grouping settings in the Edit view affect the result
(see “Moving with auto-grouping” on page 114):

• If you press [Alt] when resizing, all selected clips will be
resized by the same amount.

• If Track auto-grouping is activated when you duplicate
clips, all clips on the destination track, to the right of the
new copy, will be moved to the right, to “make room” for
the new clips.
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The Audio CD Montage

Splitting a clip

When you move a clip, its cue point will be magnetic to
any edges, markers or other Magnetic bounds positions
(see “Magnetic bounds” on page 113). There are several
uses for this:

You can split a clip in two, using the following method:
1. Set the Montage cursor to the position at which you
want to split the clip.

• Set the cue point at a “relevant” position in the audio and use
it to align the clip with other clips, etc.
• Set the cue point before the start of a clip, allowing you to position clips in a row with pre-defined spaces (by magnetizing
the cue point to the end of the previous clip).
• Set the cue point at the fade-in or fade-out point of a clip,
making it easy to maintain defined fade lengths when crossfading (see “Using crossfades” on page 122).

2. Position the pointer over the cursor, in the top clip
area.
The cursor takes on the shape of a pair of scissors.

3. Double click.
The clip is split in two. The two clips will have the same name and settings. Envelopes and fades (see “The volume envelope” on page 117)
are converted, so that the two clips play back as before.

• If the options “Create default fades in new clips” is activated on the Edit view : Fade menu, a crossfade is automatically created between the resulting left and right clip.

To set the cue point for a clip, proceed as follows:

• You can also split a clip by setting the Montage cursor
and selecting “Split at Cursor” from the clip speed menu,
or by pressing [S] on the computer keyboard.

This may be within the clip or outside it.

1. If you want to set the cue point at an arbitrary position,
move the Montage cursor to that position.
2. Right-click on the clip to bring up the clip speed menu.
3. Open the Cue point submenu.

Analyse and split at silences
You can use this function from the clip speed menu to
split a clip into two or more separate clips. The clip will be
analysed and split at its silent passages automatically. After this a dialog will come up, allowing to adjust the pause
times between the separate clips.

4. Select one of the functions on the submenu:

Deleting clips

Option

Description

Set at cursor

Sets the cue point at the current Montage cursor position.

Follows fade-in
end point

Sets the cue point at the clip’s fade-in junction point
(the left purple handle in the volume envelope). The
cue point will follow the handle if you move it. See
“Editing fades” on page 121.

Follows fade-out
start point

As the previous option, but for the fade-out start
point.

There are two principal ways to delete a clip:
• Right-click on the clip to bring up the clip speed menu,
and select “Delete clip”.
• Select it, and press [Backspace].
Instead of using [Backspace], you can press the [Delete] key or select
“Delete” from the main Edit menu.

Using cue points
A cue point is a defined position marker that belongs to a
clip. It may be positioned within or outside the clip. Cue
points are displayed as dotted vertical lines.

Each clip can only have one cue point. This means
that if you repeat the procedure above and select another option on the submenu, the cue point will be
moved to a new position.

A cue point
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The Audio CD Montage

Ö If you use “Save as” to save the source audio file under another name, the Montage will now refer to that new
file instead.

Managing clips and source files
There are some functions to help you check and manage
the relationship between the clips and their source audio
files:

This is true for all open Montages that refer to the file.

Renaming files and clips
The Files view

You can rename source files and have all open Montages
that reference the audio files automatically be updated.
Just use the Rename dialog (see “Renaming files and documents (Rename)” on page 53).
You can also freely rename clips within a Montage simply
by double clicking the clip’s name label (this will in fact
take you to the CD view automatically, where you can rename the clip in the track list).

The Files view shows the files and folders on your hard
disk, and can be used for importing audio files via drag
and drop into the Audio CD Montage (see “By dragging
from the Files view” on page 108).

The volume envelope
It is possible to create independent volume envelope
curves for the clips in the Audio CD Montage. These envelope curves are used to automate volume, to create
fades and crossfades, and for muting sections of clips.

Editing source files
Editing the Montage may require that you process or edit
the actual audio files referenced by the clips. This is done
in the following way:

How the envelope is displayed

1. Double click in the Top Clip area (the mouse zone used
for dragging/copying clips), or drag the clip from there
onto the WaveLab Essential desktop.

All clips display a volume envelope curve. Actually, you
should view the volume envelope as three separate envelopes: the fade-in part, the “sustain part” and the fade-out
part. The purple points to the left and right on the curve
are the fade-in and fade-out junction points that separate
the fade parts from the sustain part.

A Wave window opens, showing the referenced source audio file with a
selection corresponding to the clip.

2. Edit the file as desired, save it and return to the Audio
CD Montage.
Please note the following:
Ö Any editing you perform this way will affect all clips
that use the audio file (including clips in other Audio CD
Montages).
Ö You can undo/redo all changes in Wave windows, and
these changes will be reflected immediately in all open
Montages.

The default volume envelope, with zero fade-in and fade-out times.

The fade-in and fade-out parts of the envelope are described in the section “Using fades and crossfades in the
Montage” on page 121. The following pages describe the
“sustain part” of the envelope, that is, the section between
the two fade junction points.

Ö If you reduce the length of the source audio file, so
that it ends before the clip end point, the end of the corresponding clip(s) will be displayed in another color (inverse
video), to alert you.

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The Audio CD Montage

Ö The focused envelope curve is displayed with yellow
handles for the envelope points.

Graphic display of envelope curves
The envelope curve indicates at a glance if points, fadeins or fade-outs have been defined. In addition to the
curve, changes in the volume envelope are also reflected
in the waveform itself.

The focused
envelope curve.

To set the focus to an envelope curve, click on it.

A defined volume envelope curve with the waveform reflecting the envelope changes.

Adding volume envelope points

The volume envelope mouse zone

The volume envelope points allow you to “draw” volume
curves in the clip. To add a point, double click on the envelope curve (or select “New point” from the envelope
speed menu). You may add as many points as you like.

The default envelope curve contains no volume envelope
points. In this condition you can still use the curve to
change the overall volume for a clip. Proceed as follows:
1. Place the mouse pointer on the curve.

Selecting envelope points

The mouse pointer takes on the shape of a circle with two arrows pointing up and down, indicating the envelope mouse zone. A label also appears displaying the current clip volume in dB.

The following sections apply to both volume and
fade envelope points. In other words, you can select,
deselect and move both sustain and fade envelope
points.

Clicking on an envelope point selects it (it becomes red).
You can also select several envelope points. The following
rules apply:
• [Shift]-click (on a point) to select all points between a
previously selected point and the current point.

The volume envelope mouse zone
!

• [Ctrl]-click (on a point) to select non-contiguous points
in the envelope curve.

The envelope mouse zone is always linked to an envelope curve.

• [Alt]-click (anywhere in the clip) and draw a selection
rectangle.

2. Click and drag the curve up or down to change the
clip volume and release the mouse button.

All points inside the rectangle become selected.

A label appears displaying the new clip volume in dB.

Deselecting points

Editing envelopes

You can deselect all selected points by clicking on a selected point or by selecting “Deselect all points” from the
envelope speed menu. To deselect a single point
(amongst other selected points), [Ctrl]-click the point you
want to deselect.

About using key commands
On the envelope speed menu, you will find that most functions have key commands. These will affect the envelope
curve with the focus.

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The Audio CD Montage

Dragging volume envelope points

• By right-clicking on the point and selecting “Delete point”
from the envelope speed menu.
• By selecting points and selecting “Delete selected point(s)”
from the envelope speed menu.

• To move a point, click on it and drag it in any direction.
The junction points (the points separating the Fade parts and the sustain
part) will only move horizontally this way. To move a junction part vertically, press [Ctrl] and drag.

Resetting points and envelopes

• To move several selected points, click any selected
point and drag in any direction.

There are various ways to reset the envelope:
• To reset a point to 0dB, right-click on the point and select “Reset point” from the envelope speed menu.

All selected points will be moved.

• Clicking on a curve segment (i.e. the part of an envelope
curve between two selected points) allows all currently
selected points to be moved vertically.
You are constrained to vertical movement using this method.

• To reset the whole envelope curve to default, right-click
the envelope curve and select “Reset all” from the speed
menu.

• Clicking on a curve segment (i.e. the part of an envelope
curve between two selected points) and then pressing
[Shift] allows all selected points to be moved horizontally.

• To reset the sustain part of the volume envelope only,
select “Reset sustain to 0dB” on the envelope speed
menu.

You are constrained to horizontal movement using this method.

All volume envelope points will be removed, but any defined fades will be
left untouched.

• [Ctrl]-clicking on the envelope curve and dragging it up
or down will select (and move) the two nearest points to
the right and left respectively.

Duck according to other track
This feature allows you to create ducking effects between
clips on two adjacent tracks. Normally, ducking is when
the signal level on one track or channel is automatically
lowered by the presence of another signal on another
track or channel. With “Duck according to other track” it is
not the presence of another signal that causes ducking to
take place, but the presence of another clip on an adjacent track.

You are constrained to vertical movement using this method. This
method is useful as a shortcut for quickly adjusting the level of a curve
segment.

• [Shift]-clicking on the envelope curve and dragging it
left or right will select (and move) the two nearest points to
the right and left respectively.
You are constrained to horizontal movement using this method. This
method is useful when working with “Duck according to other track” (see
“Duck according to other track” on page 119) since it allows you to
quickly adjust the position of duck regions.

The most obvious application of this feature is when mixing background music with a voice-over. When the voiceover starts, the level of the music is automatically lowered
and when the voice-over stops, the level of the music is
restored to the original level. This is done by automatically
creating volume envelope curves. In the following example
we have chosen to use “music” on the track to which
ducking will be applied and a “voice-over” on an adjacent
track that will cause ducking to take place.

• Clicking and dragging the envelope curve up or down
selects (and moves) all points.
You are constrained to vertical movement using this method. Note that
points set to the minimum value are not affected.

• Holding down [Alt] and dragging the envelope curve up
or down adjusts the corresponding envelopes in all selected clips.
This is a quick way to adjust the level or pan of several clips at the same
time.

Deleting volume envelope points
!

The clips that cause ducking must be located completely inside the time range of the clip to which
ducking is applied.

The junction points between the sustain and fade
parts of the envelope cannot be deleted.

There are three ways you can delete points:
• By double-clicking on a point.
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The Audio CD Montage

3. Click the appropriate “Previous track” or “Next track”
radio button in the “Clips to follow” section (according to
whether the voice-over track is above or below the music
track in the Montage).

If the clip(s) that cause ducking contain silent passages, ducking will not work properly. These clips
have to be edited so that each phrase is a separate
clip without any silence. This is because it is not the
signal level that activates the ducking, but the clip itself.

For now, we will use the default settings for the other dialog options.

4. Click “OK”.
The level of the music is automatically lowered by the voice-over clips, as
shown in the illustration below.

When “Duck according to other track” is performed
it is applied to one clip at a time. If the music (in our
example) consists of several clips that have been
spliced together, only one of the clips will be ducked
by the voice-over. One solution is to repeat the function for each clip, another is to use the “Render”
function (see “Mixing down – The Render function”
on page 131) in the Master Section to create a specific (single) file from the separate clips, and re-import this as a new clip in the Montage.

Proceed as follows:

After applying “Duck according to other track”

1. Place the clips containing the music and the voiceover on separate adjacent tracks.

The following parameters can be set in the Ducking options dialog:

Make sure the voice-over clips are located inside the time range of the
music clip.

Parameter

Description

Fall Duration

The time it takes for the level to fall when ducking
starts.

Rise Duration

The time it takes for the level to rise to the original
level after ducking ends.

Gap before Clip
(Fall)

The time between the end of the Fall region and
the start of the voice clip.

Gap before Clip
(Rise)

The time between the end of the voice clip and the
start of the Rise region.

Balance clip
fade-in

If this is ticked, any Duration or Gap settings in the
Fall region will be ignored. Instead the ducking envelope will lower the volume according to the time
of the voice clip’s fade-in curve.

Balance clip
fade-out

If this is ticked, any Duration or Gap settings in the
Rise region will be ignored. Instead the ducking
envelope will raise the volume according to the
time of the voice clip’s fade-out curve.

Damp factor

This sets the amount of ducking, i.e. the level of attenuation applied to the affected clip.

Clips to follow

This determines whether the track that will cause
ducking to take place is positioned before or after
the track that will be ducked. If “Only selected
clips” is ticked only the selected clips on the specified track will cause ducking.

The three voice-over clips on the upper track are placed inside the time
range of the music bed on the track below.

2. Open the envelope speed menu for the clip containing
the music, and select “Duck according to other track…”.
The Ducking options dialog opens.

The Ducking options dialog

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The Audio CD Montage

Using fades and crossfades in the
Montage

• To make editing of fades easier, there are special Zoom
options on the clip speed menu, for zooming in on the
fade-in or fade-out area.

There are a number of different options to choose from
when creating and editing fades and crossfades in the
Montage. These are described in the following sections.

Creating fades
As mentioned earlier, by default all clips display a fade-in
and a fade-out junction point. These can be dragged horizontally to create a fade-in or fade-out for a clip. You can
add envelope points to a fade just as with volume envelopes. To create a fade, proceed as follows:

Note that the fade junction points (the points separating the fade parts from the sustain part) have a
special property: If you move a junction point, all
other points in the corresponding fade are moved
proportionally, to maintain the shape of the fade!

Fade Options
Editing the fades of all selected clips
If you press [Alt] and change a fade-in or fade-out point,
this will affect all selected clips simultaneously.

1. Click on the fade-in point at the beginning of a clip and
drag it to the right.

Create default fades in new clips

The resulting linear (by default) fade-in curve is displayed in the clip, and
the fade is also reflected in the waveform. If you position the mouse over
the fade-in point, a label appears, showing the fade-in time in seconds
and milliseconds, and the volume in dB.

If this option is ticked on the Edit view : Fade menu, all
new clips that are imported or recorded in the Montage
will get the default fade-in and fade-out shape and length.
This is also true for clips that are created by splitting a clip.
Using the fade- in/out ROM presets
If you select “Fade-in/out ROM Presets” on the envelope
speed menu, a submenu opens where you can select various preset curves.
!

A linear fade-in

2. To create a fade-out, use the same basic procedure
but instead click and drag the fade-out point at the end of
the clip to the left.

The fade-in/out ROM presets are only selectable on
the envelope speed menu if the respective fade-in/
out length in the clip is defined, i.e. not set to zero.

The following curve types can be selected (in these examples fade-in curves are used – the corresponding fadeout curves would of course display the mirror image):

• By default you can only move the fade junction points
horizontally. To move them up or down, you need to hold
down [Ctrl] and drag.

Fade-in curve type

Description

Linear

This is the factory default fade curve.
A straight line between two points.

Sinus

This produces a fade-in curve that
starts out moderately fast but planes
out towards the end. This curve type
will provide a constant power crossfade.

Editing fades
The operating procedure when creating and editing fades
is identical to volume envelopes. Please refer to the volume envelope section for details.

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The Audio CD Montage

3. Move a clip so that it overlaps the edge of another clip.

Fade-in curve type

Description

Square-root

This creates a curve that fades in
quickly then planes out. This curve
type will provide a constant power
crossfade.

Sinusoid

This creates an s-shaped fade, with
a medium slow start and end fade.

Logarithmic

This creates a curve that fades in
fast in the beginning, reaching full
level early in the fade.

The crossfade is automatically created in the overlap; by default two
equal length linear fade curves, one fading out and the other fading in.
This will also happen if you paste a clip so that it overlaps another clip.

Crossfade option
The automatic crossfade option on the Edit view : Fade
menu determines if automatic crossfades will be created
in the Montage:
• Automatic crossfading – free overlaps.
Exponential

If this is activated, automatic crossfades are created when a clip overlaps
the edge of another clip on the same track, and the length of the overlap
determines the length of the crossfade.

This creates a curve that fades in
slowly in the beginning.

Editing crossfades

Exponential +

The factory default automatic crossfade is linear, using the
same shape and fade lengths for both the fade-in and
fade-out. Most of the time, an unaltered linear or sinus
crossfade will produce the desired result. You can, however, create crossfades with totally independent shapes
and lengths for the fade-in and fade-out curves. The following rules apply:

This creates an even more pronounced exponential curve.

• You can edit the fade-in and fade-out curves in crossfades in exactly the same way as fades.

Using crossfades
A crossfade is a gradual fade between two clips, where
one is faded in and the other faded out. Crossfades in the
Montage are created automatically when clip edges overlap. To create an automatic crossfade, proceed as follows:

• To change the crossfade time (the width of the crossfade zone) “symmetrically”, press [Shift] and move left and
right.
• Press [Ctrl] and move left and right to “slide” the crossfade region while keeping its length.

1. Click on the Edit tab and open the Edit view : Fade
menu.
2. Select the menu item “Automatic crossfading – free
overlaps”.
This can also be selected by clicking the automatic crossfade icon.

The automatic crossfade icon

Changing the crossfade time (left), and sliding the crossfade region
(right).

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Ö Please note that for these two functions to work, the
mouse pointer must not be positioned on an envelope
curve point inside the crossfade region.

• If both clips have different defined fade curves at their
adjacent edges when creating a crossfade, this will create
an asymmetrical crossfade, based on the defined fade
curves.

If the mouse pointer is positioned on an envelope point, this point was
the priority and you cannot change the crossfade time nor slide the
crossfade region.

• When you move a clip so that it overlaps another clip to
create a crossfade, and neither clip has a defined fade in
the overlap, a default crossfade is created.
• When moving a clip with a defined fade curve so that it
overlaps another clip’s adjacent edge (without a defined
fade), the unmoved clip automatically gets the same fade
shape as the moved clip (but as a corresponding opposite
fade), with amplitude compensation.

Dragging the right clip so that it overlaps the left clip…

…creates a crossfade based on the already defined fades.

Dragging the right clip so that it overlaps the left clip…

…will use the right clip’s fade shape (as a corresponding fade-out), to
create a crossfade.
!

Note that the above only applies if the unmoved
clip’s fade-out length is set to zero.

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Adding effects to clips

If a clip effect has been added, the number [1] is displayed
before the clip name. This is to indicate that an active effect slot is used for that clip.

The Montage supports VST effect plug-ins for individual
clips. The standard WaveLab Essential and DirectX plugins cannot be used as clip or track effects in the Montage,
but VST versions of several standard WaveLab Essential
effects are provided, as well as several of the standard
Cubase VST effects. Each clip in the Montage can be independently processed by one VST effect plug-in. Effects
are configured either as Inserts, when all sound is processed by the effect, or as Send effects (“Split mode”)
where the balance between the unprocessed sound and
the effect send level can be adjusted.
!

Only clip effects for clips that are active at the current playback position will consume any CPU power.

DirectX plug-ins from Waves Ltd. can be used as
Montage effects by using the Waves VST shell.

You can add effects during playback. However, if
you add an effect with a latency larger than zero (displayed to the right in the Effect dialog, see “Latency”
on page 125), you should stop and restart playback
to avoid timing discrepancies.
Also, a small number of VST plug-ins may change latency depending on parameter settings. If that is the
case, make sure to stop and restart playback after
the latency is changed.

Removing an effect from a slot
1. To remove a clip effect from a slot, open the clip speed
menu and select the effect you want to remove from a slot.
The effect window opens.

2. Click on the “Effects” button, and select “Remove”
from the pop-up menu that appears.

The first time you play a Montage after opening or
cloning it, the program has to load all effects into
memory. If you have a lot of effects, this may result in
a short silence before playback starts.

The effect is removed from the slot. You can now either select a new effect for the slot or leave the slot unused.
!

Unused slots do not consume any CPU power.

Adding a clip effect slot
To add an effect to a clip, proceed as follows:

Effect type: Insert or Split Mode?

1. Open the clip speed menu by right-clicking the clip.

Clip effects can be configured either as Insert or Send effects. This is done using the “Split mode” setting in the Effect dialog (see “The Effect dialog” on page 125).

2. Select “Effect (unused)” from the menu.
A slot is created and a dialog box opens where various settings relating
to that slot can be made. Leave the dialog open for now.

• When Split mode is deactivated for an effect, it is
treated as an insert effect.

Selecting an effect for a slot

This means the whole clip signal is routed through the effect. Typical insert effects would be compressors, auto panners or distortion units, etc.

1. Click on the button marked “Effects”.

• When Split mode is activated for an effect, it is treated
more as a send effect.

A pop-up menu opens containing all installed VST plug-ins.

2. Select one of the effects from the menu.

In this mode, you can adjust the send level to the effect. Note that Split
mode is different to conventional send effects in that the effect signal is
mixed directly into the audio path and not to an effect return section. Typical Split mode effects would be reverb, chorus or delay, etc.

The chosen effect’s parameters appear to the left in the dialog.

3. Change the parameter settings as desired.
4. When you are done, click “Close” to close the dialog
or leave it open if you want to make more adjustments
later.

You can continue working with the Effect dialog open. It is also possible
to have several Effect dialogs open.

Some effects are always in Insert mode or always in
Split mode. For these effects, the Split mode setting
is greyed out and cannot be changed.

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The Audio CD Montage

The Effect dialog

Dialog item

Description

Effects
button

This button opens the Effects menu where you can select
to remove the slot’s current effect, or select a new one
from the menu for the same slot. Changing the effect using
this menu will erase any unsaved changes to the previously selected effect.

Preset
button

This button opens the preset menu where you can load or
save effect banks or effects. There are also two items
named Load and Save Default Bank. Saving as default
bank will store the effect settings in the same folder as the
plug-in’s .dll file, and each time you load the plug-in this
bank will automatically be loaded. This is the way to customize the default presets of a plug-in.

Functions
button

This button opens the Functions menu which allows you to
copy and paste effect settings between clips. See “Copying effect settings to another clip” below.

Copying effect settings to another clip
You can copy both the effect type and its settings and
paste them into another clip. Proceed as follows:
The Effect dialog

1. Select the effect you want to copy the settings from.

When an effect is selected, the left part of the Effect dialog contains the parameters for the effect. The right part of
the dialog contains a number of options and functions that
are common (although some settings may be disabled depending on the effect type, as explained above).

2. Select “Copy” from the Functions menu in the Effect
dialog.

The dialog contains the following common elements:

3. Right-click the clip which you want to paste the effect’s settings, and either select “Effect (unused)” or an
existing effect slot (if you want to replace the existing effect).

Dialog item

Description

4. Select “Paste” from the Functions menu.

Send level
slider

This controls the send level for the chosen effect. Only
available when Split mode is selected.

The copied effect type is added to a new slot along with the effect settings you copied.

Latency

Certain effect plug-ins that have to analyze the sound before passing it on, will introduce a latency (delay) in the audio path. WaveLab Essential automatically compensates
for this delay with regard to other tracks. However, realtime changes (like turning an effect knob) will be delayed
according to the maximum latency found among all clips
(the largest sum of latencies for a single clip). Plug-ins
with latency cannot be used as Split mode effects (see
below).

Tail

Split mode

Bypass

Stereo plug-in settings can’t be pasted onto mono
clips (the same applies for mono plug-in settings and
stereo clips).

Undoing effect changes
It is possible to undo changes to the effect settings. However, WaveLab Essential will only “register” the changes
(thus making them undoable), when the Effect dialog
loses focus. Therefore, if you have made an effect setting
change that you want to undo:

Effects like reverb and delay produce audio “tails”, i.e. the
effect sound continues after the clip sound ends. If for example you add echo to a clip without specifying a tail
value, the echo effect is muted as soon as the clip ends,
which is in most cases undesirable. Set the tail length so
that the effect is allowed to decay naturally. The maximum
tail setting is 30 seconds.

1. Click on another window, so that the Effect dialog loses focus.

If Split mode is activated for an effect, the send level for
the effect can be adjusted, as described in the section “Effect type: Insert or Split Mode?” on page 124. For some
effects, this setting cannot be changed.

The new effect setting is registered by WaveLab Essential.

2. Select Undo as usual.

If this is activated, the effect is bypassed.

3. Go back to the Effect dialog to continue working (if
you wish).
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The Audio CD Montage

The Meta Normalizer

The Meta Normalizer dialog

The Meta Normalizer, found on the Edit view : Special
menu, is a special tool for setting clip gain levels. The processing is non destructive, i.e. it will not affect the source
audio files.
The Meta Normalizer operates in two or three passes. It
first analyses the peak or RMS levels on all clips in the
Montage. Then it processes the clips according to the
highest possible level found amongst the clips, so that
they will all play back at equal peak or RMS levels. This is
achieved by automatically adjusting the clips “Gain” setting in the CD view’s track list. Note that the gain level of a
clip can either be amplified or reduced. The two purposes
of the Meta Normalizer are to equalize the loudness between all clips (useful e.g. when producing a CD) and to
ensure that the full mixdown of the Montage will never clip.
Depending on how much the levels differ between clips,
there are a number of options available to ensure that the
applied processing optimizes the levels without clipping.
!

The Meta Normalizer settings dialog

Selecting the Meta Normalizer from the Edit view : Special
menu opens a dialog where you can set up various options before applying the processing. The dialog is divided
into two pages; “Settings” and “Schedule”, which you can
switch between by clicking on the appropriate tab at the
top of the dialog. In the Settings dialog you specify how
the clips will be processed, and in the Schedule dialog
you set up options related to the performance of the processing (which always happens in the background).

The audio path in WaveLab Essential uses 32 Bit
floating point processing. You can therefore “overload” it, i.e. use levels above 0 dB, without running
the risk of causing clipping in the signal path. The
only section of the audio path that can introduce
clipping is the output of the Master Section, and this
can also be taken care of by the Meta Normalizer.

The options on the Settings tab in the Meta Normalizer dialog are listed on the next page.
• When you have set up the Meta Normalizer dialog, click
the “Process” button to activate processing.
Processing happens in the background. You can go on working in
WaveLab Essential during the processing, although not in the Montage
being processed.

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The Audio CD Montage

Using markers in the Montage

The following options are available in the Meta Normalizer
dialog:
Option

Description

Equalize Clip Volume

Selecting this will process all clips in the
Montage according to the highest possible
level or loudness found amongst the clips, so
that they will all play back at equal levels.

Equalize peak level

Select this option if you want to use peak levels as a basis for determining what is considered “equal level” when executing Equalize
Clip Volume.

Separate markers are provided for use in the Montage.
Markers are used in the Montage in much the same way
as in the source Wave windows. See “Markers” on page
97 for details regarding marker types and the basic functionality of markers.

Creating markers
The quickest way to create a marker is to right-click in the
area above the ruler and select a marker type from the
pop-up menu that appears. Right-clicking this way automatically moves the cursor to the click position (provided
that you don’t click on an existing marker) and inserts the
marker at the cursor position – i.e. the position at which
you click.

Equalize loudness
(RMS)

Select this option if you want to use RMS
(Root Mean Square) levels as a basis for determining what is considered “equal level”
when executing Equalize Clip Volume. RMS
normally produces more natural results than
using Peak levels, since this method is better
at detecting the perceived “loudness” of a
sound.

Global

When this is activated, the RMS value is calculated over the whole clip. That is, the overall loudness of entire clips will be used as a
basis for calculating the loudness.

Resolution
(0 – 10 seconds)

This option is only relevant if “Equalize Loudness (RMS)” has been selected and “Global”
is deactivated. It is used to set the size of the
audio sections that are analysed when calculating the loudness. The loudest section
found will be used. The smaller this value, the
more sensitive the method will be to peaks in
the material.

Normalize Mix
(Master Section Input)
(-24 to 0 dB)

If this is selected, the entire Montage mix will
be normalized to a preset level at the Master
Section input. The maximum level that can be
used is 0 dB. Since there is no risk of clipping in the 32 bit internal audio path, you can
usually turn off this feature.

The Markers view

Normalize Master Section
Output
(-24 to 0 dB)

If this is selected, the entire mix will be normalized to a preset level at the Master Section output. The maximum level that can be
used is 0 dB. This function is useful before
you mix down or create a CD.
Note that this function affects the output of
the Master Section, which is “outside” the
actual Montage. Therefore, the effect of this
function is not saved when you save the
Montage.

• By selecting a marker type from the Markers view : Insert
menu.
• By clicking on one of the marker icons.
• By pressing the [Insert] key (this creates a Generic marker).

Exclude effects

Only selected clips

Creating markers by right-clicking can be done regardless
of what view is currently selected.

When the Markers view is selected, you can create markers at the Montage cursor position by using one of the following methods:

If this is selected, effects will not be taken
into account when processing with the Meta
Normalizer.

You can also use any of the above methods to create
markers at the current cursor position while playing
back.

Moving markers in the Track View
To move a marker in the Track View, you click and drag it.
The "Enable snapping" setting on the Edit view : Options
menu applies.

If this is selected, only selected clips will be
processed with the Meta Normalizer.

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The Audio CD Montage

Deleting markers

About locking marker positions to clips

There are three ways to delete markers in the Montage:

As described in the table above, you can lock markers to
clips by selecting one of the Functions menu items “Make
current marker relative to start of focused clip”, “Make current marker relative to end of focused clip” or “Make current marker relative to audio of focused clip”. If selected,
the marker will remain in the same position relative to the
clip start, end or audio position even if the clip is moved in
the Montage or is resized.

• By right-clicking the marker head and selecting “Delete
marker” on the menu.
• By selecting the markers and then selecting “Delete selected markers” on the Markers view : Functions menu.
• By dragging the marker up and dropping it outside the
ruler.

Selecting the Functions menu item “Detach current marker
from its relative clip” removes the marker’s clip reference
and the marker position is no longer locked to the clip.

Editing in the markers list view
Clicking on the Marker tab opens the Markers view in the
upper pane of the Montage. By default, this list contains all
markers currently in the Montage. Below the Montage
tabs there is a row of marker icons, and to the left of them
are the Markers view : Insert and Functions menus. The
markers list columns are used for editing and/or displaying
the following marker data:
Option

Description

Type

This column displays the corresponding marker type
icon. Clicking the icon opens a pop-up menu where
you can select a new marker type for the current
marker position.

Name

Displays the marker name. Double click the name field
to type in a new name. This can also be done by double clicking to the right of the marker head in the area
above the ruler (the pointer changes shape when you
move it into the “Marker name zone”).

Position

This column displays the markers’ time positions.
Double click to edit.

Lock

If this is ticked, the marker cannot be moved by dragging the marker head.

Clip reference

By selecting one of the Functions menu items “Make
current marker relative to start of focused clip”, “Make
current marker relative to end of focused clip” or
“Make current marker relative to audio of focused clip”
you can lock a marker position to the left or right edge
of a clip, or to its audio position. This column displays
the name of the clip to which a marker is locked.

Offset

About attaching markers to clips
On the Functions menu there are two items that control if
and how markers you insert should be automatically attached to existent clips. If a marker is attached to a clip,
the marker will move with and maintain its relative position
to the clip if the clip is moved or resized.
Activating the option “Attach automatically new markers to
the most suitable clip” results in the following:
• If a marker is created within the boundaries of a focused clip
or a clip on a focused track, the marker is attached to the audio of that clip (as per the option “Make marker relative to audio of focused clip” described above).
• If a marker is created outside of any clips on the focused track
(or if there is no clip on the focused track) but within the
boundaries of a clip on any other track, the marker will be attached to the audio of that clip.
Ö Note that the marker must be inserted within 2 seconds from a clip edge in order to get attached.
Activating the option “Full clip attachment” will cause attached markers to not only remain in position relatively to
clips when you move them, but also to be attached during
clip operations. That means; if you copy a clip, the attached markers will also be copied. If you delete a clip, the
attached markers will also be deleted.

Depending on which of the three Functions menu
items described above is chosen, this column displays
the time offset between the clip and the marker position.

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The Audio CD Montage

File handling in the Audio CD
Montage

If any of the audio files referenced in the Montage cannot
be found, you will be asked to locate them manually. In the
file dialog that appears, it’s also possible to replace the
missing file with another – useful if you have renamed the
original audio file.

Saving the Montage
You save the Montage using the Save or Save As commands on the File menu. Audio CD Montage files have the
extension “.mon”.
A couple of things to note:

Closing the Montage
Closing the Montage is done as with any document window, by clicking the window’s close button or by selecting
Close from the File menu. If you have unsaved changes,
you will be asked whether you want to save the Montage
before closing it.

Ö The Montage files do not contain any audio data in
themselves.
Rather, they contain references to audio files. This means that you must
make sure not to delete, move or rename any audio files referenced by
Montages.

Cloning Montages

Ö You can use the Rename dialog to rename (and/or
move) audio files and automatically update all clip references.

It is possible to make a “clone” of an Audio CD Montage
by using “Quick cloning”. The new clips in the new Montage will reference to the original audio files.

See “Renaming files and documents (Rename)” on page 53.

Quick cloning

Ö If the Audio CD Montage contains clips that refer to
untitled audio files, you will be asked to save these audio
files before you can save the Montage.

This is useful if you want to create several versions of the
Montage, for example experimenting with variations. Note
however that any processing or editing you apply to the
actual audio files will be reflected in both Montages, since
they share all file references.

Saving a Montage template
Once you have set up the Audio CD Montage window the
way you want it, you can save it as a template. The template file contains all settings and options in the Montage,
but no clips. Next time you create a new Audio CD Montage (by selecting New Audio CD Montage on the File
menu), the Templates dialog will come up and you can select to open a template, which is used as a basis for the
new Montage. This allows you to create custom track layouts and other settings, stored in different templates.

1. Select the Edit view by clicking the Edit tab.
2. Pull down the Edit view : Special menu and select
“Quick cloning (reuse audio files)”.
A clone of the Audio CD Montage is created and appears in a new untitled window.

You can also create a “quick clone” by clicking the Document icon of the Montage window and dragging to an
empty area in the WaveLab Essential window.

To save a template, pull down the File menu and select
“Save as template…”.
Ö When a new Montage is created based on the template, the new Montage will automatically get the sample
rate saved in the template.

Opening Montage files
To open a saved Audio CD Montage (.mon) file, pull down
the File menu and select “Audio CD Montage…” from the
Open submenu.

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The Audio CD Montage

Using video tracks
!

Viewing video clips in the Video view
You can also view the film in the upper Montage pane if
you select the Video view. To view the video in full screen
mode, press [Shift]+[A]. Use this same command to reset
the view.

To be able to use video tracks, DirectX 9 must be installed.

You can edit audio in sync with video placed on a video
track in the Montage. Video tracks are created from the
track pop-up menu, just like audio tracks.

The Video view Options menu
There are two items on the Video view : Options menu:

Adding video clips to the video track

• Play video in track (at cursor).

There are several ways you can add video clips:

If this is ticked, the video frames will play back in the Track view at the
cursor position. If this is off, the frames will be displayed as non-animated
thumbnail images.

• By right-clicking somewhere on the empty video track
and selecting “Insert file(s)”.

• No video playback in track when this tab is open.

A file dialog opens where you can locate the video clip you wish to insert.
The clip will be inserted at the cursor position.

If both options are ticked, the frames will be displayed as non-animated
thumbnail images when the Video view is selected, but otherwise play
back.

• By dragging from the Files view (see “By dragging from
the Files view” on page 108).

Editing video clips in the Montage

• By copying video clips from another Montage (see “By
copying clips from another Montage” on page 108).

You can perform basic functions like moving the video clip
by dragging it in the time line, lock the clip position, use
Split at cursor, copy and paste, etc. All available functions
are displayed on the clip speed menu for a video clip.

Playing back a video clip
Video clips are displayed as clips on the video track, with
thumbnails representing the frames in the film. If you start
playback, the video is played back in the Track view for the
video track.

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The Audio CD Montage

Mixing down – The Render function

6. Activate the options as desired:

The Render function in the Master Section allows you to
“mix down” the whole Montage (or sections of it) to a single audio file.
The Render function can be used in many ways:

Option

Description

No Tail

When this is activated, any audio appended by the
Master Section effects (such as echoes and reverb
tails) will be cut off. Note that this doesn’t affect the
Tail setting for clip effects (see “Tail” on page 125).

Create CD image and This option (available when “Whole Montage” and
cue-sheet
“Create named file” are selected) lets you export an
Audio CD Montage as a CD image with an accompanying cue sheet (a text file identifying the CD
tracks in the image file). The cue sheet and the image file it describes can then be imported into any
CD recording application that supports this function, and written onto CD.

• It’s useful if you want to burn a CD from a CPU-intensive Montage, as it allows you to first render all clip effect processing
and then burn the CD in a second pass (see “About the two
CD write methods” on page 133).
• The Render function is useful for “printing” the effect processing for CPU-intensive Montages prior to the “final” rendering,
allowing you to add more effects, etc.

7. Select whether you want to create a named file or not.
If you activate “Create named file”, you must specify a name and location
for the file. If you don’t activate the option, a temporary file is created,
with the bit resolution specified in the Preferences dialog–File tab.

1. If you want to render the whole Montage from start to
end, proceed to step 3.
2. If you want to render some of the clips only, select
these.

8. If “Create named file” is selected you can click the
item at the bottom of the dialog to open the Audio File
Format dialog.

3. If necessary, mute or unmute tracks.
Only unmuted audio will be included in the rendered
file(s)!

Here you can specify the various audio properties for the file(s) to be rendered. For certain compressed file formats (mp3/mp2/WMA/Ogg Vorbis), you can make encoding settings from the Encode pop-up menu.

4. Click the Render button in the Master Section window.

9. Close the Audio File Format dialog when you are done.

The Rendering preferences dialog appears.

10. Click the Schedule tab to make settings for Priority,
Start and Completion actions (see “Options on the
Schedule tab” on page 92).
11. Click OK to create the file.

5. Use the radio buttons in the Source section to specify
what you want to include in the created file.
The Selected Clips option will only be available if you have selected clips
(in step 2 above).

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The Audio CD Montage

Preparing the Audio CD Montage for
CD burning

7. Select “Check...” from the CD view : Functions menu
or click the “glasses” icon.
WaveLab Essential will check the CD list and inform you whether it’s OK
or not (this check is also performed automatically before actually burning
a CD from the Montage).

The descriptions in this section cover preparations for CD
burning. A CD can be burned directly from within the
Montage:

8. If the Check gave a warning message, make manual
adjustments and repeat the Check procedure until the list
is OK.

1. Make sure the Audio CD Montage contains exactly the
material you want on the CD.

You may get warning messages for several reasons, including:

Ö Note that CD tracks must be at least 4 seconds long.
2. Click the CD tab to select the corresponding CD view.

• You have CD tracks that are shorter than 4 seconds.
• The pause before the first CD track is shorter than 2 seconds.
• The CD is too long (the total length of the CD is displayed in
the control bar at the top of the tab).

This contains a CD track list with each clip in the Montage representing
one track on the audio CD.

3. Select “Adjust pauses between clips…” from the
Functions menu or click the horizontal "double-arrow"
icon.

Editing the CD view list

A dialog appears, which contains a number of settings that help you adjusting the pauses between the clips or CD tracks, respectively.

Once you have prepared a CD track list as described previously, you can go ahead and write the CD.
However, there are some additional settings you can adjust in the CD view track list:
• You can hide or show CD track list columns by using
the column pop-up menu (accessed by clicking the arrow
button to the left of the column headings).
You can also drag and resize columns as usual.

4. Set the options as desired:
Set specific pause time

Set the amount of pause time you want to have
between the CD tracks.

Do not create a pause
between two contiguous
clips

This is only availale if the above option is set,
which then will not create pauses if clips are
connected by crossfades or snapping to each
another.

Round existing pauses
to closest second

This will adjust existing pauses so that they
match exact full seconds.

• You can adjust all settings in the list by clicking or double clicking the desired item (except for the "Start", "End"
and “Length” values, which can be set by moving or resizing the according clip).
• You can change the order of CD tracks by dragging
tracks in the CD view list.

Edit CD-Text
This CD view : Functions menu item opens the CD Text
editor, where you can input the track’s title, artist and
other information. It will be burnt onto the CD as CD Text.
Some CD Players support CD Text and display this information during track playback.

5. Click Apply.
The dialog closes. Now, pauses between CD tracks are adjusted according to your settings. You can check the result in the CD view’s list of
CD tracks.

6. If needed, you can adjust the CD track pauses manually in the CD view’s list of CD tracks, or by dragging the
clips in the Track view.

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The Audio CD Montage

About the two CD write methods
The final phase of CD creation can be done in two ways:
• By burning directly from the CD view in the Montage.
This is an easy process, but puts some demand on your computer. Keep
in mind that even if your Audio CD Montage plays back without problems, the CPU load will be four times as high if you burn in 4x speed
(since the audio file has to be rendered four times as fast)!

• There is, however, an option in the CD Write dialog to
“Render a temporary file before burning” that alleviates
this problem – see “About the “Render to temporary file
before burning” option” on page 135.
This method is recommended if your Audio CD Montage contains a lot of
clip effects (or is otherwise CPU intensive), since it separates the audio
file rendering from the CD burning process. It is also recommended if
you want to create multiple copies of the CD.

In both cases, all clip effects are used and the Montage is
processed through the Master Section, including any activated effects and the dithering/noise shaping stage.
Now you can proceed with burning the CD as described
in the next chapter.
Rendering a CD image and cue sheet
This is an option that enables you to export an image file of
the Audio CD Montage (including clip effects, Master
Section settings etc.), which can then be used in other
CD recording applications.
1. Open the Master Section and click the Render button.
The Rendering Preferences dialog appears.

2. Select the “Whole Montage” option in the Range section and activate the “Create named file” option.
3. Specify a name and location for the file, and make sure
the Wav 16 bit format is selected.
4. Select the “Create CD image and cue-sheet” option in
the Options section.
5. Click OK.
Now, the whole Montage is rendered to a CD image file, with an accompanying cue sheet (a text file identifying the CD tracks in the image file).
The cue sheet and the image file it describes can then be imported into
any CD recording application that supports this function, and written
onto CD.

133
The Audio CD Montage

14
Burning an audio CD

Introduction

Testing an audio CD before burning

This chapter describes the basic CD burning process, as
well as some general reference information about the CD
format.
It does not, however, describe the necessary preparations
for creating a CD from an Audio CD Montage. In other
words, this chapter assumes that the respective preparations have been completed, and that you are ready to execute the actual CD burning.

There are two ways to check a CD before burning:

Check
The “Check” command on the Audio CD Montage Functions menu (CD tab selected) scans through the audio
CD and checks that the settings conform to the CD standard. This command does not access the CD-R recorder
in any way, it only checks the setting in the list against a
set of rules.

Please refer to the chapter “The Audio CD Montage” for a
description of the respective preparations before following the instructions in this chapter.

This check is automatically performed when you try to actually burn a CD.

Selecting a CD-R unit

“Test writing of first track” and “Test writing of
the whole CD”

Before you start writing, you must specify which CD-R
unit WaveLab Essential should use (for example, you can
have more than one unit connected at a time, and switch
between them from within WaveLab Essential).

These two options in the Write CD dialog actually simulate writing of one or all tracks to the CD. This takes all
settings into account, including the writing speed (1x, 2x,
etc.), or whether a disk image should be rendered first
(see below), etc.

1. Click the CD tab in the Audio CD Montage and select
“Write CD” from the Functions pop-up menu.

• If the test fails, try writing at a lower speed.
• If the testing of all tracks is successful, you can be sure there
will be no problems with writing the actual CD.

About the “Render to temporary file before
burning” option
This is an additional option in the Write CD dialog that can
be used in case you have a slow computer and/or a lot of
CPU-load intensive effects, etc. in the Montage. If this
item is ticked, a disk image is created before burning,
which eliminates the risk of buffer underruns.
2. Use the Device pop-up menu to select your recorder.

• This option is included in the test writing if it is ticked
beforehand.

3. Click the “i” (info) button next to the Device name.
This will show you details about, and settings for, your specific CD-R
unit.

Therefore if it was on when testing, it should be on when writing.

• If this option was off, and the whole CD was test written
successfully, there is no need to activate it when burning.
It will only make the write time longer, without providing any “extra”
safety.

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Burning an audio CD

Writing a CD

CD-Extra support
When writing an audio CD as described above, it is possible to prepare it for CD-Extra support. CD-Extra is comparable to Mixed Mode CDs in that both of these formats
allow for the writing of both audio and data on a single
CD. However, unlike Mixed Mode CDs, the audio on CDExtra CDs is placed on the first track(s) of the CD and the
data follows subsequently. This means that the audio will
start to play immediately when the CD is used in a regular
audio CD player, without having to skip to track 2. Also,
when creating a CD-Extra CD, you can make use of all the
functions available in the Montage.

Once you have set up the CD Montage, we suggest the
following work order for burning the CD. These steps are
not mandatory though, just a recommendation.
!

Please observe the precautions indicated in the
Troubleshooting chapter in the online documentation
before writing your first CD!

1. Listen through the CD once more from the Montage, to
check that all starts, ends and transitions are OK.
2. Select Check from the CD tab – Functions menu, to
check that all settings conform to the Red Book standard.

This is done automatically before burning, but you might want to do this
anyway at this point.

3. Insert a fresh CD-R disc into your drive.

Please be aware that some computer CD drives may
not recognize CDs in the CD-Extra format. Plextor
drives are recommended.

4. Select Write CD.

If you are writing an audio CD and want to prepare it for
CD-Extra, do the following:

5. Select the speed at which you expect to be able to
burn from the small pop-up menu.

1. Put a checkmark in the “CD-Extra compatible” box in
the Write CD dialog.

6. Use the test options in the dialog to check that you will
actually be able to write the CD at that speed.

This will prepare the CD for further writing of data later. Much like a multisession CD.

2. Write the audio CD as described above.

7. If you want to create a CD in the CD-Extra format, activate the CD-Extra Support option in the dialog.

3. The next step is to create a Data CD/DVD containing
the data you want to incorporate on the CD.

See below.

8. Once the Montage has passed the test, switch to
“WRITE” and press OK in the dialog.

How to create a Data CD/DVD is described in the section “Creating a
new Data CD/DVD Project” on page 140.

If you run into problems, check the Troubleshooting chapter in the online
documentation.

4. In the Write dialog for the Data CD/DVD (described in
the section “The Write dialog for the Data CD/DVD” on
page 142), select the options “Track At Once” for Write
Method and “Close CD” for Closing Method.

• In the progress dialog that appears while the CD is recorded, you will find an option called “Eject CD on success”. If you activate this option, the CD recorder will
automatically eject the CD once it’s finished.

5. Click on “Write”.
The data will now be added to the CD after the audio you added previously, and the CD-Extra is created and finalized (no further writing is possible).

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Burning an audio CD

The audio CD format – Background
information

About frames, positions, small frames and bits
The data on an audio CD is divided into frames. A frame
consists of 588 stereo samples. 75 frames make up one
second of audio. Why? Well, 75 x 588 = 44100, and
since the sampling frequency of the CD format is
44100kHz (samples per second), this equals one second
of audio. When you specify positions on the CD, in WaveLab Essential, you do it in the format mm:ss:ff, where mm
is minutes, ss is seconds and ff is frames. The frame values go from 0 to 74, since there are 75 frames to a second.

This text aims to provide you with some background information on the CD format, to help you better understand
how to create your own CDs. This is a big subject, and we
will only be able to touch upon it here. For more information, try a text-book on the subject, or search the Internet
for more information.
The basic CD formats
There are a number of different formats for the contents of
a CD disc. You are probably familiar with audio CDs, CDROMS, and CD-I. These are all slightly different, although
they use the same media – CD discs. The audio CD specification is called Red Book. It is this standard to which
WaveLab Essential conforms.

Technically, there is no way to specify something smaller
than a frame on a CD. One effect of this is that if the
length of a track on the CD does not equal a perfect number of frames, some blank audio must be added at the
end. Another effect of this is that when you play the CD,
you can never locate (position) to anything closer than a
frame. If you need some data in the middle of a frame, you
still have to read the whole frame. Again, this is unlike a
hard disk, where you can retrieve any byte on the disk,
without reading the surrounding data.

Red Book CD is not a real file format
Those of you who are computer literate might know about
file formats. Please note that Red Book CD is not a real
file format. All the audio on the CD is stored in one big
chunk, one file if you will. This is different from hard disks,
for example, where each file is stored separately. Understanding the fact that all the audio is in fact one long
stream of digital data is something that will probably help
you better understand the limitations of the format.

But frames aren’t the smallest block of data on a CD.
There is also something called “small frames”. A small
frame is a container of 588 bits. 98 small frames together
make up one regular frame. In each small frame there is
actually only room for six stereo samples, which means
that a lot of space is left for data other than the actual audio. There is information for encoding, laser synchronization, error correction and the PQ data (so called because
it is stored in the “P” and “Q” bits). This PQ data is of major importance to anyone who wants to create their own
CD, so please let us explain it in further detail.

The different types of “events” on an audio CD
There are three types of events that can be used to specify various sections of audio on the CD. These are:
Event

Description

Track Start

There can be up to 99 tracks on one CD. Each is
identified by its start point only.

Track Sub-Indexes

On advanced CD players, you might have noted that
a track can be divided into sub-indexes (sometimes
called only indexes). These are used to identify “important” positions within a track. There can be 98
sub-indexes in each track. However, since it is difficult and time-consuming to search for and locate to
a sub-index, many CD players ignore this information.

Pause

PQ codes and WaveLab Essential's solution to handling
them
The PQ codes convey information about track start, subindexes and pauses, as described above. They also contain the timing information (minutes, seconds, frames). To
fit all this information in, a block of PQ information is
spread out over 98 small frames.

A pause appears before each track. Pauses can be
of variable lengths. Some CD players indicate the
pauses between tracks on their displays.

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Burning an audio CD

Specifying PQ codes is not complex. However, when creating a CD there are a number of rules you must take into
account. For example, there should be some silent frames
before each track, sub-indexes should be slightly early,
there should be pauses at the beginning and end of the
entire CD, etc.

and MultiSession. If you use these writing formats, the
“link blocks” created to link the various recording passes
together will be recognized as “uncorrectable errors”
when you try to master from the CD-R. These links can
also result in clicks when playing back the CD.
• Disc-At-Once mode provides more flexibility when
specifying pause lengths between tracks.

When creating CDs from an Audio CD Montage, these
rules and settings are handled by WaveLab Essential to
ensure your CD will work properly.

• Disc-At-Once is the only mode that supports sub-indexes.

ISRC codes

Writing on the fly vs. CD images

In addition to the basic PQ codes, there is something
called “International Standard Recording Code”, identification that is only used on CDs intended for commercial
distribution. WaveLab Essential allows you to specify an
ISRC code for each audio track.

WaveLab Essential always writes a CD on the fly, that is, it
does not create a CD image before burning. This method
makes writing CDs faster and requires much less disk
space. However, if for some reason you need to, WaveLab Essential lets you join all audio tracks into one large
file that can be used as an “image” of the entire CD.

The ISRC code is structured as follows:
•
•
•
•

Country Code (2 ASCII characters).
Owner Code (3 ASCII characters or digits).
Recording Year (2 digits or ASCII characters).
Serial Number (5 digits or ASCII characters).

UPC/EAN codes
UPC stands for “Universal Product Code”. Some CD/
DVD-R units allow you to specify this code, which is a thirteen-digit catalog number for the disc. Also known as
EAN.
Pre-emphasis
Pre-emphasis works by boosting (or pre-emphasizing)
high frequencies before burning the CD, and cutting (deemphasizing) them when playing back. The theoretical result of this is that the desired audio is returned to normal
sound, but any other high frequency content (noise) in the
recording is reduced.
Disc-At-Once – Writing CD-Rs for duplication into “real”
CDs
WaveLab Essential only writes audio CDs in Disc-atOnce mode. There are three good reasons for this:
• If you want to create a CD-R to use as a master for a
real CD production, you must write the CD-R in Disc-AtOnce mode. In this mode, the entire disc is written in one
pass, without ever turning off the recording laser. There
are other ways of writing a CD, namely Track-At-Once
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Burning an audio CD

15
Data CD/DVD Projects

Introduction

The principle is simple: The Data CD/DVD window has
two main window panes; the source window on top and
the destination window below.

A Data CD/DVD project is an environment that can be
used to compile and write a data only CD-ROM/DVDROM or Mixed Mode CDs.

The source window shows the contents of your hard disks
(or other storage media) in a way much like the Windows
Explorer: with a folder hierarchy “tree” to the left and the
contents of the selected folder shown to the right. The
destination window shows the contents of the CD/DVD to
be recorded, again with two panes in the same manner.

• Data discs exclusively contain computer data. This can be files
of any type. However, the files are stored on the CD/DVD in
such a way that an audio CD player cannot recognize them.
• The difference between a Mixed Mode CD and a normal audio
CD is that the Mixed Mode CDs contain both computer data
and audio data that can be played back by a CD player.
• On a Mixed Mode CD, the computer data occupies track 1,
and the music occupies the subsequent tracks.
!

• To compile a data only CD-ROM/DVD-ROM or a Mixed
Mode CD, drag files and/or folders from the upper into the
lower window pane.
You can record the CD/DVD as soon as you have placed all files in the
lower pane.

An alternative to a Mixed Mode CD is the “CD-Extra”
format, which also allows audio and data to be combined on the same CD. To create a CD-Extra, you
first create and write an Audio CD Montage and then
add the data. See “CD-Extra support” on page 136.

• In the destination window, you can rename, remove or
open files.
• You can save and open Data CD/DVD files from the File
menu, as with other document types.
Data CD/DVD files have the extension “.cdp”.

Creating a new Data CD/DVD
Project
!

Source window settings
You can decide how files and folders are displayed in the
source window (as icons, as a list, etc.) by selecting one
of the items on the Source menu (or by clicking the corresponding icon) on the source window toolbar.

For DVD, creating a new Data CD/DVD project as
described below will enable you to create a data only
DVD-ROM disc.

Creating a new Data CD/DVD project for data discs or
Mixed Mode CDs

To help navigating, you can use the functions “Up one
level” and “Recent paths”. The latter (only available as an
icon on the toolbar) displays a menu listing all recently
used paths, allowing you to quickly go back to any of the
listed folders.

To create a new Data CD/DVD project, select “Data CD/
DVD” from the New submenu on the File menu. A new
Data CD/DVD window appears.

The Source window Source menu contains the following
view options:

Source window

Function

Destination window

Icon

Description

Refresh

Click on this icon to update the contents of the window. This is useful if, for
instance, storage media has been
added or removed.

Show Audio and
Video Files

If this function is active, the right part of
the window pane only shows audio and
video files, if available.

Show All Files

If this function is active, the right part of
the window pane shows all file types.

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Data CD/DVD Projects

Destination window settings

The CD/DVD menu

View settings

The CD/DVD menu contains items for preparing and writing the disc:

Use the Destination menu to adjust how files and folders
are displayed in the destination window, just like in the
source window.

Function

Description

Disk Label…

Opens a dialog where you can name the CD/DVD
to be recorded.

CD/DVD Info…

Displays the total number of files as well as the total
file size on the CD/DVD to be recorded.

At the bottom of the Data CD/DVD window, a ruler shows
you the current and the maximum size of the project. On
the CD/DVD menu you can set the ruler to display either a
CD scale or a DVD scale, as well as define the actual
available space of the destination media you intend to use
(see “Define media size…” on page 141). Holding the
mouse pointer over the ruler brings up a pop-up tip, showing you the exact size of the project, and a dotted, vertical
red line in the ruler shows you the maximum available
space on the destination media. This allows you to quickly
assess the used and remaining space for the project.

Add photo viewer
to CD/DVD…

This opens a dialog where you can select to add a
simple photo viewing application to CDs/DVDs that
contain photo images. The viewer application is
called ImageViewer.exe and is added to the root of
the CD/DVD. It can only be used to visualize the
photos on the CD/DVD. Note that the CD/DVD
does not need to exclusively contain photos.

Write CD/DVD…

Opens a dialog from where you can start recording
the data or Mixed Mode CD (see below).

Create Label set…

This allows you to create labels for your CDs. See
“Selecting a template” on page 148 for more information.

You can also select “Properties” from the Destination window Edit menu, to get information about the number of
files on the CD/DVD and their total size.

Edit text variables…

Opens a dialog where you can edit and create text
variables as used for CD labels (see “Defining user
variables” on page 152).

Getting size information

Save as ISO Image… An ISO image is a file that holds the entire contents
of a data CD or DVD (files and folders).

Export text variables in This saves the current text variables as an ASCII
ASCII…
text document in a tabulated format, suitable for editing in a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft
Excel.

Editing the CD/DVD contents
You can move items between folders on the CD/DVD by
using drag and drop, just like you drag them from the
source window to add them. There are also various options on the Edit menu for adjusting the contents of the
CD/DVD to be created:

CD Scale/DVD Scale These items allow you to select whether the ruler at
the bottom of the Data CD/DVD window should
display a CD scale or a DVD scale, showing the
available amount of storage space. Since a DVD
can hold considerably more data than a CD, you
should for proper reference select the appropriate
option depending on which kind of media the material you are compiling is intended to end up.

• To add a new folder (within the selected folder), select
“New Folder”.

Define media size…

See “Creating a Mixed Mode CD” on page 142 for a description of the
“Add Audio Track Folder” function.

• To rename the selected folder, select “Rename” from
the menu and type in a new name.
• To remove the selected file or folder from the Data CD/
DVD, select “Remove”.
If a folder was selected, this and all its contents will be removed. Note
that this only removes files from the Data CD/DVD, not from the hard
disk.

• To open the selected file or folder, select “Open”.
There is also an “Open in WaveLab Essential” item, for opening audio
files and other documents in WaveLab Essential.

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Data CD/DVD Projects

Opens a dialog in which you can specify the available storage space of the destination media. If you
for instance are using a DVD disc that can hold
more data than the “standard” 4 700 MB, you can
specify how much it can hold, to get a correct visual
reference of the available space when preparing
the DVD.

Creating a Mixed Mode CD

Item

Description

To create a Mixed Mode CD (i.e. a CD with both audio
and data), proceed as follows:

Write speed

Here you can select a write speed supported by
your recorder.

Write method

Here you can select a Write method supported by
your CD recorder. If you are adding the data portion to a CD-Extra CD, you must select “Track At
Once” (see “CD-Extra support” on page 136). For
DVD, there are no write method options.

Closing method

Here you can select a closing method. If you are
adding the data portion to a CD-Extra CD, you
must select “Close CD” (see “CD-Extra support”
on page 136).

Simulation

The Write dialog for the Data CD/
DVD

Here you define if and how a simulation should be
performed before the actual writing process. Simulating the writing process lets you find out whether
the writing process will be successful, or if problems might occur.

Write to hard
disk first

When you select “Write CD/DVD…” on the Destination
window’s CD/DVD menu, you will first be asked for a
name for the CD or DVD to be created. After entering a
name and clicking OK, the “Write virtual Disc” dialog appears. Here you can make all the necessary settings for
the CD or DVD to be recorded.

If this function is active (ticked), the writing program first writes an image file onto your hard disk
(which must have enough free space to hold the
file). An image file has the advantage that the data
to be recorded doesn’t have to be converted into
CD format during burning, as this is done when the
image file is created. The actual burning (recording) procedure will therefore be faster and performed with greater reliability and less risk of
malfunction.

Default

Click on this button to save the current dialog settings as default. The next time you open the dialog,
they will automatically be set.

Advanced

If you click the “Advanced” button, the dialog is extended downwards and you get access to five
tabs. These let you make a number of additional
settings for the writing process.

1. Select the “root” of the CD in the left destination window pane.
2. Select “Add Audio Track Folder” from the Destination
window Edit menu.
An Audio Track Folder item appears in the destination window. This cannot be moved or removed.

3. Drag any audio files you want included as audio tracks
from the source window to the audio track folder.

Item

Note that at the end of the DVD burning process it
can take up to 15 minutes to close the DVD. Please
be patient.

Description

Write

The CD/DVD writing process is started.

The dialog is closed.

Settings

This opens a dialog where you can make settings
for your CD/DVD recorder. The content of this dialog depends on the recorder used.

Disc Info

If a writable disc is in the CD/DVD recorder, you
can use this option to get information about its size
and available space.

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Data CD/DVD Projects

16
Importing audio CD tracks

Importing audio CD tracks into
WaveLab Essential

• By default, the tracks will be named “Track XX”, where
XX is a number starting at 01. You can adjust the auto
numbering scheme by right-clicking in the list and selecting an option from the pop-up menu that appears.

WaveLab Essential provides the ability to read audio
tracks from regular CDs. This makes a digital copy of the
audio from the CD directly into an audio file on your hard
disk.

This pop-up menu also contains some additional functions for saving individual tracks directly as files, appending a track to the current Montage,
etc.

Although WaveLab Essential supports a large number of
CD drives, there are some restrictions you should be
aware of:
Ö There are a number of different, not very well standardized protocols for retrieving audio from a CD-ROM/
CD-R drive.
WaveLab Essential tries to support as many of these methods as possible, but there are no guarantees it will work with any particular drive.
Some brands that reportedly use the same method still have slightly different implementations which might cause problems.

Ö Please observe and respect any copyright notices on
the CDs from which you are reading tracks!
To import CD tracks, proceed as follows:
1. Insert the CD into the CD-ROM/CD-R unit.
2. Pull down the Tools menu and select “Import Audio
CD tracks”.

The “Import Audio CD Tracks” dialog

3. Select the drive from which you want to read from the
pop-up menu at the top of the dialog.

6. Click on the Folder button at the bottom of the dialog
to select a destination folder for the file(s).

4. Select a read speed from the pop-up menu just beside this.

The files will be saved with the name that is shown in the track list. To rename a file, double click on it in the track list and type the desired name.

5. If necessary, click Refresh so that the list of tracks is
updated.

The window now lists the tracks on the CD, plus some information about
each track. Please note that the Copy Protection and Pre-emphasis columns are for information only, you cannot change these settings.

The tracks must have unique names if you want to
import them all. If two or more files have the same
name, a warning dialog will appear when the second
one is imported, allowing you to either cancel the operation or to replace the first file saved with that
name.

7. If you want to import to a format other than Wave, click
on the file format button at the bottom of the dialog and
select the desired format from the Audio File Format dialog that appears.
See “Supported file formats” on page 49 for information about the available file formats.

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Importing audio CD tracks

8. If required, you can select one file and click Play.

File format – Converting CD track(s) to other formats

This will play the beginning of the track so that you can check it out.

The extracted audio files are saved in WAV (Wave) format
by default. You can, however, directly save files in other
audio formats by clicking the button at the bottom of the
dialog to open the Audio File Format dialog, and select the
desired file format from the Type menu.

Ö If you notice that playback starts too late into the track
– i.e. a small part of the beginning of the track is “cut out”,
you can specify a pre-roll value to ensure that the entire
beginning of the track is read.
This is done by selecting the option “Define reading of audio before and
after CD track…” on the Options menu, and entering the desired pre-roll
value in the dialog that appears. You can also specify a post-roll value to
ensure that the entire end of the track is read. The technical reason behind this is that it’s not possible to locate, or position, to anything closer
than a frame – a block of data on a CD. Thus, if there is data in the middle
of a frame, you might have to specify a pre-roll or post-roll so that the
whole frame is read. See “About frames, positions, small frames and bits”
on page 137 for more information.

Among the formats available are the following compressed audio formats: MP3, MP2, WMA and Ogg Vorbis.
When any of these formats is selected, you can click the
Encoding field and select “Edit…” from the pop-up to
open the corresponding Encoding dialog, where you can
specify the bit rate and other attributes of the file to be
created.

9. Select as many tracks as you wish from the list.
CD reading method

You can use [Ctrl] and [Shift] to make multiple selections, or use the Select All button.

In rare cases, the default method of extracting audio samples from a drive does not work. In such cases you can
change the extraction method used by selecting the “CD
reading method” item on the Options pop-up menu. This
opens a dialog with several optional audio extraction
methods.

• You can also “drag and drop” one or more CD tracks
onto WaveLab Essential’s desktop or into an Audio CD
Montage to save them.
In the latter case, you can drop them in the CD view track list or directly
into the track pane. For this to work, the item “Enable Drag and Drop to
Audio CD Montages” must be activated on the Options pop-up menu.

Ö Do not change the settings if you are not having problems!

10. If you have only selected one file, you can import just a
part of the track by adjusting the start and end/length values.

About Ultra-Safe mode

The bar graph shows the part of the track that will be imported.

Sometimes a small bit of a CD track is not properly retrieved (this depends on the quality of your CD drive). This
can result in unpleasant clicks and pops. To solve this issue, you can activate the ultra-safe mode on the Options
pop-up menu. When activated, each CD track is read several times until the exact same result is found (check sums
are used).

11. Click the Save button.
The track(s) are retrieved. Optionally, each is opened in its own window.
This is specified in the progress indication menu that appears during importing.

About the Freedb function
You need to be connected to the Internet to use the
Freedb function.

Convert to Montage

Clicking the Freedb button opens a pop-up menu where
you can use some functions provided by Freedb to get information about your CDs. Freedb maintains a worldwide
database of CD information.

The “Convert to Montage” function can convert a CD to
an Audio CD Montage. Once you have converted to a
montage, you can reorder tracks, remove some tracks or
add new tracks. You can use this function to create mixed
compilations of CDs.

• When an audio CD is inserted, you can query the database to
get the track names of this CD, and more.
• If the CD is not yet recorded in the database, you have the option to become a participant by describing the CD and submitting your description to the database. Find more information on
this at www.freedb.org.
145

Importing audio CD tracks

Notes
• Note that importing audio CD tracks is technically more complicated than reading files from a CD-ROM or hard disk, because audio sectors can be hard to detect. Some CDs which
do not conform completely to the CD standard may cause
problems.
• There are several other functions on the Options pop-up
menu.
• If you import a CD track with Emphasis, and later want to use
this on a CD of your own, remember to activate Emphasis for
that track in the CD view of the Audio CD Montage.

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Importing audio CD tracks

17
Creating labels

Introduction

3. A dialog appears, allowing you to select a template for
your project.

The Label Editor allows you to design and print custom labels for your CD and DVD projects. You can design separate layouts for front, inside, back and disk labels. Both
text information and a wide range of image file formats can
be imported and edited in various ways.

About variables and templates
Every Data CD/DVD Project, Audio CD Montage or Import Audio CD Tracks session has a default set of “variables”, text that consists of a short code string plus a
value. Variables provide information about a project, such
as track titles, personal data, etc. There are two types of
variables: factory and user editable.
Factory variables automatically provide information based
on the contents of a project, and user editable variables
can be customized to suit the current project.

To the right in the dialog there is a list of available templates, divided into
three groups “Audio”, “Data” and “Audio + Data”. By clicking on the corresponding tab the available templates for the selected project type are
shown in the list. To the left in the dialog, preview images of the front,
back and the disk labels are shown.

Templates are ready-made layouts that will use the information provided by the variables.
You can freely customize the properties of a template layout by using the Label Editor. Add new images or other
objects, delete or edit existing objects, etc.

4. Select a template, and click OK.
The Label Editor window opens, displaying the CD case front label.

Selecting a template

• If you do not wish to use a template at all you can select
“Void” in this dialog.

The first thing you do before the Label Editor is opened is
to select a template. As mentioned previously, templates
provide some information based on the current project,
and have ready-made layouts:

This will open the Label Editor with totally empty labels, allowing you to
build your own labels from scratch by adding objects, specifying backgrounds, etc.

• You can also save user templates.

1. Open the project you wish to create labels for.

See “Saving a label set as a user template” on page 152.

This can be a Data CD/DVD Project, an Audio CD Montage or an Import
Audio CD Tracks session.

Using the Label Editor

2. Select the “Create Label set…” menu item.
Where this menu item is located depends on the type of project; for Audio CD Montages it is on the Functions menu, for Data CD/DVD it is on
the CD/DVD menu, and for Import Audio CD Tracks it is on the Options
menu.

Overview
The Label Editor always displays one of the three available
views or pages: the front, back or disk case label. You
switch between these pages by selecting the corresponding tabs below the toolbar. The layout is completely independent for each page.
Ö Please note that the front label can be either single- or
double-sided.
This option is set in the Page Layout dialog on the Printing menu.

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Creating labels

The Label Editor window displays a frame with the currently selected label (front, back or disk) layout. Layouts
are made up of editable objects – images, text boxes, lines
or circles. You can also select either an image or color as
background for the layout as a whole.
Horizontal and vertical rulers

The following tools are available:
Tool

Description

Selection tool

Used to select, resize or move objects.

Zoom Object &
Zoom In/Out

This is used to zoom in on a selected object, keeping it in view. The Zoom In/Out
zooms the layout as a whole in or out. You
can go back to normal magnification (1:1)
by selecting “Zoom 100%” from the Options menu.

Insert track list

This will produce an automatically generated track list, based on the tracks belonging to the current project.

Insert box with text

Creates a text box object.

Insert Circle

This will insert a circle or ellipse object.

Insert Line

This will insert line objects.

Insert Image

This will insert an image.

Set background color…
(menu only)

Allows you to define a color for the background of the layout.

Set background image…
(menu only)

Allows you to define an image for the background of the layout.

Front/back/disk layout buttons

Toolbar

Selecting objects
Circle object

Click an object with the Selection tool to select it.

Text box object

• Selected objects are indicated by a dotted outline, and square
“handles”, which can be used to scale the size of the object.
• To select several objects, hold down [Shift] or [Ctrl] and click.
Selected objects can be de-selected by [Shift]-clicking.
• When several objects are selected, one of the objects will always have “focus”. The focus is indicated by red handles on
this particular object. You can move the focus to any of the selected objects by [Ctrl]-clicking.

Basic object handling in the Label Editor
The Label Editor tools
Insert box
with text

Insert circle

Insert line
Insert image

Insert track list
Selection tool

Zoom object

Zoom in/out
Print label

Tools can be selected in three ways:
• From the Tools menu
• By clicking the corresponding icon on the toolbar
• By right-clicking in the background area (not an object), and
selecting from the speed menu that appears

Two objects selected, with the upper having the focus.

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Creating labels

Positioning objects

Resizing objects
If you click on a handle of a selected object, the pointer
changes to a double arrow, indicating that you can resize
the object by dragging. Images or circle objects will be
scaled, whereas dragging the handles of text box objects
will resize the size of the box, not the text itself.

There are several methods you can use to position objects:
• Manually – by dragging objects using the Selection tool.
• Automatically in relation to the layout frame. You can have an
object centered (horizontally or vertically) by right-clicking it
and selecting the corresponding item from the speed menu.
• Automatically in relation to other selected objects (see “The
Objects menu” on page 151).
• By selecting “Edit Position and Size…” from the Objects (or
context) menu and adjusting the position numerically in the dialog that appears. Note that this adjusts the position of the
object with focus.

Ö You can also right-click an object and select “Edit Position and Size…” from the speed menu.
A dialog appears, allowing you to edit size (width and height) numerically,
in cm/mm.

Inserting new objects
Inserting new objects is done by selecting the corresponding tool, and clicking and dragging in the layout.
When you release the mouse button, a dialog appears, allowing you to define basic properties for the inserted object. Note that this does not apply to image objects, where
instead a standard file dialog appears.
Ö The Edit Properties dialog is also selectable from the
Objects menu and by right-clicking objects and selecting
from the speed menu.

You specify the position from the left side and the top of the layout
frame, in cm/mm. Click “Apply” to apply the position change without
closing the dialog.

See “About the Edit Properties dialog” on page 151 for a description of
the items available in the Edit Properties dialogs.

About the grid, rulers and magnetize options
On the Options menu, you will find two items, “Show
Grid” and “Show Rulers”. If these are ticked, the background of the layout will show a dotted grid, and also vertical and horizontal rulers that show the current position of
the mouse pointer. Both these items help you to position
objects with fine precision in the layout. The grid spacing
can be specified in the Preferences dialog on the Options
menu.

Inserting a text box object

Deleting objects
To delete objects, select them and use the [Delete] key.
Copy/move object

You can also use magnetize so that objects will snap either to grid positions, to other objects or to the frames limits (or all three), by selecting the corresponding Options
menu item.

If you manually move an object with the right mouse button pressed, a small pop-up menu appears when you release the button allowing you to either select to copy the
object to the new position or to move it there.

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Creating labels

About the Edit Properties dialog

If several objects are selected when opening the Objects
menu, the following additional items are available:

The Edit Properties dialog can be opened in three ways:
• By selecting an object and selecting “Edit Properties” from
the Objects menu
• By right-clicking an object and selecting the same item from
the speed menu
• By double-clicking an object

Item

Description

Apply same properties
as focused object

This item allows you to apply properties
from the focused object to all of the selected objects of the same type.

Space evenly horizontally

This distributes the selected objects horizontally, using the top center handle as a
guide. This means that the top center handles in each selected object will be exactly
the same distance from each other horizontally.

Space evenly vertically

This distributes the selected objects vertically, using the side center handle as a
guide. This means that the side center handles in each selected object will be exactly
the same distance from each other vertically.

Place under each other

This will place all selected objects directly
under each other.

The contents of the dialog varies depending on the object
type.

The Objects menu
The Objects menu can be selected from the toolbar, or
opened by right-clicking an object (speed menu). The
items on the Objects menu are greyed out if no object is
selected.
If one object is selected, the following Object menu items
are available:
Item

Description

Edit properties…

See “About the Edit Properties dialog” on
page 151.

Edit position and size…

See “Positioning objects” on page 150.

Edit display condition

This allows you to decide whether an object
will be displayed or not, depending on
whether a given variable is empty or not.

Bring to front

This brings any object that is partially obscured by another overlapping object to the
front.

Send to back

This sends any object that partially or completely overlaps another object to the back.

Center horizontally

Centers a selected object horizontally in the
layout.

Center vertically

Centers a selected object vertically in the layout.

Lock movement

This locks the position of the selected object.

Select all

Selects all objects.

Select all with the
same size

Selects all objects with identical dimensions
to the selected object.

Align with focused object (sev- These menu items will align selected oberal items)
jects to the position of the focused object.
You can select to align to any side (left/
right/top/bottom), or to the horizontal or
vertical center of the object with the focus.
Resize as focused object (sev- These menu items will resize all selected
eral items)
objects to either the same size as the focused object or to the same width or height
as the focused object.
Group/Ungroup

This will group all selected objects so that
they will act as one object when selected
or moved (keeping the relative positions to
each other). Ungroup deselects the grouping.

About label sets
You can save as many label sets as you like for a project.
However, whenever you open the Label Editor by selecting the “Create Label” menu item, a new label set opens
which is untitled and only contains the auto-generated
data.
Whenever you have edited layouts in the Label Editor, you
will be asked to save it as a label set if you close the Label
Editor or exit the program without first having saved your
changes. If you don’t save, any changes are lost.
Ö It is important to note that any work performed in the
Label Editor is not saved with the project – it has to be
saved separately as a label set.

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Creating labels

Ö Saved label sets (with the extension *.lab) contain all
the layout work performed in the Label Editor.

2. Select the “Edit text variables…” menu item.
Where this menu item is located depends on the type of project; for Audio CD Montages it is on the Functions menu and for Data CD/DVD
Projects it is on the CD/DVD menu. Selecting this item opens a dialog
containing a list of folders similar to the structure in the Windows Explorer.

It is, however, not dynamic. This means that if you have added to or
changed the Data CD/DVD Project, Audio CD Montage, etc. in any way
after saving a label set, these changes will not be reflected in the saved
label set, unless you save it as a user template (see below).

Saving a label set
To save a label set, select “Save” or “Save As…” from the
File menu with the Label Editor open and as the active
window (on top).
Opening a label set
To open a saved label set, select “Open” from the File
menu and “Label Set…” from the submenu that appears.
Saving a label set as a user template
If you have saved a label set, you can make this appear on
the list of available templates in the “Select a Label Template” dialog. Label templates are label sets that reside in
designated subfolders inside the WaveLab Essential program folder. The path to the Label template folders (starting from the main WaveLab Essential program folder) is
“Presets\Label\Templates\”. Here you will find four folders: “Audio/AudioData/Data/Images”. Place (or save directly) a label set in the appropriate folder. It will now
appear as a new template next time you open the “Select
a Label Template” dialog.

• Only the variables in open folders (and “Editable” written in the Type column) can be edited.
The editable variables vary according to the type of project.

3. To define a value for a default variable, for example
copyright or personal information, double-click in the Current Value column for the relevant description.

Defining user variables

A text box opens where you can type in the relevant information.

Apart from the auto-generated data such as media information, date and time, etc., you can define a number of
user editable variables that are local to the project you are
working on. Once you have defined a set of user variables,
this is automatically saved with the current project. To define user variables, proceed as follows:

4. Click OK when done.

Creating new variables
You can create new variables and define values for them.
The new variable will automatically be put in the currently
selected folder (or in the folder with a currently selected
variable). Proceed as follows:

1. Open the project you wish to set user variables for.
This can be a Data CD/DVD Project, an Audio CD Montage or an Import
Audio CD Tracks session.

1. Either create a new folder by clicking the “New Folder”
button, or select a folder that you want to add a new variable to.
If you chose the former option, select the new folder.

2. Click the “New Variable” button.
A new editable variable appears in the selected folder.

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Creating labels

Printing labels

3. Double-click in the Description column beside the
new variable to open a text box where an appropriate description can be typed in.

You print your labels directly from the Label Editor, either
on standard paper or on special media label paper (usually available in computer peripheral stores, etc.).

For example “Producer”.

4. Double-click in the Current Value column to enter the
relevant information for the new variable, i.e. the name of
the producer.

Calibrating the printer
If you are printing on special label paper, it is very important that the printer is “calibrated”, that is, the measurements in the program (for margins, positioning, etc.) must
be exactly the same as the actual results you get when
printing. This is not as important when you print on standard paper (since the printouts then don’t have to fit exactly in specific positions on paper).

5. To create a code that can be used to refer to the variable in the Label Editor, type in an appropriate name beginning and ending with “%” in the Code column.
To use the earlier example, this would be written “%Producer%”.

6. Click OK when done.
Once you have entered your personal data you can save
the text variables file as a preset, see below.

To calibrate the printer, select “Calibrate printer” from the
Printing menu in the Label Editor and follow the steps in
the dialog that appears.

On the Options menu there is a default set of text variables that is always available. Use this as a clean slate for
creating new variables.

Saving variable sets as presets
Clicking the name field pop-up at the bottom of the window opens a menu which allows you to save sets of variables as presets. After having saved one or more variable
sets as presets, you can switch between different presets
of already “filled in” variables by selecting one from the
name field pop-up. A preset could typically represent the
information belonging to a client you work with regularly,
for example. Naturally, the auto-generated variables will
still adapt to the current project as usual.

You only need to do this once (unless you switch to
another printer).

Setting up page layouts
The Page Layout dialog contains various settings relating
to how the page layout will be printed. It’s important to
note that you make page layout settings individually for
each one of the three label types (case front, case back
and disc label). These are also printed individually.
!

Exporting text variables in ASCII

If you are using special label paper, these will typically come with a measurement sheet, showing the
exact size and positioning of the labels.

To set up the page layout, select the desired label type (by
clicking the corresponding tab) and select “Page layout…” from the Printing menu in the Label Editor. Note
that there are different settings for the three different label
types.

This option opens the current text variables as an ASCII
text document in a tabulated format, suitable for editing in
a spreadsheet application such as Excel.
Where this menu item is located depends on the type of
project; for Audio CD Montages it is on the Functions
menu, and for Data CD/DVD Projects it is on the CD/DVD
menu.

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Creating labels

Printing
Printing is done independently for the three label types.
However, there are two settings that are global for all
three label types:
1. Pull down the Options pop-up menu and select “Preferences”.
The “Label editor preferences” dialog appears.

2. Use the “Printing” checkboxes to determine whether
the frames around the labels should be printed, and
whether cut markers should be printed (making it easier to
cut out the labels from the printed paper).
Now, you are ready to print:
3. Select one of the label types by clicking its tab.
4. Select “Print” from the Printing menu in the Label Editor window.
The “Print label” dialog appears, allowing you to make printer settings,
preview the result and specify a number of copies.

5. Click Print.
6. Select the next label type by clicking on its tab, and
proceed from step 3 above.

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Creating labels

18
Analysis

Global analysis

2. Select “Global analysis…” from the Analysis menu.

Introduction
What does the “Global analysis” dialog do?
This dialog allows you to perform advanced analysis on
your audio to find certain areas with specified properties.
It can be used to find problem areas (glitches, distortion),
etc., or to check general information such as the pitch of a
sound.
How does it work?
When you analyse a section of an audio file, the program
scans it and extracts overall information which it displays
in the dialog.
However, during analysis, it also “pin-points” sections in
the file that meet specific characteristics, for example,
sections being very loud or very silent. You can then
browse between these points, set markers at these places
or zoom in on them.

Deciding what types of analysis to perform
As described above, there are several types of analysis
that can be performed. Each of them takes some time, so
you may want to make sure that only the types you are actually interested in are included in the analysis.

About the tabs
• The Peaks tab is used for finding individual samples with very
high values.
• The Loudness tab is for finding sections with high amplitude.
• The Pitch tab is for finding out the exact pitch of a sound or
section.
• The Extra tab tells you about DC offsets and the significant bit
resolution.
• The Errors tab helps you find glitches and sections where the
audio has been clipped (recorded or processed at too high a
level).

It doesn’t hurt to have more options activated than you
need, but it will slow down the process. The pitch analysis
in particular uses up a lot of processing time, because by
its very nature it is complicated.
If the section you are analyzing is very short, it doesn’t
matter much whether all options are activated.
• Click on the Peaks tab and decide whether you want peak
analysis by activating the “Peaks” option.
• Click on the Loudness tab and decide whether you want
“RMS Power” analysis performed.
• Click on the Pitch tab for the program to find the “Average
Pitch”.
• On the Errors tab, decide whether you want the program to
search for “Glitches” and/or “Clipping”.

General operations
Opening the “Global analysis” dialog
1. Make a selection in the wave file that you want to process.
This selection can be of any length and in one or both channels. If you
want to analyse the entire file, hit [Ctrl]-[A]. If “Process whole file if no selection exists” is activated in the Preferences - Wave edit tab, the whole
file will be processed automatically if no selection has been made.

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Analysis

Setting parameters and performing the analysis

4. Click on the button that currently displays this value.

1. Set up the parameters.

The value displayed is for the “hot point” with the highest/lowest value. In
our example, you would click the button in the lower right corner.

On most of the tabs, you will find settings determining exactly how the analysis should be performed. For example,
on the Peaks tab there are two parameters:

Click here to
browse the minimum levels for
the right channel.

• “Maximum number…” allows you to set an upper limit for the
number of peaks reported. For example, if you set this to “10”,
the program will only report the ten highest peaks in the file.
• “Minimum time…” allows you to specify the minimum interval
between two peaks found. For example, if this is set to “5 s”,
there will always be at least five seconds between the reported peaks.

5. Check the “Number of hot points” value at the bottom
of the dialog. It displays how many positions in the file the
analysis found.
In our example it shows how many positions with low amplitude in the
right channel meet the criteria specified by the parameters in the dialog.

These two settings allow you to make sure that the reported peaks are not all in the same area.

Here you can
see the number
of “hot points”
found.

2. If desired, move the wave cursor to a new position.
The Peak and Loudness tabs report values specifically for the position of
the wave cursor, so if this is of interest, you should make sure the wave
cursor is at the position for which you want a readout.

3. Click Analyse.

6. Use the scroll bar below the “Number of hot points”
value to browse between the positions found.

Checking and browsing the results

The wave cursor jumps between the points found by the analysis, and
the display scrolls if needed.

Checking the results on the Pitch and Extra tabs is simple,
since there is only one value returned for the whole section of analysed audio. Just click on the tab and read off
the values in the dialog (for details about the values, see
later in this chapter).

7. When you want to browse another property, click on
the corresponding tab (if required) and then on the value
button that represents it.
For example, to check the amplitude of the left channel instead, click that
button. To check peak values, click on the Peaks tab and then on one of
the value buttons on that tab.

For the other tabs, slightly more advanced options are
available. This is since all these analysis methods provide
their results as a number of positions in the file, positions
that indicate peaks, glitches, etc. We call these “hot
points”.

The result of the analysis is saved until you close the dialog or click Analyse again.
Creating markers
If you like you can add markers at the “hot points”:

You can browse (jump) between these points in a very
practical way. Proceed as follows:

1. Select a property and channel for which you want to
add markers.

1. Click on the tab that represents the values you are interested in.

You will add markers for the same property as you are currently browsing, so this selection is done with the value buttons, as described above.

For example, let’s say you click the Loudness tab.

2. Check the display for maximum/minimum values in the
entire section analysed.

For the Loudness tab, these values represent the maximum and minimum
amplitudes in the left and right channels respectively (for a stereo file).

Since you are always browsing one channel at a time
in a stereo file, markers can be added for only one
channel at a time.

2. Click the “Create markers…” button.

3. Decide which of these values you want to browse.

Temporary markers are added at all “hot points”.

For example, say you want to browse the minimum amplitudes in the right
channel.
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Analysis

The markers are named using the following principle: “Hot
point number” (“Channel”). For example, a marker at the
third “hot point” in the left channel would be labelled “3
(L)”.

Result
The Result fields show you the following values:

Focusing

Option

Description

Maximum

The highest peak in the analysed section.

At Cursor

The level of the sample at the wave cursor position, at the
time of the analysis.

You can also focus the display on a certain “hot point”:
1. Use the “Number of hot points” scroll bar to move the
position indicator to the position you are interested in.

The Loudness tab

2. Click the Focus button.
Now two things happen:

• The wave display zooms in on the selected point.
• The “Global analysis” dialog is “folded in” so that only
its title bar is visible.

The Peaks tab

This finds loud and weak sections in a more “intelligent”
manner than the Peaks tab. The theory behind this is that
there might be a single sample with a high or low value
somewhere, but this may not necessarily mean that this
section is perceived as loud/weak.
To find sections that the ear perceives as significant in volume, you must look at a longer section of audio. To do this
you measure a consecutive section of samples and then
average their value. WaveLab Essential does just this, using a mathematical method called RMS (Root Mean
Square) which is well known for its accuracy.

This is used to find peak values in the audio, that is, single
samples with very high values.
Parameters

Parameters

There are two report parameters:

The parameters on the Loudness tab are slightly more
complicated than those for Peak analysis:

• “Maximum number…” allows you to put restrictions on how
many points will be reported. For example, setting this to “1”
will make the program report only the highest peak (or one of
the peaks with the highest value – if there are several with the
same value).
• “Minimum time…” lets you set things up so that the points
don’t occur too close. Settings this to “1 s” will ensure there is
always at least a second between reported points.

• “Resolution” is the length of audio measured and averaged. If
this value is lowered, very short passages of loud/low audio
will be detected. When it is raised, the sound will have to be
loud/low for a longer period to result in a hot point.
• “Threshold…” is used for recordings where there are pauses,
to make sure the average value is calculated correctly. A
pause could “fool” the algorithm. Therefore you can set up a
value, and all audio below that value will be considered silence
and will not be taken into account for the average value.
158

Analysis

• “Maximum number…” and “Minimum time…” are the same as
on the Peaks tab, see above.

Usage guidelines
• The result is an average value for the whole selection.
• The method only works on monophonic material (not on
chords or harmonies).
• The algorithm assumes the analysed section has a reasonably
stable pitch.
• The material must be relatively well isolated from other
sounds.
• It is preferable to analyse the sustain portion of a sound, rather
than the attack. The pitch is usually not “stable” during the attack.
• Some synthetic sounds may have a weak fundamental (first
harmonic) which can fool the algorithm.

Result
The Result fields show you the following values:
Option

Description

Maximum and Mini- The level of the highest and lowest points in the analymum
sed section.
Average

The overall loudness of the whole analysed section.

Around Cursor

The loudness at the wave cursor position at the time of
the analysis.

The Pitch tab

The Extra tab

The Pitch tab shows the values from WaveLab Essential’s
extremely accurate pitch detection algorithm. This can be
used for pitch shifting, for example, to get one sound in
tune with another.

This tab shows you two things:
• The average DC Offset in the analysed section.
See “Eliminate DC Offset” on page 74 for details.

There are no parameters to set. The display shows the
pitch for each channel, both in Hertz (Hz) and as semitones and cents (hundredths of a semitone).

• The Apparent Bit Resolution.
This attempts to detect the actual resolution in the audio, i.e. how many
bits are really used. This is useful e.g. if you want to check whether a 16
bit file really uses 16 bits (or if it was actually recorded with only 8 bit resolution and then expanded up to 16 bits).

Since the display shows an overall value for the entire
analysed section, the “hot point” controls in the lower section of the dialog are not used on this tab.

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Analysis

The Errors tab

Glitch parameters
• “Threshold” is a value for setting how drastic a change in level
has to be reported as a glitch. The higher this value, the less
sensitive the detection.
• “Sensitivity” is a length value. It represents the length of time
that the waveform must exceed the threshold to be reported
as a glitch. The higher this value, the less sensitive the detection.
!

It is not 100% certain that the points found by the algorithm are real glitches. Please zoom in and play
back to check whether the found points really indicate a problem.

This tab actually reports two totally separate things:

Clipping parameters

• Glitches

The program checks for a number of consecutive samples
at full value, to determine whether clipping has occurred.
“Threshold” is a setting to determine the exact number of
these consecutive samples which must occur for the program to report clipping.

These are disruptions in the audio. Glitches may occur after problematic
digital transfers, after careless editing, etc. They manifest themselves as
“clicks” or “pops” in the audio.

• Clipping
A digital system has a finite number of levels that it can represent properly. When a sound has been recorded at too high a level or when digital
processing has raised the level past what the system can handle, hard
clipping occurs. This will be heard as a very harsh type of distortion.

Results
This reports the number of glitches and clipping instances
that have been found.

Working with presets
As with effect processors you can create presets for all
the settings in the dialog for quick recall. See “Presets” on
page 30 for details.
A sine waveform before clipping…

…and after.

Report parameters
“Maximum number…” and “Minimum time…” are the same
as for the Peaks tab, see above.

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Analysis

3D Frequency Analysis

4. Decide if you want the frequency axis in the graph to
be linear or logarithmic.

This function allows you to view a wave file in the frequency domain rather than in the time domain. Although a
wave display (time domain) tells you a lot about where one
sound starts or ends in a file, for example, it doesn’t say
anything about the timbral contents of the file. A frequency
graph (frequency domain) does.

Logarithmic is often the most natural choice since each octave (doubling
of the frequency) is then represented by an equal distance on the frequency axis.

5. Click OK to close the dialog.
6. Select 3D Frequency analysis from the Analysis menu.
The wave is analysed and the graph opens in a new window.

The graph used in WaveLab Essential is actually something often referred to as an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform)
plot.

The frequency graph shows you how the different frequency components vary over time. A high “mountain”
means that this frequency is very prominent at that particular time.

Creating the graph
1. Select the part of the file you want to analyse.

Adjusting the view

If you select a stereo recording, a mix of the two channels will be analysed.
!

There are a number of settings you can make that affect
the way the graph is displayed.

The length of the selection affects the accuracy of
the analysis. For short selections the result will be
very detailed. For longer selections (over a minute or
so) it will not give equally detailed results, since the
harmonic content might vary “between the measure
points”, which is then not shown in the display. You
might for example make a separate analysis of the attack (beginning) of a sound, since the most drastic variations usually occur there.

1. Either select “3D Frequency analysis options…” from
the Analysis menu, or double click directly on the graph.
Click on the Style tab.

2. Select “3D Frequency analysis options” from the Analysis menu and click on the Frequency tab. Adjust the settings if needed.
These are the only settings that cannot be redone when the graph is already open.

2. Decide whether you want the graph to be in color,
grey scale or black and white.
3. Decide whether you want to use a change in color to
represent the amplitude (the height of each mountain determines its color) or if you want it to represent frequency
(the frequency spectrum is drawn in colors ranging from
red to purple).
4. Decide on a background color (black or white).
5. To view the effect of your changes, click Redraw.
3. If you only want to see a plot for a part of the frequency
range, adjust the “From” and “To” values.
The range must always span at least three octaves.
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Analysis

6. Click the Perspective tab.

7. Decide from which point of view you want to examine
the graph (use the “freq/time” figure as a directional
guide).
8. Decide whether you want a linear or exponential amplitude display.
The Wave window’s level rulers use a linear display, so this is a natural
choice to start with.

9. Again, if you so desire, click Redraw.

Working with multiple views
If you wish you can view the same graph in several windows, but with different style and perspective settings.
This allows you to get a better view of an otherwise
crowded graph.
• To open a second view of the graph, drag-create a window,
see “Working with multiple windows” on page 25.
• To make settings for one of the windows, select it, open the
“3D Frequency analysis…” options dialog from the Analysis
menu and proceed as described above.

Examples of how the graph can be used
The graph can be used for example for the following purposes:
• To see how the frequency spectrum is distributed in a mix.
• As a basis for EQ-ing, so that you know which frequencies to
reduce or boost.
• To see which parts of the audio spectrum a certain background
noise occupies (for removing by filtering).
• For educational purposes – these graphs tell you a lot about
how different sounds are “built”.

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Analysis

19
Podcasting

Introduction

Given that a Wave window is the currently active document:

Podcasting is a method of distributing multimedia files
over the Internet, e.g. for playback on mobile devices and
personal computers. A Podcast can be downloaded automatically, using software capable of reading "RSS feeds".
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and is a standard for distributing news and other information via the Internet.

• Pull down the Edit menu and select "Create Podcast
from Wave...".
This will create a new Podcast window, with the audio file already being
selected for episode 1.

• Pull down the File menu and select "Add to Podcast..."
from the Special submenu.
A dialog appears from which you can either select a Podcast currently
open in WaveLab (if any), or browse and open an existing Podcast from
your harddisk. In both cases, a new episode will be added to the Podcast, with the audio file selected for this episode. Alternatively, you can
also choose to create a new Podcast from this dialog, with the audio file
already being selected for episode 1.

An RSS news feed sends short messages on a certain
topic (e.g. sports, music, etc.), made available from a web
site. In order to read the messages, the user employs a
program (e.g. a special feed reader or an Internet
browser) that has the ability to monitor multiple feeds and
automatically download new messages on a regular basis.

Given that an existing Podcast window is currently open:

Technically speaking, a Podcast is an RSS feed including
data content, such as audio or video files. Like a kind of
"show" with new episodes released regularly, for an audience that wants to listen when, where and how they want.
As such, this is a great way to make information available
to anyone.

• Select "Clone this Podcast..." from the Podcast window’s Options menu.

As you know, WaveLab Essential is capable of editing and
producing audio material, but it also has the ability to create and publish Podcast episodes at will. And all this without ever quitting the program!

Podcast templates

An untitled copy of the existing Podcast is created, containing all information of the original Podcast. Alternatively, you can drag the Podcast
window’s Document icon onto the WaveLab Essential desktop to
achieve the same.

WaveLab Essential allows to store Podcast templates
from open Podacst windows:
• Pull down the File menu and select "Save as template..."

All you need, except for WaveLab Essential itself, is some
webspace with an FTP account for it in order to upload
the Podcast data.

This will store the currently active Podcast window’s information in a
template. Next time when you create a new podcast by using any of the
methods described above, you can choose this template, so that the information is already filled in the new Podcast window.

Creating a new Podcast
In order to create a new Podcast from scratch, pull down
the File menu, and select "Podcast..." from the New submenu.
This will bring up a new Podcast window where you can
enter all information required for the Podcast (usually this
will be paths to mp3 audio files along with some textual information).
Alternative ways to create a Podcast
There are other ways to create a Podcast, which can be
shortcuts, depending on what kind of documents you already have opened in WaveLab Essential.

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Podcasting

The Podcast window

Episodes can be moved by using the "Move up/down"
functions in the Podcast window’s Episodes menu. Alternatively, you can also re-order episodes by using dragand-drop in the item list.
In order to delete an episode, select it in the item list and
use the "Delete" function in the Episodes menu.
Ö There must be at least one episode present in the
Podcast.

Adding information to the Podcast
The upper pane of the Podcast window shows various
fields and settings that are related to the basic feed or an
episode, depending on what you have selected in the
lower pane’s item list (the fields are slightly different for
the feed and episodes).
Ö Field labels in bold letters point at a field that is mandatory to fill. For quick publishing of your Podcast it is sufficient to fill these fields only.
Following settings are available for the feed:
Setting

Description

A Podcast window including four episodes.

Title

The Podcast window is divided into two panes. The lower
pane shows an item list of the basic feed and all episodes
included in the Podcast.

Sets the title of the feed (e.g. the topic of your podcast). This is a mandatory field.

Description

Further description of the feed content (HTML tags
are also allowed). This is a mandatory field.

Import
HTML file

Allows to browse for an HTML document, replacing
the description above. Clicking the "Pen" button
launches your HTML editor (see “Global Podcast
options” on page 166), which allows for more complex designs.

Internet link
(URL)

Your feed’s main link presented to the user. Use this
to direct people to a certain website that is related to
your feed. This is a mandatory field.
Clicking the "Link" button will open the specified
URL in your system’s default Internet browser, to
make sure that the link is correct.

Picture

You may add a picture to your feed. This picture cannot be larger than 144 x 400 pixels according to the
RSS standard, but it is possible to automatically resize the picture, if required (see “Global Podcast options” on page 166).
Clicking the "Glasses" button will open the specified
picture in your system’s default image viewer.

Publication
date and
time

Allows to set the feed’s publication date and time. If
"As most recent episode" is checked, this will automatically be set accordingly. Clicking the "Now" button will set your system’s current date and time.

The upper pane shows the information for the feed or an
episode, depending on the item selected in the list below.
This is where you will be adding files, Internet links or textual information to the Podcast feed and its episodes.

Adding, moving and deleting episodes
There are two ways to add an episode to a Podcast:
• Select "New" from the Podcast window’s Episodes
menu.
This will add a new untitled episode without any information being
present.

• Select an existing episode in the Podcast window’s
item list, then select "Duplicate" from the Episodes menu.
This will add a new episode, copying all information from the existing episode to the new one.

165
Podcasting

may or may not take advantage of these settings, and this
is why they are gathered in an extra dialog (your Podcast
will play perfectly without specifying anything here, but
you may go ahead, if you so desire).

These settings are available for episodes:
Setting

Description

Title

Sets the episode’s title. This is a mandatory field.

Description

Further description of the episode content (HTML
tags are also allowed). This is a mandatory field.

Import
HTML file

Internet link
(URL)

An additional link related to the episode.
Clicking the "Link" button will open the specified
URL in your system’s default Internet browser, to
make sure that the link is correct.

Audio file

Sets the path to the audio file you want to add to the
episode. This could be any file type that is supported
by WaveLab Essential, but should be an mp3 file for
best possible compatibility.
Clicking the "Arrow" button allows to directly add any
file that is currently open. Alternatively, it is also possible to drag an opened audio file’s Document icon
onto the Podcast window’s upper pane.
Clicking the "Play" button will open the specified file
in your system’s default media player.

Publication
date and
time

If any optional information is set in this dialog, the small
"light" within the "Extra..." button will turn from orange to
green.
iTunes extension
If your Podcast should be received using Apple’s iTunes
application, you may want to activate the "iTunes extension" checkbox in the feed settings. This enables the
"iTunes..." button to specify additional feed and episode
information.
Again, the information here is not mandatory, and your
Podcast will play fine in iTunes, even without the iTunes
extension activated. But making proper settings here (e.g.
in the Categories and Keywords sections) may help your
Podcast getting distributed more easily among iTunes users.

Allows to set the episode’s publication date and
time. Clicking the "Now" button will set your system’s
current date and time.

Global Podcast options
There are some additional options you can set, which are
valid for all Podcast windows. Selecting "Global options..." from the Podcast window’s Options menu brings
up this dialog:

Please note the following:
• When using HTML files and publishing the Podcast, any
picture files that may be referenced by the HTML file will
automatically be uploaded without any intervention (for
this to work, HTML files should be in unicode "utf-8" or
"Windows Latin code 1252" format).
• All fields support WaveLab Essential's "Default text variables" from the Options menu (see “Defining user variables” on page 152).
• It is possible to add an open Podcast to a Data CD/
DVD project, using "Add to Data CD/DVD" from the Special submenu of the File menu. This way you can easily
backup the complete Podcast including all accompanying
media files to a CD for example.
Optional information
Clicking the "Extra..." button in the Podcast window’s upper pane allows to specify optional information for the
feed and the individual episodes. The information here is
not mandatory and rarely used. Feed receiving programs

The Global Podcast options dialog.

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Podcasting

The following options are available:

Following settings are available and must be specified:

Option

Description

Setting

Description

Automatic
picture
resizing

Defines what to do, if specified pictures exceed the
maximum size allowed by the RSS standard. If pictures need resizing, the original images on your harddisk will not be modified.

Host

Your own FTP address.

User name

Your login user name to your own FTP address.

Password

The password to your user name.

The displayed dates and times are "local". If your system is properly set, WaveLab Essential will automatically adjust the time offset in relation to GMT
correctly. However, if you want to have time and date
relative to a different time zone, adjust the value here.

Use Passive This should be left activated and only changed if you
Mode
experience problems with the FTP connection.

Time offset
with GMT

HTML
Editor

Sets the path to the external HTML editor, which will
be launched when clicking the "Pen" button in the
feed or episode "Import HTML file" setting.

Publishing the Podcast

Feed file
name (with
path)

The Podcast file name, as you want it to end up on
your FTP site (extension .xml), including the relative
path to it.
Both, file name and path, are part of the Podcast’s final public Internet address, so you may want to avoid
long names.

Associated
web site
(URL)

Your own web site address, including the path to the
feed (see above).

When you are finished with adding files and information to
your feed and episodes, you can directly publish the Podcast to the Internet from within WaveLab Essential, using
the built-in FTP client.

Here’s an example:

The requirement for this to work of course is, that you
must have some webspace with an FTP account for it in
order to upload data, so that you can make your Podcast
available at a publicly accessible Internet address.

• The Feed file name setting is "podcasts/fantasticcast.xml", the Associated web site setting is
"www.MyPage.com/podcasts".

• Your FTP host address is "ftp.MyPage.com", your public
web site address is "www.MyPage.com".

• The Podcast’s media files will then be uploaded onto
the FTP at "ftp.MyPage.com/podcasts".

FTP site manager

• The Podcast file itself (and as such the Internet address
to be distributed) will be found at
"www.MyPage.com/podcasts/fantastic-cast.xml".

WaveLab Essential’s FTP site manager stores all information required for the Podcast upload process. Selecting
"FTP site..." from the Podcast window’s Publish menu
brings up the FTP site dialog:

Each Podcast stores its own complete FTP site information. It’s also possible to save and recall FTP site presets
using the Preset functions at the bottom left of the dialog.

Uploading the Podcast
Once you have specified the FTP site settings, uploading
the Podcast is rather simple by using the functions in the
Podcast window’s Publish menu.

FTP site dialog.

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Podcasting

Following upload functions are available:
Function

Description

Update all
items on
FTP

Uploads/updates the XML Podcast file on the FTP;
also uploads all items’ media files, but only if they are
not already present on the FTP.
This is the most common function to upload and update your Podcast.

Upload/Re- Same as above, but always uploads/replaces all
place all
items’ media files; useful if you have changed the auitems on FTP dio data, for example.
Update se- Uploads/updates the XML Podcast file on the FTP;
lected item on also uploads the media file of the currently selected
FTP
item in the list, but only if it is not already present on
the FTP.
Upload/Re- Same as above, but always uploads/replaces the
place semedia file of the currently selected item in the list;
lected item on useful if you have changed the audio data, for examFTP
ple.

Ö Please note that when we say "all items", we in fact
mean all items which have their "Enabled" checkbox activated in the item list. If not enabled, these episodes are
simply omitted from the Podcast.
Ö Uploading happens in a separate background process, so that you can continue working in WaveLab Essential, in case uploading takes time.
Checking the Podcast
Selecting "View XML source document..." from the Podcast window’s Publish menu launches your system’s default XML editor, in order to visualize the contents of the
feed XML file produced by WaveLab Essential.
And as a final check, select "View published Podcast..."
from the Podcast window’s Publish menu, to open your
system’s default Internet browser and receive the Podcast
you have just published from the Internet.

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Podcasting

20
Sampling and creating loops

Introduction

5. Make a new selection in another file and press [Ctrl][Shift]-[C] again.

This chapter describes various operations related to creating loop sounds (e.g. for samplers).

The file and region information for the new selection is added to the clipboard, without removing any previous information there.

Looping is a common technique used in samplers to simulate the infinite (or at least very long) sustain of many instrumental sounds. WaveLab Essential has tools for
creating smooth loops, even for the most complex types of
sounds.

6. Copy the regions of as many audio files as you like in
the same way.
7. When you have copied the desired regions, go to the
Keyzone Page view in HALion and press [Ctrl]-[V].
The copied regions appear as separate samples in HALion, assigned to
keys corresponding to their original root key settings.

What we normally refer to as audio files in WaveLab Essential are probably called “samples” in your sampler. In
this chapter we will adhere to this terminology and call audio recordings “samples”.

Ö If you are using HALion with Cubase SX/SL, and have
selected WaveLab Essential as your external Wave Editor,
you can open HALion samples for editing in WaveLab Essential directly from the sampler, by selecting “Edit in Cubase SX/SL”.

Using WaveLab Essential with
Steinberg HALion

Editing sample attributes

If you are the lucky owner of Steinberg’s HALion software
sampler, you can use WaveLab Essential as your sample
editor. You can add samples by dragging audio file selections from WaveLab Essential onto the HALion Key Zone
Editor or by using copy and paste. It is also possible to
transfer multiple samples from WaveLab Essential to
HALion in one go, using the following procedure:
1. Open and set up the audio files in WaveLab Essential.
You may for example need to adjust the root key settings in the “Sample
attributes” dialog (see “Editing sample attributes” on page 170), so that
they correspond to the proper pitches of the files.

2. If you have edited the files in any way, make sure they
are saved.
This is very important, since HALion will load the actual file from disk.

The “Sample attributes” dialog.

Ö If you haven’t edited the actual audio, but only the loop
markers or sample attributes (e.g. root key settings), you
should save the file(s) with the “Save as” command.

This menu item on the Sampling menu allows you to make
settings for a sample. They do not process the sample in
any way, they just give it properties that your sampler may
or may not take advantage of.

This is because those settings are stored in the file headers, which are
only rebuilt when the audio is re-saved. If the audio portion of a file hasn’t
been changed, WaveLab Essential will not re-save the audio on a regular
“Save” – hence you should use “Save as”.

3. Make a selection range in one of the files, covering the
section you want to use as a sample.
4. Press [Ctrl]-[Shift]-[C].
With this function, no audio is copied, only the audio file reference and
the position of the selected region.

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Sampling and creating loops

Basic looping

Setting

Description

Name

The name the sample will have in the sampler. If the
sample is an already named file, the name is displayed here, but you can change it if you wish. Note
that not all samplers support all characters. Furthermore, if the name is too long, it will be truncated.

Parse name into
key

Instrumental sounds in samplers rely heavily on looping.
Looping a sound allows you to repeat a section of the
sample indefinitely, to create a sustain of unlimited length.
An example of this would be an organ sound. Without
looping you will only be able to play notes as long as the
original recording. With looping, notes can be of any length.

If a sample is named so as to denote its root key
(e.g. “Bass C0” – a sample of a bass in the key C0),
clicking this button will automatically fill in the key
field (see below) with the root key information taken
from the file name. Note that you can also use this
method for samples that are named so as to denote
their MIDI note numbers (see below).

Parse last
group of digits

This is available when you select MIDI note number
notation (see below), and can be useful when you
want to use the Parse name into key option (described above). In cases where samples are named
with multiple groups of numbers – e.g.
“Piano_01_112” – you need to activate this option
to let WaveLab Essential know that the last group of
digits is the one denoting the MIDI note number.

Key

This specifies which key will play back the sound at
its original pitch.

Detune

This specifies whether the sample should be played
back at a slightly different pitch. The range is ±50%
of a semitone, which translates into a quarter tone in
each direction.

Detect from
audio selection

If you click this button, WaveLab Essential will analyse the sample and determine its pitch and amount
of detune. For this to work properly, the sample must
be of such a nature that it is possible to clearly detect a pitch (it won’t work properly with chords and
drum loops for example).

Finding a good loop point takes a bit of practice. Here is
some advice:
• There are only two types of loops: very long and very short.
Loops of intermediate lengths usually don’t work very well.
• A long loop will sound the most natural, and should be used
whenever possible. However, if the sound does not have a
stable section in the middle (an even sustain part), it might be
hard to find a good long loop. For example, a piano note –
which decays continuously – will be hard to loop since the
start point of the loop will be louder than the end. A flute will
be much simpler, because the sound in the sustain section is
very stable.
• Very short loops (covering only a few cycles or periods) can
almost always be found, but may sound “static” and unnatural.
• A loop should normally start a short time after the “attack” portion, that is, when the sound has “stabilized” to a sustaining
note.
• If you try to set up a long loop, it should end as late as possible, but before the sound starts decaying to silence (if it does).
• If you go for a short loop, it is harder to say exactly where in
the sound to put it, but it should definitely be towards the end.

Musical notation/MIDI These radio buttons let you choose whether to disnote number
play the different key values in the dialog with the
key’s pitch or the key’s MIDI note number. In musical
notation, keys are denoted according to their pitch
(e.g. C3 – meaning the note C in the third octave).
Each key corresponds to a MIDI note number, from
0 – 127. The key C3 for example, corresponds to
the MIDI note number 48. MIDI note numbers make
it possible for samplers to automatically map samples to the correct keys.
Key range

If a sample is part of a multi-sample key map, you
can specify the key range for the sample, i.e. which
keys should be able to play it.

Velocity range

If a sample is part of a multi-sample key map with
velocity switchable samples, you can here specify
the velocity range for the sample – the minimum and
maximum velocity values that should trigger the
sample.

More information about looping in general, and the exact
capabilities of your sampler in particular, can be found in
the sampler’s manual. Below follows a description of
WaveLab Essential’s set of tools for setting up loops.

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Sampling and creating loops

Adding, moving and playing loop markers

Using the Crossfade Looper

Loop markers are added, moved and otherwise edited just
as any other type of marker. This is described in the section “Introduction” on page 98 and onwards.

What is the Crossfade Looper?

The Crossfade Looper is a special tool for creating “seamless” loops. It allows you to “nudge” the loop points while
at the same time providing visual feedback of the “join”
between the start and end point.

Please note the points about marker pairs (see
“About marker pairs” on page 98).

Here is a brief description on how to create a basic loop:

The Crossfade Looper can also automatically find loop
points for you, by scanning the area of the waveform that
is in the current loop points’ vicinity. You can specify parameters for how “finicky” the program should be when
suggesting loop points.

1. Make a selection that corresponds to the area you
want looped.
If you like, you can play back with “Loop selection” activated on the
Transport bar and adjust the selection during playback.

2. Bring up the Marker toolbar.

Finally, if you can’t find a good enough loop point using
the methods described above, the Crossfade Looper allows you to process the waveform to allow for smoother
loops. It does this by crossfading areas of the waveform
close to the loop start and end points.

3. Click on the loop marker icons (the green ones).
The selection is now enclosed by loop markers.

4. Make sure that “Loop as marked” is activated on the
Transport bar.
Click the Playback end position/Loop mode button to open the corresponding pop-up.

Opening the Crossfade Looper

5. Play back and adjust the position of the markers to
change the loop.

Before you open the Crossfade Looper we suggest you
set up a basic loop as described on the previous pages.
Then proceed as follows:
1. If you have several loops, place the wave cursor somewhere inside the one you want to work on.
This can be done by clicking somewhere between the loop markers.

2. Select Crossfade Looper… from the Sampling menu.
3. Click on the “Loop points” tab.
This tab should be your starting point, since this is where you adjust the
loop points.

A basic loop setup using markers.
!

Ö The following sections describe the common procedures for using the Crossfade Looper.

Note that it takes a while for changes in the loop to
take effect on playback. Exactly how long depends
on your buffer settings, see “About loop updating
and short loops” on page 58.

About the Crossfade Looper dialogs
The Crossfade Looper dialogs are non-modal. While they
are open, you can still access other windows (e.g. the
Transport bar). However, all editing of the Wave window
on which you are working is blocked out (except moving
the current pair of loop markers, of course).

Getting a good loop by just dragging the markers around
might be hard. Most often you will hear a click or an abrupt
change in timbre at the turning point, which is hard to get
rid of by dragging the markers.
We suggest you only use this method for setting up the
basic length of the loop (leaving clicks, etc. as they are)
and then use the Crossfade Looper and Loop Tone Equalizer (described below) to perfect it.

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Sampling and creating loops

Furthermore, each time you click Apply, the process starts
out from the wave data as it was when you opened the
Crossfade Looper (since you want to be able to try out
various types of crossfading without re-processing the
wave each time). This affects the undo function: there is
only one step of undo and no redo in the Crossfade
Looper.

• The nudge buttons are more useful for fine-tuning since they
move the points by one screen pixel. This means that in 1:1
zoom mode, each press on a nudge button moves the loop
point a single sample.
The various moving options
• By moving the left part of the display, you are moving the end
point to a later (left) or earlier (right) position.
• By moving the right part of the display, you are moving the
start point to a later (left) or earlier (right) position.
• If you activate Linking, both the start and end points will move
simultaneously. That is, the loop length will be exactly the
same, but the entire loop will move.
• You can switch to the Wave window and adjust the markers
there, if needed.

Moving the loop points “manually”
Let’s assume you have set up a basic loop that you are
happy with, except for glitches or “bumps” at the turning
point. You can then use the Crossfade Looper to move
the points manually, in small steps, to eliminate the glitch.
This is actually technically no different from moving the
loop points in the wave display, but the features of this dialog makes it much easier to find good loop points, since
the display gives you visual feedback as you go along. We
also recommend that you have playback going on in “Loop
as marked” mode since you will then also hear what you
are doing!

Using the auto-find feature
If desired, you can have the program search for good
loop points automatically. This is technically no different
from adjusting the loop points yourself, only that the program uses pattern matching algorithms to suggest loop
points for you.

The two ways of moving loop points
There are two ways of moving the loop points: dragging in
the actual waveform (position the mouse pointer in the
display and drag sideways) and using the “nudge” buttons.

Let’s say that you want to let the program find a better
start point for the loop. You first set up a start and end
loop marker, to get a basic loop, as described above. You
then invoke the automatic searching, and the program
searches the waveform from the current start point, trying
to find a section that is as similar as possible to the area
just after the current end point. When it finds a match it
stops.

You can drag either side of the waveform directly…

You decide how similar the section must be to be considered a match.
Setting up the parameters

…or use the nudge buttons.

The auto-find parameters.

There are two parameters for the auto-find feature, desired correspondence and search accuracy.

• Dragging in the waveform allows you to perform larger moves
more quickly.

• Search accuracy is a parameter for determining how many
samples should be included in the analysis. Higher values result in greater accuracy, but also longer processing times.
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Sampling and creating loops

When you have set up the loop points as desired, you
store them by selecting “Save candidate” from the options
pop-up menu in the dialog, and then selecting one of the
five memory locations.

• Desired correspondence is a value for how well the found
section must resemble the section to which it is compared, to
be considered a match. WaveLab Essential uses two methods for comparison, “phase match” and “join match” (which
provide much better matching than the simple zero crossing
detection used by most other programs. Phase matching also
ensures that no harmonic cancellation will occur when you
crossfade, see later in this chapter). First phase matching is
performed and then, to “fine tune”, a join match is employed. A
value of 1000 will most likely fail completely, since it requires a
100% perfect match.
Searching
1. Set up the search parameters.
2. Click on one of the buttons in between the “nudge”
buttons.
Each time you click, the program scans from the current point (forwards
or backwards, depending on which button you clicked) until it finds a
point that matches. It then stops. If you wish you can stop at any time by
clicking the right mouse button, by using the Stop button on the status
bar or by hitting [Esc]. The program will then jump back to the best match
found so far.

To recall a stored candidate, select “Restore candidate”
from the pop-up menu, and then select the desired memory location from the submenu. The points are now recalled and the loop points in the wave are moved to the
positions stored in the memory location.

3. Check the loop by playing back.
4. If you think there might be a better point, at some later
or earlier position, just click the button again, and scanning continues from this point onwards.

Ö To compare several candidates, you can for example
have playback going, select them one after the other, and
listen to the difference.

Remember that you can always go back to the main Wave
window and adjust the markers manually.

Once you have found your candidate, you can select OK to exit this window or proceed to crossfading.

Working with candidates

Things to note about candidates

Often you will want to try various alternatives before committing to a loop. To be able to compare several alternatives, WaveLab Essential offers looping candidates. These
allow you to store sets of loop points in memory locations
for later recall.

• There is only one set of candidates per Wave window, not one
per set of loop points. This means that if you have several sets
of loops in your file, you must be careful so that you don’t recall the wrong set.
• Crossfading is not part of the candidate, only loop positions
are. You should decide on a candidate to use before you apply crossfading.

174
Sampling and creating loops

Creating a crossfade

4. Decide on a length for the crossfade either by dragging the length handle or by adjusting the Length value
below the graph.

What is a crossfade and when do I need it?

The length is used to adjust the amount of the audio file that will be processed. This area is always located just before the end of the loop, but
the Length value adjusts how far towards the start of the loop it
stretches. As you can see, an equally large area before the loop start is
used as basis for the processing. However, this area is not processed,
just analysed.

Sometimes it is impossible to find a loop that doesn’t
cause any glitches. This is especially true for stereo material, where you might be able to find a perfect candidate
for either channel, but not for both at the same time.
One solution to this problem is to use crossfading. This
technique “smears” the material around the end loop point
so that it loops perfectly. It does this by mixing material before the loop start with material just before the loop end.

Generally you will want the crossfade to be as short as it
can be, with an acceptable result:
• Using a long crossfade will be a better guarantee that the loop
will be smooth. However, more of the waveform will be processed and hence changed in character.
• Using a short crossfade will ensure the sound is affected as
little as possible. However, the loop might then not be as
smooth as otherwise.

The only problem with this technique is that it alters the
waveform and hence changes the sound. However, normally you can find settings that minimize this problem.
Setting up
1. While still at the “Loop points” tab (in the Crossfade
Looper dialog), try to create as good a loop as you can.

5. Decide on a crossfade shape, by dragging the shape
handle or by adjusting the shape value.

2. Click on the Crossfade tab.

The considerations for this are the same as when creating other crossfades, see “Crossfade” on page 73. 0% means that the sound level will
be equal in the middle of the crossfade, whereas 100% means that the
energy will be equal in the middle of the crossfade. Use low values for
“simple” sounds and high values for “complex” sounds.

3. Make sure the Crossfade check box is activated.
There is a corresponding check box on the Post-Crossfade tab. This lets
you choose if regular crossfading and/or post-crossfading will be performed when you click Apply later.

Applying and checking the crossfade
When you click Apply, the sound is processed. If you have
playback going, repeating the loop you will hear the
change take effect after a short while.
Ö You can check the crossfade visually by opening the
“Loop points” tab and activating “Display processed signal” on the options pop-up menu.
When this is activated, the display will show the waveform as it looks
when crossfaded. When the option is deactivated, the display will show
the waveform as it originally was. Switching back and forth allows you to
compare the two.

Ö You can undo the crossfade by selecting Undo from
the Edit menu.
The Crossfade tab with crossfading activated.

Ö If you click OK, the dialog closes and crossfading is
made permanent.
If you click Cancel instead, the dialog closes and the waveform is reverted back to the way it was before crossfading.
!

Do not move the loop points after performing a
crossfade! The waveform has been processed specifically for the current loop settings!

175
Sampling and creating loops

Using the Loop Tone Equalizer

Creating a post-crossfade
The post-crossfade is accessed from its own tab.

This is identical to the regular crossfade, but it is applied
to the area after the loop. This means that it is used to fade
the material so that there will be no glitch when playback
continues out of the loop.
!

The Loop Tone Equalizer is a function for looping those
un-loopable sounds, for example sounds that constantly
decay in level or continuously change in timbre. The Loop
Tone Equalizer applies drastic processing to the sound
that evens out changes in level and timbral characteristics,
before and during the loop.

If you intend to use the sound in your sampler in such
a way that the area after the loop is never played, you
don’t need to worry about this feature at all! Some
samplers don’t even allow you to play the area after
the loop. However, if you do intend to use the area
after the loop it is very important to have post-crossfade activated!

It does this by using one of the following two methods:
• Slice mixing
A number of slices is specified for the looped section. If for example you
specify eight slices, the loop is cut up into eight sections of equal length.
These sections are then mixed together as one sound which is repeated
eight times. This new piece of audio replaces all audio inside the loop in
a smart way so that no harmonic cancellation (due to phase offsets) occurs.

The post-crossfade looks at the part of the waveform that
occurs just after the loop start and processes a certain
area beginning at the end of the loop. The Length parameter adjusts the size of this area.

• Chorus smoothing
This has nothing to do with a conventional chorus effect, but uses a
method known as “Phase Vocoding” to filter the harmonics. This method
is recommended for looping ensemble and choir sounds.

Everything else is identical to regular crossfading, see
above.

You can use both slice mixing and chorus smoothing in
conjunction, but it is highly unlikely that you will ever need
to. Note also that the original length of the loop will not be
changed by the processing.

Working with presets
As with effect processors, you can create presets for settings in the dialog for quick recall. See “Presets” on page
30 for details. This comes in extremely handy for example
when processing a number of similar files, for example for
creating a multisample (several instrumental samples
mapped across the keyboard).

In addition to the above, the Loop Tone Equalizer includes
a crossfade facility so that the original sound fades into
the processed sections as playback approaches the loop
start.

176
Sampling and creating loops

Ö If you click OK, the dialog closes and processing is
made permanent.

To use the Loop Tone Equalizer, proceed as follows:
1. Set up a basic loop of the length you desire.

If you click Cancel instead, the dialog closes and the waveform is reverted back to the way it was before processing.

This will probably not be a very good loop. If it was you wouldn’t need to
use the Loop Tone Equalizer.

2. Select Loop Tone Equalizer from the Sampling menu
and click on the Loop Tone Equalizer tab.
3. Make sure that either slice mixing or chorus smoothing
is activated and make the desired settings.

Do not move the loop points after performing the
processing! The waveform has been processed specifically for the current loop settings!

About the end of the loop – Post-crossfading

For slice mixing, you need to determine the number of slices. Only experimentation can tell how many slices are needed, but generally, the more
slices, the more natural the sound (to a certain extent). However, the program puts a restriction on the number of slices, so that each one is never
shorter than 20 milliseconds.

After using the Loop Tone Equalizer, the transition from
the end of the loop to the end of the file in many cases
won’t be very natural. This can be fixed as follows:
1. Close the Loop Tone Equalizer and open the Crossfade Looper.

For chorus smoothing, you can make the following settings:
Option

Description

2. Click on the Crossfade tab and deactivate the Crossfade option (the check box).

Timbre

This governs the amount by which the timbral characteristics of the sample should be evened out. The
higher the value, the more pronounced the effect.

3. Click on the Post-Crossfade tab and make sure
Crossfade is activated.

Chorusing

The delay time of the chorus effect varies with the
modulation, which causes a sweeping effect. What
this parameter does is determine the width and
speed of the chorus sweep.

4. Set up the post-crossfade parameters and click Apply.

Enhance Warmth

Creates a smoother, warmer sounding effect.

Stereo Expansion

This increases the width of the sample in the stereo
sound image.

As with the Crossfade Looper, you can create presets for
settings in the dialog for quick recall. See “Presets” on
page 30 for details.

Working with presets

4. Switch to the Pre-Crossfade tab and set up a crossfade.
You will need to use this feature since the Loop Tone Equalizer itself
changes the timbre inside the loop and only there. This will mean that the
transition into the loop will not be as smooth as expected, unless you apply crossfading. Generally, this is the same as the crossfade in the
Crossfade Looper window. However, the difference is that this crossfade is made before and up to the loop start. The processed material created by the Loop Tone Equalizer is added to the original material before
the loop.

5. Click Apply, and the sound gets processed.
If you have playback going, repeating the loop, you will hear the change
take effect after a short while.

Ö You can undo the crossfade by selecting Undo from
the Edit menu.

177
Sampling and creating loops

21
Customizing

What is customizing?

3. Launch the program again, and deactivate “Save preferences on exit”.

When we talk about customizing, we mean making settings so that the program behaves and looks the way you
want it to!

Now you can change the preferences for this session, but the settings
you had when you last quit will be the ones you get next time you launch
the program.

Preferences

Folder editing

Navigating to the right folder via file dialogs can sometimes be time consuming, but WaveLab Essential gives
you the option to optimize these operations.
If you select “Folders” from the Options menu, a dialog
opens where you set for the saving and opening of preferences for WaveLab Essential’s various folders.

In the Preferences dialog on the Options menu you will
find a number of settings, collected on tabs, for tailoring
the look and behavior of the program.

To the left in the dialog is a tree list with two root folders;
“Work folders” and “Document folders”. Work folders are
the folders associated with temporary files, and Document
folders are all folders associated with WaveLab Essential
specific files and documents (Wave, Audio CD Montage,
etc.).

Saving the preferences
To make sure the preference settings “stick”, select the
General tab and make sure “Save preferences on exit” is
activated. When this is activated, all your preferences settings (as well as all menu options, etc.) are automatically
saved when you Quit the program.

Work folders
The Work folders are usually set up after installing WaveLab Essential, as the folders specified for temporary files
have an important bearing on WaveLab Essential’s overall
performance. See “Temporary files” on page 15 for a description of how to set up these folders.

Creating startup preferences
To make sure the program starts with the same preference
settings each time you launch it, proceed as follows:
1. Set up all preferences as desired and make sure “Save
preferences on exit” is activated.
2. Quit the program.

179
Customizing

Document folders

3. Launch the program again, and deactivate “Open last
window layout on startup”.

For each WaveLab Essential document type, you can
specify paths to open and save folders (given that the
document can be saved). This is done in the following
way:

The next time you launch the program, it will open with the windows set
up as in step 1 above, regardless of whether you have changed the window layout since.

Ö If you hold down [Ctrl] when quitting the program, the
effect of the “Open last window layout on startup” setting
is reversed. If it was activated, it will be deactivated and
vice versa.

1. Click on the plus sign for a document type in the tree
list.
All document types will have Open and Save sub-items.

2. Select either Open or Save.

Ö If you hold down [Ctrl] when launching the program,
no window layout is loaded.

Now you can specify a path to a folder which will be automatically selected when opening or saving a document of this type.

For each folder, you can specify the following:

Styling WaveLab Essential – Wave
windows

Item

Description

Current folder

Here you can specify a path to a folder to use for
Saving or Opening documents of the selected
type.

Keep last used

The last folder used for saving or opening documents of the selected type will be selected the
next time you open or save from the file dialog.

Change when save/
open folder changes

Use this if you want the folder to be redefined if
the opposite operation is performed (open vs
save). If you set this option both for the Open and
Save folders, then these folders will always be the
same.

By saving the current window style as default, you can
change the style that is normally used when you open or
record an audio file in a Wave window.

When opening
WaveLab Essential
set this folder

If you want to reset the folder to a specific folder
each time you open WaveLab Essential you can
specify a path here.

On the following pages, we will first describe the general
procedure for how to change the default style, then describe the elements you can change.

It’s possible to “style” the Wave windows to your liking, by
adjusting colors (of waveforms, background, cursor lines,
etc.) and changing the look of the ruler and other window
details.

Saving the window layout

Changing the default style
1. Set up a Wave window to look the way you want it.

If “Open last window layout on startup”, on the Preferences–General tab is activated, the program will open in
exactly the same state as it was when you last quit (with
the option activated). The snapshots, and even the document windows you had open (and their “layout”) will automatically be reopened.

Note that this also includes the ruler formats – see “Units of time and
level” on page 28.

2. Select “Save current window style as default” from the
View menu.
Now, all Wave windows (which have not been opened before) will be
shown in the style you specified.

You can use this to create a startup “layout” that will always appear when you launch WaveLab Essential:

The elements of a style

1. Set up all windows as desired.

Ö When you change any of these style settings and want
to make the changes available to other Wave windows,
you need to save them as the default style.

2. Make sure “Open last window layout on startup” is activated and quit the program.

If you don't do so, newly opened Wave windows will automatically be reset to the default style!

180
Customizing

Waveform elements

If you prefer a single background color (or if you need to
speed up display redraws, typically with slower graphic
cards), you can turn this feature off by activating “Do not
use gradient backgrounds” in the Preferences–Environment tab. The background color will then be a 50/50 mix
of the top and bottom color.

To change the waveform elements, right-click on a waveform (in the overview or in the main display), select Elements and then select the desired item from the submenu
that appears.
!

Note that you make separate settings for the main
waveform display, the overview and for the two channels in a stereo file! Which section you make settings
for depends on where you click.

Again, when changing colors for the waveform images, you make separate settings for the main waveform display, the overview and for the two channels
in a stereo file, depending on where you click.

Ruler style

Item

Description

Time Ruler

Specifies whether or not the display should have
a time ruler.

Level Ruler

This only applies to the Main view display. It is
used to set whether or not there should be a ruler
showing levels.

Solid/Dotted
Markers

These two (mutually exclusive) items are used to
set the style of the marker lines extending across
the waveform. If neither is activated, the marker
lines are hidden.

Range Indicator
at top/bottom

The range indicator is a small “barber shop
striped” bar that indicates which part of the
waveform is shown in the main display. These
two items are used to set whether it should appear at the top or bottom of the overview.

Thin/Medium/
Fat Cursor

These three items are used to set the thickness
of the cursor line.

Solid/Dotted
zero level axis

These two (mutually exclusive) items are used to
set the style of the line crossing the waveform at
zero level (in the middle). If neither is activated,
the zero level axis is hidden.

Solid/Dotted
half level axis

As above, but for the two lines crossing the
waveform at ±50% level.

End of file indicator

Allows you to show/hide the line that indicates
the end of the file.

To change the look of the rulers (done separately for the
Overview and Main view), right-click on the ruler, select
style and then select one of the options from the submenu
that appears:
Option

Description

3D/Mingled

These two (mutually exclusive) items allow you
to select whether the ruler should have its own
looks (3D) or whether it should “inherit” the color
of the waveform background.

Font

Opens up a dialog box that allows you to set a
font for the text/numbers on the ruler. Select a
font, style, size, effect and color and click OK.

Tick Color

This allows you to set the color for the tick marks
on the ruler. A standard Windows color dialog is
used.

Styling WaveLab Essential – Audio
CD Montage windows
Using custom colors
You can create and assign different color schemes to different clips or tracks to make it easier to find your way
through the Montage:

Colors
To set the color of a certain element in the display, rightclick in the Wave window, select Colors and then select
an element from the submenu that appears. In the standard Windows color dialog that appears, select or define
a color and click OK.

• To assign a color scheme to a track, open the Track
menu and select a color scheme from the Color submenu.

Ö For the display background colors, there are separate
“top” and “bottom” settings – the resulting display background will be a gradient “fade” from the top color to the
bottom color.

• To assign a color scheme to an individual clip, right click
on the clip to bring up the clip speed menu, and select a
color scheme from the Color submenu.

The selected color scheme is used for all current clips on the track, as
well as for clips you add later on. However, note that this color selection
is overridden by the clip colors.

Clip color selections (if other than default) override track colors.

• The Mute color overrides all color settings above.
181
Customizing

Defining custom colors

• If you are editing a clip color element, you can make
separate color settings for the left and right sides of stereo
clips.

You can redefine all colors on the Color pop-up menus, as
well as the colors for various other elements in the Audio
CD Montage. This is done in the Audio CD Montage Colors dialog, using the following procedure:
!

If you want the same color for the left and right sides, you must make
sure that the checkbox Edit Left/Right is activated (it is by default).

There are many items of different color displayed in a
Montage. If you redefine colors, be careful not to
choose colors which cause some elements to “disappear” (e.g. black marker lines on a black background).

When this is activated, settings for the left side of a clip are automatically “mirrored” on the right side, and vice versa.

• If you activate the Link sliders checkbox, you can adjust
all three sliders at once, by moving one of them.

1. Pull down the View menu and select “Audio CD Montage colors…”.

This is useful if you want to adjust the brightness of the color, without affecting the hue.

The Audio CD Montage Colors dialog appears. For the menu item to
be available, the active window must be a Montage window.

• Some elements can be hidden totally by activating the
Hide option.

2. In the Items list, select the element for which you want
to edit the colors.

When this is activated, it is not possible to make any color adjustments
(since the element won’t be visible in the Audio CD Montage anyway).

By clicking the plus sign next to a heading, you display the sub elements
for that item. The available elements are described in the section “The
color elements” on page 183.

• It is also possible to select colors from a standard Windows color dialog, opened by clicking the Select button.

3. Use the three sliders (red, green and blue) to adjust
the color of the selected element.

4. If you make a mistake, you can undo your latest adjustment by clicking the Undo button.

The current color is displayed in the field to the right. You can also see
the changes in the Audio CD Montage window while you are editing.

To undo all changes you made since you opened the dialog, click Undo
All.

5. If you want to apply the same color to several elements, you can use the Copy and Paste buttons.
Set up the color, click Copy, select the next element and click Paste to
apply the same color settings.

• You can also copy an entire color scheme (for example,
copy all settings for one of the custom schemes to the default scheme) by dragging and dropping in the Items list.
6. If you are editing one of the color definitions (the items
that appear on the track and clip color menus), you can rename the color by clicking on the name in the Item list and
typing a new name.
In the Items list, the color definitions that can be renamed are displayed
in blue.

7. When you’re finished, click Close to close the window.

182
Customizing

The color elements
Clip colors
Under the heading Clip Colors you can select colors for
various elements in the following clip types:

Option

Description

Focused Clip name

The name label of the focused clip (see “About
selected and focused clips” on page 114).

Focused Clip name
background

The name label background of the focused clip.

Option

Description

Crossfade Region

Allows you to set the background color for overlapping clip sections.

Default

The default colors, used for clips for which you haven’t selected any specific color.

Miscellaneous colors

Muted

The colors used for all muted clips.

Custom

These options correspond to the items on the Color
submenus (on the Track menu and clip speed
menu). These can be renamed, as described above.

This section of the Items list in the dialog contains color
settings for other elements in the Track View:

For each item, you can select colors for a number of different clip elements. You can make separate adjustments for
the left and right sides of a stereo clip, though by default,
editing a color for the left side will automatically change
the same setting for the right side and vice versa (see
“Defining custom colors” on page 182). For mono clips,
the “Left (mono)” setting is used.

Background top/bottom The background colors of the clip (unselected
(normal/selected)
and selected, respectively). The resulting display
backgrounds will be gradient “fades” from the
top colors to the bottom colors (this can be
turned off in the Preferences–Environment tab,
as described in the section “Colors” on page
181.
The waveform color for unselected and selected
clips, respectively.

Waveform outline
(normal/selected)

The color of the waveform outline (unselected
and selected clips, respectively).

Edge

The left and right edge of the clip.

Edge (selected)

The left and right edge, if the clip is selected.

Axis (level zero)

The color of the horizontal dotted line in the middle of a clip, indicating zero level.

Axis (half level)

The color of the horizontal dotted lines halfway
up and down from the middle of a clip, indicating
50% level.

Channel separator
(stereo clip)

The line dividing the two sides in a stereo clip.

Clip name

The name label of the clip.

Description

Background
top/bottom

The background colors of the Track View.

Cursor

The color of the Montage cursor. Note that because of the blinking Cursor, the selected colors
will appear in inverse video in the Montage.

Cue-Point

The color of the vertical dotted cue point lines.

Window layouts are used for creating various “work displays” for different situations. The following items are
stored in window layouts:

Description

Waveform
(normal/selected)

Option

Working with window layouts

The following color elements are available:
Option

For the Crossfade Region item, you can only select
colors for “Background”.

• The size, position and minimize/maximize properties of document windows. This does not include the contents of the window, just the properties of the window “frame” itself. For
example, if some Wave window was included in the window
layout, the Wave you currently have open when you load the
preset will be sized and moved accordingly.
• Positions of non-modal dialog boxes, such as the off-line processors. This includes opening any such windows.
• Positions of plug-in processor panels.
!

Windows that are already open will never be closed as a
result of recalling a window layout.

Window layouts are managed in the Window Layouts dialog on the View menu. The procedures are the same as
when handling regular presets (for detailed descriptions,
see “Presets” on page 30):
• To create a new window layout, set up the display as
you want it (see the list above) and use the Window Layout dialog to name and add the new layout.

183
Customizing

Creating a Favorites menu

• To modify an existing window layout, set up the display
as you want it, select the window layout in the dialog and
click the Update button.

The Favorites item on the File menu allows you to assemble a list of files that you want to be able to open quickly –
a library if you will.

• To load an existing window layout, select it in the dialog
and click Load.

• To add a file to the list, make sure its window is active
and select “Add current document” from the FavoritesFunctions submenu.

Using key sequences
You can use key sequences for recalling window layouts,
just as with many other items (see “Customizable key
commands” on page 184). This can be used for quick and
easy window control. For example, open a single document window, maximize it, save a window layout and assign it to a key sequence. Later, this key sequence can be
used to maximize the active window only.

• To open a file from the list, select it.
• To clear the whole list, select Clear List from the Favorites–Functions submenu.
• To update the list so that it only lists files that actually
still exist in the specified locations on your hard disk(s),
select Validate List from the Favorites–Functions submenu.

Setting default size and position for
windows

Files that can’t be found are removed.

Customizable key commands

As mentioned above, while window layouts can be used
for storing the size and position of windows, it also stores
settings for various dialog boxes. If you only wish to determine a default size and position for different types of windows (Waves, Audio CD Montages, etc.), you can instead
use the option “Remember active window’s layout as
opening setting” on the View menu. This is a quick and
effective way of organizing your working environment the
way you want it.

In addition to the fixed key commands for selecting from
menus, etc., there are a number of operations for which
you can set up your own commands.
You can do this by specifying a key sequence – a sequence of between one to three keys that must be
pressed in a certain order to invoke the operation.
Key sequences are listed and managed in the “Keyboard
Commands” dialog, opened from the Options menu.

To set a default size and position for a certain type of window, proceed as follows:
1. Open or create the desired type of window.
2. Size and position it the way you like.
3. Pull down the View menu and select “Remember active window’s layout as opening setting”.
A dialog appears asking you to confirm the option.

4. Click “Yes” to continue.
All windows of that type will now open in this same size
and position.
Ö Loading a window layout as described above will
override this setting.

184
Customizing

About the list of operations

7. Disable “Catch mode”.
This is just an optional safety measure so that you don’t accidentally
erase or add to your current key sequence, when pressing more keys.

The main part of this dialog is occupied by the list of available operations that can be called up via key sequences.
You can choose to view this list in one of two ways, with
the “Sort” buttons in the upper right corner of the dialog:

8. Close the dialog.
!

• “Sort by Command” organizes the operations in folders, in
groupings that relate to various sections in the program.
• “Sort by Key” lists all commands in a “flat” fashion (no folders),
and sorts the list alphabetically via the defined key commands,
which allows you to easily find a command assigned to a certain key.

It is possible to define the same key sequence for
two operations. If you do, one of them will be invoked. To see which, select “Sort by key” and locate
the items in the list. The top one is the one that will
be used.

Setting enable options

Regardless of which mode you select, the actual available
operations are the same, it’s just the view that changes.

Once the key sequence has been defined, you may want
to set the Enable Options for the operation. This is done
by selecting from the pop-up in the middle column:

The “dynamic” items in the list
Please note that the number of items in the list varies with
other settings in the program. For example, if you have assigned key shortcuts to plug-ins, in the Plug-in manager,
they will appear in this list too. Otherwise they will not.

Option

The columns
• The Description column lists the operations available.
• The next column allows you to choose between two modes
that determine when a key sequence is available and when it
is not, see “Setting enable options” on page 185.
• The Key column shows the Key sequence defined for the operation.

Description

Enabled all time

This key sequence is always active.

Enabled if active
window…

This key sequence can be used for all windows,
except the ones added to the “Exclude Windows” lists, described below.

Excluding windows (Key commands)
This is mainly for plug-in windows. Since some plug-ins,
especially from third-party manufacturers, have their own
set of key commands, you may want to disable WaveLab
Essential key commands for these windows.

Defining key sequences
1. Select the operation for which you want to create a key
sequence.

Let’s say you assign a key command to “apply” in the Master Section, and a certain plug-in already uses the same
key combination for an internal operation. Then, pressing
this key command might lead to the wrong operation being invoked when this plug-in has the focus.

2. Click the “Key Sequence…” button.
3. If you want to clear the current key sequence, click
Clear.
4. Make sure “Catch mode” is active.
5. Press the first combination of keys that you want to
use.
You can include modifiers ([Shift], [Ctrl], [Alt], etc.) if you like. There is
also a setting that makes the program distinguish between two modifiers
with the same label, on each side of the space bar.

6. Proceed with the following key(s).

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Customizing

Organizing plug-in processors

“Exclude windows” allows you to prevent this situation:
1. Click the “Exclude windows” button.

Introduction

2. Type in the name of the window in the Window exclusion list.

You may find that you need to organize your processors
into sensible groups. Why? Well, a host of plug-ins are included with the program, and additional ones can be
added. Also, sometimes when you install a package of DirectX plug-ins you get effects that are of no relevance to
WaveLab Essential (or even to audio) and therefore just
clutter menus.

You can include DOS “wildcard” characters. For example to exclude all
products from the manufacturer Waves, you can type “Waves*”.

3. Close the window.

Using key sequences
To use a key sequence, press the keys/buttons specified
in the dialog, and the corresponding operation is performed.
!

To organize how your plug-ins appear on menus in the
program, open the “Organize Master Section plug-ins” dialog on the Options menu.

Key sequences can only be executed after you have
closed the Key Commands dialog.

About some special key commands
There are some key commands that might require an explanation:

This organizes plug-ins accessed from the Master
Section, not the VST plug-ins in the Montage. Note
however, that you can exclude some VST plug-ins
completely, see “Handling VST plug-ins” on page
188.

About the plug-in list

Command

Description

Set focus on this
key command group

This allows you to re-use key commands
for certain groups.
For example, let’s say you set up things so
that [Ctrl]+[F10] is the key command for
setting the focus to the Master Section.
You then assign simple key commands to
the Master Section items, for example [A]
for “Apply” and [R] for “Remove all plugins”, even though these keys may be used
for other sections of the program.
You can then Press [Ctrl]-[F10] followed
by any of the single commands to control
most aspects of the Master Section.

Bypass all defined
key commands/
Enable all key commands

This can be used when an installed plugin, from a third party manufacturer, has its
own set of key commands. You can then
temporarily disable all WaveLab Essential
key commands to be able to use the plugin’s own.

Bypass all defined
key commands except those
set to “Enabled all time”

Same as above but disables all key commands except those where you have set
the Enable Option to “Enabled all time”.

Plug-in Slot commands

To assign a certain processor to a certain
slot, in the Master Section, you need two
key sequences. Selecting a slot is done
by a key sequence in the “Slot selection”
section, and selecting a plug-in is done in
the “Slot Commands” section.

The “Organize Master Section plug-ins” dialog

These are plug-ins that can be used in the program. They
are processors, or effects, that can be added to the Master Section slots (see “The Effects pane” on page 85).

186
Customizing

Groups

An example of this would be DirectX plug-ins. Many of
these do not apply to audio at all and are of no relevance
to WaveLab Essential whatsoever. By disabling these, you
will make it easier to find the plug-ins that you really want
to use in WaveLab Essential.

In the Master Section folder in the list, you will find subfolders, representing groups of plug-ins.
By organizing your plug-ins into folders, you arrange the
way they appear on menus in the program. How you organize your effects is of course up to you, but initially, they
are categorized according to their technical “type”, regular
WaveLab Essential plug-ins in one folder, VST plug-ins in
another, DirectX plug-ins in yet another, etc. (see “The Effects pane” on page 85 for more details on these types of
plug-ins).
!

VST plug-ins can also be excluded, see “Handling
VST plug-ins” on page 188.

Working with groups
The Master Section plug-ins can be organized into
groups. This is done by adding subfolders to the Master
Section folder and then dragging Plug-in icons into these
folders.

VST and DirectX plug-ins need to be in a group,
whereas WaveLab Essential plug-ins can be outside
all groups.

When you then select from plug-in menus or display lists
of plug-ins, the organization you have created will be reflected in the menu/list.

The columns
• The Plug-in column displays the names of all the available
plug-ins.
• The FX column determines whether a plug-in is active or not,
see below.
• If the checkbox in the PM (Post Master) column is activated
for a plug-in, it will be available for selection in the Dithering
pane in the Master Section (after the master faders in the signal path). This allows you to use separately purchased dithering plug-ins and similar. See “Adding other plug-ins to the
Dithering pane” on page 89 for more information.
• The Key column displays the key sequence defined for a plugin.
• The Module column tells you the name of the plug-in (dll) file.

Here, a “Dynamics”
group has been
created, which
then appears in
the Master Section.

Activating and deactivating plug-ins and
groups

• To create a group, click the New Group button, enter a
name and press [Return].

By clicking in the FX column, you can activate/deactivate
individual plug-ins or an entire group of plug-ins (see below for more information on groups). If you have plug-ins
installed on your computer that you don’t want to use in
WaveLab Essential, this lets you disable them completely,
thus reducing “menu clutter”. The disabled plug-ins will
still be applicable in other programs that can use them.

The group will initially appear at the end of the list, but when you start using it, the list will be resorted so that the groups are displayed in alphabetical order.

• To delete a group, select it and click Delete Group.
If the group contains any plug-ins, they will not be deleted. Instead, they
will appear in the Master Section section, outside all other groups.

• Moving plug-ins between groups is done by dragging
and dropping, just as when dragging files in the Windows
Explorer.
• If you lose track of your changes and wish to return to
the state that the list was in when you first opened the dialog, click Undo Changes.
187

Customizing

• If you want to restore everything to the default “factory
settings”, click “Set default”.
!

These settings are stored in the files “WaveLab Essential/Presets/Plug-ins/PlugInPrefAE.set” and
“WaveLab Essential/System/plugins_es.set”. If you
ever encounter problems with “lost” plug-ins, delete
these files and the program will re-scan and build a
new list of plug-ins the next time you launch it. This
can also be achieved by clicking the “Force plugin
dectection at next launch” button in the Preferences–VST dialog (see below).

Description

Ignore plugins located
in the following
sub-folders

In this text field, you can type in the name of a
folder or subfolder containing VST plug-ins that
you want to exclude.
If you want to exclude several folders, type in all
their names, but separate each name with a
semicolon.

Do not load the
following plugins

In this list you can exclude individual plug-ins
from being loaded by adding them to the list.
Common VST instrument plug-ins (which cannot be used in WaveLab Essential) are already
added to the list.

Faster graphics refresh- This can be useful for plug-ins that display e.g.
ing (consumes more
meters. If changed, this option takes effect after
computer power)
closing and reopening the VST plug-in window(s).

Handling VST plug-ins

Force plugin detection at Clicking this button lets WaveLab Essential renext launch
scan and build a new list of all plug-ins next time
it is launched.

If you have VST plug-ins installed on your computer that
you don’t need in WaveLab Essential, you can tell the program to ignore these on launch. This is done in the Preferences–VST dialog. It is possible to exclude single VST
plug-ins, entire folders and subfolders containing VST
plug-ins, and the “Shared VST Plug-ins” folder (if present
on your system). The methods for doing this are all described below.
!

Item

Note the following:
• If VST plug-ins you want to exclude reside in one or several
subfolders inside a main folder, you don’t have to list all the
subfolders. Excluding the main folder will also automatically
exclude its subfolders.
• It’s not necessary to type in the entire path to a folder you
want to exclude (e.g. C:\plug-ins\reverb). Typing just reverb
will suffice, since WaveLab Essential will look through the
folders and subfolders on your C disk or partition upon startup, searching for the folder named reverb, and exclude it.
• On the other hand, if you have a main folder containing two or
more subfolders and you only want to exclude the plug-ins in
one of the folders and you also have another folder or subfolder with the same name as the one you want to exclude, you
will need to type the path to the subfolder you want to exclude
(e.g. C:\plug-ins\delay).

Note that unlike deactivating a plug-in in the Plug-in
Manager (as described in the section “Activating and
deactivating plug-ins and groups” on page 187)
which will only remove it from the plug-in menu in the
Master Section, “ignoring” a VST plug-in as described below will remove it from the whole program,
including the Montage.

Proceed as follows to set up which VST plug-ins to use in
WaveLab Essential:
• Open the Preferences dialog from the Options menu,
and select the VST tab.
This contains the following items:
Item

Description

Use VST plugin
shared folder

If you have additional VST plug-ins installed on
your computer, these can also be available in
WaveLab Essential, provided that they are installed in the “Shared VST Plug-ins” folder and
this checkbox is activated. Next time WaveLab
Essential is launched the plug-ins in this folder
will be available.

Optional extra VST
Here you can set a path to an “extra” VST plugin
plugin folder
folder. As some plug-ins may not be usable in
(WaveLab Essential spe- WaveLab Essential, you can set up a specific
cific)
folder containing all the VST plug-ins you wish
to use in WaveLab Essential.

In this case, the subfolder “Delay” in the folder “Old effects” will be excluded, but the subfolder “Delay” in the folder “New effects” will be included.

188
Customizing

• Quit WaveLab Essential and then launch the program
again.
If you check the effect menus, you will find that the plug-ins in the specified folders are removed.

• If you change your mind and want to use the ignored
plug-ins again, repeat the steps above but remove the
folder names from the text field.

Excluding all plug-ins
If you wish, you can temporarily exclude all plug-ins so that
none will be available in WaveLab Essential:
• Press and hold [Ctrl]+[Shift] when launching WaveLab
Essential.
This will disable the Master Section and prevent all plug-ins from being
loaded. This can be useful for troubleshooting purposes – i.e. to determine whether the loading of one or more plug-ins is causing problems.

• If you wish to have access to the plug-ins again, activate
the Master Section.

189
Customizing

22
Plug-in processor reference

About WaveLab Essential plug-ins

Chorus

These plug-ins use WaveLab Essential’s own plug-in format, and cannot be used with other applications. Note:

The Chorus plug-in (only available in the Master Section)
is a classic stereo chorus based on a sweeping delay,
with the following parameters:

Ö As a rule, WaveLab Essential specific plug-ins can
only be used in the Master Section (not as clip effects in
the Audio CD Montage).

Parameter

Description

Delay (0.1~60ms)

Use this parameter to specify the basic time delay
for the chorused signal with respect to the “dry”
signal. The higher the value, the more prominent the
effect. Low settings (up to 7ms) create flanger-like
effects. Settings up to 25ms are for classic chorus
while settings above this value are mainly for special effects.

Width (0~100%)

Use this parameter to specify how much the delay
time is allowed to vary with the modulation. It is this
variation in delay time that causes the sweeping effect. Note that the value 0% should probably be
avoided since it might create the impression that
you are experiencing phase problems.

Frequency
(0.01~25Hz)

The Frequency parameter sets the speed of the
sweep (the modulation). The higher the value, the
faster the modulation. You will probably not use values above 7Hz except for special effects.

Feedback
(0~100%)

This parameter specifies how much of the output
from the effect is fed back to the input (the feedback signal is also phase inverted). The higher the
value, the more prominent the effect. At short delay
times, this creates a flanger-like effect. At larger
settings it creates more of a slapback repetition
type of sound.

However, some WaveLab Essential effects are also included as VST
plug-ins, available as clip effects in Audio CD Montages. This is indicated for each effect below.

Ö You can specify which plug-ins should be available in
the Master Section by using the Organize Master Section
Plug-ins function on the Options menu.
This also allows you to specify which plug-ins should be available in the
Dithering Pane (post-master fader).

Ö Presets for WaveLab Essential plug-ins are handled
like other presets in WaveLab Essential (processing functions, etc.).

Auto Panner
The Auto Panner (only available in the Master Section)
pans the signals continuously between the left and right
channel in the stereo image. It has the following parameters:
Parameter

Description

LFO Freq
(0.1Hz~50Hz)

This parameter sets the speed of the panning. The
higher the value, the faster the signal moves around
in the stereo image.

Width (0~100%)

Use this parameter to specify the “width” of the pan
movements. The value 100% causes the signal to
move from the extreme left to the extreme right,
while 0% disables the panning effect.

Waveform
(Sine, Pulse)

Allows you to specify the way in which the signal
moves from left to right. Select Sine if you prefer
fluid movements, or Pulse to create abrupt panning
“jumps”.

Out Left, Out Right
(-96dB~6dB)

These two parameters allow you to adjust the level
of the left or right channel, useful e.g. for correcting
the stereo image or adjusting the overall gain. The
setting 0dB means no change of level, while -96dB
means turning the channel off completely.

Fb Balance (0~100%)Use this parameter to set the volume of the Feedback signal (see above) in the mix. If this is set to
100%, and combined with a Feedback setting between 65% and 100%, the effect goes into self-oscillation.
Glimmer 1,
The two Glimmer parameters allow you to specify
Glimmer 2 (0~100%) to what extent the Chorus signal should move
around in the stereo image. They work in more or
less the same way as the Auto Panner but only apply to the Chorus signals. Glimmer 1 processes the
right channel signal, while Glimmer 2 processes a
combination of the left and right channels (the actual left channel always remains at 0).
Stereo Spread
(0~100%)

This parameter specifies the width the Chorus effect will occupy in the stereo sound image. The
value 0% creates a mono impression, and since left
and right channel signals are then mixed together,
the Chorus becomes louder.

Mix (0~100%)

Use this parameter to specify the balance in level
between the dry and the delayed signal. The value
0% means that only the dry signal will be heard,
while 100% actually means a 50/50 mix between
dry and effect signal.

Output Lev
(-48dB~0dB)

This is an attenuator that allows you to reduce the
output level of the Chorus effect, avoiding clipping
and hence distortion. If the Clip indicator lights up
continuously, lower this value.

191
Plug-in processor reference

Crystal Resampler

This is a three-band equalizer with high and low shelving
filters and a full parametric mid-frequency band. You can
turn off each band separately by clicking the corresponding button, making it easy to compare the signal with and
without EQ. The following parameters are available:

The Crystal Resampler plug-in (only available in the Master Section) is a professional sample rate converter providing exceptional transparency and preservation of the
frequency content:
Parameter
Sample Rate
(6 - 96 kHz)

Description
This defines the output sample rate while the input
sample rate is determined by the sample rate of the
active audio file or Audio CD Montage.

Quality (Preview (fast), This defines the quality of the algorithm which is
Standard)
used. In Preview mode the CPU load is much lower
than in Standard mode, but as a trade off the sonic
quality of the resulting audio is also lower.

Echo
The Echo plug-in (only available in the Master Section) is
a stereo echo effect with two separate delay lines. It has
the following parameters:
Parameter

Description

Delay 1
(0.5~1000ms)

This sets the delay time of Delay 1, with respect to
the incoming signal. Please note that the minimum
value (0.5ms) creates an out-of-phase impression.

Feedback 1
(0~100%)

This sets the amount of delayed signal fed back
into the Delay 1 block, to create repetitions. The
value 100% means that the echo signal is repeated
indefinitely, while 0% means there is only one repetition.

Link 1-2
(Off, Linked)

Select Off if you wish to use Delay 1 and Delay 2 as
two independent blocks. Select Linked if the output
of Delay 1 is to be connected to the Input of Delay
2.

This sets the stereo width of Delay 1 and Delay 2.
When set to 100%, Delay 1 is assigned to the left
channel, while Delay 2 is assigned to the right
channel. The value 0% means that both Delay
blocks are spread across the stereo field.

Vol Left, Vol Right
(-96dB~0dB)

Use these parameters to correct volume imbalances brought about by the Delay effects. These
parameters only apply to the Echo effect, the dry
signal is not affected by these settings.

Description

High Gain

Determines the boost or cut (in dB) of the high
shelving filter.

High Frequency

Sets the frequency of the high shelving filter. Frequencies above this value will gradually be increased or reduced in level, according to the High
Gain setting.

Mid Gain

Determines the boost or cut (in dB) of the mid band
EQ.

Mid Frequency

Sets the center frequency of the mid band eq. Frequencies around this value will be affected by the
Mid Gain.

Mid Q

Use this parameter to set the width of the Mid
band, e.g. how wide a frequency range around the
Mid Frequency should be affected by the mid band
EQ. The higher this value, the “narrower” the mid
band.

Low Gain

Determines the boost or cut (in dB) of the low
shelving filter.

Low Frequency

Sets the frequency of the low shelving filter. Frequencies below this value will gradually be increased or reduced in level, according to the Low
Gain setting.

Leveler
This plug-in is available both as a VST and a WaveLab Essential plug-in. It can be used as a clip effect in the Audio
CD Montage, or as a global effect in the Master Section.

Delay 2, Feedback 2 See Delay 1 (0.5~1000ms) and Feedback 1
(0~100%) above. These parameters are identical
to these but apply to the second Delay block.
Del. Balance
(0~100%)

Parameter

This “effect” simply reduces or boosts the signal level.
This is useful for matching levels between effects. You
may want to patch in the Leveler after an equalizer plug-in,
for example. The parameters consist of volume settings for
the left and right channels, and a Stereo Link setting
(when activated, the Volume Left parameters control the
level of both channels). Finally, a Mix to mono setting allows you to mix an incoming stereo signal to mono (much
like the Mono button in the Master Section).

EQ-1

Noise Gate

EQ-1 is available both as a VST and a WaveLab Essential
plug-in. It can be used as a clip effect in the Audio CD
Montage, or as a global effect in the Master Section.

This plug-in is available both as a VST and a WaveLab Essential plug-in. It can be used as a clip effect in the Audio
CD Montage, or as a global effect in the Master Section.

192
Plug-in processor reference

The Noise Gate plug-in mutes any signal that falls below a
specified threshold level. This can be useful for removing
unwanted residual noise from audio material without having to manually clean up or mute soundfiles. Other applications include gating reverb “tails” and tightening
percussion tracks.
Parameter

Description

Threshold
(-144~-12dB)

This setting determines at what level the Noise
Gate is activated. Any signal or portion of a signal
that falls below the chosen threshold will be muted.

The Puncher plug-in generates additional harmonics
which are added to the audio material. The result is a more
dynamic, and “punchier” sound, particularly when applied
to drums and percussive material. Compared to the Peak
Master the Puncher plug-in could be described as operating in almost the opposite way. Puncher leaves quieter
parts untouched but will add power to the louder portions
without causing clipping. The plug-in is optimized for peak
signal levels between -10 and 0dB, the closer to 0dB, the
better.

Rel Time (1~5000ms) Determines how long the gate stays open after a
signal below the Threshold level has been detected.
Rel Sens (1~100)

Parameter

Description

Density (Soft, Medium, The difference between these 3 settings lies in the
Hard)
number of added harmonics. The setting you use
depends on the audio material.

This setting is used to prevent the gate from being
triggered on/off inadvertently when the signal is
close to the threshold level.

Effect (0~100%)

Attack Sens (1~100) Determines the time it takes for the gate to open. A
low setting provides a fast transient response but a
high setting will soften or mute the early portion of
the sound which is triggering the gate.

This adjusts the balance between the processed
and the dry signal.

Input Gain
(-12~24dB)

This sets the input level. Boosting the signal may
cause clipping, so use this with caution. With no
boost, Puncher will never cause clipping.

Peak Master

Silence

This plug-in is available both as a VST and a WaveLab Essential plug-in. It can be used as a clip effect in the Audio
CD Montage, or as a global effect in the Master Section.
This plug-in provides a safe and transparent way of boosting the perceived loudness of audio material. By limiting
transients and simultaneously raising the general level by
compression, the Peak Master will increase the subjective
loudness of the signal without risk of distortion inducing
peaks.

The Silence plug-in (only available in the Master Section)
lets you add silent portions at the start and/or end of a file.
This can be useful for example in conjunction with effects
such as reverb and delay which produce audio “tails” – i.e.
the sound of the effect lingers after the end of the file –
since the sound of the effect would otherwise be muted at
the end of the file. To remedy this, just place the Silence
plug-in before the other plug-in in the Master Section and
specify the length of the silent portion as necessary, so
that the sound of the effect is allowed to decay naturally.

Parameter

Description

Input Gain
(-12~+24dB)

This allows you to adjust the input level to Peak
Master. Use this to (typically) raise the loudness of
the signal. Use extreme boost settings with caution
as they can induce distortion.

The Silence plug-in only has two parameters which let you
define the length of the silent portions at the start and end
of the file.

Out Ceiling
(-18~0dB)

This setting determines the maximum level at the
Peak Master outputs.

StereoExpander

Softness (-5~5)

This parameter affects the way the Peak Master operates. A high setting will maximize the perceived
loudness effect but can in some cases result in a
slight harshness of the sound. Adjust this parameter to optimize the balance between sound quality
and the desired effect.

The StereoExpander plug-in (only available in the Master
Section) narrows or enlarges the stereo width of an existing stereo signal. This is set by the single “Width” parameter.
A value of 0% produces two equal output channels (the
original stereo image is lost). Values between 1 and 49%
correspond to a narrower stereo image. A value of 50%
corresponds to the original signal. Values between 51 and
100% enlarge the stereo image.

Puncher
This plug-in is available both as a VST and a WaveLab Essential plug-in. It can be used as a clip effect in the Audio
CD Montage, or as a global effect in the Master Section.
193

Plug-in processor reference

VST Plug-ins

Choirus2

About VST Plug-ins

Choirus2 is a chorus effect, used for making the sound
“warmer”, etc. It has the following parameters:

These plug-ins use Steinberg’s widely adapted VST plugin format. As a rule, VST plug-ins can be used by any VSTcompatible application, although some plug-ins may still
be limited to use with certain programs. Note:
Ö VST Plug-ins can be used in the Master Section or as
clip effects in the Audio CD Montage.
Ö As with WaveLab Essential plug-ins, you can specify
which VST plug-ins should be available in the Master Section by using the Organize Master Section Plug-ins function on the Options menu.
This also allows you to specify which plug-ins should be available in the
Dithering Pane (post-master fader).

Ö It’s also possible to exclude VST plug-ins completely
from WaveLab Essential, thereby removing them from the
clip and track effects lists as well.

Parameter

Description

Time

Use this parameter to specify the basic time delay
for the chorused signal with respect to the “dry”
signal. The higher the value, the more prominent the
effect. Low settings create flanger-like effects, medium settings provides classic chorus while higher
settings are mainly for special effects.

Width

Lfo Freq

The Frequency parameter sets the speed of the
sweep (the modulation). The higher the value, the
faster the modulation. You will probably not use
higher values (above 7Hz) except for special effects.

Feedback

Feed Bal

Use this parameter to set the volume of the Feedback signal (see above) in the mix. If this is set to
100%, and combined with a Feedback setting between 65% and 100%, the effect goes into self-oscillation.

Glimmer 1,
Glimmer 2

The two Glimmer parameters allow you to specify
to what extent the Chorus signal should move
around in the stereo image. They work in more or
less the same way as the Auto Panner but only apply to the Chorus signals. Glimmer 1 processes the
right channel signal, while Glimmer 2 processes a
combination of the left and right channels (the actual left channel always remains at 0).

Out Levl

The stereo output level of the effect.

Ö VST plug-ins have their own preset handling.
When you click the Preset button for this type of effect, a pop-up menu
appears, allowing you to save or load effect programs (presets) or complete banks containing several programs.

Autopan
The AutoPan plug-in pans the signals continuously between the left and right channel in the stereo image. It has
the following parameters:
Parameter

Description

LFO Freq
(0.1Hz~10Hz)

This parameter sets the speed of the pan movements. The higher the value, the faster the processed signal moves around in the stereo image.

Width (0~100%)

Use this parameter to specify the “width” of the pan
movements. Setting this to its maximum value
causes the signal to move from the extreme left to
the extreme right, while lowering it completely disables the panning effect.

Waveform

Determines the shape of the panning curve. Available curve shapes are Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth,
and Pulse.

Out Levl

The stereo output level of the effect.

194
Plug-in processor reference

CleanComp

• Removal – a de-click algorithm is applied to the audio,
removing the clicks.

CleanComp is a simple compressor that allows you to
limit loud sounds, while at the same time boosting the
overall loudness of the audio material.
Parameter

Description

Ceiling (0dB~-24)

This setting determines the maximum level at the
CleanComp outputs.

Softness (-5~5)

This parameter affects the way CleanComp operates. A high setting will maximize the perceived
loudness effect but can in some cases result in a
slight harshness of the sound. Adjust this parameter to optimize the balance between sound quality
and the desired effect.

In many cases, the original audio material “hidden” underneath a click
cannot be restored. This means there will be a gap once the click has
been removed. DeClicker has the ability to automatically “redraw” the
hence missing parts of the waveform. This feature can also be used to
remove tape dropouts with a length of up to 60 samples (just above one
millisecond at 44.1kHz).

The whole Declicking process can be visually monitored in
the Input and Output displays of the DeClicker window
(showing the incoming audio and the processed - DeClicked - audio, respectively). This helps you to adjust the
parameters. Furthermore, if you activate the Audition button, only the removed material will be heard (and shown in
the Output display).

Out Gain (0~+24dB) This allows you to adjust the output level from
CleanComp. Use this to (typically) raise the loudness of the signal. Use extreme boost settings with
caution as they can induce distortion.

DeClicker
The DeClicker plug-in is specifically designed to eliminate
single “clicks” or “pops” in a recording. One typical application is to clean up recordings made from vinyl records,
but you may also find it useful for removing pops from microphone switches, oxidized connector noises, clicks from
sync problems when transferring material digitally, etc.

Make sure that no low-pass filter has been applied to
your audio material before you edit it with DeClicker.
This may affect the detection of clicks.

Parameters

Ö Note that the DeClicker module is not optimized for
crackles (a series of short clicks).

Parameter

Description

Audition button

When this is activated, only the removed material
will be heard. The Output display will also show the
waveform image of the removed material in this
mode.

Classic

When this is activated, the DeClicker attempts to
remove both audible clicks and crackle noise.
When it’s deactivated, only single clicks will be removed while crackles (rapidly repeated clicks) are
ignored. Which mode to choose depends on the
source material. Note also that Classic mode requires less CPU power.

Threshold

This setting determines the amplitude (level) required for a click to be detected. In many cases,
DeClicker’s sensitive algorithms identify a lot more
clicks than you can actually hear. To avoid wasting
processing power to remove inaudible clicks, raise
this parameter to a high value, and then lower it until all the artefacts that you actually want removed
are detected. The lower the setting, the more clicks
will be detected but also the higher the risk of audible artefacts. If in doubt, activate Audition mode
and check that the removed material doesn’t contain any actual musical or rhythmical information,
etc.

However, as it is often hard to distinguish between clicks and crackles,
you might also be able to use it to improve your recording in this respect.

Ö If the recording also contains background noise (hiss),
you may want to combine DeClicker with the DeNoiser
plug-in.
How DeClicker works
The Declicker process is divided into two steps:
• Analysis – when the audio signal passes through DeClicker, the selected analysis algorithm finds the clicks in
the recording. You provide input to the analysis parameters by selecting a Mode and the Threshold and DePlop
parameters.

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Plug-in processor reference

Parameter

Description

DePlop

This setting controls a special highpass filter which
works on signals below 150 Hz. It cuts away the
“plop noise” which sometimes appears after eliminating a click. The slider adjusts the filter frequency
(off - 150 Hz).
Note: This function is best applied to older recordings, which often use a narrow frequency range. Be
careful when applying this function to modern recordings, as you may risk removing parts of the
useful signal!

Quality

Mode

Bypass

means the noise can be diminished without side effects,
preserving the spatial impression, and without letting the
result become “colorless”. Many years of research were
invested in developing the methods used.
Typical applications for the DeNoiser include cleaning or
remastering recordings from old tape or vinyl, or noisy live
recordings.
How DeNoiser works

This determines the quality of the click removal and
audio restoration, with “4” being the best quality
setting. Please note that selecting higher quality
settings also means that more processing power is
consumed.
Also, note that in some situations it might be more
productive to use a lower Quality value. One example of this is when two clicks follow each other in
quick succession or when you tackle a click in a
low level part that is followed by a loud part.

DeNoiser is based on spectral subtraction. Each section
of the frequency spectrum that has an amplitude below
the estimated noise floor, is reduced in intensity by use of
a spectral expander. The result is a noise reduction that
does not affect the phase of the signal.
The figure below shows the signal flow:
Noise Reduction

Which Mode to select depends on the source material. Standard mode is suitable for a wide variety
of source material - try this option first. Vintage
mode is suitable for restoring “antique” recordings
(with limited high frequency content), while Modern
mode is best suited for contemporary recordings
with a wide frequency range (putting greater emphasis on distinguishing clicks from other strong
impulses in the audio material).

Level

Noise Floor

Ambient
Analysis

Ambience

Transient
Analysis

This will bypass the effect, allowing you to compare
the DeClicked and unprocessed material.

Tips and Tricks
Input

• By combining Vintage Mode and extreme Threshold and DePlop settings, you can create an interesting effect which “softens” material with particularly sharp attacks, e.g. percussion or
brass.
• If you have material with digital distortion (clipping), try applying DeClicker. While it can’t do miracles, it can at least make
some improvement to the overall “hardness” introduced by the
distortion.

Noise
Reduction

Output

The solid line represents the actual audio signal, while the dotted lines
represent control signals

The signal is continuously analyzed by the first module in
the chain, to estimate the noise floor at any given time.
This is sufficient when the noise level is constant or modulates slowly. When the noise level varies rapidly, the Ambience and Transient analyses help adjust the response of
the noise reduction unit, allowing transient-rich material to
maintain its liveliness and natural ambience.

DeNoiser
The DeNoiser plug-in lets you suppress noise without affecting the general sound quality. Or, in tech talk, the DeNoiser removes broad band noise from arbitrary audio
material without leaving any “spectral finger print”. The algorithm that this plug-in is based on has the ability to track
and adjust itself to variations in background noise. This

Ö When you process audio in DeNoiser, the plug-in will
need a short time (less than a second) to analyze the material and set its internal parameters.
Since you would not want to include this short “startup sequence” in the
final result, you should make it a habit to first play back a short section of
the audio, thereby letting DeNoiser “learn” the noisefloor, and then stop
and start over again from the beginning. The plug-in then remembers the
settings internally.

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Plug-in processor reference

The Noisefloor Display

Parameter

Description

The display to the left in the DeNoiser window is crucial
when making settings. It contains the following three elements:

Offset

This parameter serves as a threshold, governing the
overall level at which the noise reduction is performed. For optimal noise reduction with a minimum
of sound coloration, this parameter should be set to
a value slightly above the noise floor level. To help
you do this, the offset value is shown as a light
green line in the noisefloor display, while the noise
floor is shown as a yellow line.

• The dark green spectral graph.
This shows the spectrum of the audio currently being played back. The
horizontal axis shows the frequency (linear scale). The low frequencies
are visible on the left side, the high ones on the right side. The vertical
axis shows the signal amplitudes, thus the level (displayed as a logarithmic dB scale).

A/B/Store

These are described below this table.

Classic

When this is activated, a less CPU-intensive version of the DeNoiser algorithm is used. Use Classic
mode if you are short on processing power. However, for optimum noise suppression, we recommend that you deactivate Classic mode.

Bypass

When this is activated, the signal passes through
the plug-in but you don’t hear the results of the processing. Use this to compare the sound with and
without processing. Note: the analysis is always
performed, regardless of the Bypass switch. This
allows you to monitor the noise floor, spectrum and
level in the spectrum display.

• The yellow line.
This is a spectral estimation of the noise floor. The average of this value is
shown numerically below the display.

• The light green line.
This is simply a graphic representation of the Offset parameter.

The light green Offset line should be adjusted so that it
appears as close above the yellow noise floor graph as
possible. The dark green spectrum plot is there to help
you fine-tune the Offset setting, so that only the noise is
removed, not parts of the signal (ideally, the light green
line should be between the yellow line and the spectrum
plot).

Using the A/B setups
With the A/B buttons you can make instantaneous
switches between two different DeNoiser setups, allowing
you to quickly try out and compare different configurations. You can also use this feature for separate settings
for two different sections of an audio recording. Proceed
as follows:

Parameters
Parameter

Description

Freeze

If you activate this button, you “freeze” the noise
floor detection process. The yellow noise floor
graph in the display will hold its current value (as
will the numeric noise floor value display below) until you deactivate Freeze. This allows you to take a
closer look at the readings.

Reduction

Ambience

1. Make the settings you want for setup A.
2. Click on [Store] and then on the [A] button.
3. Make the settings you want for setup B.

Governs the amount of noise reduction. The display
below this fader shows the amount of dB by which
the noise level is being reduced. The final result
also depends on the Ambience parameter, and on
the automatic Ambience and Transient analysis of
the original material, as described above.

4. Click on [Store] and then on the [B] button.
Now the two setups are stored, and you can switch between them simply by clicking [A] or [B].

NaturalVerb

This parameter is used to specify a balance
between the noise suppression and the amount of
natural ambience, which is essential for a natural
result. With a low Ambience setting, the sound can
become somewhat lifeless and sterile. A high setting, on the other hand, preserves more of the ambient character of the sound, but the noise
suppression is less effective.

NaturalVerb is a high-quality reverb that adds ambience,
or room-quality, to the sound. In addition to the standard
size and decay parameters, NaturalVerb also features lowand high-pass filters, plus a gate for gated reverb effects.
To change the parameters, either drag the sliders up and
down, or click in a slider area to set the slider. If you hold
down [Shift], you can change the parameters with a higher
degree of precision. If you hold down [Ctrl] and click in a
slider area, the slider is reset to its default value.

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Plug-in processor reference

If you click on the logo a diagram of the signal-chain is
shown. The following parameters are available:
Parameter

Description

Pre-Delay

This governs the start time of the first “early reflection”, i.e. how the sound is “bounced” off the walls
in the simulated room environment. The value range
is 0-100 milliseconds. The lower the value, the
sooner the early reflection is heard.

HPF

This is a high-pass filter that only affects the reverb
signal into the NaturalVerb, not the original audio
signal. A high-pass filter lets high-frequency signals
through while cutting off low-frequency signals.
The slider allows you to set the frequency for the filter, and only sounds above the set frequency will
be heard.

LPF

This is a low-pass filter that only affects the reverb
signal into the NaturalVerb, not the original audio
signal. A low-pass filter lets low-frequency signals
through while cutting off high-frequency signals.
The slider allows you to set the frequency for the filter, and only sounds below the set frequency will
be heard.

Parameter

Description

Gate button

Clicking this button turns the Gate section on and
off. Gating cuts off signals below a certain set
threshold level. That is, the Gate only opens to let
signals above the set threshold through. Note that
the three sliders directly above this button (Sensitivity, Threshold and Fade-Out) control the Gate effect, and therefore have no functionality when this
button is in the Off position. Also note that the Gate
only affects the reverb, not the original audio signal.

Sensitivity

This parameter determines how fast the Gate will
open to let a trigger signal pass. The value range is
1-100 milliseconds. In order for this to have any effect, the Gate button must be in the On position.

Threshold

This is used for setting the reference signal level (in
dB) for the Gate. Signal levels above the set
threshold open the Gate and pass through, but signal levels below the set threshold close the Gate
and are cut off. In order for this to have any effect,
the Gate button must be in the On position.

Fade-Out

This parameter determines how long it should take
for the Gate to close again after being triggered to
let a signal through. The value range is 0-200 milliseconds. With higher values, more signal “residue”
will be allowed to pass through the Gate before it
closes, thereby producing a smoother cut-off. In order for this to have any effect, the Gate button must
be in the On position.

Room Size

This regulates the size of the simulated room, and
thereby the spaciousness of the reverb. The value
range is 1-30, and the higher the value you specify,
the bigger the room.

Decay

This lets you specify the length of the reverberation.
The value range goes from 26 milliseconds to
11.63 seconds.

Damping

Damping can be used for attenuating the high frequencies of the reverb, thereby creating a softer,
warmer sound. The higher the value, the more the
high frequencies will be attenuated.

The Spectralizer is a type of audio “enhancer” or “exciter”.
It can be put to many uses:

Stereo Mix

This parameter is used for balancing the reverb signal between the left and right channel inputs to the
NaturalVerb. The value range is 0-100%. A setting
of 0 means that the reverb signals for both channels are completely independent of each other (default), while a setting of 100 means that the reverb
signals for both channels are equally mixed with
each other (50/50). In between these, settings from
1-99% mean that each channel signal will contain
that percentage of the other channel’s signal.

How Spectralizer works

Wet/Dry

Spectralizer

• To restore lost harmonics in a recording.
• To improve the clarity and transparency of a recording.
• To make a recording sound “warmer”.

Most audio equipment introduces a slight low-pass filtering to the audio signal. This means you lose “high end” or
“clarity”. The lost high frequency components often have a
level close to the noise floor. This means that simply using
EQ to boost the high frequencies does not create the desired effect – the noise is amplified as much as the signal.

This regulates the balance between the effect
sound (wet) and the original, unprocessed audio
signal (dry). If the slider is in the middle position
(default), the output will be balanced equally. With
higher values, the original signal will be more pronounced, and with lower values, the effect sound
will be more dominant.

Spectralizer can actually re-synthesize lost harmonics
based on existing lower frequencies in the material. This
can create an acoustically more pleasing result than EQing.
Spectralizer basically works by generating 2nd and 3rd
harmonics or overtones.

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Plug-in processor reference

• The second harmonic is a signal at twice the frequency (one
octave) above the basic frequency (the fundamental).
• The 3rd harmonic is three times the fundamental (one octave
and a fifth above it).

Parameter

Description

Gain

This adjusts the level of the signal just before it
reaches the harmonic generators.
As you increase this, you will most probably have to
lower the Input setting to avoid clipping.

The reasons for limiting the processor to these two frequencies are; firstly, higher harmonics are most often perceived as “too high”, and secondly, their amplitude
normally doesn’t follow that of the fundamental in a natural
way.

2nd

This sets the level of the 2nd harmonics in the mix.

3rd

This sets the level of the 3rd harmonics in the mix.

Mix

The Mix parameter adjusts the balance between the
unprocessed signal and the added harmonics.

Int. clip

If the Frequency parameter for example is set to 4000, the 2nd harmonic
generator will only create frequencies from 8000Hz upwards and the 3rd
harmonic generator will add frequencies starting at 12000Hz.

When this lights up, the signal has exceeded the
maximum level that Spectralizer can handle. This
will lead to unpleasant distortion and should definitely be avoided. If this happens, please lower the
Input level and/or Gain.

Meter

Another part of this process is giving the added harmonics
appropriate amplitude curves. The amplitude of the harmonics is based on the amplitude of the existing material,
but you can control it to some extent using the Density
and Kick parameters, see “Parameters” below.

This allows you to check your adjustments of the Input and Gain controls, so that the signal does not
change drastically in level when passing through
the Spectralizer.

Stereo Echo

Ö Please note the relation between the Frequency parameter and the harmonics generated.

The Stereo Echo is a delay with separate settings for the
left and right channel. It can also be used as a single mono
delay, in which case the maximum delay time will be doubled.

The amplitude of the added harmonics is usually very low.
The difference Spectralizer makes is sometimes only apparent on a psycho-acoustical level. To hear what is actually added to the signal, use the Solo button.

The Stereo Echo has the following parameters:

Parameters

Parameter

Description

Delay 1

The delay time for the left channel. The maximum
delay time is 1486 ms, unless you link both channels for mono operation, in which case the maximum delay time is 2972 ms - see below (1000ms
= 1 second).

Feedback 1

This sets the amount of delayed signal fed back
into the Delay 1 block, to create repetitions. Higher
values result in a higher number of echo repeats.

Link 1-2
(Off, Linked)

Select Off if you wish to use Delay 1 and Delay 2 as
two independent blocks. Select Linked if the output
of Delay 1 is to be connected to the Input of Delay
2.

Delay 2,
Feedback 2

These parameters are identical to these but apply
to the second Delay block.

Del2 Bal

This parameter determines how much of the left
channel output is sent to the right channel input.
When set to 0.0 (fully left), then none of the left
channel output is added to the right channel input;
when it is set to 1.0 (fully right), the right input receives both its normal source and the complete
output of the left channel.

The parameters are as follows:
Parameter

Description

Solo

When this is activated, the output will only contain
the added Harmonics. The original unprocessed
signal will not be heard on the output.
This mode is used as a diagnostic tool to monitor
what the current settings actually add to the signal.

Kick

When this is activated, even more Harmonics will
be added when a transient (attack) occurs in the
signal.

Frequency

This adjusts the frequency of the high-pass filter
that appears just after the input. Signals with a frequency lower than this setting will not be affected
by the processing. In other words, there will be no
harmonics added to the frequencies that are too
low to pass through the filter.

Density

This controls the amplitude “envelope” of the
added harmonics. The higher the value, the more
prominent the effect.

Input

This adjusts the overall input to the processor. Use
this to both maximize the signal level and to make
sure that internal clipping does not occur. Use the
Meter and “Int. Clip” indicator to check the levels.

Volume L

The output level of the left channel delay.

Volume R

The output level of the right channel delay.

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Plug-in processor reference

StereoExpander

Voice Attenuator

The StereoExpander plug-in narrows or enlarges the stereo width of an existing stereo signal. There is only one
parameter, the horizontal stereo effect slider. Setting this
to a value of -100% produces two equal output channels
(the original stereo image is lost). Values between -99 and
-1 correspond to a narrower stereo image. A value of 0
corresponds to the original signal, while values between 1
and 100 enlarge the stereo image.

This plug-in can be used to remove lead vocals from a recording, to produce a “karaoke” effect. The principle concept is based on the fact that vocals are usually mixed to
center position in the stereo field, and that the human
voice occupies a limited area of the frequency spectrum.

Tools One

• If the Remove Mono button is activated, the plug-in will sum
the right and the left channels (with one of the channels out of
phase), in the frequency range set by the Low and High Frequency parameters. This method will only work with stereo
material.
• If the Notch Filter button is activated, the plug-in will filter out
the signals within the frequency range set with the Low and
High Frequency parameters, by applying a notch (band reject)
filter. This method can be used with both stereo and mono
material.
• The Gain parameter allows you to adjust the output level of
the plug-in.

Note, however, that it is nearly impossible to remove a vocal completely, without using very complex processing beyond the scope of this plug-in.

Tools One is an extremely useful “effect” for various applications.
The level faders allow you to adjust the level of the left and
right channel respectively. You can [Shift]-drag to make
detailed settings. [Ctrl]-clicking a fader resets it to 0 dB
(no level adjustment). Normally, adjusting one fader automatically moves the other as well, but you can make separate adjustments for the channels by pressing [Alt] and
dragging.
The two Phase switches let you invert the phase of the left
or right channel (or both).

VSTDynamics

The Algorithm buttons let you adjust the stereo sound image. When none of the buttons are activated, the stereo
image will be preserved as is. MS process mode can be
used in one of two ways:

General Information
The VST Dynamics plug-in combines five separate processors; AutoGate, Compress, AutoLevel, Limit and SoftClip, covering a variety of Dynamic Processing functions.
The VST Dynamics window is divided into five sections,
containing controls and meters for each processor. You
activate the VST Dynamics panel by clicking the “On” button in the lower right corner. Once VST Dynamics is activated, you can turn the individual processors on and off by
clicking on their labels. Activated processors have highlighted labels.

• To transform an incoming “regular” stereo signal so that it resembles a signal recorded according to the M-S (middle/side)
principle. This technique is often used in broadcasting to
record the direct signal source (usually a voice) using one microphone, and the ambience using a second microphone positioned at a 90° angle.
• To transform an incoming MS signal into a “regular” stereo
signal (to simulate an “XY” recording technique, where neither
microphone is placed directly in front of the signal source).

You can activate as many processors as you want, but remember that not all processors are designed to work together. For example, “Limit” and “SoftClip” are both
designed to ensure that the output never exceeds 0dB,
but achieve this in different ways. To have both of them
activated would be unnecessary. The internal signal flow
is printed in the lower right part of the Dynamics panel.

Channel Swap, finally, means that the left channel is assigned to the right side and the right channel to the left
side.

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Plug-in processor reference

The following processors are available on the VST Dynamics panel (click an item in the list for more information
about the corresponding processor):
•
•
•
•
•

function is controlled using the control in the upper part of
the AutoGate panel, and the slider located below it. The
basic operation of the Trigger Frequency Range function
is as follows:

“AutoGate” on page 201
“AutoLevel” on page 202
“Compress” on page 202
“SoftClip” on page 202
“Limit” on page 202

1. While playing back audio, drag the slider to the “Listen” position.
You will now monitor the audio signal, and the gate will be bypassed.

2. While listening, drag the two handles in the Trigger
Frequency window to set the frequency range you wish to
use to trigger the gate.

AutoGate

You will hear the audio being filtered as you move the handles.

Gating, or noise gating, is a method of dynamic processing that silences audio signals below a certain set threshold level. As soon as the signal level exceeds the set
threshold, the gate opens to let the signal through. AutoGate offers all the features of a standard noise gate, plus
some very useful additional features, such as auto calibration of the threshold setting, a look-ahead predict function, and frequency selective triggering. Available
parameters are as follows:
Parameter

Explanation

Threshold

This setting determines the level where AutoGate is
activated. Signal levels above the set threshold trigger the gate to open, but signal levels below the set
threshold will close the gate.

Attack

• Dragging the left handle to the right will progressively
cut frequencies starting from the low end of the frequency
spectrum.
• Dragging the right handle to the left will progressively
cut frequencies starting from the high end of the frequency spectrum.
3. After setting the frequency range, drag the slider to
the “On” position.
AutoGate will now use the selected frequency range as the trigger input.

4. To disable the Trigger Frequency Range function,
drag the slider to “Off”.
AutoGate will now use the unfiltered audio signal as the trigger input.

This parameter sets the time it takes for the gate to
open after being triggered. If the Predict button is
activated, it will ensure that the gate will already be
open when a signal above the threshold level is
played back. AutoGate manages this by “looking
ahead” in the audio material, checking for signals
loud enough to pass the gate.

Hold

This determines how long the gate stays open after
the signal drops below the threshold level.

Release

This parameter sets the amount of time it takes for
the gate to close (after the set hold time). If the
“Auto” button is activated, AutoGate will find an optimum release setting, depending on the audio program material.

Calibrate Function
This function, activated by using the Calibrate button located below the Threshold knob, is used to automatically
set the threshold level. It is especially useful for material
with consistent inherent background noise in the audio
material, like tape hiss for example. This may be masked
by the audio content for most of the time, but becomes
noticeable during silent passages. Use as follows:
1. Find a part of the audio material, preferably not too
short, where only the background noise is heard.

Trigger Frequency Range

If you can find only a short section with background noise, try looping it.

AutoGate has a feature that allows the gate to be triggered only by signals within a specified frequency range.
This is a most useful feature because it lets you filter out
parts of the signal that might otherwise trigger the gate in
places you don’t want it to, thus allowing more control
over the gate function. The Trigger Frequency Range

2. Play it back, and click on the Calibrate button.
The button will blink for a few seconds, and then automatically set the
threshold so that the noise will be silenced (gated) during passages
where there is no other signal present.

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Plug-in processor reference

AutoLevel

Parameter

Description

AutoLevel reduces signal level differences in audio material. It can be used to process recordings where the level
unintentionally varies. It will boost low levels and attenuate
high level audio signals. Only levels above the set threshold will be processed, so low level noise or rumble will not
be boosted. If the input level is greater than 0dB, AutoLevel will react very fast, because it looks ahead in the
audio material for strong signal levels and can attenuate
levels before they occur, thus reducing the risk of signal
clipping.

Release

Sets the amount of time it takes for the gain to return to its original level when the signal drops below
the Threshold level. If the “Auto” button is activated,
Compress will automatically find an optimum release setting, that varies depending on the audio
program material.

MakeUp Gain

This parameter is used to compensate for output
gain loss, caused by compression.

Parameter

Description

Threshold

Only levels stronger than the set threshold will be
processed.

SoftClip
SoftClip is designed to ensure that the output level never
exceeds 0dB, like a limiter. SoftClip, however, acts differently compared to a conventional limiter. When the signal
level exceeds -6dB, SoftClip starts limiting (or clipping)
the signal “softly”, at the same time generating harmonics
which add a warm, tubelike characteristic to the audio material. SoftClip is simplicity itself to use as it has no control
parameters. The meter indicates the input signal level, and
thus the amount of “softclipping”. Levels in the green area
(weaker than -6dB) are unaffected, while levels in the yellow-orange-red area indicate the degree of “softclipping”.
The deep red meter area to the right indicates input levels
higher than 0dB.

Reaction Time Switch This parameter sets the amount of time it takes for
AutoLevel to adjust the gain. Set this according to
whether the program level changes suddenly or
over a length of time.

Compress
Compress reduces the dynamic range of the audio, so
that softer sounds get louder or louder sounds get softer,
or both. Compress functions like a standard compressor
with separate controls for threshold, ratio, attack, release
and make-up gain parameters.

Ö Avoid feeding SoftClip with excessively high signal
levels as audible distortion may occur, although the output
level will never exceed 0dB.

There is also a separate display that graphically illustrates
the compressor curve shaped according to the Threshold,
Ratio and MakeUp Gain parameter settings. Compress
also features a Gain Reduction meter that shows the
amount of gain reduction in dB, and a program dependent
Auto feature for the Release parameter.
Parameter

Description

Threshold

This setting determines the level where Compress
“kicks in”. Signal levels above the set threshold are
affected, but signal levels below are not processed.

Ratio

Ratio determines the amount of gain reduction applied to signals over the set threshold. A ratio of 3:1
means that for every three dB the input level increases, the output level will increase by only one
dB.

Attack

Limit
Limit is designed to ensure that the output level never exceeds a certain set output level, to avoid clipping in following devices. Conventional limiters usually require very
accurate setting up of the attack and release parameters,
to totally avoid the possibility of the output level going beyond the set threshold level. Limit adjusts and optimizes
these parameters automatically, according to the audio
material. However, should you want to, you can adjust the
Release parameter manually.

This determines how fast Compress will respond to
signals above the set threshold. If the attack time is
long, more of the early part of the signal (attack) will
pass through unprocessed.

Parameter

Description

Threshold

This setting determines the maximum output level.
Signal levels above the set threshold are affected,
but signal levels below are left unaffected

Release

This parameter sets the amount of time it takes for
the gain to return to its original level when the signal drops below the threshold level. If the “Auto”
button is activated, Limit will automatically find an
optimum release setting that varies depending on
the audio program material.

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Plug-in processor reference

23
Troubleshooting

General problems

Problems with opening files

Can't create a temporary file

The file doesn't appear in the Open dialog.

• Please check which drive is specified for your temporary files
(in the Edit Folders dialog). You cannot use a CD-ROM disk
or a write protected drive for your temporary files.
• Is the drive full? Please select a drive with as much free space
as possible.

• Does the file have the right extension? Select “All files (*.*)”
from the pop-up in the Open dialog and check again.
• Is the drive on which the file resides currently accessible? If
you use removable hard disks or CD-ROMs, make sure the
right disk is in the drive.

A drive/partition can't be found

Can't open a file

• Is this volume a removable drive, or a CD-ROM? In that case,
is the correct disk really in the drive?
• Have you renamed the Volume since you last used the program?

• Is the file really a supported file type?
• Is it possible to open it in other programs that support files of
the same format? If not, it is probably damaged.
• Try opening the file in the Media Player application, included
with Windows. If that doesn't work, the file is probably damaged. Note that WaveLab Essential carefully checks the file
headers: if any mistake in the format is found, WaveLab Essential does not open the file for safety reasons. This could
happen (rarely) with some files created by non-professional
software.
• Is the drive on which the file resides currently accessible? If
you use removable hard disks or CD-ROMs, make sure the
right disk is in the drive.

A file can't be deleted or renamed
• Is the volume write protected on which the file is residing? In
that case, turn the write protection off.
• Is the file on a CD-ROM? Files can’t be deleted from CDROMs.
The program opens/doesn't open with the same files
each time
• This is not a bug, it's a feature! You can decide to have the
program boot up as you last left it. This is done by activating/
deactivating “Open last window layout on startup” in the Preferences dialog. See Preferences Topics.

Problems with saving files
Can't save
• Is the volume on which you are trying to save write protected?
For example, you cannot save anything on a CD-ROM.
• Is there enough space on the drive?
• Is the drive to which the file was last saved currently accessible? If you use removable hard disks or CD-ROMs, make sure
the right disk is in the drive.
• Are you trying to overwrite another file with the same name? If
so, is that file write protected? If it is, it can't be overwritten.
Save under another name, or remove the write protection.
• Are you trying to overwrite another file with the same name? Is
that file open? If it is, close it and try again.
• To get around all of the problems listed above, try saving to
another disk/folder.

My snapshots are gone!
There are two main ways to make sure your snapshots
“stay” from session to session:
• Make sure “Save view settings in companion file” is activated
in the Preferences - Wave edit tab. This will automatically save
any snapshots associated with an audio file.
• Use Open last window layout on startup (described above) to
make all settings remain just as you left them.
The wave isn't styled as when I opened it last
There are three ways to save your window styling, etc.:
• Make sure “Save view settings in companion file” is activated
in the Preferences–Wave edit tab. This will automatically save
any window settings associated with an audio file.
• Use “Open last window layout on startup” in the Preferences
dialog to make all settings remain just as you left them.

204
Troubleshooting

Recording problems

The mixer can't be “created”
• Have you specified your audio card in the Preferences dialog?
A mixer can't be created if “Microsoft Sound Mapper” is selected.
• Do you have the latest and correct drivers for your card? We
have noted that some card drivers contain “bugs” that prevent
a mixer from being created.

I can't record
• Are you trying to record at a sample rate/bit resolution that
your card doesn't support? Check the documentation for the
card to find out which formats it supports.
• Is the card really installed correctly? Try using some application included with the card to see if that works. Also try the
“Sound recorder” included with Windows.
• Do you have the latest drivers for your card? Contact your
dealer for the latest drivers.
• Is your temporary files location set up correctly and do you
have enough free space on that drive?

Playback problems
No playback at all
• Is the card really installed correctly? Try using some application included with the card to see if that works. Also try the
“Media Player” included with Windows. If that doesn't work,
there's something wrong with the card or the installation.

I can’t hear what i just recorded
• Do the meters move when you record? Do you get a waveform in the window? If you do, the recording is not the problem, it is the playback.
• Check the Mixer. Do you have the correct recording inputs activated, and are the levels set properly?
• If you can't seem to activate the correct inputs and levels from
WaveLab Essential, try the mixer application that was included
with your audio card. Some card drivers do not react correctly
to the standard Windows commands transmitted by WaveLab
Essential.
• Please check your cables and the devices you have connected. Is there really a proper audio signal coming in to the
card?
• Have you selected the appropriate recording mode for the recording source? If you want to record an external audio signal
through the active inputs on your audio hardware, you must
select the “Audio input (hardware)” mode in the Record dialog.

Playback is choppy
• Are you using a compressed hard drive? You should not use
WaveLab Essential on such drives because they eat up too
much processor power!
• To play a quality wave (e.g. 16 bit Stereo 44,1 kHz file) from a
CD-ROM, your CD-ROM reader must be at least of a “Double
Speed” type.
A file can't be played
• Is the file really in a format (sample rate, bit resolution mono/
stereo) supported by your audio card? The format of the file is
indicated on the status bar.
Playback can’t be heard
• Do you have an application for the audio card that allows you
to adjust playback volumes? Are these settings correct?
• Check the cables and the other audio equipment you use.

There is too much noise in my recordings
• Have you adjusted your recording levels properly?
• Is the source connected to the proper input?
• Have you specified 8 bits as the bit resolution for the recording? Try 16 bits instead.
• Keep in mind that microphones provided with sound cards are
very low quality.

205
Troubleshooting

Editing problems

• If this doesn't work, you might try switching off the recorder
(even if the computer is still on), wait three seconds and then
turn it back on again. Often, only rebooting the computer is
not enough.

After editing I get clicks and pops
• Are you making “splices” in the middle of an audio section? If
you do, we recommend that you make all cuts at zero crossings, to avoid clicks and pops.

Questions and Answers

After crossfading, I get distortion

• I have problems with a Phillips CDD-2000 unit.

• If both sections play at full level during the crossfade, it is possible that clipping will occur (although it is unlikely). If this happens, undo the crossfade, lower the gain of both sections (by
3 or 6 dB for example) and try again. The problem cannot occur if you check the “Inverse of Fade In” or “Inverse of Fade
Out” options.

If you have a real Phillips drive or a drive that contains this
Phillips mechanism, you must make sure that the firmware
version is 1.25 or later. A firmware update can be found at
http://www.philips.com/sv/pcaddon.

Troubleshooting and precautions

Well of course there could be many reasons for this.
Check the “Day to day precautions for trouble free CD
writing” section below. But, here are two more things to
try:

• I have other problems writing a CD and/or importing CD audio
tracks.

The following sections provide information concerning
problems relating to CD/DVD burning, hardware devices,
precautions for trouble-free CD writing as well as hardware and setup issues.
!

Open the Control Panel, and double click on System. Select the Device Manager tab, select CD-R in the list (if this
entry exists, which is not mandatory) and click on the
Properties button and then select Settings. Disable the
“Insert auto notification” to prevent Windows from reading
from the CD-R during the writing process.

Please note that Steinberg cannot make any guarantees about the validity of your recorded audio CDs.

Problems and solutions

If you have problems at higher speeds, try lowering it.
Even if your system writes correctly at 8x most of the time,
it's safer to write at lower speeds.

General instructions
The following text is written for problems relating to CD
burning, but applies to DVD as well.

• I have problems writing CDs when I specify ISRC and EAN/
UPS codes, but otherwise things work fine.

• If you run into problems, the first thing to check is your hardware and software setup. To isolate the problem, you could try
using other CD burning software (for example a program supplied with the CD-R unit). If this doesn't work either, the problem isn't with WaveLab Essential, but with some other
component in the system.
• When you insert a disk into the recorder, make sure you wait
long enough before you start using it. You might have to wait
several seconds. Watch any possible LEDs on the front panel.
They will indicate when the unit is ready for use (see the operation manual for the unit for details).
• If your CD recorder doesn't respond, the first thing to do is to
eject the disc and insert it again. This will reinitialize the recorder.

If you try to write a ISRC code or EAN/UPC code, WaveLab Essential might return an error if: a) the CD recorder
does not support this (not all do, or not all firmware versions do). b) the codes are not properly formatted: UPC/
EAN: 13 numeric characters. ISRC: 5 alphanumeric followed by 7 numeric characters.
• A CD disc that I have created doesn't play correctly on my CD
player.
The reflections of a “normal” CD and a CD-R are different
(a CD-R reflects less light). A dirty lens on the CD player
might disturb playback. This is more common on old CD
players because their lasers do not properly calibrate for
recordable CDs. Sometimes, the combination of disc
brand and CD recorder brand can make a difference.
206

Troubleshooting

Day to day precautions for troublefree CD writing

Hardware and setup issues

The most important thing to remember is that CD writing
is a real-time operation where a laser burns depressions
into the surface of the CD. This is done at a speed which
cannot be slowed down or interrupted. Any interruption
will most likely be fatal, rendering the CD-R disk useless.
For these reasons you should make sure your system
does not interrupt the CD-R writing once it's under way.
Read the following points:

• If you have previously installed another CD-R software product, you may run into driver conflicts. Normally this should not
happen since WaveLab Essential has built-in drivers that are
loaded as needed, and which usually override any other installed drivers. However, if you do have problems writing to
CD-R, this is a point to check.
• If it isn't absolutely required, don't install any other driver for
your CD-R unit (for example a driver that allows you to use the
CD-R as a CD-ROM drive). The drivers might make Windows
try to access the drive during writing, which can cause system
interruptions.
• In the advanced BIOS settings of your SCSI host adapter, the
following should normally be disabled:
- Plug and Play SCAM Support
- Support Removable Disks Under BIOS as Fixed Disks
- BIOS Support for Bootable CD-ROM
- BIOS Support for Int 13 Extensions

CD-R Drivers

• Keep the CD-recorder on a vibration-free surface. Sudden
“shocks” could cause writing interruptions.
• Do not read files directly from a CD, copy them to a fast hard
disk first.
• Do not read files over a network. Networks usually are far too
slow for CD-R writing.
• Turn off networking, at least for the hard disk drive from which
you are reading, since the CD writing may be interrupted by
anyone trying to access this drive.
• It is best to store the files on a hard disk partition that is 1 gigabyte in size, or smaller (since this means the sectors will be
16kByte rather than 32kByte).
• Do not read files from a hard disk with compression enabled!
• It is highly recommended that you keep your hard disk(s) defragmented at all times. Windows includes an application for
this.
• If you have multiple hard drives in your system, put the audio
files on your fastest drive! Also use a fast drive for WaveLab
Essential's “temp” files.
• Turn off any screen savers, anti-virus, schedulers, animated
icons and alarm or reminder programs that might interrupt the
CD burning operation.
• Make sure any fax reception or background e-mail software is
disabled.
• If you use the System Agent, make sure no activities are
scheduled for the time you write to the CD. Do no use the
“When Idle” option in the System Agent.
• Disable any System Monitoring programs.
• If you use the CD-R unit as a CD-ROM reader, make sure you
quit the Explorer and close any “My Computer” windows before writing.
• Stop audio playback in WaveLab Essential before writing.

Networking Cards
Network cards can produce hardware interrupts which
momentarily halt operation of all software. This can cause
various problems. For CD writing, a non-networked machine is more stable than a networked one.
• If you need to keep your machine connected to a network try
to not load the network card drivers when you plan to write
CDs.
About Hard disks
• Many hard disks automatically perform something called thermal calibration at regular (but unpredictable) intervals. For this
reason, drives sold as “A/V drives” are recommended, since
they have built-in “intelligence” which delays any recalibration
to times when the disk is not being used. Some drives not
marketed as “A/V Drives” also have this capability, check with
the vendor if in doubt.
CD-R disks
• There are many brands of CD-R disks. Always use one that
has been tested and recommended by your CD-R drive manufacturer.
• CD-R discs are not as solid as real CDs. Handle them with
care! Do not expose discs to sunlight for long periods, and
avoid heat and humidity.
207

Troubleshooting

• The top (label) side of a CD-R disc is also vulnerable. Don't
use alcohol-based pens to write on discs and don't put labels
on unless they are specifically designed for CD-Rs (otherwise
the glue on the label might eat through the surface).
Links and sources for more information
• A general CD-R site that might be of interest:
http://www.osta.org/technology/cdqa.htm

208
Troubleshooting

24
Key commands

File handling

Zooming

Key Command

Function

Main View

[Ctrl]-[O]

Open wave file

Key Command

Function

[Alt]-[Enter]

Open wave file information window

[G]

Zoom in horizontally

[Ctrl]-[F2]

Open Audio CD Montage

[Arrow up]

[Ctrl]-[S]

Save current document

Zoom in horizontally (or Zoom out if Cubase compatibility is enabled)

[Shift]-[S]

Save current document under new name and/or in
a new location

[Ctrl]-[Shift]-[S]

Save all currently open documents

[Ctrl]-[N]

Create new wave

[Ctrl]-[W]

Close current document (and all its related windows)

[Ctrl]-[E]

Convert Wave to MP3 (Save special – Encode
(MP3))

[Ctrl]-[Shift]-[E]

Convert Wave to MP2 (Save special – Encode
(MP2))

[Shift]-[E]

Save current wave selection as a new wave file

[H]

Zoom out horizontally

[Arrow down]

Zoom out horizontally (or Zoom in if Cubase compatibility is enabled)

[Ctrl]-[Arrow up]

Zoom in horizontally to maximum zoom factor

[Ctrl]-[Arrow down]
or [J]

Zoom out horizontally to display the entire wave or
montage

[Shift]-[G] or
[Shift]-[Arrow up]

Zoom in vertically (or Zoom out if Cubase compatibility is enabled)

[Shift]-[H] or
[Shift]-[Arrow down]

Zoom out vertically (or Zoom in if Cubase compatibility is enabled)

[Shift]-[J]

Zoom in or out to get an optimized level display
(best fit)

[K]

Zoom selection

View

[Ctrl]-[L]

Zoom in vertically to decrease the number of visible
tracks (Montage)

The following commands scroll the window without moving the cursor:

[Ctrl]-[Shift]-[L]

Zoom out vertically to increase the number of visible tracks (Montage)

Key Command

Function

[Ctrl]-[Home]

Start of Wave or Montage

[Ctrl]-[End]

End of Wave or Montage

[.] (Numeric keypad)

Cursor position

Processing

Overview

Key Command

Function

[N]

Level Normalizer

[Ctrl]-[G]

Change gain

Key Command

Function

[D]

Dynamics

[Ctrl]-[J]

Zoom out to display the entire wave/Montage horizontally

[V]

Level envelope

[Ctrl]-[D]

Easy Fade

[Ctrl]-[F]

Fade in/out

[X]

Crossfade

[Ctrl]-[R]

Reverse

[R]

Waveform Restorer

[T]

Time stretch

[P]

Pitch Correction

[Ctrl]-[Q]

210
Key commands

Playback and cursor position

Selecting

Numeric keypad
Key Command
[Enter]

Key Command

Function

[Esc]

Toggle selection on/off

Play (from current position)

[Tab]

Toggle selection between left/right/both channels
(stereo waves only)

[0]

Stop / Move to selection start / Move to beginning

[1]

Move cursor to selection start

[2]

Move cursor to selection end

[4]

Move cursor to previous marker

[5]

Move cursor to next marker

[.] (full stop)

Scroll to cursor

[/]

Loop on/off (current wave only)

[F]

Scroll during playback on/off

Extending or making selections
The following commands create a new selection or extend
the current one.

Function keys
Key Command

Function

[Space Bar]

Toggle Play / Stop

[F8]

Play (from current position)

[F7]

Stop / Move to selection end/ Move to selection
start / Move to beginning

[F6]

Play selection

Key Command

Function

[Shift]-[Arrow left]

One pixel to the left

[Shift]-[Arrow right]

One pixel to the right

[Ctrl]+[Shift][Arrow left]

20 pixels to the left

[Ctrl]+[Shift][Arrow right]

20 pixels to the right

[Shift]-[Page Up]

20 pixels to the left (or right if Cubase compatibility
is enabled)

[Shift]-[Page Down] 20 pixels to the right (or left if Cubase compatibility
is enabled)

Cursor keys

[Ctrl]+[Shift][Page Up]

One window width to the left (or right if Cubase
compatibility is enabled)

[Ctrl]+[Shift][Page Down]

One window width to the right (or left if Cubase
compatibility is enabled)

Key Command

Function

[Arrow left]

Move cursor one pixel to the left

[Arrow right]

Move cursor one pixel to the right

[Ctrl]-[Arrow right]

Move cursor 1/10 of the window width to the right
(or left if Cubase compatibility is enabled)

Key Command

Function

[Shift]-[Home]

From cursor to start

Move cursor 1/10 of the window width to the left
(or right if Cubase compatibility is enabled)

[Shift]-[End]

From cursor to end

[Ctrl]-[A]

Select all

[Ctrl]-[Arrow left]

Making selections
The following commands always create a new selection:

[Ctrl]-[Page Up]

Move cursor one window width to the left (or right if
Cubase compatibility is enabled)

[Ctrl]-[Page Down]

Move cursor one window width to the right (or left if
Cubase compatibility is enabled)

[Home]

Move cursor to beginning

[End]

Move cursor to end

[Tab]

Toggle Cursor between left/right/both channels
(stereo waves only)

“One the fly” numeric keypad commands
The following commands are for selecting during playback. Please note that the keys on the numeric keypad
must be used.
Key Command

Function

[Shift]-[1]

Set start of selection

[Shift]-[2]

Set end of selection

[+]

Press and hold to set start of selection, release to
set end of selection.

211
Key commands

Editing and Recording

Undo and Redo

General
Key Command

Function

[Shift]-[A]

Open Wave Attributes dialog

[Ctrl]-[U]

Open Audio Properties dialog

Key Command

Function

[Ctrl]-[Z]

Undo

[F3]

Undo

[Ctrl]+[Shift]-[Z]

Redo

[F4]

Redo

Cut and Paste
Key Command

Function

[Ctrl]-[X]

Cut

[Ctrl]-[C]

Copy

[Ctrl]-[V]

Paste

[Ctrl]+[Shift]-[V]

Paste Append

Markers
Key Command

Function

[Ctrl]-[M]

Open marker list

[Insert]

Drop new marker at cursor position (for example
during playback)

[Ctrl]-[Insert]

Create Marker

Delete and Silence
Key Command

Function

[Backspace] or [Del]

Delete current selection

[Ctrl]-[Space bar]

Silence current selection

Miscellaneous
Key Command

Function

[Ctrl]+[Shift]-[Space] Insert silence

[F2]

Open Rename dialog

[Ctrl]-[Backspace]

[Alt]-[Ctrl]-[M]

Maximize Wave or Montage window width

[W]

View Window layouts

Trim (to selection)

Recording
Key Command

Function

[*] (Multiply on the nu- Open Record dialog
meric keypad)

When Record dialog is open
Key Command

Function

[Ctrl]-[M]

Drop generic marker

[Ctrl]-[L]

Drop generic region start marker

[Ctrl]-[R]

Drop generic region end marker

[Ctrl]-[P]

Pause

[Ctrl]-[Enter]

Record

[Ctrl]-[0]
(Numeric keypad)

Stop record

[Ctrl]-[Y]

Reset meters

[Ctrl]-[F9]

Show/hide Master Section

[Ctrl]-[F10]

Show/hide Monitor window

[Ctrl]-[P]

Open Preferences dialog

[M]

Magnetize Bounds on/off

[Z]

Zero crossing on/off

[7] (Numeric keypad) Undo zoom/view/position change in Montage
[8] (Numeric keypad) Redo zoom/view/position change in Montage
[Shift]+[F5]

212
Key commands

Open a dialog where you can save a picture of the
active window.

Index

A
Accelerators 31
ACM 54
Append 47
ASIO driver 14
Audio card
Checking 13
Settings 14
Audio CD
Testing 135
Writing 136
Audio CD format 137
Audio CD track import 144
Audio files See “Wave files”
Audio Montage
About 104
Cloning 129
Creating new 106
Opening 129
Panes 104
Saving 129
Audio Properties 55
Auto Panner 191
Auto zoom for overview 38
Autopan 194

B
Backups
Audio files 51
Batch file encoding 96
Bypass (Master Section effects) 86

C
Calibrating printer 153
CD format specification 137
CD images
Creating with cue sheet 133
CD recorders
Disc-At-Once 138
Installing 16
Selecting 135
CD view (Montage) 132
CD Wizard dialog 132
CD/DVD Project
About 140
CD-Extra 136
Change Gain 69

Choirus2 194
Chorus 78
Chorus (Plug-in) 191
CleanComp 195
Clear Undo 22
Clip effects
Adding 124
Latency 125
Tail 125
Clipping
About 69
Clips
About 104
Adding 107
Deleting 116
Duplicating 115
Mouse zones 113
Moving 114
Overlapping 115
Resizing 115
Selecting 113
Source files 117
Splitting 116
Colors
Customizing (Montage) 181
Customizing (Wave window) 181
Colors (System) 13
Compression 69
Audio file formats 54
Control bars 25
Appearance 26
Button functions 26
Descriptions 26
Docking 25
Moving 26
Show tips 26
Showing/hiding 26
Un-docking 26
Convert format
Batch encoding 96
Using Save as 51
Convert sample rate 79
Copy 45
Copying wave selections 44
Crossfade 73
Crossfade Looper 172

214
Index

Crossfades (Montage)
About 122
Editing 122
Options 122
Crystal Resampler (Plug-in) 192
Cue Points 116
Cursor
Appearance 181
Moving to marker 101
Scroll to 38
Setting position 40
Status bar 35
Cut 46

D
Data CD/DVD
Creating 140
Writing 142
dB (Level unit) 28
DC Offset 74
Decimal (Level unit) 28
DeClicker 195
Deleting clips 116
Deleting files and documents 53
Deleting wave selections 47
DeNoiser 196
Dialogs (Non-modal) 31
DirectX plug-ins 85
Disc-At-Once 138
Disk space 61
Dithering
About 88
Internal 89
Dockable control bars
See “Control bars”
Drag and drop 34
Drop marker 99
Dropout 84
Duck according to other track 119
Dynamics 69

E
Easy Fade 72
Echo (Plug-in) 192
Edit Folders dialog 179
Edit Overview (Montage) 110

Effects
About 85
Installing 87
Mute 86
Presets 87
Removing 85
Reordering 85
Selecting 85
Effects (Montage)
Copying settings 125
Effect dialog 125
Removing 124
Split mode 124
Eliminate DC Offset 74
Enable Snapping 113
Encode (ACM) 54
Encoded formats
About 54
Batch encoding to 96
Exporting to 54
Envelopes
About 117
Editing 118
Resetting 119
EQ (Processing) 79
EQ-1 192
Extend to peaks 44

F
Fade-In/Out 72
Faders (Master Section)
About 83
Offset 84
Unlink mode 84
Fades (Montage)
Creating 121
Editing 121
ROM presets 121
Favorites 34, 184
FFT
3D Frequency Analysis 161
File formats 49
File size (Unit) 28
Files (Audio) See “Wave files”
Files view 117
Folder editing 179
Frames (CD) 137

Freedb 145
Frequency Analysis, 3D 161

G
Gating 69
Generic markers 98
Global Analysis
Errors 160
Extra 159
Introduction 156
Loudness 158
Operations 156
Peaks 158
Pitch 159
Global auto-grouping 108
Groups
Plug-ins 187

H
Hard disk requirements 10
Harmonization 78
Help 22
Hi-fi Chorus 78

I
Import
Audio CD track 144
Audio files 33
Markers 98
Insert audio file 34
Insert silence 47
Installation 13
Invert Phase 74
ISRC codes
About 138

K
Key commands
About 31
Customizing 184
Key sequences 184

215
Index

L
Label Editor
Edit Properties dialog 151
Editing objects 149
Grid 150
Objects menu 151
Tools 149
Label sets
About 151
Opening 152
Printing 153
Saving 152
Saving as user template 152
Templates 148
Layouts
Saving 180
Window layouts 183
Level envelope 71
Level Processing (Dynamics) 69
Level selections 43
Level/Pan Meter 64
Leveler 192
Limiting 69
Loop markers 98, 102, 172
Loop Tone Equalizer 176
Looping 58, 102, 171

M
Magnetic bounds (Montage) 113
Magnetize bounds
Cursor 40
Cursor to marker 101
Dropping audio on markers 102
Snap to 45
Wave selections 43
Magnification See “Zooming”
Magnifying Glass 36
Marker list 99
Marker toolbar 99

Markers
Appearance 181
Creating 99
Deleting 101
Displaying/hiding 100
Dropping 99
Dropping audio on 102
Dropping while recording 62
Editing 100
Importing and Saving 98
Introduction 98
Montage 127
Moving 101
Moving cursor to 101
Selecting between 102
Types 98
Master Section
About 82
Deactivating 82
Dithering Pane 88
Effects Pane 85
Master Level Pane 83
Render 91
Window handling 83
Master Section preset groups 90
Maximize width 35
Memory requirements 10
Meta Normalizer (Montage) 126
Meter format 28, 39
Metering
Introduction 64
Level 64
Spectrum 65
Meters
Master Section 84
Meter Windows 64
Record dialog 61
Mix (Option) 47
Mixed Mode CD
About 140
Creating 142
MME/WDM Driver 14
Monitor playback 64
Monitor window
Performance display 93
Progress display 93

Mono
Master Section button 84
Mono to Stereo 48
Montage See “Audio Montage”
Mouse zones 113
Mouse zooming 37
Move cursor to 40
Moving wave selections 46
MP3 files
Batch encoding 96
MRK files 98
Multiple copies 47
Mute
Clips and tracks 111
Effects 86

N
NaturalVerb 197
Navigating
By clicking 38
Scroll menu 38
Using status bar 39
New documents, Creating 33
Noise Gate (Plug-in) 192
Noise gating 69
Non-modal dialogs 31, 68
Normalize 68
Nudge (Kicker) tools
Wave window 46
Nudging
Wave window 46

O
Online documentation 22
Open last window layout on
startup 180
Oscilloscope 66
OSQ files
Batch conversion to 96
Saving and opening 51
Overwrite 47

P
Page layout (Labels) 153
Panes 23

216
Index

Paste
Append 47
Copying wave selections 45
Mix 47
Moving wave selections 46
Overwrite 47
Prepend 47
Peak Master 193
Pencil tool 49
Percent (Level unit) 28
Phase Invert 74
Photo viewer 141
Pitch Correction 77
Play (Transport bar) 57
Play selection 59
Play tool 58
Playback Browser 59
Playing
Clips 112
Montage 111
One channel in stereo file 58
Play tool 58
Selection 59
Setting start point 40
Skipping sections 58
Plug-ins
About 85
Installing 87
Organizing 186
Presets 87
Podcast
About 164
Episodes 165
New 164
Options 166
Pop-up menus
In displays 27
Values 29
Position See “Cursor”
PQ codes 137
Pre-Emphasis 138
Preferences
Introduction 179
Saving 179
Startup 179
Prepend 47
Preset groups 90

Presets
Creating 30
Deleting 30
Introduction 30
Loading 30
Master Section 89
Modifying 30
Printing CD Labels 153
Priorities
Master Section 92
Monitor window 93
Puncher 193

Q
Quick Cloning 129

R
RAM 10
Range indicator 38, 181
Recent audio files 34
Recording
Disk capacity 61
Dropping markers 62
File format 60
Introduction 59
Levels 61
Mixer settings 60
Redo 22, 68
Region markers
About 98
Marking takes during recording 62
Release audio hardware 57
Remember active window’s
layout 184
Renaming files and documents 53
Rendering
Audio Montage 131
Wave windows 91
Repeating wave selections 47
Resize clips 115
Resume 93
Reverse 74
Revert to saved 52

Rulers
Appearance 181
Hiding/showing 181
Meter format 39
Montage 105
Selecting units 28
Start position 39
Wave window 35

S
Sample rate
Conflicts 45
Conversion 79
Montage 106
Samples (Unit) 28
Sampling
Editing sample attributes 170
Save All 52
Save and Save as 50
Save Copy 52
Save left/right channel as 52
Save markers 98
Scroll during playback 59
Scroll menu 38
Select menu 42
Selecting
At zero crossings 42
By dragging 40
Clips 113
Effects 85
Level selections 43
Select menu 42
Shortcuts 41
Stereo files 41
Switching between channels 41
Selection
Turning into new document 48
Set origin at cursor 39
Show tips 26
Silence (Plug-in) 193
Size ruler (CD/DVD Project) 141
Skip 58
Sliders 29
Snap (Montage) 113
Snap to time units 43
Snap to zero crossing 42, 43

217
Index

Snapshots
Wave window 39
Solo (Montage) 111
Source audio files (Montage) 117
Speaker tool 58
Spectralizer 198
Spectrum Meter 65
Speed Menus 27
Spin controls 28
Split mode
Effects (Montage) 124
Splitting clips 116
Status bar
Introduction 27
Navigating from 39
Wave windows 35
Steinberg on the internet 8
Stereo Echo 199
Stereo to Mono 48
StereoExpander 193, 200
Stop button 57
Styles 180
Suspend 93
Swap channels 48
System information 11

T
Templates (Label Editor) 148
Tempo 39
Temporary files 15
The track activity indicator
About 111
Time code 28
Time format 28
Time stretch 75
Toolbox
Introduction 26
Magnifying Glass 36
Play tool 58
Tools One 200
Tracer application 16
Track auto-grouping 108
Track gain faders
About 112
Tracks (Montage)
About 104
Handling 106

Transport bar 57
Trim 47

U
Undo
Clearing 22
Introduction 22
Limiting 22
Processing 68
Undo (Montage)
View changes 111
UPC/EAN codes 138
Use Master Section 82

V
Values (Setting) 28
Variables
About 148
Editing 152
Video track (Montage)
About 130
View settings
Saving 54
Voice Attenuator 200
Volume envelopes
About 117
Editing 118
VST plug-ins
About 85
Excluding 188
Presets 87
VSTDynamics 200

W
Wave cursor See “Cursor”
Wave files
Basic editing commands 44
Drag and drop 34
Importing from audio CD 144
Opening 33
Processing 67
Recording 59
Selecting in 40
Zooming 35

Wave selections
Copying 44
Deleting 47
Moving 46
Repeating 47
Waveform elements 181
Waveform Restorer 75
Web links 8
Wheel mouse 29
Window layouts 183
Windows
Closing 23
Duplicate view 25
Maximizing width 35
Minimizing 23
Multiple views 25
Panes 23
Saving layout 180
Switching between 23
WMA files
Batch encoding 96
Write CD 136

Z
Zero crossings 42
Zero level axis 181
Zoom controls 36
Zoom menu 37
Zooming
About 35
Auto zoom for overview 38
Magnifying Glass 36
Montage 109
Mouse zooming 37
Using the keyboard 37
Using the menu 37
Zoom selection 37

218
Index

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Modify Date                     : 2007:07:31 17:18:34+02:00
Create Date                     : 2007:07:31 17:13:38Z
Metadata Date                   : 2007:07:31 17:18:34+02:00
Format                          : application/pdf
Title                           : WaveLab Essential 6 - Operation Manual
Creator                         : © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH 2007
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Author                          : © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH 2007

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WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual Steinberger Wave Lab

Wavelab Essential - 6.0 - Operating Instructions WaveLab_Essential_6 Free User Guide for Steinberg Wavelab Software, Manual

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