Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

WAVELAB
Playback and recording 7 – 151
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.
• The meters in the Record dialog are “miniature” versions of the Level, Spec-
trum and Phase Meters in the Meter windows. 
For detailed descriptions of the functionality and features, see “Level/pan meter” on page 159.
For the meters to register the signal, you need to activate...

WAVELAB
7 – 152 Playback and recording
Checking disk capacity
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 Create Final File 
path, or the hard disk you have selected for your temporary files (see “Tem-
porary files” on page 28). Please note that this value is approximate.
When there is less than ten seconds of available hard disk space, the disk...

WAVELAB
Playback and recording 7 – 153
• You can deactivate the option “Open audio file in  WaveLab after recording” 
in the Record settings dialog if you don’t want the recording to appear in a 
new window.
In this case, the recorded file is saved to disk but does not automatically appear in Wave-
Lab after 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,...

WAVELAB
7 – 154 Playback and recording
•Activate the option “Confirm name of markers to drop” in the record set-
tings dialog.
In this case, a dialog will appear each time you click a button to drop a marker. In this dialog, 
you can either type in a name for the marker, or you can confirm that you want to use an al-
ready 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...

8
Metering 

WAVELAB
8 – 156 Metering
Introduction
WaveLab offers very detailed and versatile metering, allowing you to moni-
tor level, pan, phase, spectrum and more during playback, on audio input 
and even during file rendering. This chapter describes how to display, set 
up and use the various meters.
Selecting what to monitor
On the lower part of the Analysis menu, you will find different monitor 
modes for the meters. You select a monitor mode either from the menu, or 
by clicking the corresponding button on...

WAVELAB
Metering 8 – 157
Monitor edit-cursor position
This mode is only available for Wave windows. When this is selected, the 
meters will be static, showing the levels and other values for the audio at 
the position of the Wave Cursor, in stop mode. This allows you to analyse 
a certain position in an audio file, in real time. The Master Section settings 
are not taken into account in this mode.
Analyse selection
Again, this mode is only available for Wave windows. It allows you to 
make a selection...

WAVELAB
8 – 158 Metering
Multi-channel metering
As previously mentioned, WaveLab features 8 audio channels internally 
that can be routed to inputs and outputs on a multi i/o audio card. The Au-
dio Montage supports various surround channel configurations using up 
to 6 channels (see “Multichannel operation in the Montage” on page 506 
for more information).
WaveLab can display multiple meters so when working with multiple 
channels in the Audio Montage, each channel can be metered. This ap-
plies to all...

WAVELAB
Metering 8 – 159
The meters
There are seven different meters in WaveLab, each with its separate win-
dow. The meters are opened and closed from the Analysis menu (or by 
clicking the buttons on the Meters control bar).
• To close all open meter windows, click the Close Meters button on the 
Meters control bar.
As with any standard window, you can resize the meter windows by drag-
ging the window borders, and fold the windows by clicking the fold icons 
(or by double clicking the title bars).
On...

WAVELAB
8 – 160 Metering
• 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 or audio input, 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...