Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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The dialog contains the following options:
Item Description
Desired Loudness The loudness you desire to achieve. Positive and negative values can 
be set.
Be aware that specifying high positive values might not be good prac-
tice, as this could require a gain which is beyond what the limiter can 
properly handle so distortion could occur. A good tip is to use “Statis-
tics” (see below) after specifying a loudness, which will tell you how 
much the gain needs to be...

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Attempts/Analysis – 
Desired precisionIf the Desired loudness requires peak limiting, this will also reduce the 
loudness to some degree. This can’t be computed in advance and be 
automatically applied to the gain change, because the limiting is a com-
plex process. Instead, several simulation passes are performed to find 
the best possible gain. This option lets you define the desired precision 
of the result. 
Attempts/Analysis – 
Maximum number of 
passesWaveLab...

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Pan Normalizer
The Pan Normalizer can ensure that both channels of a stereo file have 
the same level or loudness. You need to have a stereo selection in a ste-
reo file to apply this process. 
•This process requires two passes (analysis and rendering). 
•The Pan Normalizer is also available in the Batch processor.
The dialog contains the following options:
Item Description
Peak level The channel with the lowest peak level will be raised to match the peak 
level of the...

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Dynamics
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 im-
plement examples of the above-mentioned functions and experiment with 
the controls to get a feeling for what they do.
The Time Response controls
The...

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The Normalize controls
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 mate-
rial 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...

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• 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.
Compression
• If the curve is tilted upwards instead, the output level will be higher than the input 
level, which is referred to as expanding.
Expansion
• If the curve is horizontally flat from some point, the output level will be the same 
regardless of input...

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

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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:
1.Make a regular selection in a section that only contains background noise.
The longer this selection, the more accurate the result will be.
2.Select “Extend to peaks” from the Select submenu on the...

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Level envelope
This dialog allows you to create a volume envelope which can be applied 
to a selected range or a whole file.
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.
Basic operation procedure
By adding points to the...

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Envelope functions in the dialog
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.
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...