Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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Editing in the Wave window 6 – 111
By saving (converting an entire file)
1.Open the stereo file.
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.
3.Change the Channels setting to the “Mono (Mix)” option, but leave the 
other settings as they are.
You can of course change the other settings too, but this will have other effects, see “Sav-
ing in another format (Save as…)” on page 117.
• 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 re-
spectively.
Since the mixing of the two channels when converting a stereo file to mono might often re-
sult in the amplitude increasing to a point where clipping occurs, these two options can be 
useful to remedy such a situation.
4.Click OK and save the file.
5.Open the file you just saved.
Swapping channels in a stereo file
You may move the material in the left channel to the right channel, and 
vice versa:
1.Make a selection across both channels.
Only the material in the selected section will be swapped.
2.Select “Swap channels” from the Edit menu. 
						

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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 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’s bottom window rim.
•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.
• You can also use “Audio error detection and correction” to automatically re-
pair corrupted audio files – see “Audio error detection and correction ” on 
page 631.
Click here 
to open the Zoom 
pop-up menu.    
						

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File handling in Wave windows
This section describes file handling in the Wave window (i.e. handling audio 
files). File handling of other document types (e.g. Audio Montages) is de-
scribed in the respective chapter.
Supported file formats
WaveLab 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.
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.
Wave 64 (.w64) This file format, developed by Sony, is very similar to the Wave format 
but with one important difference; it allows you to record and/or edit files 
of virtually any length (actually the limit is 512 GB but this ought to cover 
most situations). Standard Wave files are limited to 2 GB (stereo files) in 
WaveLab. 
RF64 You have an option (set in the Preferences - Files tab) to support the 
RF64 file format. If this is activated, the standard Wave file format 
switches automatically to the RF64 file format as soon as the file size ex-
ceeds 2 GB, without any performance loss or interruption. This is espe-
cially useful when recording very long sessions as there is no need to 
worry about file size limit (apart from available disk space). A RF64 file 
will still have the “.wav” extension but can only be opened with an appli-
cation that supports the RF64 standard. 
AIFF (.aif, .aiff, .snd) Audio Interchange File Format, a standard defined by Apple Computers 
Inc. 8, 16, 20, or 24 bit resolutions are supported. 
						

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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 can both open and 
save files in this format.
- Note that when you open an MPEG compressed file in WaveLab, 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’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 
119.
Sound 
Designer II (.sd2)This audio file format is used by Digidesign applications (such as Pro 
Tools). 8, 16 or 24 bit resolutions supported.
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.
A-LAW 
(.alaw, .vox)This is an audio encoding and compression technique for telephony, us-
ing 8 bit resolution. The EU telephone system uses A-law encoding for 
digitization.
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 stor-
age 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.  Format Description 
						

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Editing in the Wave window 6 – 115
The “$$$” file type is WaveLab’s own temporary file format. In case you ex-
perience a computer crash you may restore some of your work by opening 
any stray “$$$” files on your hard disk(s).
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 can handle 20- and 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 automat-
ically adapts to whatever card you have installed.
About temporary files
As you work in WaveLab, temporary files used for Undo, etc. are created 
on your hard disk, see “Temporary files” on page 28.
You can decide whether these files should be in 16-, 24- or 32 bit format. 
This is done on the Preferences–File tab.
The higher this value, the better the quality of the temporary file. However, 
32-bit files are also twice as big as 16-bit files and take longer to process.
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, it will be de-
coded and opened as an audio file. Note that these files are not com-
pressed 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.
Windows Media 
Audio (.wma, .asf))Microsoft’s own compressed format. WaveLab lets you import/export 
audio in this format. Note that it is also possible to import/export audio in 
WMA surround format, provided that you have Windows Media Player 9 
(or later) installed on your system.
Ensoniq Paris (.paf) Used by the Ensoniq Paris™ system (16 bit resolution).
Raw PCM files
(.raw, .bin, .pcm, 
.$$$)In this format, no information about bit resolution or sample rate is in-
cluded. If you open a file in this format, WaveLab will ask you to specify 
the bit resolution and sample rate. If you don’t do this correctly, the file 
will not play back as intended. Format Description 
						

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• If you ever plan to export your files, or create high resolution DVD-A discs, in 24-
bit or 32-bit format, use this format or a better one (higher number) for your tem-
porary 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.
About the “Erase Peak files…” option
This item allows you to erase all peak files from a selected folder. 
A peak file is a small file with the extension “.gpk” automatically created by 
WaveLab each time a file is modified or opened in WaveLab (if it hasn’t 
been previously). The peak file contains information about the waveform, 
and determines how it is drawn in the wave window.
For example, if you have stored your peak files (this is set in the Prefer-
ences dialog) in the same folder as your audio files, you may wish to erase 
the peak files so that the folder only contains audio files. Erasing peak files 
is safe, they will be recreated when needed.
Proceed as follows:
1.Select Erase peak files from the Tools menu.
A dialog opens.
2.In the upper field specify the folder with peak files to erase.
Check the “Also scan sub-folders” option if this is applicable.
•If you check the “Also erase files with these extensions” option, you can 
specify other file types to erase in the set folder by typing in extensions 
separated by a comma. 
This option lets you erase peak or other temp files created by other applications for example.
Please note that the files will be permanently erased (not moved to the Recy-
cle bin)! It is possible to erase important files if you specify wrong extensions 
or if you aren’t 100% sure of what you are doing. Therefore use this option 
with caution! 
						

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Editing in the Wave window 6 – 117
Opening files
The various methods for opening an audio file in a Wave window are de-
scribed in the section “Opening Waves” on page 71. Importing CD tracks 
from an audio CD is described in the section “Importing tracks from an 
audio CD” on page 75. Importing tracks from a DVD-Audio disc is de-
scribed in the section “Importing DVD-Audio tracks into WaveLab” on 
page 599.
Save and Save as – General information
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 117.
• All save operations except “Save Copy” clear the Undo buffers, which 
means that after saving you cannot undo or redo.
Automatic backups
For all save operations except a regular “Save”, backups are created au-
tomatically 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…)
If you want to change the format (file format, sampling frequency, bit res-
olution and stereo/mono status) when saving, proceed as follows:
1.Select Save as… on the File menu.
2.A regular file dialog appears where you can specify a file name, folder and 
a file format (see “Supported file formats” on page 113). 
						

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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.
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. For detailed descriptions 
of the settings in the Audio File Format dialog, click the question mark icon in the dialog.
If you change the sample rate, bit resolution and number of channels, the 
following operations are performed:
•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 127) 
instead and perform a standard save.
Property Action
Sample Rate If a new sample rate is specified, a sample rate conversion will be performed 
(see “Convert sample rate” on page 210).
Bit Resolution If a different bit resolution is specified, the file is either “truncated” down to 
8 bits, or “padded” up to 16 bits. If you convert to 8 bits, the audio is auto-
matically normalized.
If you are converting to a lower bit resolution, you should consider adding 
dithering – see “The Dithering pane” on page 231.
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, a mix of the two 
channels will be created (clipping is prevented in the mixing process).  
						

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Editing in the Wave window 6 – 119
•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 225).
•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. Click the question mark 
icon in the dialog for details.
• It is also possible to convert several files to another format in one go (batch 
encoding). 
See “Batch file encoding” on page 303.
• 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.
• 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 and save it as an uncompressed au-
dio 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 en-
coding” on page 303.
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.
Save selection as clip (for Audio Montages)
This item is available from the Wave window speed menu when a selec-
tion is active. It allows you to save the current selection as a clip file which 
can be used in Audio Montages. Clip files can be used just like audio files 
in Montages but are not self-contained audio files. Instead they contain a 
reference to the source audio file. 
						

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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 dia-
log is used as with Save As.
Save left/right channel as
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.
This menu command is used when you have been editing “dual mono” 
files for example, and wish to save the channels into separate files.
Save All
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.
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.
1.Select /deselect files by clicking on them or by using the Select/Deselect 
button.
Only the selected files will be saved.
2.Click “Save selected”.