Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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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.
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.
Renaming files and documents (Rename)
The Rename function is available from most WaveLab documents, not 
just Wave windows. The function is however of particular importance 
when renaming audio files. If you rename an audio file outside WaveLab, 
and this file is referenced to an Audio Montage or a Basic Audio CD (or 
any type of WaveLab document/project that uses file references), the ref-
erence will be lost the next time you open the document that references 
this file.
But WaveLab 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:
• All open documents that reference the file or document to be renamed will 
be automatically updated to reference the new name.
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”!
For audio files, peak and marker files will also be renamed accordingly. 
•Documents that use audio file references are Audio Montages, Basic Au-
dio CDs, Data CD/DVD projects, DVD-Audio Projects, Backup plans, 
Audio Databases, and Workspaces. 
•WaveLab documents can also refer to the names of other documents, 
e.g. a DVD-Audio project will contain references to Audio 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. 
						

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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.
The dialog contains the following items:
You can also Batch rename files – see “Batch renaming” on page 307.
Item 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 re-
naming. If Change folder is ticked, you can navigate to a new loca-
tion. 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”).  
						

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Deleting files and documents
It is possible to delete whole files or documents from within WaveLab. 
This function is available from the File menu and will delete the currently 
selected file or document from disk. 
1.Make sure the file or document you wish to delete is in focus.
2.Select “Delete…” from the File menu.
A dialog appears as a warning, allowing you to cancel or proceed with the operation.
3.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 re-
trieve the file!
•Any open documents in WaveLab that has a reference to this file will be 
updated accordingly. 
This update will apply to Data CD/DVD projects, Backup plans, Audio Databases and 
DVD-Audio projects, and the file name will be removed from these. 
•However, if a file is being referenced by a currently open Audio Montage 
or Basic Audio CD, you will not be able to delete the file and a warning 
will appear. 
In addition, you will not be able to delete the file in the following circum-
stances:
• 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.
•Deleting an audio file will also automatically delete its peak and marker file 
names.  
						

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Saving view settings
WaveLab can automatically save all settings associated with a Wave file. 
This includes:
• Window size and position.
• Zooming.
• Scroll position.
• Display mode (Wave/Spectrum/Loudness Envelope).
• Snapshots.
• Master Section preset associated with the file.
The view setting information is stored in a companion file (extension 
“.mem”) either together with your audio files or in a separate folder.
•This feature is activated/deactivated (on by default) in the Preferences–
Wave edit tab (“Save view settings in companion file”).
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!
Saving a Master Section preset with an audio file
You can also store all Master Section settings used as part of the saved 
file. When you reload the file, you can choose to recreate the Master Sec-
tion effects exactly as they were when saved. 
To store Master Section effects as part of an audio file, proceed as follows:
1.Make sure the effects and their settings are configured the way you wish 
to store them.
“Save view settings in companion file” must be activated in the Preferences.
2.Select the file you wish to save a Master Section preset for, and [Ctrl]-
click on the “M” button on the title bar.
The button will now be lit up in green, to indicate that the Master Section effects settings 
have been saved.
3.Anytime you reload the file, you can recreate the Master Section effects 
by clicking on the “M” button.
The effects will be loaded exactly as saved.  
						

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Editing in the Wave window 6 – 125
Compression encoded export formats
Apart from the formats available in the Save As dialog and the Save spe-
cial encode MP3/MP2/WMA options, WaveLab allows you to export files 
in a number of compression encoded audio formats, suitable for multime-
dia, web publishing, etc. (see “Supported file formats” on page 113). The 
basic functionality for this is part of a software technology called Mi-
crosoft ACM (Audio Compression Manager) which is included with Mi-
crosoft Media Tools.
The number of formats you can export, depend on which ACM drivers you 
have installed on your computer.
For more information, see www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia.
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.
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 degrada-
tion, albeit in many cases a very small one.
WaveLab can also import any file supported by ACM, provided that the 
correct ACM drivers are installed.
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 119). 
						

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Exporting to encoded formats
The menu item “Encode (ACM)” uses the Microsoft MediaTools technol-
ogy to convert the file to one of a number of compressed formats.
1.Select “Encode (ACM)…” from the Save Special submenu.
The dialog that appears is a MediaTools dialog, not a WaveLab dialog.
2.Select one of the formats from the pop-up in the middle and chose a set-
ting for it from the pop-up below.
The dialog also provides possibilities for creating “presets” of formats and settings, using 
the upper row of controls.
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 prob-
lems 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.
A regular file dialog appears.
4.Specify a name and location for the file, as with any Save operation.
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 in-
stead 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.
This is normally not a problem, but something to be aware of when plan-
ning for usage of files in other programs and on other computer platforms. 
						

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Editing attributes and getting information
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.
•Click on the properties information field, on the status bar.
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 
117). However, the following rules apply:
• If you change the sample rate, the file will play back at the wrong pitch.
• If you change the bit resolution the file will be converted to the new resolution the 
next time you save it.
There is no Undo for this item. If you save with a lower bit resolution, the file 
is permanently converted.  
						

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File attributes
If you select this option on the Edit menu, a dialog opens in which you can 
specify various information about the wave file.
The Wave Attributes dialog 
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.
• Note that you can instruct WaveLab to automatically fill out the text fields for 
“Originator software” (WaveLab) and “Creation Date” (the current), by click-
ing the small buttons to the right of the fields.
•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 pre-
cise positions in other applications. By default, the Timecode position is 
set to the start position of the audio.
Information
This item, on the File menu – Special submenu, brings up a dialog that 
displays basic information about a file.  
						

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About the Loudness envelope display mode
As described earlier in this chapter, there are three display modes for 
Wave windows (see “About the Display modes” on page 77).
The Loudness envelope wave display is selected from the pop-up menu 
at the bottom right of the wave window, to the left of the horizontal zoom 
control (the overview also has a separate Display mode pop-up).
The curves represent the loudness over time in an audio file (see “About 
the curves” on page 130). The loudness is an average level of the individ-
ual levels of the samples (RMS). As isolated peaks do not alter the per-
ceived loudness of audio material very much, this display will represent 
the loudness of an audio file more accurately than the standard waveform 
display.
Apart from a more accurate visualization of the loudness, this display 
mode will also give you an overview of a song’s compression (or dynamic 
range). For instance, the more dips in the curve, the more dynamics in the 
audio material. An even curve with few dips indicates that the material is 
compressed with a limited dynamic range (which is common for modern 
pop/dance music).  
						

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•When the Loudness envelope display mode is selected, the “Y” axis is 
logarithmic, not linear like in the waveform display. 
The vertical zoom slider will change the scale rather than a zoom factor. By displaying a 
larger scale, very small volume changes can be viewed.
•All standard editing operations, i.e. selecting, cut/copy/paste, etc., are 
available, except drawing with the Pencil tool.
About the curves
Up to four different curves can be shown simultaneously in the Loudness 
envelope display. These curves have different colors and represent the 
average loudness of the signal in different areas of the frequency spec-
trum. This can be useful to visualize where in the frequency domain the 
loudness is “spread” at a given time, or to display the loudness of a spe-
cific part of the spectrum. The curves can be shown individually or in any 
combination.
•Which curves are displayed, and what frequency area they represent is 
set in the Loudness envelope options dialog (see below).