Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

							WAVELAB
Metering 8 – 161
• If you are monitoring real-time audio (playback or input), the maximum balance dif-
ference values (peak and loudness) for each channel are displayed numerically to 
the left and right of the meter bars.
Resetting the meters
You can reset the level and pan 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.
The Reset icon
Making settings for the level and pan meters
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 ac-
cess. Proceed as follows:
1.Pull down the Options pop-up menu and select “Settings” (or click the 
“tool” icon).
The Level/Pan Meter Settings dialog appears.   
						

							WAVELAB
8 – 162 Metering
2.Adjust the settings as desired.
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 – 
BallisticsThese settings determine how fast the peak level meter falls after a peak 
(Release rate) and for how long the numerical peak indication remains dis-
played after a peak (Peak hold time).
Peak meter –
ZonesThe 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. 
Peak meter – 
Cursor modeThese settings are only relevant when using the meters in Cursor mode 
(“Monitor Edit-cursor position” selected). Here, you can choose by which 
units the peak levels should be displayed.
There is also a choice of whether to display the value of the single sample 
at the cursor position (checkbox ticked) or the peak value of the range 
around the cursor position (this range is set with the Samples to scan pa-
rameter in the VU meter section). Generally, the option is best activated 
when you have zoomed in on the waveform to see the details, and best 
turned off when you’re working at normal zoom.
VU meter –
ShowAllows you to activate or deactivate the VU meters.
VU meter –
ModeOn the pop-up you can select between Standard and three special K-Sys-
tem modes. The K System metering modes are described below this table.
VU meter – 
BallisticsThese 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 re-
spond to changes in loudness.
VU meter –
ZonesThe color buttons allow you to select colors for the VU 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 (only available in Standard VU mode). 
VU meter – 
Cursor modeThis setting determines how many samples to scan when calculating the 
VU meter value in “Monitor edit-cursor position” mode. 
						

							WAVELAB
Metering 8 – 163
3.If you want to store your settings for later use (or assign them to a preset), 
select “Save as…” from the pop-up 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).
About the K-System VU meter modes
Mastering engineer Bob Katz has proposed the “K-System” which inte-
grates standardized metering, monitor calibration and level practices. 
• The technical concept behind this proposed standardization is described in 
detail on “www.digido.com”.
Go to the “Articles” section and select the “Level practices” page. Here, in an illuminating 
two part article, Bob Katz explains the theory behind the K-System. Anybody genuinely in-
terested in sound mastering practices should read this!
In WaveLab, the K-System’s loudness metering standard is available as 
an option. There are three metering modes which all set the 0 dB VU 
point below the standard VU meter. This allows much more headroom for 
transients and peaks to be accommodated at their normal level. The 
meter is still just a scale of course, and the basic audio material will be the 
same regardless how you meter it. But by adapting to the K-System way 
of metering average loudness and peak levels (and understanding the ba-
sic principles behind it), you may find that your mastered audio material 
will sound better.
•To fully utilize the K-System you need to calibrate your monitor level so 
that 0 VU equals 83 dB.
You should use a pink noise reference signal and a SPL level meter. Use C weighting (slow 
response), and adjust your playback level so that your noise meter indicates 83 dB SPL per 
channel or 86 dB SPL when played on the two channels simultaneously. 
During mixing or mastering digital audio, many strive to keep the level as 
close to maximum as possible, without introducing clipping. This is done 
to “maximize” the loudness of the recording. This practice has been an 
ongoing and escalating trend over the last couple of decades, so that it 
has now virtually become standard practice (the overuse of Loudness 
Panning Meter In this section, you can turn the pan meter on or off, change the colors 
used for the pan meter bars and adjust the dB range of the pan meter. Setting Description 
						

							WAVELAB
8 – 164 Metering
Maximizers being one of the main reasons). The trouble with this practice 
is that it renders average loudness levels that are very close to the maxi-
mum peak levels which drastically reduces the available “headroom” or 
dynamic range.
The difference between the average loudness and the peak level is often 
around 11 to 15 dB in a dynamic high quality recording. This means that if 
you strive to squeeze the maximum “loudness” out of such a recording 
when mixing or mastering, the peaks or transients will obviously have to 
be limited quite heavily, thus negatively affecting the natural openness, 
clarity and dynamic range of the audio material. 
It “quashes” natural transients, lowers the dynamic range, introduces dis-
tortion and degrades the quality of the audio, all for the sake of making the 
audio as loud as possible. For pristine audiophile recordings this is defi-
nitely not good practice!
The K-System has three meter operating modes (selectable from the VU-
Meter pop-up in the Level/Pan Meter Settings dialog). These are intended 
for different applications, as follows:
•K-System 20:
This places 0 VU 20dB lower than standard VU mode, and is intended for music with very 
wide dynamic range, e.g. classical music.
•K-System 14:
This places 0 VU 14dB lower than standard VU mode, and is intended for music with 
slightly more compressed dynamic range. Use this for typical pop, R&B and rock music.
•K-System 12:
This places 0 VU 12dB lower than standard VU mode, and is primarily intended for broad-
cast applications.  
						

							WAVELAB
Metering 8 – 165
Selecting meter presets
If you have assigned your settings to the Preset buttons in the Settings di-
alog, 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.
Phase Scope
The Phase Scope is only relevant when monitoring  stereo audio material.
The Phase Scope indicates the phase and amplitude relationship be-
tween the two channels, in the following way:
• A vertical line indicates a perfect mono signal (the left and right channels are the 
same).
• A horizontal line indicates that the left channel is the same as the right, but with an 
inverse phase.
• A random but fairly round shape indicates a well balanced stereo signal. If the 
shape “leans” to the left, there is more energy in the left channel and vice versa 
(the extreme case of this is if one side is muted, in which case the Phase Scope 
will show a straight line, angled 45° to the other side).
• A perfect circle indicates a sine wave on one channel, and the same sine wave 
shifted by 45° on the other.
• Generally, the more you can see a “thread”, the more bass in the signal, and the 
more “spray-like” the display, the more high frequencies in the signal.
At the bottom of the display, you will find a Phase Correlation meter, 
which shows the same information but in a different way:
• The green line shows the current phase correlation, while the two red lines show 
the recent peak minimum and maximum values, respectively (these are the default 
colors, which can be adjusted).  
						

							WAVELAB
8 – 166 Metering
• With a mono signal, the meter would show +1, indicating that both channels are 
perfectly in phase.
• Similarly, –1 indicates that the two channels are the same, but one is inverted.
• Generally, for a “good” mix, the meter should show a value between 0 and +1.
Unlike the main Phase “coil” meter, the Phase Correlation meter is also 
available in “Analyse Selection” mode, showing an average value for the 
selected range.
Making settings
To make settings for the Phase Scope, select “Settings” from the Options 
pop-up menu, or click the “tool” icon. The dialog that appears contains 
the following settings:
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 (much like a simplified form of the FFT meter below).
Setting Description
Background Click this to change the background color.
Coil display Allows you to adjust the color for the grid and phase coil display.
Auto-size When Auto-size is activated, the display will be optimized so that the 
size of the “shape” matches the window size.
Correlation display This is where you select colors for the elements in the Phase Correla-
tion meter display, and adjust the Peak hold time for the maximum and 
minimum indicators.
Number of samples
to displayThis setting affects the length of the phase coil, and hence the den-
sity of the display. For audio with high sample rates, you might want 
to raise this value.  
						

							WAVELAB
Metering 8 – 167
Spectrum analyser (FFT)
The Spectrum Analyser uses FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) to display a 
continuous frequency graph, allowing for very precise and detailed real-
time frequency analysis.
• The current frequency spectrum will be shown as a red graph (by default).
• Spectrum “peaks” (recent maximum values) will be shown as a purple graph. All 
colors can be adjusted in the Settings dialog as described below.
• By clicking the camera icon, you can take a snapshot of the current spectrum. 
This will be superimposed on the current peak spectrum graphs, in a color you 
can customize (by default, a white graph), until you click the camera icon again (to 
take a new snapshot). One use for this is to check the effects of adding EQ, etc.
Zooming
You can adjust the frequency scale and range in the Settings dialog as de-
scribed below, but it’s also possible to temporarily zoom in on a frequency 
area of interest. This is done by clicking and dragging a rectangle in the 
Spectrum display – when you release the mouse button, the display is 
zoomed in so that the enclosed frequency range fills the window. To return 
to full-scale display, select “Zoom-out fully” from the Options pop-up menu.  
						

							WAVELAB
8 – 168 Metering
Making settings
You can adjust the behavior and display of the meters as desired, and as-
sign up to five sets of Spectrum Analysis settings to the Preset buttons, 
for instant access. Open the Settings dialog by selecting “Settings” from 
the Options pop-up menu or clicking the “tool” icon.
The dialog has two tabs (see below).
•The Process tab contains parameters for the actual analysis:
Setting Description
Analysis
block sizeThe higher this value, the higher the accuracy in the frequency domain (the 
spectrum is divided into more bands). However, raising the block size value 
will also require more CPU power and introduce more latency. Therefore:
High values may only be usable for off-line monitoring.
Analysis 
overlappingTo get more accurate results, the program can analyse overlapping blocks 
(i.e. samples will be analysed more than once). This setting determines the 
amount of overlap between each block – the higher the value, the more ac-
curate the results.
A word of caution: raising this value is very CPU intensive. Compared to no 
overlap at all, a setting of 50% requires twice the amount of CPU power, a 
setting of 75% requires four times the CPU power, etc.
Smoothing 
windowAllows you to choose which method should be used for pre-processing the 
samples in order to optimize the display of the desired information in the 
spectrum. The smoothing window sets a compromise between the accu-
racy at which a frequency can be detected, and the noise-floor.
This parameter is best left at its default setting, if you’re not an expert in the 
field.   
						

							WAVELAB
Metering 8 – 169
•The Display tab contains settings for how the spectrum graph should be 
shown:
Note that you can apply your settings without closing the dialog, by click-
ing the Apply button.
If you want to store your settings for later use (or assign them to a Preset 
button), select “Save as…” from the pop-up menu in the lower part of the 
dialog, and specify a name for the preset in the file dialog that appears. 
Now, you can choose to make the settings instantly available for selection 
in the FFT Meter window, by using the “Assign to preset button” submenu 
on the pop-up menu.
•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).
Setting Description
Frequency ruler 
rangeDetermines the frequency range to be shown, at full-scale display. 
Note that the lowest frequency actually to be shown depends on the 
Analysis block size setting and the highest actual frequency depends 
on the sample rate (only frequencies up to about half the sample rate 
will be shown).
Logarithmic scale When this is activated, each octave will occupy the same horizontal 
space in the display. If you need more resolution in the high frequency 
range, you may want to turn this off.
Level ruler range Determines the range of the vertical level ruler, in dB or as a percent-
age.
Normalize display 
to 0dBThis is only relevant in non-real time mode. If this is activated, the level 
display is offset, so that the highest point on the curve is displayed as 
0 dB (reaches the top of the display).
Optimize scale This option will optimize the level scale so that the only the relevant 
level range is shown. Again, this is only available in non-real time 
mode. 
Display type Allows you to choose whether the spectrum should be shown as a 
curve or as a bar graph.
Peak Hold time Determines for how long the peak level graph remains displayed when 
the levels drop.
Colors This is where you select colors for the curves, grid, background, etc. 
						

							WAVELAB
8 – 170 Metering
Selecting Spectrum Analyser presets
If you have assigned your settings to the Preset buttons in the Settings di-
alog, 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.
Exporting FFT data as ASCII text
When using the Spectrum Analyser in off-line mode (“Monitor Edit-cursor 
Position” or “Analyse Selection” mode) you can export the displayed FFT 
data as a text file, by selecting “Export FFT data as ASCII” from the Op-
tions pop-up menu. The resulting text file can then be imported into e.g. 
Microsoft Excel, or other applications that allow graph plotting from text 
files, etc.
Bit Meter
The Bit Meter shows how many bits are used, i.e. the resolution of the au-
dio being monitored. While you may expect the maximum number of bits 
to be the same as the resolution of the audio file (e.g. a 16 bit audio file 
would show up to 16 bits being used), this is not necessarily the case!