Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual
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![Page 170
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...](http://img.usermanuals.tech/thumb/86/103727/w64_WaveLab_d-169.png "Page 170
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...")
WAVELAB Metering 8 – 171 As soon as you perform any kind of real-time processing on an audio file, the audio data will be treated at a much higher resolution (32 bit floating point), to allow for pristine audio quality. Examples of such processing in- clude level adjustments, effects, mixing of two or more files, etc. In fact, the only time when a 16 bit file will be played back at 16 bit resolution is if you play it without any fades or effects, and with the Master Faders set to 0.00 (no level adjustment). You can try this out for yourself by playing back a 16 bit audio file and viewing the Bit Meter – as soon as you adjust the Master Faders, you will note that 24 bits are used and the “inter” indi- cator is lit (more on this below). How to “read” the Bit Meter • The innermost meters (closest to the bit scale) show the number of bits in use. You can adjust this display in the Settings dialog, as described below. • The outer meters are “history” meters, showing how many bits were recently in use. You can adjust the hold time in the Settings dialog. • The “over” segment indicates clipping, similar to a clip indicator. • If the “below” segment is lit, there are more than 24 bits. The bit meter will show the 24 higher bits, and the “below” segment indicates the existence of extra, lower bits. Note that audio is processed with more than 24 bits internally. • If the “inter” segment is lit, this indicates that the audio data cannot really be ex- pressed on a regular 24 bit scale (there are floating point values “in between” bits – thus the label “inter”). This is typically the case if you apply effects, etc.
WAVELAB 8 – 172 Metering When to use the Bit Meter • To check whether dithering is necessary or not. As a rule, if you’re playing back or mixing down to 16 bits, and the Bit Meter shows that more than 16 bits are used, you should apply dithering. • To see the “actual” resolution of an audio file. For example, even though a file is in 24 bit format, only 16 bits may be used. Or, a 32 bit file may only use 24 bits (in this case, the “below” segment would not be lit). For this purpose, the Bit Meter is best used in “Analyse selection” mode. • To see whether a “zeroed” plug-in still affects your signal, or whether a plug-in uses 16 bit internal processing. Making settings for the Bit Meter To adjust the Bit Meter settings, select “Settings…” from the Options pop-up menu or click the “tool” icon. The dialog that appears contains the following settings: Setting Description Colors You can adjust the colors of the meter segments, grids, background, etc. by clicking the corresponding color buttons. Bit hold time Determines for how long peak values are held (by the outer meters, by de- fault shown in dark green). Bit display Determines how the bits are displayed: In “Intuitive mode”, the absolute value of the signal is displayed. The bar graphs will go higher with higher signal levels, similar to a common level meter (although the range will not work the same way). In “True mode”, the meter shows the direct mapping of the bits, but since the actual values may be negative, there is no intuitive relationship with the level (a negative value may use a lot of bits, even though its absolute value is very small). This mode is useful if you instantly want to check the full range, since all bits will quickly be displayed, regardless of the audio signal level.
WAVELAB Metering 8 – 173 Oscilloscope The Oscilloscope is a “microscope” version of the level meter, showing the area around the cursor position at large magnification. The Oscilloscope cannot be used in “Analyse Selection” mode. If you are analysing stereo audio, the Oscilloscope will normally show the separate levels of the two channels. However, if you activate the option “Show Mix and Subtraction” on the Options pop-up menu (or click the +/– icon) the upper half of the Oscilloscope will show the mix of the two chan- nels and the lower half will show the subtraction. Making settings Selecting “Settings” from the Options pop-up menu (or clicking the “tool” icon) will open the Oscilloscope settings dialog. Here you can adjust the display colors, and choose whether Auto-zoom should be active or not. When Auto-zoom is activated, the display will be optimized so that the highest level reaches the top of the display at all times.
WAVELAB 8 – 174 Metering Waveform Scope This meter displays a real time waveform drawing of the audio signal being monitored. It can be useful when recording or rendering a file (if “Monitor File rendering” mode is active – see “Monitor file rendering” on page 157). Making settings Selecting “Settings” from the Options pop-up menu (or clicking the “tool” icon) will open the Waveform Scope settings dialog. Here you can set various color options for the background, grid and waveform display, as well as setting the waveform rendering speed and vertical zoom. If “Clear waveform when reaching right of pane” is checked the waveform display is cleared each time the cursor reaches the right end of the dis- play. If unchecked, the previous waveform is overwritten.
WAVELAB 9 – 176 Off-line processing Introduction When we refer to off-line processing, we mean functions that “perma- nently” alter the file, to make it sound more or less different. This is in opposition to “real-time processing”, which makes the file play back dif- ferently, without making any permanent changes to it. Real-time pro- cessing is described in the next chapter. Applying processing Processing can be applied to a selection or to a whole file. For certain processing operations processing the entire file is necessary. This will be indicated in the respective section. • If “Process whole file if no selection exists” is activated in the Preferences– Wave edit tab, the whole file will automatically be processed if no selection exists. To apply processing to a selection, proceed as follows: 1.Make a selection. Note that you will “Select All” to process the entire file. If the file is in stereo, you can apply processing to either channel or both, by selecting one channel or both, see “Selecting in stereo files” on page 91. 2.Select the desired type of processing from the menus. 3.If a dialog appears, fill it out. If the dialog uses presets, you can load one of them to fill out the settings automatically, see “Presets” on page 65. 4.When you have finished with the settings in the dialog, click the Apply/ Paste/Process button. The status bar shows the progress of the operation. If you need to interrupt a long process, click the “Stop” button on the status bar or press [Esc]. Undo/Redo No matter how long the selection is or how elaborate the processing may be, you have access to unlimited Undo/Redo for all processing. The only limitation to this is the available hard disk space, as described in the sec- tion “Undo and Redo” on page 47.
WAVELAB Off-line processing 9 – 177 Getting the most out of the non-modal dialogs The processing dialogs are non-modal, which means they stay on screen even after the processing has been applied. This, together with the Undo allows you to try different types of processing without ever leaving the di- alog (or even stopping playback!): •When the dialog is still the active window you can use the computer key- board for the following operations: •While the dialog is still open (but inactive) you can select from menus and use other dialogs and palettes (for example the Transport bar). •You can “fold in” and “fold out” non-modal dialogs, as described in the section ““Folding” windows” on page 52. Presets As described in the section “Loading presets” on page 65, you can use presets for most processing dialogs, to save and recall settings. In addi- tion, the program comes with a number of useful presets for each pro- cessing option. Key Command [F3] Undo [F4] Redo [F6] Play selection [Shift]+[F6] Loop selection [F7] Stop [F8] Play
WAVELAB 9 – 178 Off-line processing Level Normalizer This allows you to change the amplitude (volume) of the selection. The value is always related to the maximum level that can be obtained. The controls To find out exactly what each control in the dialog does, click the question mark icon in the dialog. Gain Change This also allows you to change the amplitude (volume) of the selection, just like the Level Normalizer. The difference here is that the gain change is set in absolute numbers, plus/minus the current level (which is indicated as 0dB).
WAVELAB Off-line processing 9 – 179 Clipping This processor lets you do something that most other functions in Wave- Lab never do: introduce clipping. Clipping is when the gain is raised to a point where distortion is added. While this is normally not wanted, mild clipping in for example the attack of a drum sound can add some “punch”. If you try to raise the level of a wave above 0dB (100%)… …it will get distorted (the peaks are “clipped”).
WAVELAB 9 – 180 Off-line processing Loudness Normalizer This processing tool allows you to specify the loudness of a file. Because it relates to loudness as opposed to maximum peak level, this tool works quite differently than the Level Normalizer. A typical application is to spec- ify a level, e.g. -12dB, and the Loudness Normalizer will process the loud- ness to match this level. Like Gain Change, increasing the loudness to a certain value might intro- duce clipping, which is to be avoided. To remedy this, a peak limiter (the Peak Master plug-in) can be part of the process. The Loudness Normal- izer will smartly raise the loudness and limit peaks in the signal at the same time (if needed), to achieve the desired loudness. In case of stereo files, both channels are processed independently. •This process happens over two stages; first an analysis and then the final rendering. The results of this analysis can be seen in the Statistics. If all seems well, you can apply the processing using the Render button. •The Loudness Normalizer is also available in the Batch processor, which is logical as one of the primary applications is to process different files to equal loudness.