Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual
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WAVELAB 1 – 12 Introduction Welcome! Congratulations on your choice of WaveLab! Ever since its early versions WaveLab has enjoyed a high reputation among professional and semi- professional users. WaveLab is the audio editor of choice, not only in top- of-the-line mastering and restoration facilities, but also for any serious en- gineer or musician. This new version of WaveLab continues in the tradition of introducing new powerful and exciting features while maintaining the ease of use and workflow that makes working with WaveLab so effective. We are quite confident that version 6.0 will define a new standard in applying psycho- acoustic tools to professional audio editing and mastering. WaveLab 6.0 will integrate seamlessly into your existing studio environment, and with your outboard gear. Steinberg has always shown a strong commitment to protect the invest- ment of loyal customers. WaveLab 6.0 follows this route by introducing the Steinberg key to preserve your competitive advantage. Your Steinberg Team. What’s new in WaveLab 6.0? This section lists the main new functions and features added to the 6.0 version of WaveLab: • The main wave window and the overview can independently be set to display one of three display modes: Standard waveform display (Wave), the loudness enve- lope of the sound (Loudness envelope), or as a spectrogram (Spectrum). • New Spectrum editor offers powerful audio restoration and processing functions. High quality linear-phase filters allow you to remove unwanted artefacts in the au- dio with surgical precision. You can also process a selected frequency/time re- gion separately via the Master Section. • New Rename function that can automatically update all file references in other documents such as Audio Montages. Files, clips and markers can also be batch renamed. • Marker regions can be rendered as separate audio files. • Improved file read/write performance. • No limitation on audio file size. • DIRAC engine - perhaps the highest quality algorithm for Time stretch/Pitch shift processing available today. • Crystal Resampler plug-in, a professional sample rate converter providing excep- tional transparency and preservation of the frequency content.
WAVELAB Introduction 1 – 13 • External gear plug-in allows you to process audio via external equipment. • New Audio input plug-in replaces the Live input feature, with the option to record the incoming signal. • Option to save an audio selection as an Audio Montage clip. • Redesigned graphic user interface in all menus and dialogs. • Auto Split enhancements includes Split to specific file length and Split according to a text file (XML support). • Clip files can be created when using Auto Split. • The Loudness Normalizer allows you specify the desired loudness of a file to a given value. A high quality limiter coupled with multi-pass analysis ensures very accurate results. • The Pan Normalizer allows you to process the left/right audio channels in a stereo file to the same loudness. • The Level envelope processor can control the level of an audio file or selection using an envelope curve. • The Pitch Quantize processor can automatically detect and correct the pitch of an audio file. • Effect morphing - gradually blend two processed audio ranges with a custom en- velope for sample accurate effect transitions. • Global Bypass tool compensates for the loudness difference between pro- cessed/unprocessed audio. • New Edit folders dialog manages all default file folders used by WaveLab. • Define up to 3 temporary file folders to further improve file performance. • View settings files (extension “.mem”) can store/recall information relating to a spe- cific audio file such as window/zoom/scroll positions, Master Section preset etc. • Audio peak files (extension “.gpk”) can now be stored in a separate folder. • Improved graphic speed for displaying large files. Peak files can also be created in the background with graphical progress monitoring. • Updated preference dialogs. • Advanced “Insert silence” function allows you to insert user specified ambient background noise instead of silence, with optional cross-faded insertion. • K-System support for loudness metering. • New Audio Montage tab can manage all plug-ins used in a Montage in a variety of ways. Copy and paste plug-ins between clips or tracks, or load and save whole plug-in chains. • Batch processing of Audio Montages. • WaveLab can now be slaved to the ASIO Positioning Protocol, for sample accu- rate synchronization. • You can now assign MIDI commands for WaveLab functions. Best of all, WaveLab is continuously developed and refined, in collabora- tion with our users – from professional audio engineers to hobbyists. Your input has helped make this version of WaveLab the most complete, flexi- ble and user-friendly ever!
WAVELAB 1 – 14 Introduction How you can reach us After having installed and launched the program, you will find a number of useful Steinberg Web links on the Help menu (“Steinberg on the internet” submenu). These allow you to get online support, check for updates, get answers to frequently asked questions, etc. These features require that you have a working Internet connection.
WAVELAB 2 – 16 Requirements This is what you need… To use WaveLab you need the following: • A PC with Windows XP or 2000 installed and ready. A free USB port is also required. For more details about the computer requirements, see below. • A Multimedia PC compatible, 16-bit (or better) audio card. By audio card we mean a card capable of recording and playing back audio, using the com- puter’s hard disk as storage media. See “About audio cards” on page 18. To take advantage of WaveLab’s more advanced features, you need the following: • To utilize WaveLab’s CD burning capabilities, you will need a CD recorder. Your CD recorder must support the disc-at-once write mode. • To utilize WaveLab’s DVD-A burning capabilities, you will need a DVD recorder. • To utilize WaveLab’s surround and multichannel capabilities, you will need an audio card with multiple inputs and outputs. Furthermore, the audio card must have an ASIO driver. • DirectX 9 or later must be installed. Computer requirements Below, the minimum computer requirements are listed, with recommen- dations where applicable. The following sections describe each system component (processor, RAM, etc.) in more detail. Minimum requirements • Intel Pentium III/AMD Athlon 800 MHz (Intel Pentium IV/AMD Athlon or AMD Opteron 2,4 GHz). • Newer dual core CPUs are recommended. • 256 MB RAM (1 GB recommended). • A monitor and video card with a resolution of 24 bit (32 bit recommended). • 50 MB of free hard disk space (10 GB recommended). • Windows XP or 2000 (Windows XP recommended). • Windows MME compatible audio hardware (ASIO compatible audio hardware recommended). • CD or DVD ROM drive for installation (CD/DVD writer recommended). • USB port. • DirectX version 9 or later is required for using video and some export functions.
WAVELAB Requirements 2 – 17 RAM Since WaveLab is disk based, the amount of RAM does not limit the size of audio files you can work with. Even with moderate amounts of RAM, you can have many files open at the same time. However, when more RAM is available, some processes can be accelerated by WaveLab. Processing power The difference between running WaveLab on a faster computer and a slower one is noticeable in many cases: • More real-time processing The faster the computer, the more real-time plug-ins you will be able to use. • Faster “off-line” processing and analysis tasks Certain types of processing which make heavy demands on the computer will be com- pleted more quickly on a faster machine. • Screen updates Scrolling, editing and manipulating objects is “snappier” on a faster machine. Hard disk Audio files are relatively big. Approximately 10.6 MB of hard disk space is used up for every minute of 16 bit stereo/44.1 kHz audio recorded. For 24 bit/48 kHz audio or higher, the audio files are of course a lot bigger. There- fore we recommend that you get the largest hard disk you can afford. The speed of the hard disk will affect some of the processing operations. This is mainly noticeable when you work with very long files. In addition, a fast hard disk is absolutely crucial for CD-R and DVD-R burning. If the hard disk is slow, your recorder might not be able to write at its maximum possible speed. Do not use file compression on hard disks where audio files are stored!
WAVELAB 2 – 18 Requirements Sampler requirements To communicate with samplers, you need the following: • A MIDI interface, or… • A SCSI card, or… • Both a MIDI interface and a SCSI card. Exactly which of the three is most appropriate depends on the capabilities of your sampler and how you intend to communicate with it. See “About the various communication methods” on page 658. SCSI card considerations WaveLab works with SCSI cards that are 100% Windows compatible. If you are buying a SCSI card specifically to communicate with the sampler, we recommend that you get an original Adaptec card. Small deviations in SCSI implementations can cause transfer problems. About audio cards WaveLab works with any Multimedia PC compatible audio card. How- ever, the audio quality varies dramatically between cards. For serious work with WaveLab, we recommend that you get a card with the highest possible specifications. However, if you use WaveLab to edit files for use with other hardware (such as a hard disk based recording system using its own audio convert- ers) any loss in audio quality that you experience when listening to the files in WaveLab (due to deficiencies in the audio card) will not affect the final audio files in any way. For professional use (mastering, etc.) we recommend that you get a card capable of playing back files in 24 bit resolution. Surround To use the surround capabilities of WaveLab’s Audio Montage, you need an ASIO compatible audio card with multiple inputs and outputs. In a sur- round configuration, each WaveLab channel can be routed to separate outputs and inputs on the audio card.
WAVELAB Requirements 2 – 19 About the System Information feature After having installed and launched WaveLab, you can get a very detailed report describing your computer system by selecting “System Informa- tion” on the Help menu. This function analyses your system and lists oper- ating system specifics; processor(s), memory, hard drives, and much more. This is especially useful if you need to contact Technical Support, since this allows you to describe your computer configuration accurately.