Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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Spectrum Editor 11 – 261
•If you point the mouse cursor inside a set region, a pop-up appears show-
ing the currently set frequency range in Hz and the time range in seconds/
milliseconds for the current region.
To apply Surgical processing, the region length must not exceed 10 seconds.
•To deselect a region, right-click in the window and select “Deselect” from 
the speed menu.
•A selected region can be moved in any direction by click-dragging the re-
gion manually.
If you press [Shift], you can only move the region horizontally thus retaining the selected fre-
quency range. If you press [Ctrl] + [Shift] you can only move the region vertically thus re-
taining the selected time range. 
•You can resize the region by pointing the mouse cursor on the region 
edges (so that a double-arrow appears) and then click-dragging.
There are many more options for setting regions available on the speed menu (right-click in 
the Spectrum view) – for descriptions of these options, please see “Speed menu options” 
on page 271).
Once a region has been defined, you can process it separately using either 
Surgical processing (see below), or Master Section processing (see “Mas-
ter Section processing” on page 269).  
						

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Surgical processing
Surgical processing can be used to process short regions (up to 10 sec-
onds) offline. This type of processing is mainly used to reduce, remove or 
replace unwanted sound artefacts in the audio material, which can be 
done with great precision. 
As with all Spectrum editor operations, you first have to define a time/fre-
quency region. Once a region has been set, you can select one of the two 
Surgical processing modes. These are as follows:
•Filtering operations.
These are described below.
•Copy operations.
This allows you to copy a spectrum region and apply it to another region – see “Copy op-
erations” on page 265.
Filtering operations
The Filtering operations allow you to filter a selected region in various 
ways. This works as follows:
1.Select the Spectrum selection tool so that the Spectrum editor dialog 
opens.
2.Define a region in the Spectrum view.
Make sure that the region does not exceed 10 seconds. 
3.In the Spectrum editor dialog, select “Surgical processing (offline)”.
4.Clicking “Process” will apply the filtering according to the set parameters.
See below for a description of these.  
						

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Spectrum Editor 11 – 263
Common filtering parameters
There are two pop-up menus in the “Filtering operations” section; the up-
per selects the type of filter processing to be performed, and the lower 
selects a filter type (only available for some of the filter operations). Addi-
tionally, you can specify the Gain of the filtering (i.e. the attenuation level) 
as well as the Filter steepness.
Filter steepness determines how sharply or quickly frequencies above or 
below a certain point are attenuated. Steepness is stated in dB per oc-
tave, with higher numbers indicating a steeper filter. WaveLab uses high 
quality linear-phase digital filters capable of “infinite” steepness 
(>1000dB/octave). 
The Steepness parameter crossfades the processed part with the un-
processed part. It could be described as a crossfade in the frequency do-
main. If the steepness value is small, the selected region will contain much 
of the unprocessed signal near the frequency edges. 
The “Crossfade time” parameter sets the length of the crossfade (when 
the processed signal is merged with the unprocessed signal). 
For filtering operations the following processing options are available in 
the Spectrum editor:
Gain
dB
FrequenciesFilter Steepness  
						

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11 – 264 Spectrum Editor
Damp
This is used to attenuate the level of a region. The Gain parameter speci-
fies the level of the attenuation (although less commonly used it is also 
possible to set positive gain values, i.e. to boost the frequencies in the re-
gion). Three filter types are available to perform the damping:
•Pass-band filter
All frequencies in the region are equally attenuated.
•Low-pass filter
Higher frequencies in the region will be attenuated more.
•High-pass filter
Lower frequencies in the region will be attenuated more. 
For the Low- and High-pass filters, a low Filter steepness setting is nor-
mally used (around 6 to 18dB).
Blur peaks
This filter operation analyzes the region to find the frequencies with the 
highest level. The level of these frequencies will be attenuated (or boosted) 
according to the set Gain value. If the gain is negative, these frequencies 
will be “blurred” and disappear in the mix as a whole. The purpose of the 
filter is to mask the loudest frequencies (e.g. it could be used to eliminate a 
sudden burst of pitched but unwanted sound in the audio material, like 
acoustic feedback).
This mode works best with the Infinite steepness setting, which is auto-
matically selected when “Blur peaks” is used. You can, however, freely 
set any Filter steepness setting. The filter type options are not available 
when this mode is selected.
Dispersion
This is a special filter that “smears” the dynamics and pitch of the region, 
without changing the actual frequency content. This works best on lower 
frequencies, to mask the identity of a signal without changing the average 
frequency spectrum.
This mode works best with the Infinite steepness setting, which is auto-
matically selected when Dispersion is used. You can, however, freely set 
any Filter steepness setting. The filter type options are not available when 
this mode is selected.
Dispersion can also be used to create special effects as it warps the 
sound in a unique way. 
						

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Spectrum Editor 11 – 265
Fade out
This can be used with any of the three filter types (Pass-band/Low-pass/
High-pass). It gradually filters the frequencies in the region along the time 
axis (from nothing at the left edge of the region, to maximum allowed by 
the gain parameter at the right edge), useful for gradually removing fre-
quencies from a region.
Fade in
This works like Fade out but inversed.
Fade out then in
This is a mix of the two previous options; the filtering effect gradually 
fades out until the middle of the region, then fades back in. The “Fade in 
then out” option is the inverse.
Playback pre-roll/post-roll
This allows you to set a pre-roll and post-roll time for playing back a se-
lected region. If the values are set to zero, the transport parameters will 
work normally.
Copy operations
This feature is also mainly intended for audio restoration purposes. First, a 
Source region and a Destination region are defined. You can then copy 
the audio from the source region to the destination region. 
The following applies:
•The two regions must have equal duration and frequency range. 
In other words, the regions must be equally sized. 
•The two regions must also belong to the same audio file.
•The Filter steepness should be set to a high or Infinite value.
This feature can be used to remove an unwanted sound in the audio ma-
terial. There are two general recommended methods you can use:
•You can set a Source region just before or just after the sound to remove. 
The Source region will most probably contain a very similar frequency spectrum as the Des-
tination region containing the artefact you wish to remove, but without the artefact. This can 
produce very accurate results, e.g. perfectly removing a sudden noise like a cough or a 
chair falling over. 
						

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11 – 266 Spectrum Editor
•You can also do the same in the frequency domain; have the Source and 
Destination regions in the same time line position, but in different frequency 
ranges. 
This could be used to mask a spurious sound artefact with few harmonics, by copying the 
audio placed a bit “lower” or “higher” in the frequency range. Note that when copying be-
tween different frequency regions pitch shifting takes place. Tip: Copying a source region 
to the destination region using the “Move region upwards (or downwards) 1 octave” op-
tions on the speed menu will often produce better results.
•This mode is useful to replace narrow frequency ranges, e.g. feedback.
•Having an octave shift from the source to the destination region can help 
achieving better results (there is a function for this in the speed menu).
For audio restoration work you should generally avoid copying regions in 
the low to low mid frequency range. This is where most of the “energy” in 
the sound is usually found, which makes the masking/removal of any un-
wanted artefact difficult to achieve without audible interruptions. Therefore, 
to remove or reduce artefacts, it is important to find a limited frequency 
area, so as not to interrupt the flow of the audio.
You perform a Copy operation in the following way:
1.Select the region that you wish to use as Source region.
As stated before, this could be right before or after the sound artefact to be removed, or it 
could be in the same time line but in a frequency range just above or below the range con-
taining the sound you wish to mask. Note that these are guidelines, not absolute rules. 
2.To use the selected region as the Source region, click the “Mark” button 
in the Source section of the dialog.
You can also right-click to bring up the speed menu and select ““Define as Source region”.
As the Destination and Source regions have to have equal length and fre-
quency ranges, the simplest method is to use the Source region as the 
basis for the Destination region, or the Destination region as the basis for 
the Source region. The following describes the former method, but the 
general procedure is the same:  
						

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3.Click the “Show” button in the Source section if the Source region isn’t 
currently shown.
If the region is active but outside of the current view you can right-click to bring up the 
speed menu and select “Jump to selected region”.
4.Click the “Mark” button in the Destination section of the dialog.
Now an exact copy of the source region has been selected as the Destination region. 
5.Now you can move the Destination region to where you wish to copy the 
Source region to.
•If you wish to preserve the original frequency range press [Shift] when 
moving the region.
This restricts movement to moving left/right (the horizontal), thus preserving the frequency 
range.
•If you wish to preserve the original time range press [Shift] + [Ctrl] moving 
the region.
This restricts movement to moving up/down (the vertical), thus preserving the time range.
•You can also use the various items on the speed menu to move regions.
See “Speed menu options” on page 271.
6.When you have set the “new” Destination region, click the Destination 
“Mark” button again.
Now, both a Source and a Destination region have been set. If you click the Source and 
Destination Show buttons, the view will jump between the two selected regions, given that 
they are both visible inside the current window view. If they aren’t, use the same method but 
select “Jump to selected region” from the speed menu after clicking the corresponding 
Show button. If you play back, the Pre-roll/Post-roll settings will apply to the currently 
shown region.
7.Set the Filter steepness parameter to the desired value.
A high value or the Infinite setting is recommended.  
						

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11 – 268 Spectrum Editor
From here, you can select one of two Copy methods, using the pop-up 
menu above the Copy button.
•“Copy exactly” will, as the name implies, copy the Source region exactly 
as it is.
•“Copy ambience” copies an average of the source frequencies, and pro-
duces a blurring of the original dynamics and pitch variation information. 
This mode can be useful as the copied region will appear more “transparent”, whereas the 
“Exact copy” might cause a “repetition” effect. There is no general rule as to when to 
choose either method, it depends on the audio material.
8.When you have set the copy options as you want them, click “Copy” in 
the Spectrum editor dialog to perform the operation.
Using Copy/Paste
You can also use standard copy/paste commands for regions:
1.With a region selected, press [Ctrl] + [C].
2.Place the cursor where you wish to place the copied region.
3.Press [Ctrl] + [V] to paste the audio at the cursor position.
The original length and frequency range will be the same as in the original region, but note 
that the copied audio is pasted – it does not create a new region.
Storing regions
If you have defined a region, and then draw a new region, you will not be 
able to return the to previous region unless you have marked it as a 
Source or Destination region. If you wish to switch between two regions, 
e.g. to compare how a certain filter operation will turn out, you can use the 
two Mark buttons in the Copy operations section to store two indepen-
dent regions as usual, but you don’t have to perform a Copy operation be-
tween the two.
Instead, you can use the Show buttons for the Source/Destination as a 
way of switching between two independent region definitions.  
						

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Spectrum Editor 11 – 269
Master Section processing
Another application of the Spectrum editor is Master Section processing. 
This allows for frequency selective processing. A selected region’s fre-
quency spectrum can be routed to the Master Section where you can 
choose to process it separately from the non-selected frequency spectrum.
The signal is split so that one part (region spectrum or non-selected 
spectrum) is sent to the plug-ins, while the other part can be mixed with 
this processed signal, after the Master Section output.
The arrows show the three possible routing options for the spectrum re-
gion selection. The non-selected spectrum has the same options, al-
though it cannot use the same routing destination (i.e. Bypass/Master 
Section input/Master Section output) as set for the region selection.
Thus, a selected spectrum region can either be: 
• Processed separately by the Master Section plug-ins. 
In this case, the non-selected spectrum can either be bypassed or sent to the Master Sec-
tion.
• Bypassed.
This removes the selected spectrum region from the audio file. In this case, the non-se-
lected spectrum can either be routed to the Master Section input or the Master Section 
output.
• Sent to Master Section output. 
In this case, the non-selected spectrum can either be bypassed or sent to the Master Sec-
tion input. If the latter is selected, it will be mixed with the selected spectrum region at the 
Master Section output.
Spectrum region 
selection
Bypass
Master Section 
plug-ins 1-8
Master level
Master Section 
output (Mix)
Master Section 
Dither/Post 
Master plug-in 
						

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11 – 270 Spectrum Editor
To apply Master Section processing, proceed as follows:
1.Select the Spectrum selection tool and define a region using the normal 
methods.
The selected region should preferably be longer than one second. The frequency spectrum 
of the region will be used to filter the sound. Note that if you intend to use the Render func-
tion, the selected region time range is what will be rendered – see “Rendering the Master 
Section processing” on page 271.
2.Select “Master Section processing” in the Spectrum editor dialog.
This grays out all parameters in the dialog that are not applicable for this processing 
method. 
3.Select a Filter type (Pass-band/Low-pass/High-pass) from the pop-up in 
the Filtering operations section in the dialog.
4.Specify a Filter steepness and Crossfade time (crossfading only applies 
when Rendering).
Next step is to select how to route the selected (region) spectrum. The 
options in the “Routing of selected spectrum” section in the dialog are as 
follows:
• “Bypass” – this will mute the selected region spectrum.
• “Send to Master Section input” – this sends the selected region spectrum to the 
Master Section input, allowing you to process the region separately using any 
plug-ins.
• “Send to Master Section output (pre-master)” – this sends the selected region 
spectrum to the Master Section output (no plug-in processing).
The same routing options are available for the non-selected spectrum (i.e. 
for all frequencies outside the selected spectrum), but you can’t route 
both the selected and non-selected spectrum to the same destination (as 
that would be pointless).
•If you select to route the selected spectrum to the Master Section input 
and bypass the non-selected spectrum, you can listen to the selected re-
gion spectrum separately (including plug-ins). 
If you start playback, you will notice that the whole audio file is filtered according to the re-
gions spectrum – not just the region itself. You can move and resize the region during play-
back, and the filtering will change accordingly in real-time. This gives you a direct feedback 
over how the region spectrum affects the sound. 
•You should not use any plug-ins that change the number of samples, e.g. 
Resampler in this mode.