Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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Adding files via Drag and Drop
•You can add files from the Windows Explorer or My Computer windows. 
Drag the file icon and drop it on the batch.
•You can add an open Wave document, by using the drag icon on the title 
bar and dropping it on a batch.
Adding all files in a folder
To add all files in a folder (and in all its subfolders), proceed as follows:
1.Click the Add folder button.
2.In the list that appears, select the desired folder and click Open.
3.In the next dialog, decide what file types should be included, via specify-
ing an extension (you can use “*” to add all file types).
You can also specify whether or not you want to include files in folders located inside the 
selected folder (subfolders).
Adding Audio Montage files
When you add Audio Montages, the whole Montage will be processed as 
“one”, producing a mixdown of the Montage (a single file for a stereo 
Montage). Multichannel Montages can also be batch processed if multi-
channel plug-ins are used, and if “Multi Stereo/Mono” is selected as the 
output format, separate files will be processed/rendered.
1.Click the Add Montage file button.
2.In the file dialog that appears, select the desired Audio Montage file(s).
The Add folder button.
The Add Montage file button.   
						

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About “Allow duplicate file names”
When this option on the Extra pop-up menu is activated, the same file can 
be added to several batches, and hence be processed several times.
The only restriction is that each “instance” of the file must be set to create a 
file with a name and/or location that is different from the other “instances” of 
the same file. This is done by using path variables, as described in the sec-
tion “Using path variables” on page 293.
Removing files
If you want to remove a file from the list, select it and click the Remove 
button (the red cross).
You can also clear the list completely and start “from scratch”, by pulling 
down the Extra menu and selecting “Clear list”.
Various file considerations
If you are processing a file that is already open, please note the following 
things:
• If the new file will have the same name and is saved in the same location, the file 
will not be saved (since it is already open). This is the same as using the Render 
function with the “Process in place” option activated. In this case, Undo is avail-
able for the processing.
• If the new file will have the same name and is saved in the same location, and the 
number of channels changes in the file (mono becomes stereo or vice versa) then 
a new document is created, which is opened in an untitled window.
• If the new file is saved under a new name or in a new location, a new file on disk 
is created, there’s no need for saving. The Batch Processor can be used for sav-
ing very large files to disk in the background, so that you can keep working on 
other files “in the foreground”.
Setting the order of files in the list
Moving files between batches
It is very important which batch a file is part of, since all files in a batch are 
processed with the same set of effects. If one ore more files for some rea-
son have wound up in the wrong batch, you can move it:
1.Select the file(s) that are in the wrong batch.
2.Drag and drop it/them onto the correct batch. 
						

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Changing file order within a batch
The order of files within a batch is usually of no particular importance 
(they will all get processed in the same way), but when you set up a batch 
with many files, it might make things easier if you can organize things the 
way you want it:
• You can move a file up and down within the batch by using the arrow buttons.
• You can drag and drop files within a batch to change the order.
• You can re-sort the order of the files on the Input tab by selecting one of the sort 
options on the “Extra” menu.
You can also re-sort the list by clicking on the file headings. 
About the file icons – File status
To the left of the file you will find an icon providing information about the 
status of the file:
Option Description
Green circle The file is ready to be processed. You cannot start processing unless at 
least one file has this status.
Purple dot The file is currently being processed. The Batch window can’t be closed if 
any files have this status, the only way to stop a batch is then from the Mon-
itor window, see “The Monitor window” on page 247.
Half filled 
green circleThe file has been analysed by an “Ultra-pass” processor but has not been 
processed and written to disk yet, see “Ultra-pass processors” on page 288.
Green dot The batch has been processed without problems. In order to process the file 
again, you need to reset its status, see below.
Red cross An error occurred. You will most likely have been warned via an alert box. If 
an error occurs, processing is cancelled by default. On the Extra menu there 
is however an option called “Stop batch processing at first error”. If you de-
activate this, processing will not stop upon error, but instead skip to the next 
file in the batch.
The file status 
icons  
						

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Resetting file status
To reset the status of a file to the “green circle” status described above, 
click on the symbol to the left of the file.
To reset the status of all files, select “Reset status of all files” from the Ex-
tra pop-up menu.
Opening files
There are three ways to open a source file in a Wave window:
• Double click on it in the list.
• Select it and click the “Open window” button (to the right of the Play button).
• Drag it and drop it on an empty section of the  WaveLab program window.
To instead open the processed file (after running a batch), proceed as fol-
lows:
• Double click on the file in the Output column in the list, or…
• Select the original file in the list, hold down [Ctrl] and click the “Open window” 
button, or…
• Hold down [Ctrl], drag the file from the list and drop it on an empty section of the 
WaveLab program window.
Other file functions and options
• The “Show full path” and “Show name only” options on the Extra menu allow you 
to determine what file information you want to see in the list.
• To play a file, select it and click the Play button (speaker icon).
Stopping is done using any of the usual methods or by clicking the button again.
•If the file list contains files in raw format, or files that contain an unsup-
ported header, you can specify the format for them, by selecting “Define 
default special file format” from the Extra pop-up menu. If this is done, you 
don’t have to specify the format manually each time a file in “raw” format is 
about to be processed.
For this to make sense, all “raw” files must be in the same format.
Saving and opening file lists
To save the file list as a simple text file, containing the absolute paths (lo-
cations) of all files in the list, select “Save file list…” from the Extra menu. 
When you open a file list that you have saved (or one created in some 
other way), the files in the list are added to the currently selected batch. 
						

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Validating the list
There might be occasions where it is not certain the file list really matches 
the contents of the hard disk. For example, a file might have been deleted 
from the disk since you last updated the list.
Also, you might add files in formats that WaveLab can’t handle.
• When you select “Validate list” from the Extra menu, the program will scan 
the list and check that all files really exist in the specified locations and that 
their formats are valid.
Entries for non-existent or invalid files will be removed from the list.
Setting up the processing tasks to be performed
The next step is to set up how the effect processors should be applied to 
the batch.
Opening the Processor List
There are three ways to open the Processor List:
• Select a batch in the list and click the Processor List button.
• Select a batch in the list and press [Return].
• Double click on a batch.
Please note that it might take some time to open this window, depending 
on the number of presets and additional plug-ins you might have installed. 
If this is a problem, delete the presets you don’t need.
The Processor List button  
						

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About the Processor List
The Processor List has two tabs, one is the main tab and the second is for 
managing presets (see “Presets” on page 65).
The Processors tab
This tab is divided into two columns:
• The left column (Sequence) displays a list of processing that will be applied to the 
batch. When you first open the dialog, this list is probably empty, because you ha-
ven’t assigned any processors to it yet. Later, when you process, the processing 
will be performed in the order it appears in this list.
• The right column (Plug-ins/Presets) contains the list of available processors and 
combinations of processors. This is described in the following paragraph.
The Plug-ins/Presets list
This list contains three folders on the top level, with items that represent 
various processing options:
• The “Master Section Presets” folder contains a list of all presets created in the 
Master Section Presets dialog, see “Master Section presets” on page 236. Such 
a preset can contain a number of combined processors, all with their own individ-
ual settings.  
						

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• The Process List Presets folder contains a list of presets created in this dialog. As 
with the Master Section Presets, this can represent a combination of a number of 
processors. This allows you to easily re-use combinations of processors.
• The Plug-ins folder contains folders and lists of the processors in the program, to 
some extent the same list as in the Master Section.
The plug-in icons and presets
• In the Plug-ins folder, each icon represents an installed plug-in.
• Unfolding a processor icon reveals its current presets. If an icon has no plus sym-
bol, it has no “WaveLab Presets”, that is, to access presets, you then need to 
open the panel for the processor itself, see later in this chapter.
A processor plug-in (Chorus) and its presets.
• ASIO, DirectX and VST plug-ins are in their own folders.
• Off-line processors (see below) are categorized by different colors.
About the off-line processors
There are some important things to note about the off-line processors:
The three categories
• Regular (yellow). These require only one processing pass (see “An example of the 
advantages of the WaveLab Batch Processor ” on page 274). Example: “Time 
Stretch”.
• Multi pass (turquoise). These require two or more passes (analyse and process). 
Example: “Normalizer”.
• Ultra pass (green). See “Ultra-pass processors” on page 288. Example: “Meta 
Normalizer”.
The three Plug-ins/
Presets folders   
						

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Other considerations
• Off-line processors might not have presets.
• Off-line processors that require extra processing “passes”, slightly increase the 
overall processing time.
The included off-line processors
• DC Remover. This removes any DC Offset in the file (see “Eliminate DC Offset” 
on page 195). This would normally be inserted at the beginning of the processing 
list, preparing the file for processing, so to speak.
• Normalizer. This is normally included at the end of the list to get the resulting file 
back up into “full level”. Alternatively, it can be inserted in between other proces-
sors when required (for example before the input of a compressor). You can add 
as many Normalizers as you need, in between other processors, if required.
• Time Stretch and Pitch Correction. See “Time Stretch” on page 196 and “Pitch 
Correction” on page 201.
• Loudness Restorer. This is used to “capture” the loudness at a certain point in the 
audio chain and restore that loudness at some other point. For this reason, these 
must be inserted in pairs into the signal chain (one plug-in “capturing” and one 
“restoring”). Click the question mark icon in the dialog for details.
• Meta Normalizer. This allows you to give all the processed files the same level af-
ter processing. Click the question mark icon in the dialog for details.
• Meta Leveler. This lets you raise the level of all processed files by a certain 
amount while maintaining the original level differences between the files. Click the 
question mark icon in the dialog for details.
• Resizer. This allows you to set the sample length of a file to a given value.
• Stereo -> Mono. Lets you convert stereo files to mono files and limit the level of 
these to avoid clipping.
• Fade-In and Fade-Out. These allow you to apply identical fade-ins and fade-outs 
to all the processed files. You can specify the fade curve shape, the length of the 
fades and the desired start (fade-in) and end (fade-out) amplitudes.
• External Gear. This is located in the “ASIO” subfolder. This allows you to Batch 
process using an external processor – see “Using External effects” on page 252.
Ultra-pass processors
An ultra-pass processor analyses all files in the batch, collects the result, 
and applies it to the files by various amounts, if desired. This means that 
the result of the analysis of one file, can affect how other files are pro-
cessed. A typical example is the (included) Meta Normalizer, which can 
process a number of files so that they all get the same loudness as the 
loudest file in the batch. It does this by analyzing all files to find out which 
is the loudest (and how loud it is) and then process them all by various 
amounts so that they get the same level. 
						

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Ultra-pass processors can be freely combined with other types of proces-
sors. For example you can use both the Meta Normalizer and a regular Nor-
malizer in the same batch. You may also combine ultra-pass plug-ins with 
multi-pass plug-ins.
An ultra-pass plug-in requires two processing passes. During the first 
pass all the files in the batch are analysed, during the second pass, they 
are all processed:
This is different from other multi-pass plug-ins, where each file is analy-
sed/processed twice (or even more times if required).
Levels – About the Normalize “Only if clipping” option
Processors often increase signal level. If you are not careful, your file may 
be distorted when it exits the batch. To prevent this, you can use the “Only 
if clipping” option in the Normalizer. The theory behind this is as follows:
It is perfectly OK if the signal is amplified above “0 dB” (full level) within 
the “audio stream”, since WaveLab uses 32 bit internal processing. 
There’s lot’s of extra “headroom” and the signal will not be clipped.
However, when a signal that exceeds “0 dB” is converted to a 16 bit file 
at the output of the Batch Processor, clipping – and hence distortion – 
will occur.
Global Pass 1:
Global Pass 2:
= disk domain = RAM
File 1 Process Analysis
Transfer Process Analysis
Transfer Process Analysis
Transfer Process TransferProcess
Transfer Process TransferProcess
Transfer Process TransferProcess Read fileAny plug-ins
Meta Normalizer
Read fileAny plug-ins
Meta Normalizer Write file Transfer File 2
File 3Transfer
File 1
File 2
File 3 
						

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To remedy this, you can insert the Normalizer at the end of the signal 
chain. The Normalizer will not only raise levels, but also lower them as re-
quired so that the signal peaks exactly at the specified value just before it 
is converted to a file. This is useful to do even when “Only if Clipping” is 
not activated.
However, if you only want the Normalizer to be applied when clipping 
should otherwise occur, activate “Only if Clipping”. When this is acti-
vated, the signal output may be low, but you can rest assured it isn’t 
clipped due to amplification within any of the processors.
Effectively, this allows you to use the Normalizer as a completely distor-
tion-free limiter.
Adding a processor to the list
1.If the processing option has presets that you want to use, click on its 
folder “+” symbol to open it.
2.Select either the desired preset or the plug-in icon.
Selecting the plug-in icon itself, adds the processor with default settings.
VST plug-ins do not have presets in this list, you have to make settings in 
the actual panel. See “VST-compatible plug-ins” on page 229 for further in-
formation.
3.Either click on the “+” button or drag the selected symbol in the left pane 
of the window and drop it.
To add processors, drag them 
from the Plug-ins/Presets 
pane into the Sequence pane.