Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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• If you use the “+” button or drop below the existing list, the processor will be 
added at the end of the list.
You can also do this by double clicking the processor in the list to the right.
• If you drag and drop on another symbol, it will be added just before that proces-
sor in the list.
If you create an “impossible” combination of effects, for example feed a 
mono output into a processor that only accepts stereo input, you will get an 
error message when you try to process.
Removing processors from the list
To remove a processor, select it in the left list and click the Remove but-
ton or press [Backspace].
Changing the order of the processing
If you have added the correct processors, but realize they are in the 
wrong order, you may change this:
1.Select a processor in the list.
2.To move it one step up/down, click the up/down arrow buttons.
Activating and deactivating processors
You can activate or deactivate a processor in the sequence list by clicking 
in the checkbox to the left.
Making settings for a processor
If you want to adjust the settings for a certain processor, proceed as fol-
lows:
1.Double click on the processor in the sequence list, or select the proces-
sor in the list and click the Edit button (the fader).
The panel for the processor appears.
2.Adjust the settings (or select another preset) and click OK.
See “Making settings – The Effect control panels” on page 227 for more information on 
processor panels and presets.
Some off-line processors (shown with “blue”, “yellow” or “green” icons) may 
not have presets. In this case, you have to adjust the settings on the panel.  
						

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Closing the Processor List window
Once you have finished with all the settings, click OK to confirm the set-
tings and close the dialog or Cancel to close it without saving any 
changes.
The Output tab – Settings for created files
This tab allows you to specify where the created files are to be located, in 
what format they should be, and other related options.
In fact, you can perform useful batch processing with the options on this 
tab, without using any processors at all! You might for example convert 
files from one format to another and/or just change the names of a num-
ber of files.
Setting up file locations and names   
						

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Setting up a simple destination folder
There are two ways to specify a folder for all created files:
• Type in a path (file location) on the Destination folder line.
• Click the folder icon just beside the destination folder line, browse your way to a 
folder and select it.
Using path variables
If you need more advanced options, for example if you need to store dif-
ferent batches in different folders, you need to use the path variables, 
available on the pop-up to the right of the folder icon.
Variables are text strings enclosed in brackets (for example “”) that appear on the Destination folder line. You can type these 
variables yourself, but usually it makes much more sense to select them 
from the pop-up.
When you run the batch, the variables are replaced by folder names. Exact 
details follow later in this text.
The specified folders are created automatically if they don’t exist.
You can use more than one variable on the line, to create very advanced 
automatic file paths. Then the order of the variables on the line is very im-
portant since each added item will represent a subfolder inside the previ-
ous folder.
When you add variables to the Destination path, they will appear just after 
the insertion point, just as when you type text. Hence, adding a variable is 
done as follows:
1.Click at the position on the Destination folder line where you want the 
variable added.
A blinking insertion point cursor appears.
2.Select the desired variable from the pop-up menu invoked by clicking the 
arrow button to the right of the Destination folder line.
Please note that to completely replace the existing text with a variable, you can just select 
all text and then select the variable from the pop-up menu. 
						

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The available variables have the following functions:
There is one exception to the statements above, and this is drive names. If 
you explicitly specify a drive name, this will always be used, regardless of 
where the source is located and what type of variables are used.
For example, if you have a source file in “c:\MyFolder\” and specify 
“e:\\”, the new file will be stored in “e:\MyFolder\”.
We will also give two more examples of variables, to show you what 
advanced specifications you can make:
Let’s say you have a file with the following path: 
“c:\Folder1\Folder2\Folder3\Sound.wav”. It is part of a batch titled 
“Orange” with a “Banana” path specified for it.
Variable Function Example
Batch Name Creates a folder with the 
name of the batch, as 
specified on the Input tab 
(see “Setting up file locations 
and names” on page 292).If you have a group called MyAudioFiles, 
and the Destination file reads “c:\\” the files will be stored in a folder 
called “MyAudioFiles”, located in the root of 
the C drive.
Batch Path Same as above, but instead 
uses the path that can 
optionally be specified for 
each batch, see “Renaming 
and setting attributes for a 
batch” on page 279.If the path “c:\MyFolder\” has been speci-
fied for a batch, the files in that batch will be 
stored in a folder called “MyFolder” on the 
root of the C drive.
Source file path This specifies the same path 
as that in which the source 
file(s) are stored. Using this without any additional tags, will 
put the outputs files in the same folder as 
the source file. If you combine this with no 
pre/suffix for file names (see below), the 
output files will overwrite the original files.
Source file 
path – down 1Same as above, but specifies 
a folder one level down in the 
hierarchy.If the source file is located in 
“c:\Folder1\Folder2\Folder3\”, this speci-
fies the file location “c:\Folder2\Folder3\”.
Source file 
path – down 2Same as above, but specifies 
a folder two levels down in 
the hierarchy.If the source file is located in 
“c:\Folder1\Folder2\Folder3\”, this speci-
fies the file location “c:\Folder3\”.
No file output No output file is created at 
all.This is not a “variable” but a “constant”. If 
you use this, nothing else should be entered 
on the line. It is only useful for processors 
that analyse the file (not producing any out-
put audio file at all) rather than process it. 
						

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• If you enter “d:\NewFolder\, the file will be stored as: “d:\New-
Folder\Folder3\Sound.wav”.
• If instead you enter “”, the new file will be: “c:\Ba-
nana\Orange\Sound.wav”.
Using file name prefixes and suffixes
For the file names created, you can use the fields “File name prefix” and 
“File name suffix” to add text to the beginning and/or the end of the origi-
nal name.
•You can type in any text, which will then be added at the beginning/end of 
the file name.
If for example you leave the prefix field empty and type “(processed)” in the suffix field, 
“MyFile” will become “MyFile (processed)”.
•You can add the “variable” “Batch name” (see above) anywhere in the text 
by selecting it from the small pop-up to the right of the pre/suffix lines.
This will add the name of the batch into the file name, at that location.
•You can add the variable “File number from…”, in the same way.
This will add a number to the file name. All the files will be numbered consecutively, and a 
dialog will allow you to specify the first number in the series.
Checking the output paths and names
Once you have set up the path and file name, you can switch to the Input 
tab and check the Output column. It will tell you where each processed 
file will be located and under what name.
If a line is empty, there is something wrong with the settings on the Out-
put tab – the settings aren’t valid for this file. Please go back and adjust. 
						

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Creating zip archives
You can automatically create a zip archive of the created files. A zip ar-
chive is a file which contains other files, in a compressed format. The 
compression is non-lossy, which means that when you “un-zip” the files, 
you get exactly what you had when you created the archive – the informa-
tion is not changed in any way.
Zip files are often used for archiving purposes and when sending files to 
other people, for example via the Internet.
The zip archive is created after all processing has finished.
Proceed as follows:
1.Activate “Archive Output Files”.
2.Decide on a Path and file name for the zip file.
This is done either by typing the complete path or by clicking the folder button.
3.If you want the zip archive to contain information about how the files are 
stored in subfolders, activate “Save path information”.
4.If you want to delete the output files after the files have been added to the 
zip archive, activate “Move (erase) output files”.
If this is deactivated, you will get the output files in their regular format plus a zip archive 
containing the same files.  
						

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Creating backups and automatically deleting source files
If you want the program to create backups of any files that would other-
wise be overwritten as a result of the procedure, activate the “Create 
backups” options. When this is activated, the program will make a copy of 
the file before processing. It will also change the first letter in the exten-
sion of the copy to “~”. For example “myfile.wav” will be backed up as 
“myfile.~av”.
This only applies if you have used the variable “Source Path”, as described 
above, to specify that the file should be overwritten with the same name.
If you are not absolutely sure of what you are doing, we strongly rec-
omm
end that you leave this option activated, to avoid accidentally overwrit-
ing files.
If you want the program to delete the original (unprocessed) files after 
processing activate “Delete files after process”.
Be careful with this option! If the processing didn’t turn out as expected, 
you can’t redo it, because you won’t have any files left to re-process!  
						

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Selecting an Output Format
•Click the large button to open the Audio File Format dialog in which you 
can select the desired output format and make settings for it.
For details about various file formats, see “Supported file formats” on page 113. For detailed 
information about the Audio File Format dialog, please click the question mark icon in the dia-
log.
The Audio File Format dialog.
• If you want the output files to be of the same format as the source files, se-
lect “No change” from the Type pop-up menu.
• The Audio File Format dialog offers not only the possibility of changing the 
file format, but also lets you change the number of channels and the sam-
ple rate and resolution – however, this is not recommended for high quality 
mastering purposes.
For these purposes, you should insert plug-ins to facilitate the conversions (such as 
Resampler) into the audio chain instead.   
						

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Scheduling
The Schedule tab is used for various options related to the performance 
of the batch processing:
On start of batch process
This is where you instruct WaveLab what to do just before starting the 
batch operation:
On batch process completion
This is where you select how WaveLab should behave after processing all 
files.
Option Description
Stop playback Stops playback to free up some processing power.
Open Monitor window Opens the Monitor window (see “The Monitor window” on page 
247).
Option Description
Beep WaveLab will beep to signal that the settings have been applied.
Show message box WaveLab will display a message to confirm the operation. Click OK to 
go on working.  
						

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On start of file process
This is where you select how WaveLab should behave when processing 
each file. There is only one option here: “Minimize wave window”. If this is 
activated and the document is currently open in a window, WaveLab will 
minimize this before the processing starts.
On file process completion
These settings determine what should happen after each individual file 
has been processed:
Priority
These buttons specify how fast the wave file should be processed.
Any dropouts that occur as a result of too little processing power will only 
affect the playback of the file. Files processed by the Batch Processor will 
always be free of dropouts!
Option Description
Restore wave window If the window was minimized when processing started, it will be 
restored to its previous size.
Open in window If this option is activated, the file will be opened after processing, 
regardless of whether it was open before or not.
Option Description
Relax Background The file is processed in the background, but priority is given to audio 
playback and to your continued work on other files. This makes Wave-
Lab as responsive as possible, but slows down processing.
Background The file is processed in the background but with a lower priority given 
to your continued work on other files. This makes processing faster but 
the program less responsive (unless your computer is fast enough for 
this not to make any discernible difference). Try this mode when sev-
eral files should be processed in the background.
Fast Processing is given high priority. If you have playback activated during 
processing, a fairly high-performance computer will be required to 
avoid dropouts in playback.