Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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Selecting an output for an audio track
This relates to multichannel operation – see “Assigning tracks to output 
channels” on page 510.
Moving tracks
To move a track up or down in the Track View, proceed as follows:
1.Click on the track number button for the track that you want to move.
The track pop-up menu appears.
2.Select “Move track up” or “Move track down”.
Deleting tracks
To remove unwanted tracks, proceed as follows:
1.Click on the track number button for the track that you want to delete.
The track pop-up menu appears.
2.Select Delete track.
If there are clips on the selected track, you will be asked whether you really want to delete 
the track. Click OK to proceed.
Deleting a track with clips will also delete the clips! However, the audio files 
to which the clips refer will not be affected. Also remember that you can re-
cover accidentally deleted clips by using the Undo function.
Splitting audio tracks
You can split a stereo audio track into two mono tracks:
1.Click on the track number button for the track that you want to split.
The track pop-up menu appears.
2.Select “Virtual-split as two mono tracks”.
The track is split. If the track is empty, this will be the same as deleting the track and insert-
ing two new mono tracks. However, if there are clips on the track, the two stereo sides will 
now be separate clips, allowing you to move, edit or process them independently.
Note that this is a “virtual” split – no audio files are affected or created. 
						

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Folding tracks
To save screen space, you can fold tracks that you don’t need to have vis-
ible. This is done by clicking the arrow button at the top left corner of the 
Track Control area.
Click on the arrow…
…to fold the track.
To unfold a folded track, just click on the button again, or double click 
anywhere in the folded track.
Half height tracks
Another way to save screen space is to bring up the track pop-up menu 
for a track and selecting “Half height”. The height of the track will then be 
reduced by half relative to other tracks.
Cloning audio tracks
The Clone track function on the track pop-up menu creates a duplicate of 
an audio track and all its clips, and inserts it below the original track.
Adding audio clips to the Montage
You can create clips by copying audio selections from Wave windows 
into the Audio Montage. There are several ways to do this:
You cannot add a mono clip to a stereo track or vice versa. Also, the clip’s 
audio file has to have the same sample rate as the Audio Montage.
By using drag and drop from Wave windows
Select the audio section that you want the clip to refer to, and drag the 
selection into the Montage window and drop it on a track. A pop-up menu 
appears, listing a number of Insert options, see “The Insert options” on 
page 388.   
						

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A clip is created, named after the original audio file. You can change the 
name of clips in the Audio Montage, as described in the section “The col-
umns” on page 439.
• This method can also be used for dragging selection ranges (see “Selection 
ranges” on page 413) from another (or the same) Montage.
The dragged range will become a separate clip.
• If you want to drag the whole audio file from the Wave window to the Audio Mon-
tage, you don’t need to make a selection first.
Instead you can click on the purple document button at the upper right corner of the Wave 
window and drag it to the Montage.
• You can also drag files into the Clips view.
By inserting from open Wave windows
If one or several Wave windows are open, you can right-click an empty 
area on a Montage track and select any open Wave from the pop-up 
menu that appears. A number of Insert options for the file are presented 
before inserting, see “The Insert options” on page 388.
If several Wave windows are open you can also select “Insert all open 
waves” from the pop-up to insert them all. This will open the Insert audio 
files dialog, allowing you to specify how the files should be ordered and 
whether they all should be placed on one single track or separate tracks – 
see “Multiple clips” on page 390. 
By using Copy and Paste
1.In the Wave window, select the audio section that you want the clip to re-
fer to.
2.Select Copy from the Edit menu, or press [Ctrl]-[C].
3.Make the Audio Montage window active, and click in the track on which 
you want to put the clip, at the desired position.
This sets the Montage cursor position (as indicated by the vertical line) and selects the 
track (as indicated by the highlighted Track Control area to the left). 
4.Select Paste from the Edit menu, or press [Ctrl]-[V].
5.A pop-up menu appears, listing a number of Insert options. Select one of 
these.
The options are described in the section “The Insert options” on page 388. 
						

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19 – 384 The Audio Montage
Once you have added the desired clips from an audio file, you don’t need to 
have the original Wave window open. Should you need to edit the original 
(source) audio file, you can access it from the clip speed menu, as described 
in the section “Editing source files” on page 442 (any editing done to the 
source audio file is immediately reflected in all clips referring to the file).
By dragging from the Files view
This way, you can add clips without having Wave windows open:
1.Select the Files view by clicking the Files tab.
2.Click the System tab to the left of the display.
The view now shows a file navigation environment, similar to the Windows Explorer.
3.Pull down the Files view : Browser menu and make sure that “Show audio 
files” is selected.
4.Use the left pane to locate and open the folder containing the audio files 
you want to import.
The contents of the folder are shown in the right pane.
5.Locate the desired audio file(s) and drag them to a Montage track.
If you are dragging a single file, a pop-up menu appears, allowing you to select one of the 
Insert options. If several audio files are dragged, the Insert audio files dialog appears, allow-
ing you to specify how the files should be ordered and whether they all should be placed on 
one single track or separate tracks – see “The Insert options” on page 388. 
By dragging regions from the Files view
If you have defined marker regions in a wave file (not regions in a Mon-
tage), you can drag these regions directly from the Files view onto a Mon-
tage track:
1.Open the Files view and select the System tab.
2.Select the folder containing the source file in the left pane.
The content of the folder is shown in the middle pane. 
						

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3.Select the audio file containing the regions in the middle pane.
Now any defined CD/DVD Track, Loop, Mute or Region Start/End markers in the audio file 
are shown in the right pane.
4.Now you can drag any region into the Montage.
When you drop the region, a pop-up menu appears, allowing you to select one of the Insert 
options – see “The Insert options” on page 388. You can only drag one region at a time us-
ing this method.
By importing files
1.In the Track View, click in the track on which you want to put the clip, at 
the desired position.
This sets the Montage cursor position (as indicated by the vertical line) and selects the 
track (as indicated by the highlighted Track Control area to the left). 
2.Right-click in an empty area on the track and select “Insert file(s)…” from 
the pop-up menu that appears.
A regular file dialog appears. You can also open this from the Files view : File menu.
•On this menu you also have the option to import a surround audio file, see 
“About the “Import Surround audio file” option” on page 520.
3.Locate and select the file(s) you want to import, and click Open.
Depending on whether you have selected one or several files, the Insert options pop-up or 
the Insert audio files dialog will appear (see “The Insert options” on page 388). The new 
clips are then added, ordered according to your settings.
The two clips shown in the picture above have been imported. The first clip has been 
positioned at the Montage cursor. Note the default pre-gap time inserted between the 
first and the second clip.   
						

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By copying clips from another Montage
If you have more than one Montage open, you can copy clips from one 
Montage to another. This can be done either by using drag and drop 
(from the clip list or the Track View) or by using Copy and Paste. You can 
also use this method to copy clips within the same Montage.
When dragging or selecting clips in the Track View, you need to click at the 
appropriate mouse zone, as explained in the section “About the mouse 
zones (audio tracks only)” on page 408.
By dragging clips from the Clips view
You can add clips (that are already used in the Montage) by using drag 
and drop from the clip list in the Clips view.
By importing saved clips
You can save clips individually and load them into a Montage – see “Sav-
ing and loading clips” on page 386.
By dragging clips from a Database window
As described in the section “What is an Audio Database and why do I 
need it?” on page 684, a WaveLab Database is a collection of files, which 
you can organize and manage in different ways. You can add saved clip 
files listed in a Database window to a Montage, using drag and drop.
Saving and loading clips
Saving clips
It is possible to save clips to disk as separate files. This is useful if you 
have e.g. created a perfect fade, envelope or clip effect configuration, but 
want to continue experimenting with the clip in the Montage. By saving 
the clip, you can always revert to the “perfect” version later on, by loading 
it again. Note, however, that saved clips are still a reference to the original 
source file and do not contain audio data.
You can save clips in the following ways:
•By right-clicking a clip and selecting “Save clip…” from the clip speed 
menu.
In the file dialog that appears, select a location and name for the clip. Clip files have the ex-
tension “.clip”.
•By selecting “Save focused clip as…” from the Clips view : File menu.
A focused clip is indicated by a highlighted name label in the Track View. 
						

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Loading saved clips
As usual, you need to select a stereo track for stereo clips and a mono 
track for mono clips.
1.In the Montage, place the cursor where you would like to insert the clip(s).
2.Right-click the target track and select “Insert clip file(s)…” from the clip 
speed menu.
You can also select this from the Clips view : File menu.
3.In the file dialog, locate and select the clip(s) you want to load.
4.Click Open.
The clip(s) are inserted on the selected track. If you selected more than one clip, the first one 
will be positioned at the Montage cursor, and any following clips will be spaced according to 
the default pre-gap time (set on the Edit view : Options menu). When you import several 
clips, they will be ordered alphabetically after the file names.
• If any of the auto-grouping options are activated in the Edit view, clips to the right 
of the insertion point will be moved to the right to “make room” for the inserted 
clips.
If “Track auto-grouping” is activated, only clips on the same track are moved. If “Global 
auto-grouping” is activated, clips on all tracks are moved. See “About the auto-grouping 
options” on page 391.
•It is also possible to load saved clips via drag and drop from the Files 
view. 
						

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The Insert options
Single clip
When you add a single clip to the Montage (by pasting, importing from 
disk or using drag and drop), a pop-up menu appears. By selecting one of 
the menu items, you specify how the clip should be inserted, whether ex-
isting clips should be affected or not, etc.
Option Description
Add/Mix The clip is inserted without affecting any clips that already exist on 
the destination track. The exception is if an inserted audio clip par-
tially overlaps another audio clip, in which case a crossfade is cre-
ated in the overlapping zone (see “Using crossfades” on page 462).
Add/Mix & bind
right Clips (track)When the clip is inserted, all clips to the right of it (on the same 
track) are moved to the right, to “make room” for the inserted clip.
Add/Mix & bind
right Clips (global)When the clip is inserted, all clips to the right of it (on all tracks) are 
moved to the right, to “make room” for the inserted clip.
Split/Insert  This option is only available if the insertion point is within an existing 
clip (audio tracks only). When the clip is inserted, the existing clip is 
split and the right section is moved to the right to make room for the 
inserted clip. Other clips are not affected.
Split/Insert & bind
right Clips (track) As Split/Insert, but other clips to the right on the same track are also 
moved accordingly (audio tracks only).
Split/Insert & bind
right Clips (global)As Split/Insert, but other clips to the right on all tracks are also 
moved accordingly (audio tracks only).  
						

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Replace selected range Only available if there is a selection range on the destination track. 
The clip with the selection range will be split at the selection range 
edges, the inserted clip will replace the range and the section to the 
right of the range is moved to the left or right (depending on the 
length of the inserted clip vs. the length of the selection range), so 
that there is no gap after the inserted clip.
Replace selected range 
(trim source accordingly)This is only possible if there is a selection range on the destination 
track, and if that selection range is shorter than the range of the clip 
to be inserted. The inserted clip will overwrite the selected range 
only, that is, the range to be inserted will be trimmed according to 
the current selection. 
Replace selected range 
& bind right Clips (track)As Replace selected range, but other clips to the right on the same 
track are also moved accordingly.
Replace selected range 
& bind right Clips
(global)As Replace selected range, but other clips to the right on all tracks 
are also moved accordingly.
Overwrite from
cursorIf the inserted clip overlaps any other clips, the overlapped regions 
are removed from the existing clips.
Cancel No clip is added (you can also cancel the insertion by clicking out-
side the pop-up menu). Option Description 
						

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Multiple clips
When you add several audio clips to the Montage (by importing from disk 
or using drag and drop), the Insert audio files dialog appears. 
In this dialog you can:
• Select files in the list by clicking on them.
• Change the order of the files by clicking the green arrow buttons or by using drag 
and drop in the list.
• Add files to the list by clicking the green plus sign.
• Remove files from the list by clicking the red cross sign.
• Specify how the clips should be inserted.
The dialog contains the following options:
Option Description
Line up on the 
current trackThe clips will be added to the Montage, lined up contiguously 
on a single track and spaced according to the default pre-gap 
time (set on the Edit view : Options menu).
Place each file on 
a different trackThe clips will be added to the Montage, each on a separate 
track, according to the settings below.
Start inserting 
below current trackIf this is activated, the new tracks for the files you add will be 
inserted below the currently selected track. 
Always create 
new tracksYou will probably want to have this activated for most purposes. 
Anytime you add more files to a Montage by using this method, 
this will ensure that they end up on separate tracks.
Shift existing 
clips to the rightIf this is activated, any already existing clips in the Montage will 
be moved to the right by an amount equalling the length of the 
first new added file.