Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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The Audio Montage 19 – 411
• A label is displayed, indicating what the clip snaps to.
To deactivate Snap, click the icon again or press [N].
Selecting clips
To select a clip (for copying, deletion, etc.), click in the mouse zone to 
which “Select/Move clip” is assigned (by default the bottom clip area).
Selected clips are normally displayed in a different color. You can edit this color, as 
described in the section “Defining custom colors” on page 740.
•You can select multiple clips by [Ctrl]-clicking.
This works in the same way as selecting multiple objects in other Windows programs.
•Holding down [Shift] and clicking allows you to select a range of consec-
utive clips (on the same track).
Again, this is similar to how you select ranges of objects in other Windows programs. Don’t 
confuse this with making a “selection range”, see “Selection ranges” on page 413.   
						

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19 – 412 The Audio Montage
•If you hold down [Ctrl] and [Shift], you can click and drag a selection rect-
angle to select several clips on several tracks.
All clips touched or enclosed by the rectangle are selected.
When you hold down [Ctrl] and [Shift], the cursor takes on the shape of a “selection 
arrow”.
Using the Select menu
The Edit view : Select menu holds several items for selecting clips:
Option Description
Select all clips Selects all clips in the Montage.
Select clips of
selected trackSelects all clips on the selected track (the track with the high-
lighted Track Control area).
Select all clips included in 
the selection (on all tracks)Selects all clips fully encompassed by a selection range, on all 
tracks.
Select all clips at left of 
cursor (selected track)Selects all clips with the endpoint to the left of the Montage 
cursor, on the selected track.
Select all clips at left of 
cursor (all tracks)Selects all clips with the endpoint to the left of the Montage 
cursor, on all tracks.   
						

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The Audio Montage 19 – 413
About selected and focused clips
The program makes a distinction between selected and focused clips:
•A selected clip is a clip you have selected using the any of the procedures 
described above.
Several clips can be selected at the same time.
•The focused clip is the clip you selected (or clicked, or edited) last.
Only one clip can be focused at a time. By default, the focused clip is distinguished by a 
highlighted name label:
Clicking on the selected clip to the right makes it the focused clip.
Selection ranges
A selection range is a selected area on a track. The selection range may 
be entirely or partially within a clip, or in an empty section of the track. 
There are several uses for selection ranges:
• You can edit clips using selection ranges. This involves cutting or erasing the se-
lection, or trimming the clip to contain only the selection (see “Resizing by trim-
ming” on page 424).
• You can create a new clip by dragging the selection range to another track.
Select all clips at right of 
cursor (selected track)Selects all clips that start to the right of the Montage cursor, on 
the selected track.
Select all clips at right of 
cursor (all tracks)Selects all clips that start to the right of the Montage cursor, on 
all tracks.
Inverse Selection Deselects all currently selected clips and selects all other clips 
in the Montage.
Deselect clips Deselects the currently selected clips.
Lock/Unlock all selected 
clipsLocks all selected clips (or unlocks them, if they are locked). 
See “Unlocking a locked clip” on page 428.
Mute/Unmute all selected 
clipsMutes all selected clips (or unmutes them, if they are muted). 
See “Muting individual clips” on page 400. Option Description  
						

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19 – 414 The Audio Montage
• You can open a Wave window with the range selected in the source audio file, by 
dragging the selection range to the WaveLab desktop.
• You can play back the selection range only, either the whole Montage or just the 
clip with the selection range (see “Playing back individual clips and selections ” on 
page 402).
• You can have the playback loop within the selection, by activating the loop and 
selecting the “Loop Selection” mode on the Transport bar.
To create a selection range, proceed as follows:
•Creating a selection range in an empty area on a track is done by clicking 
and dragging with the mouse as when selecting audio in the Wave win-
dows.
•Creating a selection range within a clip is done in the same way, but the 
pointer must be in the mouse zone to which you have assigned the “Se-
lect range” function (by default the upper clip area).
When the pointer is in the “select range” mouse zone, it takes on the “Selection tool” 
shape.
•When you drag the mouse to create the selection range, the start and end 
position and the length of the range are displayed in the info line.
•If you double click in the selection range mouse zone, a selection range is 
automatically created, spanning the entire clip or the area between the 
closest markers (if there are any).
In the latter case, triple clicking will expand the selection range to the entire clip. Further-
more, if you double click and keep the mouse button pressed, you can drag the mouse to 
expand the selection range in “blocks” (clips or marker areas).
•You can resize a selection range by [Shift]-clicking or dragging its edges, 
as in the Wave windows.
•As in the Wave windows, you can toggle the selection range on and off 
by pressing [Esc].
•To remove (deactivate) a selection range, click elsewhere in the Montage.  
						

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Moving clips
To move a clip, proceed as follows:
1.If you want to move more than one clip, you need to select these clips first.
2.Position the pointer over the clip, in the mouse zone to which you have as-
signed the “Select/Move clip” function (by default the lower clip area).
The pointer takes on the shape of a “four-way arrow”.
3.Click and drag the clip(s) in any direction.
When you are moving the clip(s), the info line displays the current start position of the clip 
you are dragging.
•The clip(s) will snap to any activated magnetic bounds, see “Magnetic 
bounds” on page 409.
•If you move clips sideways, the auto-grouping settings are taken into ac-
count, as described below.
If you move the clip over another track, auto-grouping is temporarily disabled until you re-
lease the mouse button.
•If you click on a clip, keep the mouse button pressed and then press 
[Shift], movement is restricted to vertical.
This is useful if you want to move a clip to another track without accidentally changing its 
horizontal position.
•You cannot move mono clips to stereo tracks or vice versa.  
						

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Moving with auto-grouping
There are four options on the Edit view : Options menu that affect the re-
sult when you move clips horizontally: Track auto-grouping, Global auto-
grouping, Clip auto-grouping (same track) and Clip auto-grouping (all 
tracks). There are also separate icons for these options on the toolbar in 
Edit view mode:
• If Track auto-grouping is activated when you move a clip sideways, all clips to the 
right of it on the destination track will be moved by the same amount.
• If Global auto-grouping is activated when you move a clip sideways, all clips to 
the right of it in the whole Audio Montage will be moved accordingly.
• If Clip auto-grouping (same track) is activated when you move a clip sideways, all 
overlapping clips or clips where the clip edges are connected side by side on that 
track will also be moved.
• If Clip auto-grouping (all tracks) is activated when you move a clip sideways, all 
vertically or horizontally connected clips in the Montage will be moved.
Here, Clip auto-grouping (all tracks) is activated. If you move the selected clip sideways…
Track auto-grouping Global auto-grouping
Clip auto-group-
ing (same track)Clip auto-grouping 
(all tracks)   
						

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The Audio Montage 19 – 417
…all clips that are “connected” vertically or horizontally will also be moved.
Moving and snapping to another clip
If you line up clips so that one clip ends exactly where the next one starts 
(for example by using Magnetic bounds), the waveforms at the intersection 
point will probably not “match”. Instead, there could be an abrupt “jump” in 
level, which can give rise to audio artefacts such as pops and clicks.
To remedy this, activate the option “Create optimized crossfade when 
snapping to other Clip” on the Edit view : Fade menu (or click the corre-
sponding icon).
The “Create optimized crossfade when snapping to other clip” icon
When this is activated and you move a clip so that its start snaps to the 
end of another clip, the following happens:
1.WaveLab scans the waveforms of the clips within a short range, and at-
tempts to find the position where the waveforms of the two clips best 
match.
This is the same automatic phase matching as in the Zoom view (see “The Zoom view” on 
page 433). You can specify how far into the clips the program should scan, by selecting a 
Search range on the Zoom view : Options menu.
2.The position of the clip you moved is adjusted slightly, to achieve the best 
possible match between the waveforms.
This creates a short crossfade. For details about crossfades, see “Using crossfades” on 
page 462.
Note that this function only applies when moving “from right to left”, i.e. 
snapping the start of the moved clip to the end of the clip to the left.   
						

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About overlapping clips
You can move clips so that they overlap each other on the same track. 
Please note:
• The tracks in the Audio Montage are polyphonic, which means that each track 
can play back several overlapping clips at the same time. 
Overlapping clips will be transparent, allowing you to see the underlying clips and their 
waveforms.
• To select an overlapped (underlying) clip, double click in the mouse zone to which 
“Select/Move clip” is assigned (by default the bottom clip area).
• There are automatic crossfading options that automatically adjust the volume en-
velope curves when you overlap clips.
This is described in the section “Using crossfades” on page 462.
Move selected clips to their related BWF time stamp
If a clip is referenced to a Broadcast wave file containing time code infor-
mation, you can select to move the clip to the position contained in the 
source file. This can be useful if you have imported Broadcast Wave files 
from another application that contain time stamp information embedded 
in the files.
•Select all clips that you wish to move in this way, and then select “Move 
selected clips to their related BWF time stamp” on the Clips view : Func-
tions menu. 
All clips will be moved according to the time positions embedded in the source file.
Update BWF time stamps (selected clips)
This is related to the preceding item, and can be used to update the time 
stamp information in the source file if you have moved the clips.
•If you select this option you need to resave the source file to store the 
changes. 
						

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The Audio Montage 19 – 419
Duplicating clips
To make a copy of a clip, proceed as follows:
1.If you want to copy more than one clip, you need to select these clips first.
2.Position the pointer over the clip, in the mouse zone to which you have as-
signed the “Drag/Copy clip” function (by default the top clip area).
3.Click and drag the clip(s) in any direction.
While you are dragging the clip(s), a dotted line indicates where the first of the copied clips 
will end up. The position is also indicated on the info line (see “The info line” on page 375).
4.Release the mouse button.
If you dragged a single clip, the Insert options pop-up menu appears (see “The Insert options” 
on page 388). Select one of the options to insert the duplicate of the clip. If you dragged more 
than one clip, the duplicates are inserted, taking the auto-grouping settings into account, as 
described below.
•The clip(s) will snap to any activated magnetic bounds, see “Magnetic 
bounds” on page 409.
•You cannot copy mono clips to stereo tracks or vice versa.
•You can also duplicate a whole track, including all its clips, by selecting 
Clone track from the track pop-up menu.
Duplicating with auto-grouping
If you are copying more than one clip at the same time, two of the auto-
grouping settings in the Edit view affect the result (see “Moving with auto-
grouping” on page 416):
•If Track auto-grouping is activated when you duplicate clips, all clips on 
the destination track, to the right of the new copy, will be moved to the 
right, to “make room” for the new clips.
•If Global auto-grouping is activated when you duplicate clips, all clips to 
the right of the new copy in the whole Audio Montage will be moved to 
the right in the same way.  
						

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Repeating clips
1.If you don’t know the exact number of copies (clones) needed, but know 
roughly where you want the last clip in the row to be positioned, move the 
Montage cursor there.
2.Right-click on the clip to bring up the clip speed menu.
3.Select “Repeat clip…”.
The Repeat clip dialog appears.
4.Either select the “Count” option and specify an exact number of clones, or 
select the “Repeat until cursor” option.
5.Select one of the Placement options:
6.Click OK.
The copies are created. If you chose the “Repeat until cursor” option, the last clip will start 
to the left of the Montage cursor.
Option Description
Place clips one after 
the otherLines up the copies after the clip, spaced according to the “Gap 
between clips” setting.
Place every… Allows you to position the copies according to a time interval. You 
cannot specify times shorter than the length of the clip (i.e. it is not 
possible to have the clips overlap each other).
Align with clips of 
focused trackWhen this option is selected, the copies will be positioned accord-
ing to the clips on the focused track (the track with the highlighted 
Track Control area). 
If you specify an Offset value, the copied clips will be positioned at 
the starting position of the clips on the focused track + the Offset.