Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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4.Click the Nudge icons to nudge the selected element, or use the com-
puter keys [F11] (Nudge –) or [F12] (Nudge +).
Each time you click the icon or press the corresponding key, the element will be nudged by 
a defined amount (see below).
The Nudge icons. The tool tips for the icons indicate which element is currently selected 
for nudging.
•By holding down modifier keys when you click the icon or press the key, 
you can nudge the element by smaller or larger amounts.
The modifier keys have the following functionality:
•Generally, the magnetic bounds are not used when nudging.
That is, the nudged elements will not snap to other positions, but can be moved freely. The 
exception is “Snap to waveform when crossfading” for nudged clips, see below.
Setting the default nudge impulse
To define the default nudge impulse (the amount with which elements are 
adjusted when you nudge them), proceed as follows:
1.Bring up the Nudge submenu from the Edit view : Options menu.
2.Select “Define impulse…”.
The Impulse Value dialog appears.
3.Specify the default impulse time in the Time field.
This is used for nudging the position of objects or edges.
4.Specify the default impulse level in the Level field.
This is used for nudging volume.
5.Click OK to close the dialog.
• The Large, Small and Micro impulses are relative to the default value.
The default impulse settings are not used when nudging Syncro offset 
(SMPTE). See “Nudging sync offset” on page 654.
[Shift] Large impulse (10 x the default amount)
[Ctrl] Small impulse (1/10 of the default amount)
[Ctrl]+[Shift] Micro impulse (1/100 of the default amount)  
						

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The nudgable elements
The following elements and properties can be nudged:
• Clip position.
This moves all selected clips. 
If the option “Snap to waveform when crossfading” is activated on the Edit 
view : Fade menu, and the focused clip (if any, see “About selected and fo-
cused clips” on page 413) is moved to the left so that it overlaps another 
clip, the nudged clip will be time-adjusted slightly to match the waveform in 
the left clip. This option is described in the section “Snap to waveform when 
crossfading” on page 468.
• Clip’s left or right edge.
This is the same as resizing the clip, in “static audio source” mode (see “Resize clips (static 
audio source)” on page 422).
• Clip’s fade-in or fade-out.
Moves the fade-in/fade-out junction point (see “Creating fades” on page 457). If the enve-
lope is a stereo envelope, both sides will be adjusted.
• Clip’s crossfade.
For this to work, you have to select the second clip (the one to the right) in a crossfade pair. 
Nudging will make the crossfade zone narrower or wider, by moving the junction points of 
both clips in the crossfade. For details about crossfades, see “Using crossfades” on page 
462.
• Cursor.
Moves the Montage cursor.
• Selected range left/right.
Moves the left or right edge of a selection range.
• Current marker.
Moves the currently selected Montage marker. To select a marker, click on it in the area 
above the ruler.
• Pan of focused clip.
Adjusts the Pan of the focused clip. Nudge+ pans to the left and Nudge– to the right. 
• Pan of all selected clips.
As above, but affects all selected clips.
• Surround Pan of focused clip
Adjusts the Pan of the focused clip. Nudge+ pans to the left and Nudge– to the right (alter-
natively front to back – depending on the selected surround pan envelope). 
• Surround Pan of all selected clips
As above, but affects all selected clips. 
						

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• Volume of focused clip.
Adjusts the volume of the focused clip, in steps according to the Level setting in the Im-
pulse value dialog.
• Volume of all selected clips.
As above, but affects all selected clips.
• Synchro offset (SMPTE).
This is used when synchronizing WaveLab to external equipment. See “Nudging sync off-
set” on page 654.
Using Auto-Select
If the Auto-Select option on the Nudge submenu is activated, WaveLab 
attempts to automatically select what should be Nudged, depending on 
your last action in the Track View. If your last action was to select or move 
a clip, the “Clip position” option is automatically selected on the Nudge 
submenu, if you adjusted the volume, the “Volume of focused Clip” option 
will be selected, etc. In most cases, this allows you to use the Nudge fea-
ture without having to manually select Nudge elements on the submenu.
The Zoom view
When the Zoom view is selected (by clicking the Zoom tab), the upper 
pane displays a close-up view of the beginning of the selected clip. The 
main purpose of this is to help you splice two consecutive clips together 
(in which case the Zoom view will display the end of the left clip and the 
start of the right clip, as in the picture below). This splicing is done by ap-
plying short crossfades. 
To make things clear, there are two main “types” of crossfades:
• The “artistic” crossfades, for example when you want to crossfade two songs to 
make a nice transition.
Usually, these types of crossfades are quite long, and can easily be created from the Track 
View.  
						

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• The “patch” crossfades, for example when you want to replace a section of audio, 
and want this to be done as transparently as possible, without any audible discon-
tinuity in the resulting audio.
In these cases, it is necessary to make the crossfades as short as possible. These types of 
crossfades are best created in the Zoom view.
The Zoom view helps you create very short crossfades, automatically 
matching the phase of the two clips, hence minimizing harmonic cancella-
tions. This method, though more CPU demanding, is far superior to the 
common method of just finding zero crossing points.
To splice two clips together in the Zoom view, proceed as follows:
1.In the Track View, move the two clips together end-to-start.
2.Make sure the clip to the right is focused.
3.Click the Zoom tab to display the Zoom view.
This shows a close-up of the two clips. 
Note that the Zoom view is centered around the start point of the right clip! 
This means that if you move the right clip in the Track View, the left clip will 
appear to be moving in the Zoom view.
4.Set the zoom factor using the icons above the display, or the correspond-
ing options on the Zoom view : Options menu.
In the finest mode (1:1), each pixel on screen corresponds to one sample. In the 1:8 mode, 
there are eight samples per pixel.
•If you activate Automatic level zooming on the Zoom view : Options menu, 
the waveforms are automatically zoomed vertically to fill out the Overview.   
						

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5.If necessary, you can move or resize the right clip in the Zoom view.
Resizing is done exactly as in the Track View, with the audio source “static” or “tied” (see 
“Resizing clips” on page 422). Moving is done by clicking and dragging anywhere within 
the clip (the mouse zones within the clip are not used in the Zoom view).
6.Select a search range from the Zoom view : Options menu.
This determines how far into the clips the program will scan when searching for the best 
possible phase match. Higher values result in greater accuracy, but also longer processing 
times, since this is a very CPU intensive process.
If the sounds contain a lot of bass, you should avoid the shortest search 
range setting (5-10 ms).
7.Select “Move to left (match waveform)” from the Zoom view : Options 
menu (or click the icon with the left arrow, next to the menu).
WaveLab will now scan the audio to the left of the splice point and move the right clip to the 
position which provides the best possible phase match, to avoid harmonic cancellation. 
When the right clip is moved over the left clip, a short crossfade is automatically created.
For more information about crossfades, see “Using crossfades” on page 462.
•Selecting the function “Move to right (match waveform)” from the Zoom 
view : Options menu (or clicking the icon with the right arrow) does the 
same thing, but moves the right clip to the right instead.
This is useful if the two clips are already overlapping.
The crossfade in the Zoom view
The crossfade in the Track View  
						

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Editing in the Clips view
When the Clips view is selected, all currently used clips (including pic-
tures, text or video clips if used) are displayed in a list in the upper pane. 
Each clip in the Track View has a corresponding entry in the clip list. Clips 
can also be dragged from the clip list into the Montage.
The list also allows you to edit the clips in various ways. In fact, virtually all 
clip editing functions available in the Track View are also available in the 
clip list. As usual, you can either type in the values or use sliders, allowing 
for exact and precise editing.
Customizing the view
Hiding/Showing columns
The Clips view can be divided in up to ten columns, with each column dis-
playing different data relating to the clips in the list. 
To hide/show columns, proceed as follows:
1.Click on the Clips tab to select the Clips view.
Make sure the divider between the upper and lower panes is pulled down, so you can see 
the clip list properly.
2.Click on the arrow above the clip numbers to open the Columns pop-up 
menu.
This pop-up menu displays all available column types. Currently visible column types are in-
dicated with a tick mark.
3.To hide a Column deselect the respective column type in the list.
The column disappears from the clip list, and the pop-up closes.
4.To show a hidden column type, open the columns pop-up menu again 
and select the desired column type.
The pop-up closes, and the column is now shown in the clip list.  
						

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Moving columns
It is possible to rearrange the order of the columns by click-dragging a 
column heading. A vertical line is shown in the clip list to indicate where 
the column will be inserted when you release the mouse button.
Resizing columns
You can freely adjust the width of columns by positioning the mouse 
pointer on the edge of the column, and click-dragging the divider.
Optimize column width
This columns menu option can be used to optimize the size of all columns 
with regard to their contents, in other words all columns will be resized so 
that the column contents will be shown in full. Normally, you don’t have to 
do this, since WaveLab automatically optimizes the column widths each 
time the view is opened or resized.
Only show selected clips
When this item is activated on the Clips view : Functions menu, only 
those clips that are selected in the Track View are listed. Deselecting a 
clip in the Track View will automatically hide it in the clip list.
Sorting the clips in the list
The clips in the list can be sorted in a number of ways; alphabetically, by 
length, by start position, etc. This is done in the standard Windows fash-
ion, by clicking on the desired column heading. Clicking again on the 
same heading will reverse the sort order.
Navigating in the Clips view
If there are a lot of clips in the list, you can either use the scrollbar to the 
right to manually scroll the list up or down, or you can type in the first letter 
of a clip’s name – the selection will then immediately jump to the first clip 
in the list starting with this letter. 
						

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Re-ordering clips in the Montage by drag and drop
This feature allows you to reorder clips in the Montage, in a way that is 
only possible from the clip list. As an example, let’s assume that we have 
edited the “Welcome” wave file (included with WaveLab) so that the 
words “Welcome” “to Steinberg’s” and “WaveLab” are instead contained 
in three separate clips. In this example the clips are all on the same track, 
but they do not have to be. Proceed as follows:
1.Place the clips so that the original welcome message is played back in 
the right order.
2.Open the Clips view : Functions menu, and make sure that the top menu 
item “Allow reordering by drag and drop” is ticked.
3.Now click the “Welcome” Clip number (1) to the left of the speaker icon 
in the clip list, and drag and drop it below the “WaveLab” clip in the list.
While dragging, the pointer changes to a Waveform icon. 
4.The clip order is still 1-2-3 but the message now says “to Steinberg’s” – 
“WaveLab” – “Welcome”.
The order of the clips is changed.  
						

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The columns
Editing in the clip list allows for very precise adjustments. There are three 
ways you can edit values in the clip list columns (and in other Montage 
lists):
• By typing in the value.
• By using sliders or pop-ups.
• By using the spin controls.
For details, see “Setting values” on page 62.
In the clip list, you can edit the following parameters:
Column Description
Row header 
(number)Clicking on the numbered button to the left of a clip in the list automatically 
selects the clip in the Track View and scrolls the Track View to display the 
clip.
Speaker 
iconClick on the Speaker icon to audition a clip (including muted clips). This col-
umn cannot be removed, resized or edited.
Name Double click on a name to type in a new name.
Track Clicking on a track number opens a pop-up menu where you can select a 
new track for the clip (stereo clips cannot be moved to mono tracks and vice 
versa).
Pregap Length of silence before clip, or the overlap time between clips (see further 
description below). 
Start The clip start time (in the format selected on the ruler).
End The clip end time.
Length The length of the clip.
Clip-lock
statusIf a box is ticked in this column, the related clip is time-locked in the Track 
View, and no editing can be performed on the clip.
Gain This allows you to boost or cut the clip gain by +/- 24 dB. Note that this “ex-
tra” gain adjustment is done at the end of the clip chain, after the envelope, 
effects and pan. This is the setting adjusted by the Meta Normalizer (see 
“The Meta Normalizer” on page 486).
Mute status If a box is ticked in this column, the related clip is muted (see “Muting individ-
ual clips” on page 400).
Comment In this column you can type in comments for the clip. 
						

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About the Pregap column options
There are three options on the Clips view : Functions menu that deter-
mine what is displayed in the Pregap column:
• Show global pre-gaps.
If this is activated, the Pregap Column displays the length of the gap (if any) between the 
start of a clip and the end of the previous clip, on any track. In other words, it shows the gap 
between the two clips, regardless of whether they are on the same or on different tracks.
• Show pre-gaps by track.
As above, but shows the gap between clips on the same track only.
• Show overlap times (in red).
If this is activated, and a clip overlaps the previous clip, the Pregap column will display the 
length of the overlapping section, in red. Note that the “global” and “by track” options above 
apply to overlap times as well.
Export clip list as text…
This item on the Clips view : Functions menu allows you to save the clip 
list as a text file. The resulting text file will contain all the column items 
found in the clip list except the clip-lock and mute status. Additionally, it 
will contain information about the clips’ source wave files. You can select 
to format the text in one of three ways: Pure text, Excel (tabs) or XML.