Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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The Audio Montage 19 – 451
Copying envelopes
It is possible to copy an envelope curve and paste it onto another clip. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Open the envelope speed menu for the curve you wish to copy, and se-
lect “Clipboard” on the menu.
A submenu appears.
2.Select “Copy envelope” on the submenu.
The curve is copied to the clipboard and the speed menu closes.
3.Open the envelope speed menu for the clip to which you want to apply 
the curve and select “Paste envelope” from the Clipboard submenu.
The envelope curve is applied to the clip.
Muting a selected range of a clip
It is possible to mute parts of a clip using the volume envelope. Proceed 
as follows:
1.Use the “Select range” mouse zone to define the part of the clip you want 
to mute.
2.Right-click the clip to open the clip speed menu, and select “Mute selec-
tion (envelope)”.
The program adds points and draws a curve to mute the selected range (by lowering the 
volume to -144dB, with 20ms fall and rise times).
•By design, points set to the minimum value (-144 dB) are not affected 
when you drag the whole envelope curve up or down.
This allows you to adjust the overall level of the envelope without affecting muted regions.
Muting whole clips and tracks is described in the section “Mute and solo” 
on page 400.   
						

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Envelope smoothing
If this item is ticked on the envelope speed menu, the resulting envelope 
curve angles will be rounded instead of angular. This produces smoother, 
more natural envelope curves. It can be used while drawing the envelope 
curve, or applied to an existing curve. 
Creating envelope presets
It is possible to create envelope presets which you can later recall and 
apply to other clips. Proceed as follows:
1.Open the envelope speed menu for the clip containing the envelope 
curve you wish to save as a preset.
2.Select “Envelope presets” from the menu.
A submenu opens.
3.Select “Edit…” from the submenu.
The Envelope presets dialog opens.
4.Type in a name for the envelope preset and click “Add” in the dialog.
The curve is now stored as a preset.
•Note that there are separate presets for the sustain part (envelope pre-
sets) and the fade parts.
Applying envelope presets
To apply an envelope preset, proceed as follows:
1.Open the envelope speed menu for the clip to which you want to apply an 
envelope preset.
2.Select “Envelope presets” from the menu.
A submenu opens.
3.Select the preset from the list on the submenu.
The envelope curve is applied.
Envelope smoothing off Envelope smoothing on   
						

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Volume envelope presets can only be applied to volume envelopes. Non-
volume envelope presets (such as pan and effect presets) can be applied to 
any other non-volume envelope, but not to volume envelopes.
Envelope edit-lock
If this item is ticked on the envelope speed menu, the volume envelope 
curve points are hidden and cannot be edited with the mouse. You can 
however drag the whole curve up or down.
Global envelope lock
The Global envelope lock icon
If the Global envelope lock icon (in the Edit view) is activated, all enve-
lopes are locked and cannot be edited with the mouse. The envelopes 
and their points will still be displayed, but cannot be selected or edited 
(the mouse pointer doesn’t change shape when moved over the curve).
•You can toggle global envelope lock on/off by pressing [Shift]+[V] on the 
computer keyboard.
Duck according to other track
This feature allows you to create ducking effects between clips on two 
adjacent tracks. Normally, ducking is when the signal level on one track or 
channel is automatically lowered by the presence of another signal on an-
other track or channel (if this is what you want, you should use the Ducker 
plug-in, described in the section “About the “Upper Track” output option” 
on page 482). With “Duck according to other track” it is not the presence 
of another signal that causes ducking to take place, but the presence of 
another clip on an adjacent track.
The most obvious application of this feature is when mixing background 
music with a voice-over. When the voice-over starts, the level of the mu-
sic is automatically lowered and when the voice-over stops, the level of 
the music is restored to the original level. This is done by automatically 
creating volume envelope curves. In the following example we have cho-
sen to use “music” on the track to which ducking will be applied and a 
“voice-over” on an adjacent track that will cause ducking to take place.  
						

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19 – 454 The Audio Montage
The clips that cause ducking must be located completely inside the time 
range of the clip to which ducking is applied.
If the clip(s) that cause ducking contain silent passages, ducking will not 
work properly. These clips have to be edited so that each phrase is a sepa-
rate clip without any silence. This is because it is not the signal level that 
activates the ducking, but the clip itself.
When “Duck according to other track” is performed it is applied to one clip 
at a time. If the music (in our example) consists of several clips that have 
been spliced together, only one of the clips will be ducked by the voice-
over. One solution is to repeat the function for each clip, another is to use 
the “Render” function (see “Mixing down – The Render function ” on page 
527) in the Master Section to create a specific (single) file from the separate 
clips, and re-import this as a new clip in the Montage.
Proceed as follows:
1.Place the clips containing the music and the voice-over on separate adja-
cent tracks.
Make sure the voice-over clips are located inside the time range of the music clip.
The three voice-over clips on the upper track are placed inside the time range of the 
music bed on the track below.  
						

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2.Open the envelope speed menu for the clip containing the music, and se-
lect “Duck according to other track…”.
The Ducking options dialog opens.
The Ducking options dialog
3.Click the appropriate “Previous track” or “Next track” radio button in the 
“Clips to follow” section (according to whether the voice-over track is 
above or below the music track in the Montage).
For now, we will use the default settings for the other dialog options.
4.Click “OK”.
The level of the music is automatically lowered by the voice-over clips, as shown in the illus-
tration below.
After applying “Duck according to other track”   
						

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The following parameters can be set in the Ducking options dialog:
Parameter Description
Fall Duration The time it takes for the level to fall when ducking starts.
Rise Duration The time it takes for the level to rise to the original level after ducking 
ends.
Gap before Clip
(Fall)The time between the end of the Fall region and the start of the voice 
clip.
Gap before Clip 
(Rise)The time between the end of the voice clip and the start of the Rise 
region.
Balance clip 
fade-inIf this is ticked, any Duration or Gap settings in the Fall region will be 
ignored. Instead the ducking envelope will lower the volume according 
to the time of the voice clip’s fade-in curve.
Balance clip 
fade-outIf this is ticked, any Duration or Gap settings in the Rise region will be 
ignored. Instead the ducking envelope will raise the volume according 
to the time of the voice clip’s fade-out curve.
Damp factor This sets the amount of ducking, i.e. the level of attenuation applied to 
the affected clip.
Clips to follow This determines whether the track that will cause ducking to take place 
is positioned before or after the track that will be ducked. If “Only se-
lected clips” is ticked only the selected clips on the specified track will 
cause ducking. 
						

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Using fades and crossfades in the Montage
There are a number of different options to choose from when creating and 
editing fades and crossfades in the Montage. These are described in the 
following sections.
Creating fades
As mentioned earlier, by default all clips display a fade-in and a fade-out 
junction point. These can be dragged horizontally to create a fade-in or 
fade-out for a clip. You can add envelope points to a fade just as with vol-
ume envelopes. To create a fade, proceed as follows:
1.Click on the fade-in point at the beginning of a clip and drag it to the right.
The resulting linear (by default) fade-in curve is displayed in the clip, and the fade is also re-
flected in the waveform. If you position the mouse over the fade-in point, a label appears, 
showing the fade-in time in seconds and milliseconds, and the volume in dB.
A linear fade-in
2.To create a fade-out, use the same basic procedure but instead click and 
drag the fade-out point at the end of the clip to the left.
•By default you can only move the fade junction points horizontally. To 
move them up or down, you need to hold down [Ctrl] and drag.
Editing fades
The operating procedure when creating and editing fades is identical to 
volume envelopes, except that the fade-in and fade-out speed menus only 
contain items related to the fade parts (whereas the envelope speed 
menu contains settings for all parts of the envelope). Please refer to the 
volume envelope section for details.
• To make editing of fades easier, there are special Zoom options on the clip speed 
menu, for zooming in on the fade-in or fade-out area.
Note that the fade junction points (the points separating the fade parts from 
the sustain part) have a special property: If you move a junction point, all 
other points in the corresponding fade are moved proportionally, to main-
tain the shape of the fade!  
						

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Fade Options
Using fade-in/out smoothing
If either or both of these items are ticked on the envelope speed menu, 
the resulting corresponding fade curve angles will be rounded instead of 
angular. This produces smoother, more natural fade curves. It can be 
used while drawing the fade curve, or applied to an existing curve.
Fade-in/out presets
It is possible to create fade presets which you can recall and apply at will. 
This is done in the same way as with volume envelopes (see “Creating 
envelope presets” on page 452).
Fade-in/out edit-lock
If either or both of these items are ticked on the envelope speed menu, 
the corresponding fade points are hidden and cannot be edited. 
Editing the fades of all selected clips
If you press [Alt] and change a fade-in or fade-out point, this will affect all 
selected clips simultaneously.
Default fade-in/out
The factory default fade-in/out curve shape is linear. You can change this 
setting and define a default shape and/or length separately for both fade-
ins and fade-outs. To define a new default fade-in, follow the steps below. 
To define a new default fade-out use the same method described below 
but select “Default Fade-out” on the envelope speed menu:
Note that the default fades are saved for each Montage. If you want to use 
the same default fade for several Montages, you should update the Mon-
tage template file (see “Saving a Montage template” on page 499).
1.Open the envelope speed menu for the clip that contains the fade-in 
shape and/or length you want to use as default.
2.Select “Default Fade-in” on the menu.
A submenu opens.
3.Select “Define current shape as default” on the submenu.
Now every new fade-in will have the defined default shape. 
4.If you also want to define a default length, use the same procedure but 
select “Define current fade-in time as default” from the submenu.
You have now defined both a new default shape and length. 
						

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To apply the default fade-in time use the following method:
1.Open the envelope speed menu for the clip to which you want to apply 
the default fade-in length, and select “Default Fade-in”.
2.Select “Apply default fade time” from the submenu.
The fade-in time is now set to the defined default value.
To apply the default fade-in shape to an existing non-default fade shape, 
use the following method:
1.Open the envelope speed menu for the clip you want to apply the default 
fade-in shape to, and select “Default Fade-in”.
2.Select “Apply default shape” from the submenu.
When you create a new fade-in in a clip that previously had no fade-in, the 
default shape is automatically applied.
To apply both default fade-in shape and length use the following method:
1.Open the envelope speed menu for the clip to which you want to apply 
the fade-in shape and time, and select “Default Fade-in”.
2.Select “Apply default shape and time” from the submenu.
The fade-in time and shape and is now set to the defined default value.
Create default fades in new clips
If this option is ticked on the Edit view : Fade menu, all new clips that are 
imported or recorded in the Montage will get the default fade-in and fade-
out shape and length. This is also true for clips that are created by split-
ting a clip.
Lock fade times when adjusting clip edges
If this option on the Edit view : Fade menu is ticked, the defined fade-in/
out length will be locked to the clip start or end, even if you adjust the clip 
edges. 
						

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Copying fades
It is possible to copy a fade-in (or fade-out) and paste it onto another clip. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Open the envelope speed menu by right-clicking on the fade you wish to 
copy, then select “Clipboard” on the menu.
A submenu appears.
2.Select “Copy fade-in” (or fade-out) on the submenu.
The curve is copied to the clipboard and the speed menu closes.
3.Open the envelope speed menu for the clip to which you want to apply 
the fade, and select “Paste fade-in” (or fade-out) from the Clipboard sub-
menu.
The fade is applied to the clip.
Set fade/level envelope after effects
You have the option of placing the fade/level envelope after instead of be-
fore the clip effect section (default setting). This is useful for dynamic pro-
cessors that alter the level of the clip.
To do this right-click the level envelope to open the envelope speed menu 
and select “Set fade/level envelope after effects”
About fade-in/out presets
These are created and applied in the same way as volume envelope pre-
sets, see “Creating envelope presets” on page 452.
Using the fade- in/out ROM presets
If you select “Fade-in/out ROM Presets” on the envelope speed menu, a 
submenu opens where you can select various preset curves and other 
fade-related options.
The fade-in/out ROM presets are only selectable on the envelope speed 
menu if the respective fade-in/out length in the clip is defined, i.e. not set to 
zero.