Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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• The cloned audio file will have the same name as the original, but with the suffix 
“_#X”, where X is a number.
• The cloned audio file will be stored in the folder specified in the “Implicit folder” 
dialog on the Edit view : Options menu (see “Cloning and substituting source 
files” on page 443).
Note that since the new cloned audio file contains exactly the audio range 
used by the clip, it is not possible to lengthen the clip by resizing it after the 
Transform operation.
Time-stretch to cursor
This function uses WaveLab’s (or DIRAC’s) time stretch algorithm to ad-
just the length of a clip:
1.Move the Montage cursor to the position where you want the clip to end.
Note that the time stretch algorithm will give best results when stretching/compressing by 
small or moderate amounts, i.e. when the Montage cursor is positioned not too far from the 
clip’s current end. Also, you should avoid time stretching already time stretched material – 
therefore, if you are not satisfied with the result, you should undo the operation before trying 
again.
In this example, the goal is to match the length of the lower clip to the upper clip. The 
magnetic bounds (see “Magnetic bounds” on page 409) make it easy to position the 
Montage cursor exactly at the end of the upper clip.
2.Right-click on the clip to bring up the clip speed menu.  
						

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3.Select “Time-stretch to cursor” from the Transform submenu.
The Time Stretching dialog appears. This is the same dialog as when time stretching wave 
files, but the fields for stretch factor/time/tempo are greyed out (since these are determined 
by the cursor position).
4.Make settings for Quality, Audio Quantize and Preserve pitch, see “Time 
Stretch” on page 196.
5.Click OK.
The clip is stretched (or shortened) so that it ends exactly at the Montage cursor.   
						

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Pitch shift
This function uses WaveLab’s (or DIRAC’s) pitch correction algorithm to 
change the pitch of the clip:
1.Right-click on the clip to bring up the clip speed menu.
2.Select “Pitch shift” from the Transform submenu.
The Pitch Correction dialog appears.
3.Specify the desired amount of pitch shift.
As with time stretch, small changes usually give better results.
4.Specify a Length Compensation value.
If you set this parameter to 100, the length of the clip will not be affected. Setting it to a 
smaller value will make the clip longer (negative pitch shift values) or shorter (positive pitch 
shift values).
5.Make settings for Quality, Audio Quantize, Preserve Formants and 
Rhythm Accuracy.
Click the question mark icon in the dialog for details.
6.Click OK.
The pitch of the clip is changed.  
						

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Adding effects to tracks and clips
The Montage supports VST effect plug-ins, both for individual clips and 
for tracks. The main difference between clip and track effects is:
• Clip effects affect individual clips only.
• Track effects affect all clips on a track.
The standard WaveLab and DirectX plug-ins cannot be used as clip or 
track effects in the Montage, but VST versions of several standard Wave-
Lab effects are provided, as well as several of the standard Cubase VST 
effects. Each independent clip and/or audio track in the Montage can be 
independently processed by up to ten VST effect plug-ins. Effects are 
configured either as Inserts, when all sound is processed by the effect, or 
as Send effects (“Split mode”) where the balance between the unproc-
essed sound and the effect send level can be adjusted or controlled by 
effect envelope curves (clip effects only).
Only clip effects for clips that are active at the current playback position will 
consume any CPU power. This does not apply to track effects, which con-
sume CPU power regardless whether any clips on the track are playing back 
or not.
DirectX plug-ins from Waves Ltd. can be used as Montage effects by using 
the Waves VST shell.
The first time you play a Montage after opening or cloning it, the program 
has to load all effects into memory. If you have a lot of effects, this may re-
sult in a short silence before playback starts. 
						

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Adding a clip effect slot 
To add an effect to a clip, proceed as follows:
1.Open the clip speed menu by right-clicking the clip.
2.Select “Add effect slot…” from the menu.
A slot is created and a dialog box opens where various settings relating to that slot can be 
made. Leave the dialog open for now.
Adding a track effect slot
To add an effect to a track, proceed as follows:
1.Click on the “Add effect slot” button in the Track Control area.
If no effects are currently loaded the button will display “no fx”.
2.Select “Add effect slot…” from the menu.
A slot is created and a dialog opens where various settings relating to that slot can be 
made. Leave the dialog open for now.
Selecting an effect for a slot
The following applies to both clip and track effects.
1.Click on the button marked “Effects”.
A pop-up menu opens containing all installed VST plug-ins.
2.Select one of the effects from the menu.
The chosen effect’s parameters appear to the left in the dialog. 
3.Change the parameter settings as desired.
4.When you are done, click “Close” to close the dialog or leave it open if 
you want to make more adjustments later.
You can continue working with the Effect dialog open. It is also possible to have several 
Effect dialogs open.  
						

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If a clip effect has been added, the number [1] is displayed before the clip 
name. This is to indicate that one active effect slot is used for that clip. For 
track effects, the number of active effect slots currently used is shown in 
the “Add effect slot” button.
You can add effects during playback. However, if you add an effect with a 
latency larger than zero (displayed to the right in the Effect dialog, see “La-
tency” on page 479), you should stop and restart playback to avoid timing 
discrepancies.
Also, a small number of VST plug-ins may change latency depending on pa-
rameter settings. If that is the case, make sure to stop and restart playback 
after the latency is changed.
Removing an effect from a slot
You can’t actually manually remove created effect slots, only the slot’s ef-
fect. Here’s what you do:
1.To remove a clip effect from a slot, open the clip speed menu and select 
the effect you want to remove from a slot.
To remove a track effect from a slot, click the “Add effect slot” button (in 
the Track Control area) and select the effect you want to remove from a 
slot from the menu that appears.
The effect window opens.
2.Click on the “Effects” button, and select “Remove” from the pop-up menu 
that appears.
The effect is removed from the slot. You can now either select a new effect for the slot or 
leave the slot unused.
•You can also remove effects from slots in the Plug-ins view – see “Man-
aging effects in the Plug-ins view” on page 483.
Unused slots are automatically removed the next time WaveLab is launched, 
and do not consume any CPU power. 
						

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Effect type: Insert or Split Mode?
Clip and track effects can be configured either as Insert or Send effects. 
This is done using the “Split mode” setting in the Effect dialog (see “The 
Effect dialog” on page 478). 
• When Split mode is deactivated for an effect, it is treated as an insert effect.
This means the whole clip signal is routed through the effect. Typical insert effects would 
be compressors, auto panners or distortion units, etc. 
• When Split mode is activated for an effect, it is treated more as a send effect.
In this mode, you can adjust the send level to the effect. Note that Split mode is different to 
conventional send effects in that the effect signal is mixed directly into the audio path and 
not to an effect return section. When Split mode is activated, the send level can be auto-
mated using effect envelope curves (this applies to clip effects only). Typical Split mode ef-
fects would be reverb, chorus or delay, etc.
Some effects are always in Insert mode or always in Split mode. For these 
effects, the Split mode setting is greyed out and cannot be changed.
The Reset Plug-ins options
On the Edit view : Options menu, you will find two options related to the 
plug-in effects:
• Reset plug-ins when starting playback.
When this is activated and you start playback, the program asks the plug-ins to first release 
any samples in plug-in memory. Activate this if you get a small click or noise when the play-
back position reaches the start of a clip with effects (typically reverb or delay effects). If not 
needed, you should leave this option off, since having it activated could result in a slightly de-
layed response when you start playback (especially in a Montage with many plug-ins used).
• Reset plug-ins before rendering.
Unfortunately, a small number of plug-ins do not respond properly to the VST “Reset” com-
mand sent by the option above. These plug-ins are only properly initialized when they are 
created (in effect, when the Montage is opened). If you have activated “Reset plug-ins 
when starting playback” and still get clicks on playback as described above, you can acti-
vate this option before rendering (see “Mixing down – The Render function” on page 527). 
This makes WaveLab reload all plug-ins before rendering the file(s).
Note that this requires twice the amount of memory (since the Montage is in effect opened 
twice). 
						

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The Effect dialog
The Effect dialog
When an effect is selected, the left part of the Effect dialog contains the 
parameters for the effect. The right part of the dialog contains a number of 
options and functions that are common (although some settings may be 
disabled depending on the effect type, as explained above).   
						

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The dialog contains the following common elements:
Dialog item Description
Send level 
sliderThis controls the send level for the chosen effect. Only available when Split 
mode is selected. 
Latency Certain effect plug-ins that have to analyze the sound before passing it on, will 
introduce a latency (delay) in the audio path. WaveLab automatically compen-
sates for this delay with regard to other tracks. However, real-time changes 
(like turning an effect knob) will be delayed according to the maximum latency 
found among all clips (the largest sum of latencies for a single clip). Plug-ins 
with latency cannot be used as Split mode effects (see below).
Tail Effects like reverb and delay produce audio “tails”, i.e. the effect sound contin-
ues after the clip sound ends. If for example you add echo to a clip without 
specifying a tail value, the echo effect is muted as soon as the clip ends, which 
is in most cases undesirable. Set the tail length so that the effect is allowed to 
decay naturally. If you add another plug-in to the clip that also produces a tail, 
a separate tail value does not have to be set for this plug-in unless the new ef-
fect has a longer natural decay tail than the first. The overall tail length for the 
clip is the sum of each plug-in’s tail. The maximum tail setting is 30 seconds.
Split mode If Split mode is activated for an effect, the send level for the effect can be ad-
justed, as described in the section “Effect type: Insert or Split Mode?” on page 
477. For some effects, this setting cannot be changed.
Bypass If this is activated, the effect is bypassed.
Effects 
buttonThis button opens the Effects menu where you can select to remove the slot’s 
current effect, or select a new one from the menu for the same slot. Changing 
the effect using this menu will erase any unsaved changes to the previously se-
lected effect.
Preset 
buttonThis button opens the preset menu where you can load or save effect banks or 
effects. There are also two items named Load and Save Default Bank. Saving 
as default bank will store the effect settings in the same folder as the plug-in’s 
.dll file, and each time you load the plug-in this bank will automatically be 
loaded. This is the way to customize the default presets of a plug-in. 
Functions 
buttonThis button opens the Functions menu which allows you to copy/paste effect 
settings between clips, rearrange the order of the effect slots and switch be-
tween the different effect dialogs currently active. See “Copying effect settings 
to another clip” and “Rearranging the order of the effect slots” below. 
						

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Copying effect settings to another clip or track
You can copy both the effect type and its settings and paste them into an-
other clip/track. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the effect you want to copy the settings from.
2.Select “Copy” from the Functions menu in the Effect dialog.
3.Click the “Add effect slot” button for a track or right-click the clip which you 
want to paste the effects settings, and either select “Add effect slot…” or 
select an existing effect slot (if you want to replace the existing effect).
4.Select “Paste” from the Functions menu.
The copied effect type is added to a new slot along with the effect settings you copied.
•You can also copy/paste effects in the Plug-ins view.
See “Managing effects in the Plug-ins view” on page 483.
Stereo plug-in settings can’t be pasted onto mono clips (the same applies 
for mono plug-in settings and stereo clips).
Undoing effect changes
It is possible to undo changes to the effect settings. However, WaveLab 
will only “register” the changes (thus making them undoable), when the 
Effect dialog loses focus. Therefore, if you have made an effect setting 
change that you want to undo:
1.Click on another window, so that the Effect dialog loses focus.
The new effect setting is registered by WaveLab.
2.Select Undo as usual.
3.Go back to the Effect dialog to continue working (if you wish).