Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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Multichannel recording
• For a general description of Montage recording, see “Recording” on page 406.
You can record up to 8 channels simultaneously in the Montage. 
Preparations
To set up for multichannel recording, proceed as follows:
1.First you have to set up how the inputs on your audio card are connected 
to WaveLab’s internal channels.
This is done in the ASIO Audio connections dialog – see “The ASIO Audio Connections dia-
log” on page 507.
2.Open the Record dialog and click on the button to the far right in the Input 
section of the dialog.
The Recording channels dialog opens. Here you can activate the input channels you want 
to record from by activating the corresponding checkboxes.
•For each of the activated recording channels, a meter will be displayed in 
the Record dialog.
3.Open the Audio File Format dialog by clicking the Audio Format item in 
the top section of the Record dialog and select a format for the files to be 
recorded.  
						

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4.On the “Channels” pop-up in the Audio File Format dialog either select 
the Multi Stereo/Mono or the Multi Mono option.
Multi Stereo/Mono will produce single stereo or mono files, depending on the activated chan-
nels in the Recording channels dialog. The channels are logically grouped as pairs (1-2, 3-4, 
etc.), and this governs the mono/stereo status of the recorded files and the tracks they will 
end up on. If you have activated channels 1, 2 and 3 for example, one stereo file (containing 
channels 1 and 2) and one mono file (channel 3) will be created.
5.Close the Audio File Format dialog and make sure that the “Add to selected 
track of montage” option is activated in the Record dialog.
Recording
1.Set the cursor where you want to start recording and activate Record, 
either from the track pop-up menu or the Record dialog.
2.When done, press Stop.
When you record multiple channels, new tracks will automatically be created in the Montage, 
one for each mono or stereo clip that is recorded. Each track will be routed to the same out-
put by default, but can be routed to any output used in the current configuration in the Audio 
dispatching dialog (see “Assigning tracks to output channels” on page 510).
•If you have activated more than 2 input channels in the Record channels 
dialog and select any Channel option except the Multi Mono or Multi Ste-
reo/Mono options, the activated recording inputs will be “mixed” and pro-
duce a single file (or two in case Dual Mono is selected).
If you have set things up this way and activate recording, an alert box will appear, asking you 
to confirm the operation.   
						

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ASIO Instant playback switching
This tool (opened from the Tools menu) allows you to switch ASIO out-
puts. You can also use this tool to compare clips (routed to different out-
puts in the Montage) via one selected output pair.
You can for example use it to instantly switch between up to four different 
“takes” of a performance, or to switch between versions of the same clip 
(using different processing or effects) lined up on different tracks in the 
Montage for comparison purposes. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the 8 channel configuration from the Edit view : Mode menu.
For this configuration to be available, the Montage must be in CD mode.
2.Line up the clips you wish to compare (up to four) on separate tracks but 
on the same time line in the Montage, and route the tracks to different 
channel outputs. 
No other tracks should be routed to the these outputs. 
3.Select ASIO Instant playback switching from the Tools menu.
The dialog contains four large “buttons”, one for each output pair. Above the buttons you 
can select which ASIO outputs you wish to switch between.
4.Use the pop-up menus at the top of the dialog to select the output pairs 
you set up for each track in the Montage.
•You may want to set up a loop encompassing the clips you want to com-
pare in the Montage. 
5.Start playback.
You can now click on the buttons (or use the [1] to [4] buttons on the Numeric keypad) to 
mute/unmute the separate track outputs.   
						

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•If you activate “Solo mode” only one track/output will be heard at a time 
so you will switch instantly between the selected tracks/outputs.
Please note that the muting is not reflected in the Master Section.
•If you activate both “Solo mode” and “Redirect to the selected output 
pair” you will redirect all tracks/clips to the output pair selected with the 
Output radio buttons, regardless of the routing in the Montage.
Multichannel configurations in the Master Section
When you select a multichannel configuration (or switch from one config-
uration to another) on the Edit view : Mode menu, this is not reflected in 
the Master Section until you start playback. You can also refresh the Mas-
ter level pane by clicking the LED at the top of the pane.
The output channels for the selected channel configuration are then dis-
played in the Master Section, with one level fader and clip indicator for 
each output channel. The channels are color coded according to whether 
they are stereo or mono in the following way:
• Blue/orange faders indicate the left/right channels of a stereo pair, respectively.  
						

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• Green faders indicate mono channels.
The Master Section with a 6 channel (5.1) configuration selected.
Stereo output channel faders are linked by default, but you can make inde-
pendent settings for the left/right channels if you click the Unlink button.
The Stereo button
If you have selected a multichannel/surround format, a “Stereo” button 
appears in the Master Level pane. When activated, you will monitor a ste-
reo mix of the Master Section outputs. This has two main uses:
•It allows you to listen to a stereo mixdown of a surround mix.
•It can be used to preview the Stereo Down Mixing settings for DVD-Audio 
projects.
See “Stereo Down Mixing” on page 537 for a description of this function.  
						

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Master effects and multichannel Montages
Master effects for a multichannel Montage are handled in the same way 
as when working in stereo mode (see “The Effects pane” on page 225). 
However, there are a few things to note:
•Not all of WaveLab’s Master effects are compatible with multichannel 
operation.
Supported effects are: Peak Master, Puncher, Leveler Multi, Noise Gate, EQ-1 and Silence.
•When you apply Master effects to multichannel outputs, all output channels 
are processed with the same parameter settings.
•The included VST effects do not support multichannel inputs.
Dithering and multichannel Montages
For a complete description of the Dithering function, see “The Dithering 
pane” on page 231.
Basically you should use dithering when you are rendering a multichannel 
Montage to a lower bit resolution, especially when rendering to 16-bit 
resolution. 
•To apply dithering to a multichannel Montage, you must select the “Intern” 
dithering plug-in.
The plug-ins UV22 and UV22 HR are not compatible with multichannel operation. 
						

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Mixing down – The Render function
The Render function in the Master Section allows you to “mix down” the 
whole Montage (or sections of it) to a single audio file, or to several files in 
case of a multichannel Montage (see “Rendering to multiple files or multi-
channel files” on page 530). 
The Render function can be used in many ways:
• It’s useful if you want to burn a CD from a CPU-intensive Montage, as it allows 
you to first render all track and clip effect processing and then burn the CD in a 
second pass (see “About the two CD write methods” on page 540).
• DVD-Audio projects are always rendered before burning, but the Render function 
is still useful for “printing” the effect processing for CPU-intensive Montages prior 
to the “final” rendering, allowing you to add more effects, etc.
• Surround channels can be rendered as multiple files, retaining the stereo/mono 
status of the individual surround channels (see “Rendering to multiple files or mul-
tichannel files” on page 530).
1.If you want to render the whole Montage from start to end, proceed to 
step 4.
2.If you want to render some of the clips only, select these.
3.If you want to render a certain section of the Montage only (on several 
tracks), make a selection range.
Note that although the selection range is only “horizontal”, all the audio on all tracks within 
the range will be included.
4.If necessary, mute or unmute tracks or clips.
Only unmuted audio will be included in the rendered file(s)! 
						

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5.Click the Render button in the Master Section window.
The Rendering preferences dialog appears.
6.Use the radio buttons in the Source section to specify what you want to 
include in the created file.
The Time Selection and Selected Clips options will only be available if you made a selection 
range or selected clips, respectively (in step 2 and 3 above). 
•The Regions option will only be available if there are start/end region 
markers (Track/Loop/Region markers) in the Montage.
If Regions are selected, named files will be created.
If “Regions” is selected as the Source, the field normally used for the file 
name, is instead used to define the destination folder. Each region marker 
(or start marker) must have a unique name to create the files.
•Creating unique names for the regions can be done manually of course, 
but it is much quicker to have the program create these automatically. You 
can use the Batch Renaming tool for this. 
This allows you to define numerous options for renaming markers. See “Markers” on page 
311.
7.Activate the options as desired:
Option Description
No Tail When this is activated, any audio appended by the Master Section ef-
fects (such as echoes and reverb tails) will be cut off. Note that this 
doesn’t affect the Tail setting for clip effects (see “Tail” on page 479).
Copy markers When this is activated, any markers in the Montage are copied to the 
created file (only available when “Whole Montage” is selected).  
						

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8.Select whether you want to create a named file or not.
If you activate “Create named file(s)”, you must specify a name and location for the file (or 
just a location in case Regions are used). If you don’t activate the option, a temporary file is 
created, with the bit resolution specified in the Preferences dialog–File tab. 
9.If “Create specific file” is selected you can click the item at the bottom of 
the dialog to open the Audio File Format dialog.
Here you can specify the various audio properties for the file(s) to be rendered. For certain 
compressed file formats (mp3/mp2/WMA/Ogg Vorbis), you can make encoding settings 
from the Encode pop-up menu. Click the question mark icon in the dialog for details.
Do fade-in/out at 
boundaries“Do fade-in/out at boundaries” is selectable when “Regions” is acti-
vated. In this case, the generated files get a short fade-in at the start, and 
a short fade-out at the end.
The fade time and shape is set in the “Default fade/crossfade” section in 
the Preferences–Wave edit tab. The fade processor is located after the 
master fader, and before the post-master/dither slot. This allows the sig-
nal to benefit from dithering, if used.
If the fade time is longer than half the length of the processed file, it is not 
performed.
Create Basic 
Audio CDThis option (available when “Whole Montage” is selected and CD track 
markers have been added, see “Preparing the Audio Montage for CD/
DVD-Audio burning” on page 531) creates a temporary file of the whole 
Montage including clip and Master effects and opens it as a Basic Au-
dio CD window. This is a way to perform the processing and the CD 
burning separately (to conserve computing power). However, since not 
all Montage features are available in a Basic Audio CD, you may want to 
use the Create CD image method instead.
Create CD image 
and cue-sheetThis option (available when “Whole Montage” and “Create Specific file” 
are selected and CD track markers have been added) lets you export an 
Audio Montage as a CD image with an accompanying cue sheet (a text 
file identifying the CD tracks in the image file). The cue sheet and the 
image file it describes can then be imported into any CD recording ap-
plication that supports this function (including WaveLab), and written 
onto CD.
Open as new Audio 
MontageIf you have selected “Create CD image and cue-sheet”, you can select 
this option, in which case the created CD image will open as a new Au-
dio Montage on completion. This is the method to use when burning a 
CD from a CPU-intensive Montage, as it lets you render the processing 
and burn the CD in two separate passes, without losing any Montage 
functionality (see “About the two CD write methods” on page 540). If 
you have added DVD track markers in a Montage, this option is also 
available. Montages that are (or will become) part of a DVD-Audio 
project will always be rendered anyway before burning, but you could 
still use this option to “print” the Montage effects, allowing you to add 
more effects, etc.  Option Description 
						

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10.Close the Audio File Format dialog when you are done.
11.Click the Schedule tab to make settings for Priority, Start and Completion 
actions (see “Options on the Schedule tab” on page 242).
12.Click OK to create the file(s).
Rendering to multiple files or multichannel files
If you have selected the “Create specific file” option in the Render dialog, 
you can make numerous settings in the Audio File Format dialog before 
rendering. This dialog is opened by clicking the File Format item at the 
bottom of the dialog (where the current file format settings are shown). 
On the “Channels” pop-up menu in this dialog you can select the Multi 
Mono and Multi Stereo/Mono items (for rendering to multiple files). If you 
are rendering a surround mix to Multi Stereo/Mono files for example, the 
mono/stereo status of the rendered files will reflect the mono/stereo sta-
tus of the surround channels. In case the Montage to be rendered uses a 
6 channel (5.1) surround mode, two stereo files (Lf/Rf and Ls/Rs) and 
two mono files (C/Lfe) will be rendered. The names of the rendered files 
will also reflect the name of the surround channel they belong to.
If you render an 8 channel configuration using the Multi Stereo/Mono 
option, the channels are grouped as logical pairs (1-2, 3-4, etc.). Thus, for 
tracks routed to only one channel in a pair, a mono file will be created.
It is also possible to render single multichannel surround files in the WMA 
5.1 and 7.1 formats. To do this you must use the Windows Media Audio 9 
Professional encoder. Click the question mark icon in the dialog for details.