Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual
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![Page 621
WAVELAB
Analysis 25 – 621
General operations
Opening the “Global analysis” dialog
1.Make a selection in the wave file that you want to process.
This selection can be of any length and in one or both channels. If you want to analyse the
entire file, hit [Ctrl]-[A]. If “Process whole file if no selection exists” is activated in the Pref-
erences - Wave edit tab, the whole file will be processed automatically if no selection has
been made in
2.Select “Global analysis…” from the Analysis menu.
Deciding...](http://img.usermanuals.tech/thumb/86/103727/w64_WaveLab_d-620.png "Page 621
WAVELAB
Analysis 25 – 621
General operations
Opening the “Global analysis” dialog
1.Make a selection in the wave file that you want to process.
This selection can be of any length and in one or both channels. If you want to analyse the
entire file, hit [Ctrl]-[A]. If “Process whole file if no selection exists” is activated in the Pref-
erences - Wave edit tab, the whole file will be processed automatically if no selection has
been made in
2.Select “Global analysis…” from the Analysis menu.
Deciding...")
WAVELAB Analysis 25 – 621 General operations Opening the “Global analysis” dialog 1.Make a selection in the wave file that you want to process. This selection can be of any length and in one or both channels. If you want to analyse the entire file, hit [Ctrl]-[A]. If “Process whole file if no selection exists” is activated in the Pref- erences - Wave edit tab, the whole file will be processed automatically if no selection has been made in 2.Select “Global analysis…” from the Analysis menu. Deciding what types of analysis to perform As described above, there are several types of analysis that can be per- formed. Each of them takes some time, so you may want to make sure that only the types your are actually interested in are included in the analysis. It doesn’t hurt to have more options activated than you need, but it will slow down the process. The pitch analysis in particular uses up a lot of processing time, because by its very nature it is complicated. If the section you are analyzing is very short, it doesn’t matter much whether all options are activated. • Click on the Peaks tab and decide whether you want peak analysis by activating the “Peaks” option. • Click on the Loudness tab and decide whether you want “RMS Power” analysis performed. • Click on the Pitch tab for the program to find the “Average Pitch”. • On the Errors tab, decide whether you want the program to search for “Glitches” and/or “Clipping”.
WAVELAB 25 – 622 Analysis Setting parameters and performing the analysis 1.Set up the parameters. On most of the tabs, you will find settings determining exactly how the analysis should be performed. For example, on the Peaks tab there are two parameters: • “Maximum number…” allows you to set an upper limit for the number of peaks re- ported. For example, if you set this to “10”, the program will only report the ten highest peaks in the file. • “Minimum time…” allows you to specify the minimum interval between two peaks found. For example, if this is set to “5 s”, there will always be at least five seconds between the reported peaks. These two settings allow you to make sure that the reported peaks are not all in the same area. Click the question mark icon in the dialog for details. 2.If desired, move the wave cursor to a new position. The Peak and Loudness tabs report values specifically for the position of the wave cursor, so if this is of interest, you should make sure the wave cursor is at the position for which you want a readout. 3.Click Analyse. Checking and browsing the results Checking the results on the Pitch and Extra tabs is simple, since there is only one value returned for the whole section of analysed audio. Just click on the tab and read off the values in the dialog (for details about the val- ues, see later in this chapter). For the other tabs, slightly more advanced options are available. This is since all these analysis methods provide their results as a number of posi- tions in the file, positions that indicate peaks, glitches, etc. We call these “hot points”. You can browse (jump) between these points in a very practical way. Pro- ceed as follows: 1.Click on the tab that represents the values you are interested in. For example, let’s say you click the Loudness tab. 2.Check the display for maximum/minimum values in the entire section anal- ysed. For the Loudness tab, these values represent the maximum and minimum amplitudes in the left and right channels respectively (for a stereo file). 3.Decide which of these values you want to browse. For example, say you want to browse the minimum amplitudes in the right channel.
WAVELAB Analysis 25 – 623 4.Click on the button that currently displays this value. The value displayed is for the “hot point” with the highest/lowest value. In our example, you would click the button in the lower right corner. 5.Check the “Number of hot points” value at the bottom of the dialog. It dis- plays how many positions in the file the analysis found. In our example it shows how many positions with low amplitude in the right channel meet the criteria specified by the parameters in the dialog. 6.Use the scroll bar below the “Number of hot points” value to browse be- tween the positions found. The wave cursor jumps between the points found by the analysis, and the display scrolls if needed. 7.When you want to browse another property, click on the corresponding tab (if required) and then on the value button that represents it. For example, to check the amplitude of the left channel instead, click that button. To check peak values, click on the Peaks tab and then on one of the value buttons on that tab. The result of the analysis is saved until you close the dialog or click Analyse again. Click here to browse the minimum levels for the right channel. Here you can see the number of “hot points” found.
WAVELAB 25 – 624 Analysis Creating markers If you like you can add markers at the “hot points”: 1.Select a property and channel for which you want to add markers. You will add markers for the same property as you are currently browsing, so this selection is done with the value buttons, as described above. Since you are always browsing one channel at a time in a stereo file, mark- ers can be added for only one channel at a time. 2.Click the “Create markers…” button. Temporary markers (see “The various marker types” on page 329) are added at all “hot points”. The markers are named using the following principle: “Hot point number” (“Channel”). For example, a marker at the third “hot point” in the left chan- nel would be labelled “3 (L)”. Focusing You can also focus the display on a certain “hot point”: 1.Use the “Number of hot points” scroll bar to move the position indicator to the position you are interested in. 2.Click the Focus button. Now two things happen: • The wave display zooms in on the selected point. • The “Global analysis” dialog is “folded in” so that only its title bar is visible.
WAVELAB Analysis 25 – 625 The Peaks tab This is used to find peak values in the audio, that is, single samples with very high values. Parameters There are two report parameters: • “Maximum number…” allows you to put restrictions on how many points will be reported. For example, setting this to “1” will make the program report only the highest peak (or one of the peaks with the highest value – if there are several with the same value). • “Minimum time…” lets you set things up so that the points don’t occur too close. Settings this to “1 s” will ensure there is always at least a second between reported points. Result The Result fields show you the following values: Option Description Maximum The highest peak in the analysed section. At Cursor The level of the sample at the wave cursor position, at the time of the analysis.
WAVELAB 25 – 626 Analysis The Loudness tab This finds loud and weak sections in a more “intelligent” manner than the Peaks tab. The theory behind this is that there might be a single sample with a high or low value somewhere, but this may not necessarily mean that this section is perceived as loud/weak. To find sections that the ear perceives as significant in volume, you must look at a longer section of audio. To do this you measure a consecutive section of samples and then average their value. WaveLab does just this, using a mathematical method called RMS (Root Mean Square) which is well known for its accuracy. Parameters The parameters on the Loudness tab are slightly more complicated than those for Peak analysis: • “Resolution” is the length of audio measured and averaged. If this value is lowered, very short passages of loud/low audio will be detected. When it is raised, the sound will have to be loud/low for a longer period to result in a hot point. • “Threshold…” is used for recordings where there are pauses, to make sure the average value is calculated correctly. A pause could “fool” the algorithm. There- fore you can set up a value, and all audio below that value will be considered si- lence and will not be taken into account for the average value. • “Maximum number…” and “Minimum time…” are the same as on the Peaks tab, see above.
WAVELAB Analysis 25 – 627 Result The Result fields show you the following values: The Pitch tab The Pitch tab shows the values from WaveLab’s extremely accurate pitch detection algorithm. This can be used for pitch shifting, for example, to get one sound in tune with another. There are no parameters to set. The display shows the pitch for each channel, both in Hertz (Hz) and as semitones and cents (hundredths of a semitone). Since the display shows an overall value for the entire analysed section, the “hot point” controls in the lower section of the dialog are not used on this tab. Option Description Maximum and MinimumThe level of the highest and lowest points in the analysed section. Average The overall loudness of the whole analysed section. Around Cursor The loudness at the wave cursor position at the time of the analysis.
WAVELAB 25 – 628 Analysis Usage guidelines • The result is an average value for the whole selection. • The method only works on monophonic material (not on chords or harmonies). • The algorithm assumes the analysed section has a reasonably stable pitch. • The material must be relatively well isolated from other sounds. • It is preferable to analyse the sustain portion of a sound, rather than the attack. The pitch is usually not “stable” during the attack. • Some synthetic sounds may have a weak fundamental (first harmonic) which can fool the algorithm. The Extra tab This tab shows you two things: •The average DC Offset in the analysed section. See “Eliminate DC Offset” on page 195 for details. •The Apparent Bit Resolution. This attempts to detect the actual resolution in the audio, i.e. how many bits are really used. This is useful e.g. if you want to check whether a 16 bit file really uses 16 bits (or if it was actually recorded with only 8 bit resolution and then expanded up to 16 bits). You may want to use the Bit Meter for this instead (preferably in “Analyse Se- lection” mode), as this is even more accurate (see “Bit Meter” on page 170.
WAVELAB Analysis 25 – 629 The Errors tab This tab actually reports two totally separate things: •Glitches These are disruptions in the audio. Glitches may occur after problematic digital transfers, after careless editing, etc. They manifest themselves as “clicks” or “pops” in the audio. •Clipping A digital system has a finite number of levels that it can represent properly. When a sound has been recorded at too high a level or when digital processing has raised the level past what the system can handle, hard clipping occurs. This will be heard as a very harsh type of distortion. A sine waveform before clipping……and after. Report parameters “Maximum number…” and “Minimum time…” are the same as for the Peaks tab, see above.
WAVELAB 25 – 630 Analysis Glitch parameters • “Threshold” is a value for setting how drastic a change in level has to be reported as a glitch. The higher this value, the less sensitive the detection. • “Sensitivity” is a length value. It represents the length of time that the waveform must exceed the threshold to be reported as a glitch. The higher this value, the less sensitive the detection. It is not 100% certain that the points found by the algorithm are real glitches. Please zoom in and play back to check whether the found points really indi- cate a problem. Clipping parameters The program checks for a number of consecutive samples at full value, to determine whether clipping has occurred. “Threshold” is a setting to de- termine the exact number of these consecutive samples which must oc- cur for the program to report clipping. Results This reports the number of glitches and clipping instances that have been found. Working with presets As with effect processors you can create presets for all the settings in the dialog for quick recall. See “Presets” on page 65 for details.