Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual
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![Page 687
WAVELAB
Audio Databases 29 – 687
Adding files to the Audio Database
There are several ways to add files to a Database:
Using Add
1.Select Add from the Audio Database menu.
You can also press the right mouse button in the Location pane and select Add from the
menu that appears.
2.Select all files you want to open (for example using [Shift] and [Ctrl]) and
click Open.
The files appear in the List. Also, folders are added to the Location pane. These correspond
to the real folders that the files are in,...](http://img.usermanuals.tech/thumb/86/103727/w64_WaveLab_d-686.png "Page 687
WAVELAB
Audio Databases 29 – 687
Adding files to the Audio Database
There are several ways to add files to a Database:
Using Add
1.Select Add from the Audio Database menu.
You can also press the right mouse button in the Location pane and select Add from the
menu that appears.
2.Select all files you want to open (for example using [Shift] and [Ctrl]) and
click Open.
The files appear in the List. Also, folders are added to the Location pane. These correspond
to the real folders that the files are in,...")
![Page 694
WAVELAB
29 – 694 Audio Databases
Finding out where files are located
If you want to find out in which folder a certain file is located, right-click it
in the list and select “Show folders” from the menu that appears (or press
[Alt] and click on the file name or wave icon in the list). Either way, the
folder is highlighted in the Location pane (as is the file’s category – see
“Checking to which category a file belongs” on page 701).
Opening a file for editing
To open one or more files in a wave...](http://img.usermanuals.tech/thumb/86/103727/w64_WaveLab_d-693.png "Page 694
WAVELAB
29 – 694 Audio Databases
Finding out where files are located
If you want to find out in which folder a certain file is located, right-click it
in the list and select “Show folders” from the menu that appears (or press
[Alt] and click on the file name or wave icon in the list). Either way, the
folder is highlighted in the Location pane (as is the file’s category – see
“Checking to which category a file belongs” on page 701).
Opening a file for editing
To open one or more files in a wave...")
WAVELAB Audio Databases 29 – 691 This tab allows you to specify two things: • Whether the “Modified” date of the file should be included in the search criteria. • Whether the size of the file should be included in the search criteria . Using presets You can create presets for this dialog, just as with processing. See “Pre- sets” on page 65. Adding more files You can keep on using the Add and Scan folder options as many times as you wish. The new files will be added to the existing ones in the list, and WaveLab makes sure that no file is added twice. Adding a “Dual Mono” file To add two files as one stereo pair (see “Opening dual mono files” on page 72), proceed as follows: 1.Add one of the files. 2.Right-click on the file name and select Properties from the pop-up menu that appears. 3.Activate the “Other channel file name” option and type in the name of the other file in the field below. The two files will now be treated as a stereo pair when editing, playing, etc.
WAVELAB 29 – 692 Audio Databases Limitations • Windows puts a limitation on how many files can actually be shown in the File List at one time (roughly 1500). • Normally you don’t want too many files in the list anyway, since it only makes it harder to organize them and some Audio Database operations will take longer to finish. Use the “Maximum size of result list” setting in the Preferences–Audio Da- tabase tab to set a limit on how many files will be added in one go. • If you have specified a limit, as described above, it might happen that the list can’t show all the files you expect. If this is the case, the status bar will indicate this by displaying the number of files in red. • If too many files are added at the same time, this is probably an indication that you should narrow your search criteria. Using a temporary Database If you are worried that your “Scan folder” operation will add more files to the Audio Database than you actually desire (which means you will have to spend time removing them), you can use a temporary Audio Database instead. 1.Create an empty Audio Database. 2.Use Scan folder to add files to this Database. 3.Drag files from this temporary Database to the other. See “Drag & Drop between Audio Databases and Workspaces” on page 697 for details about dragging. Volume name If you try to add files from a volume (hard disk or similar) that hasn’t been given any name, the program will prompt you for such a name. This is re- quired for WaveLab so that it can keep track of which files are on which disk (for example with removable hard disks). The volume name you specify will appear in all programs that display de- tailed disk information (like for example the Explorer). When this is shown in red, not all files are displayed.
WAVELAB Audio Databases 29 – 693 Displaying all the files in the Audio Database Later you will learn more about how to decide which files get displayed in the File List, but for now if you just want to display all files in the Audio Da- tabase, proceed as follows: 1.Select Global Find from the Audio Database menu, and click the Preset tab. 2.Select the “All audio files” preset and click Load. 3.Click Search. Customizing the File List As with other similar lists in the program, you can customize the File List display in the following ways: •Select a list format (details, icons, etc.) from the Audio Database menu (or right-click in the File List and select from the pop-up menu). •If you have selected Show Details, you can click on the column headings to sort the list according to that column’s criteria. •If you have selected Show Details, you can click between two column headings and drag to adjust the width of the columns. This setting is saved with the Audio Database. Selecting in the File List You select files in the list by clicking on their names or by using the arrow keys. Use [Shift] or [Ctrl] to select several files, just as in other Windows programs. •You can also select a range of files by clicking and dragging a selection rectangle (provided that you start to the right of the file names). •To select all files, right-click in the File List and select “Select All” from the pop-up menu.
WAVELAB 29 – 694 Audio Databases Finding out where files are located If you want to find out in which folder a certain file is located, right-click it in the list and select “Show folders” from the menu that appears (or press [Alt] and click on the file name or wave icon in the list). Either way, the folder is highlighted in the Location pane (as is the file’s category – see “Checking to which category a file belongs” on page 701). Opening a file for editing To open one or more files in a wave editing window, use one of the follow- ing methods: • Double click on one file. • Select the file(s), right-click anywhere in the list except on a file name and select Open from the menu that appears. • Drag the file(s) out of the Audio Database window into an “empty” area within the WaveLab application window. If the file is not on any of the disks currently “in the computer”, you will be prompted for the required disk. Playing a file To play a file, select it and right-click on a file in the file list and select Play from the speed menu (or press [Enter] on the computer keyboard). If the file is not on any of the disks currently “in the computer”, the required disk will be requested. • If the file is already open and has unsaved changes, the version in the win- dow will be played rather than the one on disk. The selected file is located in this folder
WAVELAB Audio Databases 29 – 695 Other file operations Setting properties To set the properties of one or more files, select the file(s), right-click any- where in the list except on a file name, and select “Properties…” from the menu that appears. The Properties dialog • Please note that you can assign the same keyword(s) and comments to several files in one go, by selecting them and then selecting Properties. Name This is the file’s regular name including the file type extension. Changing this is the same as changing the file name in the Explorer or another file managing utility. This cannot be edited if you have selected several files or if a file is on CD- ROM. Other channel file name This is used for dual mono files as described in the section “Adding a “Dual Mono” file” on page 691. This cannot be edited if you have selected several files.
WAVELAB 29 – 696 Audio Databases Keywords This allows you to specify characteristics for the file that you can use later in a search operation. This feature works in addition to the category fea- ture. It can be thought of as a more advanced extension to the category function. If you find that using categories serves all your needs for classi- fication of the files, you do not need to use this feature. To add keywords to the file(s), type in each keyword, separated by semi- colons (“;”) or commas (“,”). •You can also click the “
WAVELAB Audio Databases 29 – 697 Rename If you want to rename the file, proceed as follows. 1.Right-click on the file and select “Rename…” from the pop-up menu. If the file is not on any of the disks currently “in the computer”, you will be prompted for the required disk. 2.Type in the new name and press [Return]. Do not specify an extension, only the actual file name. If you need to modify the extension, use the Properties dialog, see “Setting properties” on page 695. This operation permanently changes the actual file name! Remove To remove one or more files from the Audio Database, without actually deleting it from disk, select the file(s), right-click anywhere in the list ex- cept on a file name, and select “Remove…” from the pop-up menu. Drag & Drop between Audio Databases and Workspaces You can drag and drop files to the following locations: • The File List in another Audio Database. This copies the file into that Audio Data- base. If you hold down [Alt] or [Shift], the file is moved rather than copied. • A category in another Audio Database. Categories are described in detail below. If you drag a file onto a category in another Audio Database, the file is copied to that Database and added to the category on which you dropped it. Use [Alt] or [Shift] to move the file rather than copy it. •A Workspace window. This copies the file to the Workspace. You can aim at a certain group to add the files to it. • Note that it is also possible to drag and drop files from a WaveLab Audio Database into a project in Steinberg’s Nuendo application!
WAVELAB 29 – 698 Audio Databases Import file attributes This function, available on the Database main menu, allows you to import keywords and comments from a text file. Let’s say you have a CD full of audio files and a text file describing these files. You would first scan the CD to reference all the audio files. You can then use this function to import the related attributes. This function can also be used if you need to migrate a database with a different format to WaveLab. When you first select this function the Find dialog appears. Set up the cri- teria on all three tabs as desired, to select which files the operation should affect. After selecting “Import”, a standard file dialog opens, where you can se- lect a text file. Then the dialog displayed below appears. The text file has to use a format where each item is separated by a tabula- tion character. If a text file does not correspond to this format, you need to reformat the file. Each line of the text file must contain the following: •The File name: Specify at which tabulation position it can be found (first tabulation is #1). You should also specify the path to the volume or drive. •The Keywords: All keywords must be at the same tabulation position, each preferably separated by one of these characters: “comma/colon/semicolon/straight slash/punctuation mark”. If you have no keyword to specify, enter “0” as tabulation. •The Comments: If you have none to specify, enter “0” as tabulation.
WAVELAB Audio Databases 29 – 699 Working with categories Categories allow you to organize your files according to type or context rather than names or location on the hard disk. For example, this allows you to display all bass drums on all your hard disks, removables and CD-ROMs with one simple click! About the category folder list The Category pane contains a number of folder symbols. These all repre- sent categories and subcategories. For example, there is an “Instrument” category, which contains a “Strings” category, which in turn contains a “Bowed” category and so on. • Folders are opened and closed as in the standard Windows Explorer, including using the [+] and [–] keys. • You can create and remove category folders, as described in the section “Creat- ing, renaming and removing categories ” on page 701. The “Instruments” category and its subcategories Moving files into categories 1.Make sure the desired category is visible in the list. If it isn’t, open the desired folders and scroll the list to make it visible. 2.Select the desired files and drag them to the desired category folder. The files disappear from the list. Note: • You can add a file to any level in the category “hierarchy”. For example, you can make a file part of the “Instrument” category, without having to put it into any of the subcategories (“Keyboards”, “String”, etc.). • A file can only be in one category at a time. Dragging a file to a category will remove it from any category it previously belonged to.
WAVELAB 29 – 700 Audio Databases Displaying all files that belong to a certain category To display the files that belong to a certain category, click on the category name (note that you should click on the folder name, not on the folder symbol). • To display all files not in any category, right-click in the Category pane and select “Find unregistered items” from the pop-up menu. Displaying files regardless of category If you want to display all files in the Audio Database, regardless of their category, proceed as follows: 1.In the Location pane, select the top folder (Folders). 2.Select “Global Find…” from the Audio Database menu. 3.Click on the Presets tab. 4.Select the preset “All audio files” in the list, click Load and then click the Search button. Click on a category name to have the File List show the files in that category.