Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

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Customizing 32 – 751
Setting enable options
Once the key sequence has been defined, you may want to set the Enable 
Options for the operation. This is done by selecting from the pop-up in the 
middle column:
Excluding windows (Key commands)
This is mainly for plug-in windows. Since some plug-ins, especially from 
third-party manufacturers, have their own set of key commands, you may 
want to disable WaveLab key commands for these windows. 
Let’s say you assign a key command to “apply” in the Master Section, and 
a certain plug-in already uses the same key combination for an internal op-
eration. Then, pressing this key command might lead to the wrong opera-
tion being invoked when this plug-in has the focus.
“Exclude windows” allows you to prevent this situation:
1.Click the “Exclude windows” button.
2.Type in the name of the window in the Window exclusion list.
You can include DOS “wildcard” characters. For example to exclude all products from the 
manufacturer Waves, you can type “Waves*”.
3.Close the window.
Option Description
Enabled all the time This key sequence is always active.
Enabled if active 
window…This key sequence can be used for all windows, except the ones 
added to the “Exclude Windows” lists, described below.
Enabled if involved
window…This key sequence is only available if the window it is applied to has 
the focus (is active or displayed on top of all other windows).  
						

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32 – 752 Customizing
Using key sequences/MIDI commands
To use a key sequence or MIDI command, press the keys/buttons speci-
fied in the dialog, and the corresponding operation is performed.
Key sequences/MIDI commands can only be executed after you have 
closed the Key Commands dialog.
About some special key commands
There are some key commands that might require an explanation:
Command Description
Set focus on this 
key command groupThis allows you to re-use key commands for certain groups.
For example, let’s say you set up things so that [Ctrl]+[F10] is 
the key command for setting the focus to the Master Section. 
You then assign simple key commands to the Master Section 
items, for example [A] for “Apply” and [R] for “Remove all plug-
ins”, even though these keys may be used for other sections of 
the program.
You can then Press [Ctrl]-[F10] followed by any of the single 
commands to control most aspects of the Master Section.
Bypass all defined 
key commands/
Enable all key commandsThis can be used when an installed plug-in, from a third party 
manufacturer, has its own set of key commands. You can then 
temporarily disable all WaveLab key commands to be able to 
use the plug-in’s own.
Bypass all defined 
key commands but those
set to “Enabled all time”Same as above but disables all key commands except those 
where you have set the Enable Option to “Enabled all time”.
Plug-in Slot commands To assign a certain processor to a certain slot, in the Master 
Section, you need two key sequences. Selecting a slot is done 
by a key sequence in the “Slot selection” section, and select-
ing a plug-in is done in the “Slot Commands” section. 
						

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Customizing 32 – 753
Organizing plug-in processors
Introduction
You may find that you need to organize your processors into sensible 
groups. Why? Well, a host of plug-ins are included with the program, and 
additional ones can be added. If you have Cubase installed on the com-
puter, even more appear in WaveLab. Also, sometimes when you install a 
package of DirectX plug-ins you get effects that are of no relevance to 
WaveLab (or even to audio) and therefore just clutter menus.
To organize how your plug-ins appear on menus in the program, open the 
“Organize Master Section plug-ins” dialog on the Options menu.
This organizes plug-ins accessed from the Master Section or Batch P rocessor, 
not the VST plug-ins in the Montage. Note however, that you can exclude some 
VST plug-ins completely, see “Handling VST plug-ins” on page 756.
About the plug-in list
The “Organize Master Section plug-ins” dialog
These are plug-ins that can be used in the program. They are processors, 
or effects, that can be added to the Master Section slots 
(see “The Effects 
pane”
 on page 225) or utilized from the Batch Processor (see “Setting up the 
processing tasks to be performed”
 on page 285).  
						

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32 – 754 Customizing
Groups
In the Master Section folder in the list, you will find subfolders, represent-
ing groups of plug-ins.
By organizing your plug-ins into folders, you arrange the way they ap-
pear on menus in the program. How you organize your effects is of course 
up to you, but initially, they are categorized according to their technical 
“type”, regular WaveLab plug-ins in one folder, VST plug-ins in another, 
DirectX plug-ins in yet another, etc. (see “The Effects pane” on page 225 
for more details on these types of plug-ins).
VST and DirectX plug-ins need to be in a group, whereas  WaveLab plug-ins 
can be outside all groups.
The columns
• The Plug-in column displays the names of all the available plug-ins.
• The FX column determines whether a plug-in is active or not, see below.
• If the checkbox in the PM (Post Master) column is activated for a plug-in, it will be 
available for selection in the Dithering pane in the Master Section (after the mas-
ter faders in the signal path). This allows you to use separately purchased dither-
ing plug-ins and similar. See “Adding other plug-ins to the Dithering pane ” on 
page 235 for more information.
• The Key column displays the key sequence defined for a plug-in.
• The Module column tells you the name of the plug-in (dll) file.
Activating and deactivating plug-ins and groups
By clicking in the FX column, you can activate/deactivate individual plug-ins 
or an entire group of plug-ins (see below for more information on groups). If 
you have plug-ins installed on your computer that you don’t want to use in 
WaveLab, this lets you disable them completely, thus reducing “menu clut-
ter”. The disabled plug-ins will still be applicable in other programs that can 
use them.
An example of this would be DirectX plug-ins. Many of these do not apply 
to audio at all and are of no relevance to WaveLab whatsoever. By dis-
abling these, you will make it easier to find the plug-ins that you really 
want to use in WaveLab.
VST plug-ins can also be excluded, see “Handling VST plug-ins” on page 756. 
						

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Customizing 32 – 755
Working with groups
The Master Section plug-ins can be organized into groups. This is done 
by adding subfolders to the Master Section folder and then dragging 
Plug-in icons into these folders.
When you then select from plug-in menus or display lists of plug-ins, the 
organization you have created will be reflected in the menu/list.
•To create a group, click the New Group button, enter a name and press 
[Return].
The group will initially appear at the end of the list, but when you start using it, the list will be 
resorted so that the groups are displayed in alphabetical order.
•To delete a group, select it and click Delete Group.
If the group contains any plug-ins, they will not be deleted. Instead, they will appear in the 
Master Section section, outside all other groups.
•Moving plug-ins between groups is done by dragging and dropping, just 
as when dragging files in the Windows Explorer.
•If you lose track of your changes and wish to return to the state that the 
list was in when you first opened the dialog, click Undo Changes.
•If you want to restore everything to the default “factory settings”, click 
“Set default”.
These settings are stored in the files “ WaveLab/Presets/Plug-ins/PlugIn-
PrefAE.set” and “WaveLab/System/plugIns.set”. If you ever encounter prob-
lems with “lost” plug-ins, delete these files and the program will re-scan 
and build a new list of plug-ins the next time you launch it. This can also be 
achieved by clicking the “Force plugin dectection at next launch” button in 
the Preferences–VST dialog (see below).
Here, a “Dynamics” group has 
been created, which then 
appears in the Master Section.   
						

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32 – 756 Customizing
Handling VST plug-ins
If you have VST plug-ins installed on your computer that you don’t need in 
WaveLab, you can tell the program to ignore these on launch. This is 
done in the Preferences–VST dialog. It is possible to exclude single VST 
plug-ins, entire folders and subfolders containing VST plug-ins, and the 
“Shared VST Plug-ins” folder (if present on your system). The methods for 
doing this are all described below.
Note that unlike deactivating a plug-in in the Plug-in Manager (as described 
in the section “Activating and deactivating plug-ins and groups ” on page 
754) which will only remove it from the plug-in menu in the Master Section, 
“ignoring” a VST plug-in as described below will remove it from the whole 
program, including the Montage.
Proceed as follows to set up which VST plug-ins to use in WaveLab:
•Open the Preferences dialog from the Options menu, and select the VST 
tab.
This contains the following items:
Item Description
Use VST plugin 
shared folder
If you have Cubase installed on your computer, the effects that 
were included with Cubase can also be available in WaveLab, pro-
vided that they are installed in the “Shared VST Plug-ins” folder and 
this checkbox is activated. Next time WaveLab is launched the plug-
ins in this folder will be available.
Optional extra VST 
plugin folder 
(WaveLab specific)Here you can set a path to an “extra” VST plugin folder. As many Cu-
base plug-ins are not usable in WaveLab, you can set up a specific 
folder containing all the VST plug-ins you wish to use in WaveLab.
Ignore plugins located 
in the following foldersIn this text field, you can type in the name of a folder or subfolder con-
taining VST plug-ins that you want to exclude.
If you want to exclude several folders, type in all their names, but sepa-
rate each name with a semicolon.
Do not load the 
following pluginsIn this list you can exclude individual plug-ins from being loaded by 
adding them to the list. Common VST instrument plug-ins (which 
cannot be used in WaveLab) are already added to the list.
Faster graphics refresh-
ing (consumes more 
computer power)This can be useful for plug-ins that display e.g. meters. If changed, 
this option takes effect after closing and reopening the VST plug-in 
window(s).
Force plugin detection 
at next launchClicking this button lets WaveLab re-scan and build a new list of all 
plug-ins next time it is launched. 
						

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Customizing 32 – 757
Note the following:
• If VST plug-ins you want to exclude reside in one or several subfolders inside a 
main folder, you don’t have to list all the subfolders. Excluding the main folder will 
also automatically exclude its subfolders.
• It’s not necessary to type in the entire path to a folder you want to exclude (e.g. 
C:\plug-ins\reverb). Typing just reverb will suffice, since  WaveLab will look through 
the folders and subfolders on your C disk or partition upon startup, searching for the 
folder named reverb, and exclude it.
• On the other hand, if you have a main folder containing two or more subfolders 
and you only want to exclude the plug-ins in one of the folders and you also have 
another folder or subfolder with the same name as the one you want to exclude, 
you will need to type the path to the subfolder you want to exclude (e.g. C:\plug-
ins\delay).
In this case, the subfolder “Delay” in the folder “Old effects” will be excluded, but the 
subfolder “Delay” in the folder “New effects” will be included.
•Quit WaveLab and then launch the program again.
If you check the effect menus, you will find that the plug-ins in the specified folders are 
removed.
•If you change your mind and want to use the ignored plug-ins again, 
repeat the steps above but remove the folder names from the text field.   
						

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Excluding all plug-ins
If you wish, you can temporarily exclude all plug-ins so that none will be 
available in WaveLab:
•Press and hold [Ctrl]+[Shift] when launching WaveLab.
This will disable the Master Section and prevent all plug-ins from being loaded. This can be 
useful for troubleshooting purposes – i.e. to determine whether the loading of one or more 
plug-ins is causing problems.
•If you wish to have access to the plug-ins again, activate the Master Sec-
tion. 
						

							33
Plug-in Processor Reference 
						

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33 – 760 Plug-in Processor Reference
About WaveLab plug-ins
These plug-ins use WaveLab’s own plug-in format, and cannot be used 
with other applications. Note:
• As a rule, WaveLab specific plug-ins can only be used in the Master Section 
(not as track or clip effects in the Audio Montage).
However, some WaveLab effects are also included as VST plug-ins, available as track or 
clip effects in Audio Montages. This is indicated for each effect below.
• WaveLab specific plug-ins can also be used in the batch processor.
• You can specify which plug-ins should be available in the Master Section by 
using the Organize Master Section Plug-ins function on the Options menu.
This also allows you to specify which plug-ins should be available in the Dithering Pane 
(post-master fader).
• Only certain WaveLab specific plug-ins can be used as master effects when 
a multichannel configuration is used in the Montage.
Effects that can be used with multiple output channels are indicated for each effect below. 
Note that all channels in the Master Section will be affected equally.
• Presets for WaveLab plug-ins are handled like other presets in WaveLab 
(processing functions, etc.).
Auto Panner
The Auto Panner (only available in the Master Section) pans the signals 
continuously between the left and right channel in the stereo image. It has 
the following parameters:
Parameter Description
LFO Freq 
(0.1Hz~50Hz)This parameter sets the speed of the panning. The higher the value, the 
faster the signal moves around in the stereo image. 
Width (0~100%) Use this parameter to specify the “width” of the pan movements. The 
value 100% causes the signal to move from the extreme left to the ex-
treme right, while 0% disables the panning effect.
Waveform
(Sine, Pulse)Allows you to specify the way in which the signal moves from left to 
right. Select Sine if you prefer fluid movements, or Pulse to create 
abrupt panning “jumps”.
Out Left, Out Right 
(-96dB~6dB)These two parameters allow you to adjust the level of the left or right 
channel, useful e.g. for correcting the stereo image or adjusting the 
overall gain. The setting 0dB means no change of level, while -96dB 
means turning the channel off completely.