Steinberg WaveLab 3 Operation Manual

							WAVELAB
Editing in the Wave window 6 – 81
For example, to check the peaks of the waveform in great detail, zoom in 
and scroll all the way up and down.
Using the zoom controls
Both the Main view and the Overview have horizontal and vertical zoom 
controls. These behave just like scroll bars:
• You can drag the handle to any position.
• You can click anywhere on the scale to move the handle there.
• You can click on the arrows at either end to change the zoom factor in smaller 
steps.
Either way, the zoom factor on the status bar is updated continuously.
Using the Magnifying Glass tool
The Magnifying Glass tool is used to specify any section of the waveform 
and have it occupy the entire window.
The Magnifying Glass tool selected.
Detailed view of 
waveform peaks
Vertical and horizontal zoom 
controls    
						

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6 – 82 Editing in the Wave window
Selecting the tool
The Magnifying Glass tool can of course be selected from the tool box, 
but there are two other options:
• When you hold down [Ctrl] and move the pointer over the Main view, the Magni-
fying Glass is automatically selected.
This is just a momentary selection. As soon as you release [Ctrl] you get the previous tool 
back.
• When you move the pointer over the overview, it turns into the Magnifying Glass 
automatically.
Using the tool in the Main view
1.Press the mouse button with the pointer somewhere in the waveform.
2.Drag left or right to make up a box, and then release the button.
The area encompassed in the box now fills up the entire window.
Making a box like this…
…zooms in so that the 
“boxed” area will span the 
entire display.   
						

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Editing in the Wave window 6 – 83
Using the tool in the Overview
The Magnifying Glass can be used in the Overview, just as in the Main 
view. However, even though you use the tool in the Overview, it is the 
Main view that gets zoomed.
You can for example use this as follows: keep the Overview zoomed out 
all the way and use the Magnifying Glass tool to display any section in the 
Main view.
Mouse zooming
Using the mouse, you can continuously change the zoom factor by drag-
ging:
1.Position the mouse pointer over the ruler in the Main view.
2.Press the mouse button and drag up or down.
The zoom factor changes continuously.
Dragging to change the zoom factor.
•To zoom with the cursor in a fixed center position, hold down [Shift].
•To make vertical zoom adjust automatically to the peaks in the waveform, 
hold down [Ctrl].
•To switch to scrolling, hold down [Alt].
This technique works very well in combination with the fact that you can 
move the song position by dragging horizontally in the ruler. By dragging 
in both directions, you can quickly find a certain position in the file and 
display it at the desired magnification factor.
Using mouse zooming to its full effect requires some practice – but it is 
worth the effort!
Setting sensitivity for mouse zooming
On the Preferences–Environment tab, there’s a Sensitivity setting for 
mouse zooming. The higher the value, the less sensitive the function. You 
might want to raise this value when you first try out the function.  
						

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6 – 84 Editing in the Wave window
Using a wheel mouse
• If you hold down [Ctrl] and point at a waveform, the wheel zooms the view hori-
zontally.
• If you hold down [Ctrl] and [Shift] and point at a waveform, the wheel zooms the 
view vertically.
Using the Zoom menu
The Zoom submenu can be invoked from two places:
• From the main view menu.
• By clicking on the Zoom factor on the status bar.
It provides the following options:
Using the keyboard
A quick way to zoom the active Wave window is to use the arrow keys on 
the computer keyboard: Press [arrow up] or [arrow down] to zoom in or 
out (respectively) horizontally. Hold down [Shift] and use the arrow keys 
to zoom in or out vertically.
There are also additional key commands for zooming – check the Key 
Commands chapter in the online documentation for a full list.
Option Description
Restore last zoom Brings back the last zoom factor set using this menu or the Magnifying 
Glass tool.
Overview Zooms the view out as far as possible.
Zoom in 1:1 Zooms in so that one pixel (dot) on the screen represents one sample.
Microscope Zooms in as far as possible, so that one sample occupies several pixels.
Zoom selection Zooms the window so that the current selection (see “Selecting” on 
page 91) fills the entire display. You can also click the selection range 
(in brackets) on the Status bar.
Custom… This brings up a dialog that allows you to enter any zoom factor. Click 
the question mark icon in the dialog for details.
Optimize vertical 
zoomThis changes the vertical zoom factor so that the peaks are clearly visi-
ble. This adjustment is done according to the section of the wave cur-
rently visible in the window, not the whole file. 
						

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Editing in the Wave window 6 – 85
Using auto zoom for Overview
This setting, found on the Preferences–Wave edit tab, allows you to have 
the zoom factor automatically adjusted, so that it always shows the entire 
wave. 
1.Activate “Auto zoom for overview” in the Preferences dialog.
2.Zoom out on the overview so that you see the entire wave.
Now, when you resize the window, the overview zoom factor is automatically adjusted so 
that the entire wave is always shown. If you then zoom in on the overview, the automatic 
zooming is deactivated until you zoom out all the way again.
Which part of the file do I see?
In the overview, a striped line called the “range indicator” tells you which 
section of the file is currently displayed in the Main view. Note that the 
range indicator is only shown, if the option “Synchronize top and bottom 
views” is deactivated.
Furthermore, the range indicator moves while you drag the scroll bar han-
dle. This means that by observing the overview you can easily find posi-
tions in the Main view when scrolling, even though the Main view might be 
zoomed in very closely.
The range indicator can be displayed at the top or bottom of the overview, 
see “Range Indicator at top/bottom” on page 737.
When you drag the scroll bar, the range indicator continuously shows you 
which part of the wave is shown in the Main view.  
						

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6 – 86 Editing in the Wave window
Navigating through the file
There are several ways to move the view to a certain position in the file:
Scroll bars
This is the most evident option. These work exactly as in any other Win-
dows program. Please note that the waveform scrolls while you drag the 
scroll bar handle.
Furthermore, WaveLab uses proportional scroll bars, that is, the size of 
the handle shows you how much of the entire document you see. To get a 
feeling for how this works, drag the horizontal zoom control while observ-
ing the size of the scroll bar “handle”.
Centering the view vertically
If you have zoomed in vertically, you might want to center the waveform 
view. To do so, double click in the level ruler.
Clicking in the Overview
If you click once in the Overview, the Main view is scrolled so that the po-
sition where you clicked is shown on the left side of the window.
Using the Scroll to menu
To bring up the Scroll to menu, either select “Scroll to” from the Main view 
menu, or right-click in the Overview or the Main view. 
The difference between the methods is that the main menu always affects 
the Main view, whereas the speed menus affect either view depending on 
where you clicked.
The following options are available on the menu:
Option Scrolls the view to
Start/End The beginning or end of the wave.
Selection start/end The beginning or end of the current selection, if any.
Cursor The wave cursor. 
						

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Editing in the Wave window 6 – 87
Clicking on the status bar
If you click on the cursor position on the status bar, the view is scrolled so 
that the wave cursor becomes visible.
If you right-click instead, a dialog appears to let you specify a certain time 
position to scroll the view to.
Using a wheel mouse
If you move the wheel down the scroll bar will move forward and vice 
versa. You can also hold down the wheel and drag the view in either 
horizontal direction.
Snapshots
Snapshots store the Main view’s “layout” – essentially two things:
• How a window is scrolled (which part of the wave you see).
• The window’s zoom factor.
If you move back and forth between various positions in a file, or if you 
zoom in and out for detailed or overview editing, using snapshots will save 
you a lot of time. Snapshots are created and managed on the Wave 
Snapshots control bar, opened from the View menu.
To create a snapshot, you first set up the view as desired (by scrolling 
and/or zooming). Then click the camera icon on the Wave Snapshots 
control bar, followed by one of the numbers. The snapshot is now stored 
under that button. The fact that the snapshot is used is indicated by a red 
circle around the number.
You use the same procedure to “reprogram” existing snapshots.
To recall a stored snapshot, simply click on its number on the Wave 
Snapshots control bar.
• Snapshots will be automatically saved with the individual file if “Save view 
settings in companion file” is activated in the Preferences–Wave edit tab, 
see “Saving view settings” on page 124. 
This snapshot is “programmed”.  
						

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6 – 88 Editing in the Wave window
Setting the ruler start position
Normally, the ruler is set so that the beginning of the file represents posi-
tion “0”. However, for editing purposes you may want to set the “0” posi-
tion at some other point in the file. The picture sequence below shows 
you how to do this:
1. Set the wave cursor where you want the “0” position.
2. Right-click the ruler to 
bring up this pop-up menu.
The ruler start position 
is moved.
3. Select “Set 
origin at cursor”.   
						

							WAVELAB
Editing in the Wave window 6 – 89
Working with a meter based display
If the material on which you are working is tempo based, and you know 
the tempo, you can make the ruler show positions in meter format (bars, 
beats and ticks), to make it easier to find musically related cutting points:
1.Select Meter for the ruler time format, see “Units of time and level” on 
page 61.
2.Open the Preferences–Wave edit tab.
3.Set the Time Signature and Tempo to match the file.
4.Set the “Ticks per quarter note” setting to a number you feel comfortable 
with.
This might for example be the same value as that used by your MIDI sequencer.
In this example, a meter ruler with 96 ticks per quarter note is used.
Setting the wave cursor position
Many operations, such as playback and selection depend on the current 
cursor position – for example, playback often starts at the cursor. The cur-
rent cursor position is indicated by a vertical flashing line, both in the Main 
view and in the Overview. There are various ways to move the wave cursor:
• By clicking once somewhere in the Main view or on the time ruler.
If you have a selection, click on the ruler, since clicking in the waveform deselects all.
• By clicking and dragging in the time ruler.
• By using the Transport controls (see “Setting the start point for playback” on 
page 136).
• By using the “Move cursor to” menu on the View menu.
The options on this are similar to the “Scroll to” menu, see above. There’s also a “Position” 
option which allows you to specify any position in the format selected for dialogs and a 
“Snap Cursor” option described in the section “Using “Snap Cursor”” on page 90.  
						

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6 – 90 Editing in the Wave window
• By using the Cursor keys:
• By using markers
Markers allow you to pre-define positions and move the cursor there, see “What are mark-
ers for?” on page 328.
Using magnetization
If you have “Magnetize bounds” on the Options menu activated and drag 
the cursor on the time ruler, it will “snap” to the following positions:
• The start and end of the entire wave.
• The start and end of the selection.
• Markers (see “What are markers for?” on page 328).
Using “Snap Cursor”
This function – which can be reached from the “Move cursor to” item on 
the View menu and from the main wave display speed menu – moves the 
cursor position automatically for you. There are two options:
• Move to the closest zero crossing (see “Snapping to zero crossings” on page 95) 
to the left of the cursor position.
To get this effect, make sure “Snap to time unit” is turned off on the Options menu.
• Move to the zero crossing closest to a major time unit.
For example, this can be to the zero crossing closest to a whole second on the time ruler. 
To get this effect, make sure “Snap to time unit” is activated on the Options menu.
In the last case, the “time unit” mentioned depends on which type of scale 
is selected for the ruler:
These keys Move the wave cursor
[←] and [→] One “pixel” (screen dot) in either direction.
[Ctrl] + [←] and [→] Twenty “pixels” in either direction.
[Home] and [End] To the beginning and end of the wave.
Option Cursor moves to
Time Closest whole second
Samples Function not available
Time code Closest frame
Meter Closest whole beat