Steinberg WaveLab 7 Operation Manual

Chapter 4
WaveLab Concepts
WaveLab is an incredibly powerful tool and has many features which can be used for a wide
variety of audio editing, mastering and mixing purposes. This section provides you with links
to some of the main concepts used throughout WaveLab. Understanding these concepts
can help you to get the most out of WaveLab.
Related topics
Features Overview
Analysis
Authoring CDs and DVDs
Markers
Metering
Offline processing
Presets
Rendering
Scripting
The Spectrum display
Spectrum editor
About...

28 WaveLab Concepts
features to satisfy the needs of top professionals and audio enthusiasts.
ˆ Sample accurate time and spectrum audio editing
ˆ Now available for both the Mac and PC platforms, ideally suited to high performance
multi-screen setups
ˆ Excellent performance and outstanding audio quality with support for all common bit-
rates: 8-, 16-, 20-, 24- and 32-bit floating point resolution, at up to 384 kHz.
ˆ Powerful Audio Montage for simultaneous non-destructive editing across several tracks
ˆ...

4.2 Analysis 29
you can even compare two Audio Files with the Audio file compare tool and view audio in a
Spectrum or Loudness view for greater precision when editing. Below you can find links to
some of these tools used in WaveLab. Most of them can be found in the Analysismenu. The
meters can be found in the Metersmenu or via the Workspace>Shared tool windows .
More specialized tools also exist as part of some offline processing dialogs, such as the "Find
current peak level" command in the Change...

30 WaveLab Concepts
ˆ Errors- this tab is to help you find glitches and sections where the audio has clipped
(gone beyond 0 dB).For more control over the analysis, use
Error detection and cor-
rection
.Checking and browsing the results Checking the results on the Pitch and
Extra tabs is simple, since only one value is returned for the whole section of analyzed
audio. For all the other tabs, the analysis methods returns a series of exact points ("hot
points") in the file or section of audio. Use the...

4.2 Analysis 31
vocal notes in a song, for example. The graph used in WaveLab is sometimes called a 3D-
Spectrogram.
Displaying and viewing the graph
You can choose to analyze a selection of audio or an entire file. If you select a stereo record-
ing, a mix of the two channels will be analyzed. Once you have your region selected or no
region (in the case you wish to analyze the whole file) choose Analysis>3D Frequency
Analysis... . The graph window will appear.
There is a scrub wheel that allows you to...

32 WaveLab Concepts
ˆ 1. If, for instance, you have a sine of 0 dB / 2 second followed by a sine of -6 dB /
2 seconds. This means the global audio material has as much 0 dB material as - 6dB
material: you will see 2 peaks (0 / -6 dB), each at 100%.
ˆ 2. If, for instance, uou have a sine of 0 dB / 1 second followed by a sine of -6 dB / 3
seconds. This means there are 3 times more -6 dB material than 0 dB material. You
will see a peak of about 33% at 0 dB, and another peak of 100% at -6 dB.
This analysis...

4.3 Authoring CDs and DVDs 33
Track markers and CD authoring
In WaveLab one of the main concepts to understand about audio CDs is the use of markers to
define tracks, and the breaks between tracks. Each track must at least have a track start and
track end marker. Some of the various authoring tools provided by WaveLab will generate
these track markers for you automatically but you can also manually define, modify and edit
them using the marker window or directly in the main editing window. You can also use...

34 WaveLab Concepts
Authoring a data disk
You can also burn data CDs and DVDs using the
Data CD/DVD window throughout Wave-
Lab (if you wish to back up all your session files, for example). You can access this window
via Utilities >Data CD/DVD... . You can add any file to a new data CD or dvd at anytime
via the File>Special >Add to DATA CD/DVD function in both the Audio File and Audio
Montage Workspaces. Note that all files referenced by the data disk must be saved before
attempting to create a data CD/DVD....

4.4 Markers 35
About marker types
There are many types of markers, all of which, in addition to visually marking locations in a
file, can be used to assist editing and playback. Some like the Loop and CD Track markers
have a unique function. For information on each type and how to use them see
Marker types .
Adding markers
The most common way to create markers is from the
Marker window . If this is not visible
make sure that "Markers" is ticked in the menu Workspace>Specific tool windows >
Markers...

36 WaveLab Concepts
Using markers for editing and playback
Once you have defined one or more markers in an audio montage or Audio File you can use
them to:
ˆ Control playback - you can access various commands to start at, stop at, loop be-
tween and skip markers during playback via the Transport menu. These can also be
accessed from the Transport toolbar.
ˆ Define a selection - you can use markers to help you make selections in a waveform.
These can be accessed by various selection commands in the Edit...