Steinberg Wavelab Elements 8 Manual

							Operation Manual 
						

							Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Christina Kaboth, Insa Mingers, Sabine Pfeifer, 
Benjamin
 Schütte
This PDF provides improved access for vision-impaired users. Please note that due to the 
complexity and number of images in this document, it is not possible to include text descriptions 
of images.
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a 
commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by 
this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except 
as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied, 
reproduced, or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written 
permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Registered licensees of the product 
described herein may print one copy of this document for their personal use.
All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective holders. For more 
information, please visit www.steinberg.net/trademarks.
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2013.
All rights reserved.
Release Date: June 18, 2013 
						

							 3
Table of Contents
6Introduction
6The Help System
7About the Program Versions
8Typographical Conventions
8How You Can Reach Us
9Setting Up Your System
9Connecting Audio
9About Audio Cards and Background 
Playback
10About Latency
10Defining VST Audio Connections
13CD/DVD Recorders
14Remote Devices
20WaveLab Elements Concepts
20General Editing Rules
21Basic Window Handling
23Selecting Audio
28Sliders
28Renaming Items in Tables
29File Browser
30Tab Groups
32Peak Files
32Companion Files
34Program Overview
34Command Bars
35Status Bar
37Context Menus
38Time Ruler and Level Ruler
43Value Editing
43Drag Operations
45Undoing and Redoing
46Zooming
53Managing Tabs
54Presets
56Saving a Picture of the Active Window58File Operations
58Recently Used Files
58Save and Save As
61Templates
65File Renaming
66Deleting Files
67Special Menu
67Temporary Files
68Work Folders vs. Document Folders
70Setting the Focus on the Current File
71About Workspaces
71Elements of a Workspace
72Audio Files Workspace
72Audio Montage Workspace
73Podcast Workspace
73
Opening Files in a Workspace
73Organizing Workspace Windows
74About Tool Windows
78Playback
78Transport Bar
92Playing Back Only One Channel
93Starting Playback From the Ruler
93Using the Play Tool
94Playback Scrubbing
95Scroll During Playback
96About Playback in the Audio Montage 
Workspace
97Audio File Editing
97Wave Window
101File Handling in the Audio Files 
Workspace
123Changing the Audio Properties
125Meta-Data
128Silence Generator Dialog
130Waveform Restoration with the Pen Tool
131Audio Analysis
131Global Analysis
1413D Frequency Analysis 
						

							4
144Offline Processing
144Applying Processing
145Gain Dialog
145Normalize Level Dialog
147Fades in Audio Files
148Crossfades
149Inverting the Audio Phase
150Reversing Audio
150DC Offset
151Time Stretching
153Pitch Shift
154Resample
156Audio Montage
156Basic Terminology
157Montage Window
159Signal Flow in the Audio Montage
160Creating a New Audio Montage
161Creating an Audio Montage from an 
Audio File
161Import Options for Audio Montages
162Missing Files in Audio Montage Dialog
163Assembling the Audio Montage
169Rearranging Clips
171Clip Editing
180Track Activity Indicator
180Envelopes for Clips
185Fades and Crossfades in the Audio 
Montage
189Effects for Tracks, Clips, and the Master 
Output
199About the CD Window
202About Cloning Audio Montages
203Mixing Down - The Render Function
203Loudness Meta Normalizer
205Notes Window
206Recording
206Setting Up the Recording Dialog
207Dropping Markers During Recording
208Recording Dialog
214Master Section
215Master Section Window
226Rendering
231Saving a Master Section Preset
235About Monitoring Background Tasks
236About Dropouts237Markers
237Marker Types
238Markers Window
241About Creating Markers
244Deleting Markers
245Moving Markers
245Navigating to Markers
245Hiding Markers of a Certain Type
246Renaming Markers
247About Selecting Markers
247Selecting the Audio Between Markers
248Binding Markers to Clips in the Audio 
Montage
248How Marker Information is Stored
249Metering
249Metering Window
249About Meter Settings
250Resetting the Meters
250Level Meter
253Spectroscope
254Oscilloscope
255Writing Operations
255Write Audio CD Dialog
257Erase Optical Media Dialog
258About Writing Audio Montages
261Data CD/DVD Projects
265About Audio CD Formats
269Loops
269Basic Looping
270About Refining Loops
280About Looping Seemingly Unloopable 
Audio
283About Sample Attributes
285Importing Audio CD Tracks
286Import Audio CD Dialog
290Importing Audio CD Tracks
291Searching Track Names on the internet
291About Ultra-Safe Mode
292Converting Audio CD Tracks to an 
Audio Montage 
						

							5
293Podcasts
294Podcast Workspace
299Global Podcast Options
299Creating a Podcast
300Setting Up a FTP for Podcast Publishing
300Publishing a Podcast
301FTP Site Dialog
302Checking the Podcast
303Customizing
303Customizing the Wave Window and the 
Montage Window
312About Customizing Shortcuts
316Plug-ins Organization
324Configuring the Software
324About Global Preferences
332Audio File Editing Preferences Dialog
334Settings Management
335Multi-User Settings
337Plug-in Reference
337Built-in Plug-ins
342Steinberg VST 3 Plug-ins
361Sonnox Restoration Toolkit
369Legacy Plug-ins
369Dithering Plug-ins
371Index 
						

							 6
Introduction
The Help System
The detailed help system of WaveLab Elements makes it easy to look 
up interface features and get information from within the program.
Three main types of help are available:
• The help provides detailed information on the features and 
functionality of WaveLab Elements. You can set bookmarks, and 
use the search function and index to quickly find information.
• “What’s This” tooltips give detailed information on the functionality 
of a specific user interface element.
• The status bar at the bottom of each workspace window gives 
detailed information on menu items when moving the mouse over 
an item.
• In the Audio Montage workspace, the status bar shows what kind 
of editing can be performed when using the mouse and modifier 
keys.
Accessing the Help System
There are several ways of accessing the help system.
•To open the WaveLab Elements help, select Help > Contents.
• To open the manual in PDF format, browse to the installation 
folder. The documents are located in the Documentation folder.
• To show tooltips, move the mouse over an interface icon.
• To open the help for the active dialog, click the question mark icon 
on the title bar (Windows) or in the dialog (Mac OS) to show the 
Help button, and then click the Help button, or press [F1] 
(Windows) or [Command]-[?] (Mac OS). 
						

							Introduction
About the Program Versions
7
• To use the menu help, move the mouse over a menu item. The help 
text is displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the workspace 
window.
• To see information on what kind of editing can be performed when 
using the mouse and modifier keys in the audio montage window, 
move the mouse over the montage window. The help text is 
displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the workspace 
window.
• To activate/deactivate the help texts on the status bar, select 
Options (WaveLab menu on Mac) > Global preferences > 
Display tab, and in the Workspaces section, select Display 
status bar.
To open the “What’s This” help, you have the following possibilities:
• In any workspace, press [Shift]-[F1], and move the mouse over an 
interface item, or select Help > What is this?.
• In a dialog, select the question mark icon on any title bar 
(Windows) or in the dialog (Mac OS), and move the mouse over 
an interface item or a menu option.
• Some “What’s this” tooltips have a different background color to 
indicate that a dedicated help topic is available in the WaveLab 
Elements help. Click the link in the tooltip to open the 
corresponding information in the help.
About the Program Versions
The documentation covers two different operating systems, Windows 
and Mac OS X. Some features and settings are specific to one of the 
operation systems.
This is clearly stated in the applicable cases. If nothing else is said, all 
descriptions and procedures in the documentation are valid for all 
WaveLab Elements versions for both Windows and Mac OS X.
The screenshots are taken from the English Windows version of 
WaveLab Elements. 
						

							Introduction
Typographical Conventions
8
Typographical Conventions
Many of the default key commands in WaveLab Elements use modifier 
keys, some of which are different depending on the operating system. 
For example, the default key command for Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] on 
Windows and [Command]-[Z] on Mac OS X.
When key commands with modifier keys are described in this manual, 
they are shown with the Windows modifier key first, in the following way:
• [Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key]
For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] means “press [Ctrl] on Windows or 
[Command] on Mac OS X, then press [Z]”.
Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] on Windows or [Option] 
on Mac OS X, then press [X]”.
NOTE
This manual often refers to right-clicking, for example, to open context 
menus. If you are using a Mac with a single-button mouse, hold down 
[Ctrl] and click.
How You Can Reach Us
On the Help menu in WaveLab Elements, you find items linking to 
additional information.
The menu contains links to various Steinberg web pages. Selecting a 
menu item automatically launches your browser and opens the page. On 
these pages, you can find support and compatibility information, 
answers to frequently asked questions, information about updates and 
other Steinberg products, etc. This requires that you have a web 
browser installed on your computer, and a working internet connection. 
						

							 9
Setting Up Your System
Before you start working, you need to make some settings.
IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT
Make sure that all equipment is turned off before making any 
connections.
Connecting Audio
Your system setup depends on many different factors, for example, the 
kind of project that you want to create, the external equipment that you 
want to use, or the computer hardware available to you.
About Audio Cards and Background 
Playback
When you activate playback or recording in WaveLab Elements, other 
applications cannot access the audio card. Likewise, if another 
application uses the audio card, WaveLab Elements is unable to play 
back. The Windows MME driver is an exception from this.
You can run WaveLab Elements together with other applications and 
always give the active application access to the audio card.
To do so, select Options > VST Audio Connections, and on the 
Options tab, activate Release driver when WaveLab is in 
background. 
						

							Setting Up Your System
About Latency
10
About Latency
Latency is the delay between when audio is sent from the program and 
when you actually hear it. While a very low latency can be crucial in a 
real-time DAW application such as Steinberg Nuendo or Cubase, this 
is not strictly the case with WaveLab Elements.
When working with WaveLab Elements, the important issues are 
optimum and stable playback and editing precision. You should not try 
to reach the lowest possible latency figures.
The latency in an audio system depends on the audio hardware, its 
drivers, and settings. In case of dropouts, crackles, or glitches during 
playback, raise the Buffer Number setting on the VST Audio 
Connections dialog, or increase the buffer size in the ASIO control 
panel, specific to the audio card.
Defining VST Audio Connections
To be able to play back and record audio in WaveLab Elements, you 
must specify how the internal input and output channels in WaveLab 
Elements are connected to your sound card and which device you 
intend to use for audio playback and recording.
You can define the buffer settings for your device as well as set up 
connections to external gear, such as external effects units. You should 
select at least two channels for stereo playback and recording.
If you have no third-party audio card, you can select the Windows MME 
driver or Built-in Audio (Mac) options. You can also use MME with most 
third party audio cards, with the advantage that you can record and play 
at different sample rates. However, Windows MME drivers do not allow 
audio monitoring in the Recording dialog or multichannel operation, and 
other drivers generally offer better sound quality and performance.