Steinberg Wavelab Elements 8 Manual

							Customizing
Customizing the Wave Window and the Montage Window
311
Waveform main axis
The color of the waveform main axis and its style.
Waveform 50 % axis
The color of the waveform 50 % axis and its style.
Waveform Elements
Channel separator
The color of the channel separator line.
Cursor (edit)
The color of the edit cursor, its width, and transparency.
Cursor (edit, no focus)
The color of the edit cursor for a file that does not have the focus.
Cursor (play)
The color of the cursor during playback.
Marker line
The color of the marker lines and an optional transparency.
End of file indicator
The color of the end of the file indicator.
Time ruler style
The color of the time ruler and its style.
Time ruler font
The color of the font on the time ruler and the font size.
Level ruler style
The color of the level ruler, its style, and transparency.
Level ruler font
The color of the font on the level ruler and the font size. 
						

							Customizing
About Customizing Shortcuts
312
About Customizing Shortcuts
In WaveLab Elements, you can control many functions via shortcuts to 
speed up your workflow. You can edit existing shortcuts, and create new 
shortcuts.
Most shortcuts are restricted to a specific context, so you can reuse the 
same shortcut combination in different workspaces. The exception is the 
Master Section where all shortcuts are global to the application. 
Shortcuts that cannot be edited are grayed out. The shortcuts that you 
created are displayed in blue in the editor.
You can create a new shortcut by specifying a key sequence of between 
one to three keys that must be pressed in a certain order to invoke the 
operation.
Editing Shortcuts
You can see the list of all shortcuts in the Customize commands 
dialog, and edit and assign shortcuts in the Shortcut Definitions dialog.
NOTE
The Customize commands dialog provides a different command set 
for each menu or dialog.
• To open the Shortcut Definitions dialog, where you can edit the 
shortcuts, double-click the shortcut text or its placeholder, or 
select a command and click Edit shortcut.
• You can define one key shortcut per command. Each shortcut can 
be a sequence of up to four keystrokes.
• To reset some or all types of shortcuts to their factory defaults use 
the Reset button. 
						

							Customizing
About Customizing Shortcuts
313
Defining Key Sequences
You can define key sequences for a keyboard.
PREREQUISITE 
On Mac, commands for the main menus must be of a single key 
command.
When using multiple key stroke commands, make sure that the key 
commands do not interfere with each other. For example, when you have 
one shortcut [Shift]+L, M and define another to be [Shift]+L, the second 
shortcut has no effect.
PROCEDURE
1. In any workspace, select Options > Customize commands, or 
select Customize commands when available in tool windows or 
other places in WaveLab Elements.
2. In the customize commands list, select the command for which you 
want to define a key sequence, and click Edit shortcut, or 
double-click the Key sequence column of the corresponding 
command.
3. In the Shortcut Definitions dialog, click in the 1st key stroke 
field, and press the buttons that you want to use as the key 
sequence.
4. Optional: Define up to 4 key sequences for the command.
5. Click OK.
RESULT 
When you now press the keys/buttons specified in the dialog, the 
corresponding operation is performed. The key strokes must be 
executed one after the other. 
						

							Customizing
About Customizing Shortcuts
314
Customizing Menus and Command Bars
You can individually decide whether to hide or show command bar 
icons. This way you can customize command bars by removing 
unwanted commands.
PROCEDURE
1.In any workspace, select Options > Customize commands, or 
select Customize commands when available in tool windows or 
other places in WaveLab Elements.
2. To show a certain command in the command bar, activate the 
checkbox in the Bar column for corresponding command.
3. Click OK.
Generating a List of All Shortcuts
You can generate an HTML file or print out a list that contains all 
shortcuts for the active command set.
PREREQUISITE 
When you want to print out the list, make sure a printer is connected to 
your system.
PROCEDURE
1. In any workspace, select Options > Customize commands, or 
select Customize commands when available in tool windows or 
other places in WaveLab Elements.
2. Click Summary, and select one of the following options:
• To open the Print preview dialog, from which you can print out the 
list of all shortcuts, select Print preview. For Print preview to be 
available, a printer must be connected.
• To open the list of all shortcuts in the HTML file format in the 
standard browser, select HTML report. 
						

							Customizing
About Customizing Shortcuts
315
Customize Commands Dialog
This dialog allows you to customize your own shortcuts for WaveLab 
Elements. It shows a list of already assigned shortcuts for WaveLab 
Elements commands and menu options.
In any workspace, select Options > Customize commands, or select 
Customize commands when available in tool windows or other places 
in WaveLab Elements.
Search by
Allows you to select the part of the commands list in which the 
search is performed.
Search field
Allows you to search for a command.
Use wildcards
If this option is activated, the wildcard characters “*” and “?” can 
be used.
“*” substitutes zero or more characters, and “?” substitutes any 
character.
For example, if Search by keyboard shortcut is selected, type “*” 
to display all the commands already associated with a shortcut.
Expand/Collapse
Expands/collapses the folder tree.
Commands list
Shows all commands and their shortcuts for the active command set.
Reset
Resets the commands to the factory setting.
Summary
Opens a menu from which you can generate a list of all commands 
and their shortcuts either in HTML or as a print out.
Edit shortcut
Opens the Shortcut Definitions dialog where you can edit the 
shortcuts of the selected command. 
						

							Customizing
Plug-ins Organization
316
Shortcut Definitions Dialog
This dialog allows you to define your own customized shortcuts for a 
particular function. These custom shortcuts can speed up your workflow 
in WaveLab Elements.
In the Customize commands dialog, select a command, and click Edit 
shortcut.
Key Sequence
1st key stroke
Lets you select the first key of an optional sequence of up to 4 keys. 
Set the focus in the key stroke field, then press the key combination. 
If nothing is displayed, a key is not allowed in this context.
2nd/3rd/4th key stroke (optional)
Lets you select additional keys that have to be triggered to execute 
the command. The command is only executed if this key event 
happens after the first one.
Clear
Erases all key event fields.
Plug-ins Organization
WaveLab Elements comes with various plug-ins, and additional plug-ins 
can be added. To remain an overview about the plug-ins that are 
relevant to your project, you can organize your plug-ins in groups.
In the Organize tab of the Plug-in settings, you can organize how your 
plug-ins appear on menus in the program. In the plug-ins list, you find 
subfolders, representing groups of plug-ins.
How you organize your effects is up to you, but initially, they are categorized 
by vendor, category, favorite plug-ins, and recently used plug-ins. 
						

							Customizing
Plug-ins Organization
317
In case 32 bit and 64 bit versions of WaveLab Elements are used on the 
same system, their settings are shared. An exception to this rule are the 
following options in the Plug-in settings dialog:
•Additional VST plug-in folders
•Ignore plug-ins located in the following subfolders
This is because 32-bit plug-ins cannot be used in WaveLab Elements 
64
 bit and reciprocally.
Deactivating Plug-ins
You can deactivate plug-ins. This is useful if you have plug-ins installed 
that you do not want to use in WaveLab Elements.
Many of the DirectX plug-ins, for example, do not apply to audio and are 
of no relevance to WaveLab Elements. By disabling these, you make it 
easier to find the plug-ins that you want to use in WaveLab Elements.
PROCEDURE
1. In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options 
> Plug-in settings.
2. Select the Organize tab.
3. In the plug-ins list, navigate to the plug-in that you want to 
deactivate, or use the search field.
4. Deactivating the checkbox in for the corresponding plug-in.
• When selecting multiple plug-ins, you can deactivate all of them 
with a single click.
• To deactivate the plug-in from the plug-in selection menus, 
deactivate the checkbox in the Effect column.
• To deactivate the plug-in in the Dithering panel of the Master 
Section, deactivate the checkbox in the Post column.
Adding Plug-ins to the Favorites Menu
You can add plug-ins that you are using regularly to the Favorites menu 
of the plug-in selection menu.
PROCEDURE
1.In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options 
> Plug-in settings.
2. Select the Organize tab. 
						

							Customizing
Plug-ins Organization
318
3. In the plug-ins list, navigate to the plug-in that you want to add to 
the favorites, or use the search field.
4. Specify whether to add or remove a plug-in from the favorites, by 
activating/deactivating the checkbox in for the corresponding 
plug-in in the Favorites column.
NOTE
If the Favorites menu is empty, it does not appear in plug-in selection menus.
Customizing Plug-in Groups
In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options > 
Plug-in settings, and open the Organize tab. Here, you can customize 
the appearance and sorting of plug-ins.
•To update the tree with the following changes, click the Show 
changes button.
• The category labels used to create the hierarchy are supplied by 
the plug-in manufacturers. To change the category name, in the 
Category renaming table, click in the Original column, and select 
the category that you want to rename. Then click in the Modified 
column, and enter a new name.
• To change the sorting of plug-in groups, in the Customize section, 
in the sorting menu, select whether to sort by category or by 
vendor. If a plug-in does not publish a vendor name or category, 
the name of the enclosing plug-in folder on disc is used as vendor 
name or category, if it is not the VST plug-in root folder.
• To group all plug-ins that start with the same prefix in one 
submenu, activate Create submenus based on prefixes, and 
specify the number of plug-ins that must start with the same prefix. 
Only if this number is reached, a submenu is created.
• To group plug-ins in a single submenu if their number is below a 
specified value, activate Compress hierarchy, and specify the 
threshold. A tree is flattened to a single submenu if the number is 
below the threshold. This prevents having small submenus.
• To activate the Recently used category, activate Submenu with 
recently used plug-ins, and specify the maximum number of 
recently used plug-ins that should be displayed in this category. 
						

							Customizing
Plug-ins Organization
319
• You can make the Recently used category global to all places or 
individual for each context, for example, for the Master Section, 
audio montage track, audio montage clip, or batch processors. To 
make the Recently used category individual for each context, 
activate Independent for each context.
Adding Additional VST Plug-ins
You can specify folders where additional VST plug-ins can be found. 
This is useful if you are using third-party VST plug-ins that you do not 
want to store in the standard VST folder.
PROCEDURE
1.In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options 
> Plug-in settings.
2. Select the General tab.
3. In the Additional VST plug-in folder (WaveLab specific) section, 
click the folder icon, and navigate to the folder that contains the 
VST plug-ins that you want to add.
4. Click OK.
Excluding Plug-ins
You can specify a list of plug-ins that WaveLab Elements does not 
open.
PROCEDURE
1.In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options 
> Plug-in settings.
2. Select the General tab.
3. In the Do not load the following plug-ins section, type in the 
name of the plug-in that you do not want to open:
• Enter the exact file name, without path and without file extension.
• Enter one name per line.
• If you put * in front of the name, any plug-in that contains the name 
is ignored.
4. Click OK. 
						

							Customizing
Plug-ins Organization
320
Replacing Missing Plug-ins
When opening an audio montage and some plug-ins for tracks or clips 
are missing, you can select plug-ins to replace the missing plug-ins.
PROCEDURE
1.In the Missing plug-ins dialog, click the Replacement column, 
and select a replacement for the plug-in displayed in the Original 
column.
2. If you want the settings to be persistent for the future, activate 
Save the replacements as default.
3. Click OK.
Plug-in Settings Dialog
In this dialog, you can access a number of options for managing your 
VST plug-ins.
You can specify where WaveLab Elements should search for your VST 
plug-ins and which ones it should ignore. It also allows you to choose 
how your VST plug-in knobs respond to mouse interactions and how 
frequently graphics are updated.
If you use your own file structure to organize and store VST plug-ins, this 
dialog allows you to have full control over which ones are loaded or not. 
This is useful if you want to disable a particular plug-in that you suspect 
of not functioning properly, or if you want to ignore certain plug-ins you 
never want to use with WaveLab Elements.
In any workspace, except the Podcast workspace, select Options > 
Plug-in settings.