Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

11
Requirements
About audio cards
WaveLab Essential works with any Multimedia PC com-
patible audio card. However, the audio quality varies dra-
matically between cards.
For serious work with WaveLab Essential, we recommend 
that you get a card with the highest possible specifica-
tions.
However, if you use WaveLab Essential to edit files for 
use with other hardware (such as a hard disk based re-
cording system using its own audio converters) any loss in 
audio quality that you experience when listening...

3
Installing and setting up 

13
Installing and setting up
Setting up the computer
Before proceeding, your computer should be set up and 
the following items should be installed:
“This is what you need…” on page 10 for de-
tails on which version to use).
 The audio card and its driver.
Checking the audio card
To make sure the audio card will work as expected, you 
can perform the following two tests:
Use the software included with the audio card to make 
sure you can record and play back without problems.
Use the Media Player...

14
Installing and setting up
Audio card settings
You need to specify which audio card and driver you in-
tend to use. WaveLab Essential can communicate with 
the audio card via any of the standard protocols; ASIO, 
MME or WDM.
Selecting an ASIO driver
1.Open the Preferences–Audio device tab.
2.Select the ASIO driver from the “Playback device” 
pop-up menu.
Note that the “Playback device” menu heading has now changed to 
“Playback/Record device” and the Recording device section has been 
greyed out. This...

15
Installing and setting up
tency in an audio system depends on the audio hardware, 
its drivers and their settings. It’s usually possible to reduce 
latency by lowering the number and size of the playback/
recording buffers. However, please note:
Temporary files
You also need to specify where WaveLab Essential 
should store its temporary files. Temporary files are used 
for certain operations, such as WaveLab Essential’s ex-
tensive Undo function (see “Undo and Redo” on page 
22).
If you have access to...

16
Installing and setting up
Installing a CD/DVD recorder
Hardware installation/connection
For general instructions on installing internal or connect-
ing external recorders via USB or Firewire, please refer to 
the instructions that came with the computer, or the 
recorder itself.
For WaveLab Essential, please just check the following 
points:
 Make sure to have the latest firmware version installed in your 
recorder unit. For CD recorders, the firmware you have must 
support Disc-at-Once mode! In...

4
Overview 

18
Overview
Get to know WaveLab Essential
Welcome to WaveLab Essential! 
This chapter is intended to get you acquainted with the 
program. We will here briefly describe its fundamental 
functions and main features, so as to point you in the right 
direction on your road to mastering all of the possibilities 
that WaveLab Essential offers.
The windows and what you can do 
with them
Working with WaveLab Essential, you will encounter a 
number of different windows that let you do different 
things. Editing...

19
Overview
The Data CD/DVD window
The Data CD/DVD window can be used for compiling and 
creating data CDs/DVDs (discs that exclusively contain 
computer data) and Mixed Mode CDs (discs that contain 
both data and audio).
The window is divided into two panes; the upper is called 
the source window, and the lower is the destination win-
dow. You drag files from the source window to the desti-
nation window, in which you can rename, remove and 
move files before burning a CD or DVD.
For a detailed...

20
Overview
Find your way around in WaveLab 
Essential
Editing and processing
Where do I go if I want to…
Edit an existing audio file?
When you open an audio file, it appears in a Wave window, in which you 
can edit it in various ways. See “Editing in the Wave window” on page 32.
Compile and edit several audio files on two indepen-
dent tracks?
Create an Audio CD Montage. See “The Audio CD Montage” on page 
103.
Apply processing to a wave file?
The Process menu contains a number of options for...