Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

31
Basic methods
How presets are saved
The presets are automatically saved when you quit the 
program. The next time you load the program, the presets 
are ready and waiting, just as you left them. Furthermore 
the presets are “global” to all files. No matter which file 
you are working on, you still have access to all your pre-
sets.
About non-modal dialogs
Many of the dialog boxes in WaveLab Essential are “non-
modal”. This means that the window behind the dialog can 
be operated even though the dialog...

6
Editing in the Wave window 

33
Editing in the Wave window
About this chapter
The Wave window is the heart of WaveLab Essential’s au-
dio editing capabilities. This is where you view, play back 
and edit individual audio files. This chapter describes how 
to open and save audio files, how to perform wave editing 
and how to handle the Wave window itself.
Creating new empty documents
If you want to start with an empty file, for assembling ma-
terial from other files for example, proceed as follows:
Using menus
1.Select New from the...

34
Editing in the Wave window
Inserting a file into the current document
You may have a file that you want to insert into an existing 
file. The two must have the same attributes (e.g. sample 
rate), or a warning will appear.
1.Locate the document into which you want to add ma-
terial, and make it active.
2.If you want to add the file at some arbitrary position in 
the document (rather than at the beginning or end), click 
to move the wave cursor to that position.
3.Pull down the Edit menu and select...

35
Editing in the Wave window
Window overview and adjustments
About the window sections
Main view
The lower waveform area is where the main action is going 
on. It is here that you select, apply tools, drag and drop, 
etc. 
 There are both time and level rulers. These can be hidden and 
displayed (see the ruler and wave display speed menus). You 
can also set which units of time and level they show (see 
“Units of time and level” on page 28).
Overview
The overview is mainly used for navigating through...

36
Editing in the Wave window
Vertical zoom
 When you zoom out all the way, the complete height of the 
wave fits into the window. You can note this by checking the 
ruler on the left side.
 As you progressively zoom in, the display will only show you a 
smaller part of the total height. Exactly which section you see 
can be adjusted with the vertical scroll bars. Again, check the 
ruler to see which part of the waveform is currently shown in 
the display.
For example, to check the peaks of the waveform...

37
Editing in the Wave window
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 Over-
view 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 dragging:
1.Position the mouse pointer...

38
Editing in the Wave window
Using auto zoom for Overview
This setting, found on the Preferences–Wave edit tab, al-
lows 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 automat-
ically adjusted so that the entire wave is always shown.
Which part of the file do I see?
In the...

39
Editing in the Wave window
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 spec-
ify a certain time position to scroll the view to.
Using a wheel mouse
If you move the wheel down the scroll bar will move for-
ward and vice versa. You can also hold down the wheel 
and drag the view in either horizontal direction.
Snapshots
Snapshots store the Main...

40
Editing in the Wave window
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 se-
quencer.
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 of-
ten starts at the cursor. The current cursor position is indi-
cated by a vertical flashing line,...