Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

41
Editing in the Wave window
You can also press [Shift] and click in the Wave window 
to make a selection between the position of the wave cur-
sor and the click position.
Selecting in stereo files
If you are working on stereo material you can select either 
channel or both so that you can apply an operation to one 
channel only or to the entire stereo material. Which chan-
nel will be selected when you drag or [Shift]-click de-
pends on where you position the mouse pointer, as 
indicated by the pointer...

42
Editing in the Wave window
2.Press the mouse button and drag left/right.
Dragging the end of the selection.
Using [Shift]
Hold down [Shift] and click outside (extend) or inside 
(shrink) the current selection.
If you click inside the first half of the selection, this will change the start 
point, if you click inside the latter half, this will change the end point.
Using the cursor keys
 If you hold down [Shift] and press the [←] or [→] keys, the 
start or end of the selection is moved one pixel...

43
Editing in the Wave window
But just making the selection start and end at zero cross-
ings is not enough. When you actually perform the editing 
operation (cut and paste or dragging, for example) you 
need to make sure the material is inserted at a zero cross-
ing. See “By dragging” on page 44.
Setting up zero crossing detection
1.Pull down the Options menu and activate “Snap to 
zero crossing”.
2.Select Preferences from the Options menu.
3.Click on the Wave edit tab.
4.Fill out the “Snap to Zero...

44
Editing in the Wave window
4.Press the mouse button and drag up/down.
If you then extend the selection time-wise, the level selec-
tion still remains the same.
Extend to peaks
To automatically set the level selection to the highest peak 
in the current selection, make a time selection as desired 
and select “Extend to peaks” from the Select submenu on 
the Edit menu.
Basic editing commands
Mono/stereo
WaveLab Essential is totally flexible in its handling of ste-
reo. All editing operations can be...

45
Editing in the Wave window
5.Release the mouse button.
The selection is inserted at the indicated point. The audio that previously 
began at that point is moved forward so that it is now played after the in-
serted section.
Using “Magnetize Bounds”
If you have “Magnetize bounds” on the Options menu ac-
tivated when you drag, the cursor will “snap” to the follow-
ing positions:
 The wave cursor.
 The start and end of the entire wave.
“What are markers for?” on page 98).
Stereo/mono “conflicts”...

46
Editing in the Wave window
5.Select Paste from the Edit menu or press [Ctrl]-[V].
The material you copied is either inserted at the indicated point (no se-
lection) or it replaces the current selection (if you have a selection).
Stereo/mono “conflicts”
Stereo/mono is handled as follows when you paste:
Moving audio
The following commands allow you to rearrange the “or-
der” of the audio in a file.
By dragging
This is just like drag copying (see above). The only differ-
ence is that you hold down [Alt]...

47
Editing in the Wave window
ÖThe moved section “overwrites” the audio originally at 
that position. 
For example, when you nudge a selection to the right, silence will appear 
before the nudged section while audio to the right will be replaced by the 
nudged section. This is different from moving by dragging.
ÖIf you nudge many times in a row and then undo, all the 
moves are undone in one go.
Repeating an audio selection
To repeat a section of audio, proceed as follows:
1.Make a selection, select Cut...

48
Editing in the Wave window
Replace selection
If you intend to replace a specific range with silence, pro-
ceed as follows:
1.Make a selection that encompasses the range you 
wish to replace with silence.
2.Select Silence from the Edit menu or press [Ctrl]-
[Space].
There are four ways to replace a section of audio with 
silence:
 Select it and select Silence from the Edit menu.
 Select it and click the Silence icon on the Standard Com-
mands control bar.
 Select it and press [Ctrl]-[Space].
 Select it...

49
Editing in the Wave window
Waveform restoration with the Pencil tool 
The Pencil tool allows you to redraw the waveform directly 
in the Wave window. This can be used to quickly repair 
waveform errors.
This error in the right channel (red waveform) can be corrected quickly 
by using the Pencil tool.
The Pencil tool can be used if the Zoom resolution is set 
to at least 1:8 (one pixel on the screen equals 8 samples) 
or a higher resolution.
Resolution values can be set in the Zoom pop-up menu. You can...

50
Editing in the Wave window
About 20-, 24- and 32-bit float files
You do not need a 20- or 24-bit audio card to take advan-
tage of the fact that WaveLab Essential can handle 20- 
and 24-bit audio files. Any processing or editing per-
formed on the files is always done at full resolution, even if 
your card doesn’t support the full resolution. For playback, 
WaveLab Essential automatically adapts to whatever card 
you have installed.
About temporary files
As you work in WaveLab Essential, temporary...