Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

10
Master Section 

82
Master Section
Introduction
The Master Section is the heart of WaveLab Essential’s 
“Real-time Engine” and the final block in the signal path, 
before the audio is sent to the audio hardware (or to an 
audio file on disk). This is where you adjust master levels, 
add effect processors and dither. 
The settings and processors in the Master Section are 
taken into account in the following cases:
ÖWhen playing back an audio file in a Wave window.
ÖWhen playing back an Audio CD Montage.
Note that the...

83
Master Section
Showing and hiding panes
You can independently hide the three Master Section 
panes in any combination:
Clicking on the Hide button for a pane will “fold” it, leav-
ing only the pane title bar visible.
This is useful for saving screen space, if you e.g. don’t need to see the 
Dithering settings. Note that the green indicator for the pane will still be 
visible when the pane is hidden, allowing you to see at a glance whether 
effects, master volume or dithering are used or not.
 To show...

84
Master Section
About the Unlink mode
The Unlink button determines whether the faders should 
be individually adjustable (indicated by a lit Unlink button) 
or “ganged”. Normally, you will probably want Unlink de-
activated, so that moving one fader also moves the other 
by the same amount. Turning on Unlink allows you to cor-
rect improper stereo balancing by adjusting the channels’ 
levels individually. Note:
ÖIf you offset the faders (with Unlink turned on) and 
then deactivate Unlink again, you can...

85
Master Section
The Effects pane
WaveLab Essential allows you to insert up to four effect 
plug-ins in series (plus an additional, post-master fader 
plug-in, normally used for dithering, see “The Dithering 
pane” on page 88). Three plug-in formats are supported in 
the Master Section:
WaveLab Essential-specific plug-ins, included with the 
program.
VST plug-ins.
Steinberg’s VST plug-in format is supported by a lot of programs and 
plug-in manufacturers. You will find a number of VST plug-ins included...

86
Master Section
You can change the order of the slots (and thus the or-
der in which the signal passes through the effects) by 
clicking a slot and dragging it to a new position.
When you drag, a dotted outline shows the position of the slot.
To remove an effect from a slot, right-click the slot and 
select Remove from the pop-up menu that appears.
This is the same as selecting “None” from the effect selection pop-up 
menu.
Making settings – The Effect control panels
The control panel window is where...

87
Master Section
Working with effect processor presets
With WaveLab Essential comes a number of “factory pre-
sets” for the included processors, which you can either 
select and use as is, or use as a starting point for your own 
settings. Additional plug-in processors may provide their 
own “factory presets”.
ÖTo access the presets for an effect, click the Preset 
button in its control panel window.
The result and available functions depend on the type of plug-in:
WaveLab Essential specific plug-ins...

88
Master Section
The Dithering pane
The Dithering pane allows you to add dithering to the sig-
nal before it’s sent to the audio hardware or to a file on 
disk. You can choose between WaveLab Essential’s inter-
nal dithering algorithm or any external dithering plug-in of 
your choice. First, some theory:
What is dithering?
Dithering is a method for reducing quantization errors in 
digital recordings. In the case of WaveLab Essential, dith-
ering is applied when reducing the number of bits in a re-...

89
Master Section
Making settings
When dithering, there are no hard and fast rules for how to 
set up the parameters – this largely depends on the type 
of material. We recommend that you experiment and let 
your ears be the final judge.
Internal dithering
Adding other plug-ins to the Dithering pane
If you have purchased another dithering plug-in that you 
prefer, you can use this instead of the internal dithering. 
It’s also possible to insert some other type of plug-in in the 
Dithering pane – it will...

90
Master Section
Creating presets
To create a new preset, proceed as follows:
1.Set up the Master Section as you want it.
This includes selecting Processors, making settings, and setting dither-
ing options.
2.Click the Presets button in the Effects pane.
3.Type in a name for the preset in the upper right corner.
4.If you want the dithering options and Master level set-
tings to be part of the preset, make sure “Save Dither/
Level settings” is activated.
This is the default.
5.Click Add.
ÖThe presets...