Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual
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Operation Manual by Anders Nordmark, Revision for WaveLab Essential by Stefan Zachau The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publica- tion may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks. © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2007. All rights reserved.
4 Table of Contents 7Introduction 8Welcome! 8Key command conventions 8How you can reach us 9Requirements 10This is what you need… 10Computer requirements 11About audio cards 11About the System Information feature 12Installing and setting up 13Setting up the computer 13Installation procedure 13Register your software! 13Program settings 16Installing a CD/DVD recorder 16Installation done! Where do I go next? 16About the Tracer application 17Overview 18Get to know WaveLab Essential 18The windows and what you can do with them 20Find your way around in WaveLab Essential 21Basic methods 22Why you should read this chapter 22Getting help 22Undo and Redo 23Working with windows 25Dockable control bars 27Speed menus 27The status bar 28Units of time and level 28Setting values 30Presets 31About non-modal dialogs 31Using the computer keyboard 32Editing in the Wave window 33About this chapter 33Creating new empty documents 33Opening Waves 35Window overview and adjustments 35Setting the zoom factor 38Navigating through the file 39Snapshots 39Setting the ruler start position 39Working with a meter based display 40Setting the wave cursor position 40Selecting 44Basic editing commands 49File handling in Wave windows 55Editing audio properties and file attributes 56Playback and recording 57Playing back 59Recording 63Metering 64Introduction 64The meters 67Off-line processing 68Introduction 68Applying processing 68Level Normalizer 69Gain Change 69Dynamics 71Level envelope 72Fade-in and fade-out 73Crossfade 74Invert Phase 74Reverse 74Eliminate DC Offset 75Waveform Restorer 75Time Stretch 77Pitch Correction 78Harmonization 78Hi-fi Chorus 79EQ 79Convert sample rate 80Support for reNOVAtor™
5 Table of Contents 81Master Section 82Introduction 82The Master Section window 83About the signal path 83The Master level pane 85The Effects pane 88The Dithering pane 89Master Section presets 91Rendering 93The Monitor window 95Batch file encoding 96Basic procedure 97Markers 98Introduction 99Creating markers 99About the marker list 100Marker appearance and visibility 100Editing, converting and naming markers 101Moving and duplicating markers 101Deleting markers 101Operations involving markers 103The Audio CD Montage 104Introduction 104The Audio CD Montage window 106Assembling the Montage 109Zooming and navigating 111Playing back 113Rearranging clips 117Managing clips and source files 117The volume envelope 121Using fades and crossfades in the Montage 124Adding effects to clips 126The Meta Normalizer 127Using markers in the Montage 129File handling in the Audio CD Montage 130Using video tracks 131Mixing down – The Render function 132Preparing the Audio CD Montage for CD burning 134Burning an audio CD 135Introduction 135Selecting a CD-R unit 135Testing an audio CD before burning 136Writing a CD 137The audio CD format – Background information 139Data CD/DVD Projects 140Introduction 140Creating a new Data CD/DVD Project 140Source window settings 141Destination window settings 142The Write dialog for the Data CD/DVD 143Importing audio CD tracks 144Importing audio CD tracks into WaveLab Essential 147Creating labels 148Introduction 148Using the Label Editor 150Positioning objects 152Defining user variables 153Printing labels 155Analysis 156Global analysis 1613D Frequency Analysis 163Podcasting 164Introduction 164Creating a new Podcast 165The Podcast window 167Publishing the Podcast 169Sampling and creating loops 170Introduction 170Using WaveLab Essential with Steinberg HALion 170Editing sample attributes 171Basic looping 172Using the Crossfade Looper 176Using the Loop Tone Equalizer 178Customizing 179What is customizing? 179Preferences 179Folder editing 180Saving the window layout 180Styling WaveLab Essential – Wave windows 181Styling WaveLab Essential – Audio CD Montage windows 183Working with window layouts 184Setting default size and position for windows 184Creating a Favorites menu 184Customizable key commands 186Organizing plug-in processors
6 Table of Contents 190Plug-in processor reference 191About WaveLab Essential plug-ins 194VST Plug-ins 203Troubleshooting 204General problems 204Problems with opening files 204Problems with saving files 205Recording problems 205Playback problems 206Editing problems 206Troubleshooting and precautions 206Problems and solutions 206Questions and Answers 207Day to day precautions for trouble-free CD writing 207Hardware and setup issues 209Key commands 210File handling 210View 210Zooming 210Processing 211Playback and cursor position 211Selecting 212Editing and Recording 212Markers 212Miscellaneous 213Index
8 Introduction Welcome! Congratulations on your choice of WaveLab Essential, which is the audio editor of choice for any serious engi- neer or musician. WaveLab Essential is continuously developed and refined, in collaboration with our users – from professional audio engineers to hobbyists. Your input helps making this pro- gram one of the most flexible and user-friendly ever! Find out about the ease of use and workflow that makes working with WaveLab Essential so effective. Your Steinberg Team. Key command conventions Many of the default key commands in WaveLab Essential use modifier keys. For example, the default key command for Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] under Windows. When key commands with modifier keys are described in this manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier key first, in the following way: [Win modifier key]-[key] For example, [Ctrl]-[Z] means press [Ctrl] , then press [Z]. Similarly, [Alt]-[X] means press [Alt] then press [X]. How you can reach us After having installed and launched the program, you will find a number of useful Steinberg Web links on the Help menu (“Steinberg on the internet” submenu). These allow you to get online support, check for updates, get answers to frequently asked questions, etc. !These features require that you have a working Inter- net connection.
10 Requirements This is what you need… To use WaveLab Essential you need the following: •A PC with Windows XP or Windows Vista Home Pre- mium or Ultimate (32-bit only) installed and ready. An Internet connection is also required. For more details about the com- puter requirements, see below. A Multimedia PC compatible, 16-bit (or better) audio card. By audio card we mean a card capable of recording and playing back audio, using the computer’s hard disk as storage media. See “About au- dio cards” on page 11. To take advantage of WaveLab Essential’s more ad- vanced features, you need the following: To utilize WaveLab Essential’s CD burning capabilities, you will need a CD recorder. Your CD recorder must support the disc-at-once write mode. DirectX 9 or later must be installed. Computer requirements Below, the minimum computer requirements are listed, with recommendations where applicable. The following sections describe each system component (processor, RAM, etc.) in more detail. Minimum requirements Intel Pentium III/AMD Athlon 800 MHz (Intel Pentium IV/AMD Athlon or AMD Opteron 2,4 GHz or faster recommended). 256 MB RAM (1 GB recommended). A monitor and video card with a resolution of 24 bit (32 bit recommended). Display resolution 1024 x 768 pixels (1280 x 1024 pixels and a dual-monitor setup are recommended). 80 MB of free hard disk space. Windows XP or Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate (32-bit only). Windows MME compatible audio hardware (ASIO compatible audio hardware recommended). CD or DVD ROM drive for installation (CD/DVD writer recom- mended). Internet connection required for product activation and the Podcast feature. The Product can only be used on the system on which it was activated. RAM Since WaveLab Essential is disk based, the amount of RAM does not limit the size of audio files you can work with. Even with moderate amounts of RAM, you can have many files open at the same time. However, when more RAM is available, some processes can be accelerated by WaveLab Essential. Processing power The difference between running WaveLab Essential on a faster computer and a slower one is noticeable in many cases: More real-time processing The faster the computer, the more real-time plug-ins you will be able to use. Faster “off-line” processing and analysis tasks Certain types of processing which make heavy demands on the com- puter will be completed more quickly on a faster machine. Screen updates Scrolling, editing and manipulating objects is “snappier” on a faster ma- chine. Hard disk Audio files are relatively big. Approximately 10.6 MB of hard disk space is used up for every minute of 16 bit ste- reo/44.1 kHz audio recorded. For 24 bit/48 kHz audio or higher, the audio files are of course a lot bigger. Therefore we recommend that you get the largest hard disk you can afford. The speed of the hard disk will affect some of the processing operations. This is mainly noticeable when you work with very long files. In addition, a fast hard disk is absolutely crucial for CD-R and DVD-R burning. If the hard disk is slow, your recorder might not be able to write at its maximum possible speed. !Do not use file compression on hard disks where au- dio files are stored!