Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

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Markers
To rename a marker, uncheck “Automatic naming” and 
type in a name of your own choice. The name of the 
marker will then be visible beside it. The name of the 
marker will also be shown as a “tip” if you move the mouse 
pointer over the marker head and wait for a moment.
The name of the marker is shown as a “tip”.
If the marker is a loop end marker you can change the 
number of loop repetitions by unchecking Infinite and 
specifying your own number of loops.
Moving and duplicating markers
To move a marker, press the mouse button over the trian-
gle “Head” and drag to the new position.
ÖIf “Magnetize bounds” is activated (see “Dropping on 
markers (Magnetize bounds)” on page 102) the marker 
“snaps” to the edges of the selection, the cursor’s posi-
tion and the beginning and end of the wave.
ÖIf you hold down [Shift] while dragging a marker in the 
ruler, you will be duplicating it instead of moving it.
Deleting markers
Deleting one marker from the Wave window
1.To delete a marker in the Wave window, click with the 
right mouse button on the head of marker you want to de-
lete.
2.Select Delete.
Alternatively you can drag the marker out of the window.
Deleting in the marker list
1.Hold down [Ctrl] and double click in the ruler.
The wave markers window appears.
2.Click with the right mouse button on the marker you 
want to delete.
3.Select Delete.
Deleting all markers of a certain type
1.Click with the right mouse button on the time ruler.
2.Select “Delete Multiple Markers…”.
3.Check the marker types that you want to delete.
4.Click OK.
Operations involving markers
Setting the wave cursor to a marker position
To move the wave cursor to a certain marker, do one of 
the following:
Double click on the marker triangle.
This is probably the most convenient option if the marker is currently vis-
ible in the window. This even works during playback!
Open the marker list and select one of the markers on it.
This is probably the most convenient option if the marker is outside the 
current view.
Activate “Magnetize bounds” on the Options menu. 
Click on the ruler close to the marker, or drag the cursor to 
a position close to the marker.
Browsing markers
You can move the wave cursor from marker to marker by 
clicking the arrow buttons on the Marker toolbar, or by us-
ing the keys [4] and [5] on the numeric key pad.
Starting playback from a marker
There are several ways to make playback start from a cer-
tain marker:
Locate to a marker, as described above, and activate 
playback from there.
Double click on a marker in the marker list.
Select one of the marker related options on the Trans-
port bar (see “Setting the start point for playback” on 
page 58 for details).
!When you delete one marker in a marker pair, the 
other marker will also be deleted. 
						

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Markers
Selecting between markers
To select all audio between two adjacent markers, double 
click between them.
You can extend the selection to consecutive markers, by 
continuing to drag to the left/right.
To select all audio between any two markers, double click 
just to the right of the leftmost one, hold down [Shift] and 
double click just to the left of the rightmost one. 
Dropping on markers (Magnetize bounds)
For any operation involving drag and drop of audio mate-
rial you can use a marker position as start point for the 
section you drop. This is useful when it is very important 
that the dropped material is inserted at a very specific po-
sition.
1.Make sure Magnetize bounds (on the Options menu) is 
activated.
2.Drag the selection, and position the mouse pointer 
close to a marker line.
The “drag line” snaps to the marker line.
3.Make sure the marker line and the drag line appear on 
top of each other, then release the mouse button.
Looping
Loop markers are primarily intended for creating loop 
sounds (e.g. for samplers) as described in the section 
“Sampling and creating loops” on page 169, but you can 
use loop markers in various additional ways:
Set up a loop and repeat it indefinitely during playback, 
while editing material inside the loop.
For more information on playback and loops, see “Looping” on page 58.
Set up a loop with a specified number of repetitions, to 
check out how a repetition effect will sound.
Note that you can nest loops, that is you can have loops 
inside loops.
Double clicking here…
…selects the audio between the markers.
Make this selection by dou-
ble clicking as above……then press [Shift] and double 
click to the left of the rightmost 
marker…
…to select all audio between the leftmost and rightmost markers.
If you point at a marker 
when using drag and drop, 
the audio will be inserted 
there. 
						

							13
The Audio CD Montage 
						

							104
The Audio CD Montage
Introduction
The Audio CD Montage is an environment that lets you 
non-destructively edit, play back and arrange audio clips 
as tracks on an audio CD. Features include clip-based ef-
fects, volume automation, wide-ranging fade and cross-
fade functions and direct audio CD recording.
The Audio CD Montage is a great tool for mastering and 
music CD creation, but also for general multimedia work, 
radio spot production, etc.
Basic terminology
The Audio CD Montage can contain two stereo or mono 
audio tracks. These provide a way for the user to structure 
the work graphically, but should not be viewed as “virtual 
tape tracks”.
On an audio track, you can place any number of clips. 
These are “containers” for the audio, and include a num-
ber of settings and functions such as volume curves, 
fades, etc.
A clip contains a reference to a source audio file on your 
hard disk, as well as start and end positions in the file (al-
lowing clips to play back smaller sections of their source 
audio files). Any number of clips can reference the same 
source file.
In addition to audio tracks you can create a video track 
(see “Using video tracks” on page 130) in the Audio CD 
Montage.
The Audio CD Montage window
About the two panes and the views
The Audio CD Montage window is divided into two 
“panes”. The lower pane always shows the tracks and the 
clips, while the upper pane shows one of six views, as 
listed below.
You can resize the upper and lower panes by dragging 
the divider between the panes up or down.
You can choose to view the upper pane or the Track 
View only, by selecting “Show tabs only” or “Show Tracks 
only” from the main View menu.
To revert to the standard view (showing both panes), pull down the View 
menu again and deselect the selected option.
You select views for the upper pane by clicking the tabs 
at the top of the Montage window (see below). 
Apart from the actual displays, the different views may have different 
menus and icon bars.
The following views are available:
View Description
Edit This is where you configure various options for edit-
ing, fading, selecting, etc.
Markers This view allows you to add and manage markers in 
the Montage. See “Using markers in the Montage” 
on page 127.
Video Displays the contents of the video track in the upper 
pane of the Audio CD Montage. See “Using video 
tracks” on page 130.
The CD view selected in the upper pane
The Track View Clips
Tracks 
						

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The Audio CD Montage
If the Montage window is too narrow to show all tabs, 
two arrow buttons are displayed in the upper right corner 
of the window.
Use these to “move” the row of tabs so that you can see and click the 
one you want.
About naming
Most of the views contain one or several menus. To make 
it clear which menu is meant in each case, we use the fol-
lowing syntax:
X view : Y menu
For example, “Edit view : Options menu” means the Op-
tions menu in the Edit view.
The ruler
At the top of the Track View in the Audio CD Montage 
window, there is a ruler, similar to that in the Wave win-
dow. To change the ruler format, right-click in the ruler and 
make a selection from the pop-up menu that appears.
Selecting Meter format on the ruler pop-up menu
Depending on the selected format, you can make de-
tailed display settings by selecting “Time format…” from 
this pop-up menu.It is also possible to offset the ruler, so that “zero” is 
somewhere other than at the actual start of the Montage 
(this is done by selecting “Time offset…”).
The time grid
If you like, a “grid” can be displayed in the Track View, 
consisting of vertical lines at every labeled position in the 
ruler. To show or hide the grid, right-click in the ruler and 
activate or deactivate the “Show Grid” option on the pop-
up menu.
Time grid activated CD This is where you prepare for writing a CD directly 
from the Audio CD Montage (see “Preparing the Au-
dio CD Montage for CD burning” on page 132).
Files Contains various tools for audio file management, in-
cluding direct import of audio files into the Montage. 
See “The Files view” on page 117.
Notes A standard notepad. View Description 
						

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The Audio CD Montage
Assembling the Montage
Creating a new Montage
1.Pull down the File menu and open the New submenu.
2.Select the “Audio CD Montage…” item.
The Sample rate dialog appears.
3.Specify the preferred sample rate.
The audio files that you want to use in the Montage must have this sam-
ple rate. 
4.Click OK.
A new Audio CD Montage window appears, containing one stereo track.
Alternative ways to create a Montage
There are other ways to generate a new Montage “auto-
matically”:
By importing Audio CD tracks directly to a Montage.
When using the Import Audio CD tracks function on the Tools menu, you 
can automatically create an Audio CD Montage playing the imported 
tracks. See “Convert to Montage” on page 145.
By opening a Wave file and selecting “Create Audio CD 
Montage from Wave” on the Edit menu.
This option is also available in the Open – Wave dialog (File menu).
Handling tracks
Creating and managing tracks is done in the area to the 
left of the tracks in the Track View (from now on called the 
Track Control area). In the middle of this area is a button 
with the number of the track. Clicking this button brings 
up the track pop-up menu, which contains most of the 
track functions.
Adding tracks
There are two different track types available in the Mon-
tage: audio and video (see “Using video tracks” on page 
130).
1.Click on the track number button for a track next to 
where you want to add a new track.
The track pop-up menu appears.
2.Select one of the Add items at the top of the menu.
You can choose what type of track to insert and, if an audio track is to be 
inserted, whether the new audio track should be mono or stereo. By de-
fault, the new track is added below the focused track. If you wish to place 
it above the focused track rather than below, press [Ctrl] when adding 
the new track.
Moving tracks
To move a track up or down in the Track View, proceed as 
follows:
1.Click on the track number button for the track that you 
want to move.
The track pop-up menu appears.
2.Select “Move track up” or “Move track down”.
!If you plan to burn a CD from the Audio CD Montage, 
you have to select the 44.1 kHz sample rate.
!If you have saved a template (see “Saving a Montage 
template” on page 129), the Sample rate dialog will 
not automatically be displayed (since the new Mon-
tage will use the sample rate saved in the template). 
						

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The Audio CD Montage
Deleting tracks
To remove unwanted tracks, proceed as follows:
1.Click on the track number button for the track that you 
want to delete.
The track pop-up menu appears.
2.Select Delete track.
If there are clips on the selected track, you will be asked whether you re-
ally want to delete the track. Click OK to proceed.
Folding tracks
To save screen space, you can fold tracks that you don’t 
need to have visible. This is done by clicking the arrow 
button at the top left corner of the Track Control area.
Click on the arrow…
…to fold the track.
To unfold a folded track, just click on the button again, or 
double click anywhere in the folded track.
Adding audio clips to the Montage
You can create clips by copying audio selections from 
Wave windows into the Audio CD Montage. There are 
several ways to do this:
By using drag and drop from Wave windows
Select the audio section that you want the clip to refer to, 
and drag the selection into the Montage window and drop 
it on a track.
A clip is created, named after the original audio file. You 
can change the name of clips in the Audio CD Montage, 
as described in the section “Renaming files and clips” on 
page 117.
If you want to drag the whole audio file from the Wave 
window to the Audio CD Montage, you don’t need to 
make a selection first.
Instead you can click on the Document icon at the upper right corner of 
the Wave window and drag it to the Montage.
You can also drag files into the CD view’s track list.
By inserting from open Wave windows
If one or several Wave windows are open, you can right-
click an empty area on a Montage track and select any 
open Wave from the pop-up menu that appears.
If several Wave windows are open you can also select “In-
sert all open waves” from the pop-up to insert them all.
By using Copy and Paste
1.In the Wave window, select the audio section that you 
want the clip to refer to.
2.Select Copy from the Edit menu, or press [Ctrl]-[C].
3.Make the Audio CD Montage window active. In the 
Track Control area, select the track on which you want to 
put the clip, then click at the desired position in the track.
This selects the track (as indicated by the highlighted Track Control area 
to the left) and sets the Montage cursor position (as indicated by the ver-
tical line). 
4.Select Paste from the Edit menu, or press [Ctrl]-[V].
!Deleting a track with clips will also delete the clips! 
However, the audio files to which the clips refer will 
not be affected. Also remember that you can recover 
accidentally deleted clips by using the Undo func-
tion.
!You cannot add a mono clip to a stereo track or vice 
versa. Also, the clip’s audio file has to have the same 
sample rate as the Audio CD Montage.
!Once you have added the desired clips from an au-
dio file, you don’t need to have the original Wave 
window open. Should you need to edit the original 
(source) audio file, you can access it from the clip 
speed menu, as described in the section “Editing 
source files” on page 117 (any editing done to the 
source audio file is immediately reflected in all clips 
referring to the file). 
						

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The Audio CD Montage
By dragging from the Files view
This way, you can add clips without having Wave win-
dows open:
1.Select the Files view by clicking the Files tab.
The view now shows a file navigation environment, similar to the Win-
dows Explorer.
2.Use the left pane to locate and open the folder con-
taining the audio files you want to import.
The contents of the folder is shown in the right pane.
3.Locate the desired audio file(s) and drag them to a 
Montage track.
By importing files
1.In the Track Control area, select the track on which you 
want to put the clip, then click at the desired position in the 
track.
This selects the track (as indicated by the highlighted Track Control area 
to the left) and sets the Montage cursor position (as indicated by the ver-
tical line). 
2.Right-click in an empty area on the track and select 
“Insert audio file(s)…” from the pop-up menu that ap-
pears.
A regular file dialog appears.
3.Locate and select the file(s) you want to import, and 
click Open.
The new clips are then added.
By copying clips from another Montage
If you have more than one Montage open, you can copy 
clips from one Montage to another. This can be done ei-
ther by using drag and drop (from the Track View) or by 
using Copy and Paste. You can also use this method to 
copy clips within the same Montage.
By dragging clips from the CD view
You can add clips (that are already used in the Montage) 
by using drag and drop from the CD view’s track list.
About the auto-grouping options
The Track and Global auto-grouping icons.
There are two auto-grouping options  that can be used 
when inserting clips. If any of these auto-grouping options 
are activated in the Edit view, clips to the right of the inser-
tion point will be moved to the right to “make room” for the 
inserted clips.
If you are adding several clips at the same time, these op-
tions affect the result in the following way:
 If “Track auto-grouping” is activated, clips on the same track, 
to the right of the insertion point, will be moved to the right to 
“make room” for the added clips.
 If “Global auto-grouping” is activated, clips on all tracks, to the 
right of the insertion point, will be moved in the same way.
!When dragging or selecting clips in the Track View, 
you need to click at the appropriate mouse zone, as 
explained in the section “About the mouse zones 
(audio tracks only)” on page 113. 
						

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The Audio CD Montage
Zooming and navigating
Horizontal and vertical zoom controls
The zoom “levers” in the upper and lower right corners of 
the Montage window work just like in the Wave windows. 
Note that changing the vertical zoom does not affect the 
height of the tracks. Rather, it affects the vertical magnifi-
cation of the waveforms within each (audio) clip.
Zooming in the ruler
As in the Wave windows, you can adjust the horizontal 
zoom by clicking in the ruler and dragging the pointer up 
or down with the mouse button pressed. Drag up to zoom 
out and drag down to zoom in.
ÖIf you hold down [Shift] while zooming this way, the 
Montage cursor position isn’t affected.
Changing the height of tracks
The height of the tracks (and thereby the number of tracks 
displayed in the Montage window) is governed by the 
track magnification controls in the lower right corner of the 
Montage window.
Click on the large Magnifying Glass icon to “zoom in” – 
increase the height of the tracks.
This is the same as displaying one track less. When only one track is dis-
played, this icon will be greyed out.
Click on the small Magnifying Glass icon to “zoom out” 
– decrease the height of the tracks.
This is the same as displaying one track more. When all tracks are visible, 
this icon will be greyed out. Consequentially, if the Montage only con-
tains one track, both Magnifying Glass icons will be greyed out.
You can zoom in on a single track, making it fill the win-
dow.
This is done by clicking the numbered button to the left of the track to 
bring up the track pop-up menu, and selecting “Zoom”.
Zooming with the Rubber Band tool
1.Click the magnifying glass icon in the top left corner of 
the Track View.
The pointer takes on the shape of a “four-way arrow” with a magnifying 
glass.
2.Click and drag a rectangle in the Track View, to indi-
cate the section you want to zoom in on.
When you release the mouse button, the Track View is magnified, so that 
the section in the rectangle fills out the display. Note that the magnified 
view will include any tracks fully or partially enclosed by the rectangle.
Drag a rectangle and release the mouse button…
… and the selection is magnified to fill out the Track View display.
3.Deactivate the Rubber Band tool by clicking the icon 
again, or by right-clicking anywhere in the Track View.
It is also possible to temporarily select the Rubber Band 
tool, by holding down [Ctrl] and aiming in an empty area of 
the Track View. 
						

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The Audio CD Montage
Zooming in on a single audio clip
If you want to study an audio clip in detail, you can zoom in 
on it so that it fills up the track display:
1.Point at the audio clip.
Make sure you don’t aim at an envelope curve.
2.Click with the right mouse button.
The clip speed menu appears, containing various clip-based functions 
and settings.
3.Select “Zoom”, and from the submenu that appears, 
“Whole Clip”.
The Track View zooms in on the clip.
Zooming and navigating in the Edit Overview
When the Edit view is selected (by clicking the Edit tab), 
the upper pane shows an Overview of the Montage, with 
clips displayed as boxes. You can use this Overview to 
zoom in or out, and for navigating to other sections of the 
Montage. This is done by moving and resizing the Track 
View rectangle in the Overview:
The Track View rectangle indicates the section of the 
Montage currently displayed in the Track View.
You can zoom in or out, vertically or horizontally, by re-
sizing the Track View rectangle.
You can also resize the rectangle horizontally by holding down [Shift] and 
clicking. This will instantly move the closest edge of the rectangle to the 
clicked position.
You can drag the Track View rectangle to view other 
sections of the Audio CD Montage.
Clicking on one of the clip boxes outside the Track View 
rectangle will make the Track View zoom in horizontally on 
that clip.
The number of tracks shown will not change.
Double clicking on one of the clip boxes in the Overview 
will make the Track View zoom in horizontally and vertically 
on that clip.
Right-clicking anywhere in the Overview will make the 
Track View zoom out, so that the whole Audio CD Mon-
tage is visible.
The Key Command for this is [J].
To identify a clip in the Overview, position the pointer 
over its box.
The name of the clip is displayed.
Moving the Montage cursor
To move the Montage cursor, you can either click at the 
desired position, use the Transport bar or use the com-
puter keyboard.
You can click in the ruler, in an empty section of the 
Montage or within a clip (anywhere except in the mouse 
zone used for copying clips by dragging, and on the vol-
ume envelope line).
The mouse zone concept is described in the section “About the mouse 
zones (audio tracks only)” on page 113.
The buttons on the Transport bar work as in the Wave 
windows.
The Fast Forward and Rewind buttons scroll the playback position for-
wards or backwards, while the start and end buttons move the playback 
position to the start or end of the Montage.
The left and right arrow buttons on the computer key-
board can be used to move the Montage cursor in finer 
steps.
If you hold down [Ctrl] and press the left or right arrow button, the Mon-
tage cursor will jump to the nearest clip edge (start or end position of a 
clip). It is also possible to move the Cursor by using the Page Up, Page 
Down, Home and End keys.
The Track View rectangle