Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

							151
Creating labels
About the Edit Properties dialog
The Edit Properties dialog can be opened in three ways:
 By selecting an object and selecting “Edit Properties” from 
the Objects menu
 By right-clicking an object and selecting the same item from 
the speed menu 
 By double-clicking an object 
The contents of the dialog varies depending on the object 
type.
The Objects menu
The Objects menu can be selected from the toolbar, or 
opened by right-clicking an object (speed menu). The 
items on the Objects menu are greyed out if no object is 
selected. 
If one object is selected, the following Object menu items 
are available:If several objects are selected when opening the Objects 
menu, the following additional items are available:
About label sets
You can save as many label sets as you like for a project. 
However, whenever you open the Label Editor by select-
ing the “Create Label” menu item, a new label set opens 
which is untitled and only contains the auto-generated 
data.
Whenever you have edited layouts in the Label Editor, you 
will be asked to save it as a label set if you close the Label 
Editor or exit the program without first having saved your 
changes. If you don’t save, any changes are lost.
ÖIt is important to note that any work performed in the 
Label Editor is not saved with the project – it has to be 
saved separately as a label set.
Item Description
Edit properties… See “About the Edit Properties dialog” on 
page 151.
Edit position and size… See “Positioning objects” on page 150.
Edit display condition This allows you to decide whether an object 
will be displayed or not, depending on 
whether a given variable is empty or not.
Bring to front This brings any object that is partially ob-
scured by another overlapping object to the 
front.
Send to back This sends any object that partially or com-
pletely overlaps another object to the back.
Center horizontally Centers a selected object horizontally in the 
layout.
Center vertically Centers a selected object vertically in the lay-
out.
Lock movement This locks the position of the selected object.
Select all Selects all objects.
Select all with the 
same sizeSelects all objects with identical dimensions 
to the selected object.
Item Description
Apply same properties 
as focused objectThis item allows you to apply properties 
from the focused object to all of the se-
lected objects of the same type.
Space evenly horizontally This distributes the selected objects hori-
zontally, using the top center handle as a 
guide. This means that the top center han-
dles in each selected object will be exactly 
the same distance from each other horizon-
tally. 
Space evenly vertically This distributes the selected objects verti-
cally, using the side center handle as a 
guide. This means that the side center han-
dles in each selected object will be exactly 
the same distance from each other verti-
cally. 
Place under each other This will place all selected objects directly 
under each other.
Align with focused object (sev-
eral items)These menu items will align selected ob-
jects to the position of the focused object. 
You can select to align to any side (left/
right/top/bottom), or to the horizontal or 
vertical center of the object with the focus.
Resize as focused object (sev-
eral items)These menu items will resize all selected 
objects to either the same size as the fo-
cused object or to the same width or height 
as the focused object.
Group/Ungroup This will group all selected objects so that 
they will act as one object when selected 
or moved (keeping the relative positions to 
each other). Ungroup deselects the group-
ing. 
						

							152
Creating labels
ÖSaved label sets (with the extension *.lab) contain all 
the layout work performed in the Label Editor.
It is, however, not dynamic. This means that if you have added to or 
changed the Data CD/DVD Project, Audio CD Montage, etc. in any way 
after saving a label set, these changes will not be reflected in the saved 
label set, unless you save it as a user template (see below).
Saving a label set
To save a label set, select “Save” or “Save As…” from the 
File menu with the Label Editor open and as the active 
window (on top).
Opening a label set
To open a saved label set, select “Open” from the File 
menu and 
“Label Set…” from the submenu that appears.
Saving a label set as a user template
If you have saved a label set, you can make this appear on 
the list of available templates in the “Select a Label Tem-
plate” dialog. Label templates are label sets that reside in 
designated subfolders inside the WaveLab Essential pro-
gram folder. The path to the Label template folders (start-
ing from the main WaveLab Essential program folder) is 
“Presets \Label\Templates\”. Here you will find four fold-
ers: “Audio/
AudioData/Data/Images”. Place (or save di-
rectly) a label set in the 
appropriate folder. It will now 
appear as a new template next time you open the “Select 
a Label Template” dialog.
Defining user variables
Apart from the auto-generated data such as media infor-
mation, date and time, etc., you can define a number of 
user editable variables that are local to the project you are 
working on. Once you have defined a set of user variables, 
this is automatically saved with the current project. To de-
fine user variables, proceed as follows:
1.Open the project you wish to set user variables for.
This can be a Data CD/DVD Project, an Audio CD Montage or an Import 
Audio CD Tracks session.
2.Select the “Edit text variables…” menu item.
Where this menu item is located depends on the type of project; for Au-
dio CD Montages it is on the Functions menu and for Data CD/DVD 
Projects it is on the CD/DVD menu. Selecting this item opens a dialog 
containing a list of folders similar to the structure in the Windows Ex-
plorer.
Only the variables in open folders (and “Editable” writ-
ten in the Type column) can be edited.
The editable variables vary according to the type of project.
3.To define a value for a default variable, for example 
copyright or personal information, double-click in the Cur-
rent Value column for the relevant description.
A text box opens where you can type in the relevant information.
4.Click OK when done.
Creating new variables
You can create new variables and define values for them. 
The new variable will automatically be put in the currently 
selected folder (or in the folder with a currently selected 
variable). Proceed as follows:
1.Either create a new folder by clicking the “New Folder” 
button, or select a folder that you want to add a new vari-
able to.
If you chose the former option, select the new folder.
2.Click the “New Variable” button.
A new editable variable appears in the selected folder. 
						

							153
Creating labels
3.Double-click in the Description column beside the 
new variable to open a text box where an appropriate de-
scription can be typed in.
For example “Producer”.
4.Double-click in the Current Value column to enter the 
relevant information for the new variable, i.e. the name of 
the producer.
5.To create a code that can be used to refer to the vari-
able in the Label Editor, type in an appropriate name be-
ginning and ending with “%” in the Code column.
To use the earlier example, this would be written “%Producer%”.
6.Click OK when done.
Once you have entered your personal data you can save 
the text variables file as a preset, see below.
On the Options menu there is a default set of text vari-
ables that is 
always available. Use this as a clean slate for 
creating new variables.
Saving variable sets as presets
Clicking the name field pop-up at the bottom of the win-
dow opens a menu which allows you to save sets of vari-
ables as presets. After having saved one or more variable 
sets as presets, you can switch between different presets 
of already “filled in” variables by selecting one from the 
name field pop-up. A preset could typically represent the 
information belonging to a client you work with regularly, 
for example. Naturally, the auto-generated variables will 
still adapt to the current project as usual.
Exporting text variables in ASCII
This option opens the current text variables as an ASCII 
text document in a tabulated format, suitable for editing in 
a spreadsheet application such as Excel.
Where this menu item is located depends on the type of 
project; for Audio CD Montages it is on the Functions 
menu, and for Data CD/DVD Projects it is on the CD/DVD 
menu.
Printing labels
You print your labels directly from the Label Editor, either 
on standard paper or on special media label paper (usu-
ally available in computer peripheral stores, etc.).
Calibrating the printer
If you are printing on special label paper, it is very impor-
tant that the printer is “calibrated”, that is, the measure-
ments in the program (for margins, positioning, etc.) must 
be exactly the same as the actual results you get when 
printing. This is not as important when you print on stan-
dard paper (since the printouts then don’t have to fit ex-
actly in specific positions on paper).
To calibrate the printer, select “Calibrate printer” from the 
Printing 
menu in the Label Editor and follow the steps in 
the dialog that appears.
Setting up page layouts
The Page Layout dialog contains various settings relating 
to how the page layout will be printed. It’s important to 
note that you make page layout settings individually for 
each one of the three label types (case front, case back 
and disc label). These are also printed individually.
To set up the page layout, select the desired label type (by 
clicking the corresponding tab) and select “Page lay-
out…” from the Printing menu in the Label Editor. Note 
that there are different settings for the three different label 
types.
!You only need to do this once (unless you switch to 
another printer).
!If you are using special label paper, these will typi-
cally come with a measurement sheet, showing the 
exact size and positioning of the labels. 
						

							154
Creating labels
Printing
Printing is done independently for the three label types. 
However, there are two settings that are global for all 
three label types:
1.Pull down the Options pop-up menu and select “Pref-
erences”.
The “Label editor preferences” dialog appears.
2.Use the “Printing” checkboxes to determine whether 
the frames around the labels should be printed, and 
whether cut markers should be printed (making it easier to 
cut out the labels from the printed paper).
Now, you are ready to print:
3.Select one of the label types by clicking its tab.
4.Select “Print” from the Printing menu in the Label Edi-
tor window.
The “Print label” dialog appears, allowing you to make printer settings, 
preview the result and specify a number of copies.
5.Click Print.
6.Select the next label type by clicking on its tab, and 
proceed from step 3 above. 
						

							18
Analysis 
						

							156
Analysis
Global analysis
Introduction
What does the “Global analysis” dialog do?
This dialog allows you to perform advanced analysis on 
your audio to find certain areas with specified properties. 
It can be used to find problem areas (glitches, distortion), 
etc., or to check general information such as the pitch of a 
sound.
How does it work?
When you analyse a section of an audio file, the program 
scans it and extracts overall information which it displays 
in the dialog.
However, during analysis, it also “pin-points” sections in 
the file that meet specific characteristics, for example, 
sections being very loud or very silent. You can then 
browse between these points, set markers at these places 
or zoom in on them.
About the tabs
 The Peaks tab is used for finding individual samples with very 
high values.
 The Loudness tab is for finding sections with high amplitude.
 The Pitch tab is for finding out the exact pitch of a sound or 
section.
 The Extra tab tells you about DC offsets and the significant bit 
resolution.
 The Errors tab helps you find glitches and sections where the 
audio has been clipped (recorded or processed at too high a 
level).
General operations
Opening the “Global analysis” dialog
1.Make a selection in the wave file that you want to pro-
cess.
This selection can be of any length and in one or both channels. If you 
want to analyse the entire file, hit [Ctrl]-[A]. If “Process whole file if no se-
lection exists” is activated in the Preferences - Wave edit tab, the whole 
file will be processed automatically if no selection has been made. 
2.Select “Global analysis…” from the Analysis menu.
Deciding what types of analysis to perform
As described above, there are several types of analysis 
that can be performed. Each of them takes some time, so 
you may want to make sure that only the types you are ac-
tually interested in are included in the analysis.
It doesn’t hurt to have more options activated than you 
need, but it will slow down the process. The pitch analysis 
in particular uses up a lot of processing time, because by 
its very nature it is complicated.
If the section you are analyzing is very short, it doesn’t 
matter much whether all options are activated.
 Click on the Peaks tab and decide whether you want peak 
analysis by activating the “Peaks” option.
 Click on the Loudness tab and decide whether you want 
“RMS Power” analysis performed.
 Click on the Pitch tab for the program to find the “Average 
Pitch”.
 On the Errors tab, decide whether you want the program to 
search for “Glitches” and/or “Clipping”. 
						

							157
Analysis
Setting parameters and performing the analysis
1.Set up the parameters.
On most of the tabs, you will find settings determining ex-
actly how the analysis should be performed. For example, 
on the Peaks tab there are two parameters:
 “Maximum number…” allows you to set an upper limit for the 
number of peaks reported. For example, if you set this to “10”, 
the program will only report the ten highest peaks in the file.
 “Minimum time…” allows you to specify the minimum interval 
between two peaks found. For example, if this is set to “5 s”, 
there will always be at least five seconds between the re-
ported peaks.
These two settings allow you to make sure that the re-
ported peaks are not all in the same area.
2.If desired, move the wave cursor to a new position.
The Peak and Loudness tabs report values specifically for the position of 
the wave cursor, so if this is of interest, you should make sure the wave 
cursor is at the position for which you want a readout.
3.Click Analyse.
Checking and browsing the results
Checking the results on the Pitch and Extra tabs is simple, 
since there is only one value returned for the whole sec-
tion of analysed audio. Just click on the tab and read off 
the values in the dialog (for details about the values, see 
later in this chapter).
For the other tabs, slightly more advanced options are 
available. This is since all these analysis methods provide 
their results as a number of positions in the file, positions 
that indicate peaks, glitches, etc. We call these “hot 
points”.
You can browse (jump) between these points in a very 
practical way. Proceed as follows:
1.Click on the tab that represents the values you are in-
terested in.
For example, let’s say you click the Loudness tab.
2.Check the display for maximum/minimum values in the 
entire section analysed.
For the Loudness tab, these values represent the maximum and minimum 
amplitudes in the left and right channels respectively (for a stereo file).
3.Decide which of these values you want to browse.
For example, say you want to browse the minimum amplitudes in the right 
channel.
4.Click on the button that currently displays this value.
The value displayed is for the “hot point” with the highest/lowest value. In 
our example, you would click the button in the lower right corner.
5.Check the “Number of hot points” value at the bottom 
of the dialog. It displays how many positions in the file the 
analysis found.
In our example it shows how many positions with low amplitude in the 
right channel meet the criteria specified by the parameters in the dialog.
6.Use the scroll bar below the “Number of hot points” 
value to browse between the positions found.
The wave cursor jumps between the points found by the analysis, and 
the display scrolls if needed.
7.When you want to browse another property, click on 
the corresponding tab (if required) and then on the value 
button that represents it.
For example, to check the amplitude of the left channel instead, click that 
button. To check peak values, click on the Peaks tab and then on one of 
the value buttons on that tab.
The result of the analysis is saved until you close the dia-
log or click Analyse again.
Creating markers
If you like you can add markers at the “hot points”:
1.Select a property and channel for which you want to 
add markers.
You will add markers for the same property as you are currently brows-
ing, so this selection is done with the value buttons, as described above.
2.Click the “Create markers…” button.
Temporary markers are added at all “hot points”.
!Since you are always browsing one channel at a time 
in a stereo file, markers can be added for only one 
channel at a time.
Click here to 
browse the mini-
mum levels for 
the right channel.
Here you can 
see the number 
of “hot points” 
found. 
						

							158
Analysis
The markers are named using the following principle: “Hot 
point number” (“Channel”). For example, a marker at the 
third “hot point” in the left channel would be labelled “3 
(L)”.
Focusing
You can also focus the display on a certain “hot point”:
1.Use the “Number of hot points” scroll bar to move the 
position indicator to the position you are interested in.
2.Click the Focus button.
Now two things happen:
The wave display zooms in on the selected point.
The “Global analysis” dialog is “folded in” so that only 
its title bar is visible.
The Peaks tab
This is used to find peak values in the audio, that is, single 
samples with very high values.
Parameters
There are two report parameters:
 “Maximum number…” allows you to put restrictions on how 
many points will be reported. For example, setting this to “1” 
will make the program report only the highest peak (or one of 
the peaks with the highest value – if there are several with the 
same value).
 “Minimum time…” lets you set things up so that the points 
don’t occur too close. Settings this to “1 s” will ensure there is 
always at least a second between reported points.
Result
The Result fields show you the following values:
The Loudness tab
This finds loud and weak sections in a more “intelligent” 
manner than the Peaks tab. The theory behind this is that 
there might be a single sample with a high or low value 
somewhere, but this may not necessarily mean that this 
section is perceived as loud/weak.
To find sections that the ear perceives as significant in vol-
ume, you must look at a longer section of audio. To do this 
you measure a consecutive section of samples and then 
average their value. WaveLab Essential does just this, us-
ing a mathematical method called RMS (Root Mean 
Square) which is well known for its accuracy.
Parameters
The parameters on the Loudness tab are slightly more 
complicated than those for Peak analysis:
 “Resolution” is the length of audio measured and averaged. If 
this value is lowered, very short passages of loud/low audio 
will be detected. When it is raised, the sound will have to be 
loud/low for a longer period to result in a hot point.
 “Threshold…” is used for recordings where there are pauses, 
to make sure the average value is calculated correctly. A 
pause could “fool” the algorithm. Therefore you can set up a 
value, and all audio below that value will be considered silence 
and will not be taken into account for the average value.
Option Description
Maximum The highest peak in the analysed section.
At Cursor The level of the sample at the wave cursor position, at the 
time of the analysis. 
						

							159
Analysis
 “Maximum number…” and “Minimum time…” are the same as 
on the Peaks tab, see above.
Result
The Result fields show you the following values:
The Pitch tab
The Pitch tab shows the values from WaveLab Essential’s 
extremely accurate pitch detection algorithm. This can be 
used for pitch shifting, for example, to get one sound in 
tune with another.
There are no parameters to set. The display shows the 
pitch for each channel, both in Hertz (Hz) and as semi-
tones and cents (hundredths of a semitone).
Since the display shows an overall value for the entire 
analysed section, the “hot point” controls in the lower sec-
tion of the dialog are not used on this tab.
Usage guidelines
 The result is an average value for the whole selection.
 The method only works on monophonic material (not on 
chords or harmonies).
 The algorithm assumes the analysed section has a reasonably 
stable pitch.
 The material must be relatively well isolated from other 
sounds.
 It is preferable to analyse the sustain portion of a sound, rather 
than the attack. The pitch is usually not “stable” during the at-
tack.
 Some synthetic sounds may have a weak fundamental (first 
harmonic) which can fool the algorithm.
The Extra tab
This tab shows you two things:
The average DC Offset in the analysed section.
See “Eliminate DC Offset” on page 74 for details.
The Apparent Bit Resolution.
This attempts to detect the actual resolution in the audio, i.e. how many 
bits are really used. This is useful e.g. if you want to check whether a 16 
bit file really uses 16 bits (or if it was actually recorded with only 8 bit res-
olution and then expanded up to 16 bits).
Option Description
Maximum and Mini-
mumThe level of the highest and lowest points in the analy-
sed section.
Average The overall loudness of the whole analysed section.
Around Cursor The loudness at the wave cursor position at the time of 
the analysis. 
						

							160
Analysis
The Errors tab
This tab actually reports two totally separate things:
Glitches
These are disruptions in the audio. Glitches may occur after problematic 
digital transfers, after careless editing, etc. They manifest themselves as 
“clicks” or “pops” in the audio.
Clipping
A digital system has a finite number of levels that it can represent prop-
erly. When a sound has been recorded at too high a level or when digital 
processing has raised the level past what the system can handle, hard 
clipping occurs. This will be heard as a very harsh type of distortion.
A sine waveform before clipping…
…and after.
Report parameters
“Maximum number…” and “Minimum time…” are the same 
as for the Peaks tab, see above.
Glitch parameters
 “Threshold” is a value for setting how drastic a change in level 
has to be reported as a glitch. The higher this value, the less 
sensitive the detection.
 “Sensitivity” is a length value. It represents the length of time 
that the waveform must exceed the threshold to be reported 
as a glitch. The higher this value, the less sensitive the detec-
tion.
Clipping parameters
The program checks for a number of consecutive samples 
at full value, to determine whether clipping has occurred. 
“Threshold” is a setting to determine the exact number of 
these consecutive samples which must occur for the pro-
gram to report clipping.
Results
This reports the number of glitches and clipping instances 
that have been found.
Working with presets
As with effect processors you can create presets for all 
the settings in the dialog for quick recall. See “Presets” on 
page 30 for details.
!It is not 100% certain that the points found by the al-
gorithm are real glitches. Please zoom in and play 
back to check whether the found points really indi-
cate a problem.