Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

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Basic methods 
						

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Basic methods
Why you should read this chapter
This chapter describes general methods that you will use 
when working with WaveLab Essential. Getting accus-
tomed with these procedures will allow you to work more 
effectively with the program.
Getting help
WaveLab Essential comes with a detailed help system, 
making it easy to look up procedures and descriptions 
from within the program. There are two ways to access 
the help system:
By selecting “Operation Manual” from the Help menu.
This takes you to the help in Adobe Acrobat format (extension “.pdf”). 
This PDF file contains all chapters of the manual including additional 
sections describing plug-ins, key commands and troubleshooting proce-
dures.
By pressing [F1].
Undo and Redo
WaveLab Essential has an extremely extensive Undo func-
tion, applicable when working in Wave windows, Audio 
CD Montages or the CD Label Editor. You can:
Undo as many steps back as you like, by using the Undo 
item on the Edit menu.
The only limitation is the available hard disk space. You can also use the 
shortcuts [Ctrl]-[Z] or [F3] to undo. [F3] has the added advantage in that 
you can undo even if a modal dialog is currently open.
Redo as many steps as you like, by using the Redo item 
on the Edit menu (or by pressing [Ctrl]-[Y] or [F4]).
Furthermore, each window has its own undo “history”, so 
you can click on any window and undo the last changes 
made there, even if you afterwards worked in another win-
dow.
About Undo and disk space
Many undo operations require no memory or disk space. 
However, operations that modify actual wave data (like 
time stretch, EQ, etc.) require that a file copy of the se-
lected part of the wave is stored, so that it can be brought 
back when you need to redo.For this reason, WaveLab Essential will need to store files 
on your hard disk, in the folder you have specified for the 
temporary files (see “Temporary files” on page 15). These 
files are automatically deleted each time you close or save 
the related document.
Limiting the Undo function
If you run out of hard disk space or if you are applying pro-
cessing to extremely long sections of waves, you might 
want to put a limit on the Undo function (applicable to 
Wave windows only):
1.Select “Preferences” from the Options menu and click 
the Wave edit tab.
2.Uncheck the “Unlimited” option in the Undo/Redo 
section.
3.Change the Limit number to the desired value.
Clearing the undo
There might be situations where you have “collected” a 
large number of undo possibilities that you know you don’t 
need. You might then clear the whole undo “buffer” for 
one file at a time. This will free up some primary memory 
(RAM) but more importantly it will also delete all the “undo 
files” from your hard disk, to free up space.
1.Select “Clear undo” from the Edit menu.
A window appears informing you of how much RAM and hard disk space 
you will gain by this operation.
2.Click OK. 
						

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Basic methods
Working with windows
Basic window handling
WaveLab Essential follows the basic guidelines for the 
Windows interface, which means standard “Windows 
procedures” apply.
Closing Wave windows
You can close a document window by clicking its close 
button, by selecting Close from the File menu or by press-
ing [Ctrl]-[W]. If document window(s) contain unsaved 
changes, you will be asked whether you want to save 
those changes before closing.
ÖIf you hold down [Ctrl]+[Shift] when clicking the close 
button, the window closes immediately. Any changes you 
have made will not be saved.
ÖYou can also close all windows in one go (either all 
Wave windows, or all windows regardless of type), by se-
lecting the corresponding option from the Windows 
menu.
Minimizing Wave windows
WaveLab Essential windows are minimized like any other, 
but there are also options for minimizing all Wave win-
dows or all windows (regardless of type, as with closing, 
see above), from the Window menu.
Quitting
When you quit the program, and have files with unsaved 
changes, the “Exiting with modified documents” dialog, 
see “Save All” on page 52, appears. Selecting all files in 
the list and clicking Save Selected, ensures that all 
changes made to any and all files, are saved.
Quick window switching
To “cycle” between all open windows, press [Ctrl]-[Tab] 
or [Ctrl]-[F6]. 
If you release the [Ctrl] key, and use any of these com-
mands again, you will switch to the previous window, 
rather than the next window in the stack.
This allows you to quickly move back and forth between two windows.
The document switch bar
A quick way to switch between the open document win-
dows is to use the document switch bar.
In this example, clicking on the tab will bring the “MoonProject”
window to front.
ÖYou can position the document switch bar at the top, 
bottom, left or right side of the screen by using the docu-
ment switch bar submenu on the View menu.
This submenu also lets you hide the document switch bar, if you like.
Panes
Several of WaveLab Essential’s windows are divided into 
panes. Panes are separated by dividers. For example, a 
Wave window can have two panes, the Overview and the 
Main view.
The panes and dividers in an Audio CD Montage window.
!Please note that this function works on one docu-
ment at a time. It is only the undo buffer for the file in 
the active window that will be cleared. Also note that 
it only applies to Wave windows.
Dividers Panes 
						

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Basic methods
Adjusting the size of a pane
1.Position the mouse over the divider between the two 
panes.
The pointer turns into a two-way arrow.
2.Drag the divider to adjust the pane size.
Hiding and revealing a pane
In some windows, a pane can be hidden altogether. 
To hide a pane, drag the border between the two panes all 
the way up or double click it. To reveal the pane again, 
drag the miniature divider symbol down or double click it.
You can also hide/show the Overview pane in the Wave 
window by pressing [O] on the computer keyboard.
“Folding” windows
If you find a window takes up too much screen space, but 
you still don’t want to close it, you can “fold it in” by click-
ing on the fold-in icon on the title bar. For dialogs, you can 
also double click on the title bar.
To return to normal size, just click again.
The Document icon
WaveLab Essential adds another symbol to some docu-
ment windows, the Document icon. This is used to drag 
the whole document to various other windows, such as 
Audio CD Montages or Data CD/DVD windows.
Unsaved changes indicator
When you have made changes to a document window, an 
asterisk will be displayed after the document name in the 
title bar until you save the document.
The miniature divider symbol
The fold-in icon
The normal Time Stretch dialog…
…and when “folded in”.
The Document icon 
						

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Basic methods
Working with multiple windows
You can edit the same data in more than one Wave win-
dow. Among other things this allows you to work on differ-
ent sections of a wave file (for example the start and end), 
without scrolling back and forth.
ÖThe two windows are views of exactly the same data. 
Any change you make in one Wave window is immediately apparent in the 
other.
Creating a second window using menus
1.Make sure the desired window is the active one.
If it isn’t, click once in its title bar.
2.Select Duplicate View from the View menu.
Creating a second window by dragging
1.Make sure “Create windows using mouse” is activated 
on the Preferences–Wave edit tab.
2.Click and drag a rectangle in an empty area of the 
WaveLab Essential window.
This must be of a certain minimum size or bigger. If you don’t get a new 
window, try again with a bigger rectangle.
Windows sets, snapshots and Wave view 
settings
In addition to the above, there are other ways to manage 
windows:
 Snapshots store individual settings for one Wave window at a 
time, which allows you to quickly move between various views 
of a file. See “Snapshots” on page 39.
 Screen layouts store document window and dialog box posi-
tions and sizes. See 
“Working with window layouts” on page 
183.
 View settings can be automatically stored (Preference setting) 
when saving wave audio files. This will store all view settings 
for an individual Wave window; i.e. window size & placement, 
time ruler style, scroll positions, selection ranges and snap-
shots. See “Saving view settings” on page 54.
Dockable control bars
Various tools, shortcuts and commands are gathered on 
“control bars” (strips with symbols). These can be used ei-
ther as “palettes” (separate windows) or you can “dock” 
them to the window edges. 
The following control bars are available:
 The Standard Commands
 The Transport bar
 The Wave toolbox
 The Wave Snapshots control bar
 The Marker toolbar
Docking a control bar
There are two ways to dock a control bar:
Drag the control bar window (by its title bar) to any of 
the sides of the application window and release the 
mouse button.
The outline shows you the shape of the control bar at the docked position.
Double click the title bar of a control bar to return it to its 
last docked position.
Dragging a box like this will create a new window for this audio file. 
						

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Basic methods
Please note that you can stack control bars and put them 
side by side, to create any type of layout you desire.
In this example, the Standard Commands, Toolbox and Transport con-
trol bars have all been docked to the upper part of the application win-
dow.
Turning a docked control bar into a separate 
window
To “un-dock” a control bar, drag it out from the docked 
position, or double click somewhere on its handle.
ÖControl bar windows are moved by dragging the title 
bar, just as with any other window.
To drag a control bar on side of the application window, without docking 
it, hold down [Ctrl] when dragging.
Showing/hiding a control bar
There are different ways to show/hide a control bar:
 Pull down the View menu, select Control Bars, and from the 
submenu that appears, select the desired control bar, or…
 Hide a control bar by clicking its Close box.
Changing the appearance of a control bar
To change the shape of a control bar to either horizontal, 
square or vertical, drag the right or bottom edge as when 
resizing any other window. 
To change the size of the buttons in the control bar, open 
the Preferences–Environment tab and adjust the “Button 
size” setting.
Finding out what a button on a control bar 
does
1.Select Preferences from the Options menu and click 
on the Environment tab.
2.Make sure “Show Tips” is activated.
3.Close the Preferences dialog.4.Move the pointer over an item on the control bar and 
wait a moment.
A text showing the name of the button appears.
An example of a “Tip” pop-up for the control bar.
The various control bars
The Standard Commands
The Standard Commands bar supplies shortcuts for the 
most commonly used menu items, as well as some unique 
functions.
The Toolbox
The tools are used to perform various operations on the 
data in the window, like selecting, playing, etc.
The Snapshots control bar
This is used to store and recall window “layouts”, see 
“Snapshots” on page 39.
The Transport bar
The Transport bar is used for various playback commands, 
see “Using the Transport bar” on page 57. 
						

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Basic methods
The Marker toolbar
This is used for various commands related to markers, see 
“Introduction” on page 98.
Speed menus
Most displays have speed menus associated with them.
ÖTo bring up a speed menu, right-click in the desired 
area.
In the Wave windows for example, there is one speed menu for the level 
ruler, one for each of the time rulers and one for each of the waveform 
displays.
The Wave window main view “speed menu”
The Speed menus contain the same items that can be 
found on the main menus, but some speed menus also 
contain unique items.
The status bar
This is normally displayed at the bottom of the screen, but 
it can be hidden on the Preferences–Environment tab. 
The status bar shows information related to the active win-
dow. Exactly what information appears depends on the 
window type – for Wave windows it shows various infor-
mation about the file. See “The status bar” on page 35.
 For some of the fields you can also click to perform operations 
related to that field.
 The status bar also indicates the progress of operations that 
take some time to finish.
!When searching for a function, don’t forget to check 
the speed menus in the window in which you are 
working! 
						

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Basic methods
Units of time and level
For rulers
You can specify the time and level (amplitude) formats for 
each ruler in each window, by right-clicking on the ruler and 
selecting a format from the pop-up menu that appears.
Time formats
Level formats
ÖTo make a ruler format the default (to be used in new 
Wave windows), you need to save it as part of the default 
window style.
See “Styling WaveLab Essential – Wave windows” on page 180.
Setting values
In dialog boxes, you will find yourself adjusting values. The 
following techniques apply:
Typing values
As in most other Windows programs you can “tab to” or 
click directly on a value and type in a new one.
Using the spin controls/value fields
Values can be set using either the regular Windows spin 
controls, or any of the other methods described below.
 Clicking either arrow raises/lowers the value.
 Keeping the mouse button pressed over an arrow will “scroll” 
the value.
 Holding down [Ctrl] makes the value change in larger steps.
 Holding down [Ctrl]+[Shift] changes the value to its minimum/
maximum.
 The last adjusted control can be changed using the [
↑] and [↓] 
keys, also in combination with [Ctrl] or [Ctrl]+[Shift] as de-
scribed above.
 You can also click and hold in the value field and move the 
pointer up or down to change values.
 Pointing in a value field will display the available parameter 
range.
 The down arrow to the right of the spin controls brings up a 
history pop-up where the last applied value change(s) in the 
current dialog are shown and can be selected.
Menu name Description
Time Positions are shown as hours, minutes, seconds and 
milliseconds. At large magnification factors, hundredths 
of milliseconds are shown.
Samples Positions are shown as number of samples. How many 
samples there are to a second depends on the sample 
rate of the wave. For 44.1 kHz for example, there are 
44100 samples for each second.
Time code Also called SMPTE. Positions are shown in the follow-
ing format:
hours:minutes:seconds:frames.
The number of frames per second is set on the Prefer-
ences–Wave Edit tab.
Meter Positions are shown as bars, beats and ticks, as speci-
fied on the Preferences–Wave Edit tab.
File  size Positions are shown in file size units, MegaBytes, where 
the decimals represent kiloBytes.
Menu name Description
% Amplitude (level) is shown as a percentage of full level.
dB Amplitude is shown in decibels, a logarithmic scale 
used in audio engineering.
Decimal This is the actual value of the amplitude as stored in 
computer memory (always displayed as 16 bits). Please 
note that the range is from negative to positive with “0” 
representing “no signal”.
The spin controls
The history pop-up 
						

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Basic methods
Using sliders and pop-ups
Many times, the most convenient way of changing a value is 
using WaveLab Essential’s proprietary sliders and pop-
ups:
1.Click with the right mouse button on the spin control 
(in some windows you can also double-click with the left 
mouse button).
2.If a pop-up menu appears, select one of the options 
on it.
3.If one or more sliders appear, drag the handle(s) or 
click the arrows to set the value.
The setting is shown in the value box “behind” the slider window.
4.When you have finished, click outside the slider win-
dow.
 If the value is “segmented” (for example divided into minutes 
and seconds, etc.), more than one slider will appear, each 
used for adjusting one of the “segments”.
 The slider window can be dragged to any position on the 
screen, using the “title bar” at the top.
 The last-used slider can also be adjusted using the computer 
keyboard:.
In effect processor panels
In the Master Section you will find either generic or cus-
tom effect panels for each effect processor. In custom 
panels, values are adjusted using special methods, see 
“The Effects pane” on page 85.
Using a wheel mouse
If you are using a mouse with a scroll wheel or similar, you 
can take advantage of the wheel for various operations in 
WaveLab Essential:
Scrolling
If you point at a waveform, the wheel scrolls the view hori-
zontally.
Zooming
If you hold down [Ctrl] and point at a waveform, the wheel 
zooms the view horizontally.
If you hold down [Ctrl] and [Shift] and point at a waveform, 
the wheel zooms the view vertically.
Changing values
If you point at an edit field in a dialog, the wheel can be 
used to adjust the value.
 If you hold down [Ctrl], the value changes in bigger incre-
ments.
 If you hold down [Ctrl]+[Shift] the value jumps to the minimum 
or maximum.
Master Section
When working in the Master Section window, the wheel 
can be used to adjust the master volume. 
You have to point in the Master Section for this to work.
ÖThis functionality can be turned off in the Preferences–
Environment tab.
These keys Move the slider handle
[↑] and [↓] One step up/down.
[Page Up] and [Page Down] A few steps up/down.
[Home] and [End] To the top/bottom.
In this case, four faders appear, one 
for the integer and three for the deci-
mals.
The value gets updated when you 
move the sliders. 
						

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Basic methods
Presets
Many dialogs in WaveLab Essential have either a Presets 
tab or a Presets pop-up menu. If you think of the dialogs 
as forms, presets allow those forms to be filled out auto-
matically. WaveLab Essential comes with a selection of 
presets for most dialogs that use them, but the real power 
of presets becomes evident when you start creating your 
own!
ÖFor some WaveLab Essential effect panels there is a 
Preset button instead of a Presets tab or pop-up menu. 
Clicking the button opens the Presets dialog which has 
the same items as described below.
Depending on how presets are displayed in a certain dia-
log (tab or menu) they are handled slightly differently, but 
both cases are described below.
A number of presets in the Harmonization dialog
Loading presets
1.Open the dialog you wish to use and click on its Pre-
sets tab or pull down its Presets menu.
2.Select the preset you want to use. 
3.Where applicable, click the Load button.
ÖA quick way to load a preset is to right-click on the 
Preset tab and select a preset from the menu that ap-
pears.
Creating a preset
1.Open the dialog you wish to use and set up the dialog 
as desired.
2.Click on the Presets tab or pull down the Preset menu.
3.Click on the name line and type in a name for the pre-
set or click the Save As… menu item and type in a name in 
the dialog that appears.
4.Where applicable, click the Add button.
Modifying a preset
1.Load the preset you want to modify, as described 
above.
2.Make the desired settings in the dialog.
3.Click the Update button or click the Save item.
Deleting a preset
1.In the Presets tab, click on the preset you want to de-
lete.
2.Click the Delete button.
Or…
1.From the Presets menu, select the option Explore pre-
sets.
2.In the Explorer window that appears, select the preset 
file you want to delete and press [Delete].
Store temporarily and Restore
Some dialogs also allow you to quickly save and load up 
to 5 presets with the Store temporarily and Restore menu 
items. This is useful if you want to quickly test and com-
pare different settings.
1.Select the option “Store temporarily” and from the sub-
menu 
select the number under which you want to save (#1 
– 
#5).
2.To quickly load the saved settings again, select the 
corresponding number from the Restore submenu.