Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

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Basic methods
How presets are saved
The presets are automatically saved when you quit the 
program. The next time you load the program, the presets 
are ready and waiting, just as you left them. Furthermore 
the presets are “global” to all files. No matter which file 
you are working on, you still have access to all your pre-
sets.
About non-modal dialogs
Many of the dialog boxes in WaveLab Essential are “non-
modal”. This means that the window behind the dialog can 
be operated even though the dialog box is still up on the 
screen.
For example, when you have a Processing dialog up on 
screen, you can still work with the Wave window and the 
main menus. For example, this allows you to perform the 
following operations without closing the dialog.
 Play back the wave to hear the effect of any applied process-
ing.
 Adjust the selection before re-processing.
 Use the menu to undo the last processing.
Keyboard commands
Windows normally does not allow you to select from 
menus and use keyboard accelerators when a dialog box 
is the active window. However, we have provided a few 
special key shortcuts for the most crucial commands:
Using the computer keyboard
When you are working with WaveLab Essential, the com-
puter keyboard has several different uses:
Transport controls
The Transport functions (such as Play, Stop, Record and 
so on) can all be managed from the computer keyboard. 
The keyboard commands for these functions are located 
on the numeric keypad, to the right on the computer key-
board. See “Using the Transport bar” on page 57.
Keyboard shortcuts
Shortcuts for menus
Many of the items in WaveLab Essential’s menus have a 
computer keyboard equivalent – an “accelerator”, listed 
on the menu. Some abbreviations might need an explana-
tion:
Due to the large number of functions in WaveLab Essen-
tial, some key commands consist of double or triple key 
strokes (known as “key sequences”). These are displayed 
with the different keys separated by comma signs. 
For example, “Alt+F12, T” means “hold down [Alt] and 
press [F12], release, then press [T]”.
Customizable shortcuts
You can define your own key shortcuts for a number of 
functions in the program, see “Customizable key com-
mands” on page 184.
Additional shortcuts
In addition to the above, there are key commands that are 
not listed on the menus or in this manual. Check the Key 
Commands chapter in the online documentation for a full 
list.
Key Command
[F3] Undo
[F4] Redo
[F6] Play selection
[Shift]+[F6] Activate loop and play selection
[F7] Stop
[F8] Play
Abbreviation Description
KP The numeric keypad. “KP 2” for example means 
the “2” key on the numeric keypad.
BkSp The Backspace key.
F1 to F12 The Function keys. 
						

							6
Editing in the Wave window 
						

							33
Editing in the Wave window
About this chapter
The Wave window is the heart of WaveLab Essential’s au-
dio editing capabilities. This is where you view, play back 
and edit individual audio files. This chapter describes how 
to open and save audio files, how to perform wave editing 
and how to handle the Wave window itself.
Creating new empty documents
If you want to start with an empty file, for assembling ma-
terial from other files for example, proceed as follows:
Using menus
1.Select New from the File menu, and Wave from the 
submenu that appears.
Or, right-click the New icon on the Standard Commands control bar.
2.Fill out the dialog that appears.
See “Supported file formats” on page 49 for details about the various 
options.
By dragging
This is only possible if the currently active window is a 
Wave window (or if no document windows are open).
1.Make sure “Create window using mouse” is activated 
in the Preferences–Wave edit tab.
2.Drag to make up a box in an empty free area of the 
WaveLab Essential application window.
This must be of a certain minimum size. If you don’t get a new window, try 
again with a bigger box. The new window “inherits” its attributes from the 
last active window. If no window is open, the dialog box settings for units 
are used instead.
About display options
There are a number of options that govern how a window 
will look when it is first created. These are all found on the 
Preferences–Wave edit tab.
Opening Waves
Using the Open dialog
1.Select Open Wave from the File menu, press [Ctrl]-[O] 
or click the Open icon on the Standard commands control 
bar and select “Wave…” from the pop-up menu that ap-
pears.
2.Use the standard controls to locate and select the de-
sired file.
The file format pop-up allows you to only view files in a certain format and 
the buttons in the upper left half provide various views of the files on the 
disk.
3.Click Open.
The Wave appears in a new window.
Below follow descriptions of the items/procedures which 
are not standard for all Windows Open dialog boxes:
The Recent Folders pop-up menu
At the top of the dialog, you will find a pop-up menu which 
lists the most recently accessed folders. Select one to 
open it.
The playback functions
Once you have selected a file in the list you can audition it 
by clicking Play. Click again to Stop.
You can also have files play back automatically as soon as 
they are selected. To do this, activate the Auto button.
Opening multiple files
As in many other Windows programs, you can select and 
open as many files as you wish. The [Shift] key is used for 
making continuous selections and [Ctrl] is used for select-
ing any combination of files.
When you click Open the selected files will be opened, 
each in an individual window.
The Open in Audio CD Montage window option
If you check this option at the bottom of the dialog, the 
file(s) you open will be placed in an automatically created 
new Audio CD Montage. 
!For a list of supported file formats, see “Supported 
file formats” on page 49. 
						

							34
Editing in the Wave window
Inserting a file into the current document
You may have a file that you want to insert into an existing 
file. The two must have the same attributes (e.g. sample 
rate), or a warning will appear.
1.Locate the document into which you want to add ma-
terial, and make it active.
2.If you want to add the file at some arbitrary position in 
the document (rather than at the beginning or end), click 
to move the wave cursor to that position.
3.Pull down the Edit menu and select Insert Audio File 
and then one of the options from the submenu that ap-
pears.
4.Select a file and click Open.
The file is added. If you used the “at cursor position” option, a temporary 
marker is added at the insertion point.
Using drag and drop
To open files from the Windows desktop, use one of the 
following possibilities:
Drag and drop the file(s) on the WaveLab Essential ap-
plication window.
Drag and drop the file(s) on the WaveLab Essential pro-
gram icon or a shortcut for it.
If the program isn’t already running, it will be launched. This works even if 
the application is running but minimized.
To Nuendo
ÖIt is also possible to drag and drop files from WaveLab 
Essential to Steinberg’s Nuendo!
This should be done using the Document icon.
Opening files from the desktop
To open a file in WaveLab Essential by double-clicking on 
it, you must have created an association between the file 
format and the WaveLab Essential application.
You can do this from within WaveLab Essential at any 
time by selecting “Associate all files of this type with 
WaveLab Essential” on the File menu–Special submenu.
This association is made according to the currently selected file’s format, 
and will ensure that all files of this format always opens with WaveLab 
Essential.
Using the Recent Files lists
On the bottom of the File menu you will find one or several 
hierarchical menu items that allow you to open recently 
used document files. There are different submenus for dif-
ferent file types, as indicated by the menu items (“Recent 
Audio Files”, “Recent Audio CD Montages”, etc.). Each 
section holds up to twenty files. Selecting an item on one 
of the submenus opens the corresponding file.
Using Favorites
Just above the “Recent…” items is the Favorites menu. 
This lets you create a “library” of files that you want to be 
able to open quickly.
The “Add current document” option, adds the currently 
active document to the menu.
The list is sorted alphabetically.
“Validate list” checks whether each document on the 
menu is still residing in the specified location on your hard 
disk(s).
If a document can’t be found, it is removed from the list.
“Clear list” removes all files from the menu.
Opening Wave files from within other windows
You can also open files from Audio CD Montage win-
dows. See the respective chapter for details.
Importing tracks from an audio CD
This is described in the section “Importing audio CD 
tracks into WaveLab Essential” on page 144. 
						

							35
Editing in the Wave window
Window overview and adjustments
About the window sections
Main view
The lower waveform area is where the main action is going 
on. It is here that you select, apply tools, drag and drop, 
etc. 
 There are both time and level rulers. These can be hidden and 
displayed (see the ruler and wave display speed menus). You 
can also set which units of time and level they show (see 
“Units of time and level” on page 28).
Overview
The overview is mainly used for navigating through long 
files. Since you can have different zoom factors in the two 
areas, the Overview can display the entire wave while the 
Main view only shows you a short portion.
The status bar
The status bar can be hidden. This is done on the Prefer-
ences–Environment tab. The status bar provides the fol-
lowing information:
 The Wave and Mouse cursor time positions are shown using 
the same unit of time as in the rulers and dialog boxes.
 Level positions are always shown in dB. The “Selection length” field shows the length of the entire 
wave if nothing is selected, and the length of the selection (in 
brackets) if there is one. If you click this value with the right 
mouse button the window zooms in on the selected range.
Sizing, moving and minimizing
WaveLab Essential uses standard Windows techniques 
for resizing, moving, maximizing and minimizing windows. 
See your Windows documentation for details.
Maximizing width
Selecting the Maximize Width item on the View menu 
makes the window as big as the screen (or any other fac-
tor) permits.
The divider
The divider between the Main view and the Overview can 
be dragged to change the view sizes. See “Panes” on 
page 23 for details.
Setting the zoom factor
About zooming
Horizontal zoom
 When you zoom out all the way the entire file fits the window.
 When you zoom in as far as possible, each sample will occupy 
several pixels on the screen. This allows for single sample-ac-
curate editing of waveforms.
Overview
Zoom controlsMain view
Left audio channel
Right audio channel
Mouse cursor position/Level 
Zoom factorWave cursor position/Selection length
File format details (see “Supported 
file formats” on page 49)
Zoom out all the 
way to see the 
entire wave.
Zoom in until 
you can see 
each individual 
sample point, 
for very detailed 
editing. 
						

							36
Editing in the Wave window
Vertical zoom
 When you zoom out all the way, the complete height of the 
wave fits into the window. You can note this by checking the 
ruler on the left side.
 As you progressively zoom in, the display will only show you a 
smaller part of the total height. Exactly which section you see 
can be adjusted with the vertical scroll bars. Again, check the 
ruler to see which part of the waveform is currently shown in 
the display.
For example, to check the peaks of the waveform in great 
detail, zoom in and scroll all the way up and down.
Using the zoom controls
Both the Main view and the Overview have horizontal and 
vertical zoom controls. These behave just like scroll bars:
You can drag the handle to any position.
You can click anywhere on the scale to move the handle 
there.
You can click on the arrows at either end to change the 
zoom factor in smaller steps.
Either way, the zoom factor on the status bar is updated continuously.
Using the Magnifying Glass tool
The Magnifying Glass tool is used to specify any section 
of the waveform and have it occupy the entire window.
The Magnifying Glass tool selected.
Selecting the tool
The Magnifying Glass tool can of course be selected from 
the tool box, but there are two other options:
When you hold down [Ctrl] and move the pointer over 
the Main view, the Magnifying Glass is automatically se-
lected.
This is just a momentary selection. As soon as you release [Ctrl] you get 
the previous tool back.
When you move the pointer over the overview, it turns 
into the Magnifying Glass automatically.
Using the tool in the Main view
1.Press the mouse button with the pointer somewhere in 
the waveform.
2.Drag left or right to make up a box, and then release 
the button.
The area encompassed in the box now fills up the entire window.
Detailed view of 
waveform peaks
Vertical and horizontal zoom 
controlsMaking a box like this…
…zooms in so that the 
“boxed” area will span the 
entire display. 
						

							37
Editing in the Wave window
Using the tool in the Overview
The Magnifying Glass can be used in the Overview, just as 
in the Main view. However, even though you use the tool in 
the Overview, it is the Main view that gets zoomed.
You can for example use this as follows: keep the Over-
view zoomed out all the way and use the Magnifying Glass 
tool to display any section in the Main view.
Mouse zooming
Using the mouse, you can continuously change the zoom 
factor by dragging:
1.Position the mouse pointer over the ruler in the Main 
view.
2.Press the mouse button and drag up or down.
The zoom factor changes continuously.
Dragging to change the zoom factor.
To zoom with the cursor in a fixed center position, hold 
down [Shift].
To make vertical zoom adjust automatically to the peaks 
in the waveform, hold down [Ctrl].
To switch to scrolling, hold down [Alt].
This technique works very well in combination with the 
fact that you can move the song position by dragging hor-
izontally in the ruler. By dragging in both directions, you 
can quickly find a certain position in the file and display it 
at the desired magnification factor.
Using mouse zooming to its full effect requires some prac-
tice – but it is worth the effort!
Setting sensitivity for mouse zooming
On the Preferences–Environment tab, there’s a Sensitivity 
setting for mouse zooming. The higher the value, the less 
sensitive the function. You might want to raise this value 
when you first try out the function.
Using a wheel mouse
 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.
Using the Zoom menu
The Zoom submenu can be invoked from two places:
 From the main view menu.
 By clicking on the Zoom factor on the status bar.
It provides the following options:
Using the keyboard
A quick way to zoom the active Wave window is to use the 
arrow keys on the computer keyboard: Press [arrow up] or 
[arrow down] to zoom in or out (respectively) horizontally. 
Hold down [Shift] and use the arrow keys to zoom in or 
out vertically.
There are also additional key commands for zooming – 
check the Key Commands chapter in the online documen-
tation for a full list.
Option Description
Restore last zoom Brings back the last zoom factor set using this 
menu or the Magnifying Glass tool.
Overview Zooms the view out as far as possible.
Zoom in 1:1 Zooms in so that one pixel (dot) on the screen rep-
resents one sample.
Microscope Zooms in as far as possible, so that one sample oc-
cupies several pixels.
Zoom selection Zooms the window so that the current selection 
(see “Selecting” on page 40) fills the entire display. 
You can also click the selection range (in brackets) 
with the right mouse button on the Status bar.
Custom… This brings up a dialog that allows you to enter any 
zoom factor.
Optimize vertical 
zoomThis changes the vertical zoom factor so that the 
peaks are clearly visible. This adjustment is done 
according to the section of the wave currently visi-
ble in the window, not the whole file. 
						

							38
Editing in the Wave window
Using auto zoom for Overview
This setting, found on the Preferences–Wave edit tab, al-
lows you to have the zoom factor automatically adjusted, 
so that it always shows the entire wave. 
1.Activate “Auto zoom for overview” in the Preferences 
dialog.
2.Zoom out on the overview so that you see the entire 
wave.
Now, when you resize the window, the overview zoom factor is automat-
ically adjusted so that the entire wave is always shown.
Which part of the file do I see?
In the overview, a striped line called the “range indicator” 
tells you which section of the file is currently displayed in 
the Main view.
Furthermore, the range indicator moves while you drag the 
scroll bar handle. This means that by observing the over-
view you can easily find positions in the Main view when 
scrolling, even though the Main view might be zoomed in 
very closely.
The range indicator can be displayed at the top or bottom 
of the overview, see “Range Indicator at top/bottom” on 
page 181.
Navigating through the file
There are several ways to move the view to a certain posi-
tion in the file:
Scroll bars
This is the most evident option. These work exactly as in 
any other Windows program. Please note that the wave-
form scrolls while you drag the scroll bar handle.
Furthermore, WaveLab Essential uses proportional scroll 
bars, that is, the size of the handle shows you how much 
of the entire document you see. To get a feeling for how 
this works, drag the horizontal zoom control while observ-
ing the size of the scroll bar “handle”.
Centering the view vertically
If you have zoomed in vertically, you might want to center 
the waveform view. To do so, double click in the level ruler.
Clicking in the Overview
If you click once in the Overview, the Main view is scrolled 
so that the position where you clicked is shown on the left 
side of the window.
Using the Scroll to menu
To bring up the Scroll to menu, either select “Scroll to” 
from the Main view menu, or right-click in the Overview or 
the Main view. 
The difference between the methods is that the main 
menu always affects the Main view, whereas the speed 
menus affect either view depending on where you clicked.
The following options are available on the menu:
When you drag the scroll bar, the range indicator continuously 
shows you which part of the wave is shown in the Main view.Option Scrolls the view to
Start/End The beginning or end of the wave.
Selection start/end The beginning or end of the current selection, if 
any.
Cursor The wave cursor. 
						

							39
Editing in the Wave window
Clicking on the status bar
If you click on the cursor position on the status bar, the 
view is scrolled so that the wave cursor becomes visible.
If you right-click instead, a dialog appears to let you spec-
ify a certain time position to scroll the view to.
Using a wheel mouse
If you move the wheel down the scroll bar will move for-
ward and vice versa. You can also hold down the wheel 
and drag the view in either horizontal direction.
Snapshots
Snapshots store the Main view’s “layout” – essentially two 
things:
 How a window is scrolled (which part of the wave you see).
 The window’s zoom factor.
If you move back and forth between various positions in a 
file, or if you zoom in and out for detailed or overview edit-
ing, using snapshots will save you a lot of time. Snapshots 
are created and managed on the Wave Snapshots control 
bar, opened from the View menu.
To create a snapshot, you first set up the view as desired 
(by scrolling and/or zooming). Then click the camera icon 
on the Wave Snapshots control bar, followed by one of 
the numbers. The snapshot is now stored under that but-
ton. The fact that the snapshot is used is indicated by a 
red circle around the number.
You use the same procedure to “reprogram” existing 
snapshots.
To recall a stored snapshot, simply click on its number on 
the Wave Snapshots control bar.
ÖSnapshots will be automatically saved with the individ-
ual file if “Save view settings in companion file” is acti-
vated in the Preferences–Wave edit tab, see “Saving view 
settings” on page 54. 
Setting the ruler start position
Normally, the ruler is set so that the beginning of the file 
represents position “0”. However, for editing purposes 
you may want to set the “0” position at some other point in 
the file. The picture sequence below shows you how to do 
this:
Working with a meter based display
If the material on which you are working is tempo based, 
and you know the tempo, you can make the ruler show po-
sitions in meter format (bars, beats and ticks), to make it 
easier to find musically related cutting points:
1.Select Meter for the ruler time format, see “Units of 
time and level” on page 28.
2.Open the Preferences–Wave edit tab.
3.Set the Time Signature and Tempo to match the file.
This snapshot is “programmed”.
1. Set the wave cursor where you want the “0” position.
2. Right-click 
the ruler to bring 
up this pop-up 
menu.
The ruler start 
position is 
moved.
3. Select “Set 
origin at cursor”. 
						

							40
Editing in the Wave window
4.Set the “Ticks per quarter note” setting to a number 
you feel comfortable with.
This might for example be the same value as that used by your MIDI se-
quencer.
In this example, a meter ruler with 96 ticks per quarter note is used.
Setting the wave cursor position
Many operations, such as playback and selection depend 
on the current cursor position – for example, playback of-
ten starts at the cursor. The current cursor position is indi-
cated by a vertical flashing line, both in the Main view and 
in the Overview. There are various ways to move the wave 
cursor:
By clicking once somewhere in the Main view or on the 
time ruler.
If you have a selection, click on the ruler, since clicking in the waveform 
deselects all.
By clicking and dragging in the time ruler.
By using the Transport controls (see “Setting the start 
point for playback” on page 58).
By using the “Move cursor to” menu on the View menu.
The options on this are similar to the “Scroll to” menu, see above. There’s 
also a “Position” option which allows you to specify any position in the 
format selected for dialogs and a “Snap Cursor” option described in the 
section “Using “Snap Cursor”” on page 40.
By using the Cursor keys:
By using markers
Markers allow you to pre-define positions and move the cursor there, see 
“What are markers for?” on page 98.
Using magnetization
If you have “Magnetize bounds” on the Options menu ac-
tivated and drag the cursor on the time ruler, it will “snap” 
to the following positions:
 The start and end of the entire wave.
 The start and end of the selection.
“What are markers for?” on page 98).
Using “Snap Cursor”
This function – which can be reached from the “Move cur-
sor to” item on the View menu and from the main wave 
display speed menu – moves the cursor position automat-
ically for you. There are two options:
Move to the closest zero crossing (see “Snapping to 
zero crossings” on page 42) to the left of the cursor posi-
tion.
To get this effect, make sure “Snap to time unit” is turned off on the Op-
tions menu.
Move to the zero crossing closest to a major time unit.
For example, this can be to the zero crossing closest to a whole second 
on the time ruler. To get this effect, make sure “Snap to time unit” is acti-
vated on the Options menu.
In the last case, the “time unit” mentioned depends on 
which type of scale is selected for the ruler:
Selecting
Almost all types of editing and processing you perform in 
WaveLab Essential operate on the selection. There are 
numerous ways to make a selection:
By dragging or [Shift]-clicking
The standard way to select a range in a Wave window is 
to click and drag. If you drag all the way to the left or right 
side of the window, it scrolls automatically, allowing you to 
select larger sections than what can be shown in the win-
dow. The speed of the scrolling depends on how far from 
the window edge you are.
These keys Move the wave cursor
[←] and [→] One “pixel” (screen dot) in either di-
rection.
[Ctrl] + [←] and [→] Twenty “pixels” in either direction.
[Home] and [End] To the beginning and end of the 
wave.
Option Cursor moves to
Time Closest whole second
Samples Function not available
Time code Closest frame
Meter Closest whole beat