Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

							51
Editing in the Wave window
Automatic backups
For all save operations except a regular “Save”, backups 
are created automatically if a file with the same name al-
ready exists.
If for example you select Save As and specify a file name 
already used in that folder, the program will ask you if you 
want to back up the existing file first. If you click Yes, the 
first letter in the file’s extension will be changed to “~”. 
“AIF” for example, will become “~IF”.
Saving in another format (Save as…)
If you want to change the format (file format, sampling fre-
quency, bit resolution and stereo/mono status) when sav-
ing, proceed as follows:
1.Select Save as… on the File menu.
2.A regular file dialog appears where you can specify a 
file name, folder and a file format (see “Supported file for-
mats” on page 49).
3.If you wish to change other attributes of the file (e.g. 
mono/stereo status, bit resolution or sample rate), click 
the button at the bottom of the dialog.
This opens the Audio File Format dialog where you can specify the de-
sired properties of the converted file.
The Audio File Format dialog
4.After making the desired settings, close the Audio File 
Format dialog and click Save.
A new file is created. The original file is not affected by the operation.
If you change the sample rate, bit resolution and number 
of channels, the following operations are performed:
If you only wish to change the bit resolution you can do 
this directly in the “Audio Properties” dialog (see “Editing 
audio properties” on page 55) instead and perform a stan-
dard save.
For high quality mastering purposes, it is not recom-
mended to change the sample rate and number of chan-
nels this way, but instead use plug-ins and functions of the 
Master Section (see “The Effects pane” on page 85).
For the available compressed file formats (MP3, MP2, 
WMA and Ogg Vorbis), you can select “Edit…” from both 
the Encoding and Attributes pop-up menus in the Audio 
File Format dialog.
This opens additional settings dialogs, where you can specify various op-
tions such as bit rate and compression method, and also enter text tags 
for the file.
ÖIt is also possible to convert several files to another 
format in one go (batch encoding). 
See “Batch file encoding” on page 95.
ÖNote that you can also save as WMA files, MP3 files 
and MP2 files via the “Encode to…” options on the Save 
Special submenu.
About saving OSQ files
OSQ (Original Sound Quality) is a lossless audio com-
pression format, which can significantly reduce the audio 
file size without affecting the audio quality at all.
Property Action
Sample Rate If a new sample rate is specified, a sample rate conver-
sion will be performed (see “Convert sample rate” on 
page 79).
Bit Resolution If a different bit resolution is specified, the file is either 
“truncated” down (e.g. to 8 bits), or “padded” up (e.g. to 
24 bits).
If you are converting to a lower bit resolution, you should 
consider adding dithering – see “The Dithering pane” 
on page 88.
Mono/Stereo If the file is converted from mono to stereo, the same 
material will appear in both channels. If the conversion is 
from stereo to mono, you can either select to only save 
the left or right channel, or create a mix of the two chan-
nels. 
						

							52
Editing in the Wave window
You can save any audio file as an OSQ file by using the 
Save As function.
The audio will play back exactly the same as in the original, uncom-
pressed file.
Similarly, if you open an OSQ file in WaveLab Essential 
and save it as an uncompressed audio file in its original 
format (e.g. WAV), the audio will play back exactly the 
same.
You can also convert several files to OSQ format in a 
batch. See “Batch file encoding” on page 95.
Save selection as
This is a menu item on the Save Special submenu. It 
works exactly as Save As, except that only the current se-
lection is saved as a new file.
Save a Copy
This item, also on the Save Special submenu, allows you 
to save a copy of the file, in its current state, without af-
fecting the original. A regular file dialog is used as with 
Save As.
Save left/right channel as
These two menu items are also located on the Save Spe-
cial submenu. They allow you to save each channel indi-
vidually, into a separate file. A regular file dialog is used as 
with Save As.
This menu command is used when you have been editing 
“dual mono” files for example, and wish to save the chan-
nels into separate files.
Save All
The Save All dialog
This menu item brings up a dialog that allows you to save 
some or all of the open documents, in one go.
The list displays all open documents that currently contain 
unsaved changes. The “Show paths” check box allows 
you to display/hide the complete file paths.
1.Select /deselect files by clicking on them or by using 
the Select/Deselect button.
Only the selected files will be saved.
2.Click “Save selected”.
Revert to saved
This menu option, on the File menu, allows you to revert 
the file back to its last saved state (actually, the last saved 
version of the file is loaded from disk). This can be used as 
a kind of “super undo” which undoes all the changes 
made to the file since it was last saved.
1.Select “Revert to saved” from the File menu.
2.Click “Yes” in the warning dialog that appears.
The file is restored to its previously saved state. 
						

							53
Editing in the Wave window
Renaming files and documents (Rename)
The Rename function is available from most WaveLab Es-
sential documents, not just Wave windows. The function 
is however of particular importance when renaming audio 
files. If you rename an audio file outside WaveLab Essen-
tial, and this file is referenced to an Audio CD Montage or 
Data CD/DVD project, the reference will be lost the next 
time you open the document that references this file.
But WaveLab Essential allows you to handle file renaming 
in an intelligent way so that all the documents that refer-
ence this renamed file are automatically updated! This 
works as follows:
ÖAll open documents that reference the file or docu-
ment to be renamed will be automatically updated to refer-
ence the new name.
E.g. if you rename an audio file named “India” to “Sitar”, all currently open 
documents that reference the file “India” will be updated to reference the 
file as “Sitar”!
For audio files, peak and marker files will also be renamed 
accordingly. 
Documents that use audio file references are Audio CD 
Montages and Data CD/DVD projects. 
WaveLab Essential documents can also refer to the 
names of other documents, e.g. a Data CD/DVD project 
will contain references to Audio CD Montages. 
This will work in the same way – if the document/project that references 
the document to be renamed is open, the references will be updated.
To rename a file or document proceed as follows:
1.Select the audio file/document to be renamed. 
Make sure all documents that reference this particular file are open. This 
is not mandatory, but if they aren’t, the file references will not be updated.
2.Select “Rename…” from the File menu, or press [F2].
The Rename dialog opens.
The dialog contains the following items:
Deleting files and documents
It is possible to delete whole files or documents from 
within WaveLab Essential. This function is available from 
the File menu and will delete the currently selected file or 
document from disk. Make sure the file or document you 
wish to delete is in focus.
1.Select “Delete…” from the File menu.
A dialog appears as a warning, allowing you to cancel or proceed with 
the operation.
2.Select whether to permanently delete the file or to 
move it to the Recycle bin by clicking the appropriate but-
ton in the Method section of the dialog.
Only select to permanently delete if you are absolutely certain – you 
won’t be able to retrieve the file!
Any Data CD/DVD project that is open in WaveLab Es-
sential and has a reference to this file will be updated ac-
cordingly.
The file will get removed from the Data CD/DVD project(s).
Item Description
Name text field This is where you type in the new name.
Change folder It is also possible to change the folder location 
of the file when renaming. If Change folder is 
ticked, you can navigate to a new location. Note 
that this is only possible within the same drive 
partition.
Keep as default path If you check this option, the same path will be 
selected the next time you open the dialog. This 
is useful if you need to move several files suc-
cessively.
Extension pop-up The file extension can be changed, but only if 
corresponds to the original file format (certain 
file formats can have different possible file exten-
sions, e.g. “aif” or “snd”). 
						

							54
Editing in the Wave window
However, if a file is being referenced by a currently open 
Audio CD Montage, you will not be able to delete the file 
and a warning will appear. 
In addition, you will not be able to delete the file in the fol-
lowing circumstances:
 If it is currently copied to the clipboard.
 If a part of it is has been pasted into another file that is open. 
 If the file is open in another application.
Deleting an audio file will also automatically delete its 
peak and marker file names.
Saving view settings
WaveLab Essential can automatically save all settings as-
sociated with a Wave file. This includes:
 Window size and position.
 Zooming.
 Scroll position.
 Snapshots.
The view setting information is stored in a companion file 
(extension “.mem”) either together with your audio files or 
in a separate folder.
This feature is activated/deactivated (on by default) in 
the Preferences–Wave edit tab (“Save view settings in 
companion file”).
If the feature is activated and you save a file, the settings 
will be recreated exactly as you had them when later re-
loading the same file!
Compression encoded export formats
Apart from the formats available in the Save As dialog and 
the Save special encode MP3/MP2/WMA options, Wave-
Lab Essential allows you to export files in a number of 
compression encoded audio formats, suitable for multime-
dia, web publishing, etc. (see “Supported file formats” on 
page 49). The basic functionality for this is part of a soft-
ware technology called Microsoft ACM (Audio Compres-
sion Manager) which is included with Microsoft Media 
Tools.
The number of formats you can export, depends on which 
ACM drivers you have installed on your computer.
For more information, see www.microsoft.com/windows/
windowsmedia.
About “lossy” and “non-lossy” compression
There are two types of compression methods. When you 
use a “non-lossy” method (like saving as an OSQ file – 
see above), all information about the file is preserved, 
which means that when you decompress the file, you get it 
back exactly as it was.
However, most audio compression techniques are “lossy”. 
This means that once the file has been compressed, some 
information has been lost. This type of compression al-
ways results in some kind of audio degradation, albeit in 
many cases a very small one.
WaveLab Essential can also import any file supported by 
ACM, provided that the correct ACM drivers are installed.
Exporting to encoded formats
The menu item “Encode (ACM)” uses the Microsoft Media-
Tools technology to convert the file to one of a number of 
compressed formats.
1.Select “Encode (ACM)…” from the Save Special sub-
menu.
The dialog that appears is a MediaTools dialog, not a WaveLab Essential 
dialog.
2.Select one of the formats from the pop-up in the mid-
dle and chose a setting for it from the pop-up below.
The dialog also provides possibilities for creating “presets” of formats 
and settings, using the upper row of controls.
3.Click OK.
A regular file dialog appears.
4.Specify a name and location for the file, as with any 
Save operation.
!If you need audio file compression with uncompro-
mised audio quality, you should use the OSQ (Origi-
nal Sound Quality) lossless audio compression 
format instead (see “About saving OSQ files” on 
page 51).
!The options which are available depend on the origi-
nal format of the file, its sample rate, the number of 
channels, etc. However, we have noted problems 
with some ACM drivers. Even though a certain for-
mat can be selected, an error message appears 
when you try to save the file. If this happens, please 
use another encoding method. 
						

							55
Editing in the Wave window
Note: When you export to compressed files using the “En-
code (ACM)” option, the file that is created will technically 
be a Wave file, regardless of the compression format (the 
files will have the extension “wav”). But instead of the reg-
ular “linear” audio data that usually makes up a wave file, a 
special audio data “chunk” is included that contains the 
compressed audio.
This is normally not a problem, but something to be aware 
of when planning for usage of files in other programs and 
on other computer platforms.
Editing audio properties and file 
attributes 
Editing audio properties
Each audio file has a certain set of properties, that is, in-
formation about the sample rate at which it was recorded, 
what the bit resolution is, etc. The “Audio Properties” dia-
log allows you to change that information.
There are two ways to bring up this dialog:
Select “Audio Properties” from the Edit menu.
Click on the properties information field, on the status 
bar.
The Audio Properties dialog
About changing the values
Changing the values in this dialog does not process the 
file in any way, unlike Convert File (see “Saving in another 
format (Save as…)” on page 51). However, the following 
rules apply:
 If you change the sample rate, the file will play back at the 
wrong pitch. If you change the bit resolution the file will be converted to the 
new resolution the next time you save it.
File attributes
If you select this option on the Edit menu, a dialog opens 
in which you can specify various information about the 
wave file.
The Wave Attributes dialog 
You can enter information on either the Standard tab or 
the Broadcast Audio Extension tab. The information you 
enter here is added to the header of the file, and thereby 
labels it as either a Standard wave file or a Broadcast 
wave file. A Broadcast wave file is essentially the same 
thing as a Standard wave file, the difference is what infor-
mation the file headers can contain.
On the Standard tab in the dialog, you can enter infor-
mation that will be displayed for instance when viewing 
the file’s properties in the Windows explorer.
ÖNote that you can instruct WaveLab Essential to auto-
matically fill out the text fields for “Originator software” 
(WaveLab Essential) and “Creation Date” (the current), by 
clicking the small buttons to the right of the fields.
On the Broadcast Audio Extension tab you can also en-
ter information to be embedded in the file, such as title, 
author, etc. A Timecode position is included in the file as 
well. This makes it possible to insert audio at precise posi-
tions in other applications. By default, the Timecode posi-
tion is set to the start position of the audio.
!There is no Undo for this item. If you save with a 
lower bit resolution, the file is permanently converted. 
						

							7
Playback and recording 
						

							57
Playback and recording
Playing back
Background information
About sample rates
If the wave file is recorded at a sample rate not supported 
by your audio card you will not be able to play it back. You 
might then opt to use sample rate conversion, see “Con-
vert sample rate” on page 79. Also see “Supported file 
formats” on page 49 for more on file formats.
About the playback cursor position and 
appearance
Great care has been taken to achieve synchronization be-
tween what you hear and what you see (the wave cursor 
position in the wave during playback). However, by nature, 
this precision depends to a large extent on the audio card 
and its driver. In case you run into problems you may want 
to adjust the settings on Preferences–Audio device tab.
About audio cards and playing in the background
When you activate playback or recording in WaveLab Es-
sential, it will “grab” the audio card so that other applica-
tions cannot access it. The opposite is also true: if another 
application has grabbed the card, WaveLab Essential will 
be unable to play.
ÖIf you want to run WaveLab Essential together with 
another audio program, and make sure whichever applica-
tion is active gets access to the audio card, activate the 
“Release audio hardware…” option in the Preferences–
Audio device tab. 
When you do, WaveLab Essential will “let go” of the audio card when 
another application is made active (provided that this doesn’t happen 
during playback or recording in WaveLab Essential).
Using the Transport bar
Displaying the Transport bar
If the Transport is hidden, select Transport from the Con-
trol bars submenu on the View menu.
The Transport controls
The Stop button
The result of clicking on the stop button depends on the 
current situation: 
If the program is stopped and you click the Stop button, 
the wave cursor is moved to the beginning of the last start 
position. A second click will move the cursor to the start of 
current selection (if any and if this is located before the 
last start position).
If there is no selection, or if the wave cursor is already to 
the left of the selection, it is moved to the beginning of the 
file instead.
If there is no selection, and you activate playback from a 
point and then stop so the wave cursor is to the right of 
the original point, the cursor will move to the place you last 
started when you click Stop again.
If you click on the Stop Point/Loop button and activate 
the “On stop, move cursor back to start” option on the 
menu, the cursor will be automatically moved back to the 
beginning of the selection when you click Stop (from play-
back).
If there is no selection, it will automatically move back to the place you 
started from.
Loop On/Off
Start 
Point
Skip
Stop Point/Loop
Goto beginningRewindFast ForwardGoto EndStopPlayRecord 
						

							58
Playback and recording
Transport control settings for separate windows
By default, open windows in WaveLab Essential (wave 
windows and montage windows) all use the same Trans-
port control settings (loop settings, playback speed, etc.). 
You can however choose to use separate settings for 
separate windows if you want: open the Preferences–Au-
dio device tab and make sure the option “Transport set-
tings are global to all windows” is not activated.
When this option is deactivated, the following transport 
controls can be set differently for each open wave or mon-
tage window:
 Start point (see “Setting the start point for playback” on page 
58).
“Skipping sections during playback” on page 58).
 Stop point/loop (see “Setting the Stop point/loop” on page 
58).
 Loop On/Off (see “Looping” on page 58).
Setting the start point for playback
The Start point button on the transport brings up a menu 
that allows you to specify where playback will start.
For example, if you select “Play from start of file”, as soon 
as you hit Play, the wave cursor will jump back to the be-
ginning of the file and playback starts from there.
Setting the Stop point/loop
The Stop point/loop button on the Transport bar allows 
you to select where playback should stop and whether it 
should loop indefinitely.
Automatic Stop
For example, if you select “Stop at next marker”, playback 
will stop as soon as the program reaches a marker or the 
end of the file, whichever comes first.
Looping
Let’s say you have chosen “Loop selection” mode. Now, if 
some piece of the wave is selected, this will be repeated 
indefinitely (as long as you don’t start playback from a po-
sition later than the selection).
If no selection is made, the entire wave is looped.
About loop updating and short loops
The loop points are updated continuously during play-
back, which means that if you change the loop start or end 
during playback, the loop changes. This is a great feature 
for auditioning selection points for rhythmic material!
Please note that it takes some time for positions to be up-
dated (0.3 to 1 second, depending on the file’s bit resolu-
tion and sample rate). If you don’t want to wait, activate 
“Restart on loop/selection change” on the Options menu. 
When this is activated, the loop starts over as soon as you 
adjust the selection or move a loop start marker.
Also please note that WaveLab Essential handles play-
back of extremely short loops without problems. However, 
the cursor position might not be updated correctly.
Skipping sections during playback
You can also have playback automatically jump past cer-
tain positions during playback. This way, you will be able 
to audition what the material would sound like with certain 
sections cut out, before the actual edits are made.
This selection is done from the menu invoked by clicking 
the Skip button on the Transport bar.
If you have made a selection range, you can select “Skip 
selection” to skip the selected area.
Play tool – Playing one or both channels in 
stereo files
Selecting the Play tool momentarily
The Play tool can of course be selected by clicking in the 
Toolbox, but there are situations when you are working 
with another tool and just momentarily want to use the 
Play tool.
To momentarily select the Play tool, hold down [Alt]. 
When you have finished playing, release [Alt].
Using the Play tool
The Play tool allows you to play back from any position:
1.Point at the position where you want playback to start.
2.If the wave is in stereo, move the pointer up or down to 
decide whether only one channel should be played back.
Watch the cursor shape, it indicates what will be played back (L, R or 
both). 
						

							59
Playback and recording
3.Press the mouse button.
Playback continues for as long as you keep the mouse button pressed, 
or until the wave ends. After playback has stopped, the cursor will be 
moved to the playback start position, making this a quick way to locate to 
certain positions in the audio.
Using the Playback Browser
The Playback Browser feature helps you find a certain po-
sition in an audio file, by restarting playback repeatedly 
when you click or drag to move the wave cursor.
1.Activate playback using the regular Play function, or 
select the Play tool.
Note that depending on your Preferences settings, Playback Browsing 
may only be available for the Play tool.
2.Click or drag in the ruler.
If you click, playback jumps immediately to the position at which you 
clicked. If you drag continuously, a short snippet of audio from each new 
position is played (looped).
Playback Browser preferences
On the Preferences–Wave edit tab you will find two pref-
erences for Playback Browsing:
 The Sensitivity setting is used to determine the size of the 
“snippets of audio” played back when you drag.
 When the “Restrict to Play tool” option is activated, Playback 
Browsing is not available when you activate Playback using 
the transport bar or computer keyboard.
On the Options menu you will also find an option called 
“Stop after playback browsing”, which determines what 
happens when you release the mouse button: playback 
continues (deactivated) or stops (activated). Note that 
when this option is activated, the cursor will automatically 
be moved back to the playback start position on stop, al-
lowing you to use this function for locate positions in the 
audio.
Playing the selection only
There are several ways to play the selected part of the 
wave only:
Press the right mouse button in the Overview or the 
Main view and select Play Selection from the menu that 
appears.
Hold down [Ctrl] and click on the Play button.Press [F6].
If you hold down [Shift] and press [F6], the selection will be played back 
repeatedly (looped).
Drag and drop the selection on the Play button on the 
Transport.
Scrolling during playback
The “Scrolling during playback” submenu on the Options 
menu contains several options for how the view should be 
scrolled in Play mode:
ÖNote: these options do not apply to playback using the 
Play tool, and the last two options require a fast computer 
and graphics card.
If you get dropouts during playback, please select another Scrolling 
mode.
Recording
About automatic gain controls
Some audio cards may have a feature which automatically 
sets the recording level for the microphone input. This fea-
ture is often called AGC (Automatic Gain Control). For 
“professional” results we recommend that you deactivate 
this feature using the software that came with the card.
Option Description
Immobile view This disables scrolling completely.
View follows cursor In this mode, the waveform view will automati-
cally change when the Wave cursor reaches the 
right side of the window during playback. 
Scroll wave (partial) In this mode, the waveform view is scrolled con-
tinuously, attempting to keep the Wave cursor in 
the middle of the view. However, if loop mode is 
activated and the loop range fits on the screen, 
no unnecessary scrolling takes place, allowing 
for a more stable view of the loop. The program 
will also “sense” the end of a file and stop scroll-
ing when it is “in view”, rather than when the end 
is reached.
Scroll wave (always) In this mode, the waveform view is scrolled con-
tinuously, attempting to keep the Wave cursor in 
the middle of the screen. 
!For details on connections, recording levels, etc. 
please refer to the documentation that came with 
your audio card. 
						

							60
Playback and recording
Please note that if you leave this feature activated, the Mi-
crophone input gain control in the Mixer (see later in this 
text) will have less effect on the recording level.
Preparations
To record a new file, proceed as follows:
1.Click the Record button, or press [*] on the numeric 
key pad.
The Record dialog appears.
The Record dialog
2.Decide whether you want to record to a “named” or a 
“temporary” file, by selecting from the pop-up at the top of 
the dialog.
Temporary files are practical to use, since you don’t need to name the file 
beforehand, you just “hit record and go”. On the other hand, you will 
need to save the file at a later stage. Temporary files are always wave 
files, while named files allow you to choose to record files in a number of 
different formats. Also note that if you plan to make a recording over sev-
eral minutes we recommend that you record a named file.
3.If you have selected one of the “Named File” options in 
the step above, type in the path to the desired destination 
for the file on the line below the pop-up or click the folder 
button and specify a file location.
If you activate the Auto number checkbox, a three-digit number will be 
added to the file name. Starting at the number you specify in the value 
field to the left of the checkbox, the Auto number will be increased in in-
crements with each new recording, to prevent existing files from being 
overwritten.
4.Click the file format button at the top of the Record di-
alog, and decide on a recording format. WaveLab Essen-
tial lets you record directly into a number of different 
formats (see “Supported file formats” on page 49 for de-
tails). 
In the Audio File Format dialog that appears, you can among other things 
choose the desired format, sample rate, number of channels to record 
and bit resolution.
The Audio File Format dialog
5.Click OK to close the Audio File Format dialog.
6.If needed, activate the desired recording options in the 
dialog.
There are also additional settings in a separate dialog, opened by click-
ing the Settings button.
At this point, you can start recording (see “Start record-
ing!” on page 61) if you like.
Setting up the mixer (MME/WDM drivers)
At this point you may want to click the Mixer button to ad-
just the relative volume of your card’s inputs.
ÖFor the mixer to appear, you must have specifically se-
lected the card on the Preferences–Audio device tab. 
If the Input and Output are set to “Microsoft Sound Mapper” a mixer can-
not be created.
Exactly what controls will appear in the mixer depends on 
the card, but here are some possibilities:
 Master Gain (output-fader)
 Synth In (input-fader plus on/off check box)
!If you choose a bit resolution not supported by your 
audio card, you will not be able to record.