Steinberg WaveLab Essential 6 Operation Manual

							10
Master Section 
						

							82
Master Section
Introduction
The Master Section is the heart of WaveLab Essential’s 
“Real-time Engine” and the final block in the signal path, 
before the audio is sent to the audio hardware (or to an 
audio file on disk). This is where you adjust master levels, 
add effect processors and dither. 
The settings and processors in the Master Section are 
taken into account in the following cases:
ÖWhen playing back an audio file in a Wave window.
ÖWhen playing back an Audio CD Montage.
Note that the Master Section effects are global for all clips and tracks in 
a Montage, as opposed to the individual clip effects.
ÖWhen using the Render function with any of the above.
The Render function writes the output of the Master Section to a file on 
disk, allowing you to apply Master Section processing to a Wave or mix 
down a Montage to an audio file. See “Rendering” on page 91.
About the “Use Master Section” option
If you don’t need the Master Section at all, you can turn it 
off completely by deactivating the Use Master Section 
setting on the Options menu. This will save processor 
power, but makes the following sections of the program 
unavailable:
 The Master Section window, including processors and dither-
ing.
 The functions of the Monitor window.
 Audio CD Burning from the Audio CD Montage.
The Master Section window
To open the Master Section window, you can either select 
it from the Specialized Windows submenu on the View 
menu or press [Ctrl]-[F9].ÖWhen you open the Master Section, active effect pro-
cessor panels will also appear (if they haven’t been hidden).
To close the Master Section, select it from the menu again 
or press [Ctrl]-[F9].
There are four slots for inserting effect processors. Effects can be 
turned on or off with the On buttons, and reordered by dragging the 
slots.
The Master Level pane. This is 
where you adjust the final output 
level. See “The Master level pane” 
on page 83.
The Dithering pane lets you add dith-
ering when mixing down to a lower 
bit resolution. See “The Dithering 
pane” on page 88. Indicates that the level faders are 
active (any setting other than 
0.00), or that the Mono button is 
activated.The Effects pane allows you to 
add and manage effect pro-
cessors. See “The Effects 
pane” on page 85.
Options for the internal dithering 
algorithm. Level faders.Indicates that an effect is activated.
Here you can insert a post-master 
fader effect or other dithering plug-
ins, replacing the internal dithering.
Click here to render the output to a file.
Activate this for mono output.
Indicates that dithering is on. 
						

							83
Master Section
Showing and hiding panes
You can independently hide the three Master Section 
panes in any combination:
Clicking on the Hide button for a pane will “fold” it, leav-
ing only the pane title bar visible.
This is useful for saving screen space, if you e.g. don’t need to see the 
Dithering settings. Note that the green indicator for the pane will still be 
visible when the pane is hidden, allowing you to see at a glance whether 
effects, master volume or dithering are used or not.
 To show a hidden pane, click its Hide button again.
 Right-clicking (or [Ctrl]-clicking) a Hide button will hide the 
other two panes and bring the clicked pane to view (if hidden).
 Double clicking a Hide button will hide or show that pane and 
the pane(s) below it.
About the signal path
The three panes in the Master Section window corre-
spond to the Master Section’s three “processing blocks”: 
Effects, Master Level and Dithering. The signal passes 
through these blocks from top to bottom, as shown in this 
figure:
The Master level pane
The Faders
The faders in the Master level pane govern the final output 
level. Use these in conjunction with the level meters (those 
next to the fader, or even better, the meters in the Level 
Meter window) and the clip indicators to optimize the level 
of the signal sent to the audio hardware.
To adjust the level, use the following methods:
1.To make coarse adjustments, click a fader handle and 
drag it.
You can also click directly anywhere along the fader scale to move the 
fader handle there immediately.
2.For fine adjustments, click on the upper or lower half 
of the fader handle.
This raises or lowers the level by a small amount.
To reset a fader to 0.00 dB, press [Ctrl] and click any-
where on the fader.
When both faders are set to 0.00 (and the Mono button isn’t activated), 
the Master level section will not affect the signal at all. This is indicated 
by the green indicator for the Master pane going dark.
You can control the faders using a wheel mouse.
This has to be activated in the Preferences–Environment tab.
The fader settings are shown numerically below each 
fader.
Audio from WaveLab
Slot 1
Slot 4
Master Level
Dithering 
(or post-master effect)
Audio Hardware 
(or file on disk)
Note that the signal passes 
through the effects in series 
(from top to bottom) – reorder-
ing the effect slots affects the 
signal path.
Master Section meters monitor 
the signal here.
Meters in the Meter windows 
monitor the signal here.
!It’s particularly important to avoid clipping (signal lev-
els exceeding the available headroom), especially 
when mastering. Clipping is indicated by the Master 
Section’s clip indicators (see below) and by the 
number of clip indicators in the Level Meter. 
						

							84
Master Section
About the Unlink mode
The Unlink button determines whether the faders should 
be individually adjustable (indicated by a lit Unlink button) 
or “ganged”. Normally, you will probably want Unlink de-
activated, so that moving one fader also moves the other 
by the same amount. Turning on Unlink allows you to cor-
rect improper stereo balancing by adjusting the channels’ 
levels individually. Note:
ÖIf you offset the faders (with Unlink turned on) and 
then deactivate Unlink again, you can adjust the overall 
level without changing the level offset between the chan-
nels.
In other words, moving one fader will move the other one by the same 
amount, relative to its current setting. Note that the faders use an expo-
nential scale – this means that when you move one fader, the other does 
not follow in a linear fashion on the screen. However, the audio result is 
what you expect.
ÖFader offsets are not preserved at the end of the range 
of movement.
The Meters
The Master Section meters show the signal level of the 
signal before dithering (or any other plug-in you have ap-
plied post-master fader – see “Adding other plug-ins to 
the Dithering pane” on page 89). Use these to get an 
overview of the signal levels.
The numeric fields above the faders show the peak lev-
els (the highest signal levels reached) for each channel.
They will hold these values until you click on them to reset them.
The red “LEDs” above the meters are clip indicators, 
which will light up whenever the signal clips (exceeds the 
maximum available headroom). 
If this happens, you should lower the faders, reset the clip indicators by 
clicking on one of them, and play back the section again until no clipping 
occurs.
The Mono button
If you activate the Mono button, the two channels will be 
summed to mono. Furthermore, the output level is auto-
matically reduced by -6dB, to avoid clipping. The Mono 
button is useful for checking mono compatibility of stereo 
mixes, etc.
ÖIf the Mono button is activated, the green indicator for 
the Master level pane will be lit, even if the master level 
isn’t adjusted.
This helps you avoid accidentally leaving the Mono button activated.
The Dropout indicator
This indicator lights up whenever WaveLab Essential fails 
to properly play back as little as a single sample of the cur-
rently selected wave. A dropout is most likely to occur 
when your computer does not have the processing power 
to adequately handle all effect processors you have in-
serted.
To avoid dropouts, try the following:
Use fewer effects.
You might be running out of processing power.
Consider “Rendering” the processing rather than run-
ning it in real time. Then master from the processed file 
without any processors plugged in. See “Rendering” on 
page 91.
Dropouts never occur when “Rendering” to a file.
Do not process any files in the background while mas-
tering digitally to a DAT for example. See “Working with 
multiple files” on page 92.
If neither of the above helps, please check the audio 
card preference settings, you might need to adjust the au-
dio buffer settings.
If a dropout occurs during a real-time mastering process 
(and if your master needs to be flawless) we recommend 
that you re-master. Stop playback, click on the dropout in-
dicator to reset it, and try again.
ÖAs mentioned above, this indicator lights up as soon 
as even a single sample is not played back correctly. This 
type of precision is not often required, but it’s there if you 
need it.
!For critical level metering, we recommend using the 
Level Meter (see “The meters” on page 64). Not only 
is this more detailed, it’s also applied after the whole 
Master Section (after dithering) and will thus show 
the actual signal level sent to the audio hardware. 
						

							85
Master Section
The Effects pane
WaveLab Essential allows you to insert up to four effect 
plug-ins in series (plus an additional, post-master fader 
plug-in, normally used for dithering, see “The Dithering 
pane” on page 88). Three plug-in formats are supported in 
the Master Section:
WaveLab Essential-specific plug-ins, included with the 
program.
VST plug-ins.
Steinberg’s VST plug-in format is supported by a lot of programs and 
plug-in manufacturers. You will find a number of VST plug-ins included 
with WaveLab Essential; other plug-ins can be purchased separately 
from Steinberg or other manufacturers or in some cases downloaded 
from the Internet. 
Note that if you have additional VST plug-ins installed on your computer, 
these can optionally be available in WaveLab Essential (provided that 
they are installed in the “Shared VST Plug-ins” folder). Whether the ef-
fects in the “Shared VST Plug-ins” folder should be available in Wave-
Lab Essential or not is set in the Preferences–VST tab. You can also 
specify an extra VST plug-ins folder in the Preferences if you wish, mean-
ing that you can have access to both the effects in the “Shared VST 
Plug-ins” folder and the effects in some other folder containing VST 
plug-ins.
Plug-ins that adhere to the Microsoft DirectX standard.
These are known as DirectX or DX plug-ins and are also widely available.
Selecting effects and managing slots
To select an effect plug-in for a slot, click on the slot (or 
the numbered button to the right of the slot) and select an 
effect from the pop-up menu that appears. Note that ef-
fects can be organized in groups (see “Organizing plug-in 
processors” on page 186), in which case they will appear 
in hierarchical submenus.
Selecting an effect from the VST group.
When you have selected an effect, it is automatically acti-
vated (the On button lights up), and its control panel ap-
pears as a separate window (see “Making settings – The 
Effect control panels” on page 86 for more on effect con-
trol panels).
You can turn off an effect (without removing it) by click-
ing its On button.
To activate the effect again, click the On button so that it lights up.
To hide the control panel for an effect, right-click its On 
button (or right-click the effect slot and select Hide from 
the pop-up menu that appears).
A hidden control panel can be shown by right-clicking the On button 
again (or by selecting Show from the same pop-up). You can also have 
one effect panel shown and automatically hide all the other panels, by 
right-clicking the Solo button for the slot.
Clicking the Solo button for an effect will bypass all 
other effect slots, allowing you to check the sound of that 
effect only.
You can also bypass effects manually in their control panels – see below.
!The number of effects available on the menu de-
pends on which plug-ins you have installed. It’s also 
possible to globally deactivate or exclude effects you 
don’t need, as described in the section “Activating 
and deactivating plug-ins and groups” on page 187. 
						

							86
Master Section
You can change the order of the slots (and thus the or-
der in which the signal passes through the effects) by 
clicking a slot and dragging it to a new position.
When you drag, a dotted outline shows the position of the slot.
To remove an effect from a slot, right-click the slot and 
select Remove from the pop-up menu that appears.
This is the same as selecting “None” from the effect selection pop-up 
menu.
Making settings – The Effect control panels
The control panel window is where you make settings for 
an effect. Plug-ins can either have specialized control 
panels (with any combination of knobs, sliders, buttons 
and displays) or use standard panels.
Bypass, Mute and Preset
As you can see in the figure above, the three buttons 
above the actual panel are common to both kinds of con-
trol panel windows. They have the following functionality:
Clicking the Bypass button will temporarily bypass the 
effect.
Unlike turning off the On button for the slot, the bypass function does not 
free up any processing power. Note that you can bypass all effects ex-
cept one by using the Solo button for a slot. It’s also possible to bypass 
all effects by using the global bypass button in the Effects pane. Also 
note that bypassing effects is for playback only, and does not affect ren-
dering. To deactivate an effect when rendering, use the On/Off buttons 
in the Master Section effect pane.
The Mute button turns off the signal output from the ef-
fect.
This means that you will no longer hear your signal because it won’t even 
reach the next stage (either another slot or the master faders).
The Preset button allows you to select and edit presets 
for the effect.
This is described in the section “Working with effect processor presets” 
on page 87.
Standard panels
A standard panel shows parameter names and values in 
the display to the left. To make settings, use the slider be-
side the corresponding parameter.
Custom panels
An effect plug-in can actually have any control panel that 
the plug-in designer desires. There are several examples 
of custom panel plug-ins included with WaveLab Essen-
tial.
For information about the panels for additional plug-ins, 
see the documentation for each plug-in. 
						

							87
Master Section
Working with effect processor presets
With WaveLab Essential comes a number of “factory pre-
sets” for the included processors, which you can either 
select and use as is, or use as a starting point for your own 
settings. Additional plug-in processors may provide their 
own “factory presets”.
ÖTo access the presets for an effect, click the Preset 
button in its control panel window.
The result and available functions depend on the type of plug-in:
WaveLab Essential specific plug-ins
Applying and saving presets for WaveLab Essential spe-
cific processors works exactly as with any other preset, 
apart from the fact that there are no preset “tabs” or menu 
items as in dialogs. Instead, clicking the Preset button will 
open a separate Preset dialog. The options in this dialog 
are exactly the same as for dialogs with Preset tabs. See 
“Presets” on page 30 for more details.
VST-compatible plug-ins
VST plug-ins have their own preset handling. When you 
click the Preset button for this type of effect, a pop-up 
menu with the following options appears:
DirectX plug-ins
Here, the same functionality is provided as for WaveLab 
Essential plug-ins. In addition, you can import “native” pre-
sets created for the plug-in.
About the effect plug-ins supplied with 
WaveLab Essential
Included with WaveLab Essential is a large number of 
plug-ins for all kinds of purposes, audio compression, 
chorus, stereo enhancement, reverb, etc. The parameters 
for each plug-in are described in the “Plug-in Processor 
Reference” in the online documentation.
Installing additional effect plug-ins
If you have purchased or downloaded additional plug-ins 
(VST or DirectX), you need to install these to be able to 
use them in WaveLab Essential. Normally, plug-ins come 
with an installer application of some kind, along with a 
manual or installation notes – make sure to follow the in-
structions in these when installing the plug-in.
About installing DirectX plug-ins
Normally if the DirectX plug-in has been installed properly, 
it will automatically be “visible” in WaveLab Essential. If it 
isn’t, you need to “update the Windows registry” so that it 
is. Proceed as follows:
1.In Windows, locate the actual plug-in file on your hard 
disk.
These are “dll” (dynamic link library) files, which means they normally 
have the extension “.dll”. Sometimes other extensions are used as well.
2.Drag and drop the file icon, either onto the WaveLab 
Essential program icon, or somewhere in the WaveLab 
Essential application window.
A dialog box will ask you whether you want to register the plug-in or not.
Organizing plug-ins
You can specify which plug-ins should be available in the 
program and how these should be organized on the menus. 
See “Organizing plug-in processors” on page 186.
Item Description
Load/Save Bank… This allows you to load and save complete sets of 
presets. The file format is compatible with Cubase.
Load/Save Default 
BankThis allows you to load the default set of presets 
(as will appear when first loading the plug-in) or 
save the current set of presets as the default bank.
Load/Save Effect Lets you load or save one preset at a time. Also 
compatible with Cubase.
Edit name of current 
program…This allows you to define a name for the preset, 
which might be displayed in the panel (depending 
on the plug-in).
Preset List This allows you to select one of the currently 
loaded presets. 
						

							88
Master Section
The Dithering pane
The Dithering pane allows you to add dithering to the sig-
nal before it’s sent to the audio hardware or to a file on 
disk. You can choose between WaveLab Essential’s inter-
nal dithering algorithm or any external dithering plug-in of 
your choice. First, some theory:
What is dithering?
Dithering is a method for reducing quantization errors in 
digital recordings. In the case of WaveLab Essential, dith-
ering is applied when reducing the number of bits in a re-
cording, for example when moving from 24 to 16 bits, and 
when applying processing.
The theory behind this is that during low level passages, 
only a few bits are used to represent the signal, which 
leads to quantization errors and hence distortion. To the 
ear, this is perceived as “graininess” during low level pas-
sages in a recording.
When “truncating bits”, as a result of moving from for ex-
ample 24- to 16-bit resolution, such quantization noise is 
added to an otherwise immaculate recording.
By adding a special kind of noise at an extremely low level, 
the quantization errors are minimized. Indeed, the added 
noise can be perceived as a very low-level quiescent hiss 
added to the recording. However, this is hardly noticeable 
and much preferred to the distortion that otherwise oc-
curs.
ÖThe reason for the dithering block to be last in the 
Master Section is that the output level must not be 
changed after dithering a signal.
When should I apply dithering?
The basic rule-of-thumb is that you should dither when 
moving to a lower bit resolution. One obvious instance of 
this is when converting an audio file to a lower resolution 
(e.g. preparing a 24-bit file for mastering to CD, which 
uses 16-bit format).
However, even if you’re playing back or rendering a 16-bit 
file to the same resolution, you need to dither if you’re us-
ing any real-time processing whatsoever in WaveLab Es-
sential! The reason for this is that WaveLab Essential 
works with an internal resolution of 32-bit (floating point), 
for supreme audio quality. This means that as soon as you 
perform any kind of real-time processing, the audio data 
will be treated at this high resolution instead of the original 
16 bits, thus making dithering necessary.
Examples of real-time processing include level adjust-
ments, any effects, mixing of two or more clips in a Mon-
tage, etc. In fact, the only time when a 16-bit file will be 
pl ay ed ba ck  a t 1 6-b it  res ol utio n is  if y ou pla y  it w ith out a ny  
fades or effects, and with the Master Faders set to 0.00 
(no level adjustment – Master level indicator turned off).
Selecting a dithering algorithm
To select and activate a dithering algorithm, click on the 
arrow button next to the plug-in slot in the Dithering pane, 
and select one of the options from the pop-up menu that 
appears. The default option is “Intern” (WaveLab Essen-
tial’s internal dithering algorithm). However, you can also 
add other plug-ins to this list, see “Adding other plug-ins 
to the Dithering pane” on page 89.
Once you have selected a dithering algorithm, dithering is 
active (as indicated by the green indicator for the Dither-
ing pane). It will apply to all playback (through the Master 
Section) or rendering.
ÖTo turn off dithering completely, right click in the slot 
and select “Remove” from the pop-up menu that appears.
This is the same as selecting “None” from the effect selection pop-up 
menu. 
						

							89
Master Section
Making settings
When dithering, there are no hard and fast rules for how to 
set up the parameters – this largely depends on the type 
of material. We recommend that you experiment and let 
your ears be the final judge.
Internal dithering
Adding other plug-ins to the Dithering pane
If you have purchased another dithering plug-in that you 
prefer, you can use this instead of the internal dithering. 
It’s also possible to insert some other type of plug-in in the 
Dithering pane – it will be applied after the Master level 
faders (possible useful plug-ins would be maximizers, lim-
iters, etc.).To make a plug-in available on the plug-in slot pop-up 
menu in the Dithering pane, proceed as follows:
1.Pull down the Options menu and select “Organize 
Master Section plug-ins…”.
A dialog appears, listing all plug-ins installed in your system. See “Orga-
nizing plug-in processors” on page 186.
2.Locate the plug-in in the list.
Note that plug-ins can be placed in groups (folders) in the list – click the 
plus sign next to a folder to view the contents of a group if needed.
3.Activate the checkbox in the PM column for the plug-
in.
PM stands for “Post Master fader”.
4.Click OK to close the dialog.
Now, the plug-in will appear on the pop-up menu in the 
Dithering pane, and can be inserted after the Master Level 
faders (as with the regular dithering types). You make set-
tings for the plug-in like you would for effects in the Ef-
fects pane. Note also that the plug-in will still be available 
for selection as a regular, pre-master effect.
Master Section presets
You can turn all settings currently made in the Master 
Section into a preset. This includes which processors 
were used, what settings were made for each one of 
them, and dithering options.
Parameter Description
Noise Type Determines the dithering method used:
In “Off” mode, no dithering is applied – use this as a 
Bypass function. 
The “Type 1” mode is the most “all-round” type of 
method.
The “Type 2” mode emphasizes higher frequencies 
more than Type 1.
Noise Shaping This parameter alters the character of the noise added 
when dithering. Again, there are no hard and fast rules, 
but you may notice that the higher the number you se-
lect here, the more the noise is moved out of the ear’s 
most sensitive range, the mid-range.
Output Bit 
ResolutionThis is where you specify the intended bit resolution for 
the final audio, after dithering, regardless of whether 
you will “Render” the settings or play back in real-time.
It is very important to set this to the correct resolution!
Dithering will change the sample resolution, but not the 
sample size. E.g. when dithering 24-bit to 16-bit, the 
file will be still be 32-bit in size, although only 16 bits of 
information will have significance. 
Hence, when rendering to a 16-bit file, specify the de-
sired file resolution to avoid wasting space!
!Please remember that the meters in the Master Sec-
tion monitor the signal before the Dithering pane! To 
avoid clipping, check the Level Meter and adjust the 
output level setting of the plug-in, if available. 
						

							90
Master Section
Creating presets
To create a new preset, proceed as follows:
1.Set up the Master Section as you want it.
This includes selecting Processors, making settings, and setting dither-
ing options.
2.Click the Presets button in the Effects pane.
3.Type in a name for the preset in the upper right corner.
4.If you want the dithering options and Master level set-
tings to be part of the preset, make sure “Save Dither/
Level settings” is activated.
This is the default.
5.Click Add.
ÖThe presets are saved automatically when you quit the 
program. The next time you load the program, the presets 
are ready and waiting, just as you left them.
Loading a preset
To load a preset, select it in the list to the left, and click on 
one of the Load buttons, depending on the desired load 
method:
The Replace method replaces all settings in the Master 
Section with the setting in the preset.
The Mask method replaces only those slots in the Mas-
ter Section that are actually used in the preset.
The Append method fills the unused slots in the Master 
Section with the settings in the preset.
If there are not enough free slots available to load the entire preset, a 
warning message will appear.
Modifying a preset
1.Set up the Master Section as desired.
If you only want to adjust a few settings in an existing preset, you may 
want to load this first, as described above.
2.Go back to the “Master Section Presets” window.
3.Select the preset you want to overwrite with the new 
settings.
4.Click the Update button.
To update settings for the last loaded preset you can 
[Ctrl]-click the Presets button.
This will save any changes without having to open the dialog.
Deleting a preset
To delete a preset, select it in the list to the left and click 
the Delete button.
Using key sequences for presets
If you want to invoke a preset via a key command se-
quence, you can do this by defining key sequences.
A key sequence contains between one and three keys that 
must be pressed in a certain order to recall the preset.
Defining key sequences
1.Select the preset for which you want to create a key 
sequence, and click the key sequence button.
2.If you want to clear the current key sequence, click 
Clear.
3.Make sure Catch mode is active.
4.Press the first combination of keys that you want to 
use.
You can include modifiers ([Shift], [Ctrl], [Alt], etc.) if you like. There is 
also a setting that makes the program distinguish between two modifiers 
with the same label, on each side of the space bar.
5.Proceed with the following key(s).
6.Disable Catch mode.
This is just a safety measure so that you don’t accidentally erase or add 
to your current key sequence, when pressing more keys.
7.Close the dialog.
8.Use the Default Key Action buttons to decide whether 
your key sequences will invoke the “Replace”, “Mask” or 
“Append” load method.
This setting is global to all Key sequences.
Using key sequences
Key sequences can only be invoked when the Master 
Section Presets dialog is closed. Press the keys in the or-
der they were entered in the dialog, and the preset is 
loaded.
Saving and loading preset groups
You can save one or more created presets as a preset 
group for easy access. If you have added presets to the 
Preset window and want to save them as a group, use the 
drop-down menu at the bottom of the dialog to enter a 
name for the group and save it.