Steinberg Wavelab Elements - 7.0 Instruction Manual

Getting into the details

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Windows Vista and Windows 7 are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks. MP3SURROUND and the MP3SURROUND logo are registered trademarks of Thomson SA, registered in the US and other countries, and are used under license from Thomson Licensing SAS.

Release Date: November 29, 2011

Contents

1 WaveLab Elements 7 Help 1

2 Getting Help 3

2.1 Help menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 Using the interface 5

3.1 About Tool Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.2 Adjusting Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3.3 Command bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.4 Context menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.5 Docking windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.6 Double clicking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.7 Dragging operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.8 Playback shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.9 Select-clicking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.10 Shortcut system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.11 Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.12 Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3.13 Switcher window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3.14 Tab Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3.15 Transport controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3.16 Value editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3.17 Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3.18 Zooming and scrolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4 WaveLab Elements Concepts 25

4.1 Features Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4.2 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4.2.1 Global analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4.2.2 3D Frequency Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4.2.3 VU Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4.2.4 Spectroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4.2.5 Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4.3 Authoring CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4.4 Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4.4.1 Marker types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

4.5 Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

4.5.1 VU Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

4.5.2 Spectroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

4.5.3 Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

4.6 Ofﬂine processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4.6.1 Change Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

4.6.2 Level envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

ii CONTENTS

4.6.3 Normalize Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

4.6.4 Silence Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4.6.5 Loop Tone Uniformizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4.6.6 Pitch correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

4.6.7 Time stretching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

4.6.8 Loop Tweaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

4.6.9 Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

4.6.10 Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

4.7 Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4.8 Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

5 Audio File editing 51

5.1 Ofﬂine processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

5.1.1 Change Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

5.1.2 Level envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

5.1.3 Normalize Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

5.1.4 Silence Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

5.1.5 Loop Tone Uniformizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

5.1.6 Pitch correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5.1.7 Time stretching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5.1.8 Loop Tweaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

5.1.9 Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

5.1.10 Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

5.2 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

5.2.1 Global analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

5.2.2 3D Frequency Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

5.2.3 VU Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

5.2.4 Spectroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

5.2.5 Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

5.3 Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

5.3.1 VU Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

5.3.2 Spectroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

5.3.3 Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

5.4 Transport controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5.5 Speciﬁc tool windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

5.5.1 Metadata window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

5.5.2 Sample attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

5.5.3 Marker Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

5.5.4 File Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

5.6 Shared tool windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

5.6.1 VU Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

5.6.2 Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

5.6.3 Spectroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

5.7 Peak Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

6 Audio Montages 77

6.1 Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

6.1.1 VU Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

6.1.2 Spectroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

6.1.3 Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

6.2 Transport controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

6.3 Speciﬁc tool windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

6.3.1 File Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

6.3.2 Focused Clip window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

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6.3.3 Marker Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

6.3.4 CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

6.3.5 Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

6.3.6 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

6.4 Shared tool windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

6.4.1 VU Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

6.4.2 Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

6.4.3 Spectroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

6.5 Audio Montage Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

7 Podcasts 93

7.1 FTP site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

7.2 Episodes menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

7.3 Publish menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

7.4 Speciﬁc tool windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

7.4.1 File Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

8 Master Section 99

8.1 Render Wave window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

8.2 Render Montage window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

8.3 Plug-ins settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

9 Interface Elements 103

9.1 Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

9.1.1 Insert link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

9.1.2 Audio File Format Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

9.1.3 Audio Montage properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

9.1.4 Audio properties dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

9.1.5 Audio Streaming Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

9.1.6 Batch Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

9.1.7 CD Text Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

9.1.8 CD-Text Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

9.1.9 Customize Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

9.1.10 Data CD/DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

9.1.11 Document list dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

9.1.12 Folder Preferences dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

9.1.13 Frequency range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

9.1.14 FTP site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

9.1.15 Change Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

9.1.16 File attributes (OGG/WMA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

9.1.17 Global analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

9.1.18 Import Audio CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

9.1.19 Level envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

9.1.20 Loop Tone Uniformizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

9.1.21 Global Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

9.1.22 Save Master Section Preset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

9.1.23 Audio Montage Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

9.1.24 Adjust CD Pauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

9.1.25 MP2 encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

9.1.26 MP3 attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

9.1.27 MP3 encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

9.1.28 Normalize Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

9.1.29 OGG encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

9.1.30 Mix dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

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9.1.31 Pitch correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

9.1.32 Podcast options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

9.1.33 Recording Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

9.1.34 Remote control devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

9.1.34.1 CC121 Advanced Integration Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

9.1.35 Rename File dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

9.1.36 CD Text Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

9.1.37 Render Montage window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

9.1.38 Render Wave window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

9.1.39 Sample attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

9.1.40 Modiﬁed ﬁles dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

9.1.41 Save Audio File dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

9.1.42 Save File As . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

9.1.43 Save Preset As . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

9.1.44 Save picture of active window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

9.1.45 Deﬁnition of shortcut(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

9.1.46 Silence Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

9.1.47 Special File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

9.1.48 Time Format dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

9.1.49 Time stretching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

9.1.50 File attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

9.1.51 Audio File editing preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

9.1.52 Write Audio CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

9.1.53 WMA encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

9.1.54 Write Data CD/DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

9.1.55 Loop Tweaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

9.1.56 Zoom factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

9.2 Shared tool windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

9.2.1 VU Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

9.2.2 Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

9.2.3 Spectroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

9.3 Speciﬁc tool windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

9.3.1 File Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

9.3.2 Metadata window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

9.3.3 Marker Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

9.3.4 Sample attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

9.3.5 Upload to SoundCloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

9.3.6 Focused Clip window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

9.3.7 CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

9.3.8 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

9.3.9 Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

10 Audio Plug-ins 147

10.1 Sonnox DeClicker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

10.2 Sonnox DeNoiser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

10.3 Sonnox DeBuzzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

10.4 Steinberg Autopan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

10.5 Steinberg Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

10.6 Steinberg Compressor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

10.7 Steinberg Mono Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

10.8 Steinberg Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

10.9 Steinberg Gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

10.10 Steinberg Limiter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

10.11 Steinberg Roomworks SE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

WaveLab Elements 7

CONTENTS v

10.12 Stereo Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

10.13 Steinberg Stereo Enhancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

10.14 Steinberg Studio EQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

10.15 Steinberg VST Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

10.16 Crystal Resampler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

10.17 Leveler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

10.18 Peak Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

10.19 Silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

10.20 Internal Dithering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

11 Utilities 179

11.1 Import Audio CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

11.2 Data CD/DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

11.3 Batch Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

12 How do I... 183

12.1 ... import songs from an audio CD into WaveLab Elements? . . . . . . . . . . 183

12.2 ... use VST Plug-ins? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

12.3 ... edit an existing Audio File? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

12.4 ... compile and edit several Audio Files on multiple tracks? . . . . . . . . . . . 184

12.5 ... apply processing to an Audio File? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

12.6 ... convert an Audio File into another audio format? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

12.7 ... play back with real-time effects? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

12.8 ... record new Audio File? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

12.9 ... convert the sample rate of an Audio File? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

12.10 ... create a Podcast? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

12.11 ... open an aac, m4a or m4p Audio File from Apple iTunes? . . . . . . . . . . 186

13 Glossary 187

13.1 ADPCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

13.2 AES31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

13.3 AIFF ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

13.4 Apple Lossless ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

13.5 ALAW ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

13.6 Aliasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

13.7 Amplitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

13.8 ASIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

13.9 Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

13.10 Audio montage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

13.11 Bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

13.12 Bit depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

13.13 Blu-ray Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

13.14 CD Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

13.15 CD Pre-emphasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

13.16 CD Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

13.17 Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

13.18 Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

13.19 Clipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

13.20 Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

13.21 Cross fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

13.22 DAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

13.23 DC Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

13.24 Decibel (dB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

13.25 Dithering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

WaveLab Elements 7

vi CONTENTS

13.26 Ensoniq Paris ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

13.27 Equalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

13.28 FFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

13.29 Focused Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

13.30 Formant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

13.31 FTP Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

13.32 Headroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

13.33 ISO image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

13.34 ISRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

13.35 Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

13.36 Loudness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

13.37 Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

13.38 Media Catalog Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

13.39 MIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

13.40 MIDI Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

13.41 Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

13.42 Mobile phone Audio Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

13.43 MP2 ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

13.44 MP3 ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

13.45 Non-destructive editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

13.46 Normalize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

13.47 NTSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

13.48 Ogg Vorbis ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

13.49 OSQ ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

13.50 PAL/SECAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

13.51 Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

13.52 Peak level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

13.53 Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

13.54 Pre-roll and Post-roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

13.55 Preset system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

13.56 Processor cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

13.57 Quantization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

13.58 Raw PCM ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

13.59 Red Book CD-DA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

13.60 Regular Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

13.61 RF64 ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

13.62 RMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

13.63 Sample rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

13.64 SMPTE timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

13.65 Sound Designer II ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

13.66 Spectrogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

13.67 Sun/Java ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

13.68 Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

13.69 Text/Excel ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

13.70 ULAW ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

13.71 UPC/EAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

13.72 WAV ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

13.73 WAV64 ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

13.74 Waveform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

13.75 Wet/Dry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

13.76 WMA ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

13.77 Zero crossing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

WaveLab Elements 7

Chapter 1

WaveLab Elements 7 Help

Welcome to the WaveLab Elements Help browser. You can expand the tree structure in the panel on the left (under the Contents tab) to ﬁnd individual Help topics. You can also use the Index and Bookmarks tabs, in addition to a powerful Search feature (under the Search tab).

Please see Getting Help for more ways of using the Help browser and other help features available throughout WaveLab Elements.

For a quick overview of the features provided in WaveLab Elements see Features Overview.

Top-level topics

Getting Help

Using the interface

WaveLab Elements Concepts

Audio File editing

Audio Montages

Podcasts

Master Section

Interface Elements

Audio Plug-ins

Utilities

How do I...

Glossary

2 WaveLab Elements 7 Help

WaveLab Elements 7

Chapter 2

Getting Help

WaveLab's detailed help system makes it easy to look up interface features and get information from within the program. There are three main types of help available:

What is this?

Access this by clicking on the icon, or the question mark icon in a dialog window titlebar, or by holding down [Shift]+[F1]. Once activated, the cursor changes to a question mark. Click on an interface feature for information on what it does and details of any settings/values/functions involved. This is a quick way to learn about the more detailed features of WaveLab Elements.

When a Context menu is open, holding down [Shift]+[F1] allows the "What is This?" mode to activate while the menu is open, and this is actually the only way to get help for Context menu features.

It is worth noting too that "What is This?" help is sometimes available for sub-parts of controls, such as List headers.

Tooltips

Hold your cursor over a button to show a brief description of its function wherever available.

Help window

This window provides you with detailed information on WaveLab's features and functionality. You can access this help window in several ways:



via the Help menu. See Help menu.



from each dialog window provided with a Help button. This opens the Help window at the relevant entry.



by pressing [F1]/[Command]+[?]. If a window is active, the Help window opens to the relevant entry. If a dialog box is open, the dialog is described.

4 Getting Help

Related topics

Help menu

Command bars

2.1 Help menu

The Help menu gives you a convenient point of access to WaveLab's Help system.



Help about the active window...

Select this (or press [F1]/[Command]+[?]) to give help on the active window. If a dialog box is open, the dialog is described.



Contents...

This lists the Help contents as a "tree structure" in the Contents window. Like many WaveLab Elements windows, you can make this a ﬂoating window, if you want to park it in a convenient place on screen.



Index...

This accesses an Index to Help entries. Type in the "Look for:" box, or scroll down the alphabetical list. If there is more than one entry for the Index item, you'll be given a choice of entries to be displayed, in the "Choose Topic" box.



Search...

Type the name of the topic you wish to ﬁnd in the "Search for:" box. If more than one topic is found to match the search string, a list is displayed: click on the most likely entry to display the topic. If there are too many entries, you can reﬁne the search by clicking on [+] "Advanced search".



Bookmarks...

Click the [+] Add button to add the displayed topic to the list of Bookmarked favorites. Now you can return to the entry speedily.



What is this?

This gives a short "Tooltip" explanation by pointing and clicking on the interface feature you need information on. This can also be used to get help on any menu item. Activate the question mark icon by selecting "What is this?" from the Help system; using

[Shift]+[F1]; or by selecting from the command bar button.



Steinberg on the internet - This ﬂy-out menu opens a window on your browser with the appropriate URL to support, update, upgrade or register WaveLab Elements. You can also access the Steinberg Home Page.

Related topics

Getting Help

WaveLab Elements 7

Chapter 3

Using the interface

This section gives information on interface features that may not be obvious and which may help to speed up your workﬂow, especially as your experience with WaveLab Elements increases.

WaveLab Elements is incredibly ﬂexible in the ways that you can set up your working environment. Interface elements can be arranged to suit your workﬂow, the type of project you are creating and the size and number of your displays.

You can move, reorder and detach windows and tabs from frames and tear off groups of buttons in the Toolbar. You can slide and quickly partition different panes (areas) of the WaveLab Elements window. WaveLab Elements has distinct Workspaces where you can work on a "session". Each Workspace lets you collect a number of ﬁles that you want to keep together. This could be all of the Audio Files used in a single song for instance, or all the Audio Files that go to make up a Podcast episode.

Tip: If you're a user of Nuendo (a Steinberg product), don't forget that you can drag ﬁles directly from within WaveLab.

Related topics

About Tool Windows

Adjusting Envelopes

Command bars

Context menus

Docking windows

Double clicking

Dragging operations

Playback shortcuts

Select-clicking

Shortcut system

Sliders

Status Bar

6 Using the interface

Switcher window

Tab Groups

Transport controls

Value editing

Workspaces

Zooming and scrolling

3.1 About Tool Windows

Throughout WaveLab Elements there are various tool windows available that enable you to view, analyze and edit the current active document. Generally the content of a tool window is synchronized with the active document, with the exception of the audio meters which can display information related to other documents.

There are two types of Tool windows:



Speciﬁc tool windows - these are dedicated to a given Workspace type. The File Browser and Marker windows are examples of speciﬁc tool windows.



Shared tool windows - Only one instance of these windows can exist at any one time in WaveLab, and it can be shared between Workspaces. The Master Section is an example of a shared window and as such there is only ever one instance of it.

All tool windows can be accessed via the Workspace menu. See Docking windows for information on docking and undocking tool windows.

Speciﬁc Tool windows

Speciﬁc tool windows are speciﬁc to the current Workspace and are dedicated to that Workspace type. They perform useful tasks in the active Workspace. The File Browser and Marker windows are examples of speciﬁc tool windows.

Speciﬁc tool windows can be docked and un-docked anywhere within their Workspace. They can also ﬂoat as standalone windows in a speciﬁc Workspace.

Shared tool windows

Shared tool windows are shared between certain Workspaces and are independent of any one Workspace. Like speciﬁc tool windows, they can be docked and un-docked. The Master Section is an example of a shared window.

The main difference with Speciﬁc tool windows is that only one instance of a Shared tool window can exist at any one time in WaveLab. When you open a shared tool window that is referenced in another Workspace it will "move" from the other Workspace to the active one.

A shared tool window can be moved and docked exactly like a speciﬁc tool window, however in addition Shared tool windows can "ﬂoat as an independent window", that is, independent of any Workspace. Each shared tool window has a menu entry to allow this ﬂoating mode.

WaveLab Elements 7

3.2 Adjusting Envelopes 7

Differences between Mac and Windows

Floating windows behave slightly differently on Apple Mac and Windows, due to some basic differences between the platforms:



Mac - On the Mac, a tool window is always on top of all other windows and a ﬂoating window remains visible even if its dependent Workspace is not active or is minimized. If WaveLab is no longer the active application, all its ﬂoating windows are hidden.



Windows - A ﬂoating window is hidden when its dependent Workspace is minimized or covered by another window. If WaveLab is no longer the active application, all its independent ﬂoating windows are hidden.

Related topics

Workspaces

Shared tool windows

Speciﬁc tool windows

3.2 Adjusting Envelopes

At various places in WaveLab Elements, envelopes are used to constrain the way effects are expressed. Some ofﬂine processes such as Level Envelope, use envelopes to adjust an effect over time. You can edit the proﬁle of these envelopes quickly and easily.

Adjusting an envelope

Edit the envelope using the envelope editor window in the following ways:



Create and erase points by double clicking.



Select points by clicking on them.



To select more than one point, press [Ctrl]/[Command] when clicking - you can then move them together. Selected points don't have to be contiguous. You can also click anywhere in the window and drag the cursor over the envelope points to select them.



You can drag any segment to move the whole envelope proﬁle up and down.



You can drag a single segment vertically by pressing [Ctrl]/[Command] and move the segment up and down.



You can drag a single segment horizontally by pressing [Ctrl]/[Command] + [Shift] and move the segment left and right.

WaveLab Elements 7

8 Using the interface

You can also use the controls at the top of the editor window to delete or reset points in the envelope. Use the envelope smoothing button to toggle the envelope points between a linear (polygonal) or a curved path. The envelope is not applied until you click "Apply".

For an explanation of each parameter and interface feature, click on , or the 'What's this?' question mark icon. For more information see Getting Help

Related topics

Level envelope

Time stretching

Pitch correction

3.3 Command bars

Commonly used tools, shortcuts and commands are represented by "Command buttons", each with their own icon. Related buttons are grouped into various Command bars. You can dock Command bars to any window edge and rearrange them. Each Workspace has an appropriate set of command bars that are available to be displayed. All the commands accessed via the Command buttons can also be found in the menus.

Hiding and displaying Command bars

To view a list of available command bars right-click on an empty part of the top edge of the Workspace. More precisely, on Windows computers right click anywhere along the window's top menu, on Apple Macintosh computers right click in the window's caption bar. This displays the Peripheral Windows context menu, which you can use to select which Command bars are displayed.You can also choose which individual Command buttons are displayed from the Customize commands dialog.

To move a set of Command bar tools

Drag on the left side of the command, or at top for vertical command bars - the pointer changes to when you have "grip". Drag the group of Commands to any side of the appli-

cation window and release the mouse button. The application window and other Command bars will automatically make space for the Command bar in its new position.

By default, Command bars are docked and don't ﬂoat. You can make them ﬂoat individually or not, by right clicking and selecting the desired option from the menu. Once the option has been selected, move the command bar.

You can drag Command groups below an existing row to form a new row (or next to an existing column, to form a new column). You can also reorder their position within a row or column, to customize your layout.

If a Command bar does not have room to display all of its icons, it will have a double right (or down) arrow >>. Click on the double arrow to reveal any obscured Command buttons.

WaveLab Elements 7

3.4 Context menus 9

Finding out what a Command button does

Hover over an individual Command button to display its tooltip. If no tooltip appears, make sure "Show tips when mouse stays over buttons" is activated in Preferences... > Global Preferences > Display tab.

For an explanation of each parameter and interface feature, click on , or the 'What's this?' question mark icon. For more information see Getting Help

Related topics

Global Preferences

Customize Commands

Context menus

3.4 Context menus

Throughout WaveLab Elements there are various Context menus available. These menus group together a range of commands and/or options speciﬁc to the window you are working in. They appear when clicking with the right mouse button in certain places and may be useful for speeding up your workﬂow.

Some Context menus have colored title bars (these were formerly known as "Speed menus" in WaveLab 6), and their title indicates the part of the interface they relate to.

Using Context Menus

To bring up a context menu, right-click in the desired area. This is normally somewhere along the edges of a window, or in some cases anywhere on the window itself or its title. Right-clicking on a File tab, for example, shows a context menu with some relevant ﬁle options. Right-clicking on the waveform window header brings up the Time Ruler context menu allowing you to access a number options for changing the Time Ruler display format.

Tip: Most context menu commands can be found on the normal menu bar but some unique commands are only found in context menus. As they are not always obvious, when

searching for a function, it may be worth checking for a Context menu in the window in which you are working by right-clicking on it, or around its edges.

Related topics

Shortcut system

3.5 Docking windows

All of WaveLab's tool windows can be used as docked windows or as stand-alone "ﬂoating" windows. They can be freely dragged around and docked at various locations. Command bars can also be freely moved around and docked along the edges of most windows. See

Command bars for more information.

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10 Using the interface

Undocking a window

Double-click on the title bar. This works with all tool windows, Speciﬁc and Shared.

About Speciﬁc tool windows

To undock a Speciﬁc tool window use one of the following methods:



double-click on the title bar.



click on the small double window icon which is located at the top left hand corner of the window.



click and drag the window by its title bar.

Once un-docked, you can freely drag the window around by clicking and dragging on the window's title header bar.

To dock the window again, drag it to any location where you are visually prompted to release the window. Around the edges and the top of the Workspace is where this normally occurs. Most windows can be docked horizontally or vertically, but some can only be docked in one direction, because of the nature of their contents. To dock the window again, you can also double-click in the title bar.

Tip: To move a window and prevent it from docking, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] before you begin to undock the window. This will avoid the window docking again and allow you to place it anywhere. Once you begin to drag, you can release [Ctrl]/[Command].

About Shared tool windows

Shared tool windows such as the meters and the Master Section are slightly different to

other tool windows as there is only ever one of them available and it can only appear in one Workspace at a time. As such, when you open a shared tool window from the menus in another Workspace it undocks and moves from its original Workspace. An empty tab container with a vertical title bar will remain in its previous Workspace.

To retrieve a window again from another Workspace use the button at the top left of these empty containers. For example, if you have the VU Meter displayed in the Audio Montage Workspace and you wish to display it in the Audio File Workspace, you can simply click the blue button and the VU Meter window will move back into its tab container.

You can choose to deactivate the default moving behavior by deselecting Workspace > Auto move shared tool windows. Shared tool windows do not then move when you switch between Workspaces.

Related topics

Tab Groups

About Tool Windows

Command bars

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3.6 Double clicking 11

3.6 Double clicking

A double click is the act of pressing the mouse button twice quickly without moving the mouse.

Throughout WaveLab Elements you can achieve the following by double clicking in certain places:



Create a new empty document - double click on the empty part of a tab bar. See

Tab Groups for more information.



Edit a marker name - double click at the right side of a marker's icon (in the Audio File or Montage Workspace) above the time ruler.



Select a region (Audio File Workspace) - double click to select the whole Audio File. Where markers exist, the region between the markers is selected. If markers exist and you wish to select the entire ﬁle you can triple-click to select the whole ﬁle.



Set zoom to display entire waveform (Audio File/Montage Workspace) - double click on the horizontal zoom wheel to reset the zoom to display the whole Audio File.



Set zoom to default value (Audio File/Montage Workspace) - double click on the vertical zoom wheel to reset the zoom to its default value.



Center the waveform (Audio File Workspace) - double click on the vertical scroll bar to center the waveform around the horizontal axis.



Start playback (Audio File/Montage Workspace) - double click in the time line to start playback from that point.

In addition to these speciﬁc examples, in various places throughout WaveLab Elements, double-clicking can be used to begin editing certain values. Depending on the context the type of editing triggered will vary. In most list views for example, double-clicking in a cell will allow you to edit its value.

Related topics

Tab Groups

Select-clicking

3.7 Dragging operations

WaveLab Elements makes much use of "drag-and-drop" techniques to perform various operations, some of which can't be performed otherwise. These are referred to as drag operations in this documentation.

To drag an object, press and hold down the left mouse button while over the object and drag it to the desired destination. Drop the object by releasing the button.

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12 Using the interface

Many types of objects can be dragged between different source and destination locations including ﬁles, text, Clips, the playback head and markers.

Tip: This help entry describes some of the most important drag and drop operations. There are many other possibilities, especially within the various list views for example where you can possibly drag from the list to an external window, drag a ﬁle into the list (to import), or reorder, these vary of course according to the context). Therefore we encourage you to try drag and drop wherever you feel it may make sense.

Within Workspaces

Drag objects within and between Workspaces to perform the following functions:



Docking a tool window - drag a window's title bar to any side of the Workspace, beside or above an existing tool window, to dock the window at a new place.



Moving a Command bar - drag the bar grip at the left-hand end of a command bar and reposition it. See Command bars for more information.



Moving a Document Tab - drag the tab to a new location within its own tabbed group to reorder.You can also drag a tab to another group of tabs.



Open a ﬁle - drag a compatible ﬁle from the WaveLab Elements's File Browser, from the operating system's ﬁle browser or from another application to the tab bar.



Insert a ﬁle in another Workspace - drag an Audio File by its title bar tab between the Audio File and Audio Montage Workspaces. You can also use the Switcher window to drag any object to another Workspace. Drag the object over the corresponding Workspace icon in the Switcher window and wait until the new Workspace becomes active. Then you can release the ﬁle in the target Workspace.

Within the Audio File Workspace

Drag objects within the Audio File Workspace to perform the following functions:



Paste an Audio File - drag a document's title bar tab or document button onto the waveform area of another ﬁle, to copy and paste its audio content. You can also drag a compatible ﬁle directly from the File Browser, the operating system's ﬁle browser, or from another application.



Delete/Move a marker - drag the marker along the time ruler to change its position. Drag while pressing the [Shift] key to create a copy of this marker. Drag above the time ruler to delete the marker.



Copy an audio selection - drag a selected region of audio onto the waveform area of the same ﬁle, or of another ﬁle. Left, right or both channels can be copied.



Create a new ﬁle from an audio selection - drag a selected region of audio onto the empty space of a tab bar to create a new copy of the audio. If dragging happens right after double clicking, the selection is quantized and extended up to the marker's "region" under the mouse.

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3.7 Dragging operations 13



Modify a selection - drag left or right to change the extent of the selection.



Move the waveform - drag anywhere above the time ruler to move it horizontally.



Create a marker from selected text - drop text that you have selected in an external application onto the time ruler to create a generic marker there. The text becomes the marker's name.



Scroll the waveform - drag the cursor to the left or right sides of the waveform area to display the region before or after.



Mix to Mono - by holding down [Control + Alt]/[Command + Alt] while dragging the ﬁle to a new tab, you can quickly mix a stereo ﬁle to mono.



Convert from Mono to Stereo - by holding down [Control + Alt]/[Command + Alt] while dragging the ﬁle to a new tab, you can quickly convert a mono ﬁle to stereo .

Tip: When aligning some objects in the waveform area, labeled prompts will help you to snap to other locations in the waveform (for example, the end points of Audio Files, markers or cursors).

Audio Montage Workspace

Drag objects within the Audio Montage Workspace to perform the following functions:



Paste an Audio File - drag a document's title bar tab or document button onto the Montage area of another ﬁle, to copy and paste its audio content. You can also drag a compatible ﬁle directly from the File Browser, the operating system's ﬁle browser, or from another application.



Create a marker from selected text - drop text that you have selected in an external application onto the time ruler to create a generic marker there. The text becomes the marker's name.



Scroll the Montage - drag the cursor to the left and right sides of the Montage to display what comes before or after.



Paste a Clip - drag a document's title bar tab or document button onto the Montage area to copy and paste its audio content. You can also drag a compatible ﬁle directly from the File Browser, the operating system's ﬁle browser, or from another application.

Within the Podcast Workspace

You can drag episodes in the Episodes list to reorder them.

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14 Using the interface

Within the Master Section

You can drag effects between different Effects slots to change the order of processing (which takes place from top to bottom).

Related topics

Docking windows

Switcher window

3.8 Playback shortcuts

Playing back audio is a common repetitive task in WaveLab Elements. In addition to the playback command buttons in the Transport controls, there are a few extra commands that can only be accessed via special keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts can be used even when the audio window is not the active window. These special keyboard shortcuts cannot be customized. They are:



Space bar - Start/Stop



0 or F7 - Stop. When pressed while already stopped, the cursor jumps to the previous playback start position. A further "0" returns the cursor to the start of the ﬁle.



Enter (Numeric Pad) or F8 - Start



[Ctrl]/[Command] + F6 - Plays from the beginning to the end of the selection, if any. Where there are markers it plays between them. If there are no markers it plays from the beginning to the end of the Audio File.



[Win]/[Ctrl] + F6 - As above, but playback starts with a preroll before the region and stops at its end.



[Shift] + F6 - As above, but playback ends with a postroll after the region.



[Win]/[Ctrl] + [Shift] + F6 - As above, but playback starts with a preroll before the region and ends with a postroll after the region.

Related topics

Transport controls

3.9 Select-clicking

Select-clicking is the act of selecting an object with the mouse and while it is selected, clicking again. This is a common interface interaction when renaming a ﬁle or folder in your computer's native ﬁle browser.

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3.10 Shortcut system 15

Throughout WaveLab Elements there are places where you need to select-click ﬁelds to edit values. In some lists such as the Basic Audio CD window, you need to select-click cells to edit a track name or ISRC code. Generally if a value can be edited, a double click selects all characters in that cell and allows you to begin editing; if not, then try select-clicking the cell instead.

Related topics

Tab Groups

Double clicking

3.10 Shortcut system

Throughout WaveLab Elements there are many predeﬁned shortcuts and custom commands that can be used to speed up your workﬂow. The ofﬂine process "Fade-in", for example can be triggered from its menu entry, from its command bar icon, using a custom key sequence. Each shortcut is restricted to its speciﬁc Workspace, which means you can re-use the same shortcut in different Workspaces. When a command is available from more than one Workspace, then the shortcut applies to all Workspaces and cannot be reused.

Not all commands are restricted to a Workspace, for example, all Master Section commands are global to the application, and Record commands (Record dialog) are active only when the Record dialog has focus. In addition, a few speciﬁc Global shortcuts can be deﬁned from Preferences... > Global Preferences > Global shortcuts tab.

Shortcuts are deﬁned and can be edited in the Customize commands dialog. There are various places where you can access this dialog, and each dialog restricts editing of the shortcut to the related context. You can generate a summary of custom commands in a Print preview or HTML format from the dialog's "Summary" button.

There are several types of shortcuts available in WaveLab Elements:

Key sequences

You can deﬁne a sequence of up to four keys to trigger a desired action. Note that these keys must be pressed/released one after the other, and the action is performed when the last key has been pressed. Key stroke sequences give you a very large choice of combinations, which is useful in an application with a large feature set. There are however possible pitfalls, if for example:

Shortcut #1 is deﬁned with the sequence: Control+D, Control+E

Shortcut #2 is deﬁned with the sequence: Control+D

The application watches for key strokes, and when Control+D is pressed, Shortcut #2 won't be triggered because Control+D is also used in a longer sequence (the application can't know if it should wait for Control+E or not).

Note: A few very basic shortcuts cannot be redeﬁned. If this is the case, the relevant edit ﬁeld is disabled. On the Mac, only the ﬁrst key of native menus can be displayed.

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16 Using the interface

Other shortcuts

There are many other shortcuts in WaveLab Elements that are accessed using the mouse. These are described in Double clicking, Dragging operations and Tab Groups. Clicking the right button on the mouse in certain places will produce a Context menu which offers quick access to relevant commands.

Related topics

Customize Commands

Deﬁnition of shortcut(s)

Double clicking

Dragging operations

Tab Groups

Context menus

3.11 Sliders

At various places in WaveLab Elements, slider controls are available to change parameters. There are a number of ways to change a slider's value:



Turn the mouse wheel over the slider (no click is required). Press [Ctrl]/[Command] simultaneously to scroll faster. This modiﬁer also applies to the zoom wheels.



Left click on the button to move it.



Left click outside the button to move the button directly to that position.



Right click before or after the button, to move the button step by step. Keep the mouse button pressed to automatically step to the next value.



Middle click anywhere to reset the slider to the default value (if a default is available).



Left click and press [Ctrl]/[Command] anywhere to reset the default value (if a default value is available).



Double click on the button to reset the default value (if a default value is available).

Related topics

Adjusting Envelopes

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3.12 Status Bar 17

3.12 Status Bar

The Status bar is normally displayed at the bottom of the screen and shows information about the active window using the units speciﬁed in the rulers.

The Wave and Mouse cursor time positions are shown using the same units of time as in the rulers and dialog boxes. Level positions are always shown in dB. This information is updated depending on the cursor position and whether you have a region of audio selected. In the case of the Audio File Workspace it gives the following information about the Audio File. From left to right:



Time/Level (dB) - at the mouse cursor position.



Wave cursor Time - displays the time at the position of the Wave cursor. This information changes when you click to reposition the cursor. Click on this status bar ﬁeld to show the Cursor position dialog, which you can use to accurately position the cursor.



Audio selection indicator - displays the length of the current selection, or the total length of the Audio File if there is no selection. Right-click on this to display the entire audio range.



Zoom indicator - displays the current zoom factor. Click this to edit the zoom factor; right-click to display a pop-up menu (equivalent to selecting View > Zoom).



File format details - displays the number of audio channels, bit resolution and sample rate; Click to display Audio properties dialog.



Document button - allows you to click and drag the current Audio File into an- other document (for example, in the Audio Montage Workspace). This is equivalent to dragging the ﬁle Tab.



Sample Key indicator - indicates the key of the current Audio File (if deﬁned) and opens the Sample Attributes window. The status bar also indicates the progress of some background operations, such as rendering an effect. The operation can be paused or canceled using the buttons provided.

The "Play through Master Section" buttons and allow you to completely bypass the Master Section for playback, or not, with a setting for each ﬁle (Audio File and Montage).

For an explanation of each parameter and interface feature, click on , or the 'What's this?' question mark icon. For more information see Getting Help

Related topics

Time Format dialog

Zoom factor

Audio properties dialog

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18 Using the interface

3.13 Switcher window

This small ﬂoating window allows you to switch between each of the main Workspaces in WaveLab Elements, and also to open and create documents.

It is visible at all times and ﬂoats above all other windows. You can choose which Workspace buttons are visible and adjust its transparency in Global Preferences. You can resize, rotate and move the Switcher window anywhere on your monitor(s).



It is useful to use a ﬁle in a different Workspace. For example, you can drag an Audio File from the Audio File Workspace over the Audio Montage icon in the Switcher window and wait until the Audio Montage Workspace becomes active before inserting the ﬁle in a montage.



To switch between Workspaces: click on a Workspace button and if the Workspace is not already open, a menu opens and offers several options.



To create a new document in any Workspace: click + [Ctrl]/[Command] on a Workspace button.



To open a document in any Workspace: click + [Shift] on a Workspace button.



To display a menu listing the ﬁles used recently in a particular Workspace, click on any Workspace icon and hold the button down. This means that with just one click you can access the history of a document from any Workspace. From the same menu, you can also create a new document or open the ﬁle selector box. If you click on the icon of the active workspace, you don't need to hold the button down. Alternatively, you can right click to show a menu instantly.

Related topics

Workspaces

Docking windows

3.14 Tab Groups

A tab group is a region within a Workspace that contains windows that can be activated by a tab, each with its own content and title bar. Only one tab can be active at a time.

In an editing Workspace, a tab group contains one or more documents (e.g. Audio Files).To activate a tab, simply click on the title bar of the tab you wish to work on.

Using Tabs for editing audio

Tabs have a variety of useful behaviors depending on the type of window contained by the tab group.Tabs that contain Audio Files (in the Audio File Workspace) symbolize a whole Audio File and where applicable allow you to perform many other useful functions:

WaveLab Elements 7

3.14 Tab Groups 19



Reorder the tab bar - by dragging and dropping the tab at a new position on the tab bar.



Paste it into an Audio File - by dragging and dropping the tab onto the waveform display at the cursor position you want to insert the copied audio.



Paste it into another application - by dropping the tab into the relevant window of the other application. The result depends on the target aplication.

Tip: You can also achieve the same actions by dragging the Audio File from the document button on the status bar at the bottom right of each window.

Other useful functions can be accessed using tab groups:



Create a new empty document - by double clicking on an empty part of the tab bar (on the right normally). The new ﬁle is created by using the active ﬁle as template (for example, Sample rate).



Display the document ﬁle path - by keeping the mouse over a tab for a small moment. This displays a popup that indicates the full ﬁle path of the associated document.



Access additional tab functions - by right clicking on a tab.



Access the Recent ﬁle list - by Right-clicking in the empty tab area.



Move a ﬁle between tab groups - by dragging a tab from one tab group to another.



Copy a ﬁle - by holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] to create a copy by dragging the ﬁle elsewhere in the tab area.



Mix to Mono - (Audio File Workspace) by holding down [Control + Alt]/[Command + Alt] to mix a stereo ﬁle to mono while dragging the ﬁle to a new tab.



Convert from Mono to Stereo - (Audio File Workspace) by holding down [Control + Alt]/[Command + Alt] to convert a mono ﬁle from mono to stereo while dragging the ﬁle to a new tab.



Quickly switch between tabs - by moving the mouse wheel while over the tab bar. This switches the focus between the different tabs.

Tip: An option in global preferences allows you to hide the title bar if there is only one tab open Global preferences > User Interface > Show tab if there is a single window.

Related topics

About Tool Windows

Docking windows

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20 Using the interface

3.15 Transport controls

The transport controls allow you to control playback within an Audio File or montage, and to open the record window. It can be accessed via the Transport menu or the Transport toolbar. See Command bars for more information.

The Transport menu gives access to (and shows keyboard shortcuts to) the same functions that are available in the transport toolbar.

The Transport toolbar gives quick access to most of these functions. If the toolbar is hidden, select Workspace > Command bars > Transport commands. Transport functions operate on the current Audio File.

The basic transport functions are:



Loop On/Off

- Toggles looping on/off for the currently selected Audio File or montage.



Move cursor to start of ﬁle / Move cursor to end of ﬁle

- Move the cursor to the beginning or end of the currently selected Audio File.



Move cursor to the right / Move cursor to the left

- Skip the cursor forwards or backwards within the currently selected Audio File.



Play

- Begin playback of the current Audio File.



Stop

- Stop playback of the current Audio File. A second click moves the cursor to the beginning of the last start position. A further click returns the cursor to the start of the ﬁle.



Record

- Opens the recording window from which you can start recording.

Additional transport functions such as start, skip and stopping playback options are also available from the transport command bar.

For an explanation of each parameter and interface feature, click on , or the 'What's this?' question mark icon. For more information see Getting Help

Related topics

Recording Dialog

Command bars

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3.16 Value editing 21

3.16 Value editing

At various places in WaveLab Elements, numerical values can be edited using a combination of text ﬁelds and spin controls.

These values are sometimes made of several parts, for example, 12 mn 30 sec 120 ms. Each value can be edited using the following methods:



With the value selected, type a new value.



Use the up and down arrow keys to change the value by one unit at a time.



Use the page up and page down keys to change the value by several units.



Use the home and end keys to jump to the maximum and minimum values.



Use the left and right arrow keys to move from one part to another.



Click on the small button arrows (the spin controls), to change the value.



Move the mouse cursor over the desired section. Now use the mouse wheel to change the value, without clicking. The hovered section will be highlighted when the wheel spins.



Move the mouse cursor over the part you wish to change. Click and drag up and down to change the value.

Tip: Right clicking on the edit control may display a context menu, where additional functions are available.

Related topics

Sliders

3.17 Workspaces

A Workspace is a window that provides an editing and playback environment for a particular audio document type. Each type of Workspace presents the functions related to the speciﬁc ﬁle types it is made for; this reduces clutter in the user interface.

In WaveLab Elements there is a Workspace for each main type of ﬁle to edit:



Audio File Workspace - for viewing and editing Audio Files. See Audio File editing



Audio Montage Workspace - for assembling and editing audio montages. See

Audio Montages



Podcast Workspace - for preparing and uploading Podcasts. See Podcasts

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22 Using the interface

A Workspace is highly customizable, to match your workﬂow, experience and screen setups (which may vary from a studio-based multi-screen DAW to a single-screen laptop on the road). A Workspace can appear in a wide variety of styles, from a simple window with a single menu in its most uncluttered form, to a sophisticated arrangement of Command bars, tool windows, Tab groups and active meters. When a ﬁle is opened from a given Workspace, it is added to the active tab group of this Workspace. You can drag ﬁles between Workspaces if they both share compatible formats. For example, you can drag an Audio File from the Audio File Workspace and drop it into the Audio Montage Workspace by using its tab bar or its

document button (this is located on the status bar at the bottom right of the Workspace). For more information on using shortcuts to speed up your workﬂow in different Workspaces see Dragging operations and Tab Groups.

Elements of a Workspace

Each Workspace is comprised of:



A Menu bar. Each Workspace has a different Menu bar, but certain menus are shared among all Workspaces and each menu can be customized in various ways. The Workspace menu has a sub-menu to show/hide the available Command bars and tool windows. Alternatively, you can right-click in the menu (Windows) or caption bar (Mac) area to access the Peripheral Windows Context menu.



One or more Command bars, for quick access to functions via buttons. Command bars can be customized extensively. See Customize Commands.



Tab groups, to host the document(s) to edit. This is a central part of the Workspace: you can reorder the tab bar, move it to another Workspace, create a new empty document, display the document ﬁlepath and access other functions by right-clicking. See

Tab Groups.



A set of Speciﬁc tool windows. The speciﬁc tools offered vary according to the Workspace; their display can be turned on or off individually, and the windows can ﬂoat or be docked. See Speciﬁc tool windows.



A set of Shared tool windows. The shared tools offered vary according to the Workspace; their display can be turned on or off individually, and the windows can ﬂoat or be docked. See Shared tool windows.

Tip: To switch easily between different Workspaces use the ﬂoating Switcher window.

Related topics

Audio File editing

Audio Montages

Podcasts

Customize Commands

Speciﬁc tool windows

Shared tool windows

WaveLab Elements 7

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