Steinberg Wavelab 6 Audio Editing and Mastering Suite

Steinberg WaveLab 6 music software is the all-in-one solution for professional mastering, high resolution multichannel audio editing, audio restoration, sample design, and radio broadcast work. It can take your raw audio straight through to complete Red Book-standard CD/DVD-A production. A standard application for digital audio editing and processing due to its outstanding flexibility and pristine audio quality, WaveLab is used worldwide by top professionals and audio enthusiasts alike.

WaveLab gives you extremely accurate audio editing in stereo and surround with excellent performance and outstanding audio quality with sample rates up to 384kHz with 32-bit floating point resolution. The powerful Audio Montage feature allows for simultaneous non-destructive editing across several tracks. You get a comprehensive suite of realtime metering and analysis tools as well as top-end EQs, dynamics, and effects processing in addition to fantastic audio restoration tools and optional VST effect plug-in integration. WaveLab also has support for all standard audio formats including WAV, AIFF, AU, MP3, MP2 (M.U.S.I.C.A.M.), RAW, Windows Media 9, AES-31 Import and Export, plus many others. All common bit-rates, from eight up to 24 @384kHz, are supported as well.

Version 6 extends the successful WaveLab concept by combining the renowned, award-winning WaveLab audio engine with over 120 new features and enhancements. The highlights in the new version include the innovative Spectrum Editor, the seamless intergration of external effect hardware, support for MIDI remote controllers, the new SmartBypass system with automatic loudness compensation, DIRAC time-stretching and pitch-shifting, support for Bob Katz' K-System metering and much, much more.

Non-destructive editing in the Audio Montage
The Audio Montage is the heart of the non-destructive editing processes in WaveLab. All editing tasks and actions are either processed in real-time or rendered into the audio material. The powerful Audio Montage environment supports not only several audio tracks each with up to 8 channels but also a video track or an extra track for a Slide show for DVD-A.

Audio files in the Audio Montage are shown as so-called clips. Each clip is actually merely a window on either a part or the entire length of an audio file. The selection can be enlarged, reduced or just moved over the audio material (known as sliding). Steinberg's WaveLab 6 now supports the editing of clips over several tracks, making editing of linked tracks in a multi-channel project fast and efficient. By pressing the ALT key, changes made to a clip are also made to every selected clip. Any fades already set remain unaffected; Volume and Pan settings also remain unchanged. A range of grouping functions give a clear overview of the project at all times.

External effect hardware integration
WaveLab 6 music editing software includes a powerful new system for integrating outboard FX in the Master Section audio signal chain. Each external effect unit is integrated as a plug-in at any desired position in the Master Section. WaveLab supports up to 8 parallel input and output channels to ASIO-compatible audio interfaces.
WaveLab automatically recognizes the latency of the hardware and compensates this delay to offer perfect synchronization to Timecode. The level sent to the hardware is set using the Send Level control.

Restoration with the Spectrum Editor
The Spectrum Editor is an immensely powerful new tool for restoration and editing of an audio file's frequency information. The precision linear phase filters allow editing of even microscopically narry frequency bands. The Spectrum Editor displays the audio material as a sonogram that shows the changing intensities of the frequencies over time in different colors and shades. The Spectrum Editor offers two different sound editing modes ” Surgical processing and Master Section processing.

Surgical Processing
The Surgical processing mode offers three filter types that can be used in six different ways for a variety of tasks. Using the High Pass, Low Pass or Band Pass filters, a certain frequency area n the sonogram can be dampened, faded in or out or even "wiped over" with the Dispersion function. The dampening and aggressiveness of the filters is also user-definable.

Master Section Processing
This mode allows the processing of the selected frequency area using the Master Section plug-ins, including dithering and noise-shaping algorithms. With this powerful editing tool, a defined frequency area can, for example, be sent through the DeClicker or other restoration plug-in. Other uses include complete dynamics control over user-defined frequency bands.

Another new editing process provided by the Spectrum Editor is the copying of audio material from one "place" to another in the sonogram view. Using the Source/Destination functions a suitable area can be isolated very quickly and copied to several different locations. The area that is to be replaced is defined by stretching a rectangle, and the selected area can be moved and adjusted in size quickly and easily. Editing can be performed independent of the audio channel or simultaneously on both channels of a stereo file.

Clip-based effects and plug-in chains
WaveLab 6 offers freely definable plug-in chains. These can consist of any plug-ins available in WaveLab, and can be created almost instantly by "dragging and dropping" the desired plug-in to the Plug-In page of the Audio Montage. Not only can the order of the plug-ins within the chain be changed as desired, but a plug-in can also be removed from the chain without having to open the plug-in itself. Opening a plug-in for editing is as simple as double-clicking it. Chains can also be saved as a preset and used to process any clip or track in the Audio Montage at will.

Recording through plug-ins
In WaveLab 6, audio signals can be recorded through the effects of the Master Section. This allows effects such as EQ, compression or noise gating to be used while recording, preparing the material for further editing and processing later.

Depending on the number of channels offered by the ASIO-compatible hardware, up to eight channels can be recorded simultaneously, allowing WaveLab to perform recording tasks such as recording a mixer's subgroups or in recording surround. WaveLab music software supports recording sample rates up to 384 kHz, and is limited only by the converters of the system's audio hardware.

Loudness-compensated bypassing of plug-ins
Effect plug-ins can alter the perceived volume of a signal, making the direct comparison of a signal that has been sent through a plug-in or a plug-in chain with the original material potentially more difficult. WaveLab 6 offers a new SmartBypass function which automatically compensates for this difference in loudness, making effective A/B comparison of material with its unaltered version quick and easy. SmartBypass also supports the integration of external effect hardware.

Advanced Crossfades
Version 6 also offers an intuitive crossfade editing concept. A crossfade is automatically created as soon as two clips overlap in the Audio Montage window. The clips show the results of the crossfade directly in the waveform, offering a useful aid in positioning the fade in exactly the right place. Functions like Snap To Waveform and Snap To Fade speed up sound editing work and allow an exceedingly efficient worklflow in WaveLab.

The left and right borders of the crossfade can be both adjusted independently of one another or moved symmetrically and simultaneously using the middle of the fade as a reference point. The entire fade can also be moved along the waveform while retaining all its settings.

Multi-channel editing
The Audio Montage environment is fully surround-capable, supporting fast efficient workflow with surround recordings. 5.1 files are automatically imported as two stereo and two mono files, and each track can be routed independently to its own audio output. For audio files that are routed to the LFE channel, a low pass filter can be also be used as an insert effect.

Multiple global plug-ins can be loaded at the same time to process all clips on any desired track. Volume and Pan envelopes can be adjusted with sample accuracy for each and every clip. Fades can also either be edited using the mouse or adjusted by loading user-definable fade curve presets.

Batch processing
Steinberg WaveLab 6 offers a range of powerful batch processing tools, applying a huge range of audio editing processes and renaming options to large numbers of with a single command.

Remote controller integration
This version of WaveLab is the first to offer direct tactile access to WaveLab functionality through support for MIDI remote controllers. Assigning the parameters to the hardware is completely flexible and user-definable.

Every incoming MIDI message received from a remote controller can be assigned to any command in WaveLab 6, offering an unprecedented level of control over every aspect of WaveLab functionality. Setting up a command is astoundingly simple: the command is selected in the Key Commands Editor, while the desired MIDI command is activated on the control surface. All assigned commands can be saved as a file, allowing different controllers to be selected quickly and easily.

What's New in WaveLab 6

¢ Spectrum Editor - WaveLab 6 offers an advanced Spectrum Editor with its sonogram view. This exciting editing tool allows ultra-fine surgical editing of the audio file's frequency information, allowing a range of procedures such as the complete removal of unwanted noises or frequency ranges.

This exceedingly flexible editor employs highest quality linear phase filters and offers many exciting new sound replacement options including cut and paste of an audio file's background ambience to another part of the file or plug-in processing on selected frequencies.

¢ DIRAC Time-stretching and Pitch-shifting - DIRAC is among the most advanced algorithms for time-based manipulation of audio material available today. Excellent audio quality, outstanding performance and maximum precision are among the superlative qualities this technology brings to WaveLab 6. Its flexibility allows it to be used on a huge range of audio material including vocals, drum loops and classical string ensembles to name just a few.

¢ Master Section - The settings and plug-in chain in the Master Section can now we saved as a preset with the audio file or audio montage. This allows the simultaneous editing of several audio files or versions while retaining all the vital settings in the Master Section. The enhanced Master Section now also offers a useful and time-saving new function: SmartBypass. This automatically compensates the different loudness levels of original and processed audio, allowing a lightning-quick A/B comparison.

¢ Audio Processors - The Crystal Resampler is a top-end sample rate converter supporting up to 384 kHz, with other new additions including time-saving new tools such as the Loudness Normalizer and the Smat Silence plug-ins.

¢ Audio Montage - The powerful Audio Montage environment has been upgraded even further with WaveLab 6, offering new functions such as fade editing features, batch processing and extended import and export options.

¢ Audio File Handling - WaveLab 6 places no limit on the size of clips, and even files exceeding 2GB in size can now be imported. Other optimizations include enhanced performance when reading and writing files, automated renaming of files as a batch process and a file list manager handling access and sorting of up to 200 hundred recent audio files.

¢Analysis Tools - WaveLab 6 offers a range of metering and monitoring tools including the Loudness Distribution window and a Waveform scope display. WaveLab now also supports the K-System metering standard developed by mastering legend Bob Katz.

¢Software and Hardware Integration - A further highlight is the full integration of external effect hardware within the digital mastering process. With WaveLab 6, any favorite analog hardware unit can be used within WaveLab, combining the advantages of both the digital editng and analog processing domains into one personalized, integrated mastering environment. Version 6 also supports MIDI remote controllers, allowing intuitive, immediate control over many software functions from a compatible hardware controller.