Steinberg Wavelab Elements 7 Manual

							13.71 Tempo 193
Glossary contents
13.71 Tempo
Tempo is the rhythmic rate of a musical piece, usually given in BPM (beats per minute).
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13.72 Text/Excel files
Text/Excel is a text representation of a waveform. By saving an Audio File as a text file and
then opening it in a spreadsheet application such as Excel, you can view it in textual, decimal
form and edit the sample values. When a text file representing a waveform is opened in
WaveLab it is decoded and opened as an Audio File.
Note that these files are not compressed in any way, so they can get very large! Therefore,
avoid creating and opening extremely large .txt files. Also note that when using 32 bit float
files, the .txt format is not entirely lossless because it is not possible to express a binary
floating point value in textual decimal form without some loss of precision.
The file extension is .txt
Audio File Format Dialog
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13.73 ULAW files
ULAW is an audio encoding and compression technique supported by Windows and Web
phones, using 8-bit resolution. The U.S. telephone system uses U-law encoding for digitiza-
tion.
Typical file extensions are .ulaw, .vox
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13.74 UPC/EAN
UPC/EAN code - the "Universal Product Code/European Article Number", a catalog num-
ber for an item (such as a CD) intended for commercial distribution. On a CD, the code is
also called the "Media Catalog Number" - there is one such code per disk.
UPC is a 12-digit barcode widely used in the United States and Canada; EAN-13 is a
13-digit barcoding standard (12 + a checksum digit) defined by the GS1 standards orga-
nization. "EAN" is now renamed as "International Article Number", but the abbreviation has
been retained.
You can read the Media Catalog Number (EAN) from a CD by choosing Utilities>Import
Audio CD tracks... >Functions >CD Info... .
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WaveLab Elements 7 
						

							194 Glossary
13.75 WAV files
WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) is an audio file format. Although a WAV file can
hold compressed audio, the most common WAV format contains uncompressed audio in
the linear pulse code modulation (LPCM) format.
Developed by Microsoft and IBM, WAV is closely related to AIFF and is compatible with
Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. Uncompressed WAV files are quite bulky,
but they have a simple file structure which can be processed efficiently in audio editing and
produce archive files of high quality. 8-, 16-, 20-, 24-bit and 32-bit (float) resolutions are
supported.
The file extension is .wav
WAV64 files
Audio File Format Dialog
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13.76 WAV64 files
Wave 64 is an audio file format developed by Sony that is very similar to the standard Wave
format, but with an important difference. Standard Wave files are limited in size to 2GB
(stereo), but Wave 64 allows virtually any length (actually the limit is 512GB).
The file extension is .w64.
WAV files
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13.77 Waveform
A Waveform is the visual representation of wave-like phenomena (such as sound or light).
The amplitude or sound pressure over time usually results in a smooth waveform.
In WaveLab Elements, a waveform is generally represented with time on the horizontal (x-
)axis, with the start of the waveform being the leftmost point. The vertical (y-)axis is the
amplitude of the wave.
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13.78 Wet/Dry
Wet/Dry is a term that describes the balance between the effect sound (wet) and the orig-
inal, unprocessed audio signal (dry). in a "dry" mix, the original signal is more pronounced;
with a "wet" mix, the effect sound is more dominant.
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WaveLab Elements 7 
						

							13.79 WMA files 195
13.79 WMA files
WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a proprietary audio data compression technology devel-
oped by Microsoft. WMA can refer to an Audio File format or a range of audio codecs. Like
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and Ogg Vorbis, WMA is intended to address perceived
deficiencies in the MP3 standard.
It is also possible to import/export audio in WMA surround format, provided that you have
Windows Media Player 9 (or later) installed on your system.
Typical file extensions are .wma, .asf
Audio File Format Dialog
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13.80 Zero crossing
A Zero crossing is a point where the wave crosses the zero level axis, the point where the
wave is considered to have "zero level".
If you cut out a portion of a wave and paste it in somewhere else, chances are there will be
a discontinuity where the two waves are joined. This discontinuity will result in a transient in
the wave when it is played back, which is perceived as a "click" or "bump" in the sound. To
avoid this you need to make any editing splices at a zero crossing point.
Glossary contents
WaveLab Elements 7