Steinberg Wavelab Elements 8 Manual

							Audio Montage
About the CD Window
201
CD-Text
Lets you specify the CD-Text. To change the CD-Text, 
double-click the corresponding cell, and enter a new value.
Comment
Allows you to enter a comment. To enter a comment, double-click 
a cell.
CD Menu
Write Audio CD
Opens a dialog from which you start writing a CD.
Check CD conformity
Verifies that the settings for the audio montage are in accordance 
with the Red Book standard.
Adjust pauses between clips
Opens a dialog, where you can adjust the pauses between clips. 
The following options are available:
• Set specific pause time
• Round existing pauses to closest second.
Edit CD-Text
Opens the CD-Text editor that allows you to enter descriptive text 
for the tracks that are written on CD.
Assign UPC/EAN code
Opens a dialog, in which you can assign a UPC/EAN code to a 
clip.
Select Menu
This menu allows you to select clips. The following options are available:
• Select all clips
• Select clips located before the cursor, on the focused track
• Select clips located after the cursor, on the focused track
• Deselect all clips 
						

							Audio Montage
About Cloning Audio Montages
202
Creating Audio CD Tracks From Clips
You can use the Check CD conformity option to check whether the 
audio montage is ready for writing to audio CD.
PROCEDURE
1.In the Audio Montage workspace, make sure that the audio 
montage contains the material that you want on the audio CD.
CD tracks must have a length of at least 4 seconds.
2. Audition the tracks in the CD window, and make corrections if 
necessary.
3. In the CD window, select CD > Check CD conformity.
• If a warning message appears, make corrections and check the CD 
conformity again.
• If no warning message appears, the audio montage is ready to 
write to audio CD.
About Cloning Audio Montages
When you clone an audio montage, you create a copy.
Clone copies the audio montage and lets the new clips reference to the 
original audio files. This is useful if you want to create several versions 
of the audio montage, for example, to experiment with variations. 
However, any processing or editing that you apply to the actual audio 
files are reflected in both audio montages.
Cloning Audio Montages
This creates a copy of the audio montage in which the new clips 
reference to the original audio files.
PROCEDURE

						

							Audio Montage
Mixing Down - The Render Function
203
Mixing Down - The Render Function
The render function in the Master Section allows you to mix down the 
whole audio montage or a region of it to a single audio file.
A mixdown is necessary to produce an audio file from the audio montage. 
RELATED LINKS:
“Rendering” on page 226
Loudness Meta Normalizer
This tool is a key mastering component to ensure that all songs get the 
same loudness and to prevent clipping. It allows you to adjust the 
loudness of each clip in the audio montage so that they all have the 
same loudness. It is also possible to adjust the loudness of the audio 
montage mix down as well as the loudness at the Master Section output.
This tool operates on gains. It does not affect the underlying audio files 
or use any audio compressor.
If it is not possible to match the loudness in a given clip without clipping, 
the level of the other clips is reduced so that all clips still achieve the 
same loudness. This does not happen if the Ignore peaks option is 
selected.
To avoid clipping at the Master Section stage, you can limit the mixdown 
output of the audio montage before it goes into the Master Section 
and/or the Master Section output.
NOTE
The audio path in the audio montage uses 32-bit floating point 
processing. You can therefore overload it, for example, use levels above 
0
 dB in clips, without causing clipping in the signal path. The only 
section of the audio path that can introduce clipping is the output of the 
Master Section or the output of the audio montage. Both of these issues 
can also be solved by the Loudness Meta Normalizer.
NOTE
Since loudness requires several seconds of audio to be correctly 
computed, this tool is not adapted for very short clips (under 3 
seconds). 
						

							Audio Montage
Loudness Meta Normalizer
204
Loudness Meta Normalizer Dialog
In this dialog, you can adjust the loudness of each clip in the audio 
montage so that they get the same loudness. You can also adjust the 
whole output.
In the Audio Montage workspace, select Edit > Loudness Meta 
Normalizer.
Clips, Master Section Output, and Audio Montage Output
• When Clips is activated, the gain settings of all clips in the audio 
montage are adjusted individually so that all clips play back at 
equal loudness.
• When Audio montage output is activated, the general gain 
setting of the audio montage is modified so that the audio montage 
mixdown matches a given loudness and optionally does not clip.
• When Master section output is activated, the Master Section 
gain is adjusted so that the audio montage mixdown that is 
processed through all Master Section plug-ins matches a given 
loudness and optionally does not clip. The audio montage itself is 
not modified by this operation.
The following options are available for the gain settings of clips, the 
audio montage output, and the Master Section output.
Match loudness menu
Select whether the audio montage output should match a given 
loudness or not. The following options are available:
• Do not change loudness
• Match loudest clip
• Match focused clip 
						

							Audio Montage
Notes Window
205
Peaks menu
Select whether WaveLab Elements should limit the sample values 
(digital peaks), or ignore the peaks.
This setting is less important for clips, as the whole audio montage 
mixdown can be further reduced.
Maximum peak
Determines the maximum peak value that is not to be exceeded.
Additional Options
Exclude audio montage effects
If this option is activated, audio montage effects are not taken into 
account when you use the Loudness Meta Normalizer for 
processing.
Only selected clips
If this option is activated, only selected clips are processed with 
the Loudness Meta Normalizer.
Notes Window
This window allows you to keep notes about the current audio montage 
session.
In the Audio Montage workspace, select Workspace > Specific tool 
windows > Notes.
You can type into the window and use the standard HTML text editor 
controls to format your text, add images, and lists. The notes are saved 
with the audio montage file. 
						

							 206
Recording
You can record audio in the Audio Files workspace and in the Audio 
Montage workspace.
Setting Up the Recording Dialog
Before you start recording, set up the Recording dialog.
PROCEDURE
1.In the Audio Files workspace or the Audio Montage workspace, 
click the Record button, or press [*] on the numeric key pad.
2. In the File to create section, open the pop-up menu, and select 
whether you want to record a named file or a temporary file.
3. In the File to create section, select a file name and the location 
where you want to store your file.
4. Select the audio format by doing one of the following:
• Click the down arrow button to select a preset audio format.
• Click the audio format text to open the Audio File Format dialog, 
select the format, and click OK.
5. Select whether you want to record to an audio file or an audio 
montage track, by selecting one of the following options:
•Create new audio file window
•Add to active audio file
•Add to focused track of montage
6. Select whether you want the Level or the Spectrum display.
7. Optional: Make further settings in the Options section, and on the 
Options and the Values tabs. 
						

							Recording
Dropping Markers During Recording
207
8. Click Record, to start recording.
If you have selected one of the Auto-start options, the recording goes 
into Pause mode, until the specified Auto-start criteria are met.
The background of the Recording dialog turns red to indicate that you 
are recording.
9. Optional: You can pause the recording by clicking the Pause 
button.
10. Optional: You can drop markers in the file during recording by 
clicking the drop marker buttons.
11. When you have finished recording, click Stop.
12. Optional: If you want to record another take, click Record again.
Dropping Markers During Recording
When you are recording, you can click the marker buttons to add a 
marker to the recorded file.
PROCEDURE
1.Open the Recording dialog.
2. Make your settings and start recording.
3. Select the type of marker that you want to drop.
• To drop a numbered generic marker, click the yellow marker 
button, or press [Ctrl]/[Command]-M.
• To drop numbered generic region start and end markers, click the 
white buttons, or press [Ctrl]/[Command]-L/[Ctrl]/[Command]-R.
RESULT 
The markers are dropped each time that you click the marker button.
NOTE
If you insert two or more region start markers in a row with no region end 
markers in between, only the last of these start markers is kept. The 
same applies for region end markers. 
						

							Recording
Recording Dialog
208
Recording Dialog
In this dialog, you can make recording settings and start recording an 
audio file.
In the Audio Files workspace or the Audio Montage workspace, click the 
Record button or select Transport > Record.
Main Buttons
Record
Starts recording. Depending on the recording options, the Pause 
mode is activated.
Pause
Pauses recording.
Stop
Stops recording.
Discard
Stops recording and deletes anything recorded so far.
Method Tab
On this tab, you can define options for starting, stopping, and pausing 
the recording automatically. You can select an input device and choose 
to start a recording at a specific time or stop if after a specific duration.
File to create
Specify whether you want to record a temporary file to be saved 
later, or record to a file with a specific name and location. 
						

							Recording
Recording Dialog
209
Auto number from
If this option is activated, increasing numbers are added to the file 
names of the successively saved files.
Name
The name of the file to be written, without the path. When typing, all 
files in the selected folder that start with the same letters are 
displayed. To display all files in the selected folder, click the list icon.
Where
Specifies the folder where you want to save the recording.
Audio File Format
Opens the Audio File Format dialog, where you can specify the 
file format.
Location of the Recording
Specifies where the audio is recorded:
• In a new audio file window.
• In an existing audio file is inserted at the edit cursor position (if 
none exists, a new one is created).
• In an existing audio montage is inserted at the edit cursor position 
(if none exists, a new one is created).
Auto-start if sound detected
If this option is activated, recording starts when the audio input 
level exceeds the threshold level specified on the Values tab.
Auto-start at given time
If this option is activated, recording starts at a specified time 
according to the computer clock. Specify the time on the Values 
tab.
Auto-stop after given duration
If this option is activated, recording stops automatically after the 
duration specified on the Values tab.
Auto-stop if silence
If this option is activated, recording automatically stops when the 
audio input level drops below a specified threshold level and stays 
there for a certain amount of time. Specify the level and the 
duration on the Values tab.
Auto-pause if silence
If this option is activated, recording automatically pauses when the 
audio input level drops below a specified threshold level and stays 
there for a certain amount of time. Specify the level and the 
duration on the Values tab. 
						

							Recording
Recording Dialog
210
Options Tab
On this tab, you can make additional settings for the recording process.
Activate monitoring when opening record window
If this option is activated, the meters are activated when the 
Recording dialog opens. If this option is deactivated, the meters 
and the audio thru are displayed when pressing Record or 
activating Monitor.
Stop playback when monitoring or recording
If this option is activated, playback stops before monitoring or 
recording starts.
Add markers when inserting recording in audio file
If this option is activated and a recording is inserted into an audio 
file, markers are added encompassing the new samples.
After recording, move edit cursor at the end
When recording into an audio file or montage, it is often convenient 
to move the cursor to the end of the recording.
Values Tab
On this tab, you can define values for the various recording options.
Auto-start on sound - Threshold (RMS)
Specify the average sound level that is sufficient to trigger 
recording.