Steinberg Wavelab Elements 8 Manual

							Master Section
Master Section Window
221
Master Level Pane
This pane in the Master Section allows you to control the master level of 
the active audio file.
Faders
The faders in the Master Level pane govern the final output level. Use 
the faders to optimize the level of the signal that is sent to the audio 
hardware.
NOTE
It is important to avoid clipping, especially when mastering. Clipping is 
indicated by the clip indicators of the Master Section.
Meters
The Master Section meters show the signal level of the signal before 
dithering or any other plug-in that you have applied post-master fader.
Use these to get an overview of the signal levels. The numeric fields 
above the faders show the peak levels for each channel. The peak 
indicators turn red whenever the signal clips. If this happens, you should 
lower the faders, reset the clip indicators by clicking the Reset peaks 
button, or clicking the values, and play back the section again until no 
clipping occurs. 
						

							Master Section
Master Section Window
222
Mono Button
The Mono button sums two channels to mono. The output level is 
automatically reduced by -6
 dB, to avoid clipping. The Mono button is 
useful for checking mono compatibility of stereo mixes, etc.
If the Mono button is activated, the red indicator for the Master Level 
pane is lit, even if the master level is not adjusted. This helps you avoid 
accidentally leaving the Mono button activated.
Unlink Button
Determines whether the faders should be individually adjustable or 
ganged.
If Unlink is deactivated, moving one fader also moves the other by the 
same amount. Activating Unlink allows you to correct improper stereo 
balancing by adjusting the channels’ levels individually.
• If you offset the faders with Unlink activated and then deactivate 
Unlink again, you can adjust the overall level without changing the 
level offset between the channels.
• Fader offsets are not preserved at the end of the range of 
movement or once the mouse button is released.
About Dithering
Dithering is the technique of adding small quantities of noise to a signal 
to reduce the audibility of low level distortion in a digital recording. A 
small amount of random noise is added to the analog signal before the 
sampling stage, reducing the effect of quantization errors.
In the case of WaveLab Elements, dithering is applied when reducing 
the number of bits in a recording, for example, when moving from 24 to 
16
 bits, and when applying processing.
Dithering largely depends on the type of material. When making the 
dithering settings we recommend that you experiment and let your ears 
be the final judge.
During low level passages, only a few bits are used to represent the 
signal, which leads to audible quantization errors and distortion. This is 
perceived as graininess during low level passages in a recording.
When truncating bits, as a result of moving from, for example, 24- to 
16-bit resolution, such quantization noise is added to an otherwise 
immaculate recording. 
						

							Master Section
Master Section Window
223
By adding a special kind of noise at an extremely low level, the 
quantization errors are minimized. The added noise can be perceived as 
a very low-level quiescent hiss added to the recording. However, this is 
hardly noticeable and preferred to the distortion that occurs otherwise. 
The Noise Shaping options allow to filter this noise to a frequency area 
less sensitive to the human ear.
NOTE
Dithering should always be applied after the output bus fader stage, and 
after any kind of audio process.
Selecting Dithering Algorithms
WaveLab Elements comes with an internal dithering plug-in. However, 
you can also add other dithering plug-ins.
•To select and activate a dithering algorithm in the Master Section, 
click the dithering plug-in slot in the Dithering pane, and select 
one of the options from the pop-up menu.
• To deactivate the dithering algorithm, open the dithering pop-up 
menu, and select None.
Adding Other Plug-ins to the Dithering Pane
If you want to use another dithering plug-in than the internal dithering, 
you can add it to the Dithering pane.
NOTE
The meters in the Master Section monitor the signal before the 
Dithering pane. To avoid clipping, check the Level/Pan Meter and 
adjust the output level setting of the plug-in, if available.
PROCEDURE
1. In any workspace, select Options > Plug-in settings.
2. Open the Organize tab.
3. Locate the plug-in that you want to add to the Dithering pane in the 
list, and activate the checkbox in the Post column for the plug-in.
4. Click OK. 
						

							Master Section
Master Section Window
224
RESULT 
The plug-in appears on the pop-up menu in the Dithering pane, and can 
be inserted after the Master Level faders. The plug-in is still available for 
selection as a regular pre-master effect if the corresponding entry in the 
Post column in the Plug-in settings dialog is activated.
When to Apply Dithering
The basic rule is that you should dither when moving to a lower bit 
resolution. One instance of this is when converting an audio file to a 
lower resolution. For example, preparing a 24-bit file for mastering to 
CD, that uses 16-bit format.
However, even if you are playing back or rendering a 16-bit or 24-bit file 
to the same resolution, you need to dither if you are using any 
processing in WaveLab Elements. The reason for this is that WaveLab 
Elements works with an internal resolution of 32
 bit (floating point) for 
supreme audio quality. This means that as soon as you perform any kind 
of processing, the audio data is treated at this high resolution instead of 
the original 16
 bits or 24 bits, thus making dithering necessary.
Examples of real-time processing include level adjustments, any effects, 
mixing of two or more clips in a Montage, etc. The only time when a 
16-bit file is played back at 16-bit resolution is if you play it without any 
fades or effects, and with the Master Faders set to 0.00 (no level 
adjustment – Master level indicator turned off).
NOTE
To make sure whether you need to dither or not, use the Bit Meter to 
check the actual resolution of your audio signals.
Dithering Pane
This pane in the Master Section allows you to add dithering to the 
signal before it is sent to the audio hardware or saved as a file on a disk.
Fold/unfold section
Expands or collapses the Dithering pane.
Bypass during playback
Bypasses the plug-in during playback, and optionally for a 
rendering operation. 
						

							Master Section
Master Section Window
225
Effect plug-in slot
Slot where you can insert an effect plug-in.
Presets menu
Lets you store and restore preset settings. The Presets menu of 
the top slot offers additional options to save and load default banks 
and effects.
Plug-in visibility
Activates/deactivates the plug-in window.
Switch effect on/off
Excludes the plug-in from both playback and rendering.
Noise type
Lets you set one of the available noise types that are added to the 
signal. This is only available if Internal dither is activated.
Noise shaping
Lets you select the type of filtering for improving the apparent 
signal-to-noise ratio of the output. This is only available if Internal 
dither is activated.
Number of bits
Lets you select the number of bits that the signal should be 
quantized to. This is only available if Internal dither is activated.
Master Section Tools
The tools and options at the bottom pane of the Master Section window 
allow you to make various settings before rendering the file, make 
bypass settings, and decide whether the playback goes through the 
Master Section or not.
Bypass all effects
Bypasses any kind of processing in the effect panel during 
playback, and optionally when rendering.
Reset all
Removes all the active effects from the effects slots and sets the 
master output to 0
 dB.
Setting menu
Opens the Master Section settings menu. 
						

							Master Section
Rendering
226
Render
Clicking opens the Render dialog. Right-clicking opens a menu 
where you can select whether you want to open the Render 
dialog, render using the last settings, or use in-place rendering.
Playback goes through Master Section
If this option is deactivated, the Master Section is ignored during 
playback of any file, freeing up resources. However, rendering to 
file is still possible. If playback is activated when you change this 
option, it stops and restarts.
Rendering
By rendering the effects in the Master Section, they become a 
permanent part of a file, rather than using them in real-time to test a set 
of effects on a file. So instead of performing all processing in real-time 
during playback, you can save the audio output to a file on disk.
This is done with the Render function of the Master Section.
Writing the outputs of the Master Section t o a  fil e o n di s k a l lo w s y ou to 
apply Master Section processing to an audio file, or mix down an audio 
montage to an audio file. 
There are several uses for rendering:
• Mix down a complete audio montage to an audio file.
• Process a file and save a file to a new audio file, including Master 
Section effects, dithering, and other settings. You can choose the 
format of the new audio file, which allows you to create an MP3 file 
and add effects at the same time, for example.
• Process a region of an audio file in place.
Rendering Files
PROCEDURE
1.In the Master Section, make your settings.
2. On the bottom of the Master Section, click the Render button.
3. In the Render dialog, make your rendering settings.
4. When you have set up the rendering process, click OK. 
						

							Master Section
Rendering
227
RESULT 
The file is rendered. 
NOTE
Several rendering operations can be run at the same time when using 
different files.
In-Place Rendering
In the Audio Files workspace, you can process a section of an audio file 
or the whole audio file directly from within a plug-in window, without any 
intermediary step. This is a quick way to process several audio sections 
in an audio file, or test the effect of different plug-ins on an audio file.
When using this function, the following render settings are always 
active:
• Fade-in/out at boundaries
• Exclude bypassed plug-ins
NOTE
Once an audio section has been processed, there is no automatic 
bypass of plug-ins or the Master Section.
An example for using in-place rendering:
Let
						

							Master Section
Rendering
228
Rendering an Audio Selection In-Place
You can render the plug-ins of a section of an audio file or the whole 
audio file.
PREREQUISITE 
In the Audio Files workspace, open the audio file that you want to render, 
and set up the Master Section.
PROCEDURE
1. If you only want to process a section of the audio file, in the wave 
window, select the audio section that you want to process.
2. Open the plug-in window.
3. Optional: If you only want to use some plug-ins of the Master 
Section, solo the plug-ins that you want to use.
4. Do one of the following:

						

							Master Section
Rendering
229
Create named files
If this option is activated, you can set name of the rendered file. 
Otherwise, the file is named “untitled”.
Name
Enter a name for the rendered file. Clicking the arrow icon opens a 
menu that offers you several automatic naming options.
Auto naming
When rendering multiple sources, you can activate this option to 
add a numeric prefix to all rendered files.
Where
Select a folder where the file is rendered to.
File format
Opens the Audio File Format dialog, where you can select the file 
format.
Copy markers
If this option is activated, markers included in the range to process 
are copied to the rendered file.
Bypass Master Section on resulting audio file
If this option is activated, playback of the resulting audio file 
bypasses the entire Master Section after rendering. This setting 
can be toggled by clicking on the button at the bottom right of the 
wave window or montage window.
NOTE
It is recommended to have this option activated, because you do not 
want to monitor this new file through the effects again when the effects 
have been applied to a file.
No tail
If this option is activated, the audio tail produced by effects such 
as reverbs is not included in the rendered file.
Some plug-ins do not provide a tail duration to WaveLab 
Elements. In this case, this option has no effect. For such plug-ins, 
you could add the Silence plug-in to add extra samples at the end 
of the file. An audio tail appears in this space.
Upload to SoundCloud
If this option is activated, the rendered file is uploaded to 
SoundCloud, after the rendering process is finished.
Bypass Master Section
If this option is activated, the plug-ins and gain of the Master 
Section are bypassed when rendering. 
						

							Master Section
Rendering
230
Exclude bypassed plug-ins
If this option is activated, the plug-ins that are bypassed during 
playback are not used for rendering.
This applies to the bypass states managed by WaveLab Elements, 
not any bypass state that is under the control of the plug-ins.
Open resulting audio file
If this option is activated, each rendered file is opened in a new 
window.
Render Dialog in the Audio Files Workspace
The following options in the Render dialog are exclusive to the Audio 
Files workspace:
Time range - Whole file
Processes and renders the whole audio range.
Time range - Selection
Processes and renders the selected audio range.
Process in place
If this option is activated, the rendered audio range replaces the 
source audio range. Otherwise, a new file is created.