The audio montage is a multitrack non-destructive editing environment that allows you to arrange, edit, play back, and record audio clips.
All clips are displayed in the CD window. In this window, you can edit and rearrange clips and drag them into the audio montage.
You can freely arrange clips in the montage window.
The following list informs you about the most important improvements in WaveLab Elements and provides links to the corresponding descriptions.
Before you start working, you need to make some settings.
This chapter describes general concepts that you will use when working with WaveLab Elements. Getting accustomed with these procedures allows you to work more effectively with the program.
The Workspace window provides an editing and playback environment for each particular file type. Each environment contains functions that are tailored to the specific purpose of each file type.
In WaveLab Elements, you can handle files in various ways. For example, rename files from within WaveLab Elements or save files in various ways.
This chapter describes the methods for controlling playback and transport functions.
Audio file editing refers to opening, editing, and saving audio files.
WaveLab Elements provides you with a comprehensive set of tools for analyzing your audio and for detecting any errors.
Offline processes are useful for a variety of editing purposes and creative effects, for example, if the computer is too slow for real-time processing or if the editing requires more than one pass.
The montage window is where you assemble your audio montage. This is where you view, play back, and edit audio montages.
The tabs in the Audio Montage window give you access to the tools and options you need for editing audio montages. For example, you can edit the envelope curves and fades in clips, make zoom settings, analyze the audio, and render the audio montage.
The audio signal passes through the various sections of WaveLab Elements in a certain way.
You can create new, empty audio montages with custom audio montage properties.
You can duplicate audio montages in various ways. This allows you to quickly create new audio montages using the same properties and audio files as previously created audio montages.
In the Audio Montage Properties, you can define the channel configuration (mono, stereo, surround, Ambisonics) and the sample rate of the audio montage.
You can import audio files, video files, and Audio CD tracks into your audio montage.
An audio montage consists of references to one or multiple audio files. These references can be broken if you move audio files to another location on your hard disk, for example. WaveLab Elements detects broken references and allows you to specify new file locations or replace the missing audio file with another audio file.
You assemble your audio montage by adding tracks and clips.
You can open multichannel audio files in audio montages. Each track of the multichannel audio file is organized in channel clusters. A channel cluster is a logical group of channels. It is always one channel or a channel pair.
You can edit multiple selected clips at once.
In the CD window, you can re-order clips by dragging them to another position in the list.
The info line at the bottom of the Audio Montage window shows what happens when you click the mouse button with or without modifier keys, depending on the cursor position.
Some positions, such as markers or the start and end of a clip, can be defined as magnetic. Dragged elements can snap to these positions. This makes it easier to position items accurately.
Many editing functions for clips can be accessed via the clip context menus. Depending on where you right-click the clip, different context menus are available.
You can let clips overlap other clips, move them, and create crossfades between clips.
You can quickly duplicate one or several clips via drag and drop. You can drag the clip duplicates to another position on the same track, another track, or another audio montage.
In this context, resizing usually means moving the start and end points of a clip. This reveals more or less of the original audio file.
You can split clips to turn one clip into two independent clips. The two clips have the same name and settings. Envelopes and fades are converted so that the two clips play back as if they were still one clip.
Deleting the part of a clip inside a selection range removes the selected range and moves the right section of the clip to the left to fill the gap.
Deleting clips does not delete the audio file that is referenced by the clips.
A cue point is a defined position marker that belongs to a clip. It may be positioned inside or outside the clip. Cue points are displayed as dotted vertical lines.
You can edit files that are used in the current audio montage in the Audio Editor.
For clips in the audio montage, you can create envelopes for volume and fades, and for panning.
Ducking allows you to control the level of an audio track with another audio track.
A fade in is a gradual increase in level and a fade out is a gradual decrease in level. A crossfade is a gradual fade between two sounds, where one is faded in and the other faded out.
You can add VST effect plug-ins to individual clips, tracks, or the output of an audio montage. Clip effects affect individual clips only, track effects affect all clips on a track, and the montage output affects the whole audio montage.
The CD window displays the clips of the active audio montage, and lets you write the audio montage to an audio CD.
The Render function allows you to mix down the whole audio montage or a region of it to a single audio file.
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 mixdown as well as the loudness at the Master Section output.
This window allows you to enter notes about the current audio montage session.
You can import audio CD files. The imported audio CD opens as an audio montage.
You can record audio in the Audio Editor and in the Audio Montage window.
The Master Section is the final block in the signal path before the audio is sent to the audio hardware, to an audio file, or to the audio meters. This is where you adjust the master levels, add effects, resample, and apply dithering.
Markers allow you to save and name specific positions in a file. Markers are useful for editing and playback.
WaveLab Elements contains a variety of audio meters that you can use for monitoring and analyzing audio. Meters can be used to monitor audio during playback, rendering, and recording. Furthermore, you can use them to analyze audio sections when playback is stopped.
To start the CD/DVD writing process, you must have completed all CD/DVD writing preparations.
Looping a sound allows you to repeat a section of the sample indefinitely in order to create a sustain of unlimited length. Instrumental sounds in samplers rely on looping organ sounds, for example.
You can read audio tracks from regular CDs and save them as a digital copy in any audio format on your hard disk.
WaveLab Elements allows you to add video files to your audio montage. You can play back video files in various formats from within WaveLab Elements, extract the audio from a video file, and edit your audio alongside the video.
You can use WaveLab Elements as an external editor for Cubase Pro, Cubase Artist, and Nuendo, and vice versa.
You can convert multiple audio files simultaneously to another format. If no processing is needed, this can be done using the Batch Conversion dialog.
A Podcast is an episodic series that consists of audio files. Users can stream or download Podcasts to their device and listen to it. WaveLab Elements with its audio editing tools and effects allows you to create Podcast episodes and upload these episodes to various host services.
Podcasting is a method of distributing multimedia files over the Internet, for example, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. Podcasts are distributed via the RSS standard (Rich Site Summary).
Customizing means making settings so that the program behaves and looks the way that you want it to.
You can configure WaveLab Elements according to your needs.