New Features

The design of the Startup Assistant has been optimized, with a special focus on ease of use. See Startup Assistant Window.

If the sample rate of your audio montage differs from the sample rates of the audio files that you want to insert into it, as an alternative to creating and using copies of the audio files and setting them to the sample rate of the audio montage, you can now also choose to set the audio montage to the sample rate of the audio files. See Resolving Sample Rate Mismatches between Audio Montages and Audio Files.

This new option on the Process tab in the Audio Montage window allows you to divide the active clip into several smaller clips that are automatically matched to the position and length of selected clips on another track or lane. See Splitting Clips to Match Them to Reference Clips.

The new Auto-Update option, which is available for the Spectral Profile and the Loudness Profile, prompts WaveLab Pro to automatically perform the corresponding analysis again, as soon as any audio files have been modified. See Loudness Profile Tab.

You can now use key commands to search for and select a particular plug-in after typing part of its name into the Search field. See Adding Effects via the Inspector Window.

When using the Loudness Matching function, you can now prevent individual reference tracks from being affected by the ensuing loudness adjustments. See Loudness Matching for A/B Comparisons.

Additional design options have been added to the Rainbow Waveform Settings dialog. See Rainbow Waveform Settings Dialog.

Among the naming scheme auto variables for the Title element, you can now choose whether to set the index to a zero-padded 2-digit number ("01") or to a number whose zero-padding is based on the title count ("1"). See Naming Scheme Dialog.

You can now choose from several font sizes for displaying the Loudness analysis results. See Options Section of the Loudness Analysis Report Window.

You can now choose whether you want WaveLab Pro to detect any zero crossing point in the audio, or to limit the search to zero crossing points that mark an upward slope. See Editing Tab (Audio Files Preferences).

Simplified Chinese has been added to the languages available in the application.

The new Startup Assistant allows you to choose the working environment that suits your workflow, to create and open files or projects, and to establish your audio connections – all in a single place. In addition to this, it offers you WaveLab-related information and news and provides useful links. See Startup Assistant Window.

A new Steinberg built-in ASIO driver with automatic sample rate conversion is now available. See Selecting the Steinberg Built-In ASIO Driver (Windows only).

Projects in WaveLab have been conceptually revised with regard to their ease of use. You can now back up entire projects in a consolidated folder or as a ZIP file, allowing you to transfer them to other computers or share them with other users. See Projects.

The new Loudness Analysis tool allows you to analyze your audio and to compare it with reference material, to check it against an audio standard, and to create reports of the results. See Loudness Analysis.

The new Loudness Profile feature allows you to visualize a detailed graphical loudness and dynamics analysis of your audio. See Visual Analysis: Loudness Profile.

The new Spectral Profile feature allows you to visualize the average frequency of your audio. See Visual Analysis: Spectral Profile.

This new option on the Process tab allows you to copy the audio montage, along with all the files it references, either to a new independent folder or to a ZIP archive file, so that you can use it on another computer or share it with other users. See Process Tab (Audio Montage).

The Sideline Track option allows you to hide and deactivate tracks, temporarily disconnecting them from the audio montage, and to activate them again at any time. See Sidelining Tracks.

A new track type for use in audio montages is available, allowing you to easily perform null tests in your audio montage. See Null Test Tracks.

You can now set and customize filters for monitoring specific frequency ranges while comparing your audio montage output with a reference track, or a reference track with another reference track. See Monitoring Individual Frequency Ranges by Isolating Them.

There is now an option to automatically adjust the output of your audio montage to the loudness of a reference track, to provide an objective basis for A/B comparisons. See Loudness Matching for A/B Comparisons.

You can now associate up to eight individual speaker configurations with playback plug-in chain presets. See Speaker Configuration Pane.

In the new Rainbow display, which is available both in the Audio Editor and in the Audio Montage window, audio waveforms are visualized in multiple colors, reflecting the spectral features of the audio material. See Rainbow Display.

To optimize cross-application workflows, WaveLab offers new drag and drop/copy and paste options that allow you to transfer any audio range from WaveLab to any other application, either with or without effects. See Cross-Application Copying Operations.

The WaveLab Pro Audio Editor can now be integrated into various external audio applications that support the ARA interface and VST 3. See WaveLab as an ARA Extension.

Black Valve is a plug-in dedicated to modern vocal processing, containing various modules for different aspects, such as cleaning, adding more character, and typical vocal effects. The plug-in is described in the separate document Plug-in Reference. See Black Valve.

EQ-P1A is a vintage tube EQ plug-in with a unique sound and a famously low frequency boost and attenuation, based on a classic analog equalizer. It offers low and high shelving filters and an additional high peak filter. The plug-in is described in the separate document Plug-in Reference. See EQ-P1A.

EQ-M5 is a characterful vintage tube EQ plug-in , especially suited for mid processing. It offers low, mid, and high peak filters. The plug-in is described in the separate document Plug-in Reference. See EQ-M5.

Raiser is a versatile limiter plug-in that can increase the loudness of the audio material to a high extent. Its range goes from smooth limiting of solo tracks and full mixes to a rather aggressive limiting, best suited for percussive material. The plug-in is described in the separate document Plug-in Reference. See Raiser.

The SampleAlign plug-in allows you to delay one audio channel in a stereo file, relative to the other channel; that is, to modify the samples of either one of the channels or both the left and the right audio channel. The plug-in is described in the separate document Plug-in Reference. See SampleAlign.

The TestGenerator plug-in comes with an improved signal generator, additional types of waveforms, and noise. It now allows you to use a pulse signal and to activate/deactivate the output signal for each channel separately. The plug-in is described in the separate document Plug-in Reference. See TestGenerator.

VoxComp is a compressor plug-in designed for processing vocals. It uses a highly adaptive algorithm, which makes it easy to achieve the desired results. The plug-in is described in the separate document Plug-in Reference. See VoxComp.

Tooltips are now provided for the controls in all dialog boxes. See Help System.

You can now display your mouse and keyboard input activity in real time, which is useful for screenshots and screencasting purposes, such as demos, presentations, and tutorials. See Visualization of Keyboard and Mouse Input.

WaveLab Pro now offers contextual folders as the target location of your rendered audio. See Contextual Folders.

You can now display a level ruler in the Audio Montage window. See Time Ruler and Level Ruler.

You can now apply filters to transform naming scheme elements. See Naming Scheme Dialog.

This new automatic zoom feature adjusts the waveform view to fill the vertical space, as you horizontally scroll or zoom into quieter sections. See Automatic Maximum Vertical Zooming.

The new Navigation Sync feature helps you to compare audio material by synchronizing different views of audio files and audio montages, so that any scrolling or zooming actions you perform in one of them are automatically applied to the others in real time. See Navigation Sync.

You can now overlay the Waveform or the Rainbow view in the Audio Editor and the Audio Montage window with an RMS Loudness view and adjust the transparency of the RMS Loudness overlay. See Loudness Overlay.

You can now overlay the Spectrogram or the Wavelet view of the Audio Editor with the Waveform view and adjust the transparency of the Waveform overlay. See Waveform Overlay.

Both in the Audio Editor and in the Audio Montage window, when you select audio by dragging, WaveLab Pro now automatically identifies suitable start and end points for audio segments, which are referred to as Audio Cue Points. See Audio Cue Point Detection.

You can now use Tab for forward and backward navigation across audio cue points, a.k.a. transients. See Settings for Audio Cue Point Detection.

You can now activate automatic crossfading for operations such as cutting, pasting, inserting, muting, cropping, or deleting segments of your audio. See Edit Tab (Audio Editor).

WaveLab now supports the Opus file format, both for decoding and encoding. See Opus Audio File Encoding Dialog.

You can now apply crossfades while adjusting the gain of a specific audio range, to create a seamless transition and to prevent abrupt clicks between the selected range and the surrounding audio on playback. See Gain Dialog.

Two new options in the Level section of the Envelope tab allow you to reduce the level of an audio selection by -6 dB or -9 dB via a single mouse click. See Envelope Tab (Audio Montage).

The Align Clips dialog now offers two additional methods for aligning clips: Alignment to Anchor and Audio Correlation. See Align Clips Dialog.

The new Bulk Audio File Replacement feature allows you to replace the source audio files of all clips of an audio montage at the same time. See Source File Replacement in Bulk.

The super clip feature has been revised and simplified to make it easier to create, edit, and handle super clips and sub-montages. See Super Clips.

The Inspector window now allows you to activate or deactivate all effect plug-ins at the same time. See Inspector Window.

The Gain pane now has separate sliders for each stage of the audio chain. See Inspector Window.

You can now use context-based color-coded caption bars for plug-in windows, which make it easier to distinguish the effect plug-in types. See Color Codes for Effect Plug-ins.

In case you experience any plug-in-related issues with an audio montage, you can now open it in Safe Mode; that is, open it without loading any plug-ins. See Opening Audio Montages in Safe Mode to Identify Plug-in Issues.

You can now transfer settings that you made for a plug-in to other instances of the same plug-in in the same audio montage, saving you the time and effort to set the parameters for each plug-in individually and enabling you to easily synchronize plug-in settings for several tracks or clips. See Replicating Plug-in Settings and Applying Them to Other Plug-ins in the Audio Montage.

You can now set the active clip in your audio montage to a specific loudness and shift the loudness of all other clips by the same value. In addition to this, WaveLab Pro can now automatically identify and adjust the clip with the highest peak level, so that it meets the specified peak limit, and offset all other clips accordingly. See Loudness Meta Normalizer Dialog.

The new Consolidate function gathers all audio files used in an audio montage and saves them in a single folder, thus ensuring that no assets are missing when you transfer your work to another machine or share it with other users. See Audio Montage Consolidation.

The new Chapter Generator allows you to divide your audio material into chapters via marker pairs and to create a text file listing them, for use on YouTube or Spotify. See Generating Chapters for YouTube and Spotify via Markers.

With the new Auto-Play option activated, the selected audio range is played back automatically, each time you edit the audio material, taking the current pre-roll and post-roll settings into account. See Spectrum Tab.

The maximum length of an audio region that WaveLab Pro can handle for spectrum processing has been increased from 60 seconds to 20 minutes. See Spectrum Processing.

You can now prevent WaveLab Pro from searching for and displaying plug-ins using the old VST 2 standard. See Plug-ins Tab (Preferences).

You can now specify a warm-up phase for plug-ins, which can enhance the interaction between plug-ins and audio montage clips. See All Audio Montages Tab.

The Audio Analyzer monopass batch processor plug-in has been enhanced. The plug-in is described in the separate document Plug-in Reference. See Audio Analyzer.

The Meta Leveler and the Loudness Meta Normalizer batch processor plug-ins have been enhanced. The plug-ins are described in the separate document Plug-in Reference. See Meta Leveler and Loudness Meta Normalizer.

You can now make audio selections snap to time ruler marks and quantize the audio selection at the same time. See Quantizing Audio Selections based on Time Ruler Marks.

You can now synchronize the edit cursor position with the playback cursor position via the status bar. You can also use this option to activate a clip that is currently located at the cursor. See Status Bar.

You can now display a grid in the Audio Editor or for clips in the Audio Montage window, aligned with time ruler marks; that is, the major ticks on the time ruler. See Time Ruler Menu.

You can now divide the time ruler into Sample Blocks, and you can make adjustments to specify their scope. See Time Format Dialog.

Using drag and drop or the File Explorer/macOS Finder to open files, you can now choose whether or not to open the most recently used files in conjunction with the new file/files. See Starting WaveLab by Opening Files.

A purple tab name now indicates that no audio file is associated with a tab. See Tab Change Indicators.

In the File Browser window, there is now a button to manually reload the content, to reflect any updates and changes. See File Browser Window.

You can now zoom in or out while selecting an audio range. See Zooming while Selecting an Audio Range.

You can now open a second Timecode window, to display the time from two different reference points. See Timecode Window.

Following users requests, we re-introduced the option to save audio files as Text/Excel files (file extension .atxt). See Supported File Formats.

In the Metadata dialog, WaveLab Pro now allows you to generate BWF time references for rendered audio files, and to automatically add the creation time and date of your audio files via the BWF tab. See Metadata Dialog.

"CD", in the sense of a compilation of songs or titles, respectively, has been renamed to the more general term "album". The term "CD" is now reserved for referring to compact disks as a medium. In addition to this, "CD track" has been replaced by the more general term "title". See Audio Montage Window.

The Stop When Record Position Reaches Selected Marker option now allows you to automatically stop recording when the record position reaches a selected marker. See Track Control Area for Stereo and Mono Tracks.

In the Effects pop-up menu of the track control area, there is now an option to bypass all effects. See Track Control Area for Stereo and Mono Tracks.

The cue point options have been revised and extended. See Edit Tab (Audio Montage).

In the Audio Editor or in the Audio Montage window, the new Keep Independent Folder for Each Source File option allows you to maintain independent render paths for individual audio montages or audio files and ensures that, when switching audio montages or audio files, the render path changes accordingly. See Render Tab (Audio Montage).

This option automatically opens the File Explorer/macOS Finder to indicate the location of selected audio files after rendering them. See Render Tab (Audio Montage).

When importing audio files into audio montages, you can now choose to create a copy of the original audio file in the audio montage folder or one of its subfolders, and whether or not to save this choice for future imports. See Import Files Dialog.

You can now copy selected clips in their “raw” state; that is, without any effects or automation applied, to the active track. See Clips Menu.

When exporting clip lists, marker lists, or file lists as text, there are now additional options to choose from in the corresponding dialogs. See Export Clip List as Text Dialog.

When you move or resize clips in the Audio Montage window, the key commands for the Ripple and the Auto Grouping options are now displayed on a new Context Options info bar above the tab bar. This makes it easy to access them without interrupting your workflow or the need to remember the corresponding key commands. See Options for Moving and Crossfading Clips.

You can now choose to include reference tracks when performing Ripple and Auto Grouping actions. See Options for Moving and Crossfading Clips.

To make it easier to identify individual clips, you can now prompt WaveLab to automatically assign a random color to each of your selected clips. See Coloring Clips.

You can now easily move the edit cursor to the exact position of an envelope point via the Envelope context menu of the Audio Montage window. See Moving the Edit Cursor to an Envelope Point.

In the Audio Montage window, you can now quickly navigate to specific envelope points and select them. See Navigating across Envelope Points.

You now have the option to play all title starts and/or title ends of an album. See Album Window.

You can now specify an increment value for ISRC code generation. See Album Wizard Dialog.

You can now insert markers while maintaining the positions of the clips in the titles of your album. See Album Wizard Dialog.

With Insert Mode activated, all plug-ins below the selected slot are automatically moved one step down when you add a new plug-in. See Effects Pane.

You can now import markers from CSV files. See Importing Markers from CSV Files.

The Spectrogram Options dialog has been redesigned. See Spectrogram Options Dialog.

You can now add Master Section plug-ins to the plug-in list of the Batch Processor by dragging. See Adding Plug-ins to a Batch Process.

You can now combine multiple plug-in chains by appending new plug-in chains to previously loaded ones in the Batch Processor window. See Saving and Loading Plug-in Chains in the Batch Processor.

You can now choose whether you want slide-out windows to automatically close when you click outside of the window or shift the focus to another part of the application or to keep them open. See Display Tab (Global Preferences).

You can now adjust the blink rate of the edit cursor to suit your preferences. See Display Tab (Global Preferences).

You can now customize the playback cursor according to your requirements, and to better distinguish it from the edit cursor. See Display Tab (Global Preferences).

You can now set the time after which tooltips appear when you move the mouse over user interface controls. See Display Tab (Global Preferences).

You can now choose whether to show or hide clip side cues; that is, small red arrows at the right or left border of a clip that indicate that the clip has been trimmed and only part of it is currently visible. See All Audio Montages Tab.

When you edit envelope points with the mouse, you can now set them to snap to active anchors. See Snapping Envelope Points to Anchors.