Image courtesy of Steinberg.
Those of us in the audio production world work with lots of channels: 80 inputs to our digital mixer, 64 streams recorded into the computer, hundreds of tracks for mixdown. No problem. We work our magic and reduce all of those tracks, in most cases, to a simple stereo audio file. Mission accomplished, right?
Not exactly. If you want your final output to be its very best, you need to be as savvy wrangling just two tracks as you are 200. Instead of comping multiple takes and dialing in reverbs, the focus changes to bit depth, dither, limiting, stereo image, headroom, sample rate conversion, file formats, final EQ…. This requires another realm of knowledge and completely different tools.
WaveLab is to a stereo file what a digital audio workstation (DAW) is to individual tracks. It allows you to optimize and process your final mix in countless ways, making it sound its very best no matter what device is playing it back.
One such tool is Steinberg WaveLab Pro ($560), a powerful package that engineers have been using to put the finishing touches on audio for over 20 years. WaveLab is to a stereo file what a digital audio workstation (DAW) is to individual tracks. It allows you to optimize and process your final mix in countless ways, making it sound its very best no matter what device is playing it back. This is not just about “filling the meters”--WaveLab also includes tools to correct problems in an audio file (i.e. clipping), eliminate noise, analyze and adjust spectral content, mix multiple tracks, perform batch processing and much more. Also available is WaveLab Elements ($100) with a stripped-back feature set.
Enter the lab
Most of WaveLab’s functions pertain to what is traditionally considered “mastering,” the art of applying EQ, compression/limiting and other effects to balance a mix’s audio frequencies, stereo image and perceived level. For all of these functions, WaveLab offers a wealth of power. Traditional limiting, multi-band compression, EQ, harmonic effects and saturation, spatial/imaging effects—all are present in multiple forms to suit your favored approach. Most users will find the stock plug-ins to be more than adequate, but external plug-ins are also supported.
The final step in mastering involves rendering the file at the proper level, bit depth, sample rate and file format. This process is less about what you hear and more about visual monitoring, and WaveLab shines in this regard as well. Metering is extensive, and you can have multiple meters (i.e. standard level, loudness and spectral) visible at the same time. Everything you need to finalize the perfect mono, stereo or surround file is here.
The final step in mastering involves rendering the file at the proper level, bit depth, sample rate and file format. This process is less about what you hear and more about visual monitoring, and WaveLab shines in this regard as well.
The WaveLab “montage” mode allows mixing of multiple files with automation and effects. Montage won’t replace your DAW, but it can make quick and efficient work of floating a spoken word track over a music bed. It’s also great for layering effects, music and dialog for a video soundtrack. When a DAW is overkill, WaveLab’s montage may be a good fit.
WaveLab 9.5 offers a newly redesigned restoration plug-in, which handily reduces clicks, noise and hum from audio. I torture-tested this feature with a spoken word track cursed with both the low-frequency hum of a pump and the high-frequency swish of running water in the background. WaveLab’s active noise reduction algorithm learned the noise signature and removed enough of it to salvage the track. The final result wasn’t perfect, but it was an impressive improvement.
WaveLab has many other features—far too many to list here. Worthy of note are its batch processing features, which allow you to perform almost any function on a stack of audio files without human intervention. If you need multiple audio files rendered in multiple formats, this will save you much time. Error correction can locate problems in an audio file and correct then with interpolation or even “audio inpainting”. This examines audio around a glitch or dropout to replace the problem spot. With certain types of problems, the repair is flawless.
Spectral editing is a mind-bender, but a potentially useful one. With a spectrogram displayed, you can select (with a rectangle) a section of audio that represents a span of time and limited range of frequencies. You can then extract, process and paste that audio. Application: I was able to pick a word out the middle of a dense mix and copy it somewhere else, seamlessly. Amazing.
The deep end
WaveLab Pro 9.5 runs on Macs and PCs, provided you’ve plugged your licensing USB key in. Don’t like hardware keys? Me neither. At least installation is straightforward, and the WaveLab online help is easy to navigate and well-written. If you don’t have an Internet connection, download the 600-page PDF manual and keep it handy.
The software is deep, and many of its functions go way beyond the intuitive. Dive in, and you’ll discover there’s almost nothing WaveLab can’t do to an audio file.
Swallow your pride and make friends with that documentation, because you will need some help learning WaveLab. The software is deep, and many of its functions go way beyond the intuitive. Dive in, and you’ll discover there’s almost nothing WaveLab can’t do to an audio file. In many cases there are multiple ways to achieve the same goal. Flexibility is a key WaveLab value, and the software gives you what you need to make the workspace your own. You can detach, move and group windows and menus extensively, and most functions allow you to create and save your own presets for easy retrieval.
The more I work with WaveLab, the more I think its name is spot-on. Exploring the software feels like walking into a scientists’ lab and seeing crazy tools everywhere. “What the heck does that do?” I found the WaveLab workbench to be scattered with intriguing tools, made by people smarter than me to wrangle audio in ways I didn’t think possible. It’s a bit intimidating at first, sure, but what an amazing lab.
If you’re ready to take your mixes and truly make them “final,” WaveLab Pro 9.5 is chock-full of the tools you need. You just have to provide the ears and the skill.
