Topic: Wavelab Help! 24bit content

[neutrino]

Having purchased a MicroTrack 24/96, I'm in need of a "proper" workflow to edit and convert my 24/96 files. Right now I'm just focusing on editing/normalizing and saving my 24/96 files with the intent to dither at a later time if need be. Having only used CE for my 16bit editing, I'm having to learn the Wavelab5(demo) from scratch and I'm currently unable to complete a couple of simple edits I would have no problem with in CE. My problem comes with zooming in on a particular sample to change gain on a couple of random "high" level peaks before I normalize. For some reason I'm unable to zoom in on a particular peak I wish to edit that is visible in the "Overview".

So, what I'm trying to do is view the entire wav form by selecting VIEW > ZOOM > OVERVIEW
Then select the part of the wav which is peaking high and select VIEW > ZOOM > SELECTION
The first time I do this,  the wav form which is peaking is visible, but if I selected the wave a second time and zoom in to pin point the actual peak, the selection it now shows is missing the peak I was searching for. Same thing is happening if I use the selection magnifier as well. What am I doing wrong here? This was a no-brainer in CE… HELP?

Anyone interested in writing up a 24bit Processing FAQ for all these 24bit newbies with their Microtrack's. I have a few MT recordings I want to torrent, but I want to make sure my workflow is "proper".
dB-

[Brian Skalinder]

I have the Wavelab 5 demo as well and am playing around with it in anticipation of the move to 24-bit.  FWIW, I am able to select a section, View | Zoom | Zoom Selection from the menu, re-select the section I want with more precision in the new view, Zoom Selection again, etc., until I'm zoomed in enough on my chosen area for whatever it is I want to do.  I find the zoom feature a bit different than CEP, in that it doesn't zoom the selection to fit the full width of the window, only part of it.  Hold on... just found the Zoom tool in the Wave Toolbox.  When making a selection, it zooms to fill the full width of the window just like CEP.  Only the menu option doesn't seem to do so.  S'alright, the zoom tools easier, anyway.

But I've not yet found an easy way to zoom OUT in steps, i.e. step out of the zoom-ins I've taken (kinda like an "undo" for zoom).  The stepped zoom out would go like the following:  select a section (1), zoom in, select a more precise section (2), zoom in, select a still more precise section (3), zoom in, realize I've selected the wrong section (3), step out one zoom to the previous section view (2), re-select my section (3), and zoom in once again.  If that makes sense.  Instead, I have to either <a> restore the full waveform in the main window via View | Zoom | Overview and re-start the zoom process from scratch (I wonder if there's a toolbox control that does the equivalent of View | Zoom | Overview so I don't have to navigate the menu each time), or <b> re-select the initial zoom section from the "overview" mini-window (not sure of its proper name). 

And I'll add:  the super-zoomed-in view is taking some adjustment on my part since the waveform turns blocky after zooming in pretty far, not like the smooth waveform I'm used to seeing in CEP.  Perhaps there's a configuration setting that controls this, though.

[Brian Skalinder]

FWIW, it appears the problem Dave was experiencing is simply Wavelab not rendering the waveform graphics consistently across different views, i.e. overview v. zoom v. zoom2, etc.  I can't believe we're the only ones who've noticed this - anyone else run across it?

[Evil Taper]

Chill guys, wavelab is fairly similar to Soundforge actually.  What you're going to want to do is do a "select all" and then find the normalize menu.  You are gonna use the option get peak info, or something similiar i don't have wavelab on this machine, and that will tell you what the peak level is.  Now you look at the bar on the top of the screen that shows the entire file as a waveform and click at the area that looks to be peaking.  Then you highlight that portion, do the normalize peak thing again and check that this is in fact the spot with the peak.

I guess I'm not really sure exactly what you are locating the peak for, but that's an easy way to do it.  Once you find the peak you can highlight it to use the "gain" function to negate some volume from the spike, or just normalize so your spike is your high point and the listener can crank up their stereo to make up for it.  Any more specific questions I can probably offer some advice.  Hope this helps guys.

[Brian Skalinder]

Dave and I had a lengthy chat yesterday (?) about his "disappearing" peaks when zooming in.  The peak appears in the overview pane, but when one selects and tries to zoom in...the peak just plain disappears.  How do we know it disappears?  Because we noted the timestamp on the peak in question, and at the same timestamp in a zoomed-in view the peak simply did not exist.  We confirmed externally via CEP and CDWave¹ that the peak does not, in fact, exist, even though WL rendered it as a very apparent peak in the overview pane.  So...in my extremely limited experience so far, it seems WL 5.01a doesn't render the waveform properly in the overview pane.  Not exactly a showstopper, and the overview pane's waveform is mostly correct, it seems, aside from a couple phantom peaks.  But it did confuse us for a while as new users.

ET - thanks for the detailed info.  I think we're clear on how to normalize, the question was more around what was going on with these phantom peaks.

¹ In the process of viewing the waveform in CDWave 1.94.5, we determined that CDWave inverts phase in its waveform display - noted in a dedicated thread here.  I've dropped Mr. Loojiman a line about the bug already.

[Evil Taper]

I noticed the same type of thing but got used to it.  The rendering of the full wave file on the top portion of the screen is basically just an estimation.  It's usually about right but it's not completely accurate for sure.  If you're looking at a recording with large dynamic shifts they'll usually either be exagerated or less than eye catching on the top bar.  The actual waveform information when you zoom in is highly accurate though.  I don't really see a huge difference between Wavelab and Soundforge except that Wavelab accepts more plugins and accesses them with less latency.  It's faster basically.  Once you get familiar with Wavelab it's mostly self explanitory.  There hasn't been a time yet where I've been stuck and not have any idea how to do something, so just give it some playtime and you'll be afluent.