Steinberg WaveLab Pro is a commercial audio editing and mastering application for Windows and macOS. It covers the last stage of audio production. This includes editing individual files with sample accuracy, assembling and mastering albums, and repairing damaged recordings. It also measures loudness and delivers the finished result as audio files, audio CDs, DDP images or podcast episodes.
Editing single files in the Audio Editor
The Audio Editor works on one audio file at a time. Users can switch the waveform to rainbow, spectrogram or wavelet displays. A loudness overlay draws the loudness curve over the audio. Selections can snap to zero crossings and detected cue points. Users can edit stereo material as left/right or mid/side channels.
Users edit the file directly. Crop keeps only the selection. Delete removes it and closes the gap. Smooth Delete adds short crossfades at the cut so no click remains. Users apply offline processes such as gain, fades, time stretching, pitch shifting and resampling from the ribbon tabs.
The Loudness Normalizer, for example, takes a target loudness and a sample or true peak ceiling. WaveLab Pro calculates the gain. When respecting the ceiling requires a limiter, WaveLab Pro runs simulation passes. It also warns when heavy limiting would affect quality.
Building albums in the audio montage
The audio montage is WaveLab Pro’s non-destructive multitrack environment for albums, mastering sessions and radio spots. Imported files become clips that only reference their source, so trimming or moving a clip never alters the original audio.
A montage can hold unlimited mono and stereo tracks, up to three reference tracks and a video track. Each clip, track, track group and the montage output takes up to 16 VST 2 or VST 3 effects. WaveLab Pro processes these effects in list order. Envelopes automate volume, pan and plug-in parameters, and fades and crossfades join clips.
Ducking lets one track lower another, such as music under a voice. For complex projects, each song can live in its own montage. Each song can then appear in the main album montage as a super clip, which represents the rendered state of that song’s montage. Montages also handle surround and Ambisonics layouts, and current versions add Dolby Atmos master and album montages for mastering immersive content.
Comparing with a reference track
During playback, users can switch between the montage output and a reference track. WaveLab Pro matches their loudness so the louder one does not sound better by default. Filters can limit monitoring to specific frequency ranges for a closer comparison.
The Master Section signal chain
The Master Section is the last block in the signal path before audio reaches the hardware, a rendered file or the meters. It holds master level, effect plug-ins, resampling and dithering, and its settings apply to file playback, montage playback, rendering and CD writing alike. Users can save chains as presets and reuse them in batch jobs. A separate Playback Processing pane contains the Encoder Checker for comparing audio encoders and slots for additional plug-ins.
Click repair and spectral editing
The Correction tab scans a file or selection for clicks and digital artifacts. Users can audition each detected error. They can use short resynthesis, draw a smooth pencil line over the damaged samples, or apply inpainting to repair it. This tool targets isolated errors. A declicking plug-in handles heavily crackled sources such as old vinyl better.
Spectral editing works on a region defined by both time and frequency. Users can therefore treat a cough or a whistle without touching the rest of the spectrum. Users can filter the selected region with linear-phase filters, send it through the Master Section, reconstruct it from surrounding audio with inpainting, or clean it with spectrum processing.
Level, loudness and phase meters
Meters run during playback, rendering and recording, or analyze a stopped selection. The set includes:
- a level meter for peak and average levels and stereo balance;
- a loudness meter following EBU R-128, with integrated, short-term and momentary loudness, loudness range and true peak;
- a phasescope for the phase relationship between stereo channels;
- a spectroscope, an FFT spectrometer and a live spectrogram for frequency content;
- a bit meter, an oscilloscope and a wavescope for bit usage and waveform detail.
Batch processing and watch folders
The Batch Processor runs any number of audio files or montages through Master Section presets, offline processes and batch-specific plug-ins. Output goes to a chosen folder. Users can optionally convert it to another format and rename it by rules. Users can run a saved batch again when sources change. A watch folder applies a predefined batch automatically to every file copied into it.
Audio CD, DDP and podcast delivery
In WaveLab Pro, users manage the album sequence in the Album window, where title markers define CD tracks. Users reorder titles, set pauses and enter CD-Text, ISRC and UPC/EAN codes. A conformity check tests the montage against the Red Book standard before users write it to an audio CD or a DDP image.
Any audio file or montage can become a podcast episode. WaveLab Pro encodes it and uploads it to supported hosting services.
