Steinberg WaveLab v6.1-AiRISO [WIN]

The most notable new feature is that each waveform window and associated overview can now be viewed in any of three display modes. The standard mode familiar from previous versions is Wave, but this is now joined by Loudness Envelope and Spectrum. You can choose different modes for the main window and overview, and either zoom each separately, or synchronise them so that (for instance) you can have a spectrum display in the overview and wave displays in the main windows beneath, and they will remain locked together when you zoom in and out.

The new Loudness Display shows loudness over time in up to four frequency bands, so you can see the spectral distribution of energy in your songs.
The new Loudness Display shows loudness over time in up to four frequency bands, so you can see the spectral distribution of energy in your songs.The Spectrum option displays your waveforms in spectrogram format, with time across the horizontal axis, frequency content rising up the vertical axis, and intensity linked to a range of colours or black/white strength. The Spectrum display options include colour, black and white, logarithmic/linear frequency scale, resolution of the FFT spectral analysis (a compromise between frequency and time resolution), and audio range; as this is lowered, only the 'louder' frequency content appears on screen, which is a great way to home in on transients, for instance.

I've always enjoyed spectrogram views because they show things that may not be visible any other way, such as low-level hums and whistles (which appear as horizontal lines) and what enhancers are actually doing to your audio (changes of colour near the top of the window). However, you don't often get the option of performing edits in this mode, so Wavelab 6 's spectrum editing is a very welcome addition in an application at this price.

Once you've selected Spectrum editor mode, an associated dialogue window appears and the cursor changes to allow you to define a rectangular region on the display. With stereo files, an identical region is automatically created in the other channel. You can either treat the selected regions with off-line Surgical processing, or real-time Master Section processing. Both modes use high-quality linear-phase filters capable of 'infinite' steepness in excess of 1000dB/octave, although you have full control over the steepness and the crossfade time where the filtered portion is merged with the original audio signal.

Surgical processing offers a variety of filtering alternatives. Damp is generally used to reduce levels, with a choice of band-pass, low-pass and high-pass filter options to reduce various unwanted parts of a region. Blur Peaks is easy to understand in the graphic sense, and is a powerful tool when you want to remove certain spectral parts of a sound. Dispersion smears sounds so they are less obvious in the mix, without removing them and leaving a hole in the spectrum, while the four Fade options are great for reducing the impact of transients or gradually changing certain spectral aspects of a region.

There are also copious Copy operations that let you transfer a Source to a Destination region, so you can, for instance, replace a bum note with a good one from another part of the song. By working with limited frequency ranges you can also remove or replace sounds like a few seconds of feedback in a rock concert or a sneeze during a live classical concert. The copious and informative PDF manual provides plenty of operational details, although you'll need skill and a lot of practice to perform such miracles invisibly.

Global improvements in Wavelab 6 include enhanced file read/write performance and the removal of all limitations on file size, plus a noticeably slicker graphic interface and icons. There are also many smaller additions and improvements that prove really helpful. Here are some that particularly appealed to me:

    Wavelab has always had a comprehensive Key Commands section allowing you to assign keyboard shortcuts to most operations, but this has now been extended to include MIDI command options, which makes it a lot easier to couple Wavelab up to MIDI controllers or sync it to other applications. Wavelab can now also be slaved to ASIO Positioning Protocol for sample-accurate sync.
    The Rename File function can now automatically update any references to the file in all other open documents, and rename any associated peak and marker files. This is particularly handy if you want to rename an individual track used in one or more Montages, since in the past the next time you opened them you'd get 'file not found' problems. There's also a Batch file-renaming tool with more comprehensive features.
    The old Wave Scope oscilloscope display has been renamed Oscilloscope and been augmented by a new Waveform Scope that displays a real-time drawing of the audio signal being monitored — anyone who has ever used a high-persistence storage 'scope will know exactly what to expect, and it's a handy way to monitor an in-progress recording to check that everything's OK.
    Generic plug-ins without a dedicated graphic interface finally appear with a full set of slider controls, rather than the previous rather primitive parameter pages and a single rotary knob.
    The new Edit Folders dialogue lets you specify all the document, work and temporary folders used by Wavelab, while graphic peak files can now be stored separately from the audio files.
    An improved Insert Silence tool now lets you load in an audio file to use as background noise instead of true silence, with adjustable gain and fade in/out at the edges.
There are also copious Copy operations that let you transfer a Source to a Destination region, so you can, for instance, replace a bum note with a good one from another part of the song. By working with limited frequency ranges you can also remove or replace sounds like a few seconds of feedback in a rock concert or a sneeze during a live classical concert. The copious and informative PDF manual provides plenty of operational details, although you'll need skill and a lot of practice to perform such miracles invisibly.

from lukehh's fault - thx a lot dude