Despite its graphic makeover, the Master Level pane provides essentially the same features as before, with master faders, meters, mono button and dropout indicator. The Master Section, Wavelab's main resource for selecting and applying plug‑in effects, has been completely redesigned, with three panes that you can open in any combination, thus making better use of screen space.
For some reason the Preferred Playback Resolution options disappear as well, although this does leave ASIO resolution permanently at the optimum 24‑bit setting. I managed an 8mS ASIO latency with my Echo Mia, although unless you intend to use Wavelab with plug‑in monitoring on a live input, having low latency makes little difference in practice.
Handy!Īnother fundamental change is that for the first time Wavelab now supports both ASIO and WDM soundcard drivers as well as MME ones. It only took me a couple of minutes to create new styes for 24/32‑bit files, and for 44.1kHz ones, and to then resave the default style with bright coloured waveforms, so that in future I can easily distinguish 16‑bit from 24/32‑bit formats, and immediately spot any file I load in that isn't 44.1kHz. Using these you can define different colour schemes and then apply 'Conditions' so that they get used automatically depending on what extender a filename has, whether it contains a certain keyword, or what sample rate, bit depth, or number of audio channels the file contains. The new‑style wave displays can be toggled off if you have a slow graphics card, but they certainly look very smart, and can be taken beyond mere graphic frippery by using the new Styles options. The menus have been reorganised for more intuitive access, and now contain lots of icons and extra keyboard shortcuts, while the electronic help files have been redesigned.Īll these improve Wavelab's look and 'feel', but it's the new wave displays themselves that are most eye‑catching, featuring outlined waveforms and graduated backgrounds whose colours change if they are overlapped or selected (see screenshot above). Setting your graphics card to 24‑bit or higher colour mode is strongly recommended: leaving mine in 16‑bit mode gave me a warning message and some blank icons on the toolbar. Wavelab has had a complete makeover, with new 'brushed metal' front panels, XP‑style buttons and icons, and a completely new multi‑pane design for the Master Section. The most obvious changes are to the graphics.
Existing users of version 3.0 can also install Wavelab 4 'over the top' if they wish, and when I tried this all my configurations and presets were preserved.
Due to better CD protection, the latest version requires no serial numbers to be entered, so installation is very straightforward. Interestingly, Windows XP is the recommended platform, although I had no problems running it under Windows 98SE. Wavelab 4.0 runs under Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP, but not the older Windows NT 4.0 or 95, and 256Mb of RAM is recommended. He is also extremely quick at responding to reports by users, and by the time my review copy arrived had already posted two updates on the Steinberg web site. As usual, Philippe has been extremely busy over the last year, and there are many new features to explore. Wavelab 3's Audio Montage window provided non‑destructive multitrack audio editing complete with effects and vector automation, making the assembly of complex projects a breeze, although I/O was still limited to stereo.Īnd so to Wavelab 4.0. However, it was Wavelab 3, launched in 2000, that really pushed it ahead of the competition. By 1998 version 2.0 also added support for samplers, as well as a selection of audio analysis tools.
The upgrade to version 1.5 added its Master Section with six slots for adding real‑time plug‑in effects, while version 1.6 in 1997 added CD burning to its already comprehensive list of features.
Unusually in these days of team‑driven development, Steinberg's Wavelab editing package is nearly all the work of one man, Philippe Goutier - and since its introduction in 1995, it's gone from strength to strength. Does the new version 4 keep it ahead of the competition? As an all‑round package for multitrack audio editing, mastering and CD burning, Steinberg's Wavelab leads the field.