WaveLab is the leading application for digital audio.
The Audio Montage is the most powerful feature in Wavelab, wich is the multitrack playback facility that enables you to quickly create complex files and output the results to a variety of formats including mixed WAV and CD audio. You can import basic wave files into WaveLab from many software and hardware sources, but if you prefer to synthesize sounds from scratch, take a closer look at the Audio Signal Generator.
The Signal Generator is based on a waveform generator which can generate a large number of basic waveforms such as sine, saw, pulse and various types of noise. The Signal Generator has a multitude of settings for character (Source tab), frequency (Frequency tab) and amplitude (Level tab). As if that wasn't enough, you can combine up to 64 such signal generators into "layers" and even make separate settings for the left and right channel for each. Once all settings have been made, the program calculates an audio file according to the specifications.
The resulting document can then be used for a number of purposes: For testing the specifications of audio equipment. For measurements of various kinds, including calibrating tape recorders.
For testing signal processing methods. For educational purposes. The Audio Signal Generator is not intended for synthesizing musical sounds, but has all necessary
features to do it. Raw sounds are very dry and clean and? can be made warmer with? Source, Frequency, and? Level tabs. At the Source you have the choice of sine, tiangle, square, pulse as %, pulse as samples,
positive pulse as %, positive pulse as samples, sawtooth up, sawtooth down, sine rectified, sine halfed, sine sqared, sine with square root, white noise, pink noise and brown noise. You can select width for pulses, and specify phase angle for them and all other waveforms.
The Frequency tab is where you specify the frequency envelope and vibrato for each layer. The Level tab is where you specify the level (amplitude) for each layer. Apart from the overall level adjustment, you can set up an amplitude envelope curve and add tremolo. With WaveLab 4.0 it is not possible to generate notes as? C, E or A values, but rather as a hertz numbers. In example your middle A note might be 220.000 hz, but you have to know all other frequencies as well. Wavelab has frequency increment of 0.001 hz and this, exept for non-audible notes below 20 hz, is much lower than 1 cent. One cent, for example, is the difference between 220 hz and 220.127 hz, so here we have generous 127 steps? instead of 1 cent increment found in commercial? software.
In higher octaves Wavelab's Audio Signal Generator is at least 250 times more precise than
other utilities and doubles in each subsequent octave.
To find those figures not only on paper, I generated two -6.2 dB waves of 220.000 hz
and 220.001 hz and mixed them together. The result was tested with the level/pan
meter. At the start of the file, volume level was -0.18 dB, after 15 seconds -0.19 dB, after 25 seconds -0.20 dB and after 29 seconds -0.21 dB. This clearly indicates that WaveLab can recognise
two frequencies detuned by 0.001hz as different to each other. It took 15 seconds for the level meter to spot the difference, but our hearing is much faster.
Wavelab's elevated frequency resolution can be applied in music therapy when it is vital to hit precisely body's resonant frequency or brain wave sequence to achieve relaxation and pain relieving results.
