Some long‑term Wavelab users might find the new look and layout disorientating initially, but it didn't take me long to adjust, and having done so I would never go back to the now clunky‑looking Wavelab 6. I found this really helped me focus on the job in hand, compared with the faux metalwork of Wavelab 6. Wavelab 7 has a different look to its predecessors, with a rather more subdued, yet sophisticated graphic feel. Notice also the four buttons of the Windows Switcher, here superimposed on the spectrum editor display towards the centre of this screenshot. Wavelab 7 sports a new and more sophisticated graphic look that's less distracting on the eye, a neat new set of tabbed Tool windows, and flexible Tab Group options to arrange your files on screen. For the first time ever, Wavelab is now cross‑platform, enabling Mac users to directly experience what all the fuss has been about for so many years, but there are a lot of new features for PC users as well, from a new workflow concept, high‑end restoration tools and 30 VST3 format plug‑ins to a state‑of‑the‑art CD‑burning engine. It's still largely the work of one man, Philippe Goutier, and each time I review a new version I wonder how on earth he can improve it any further, but with Wavelab 7 he's done it again, and in a big way. I've been using Steinberg's Wavelab for audio editing, mastering, and restoration on an almost daily basis since version 1.6, way back in 1997 when CD burning and real‑time plug‑ins were first added, and have watched it grow from a good stereo editor, through the excellent sampling, looping and analysis functions of Wavelab 2, the multitrack Montage additions of Wavelab 3 for assembling layered files and compiling albums from individual tracks, the graphic redesign and plug‑in bundle of Wavelab 4 and the DVD‑Audio and video montage support of Wavelab 5, to the eye‑boggling spectrum display and editing options of Wavelab 6.

Steinberg's Wavelab has spread its wings to become the only truly cross‑platform stereo editing package - and in the process, it's undergone a comprehensive makeover.

Wavelab elements 10