User Manual

WAVELAB
16 – 344 Using Auto Split
Example 1 – Splitting samples
Here’s one application of Auto Split: Let’s say you are working with a
sampler (hardware based or software, e.g. Steinberg’s HALion). You have
made a long recording of separate notes of an instrument that you wish to
cut up into separate samples and transmit to the sampler:
1. Open the audio file in a Wave window and select Auto Split from the
Tools menu.
2. On the first page, specify that the “Wave in active window” should be
processed, and click Next.
The next page asks you what type of splitting to perform.
3. Select “Split between silences” and click Next.
This assumes that there are sections of silence between the recorded notes. If the notes
have reasonably clear attacks, you could also try the “Split at beats” method.
4. Set up the next page according to the audio file, and click Next.
You should adjust the first setting according to the length of the shortest recorded note, the
second setting according to the shortest period of silence between two notes, and the third
setting according to the level of the “silence” between the notes (this can require some ex-
perimenting if the recording contains room ambience or long decaying notes).
5. Now you are asked what to do with the regions to be created. Select
“Save as separate files”, specify the desired format (wav or aiff) and loca-
tion for the new files and click Next.
6. On the Options page, activate the “Assign Key” option and select the
“Detect pitch” method. Click Next.
This will analyze each note and assign the correct “Key” setting (also known as “root key”)
to each sample. If you activate “Quantize to nearest semitone”, WaveLab will set the Key
according to the closest semitone; if not, the “Detune” setting in the sample may also be
adjusted, according to any pitch deviations. See “Editing sample attributes” on page 667.
7. On the final page, select the naming option “As audio file name + key”
and click Process.
WaveLab splits the file according to your settings, and creates new files in the specified lo-
cation. If you are working with HALion, it’s now very easy to import the samples into the
sampler: open all the created files and use the [Ctrl]-[Shift]-[C] function described in the
section “Using WaveLab with Steinberg HALion” on page 666.