On top of the redesigned core and vastly evolved AI potential, Steinberg added a host of new features for enhanced control. Classify sounds by type, identify competing sounds, set spectral thresholds, normalize at the layer level, and take advantage of many other new features for a truly enhanced editing experience.

Logical Layer Colors

• As well as new options to create more automatically generated layers, there are new ways to stay organized. This improvement helps ensure that your layers will default to alternating colors.

Improved Value Sliders

• Another small workflow improvement is that Steinberg improved the feel of every slider in the application, to help you get to the settings you need as smoothly and effortlessly as possible.

Preview and Apply Keyboard Shortcuts

• These new shortcuts help you to take advantage of more options for getting things done in SpectraLayers in ways that best suit your workflow.

Time Insert / Cropping

• New insert and cropping options allow you to use these operations on a per-layer basis, as opposed to making changes across all layers of a project.

Contextual Cut/Copy/Paste

• Yet another way to keep your eyes on the prize: perform cut/copy/paste operations by simply right-clicking over your selection and accessing this new menu.

Improved Online Help

• Every tool and process now links directly to its user guide page. Learn as you explore the program and enhance your understanding as you work.

Multiple VST3 Plug-In Support

• Now you can chain multiple plug-ins in the VST3 effects process. In conjunction with the new selection-based processing, this provides greatly expanded and more precisely-targeted plug-in processing options.

View Multiple Processes At-Once

• Expanding on the Dynamic Spectral Processing functionality, now you can have multiple process dialogs open at once. Toggle between them to evaluate the differences between selected processes.

Import Multiple Audio Files At-Once

• Launch a new SpectraLayers project or add layers to an existing project quickly by importing multiple audio files at once. Each will appear on its own independent layer.

Unmix Song

• Capture up to six instruments including guitar tracks. Dedicated controls allow staging the unmixing process in various ways to best suit your source material. Extracted content that falls outside the main instrument groups can be retained and redeployed in a variety of interesting ways, including easy reintegration with the extracted instrument layers

Unmix Drums

• After unmixing a track into six stems, you can apply a dedicated unmix process to the drums layer alone, to acquire clean kick, snare, and cymbal layers.

Unmix Multichannel Content

• Select a small portion of a specific sound, engage Unmix Multichannel Content to analyze its relative power across channels and then extract the entire sound evenly across all channels.

Unmix Multiple Voices

• Use Unmix Multiple Voices to extract two or more voices to their own independent layers. A discrimination control is provided to help optimize the process for given sources.

Unmix Noisy Speech

• Separate speech from background noise with an AI-assisted process specifically trained on human speech.

Transcription

• Speech layers can be transcribed into nine different languages, with words, phrases, and sentences conveniently listed and visible on the timeline for easy selection and editing.

Unmix Components

• Unmix audio files into independent tone, transient, and noise component layers, with the option to reconstruct noise covered by the tones and transients. Comprehensive learning algorithms assist clean extraction. This process has an infinite number of applications across the audio production spectrum; the ability to reposition processed elements over a smoothly reconstructed background texture takes improving field recordings to a whole new level.

Time Insert/Delete/Crop

• This option allows you to insert, delete, and/or crop time across the whole project or on a per-layer basis.

Copy and Paste Functions

• At first, this feature may appear unremarkable—after all, what’s so special about copy and paste? What about when you can perform the operations on an interchannel basis? For example, you can take a mono source file, deconstruct it, edit and process the layers, then recast the sound in a new, made-to-order stereo field. Or, repair one channel with material selected from another, and position any assets anywhere in the stereo field.

Heal Process

• This interpolation algorithm allows you to replace problem sounds with those located directly next to them, above and below them, or both. It’s a quick, one-click process: select the problem area, choose your preferred direction and then click to commit. The Heal process is perfect for cleaning up location recordings in the post-production setting. It’s available in both the standalone application and ARA mode, directly in the timelines of Cubase, Nuendo and other DAWs which support ARA processing.

Transform Tools

• These two tools allow you to resize selections and move them to different time/pitch locations on the spectral graph. After making an initial selection with any tool, use Transform Selection to fine-tune its boundaries with no change in data location—the data stays where it is while you tweak the selection boundaries by moving the grab handles. You can then switch to the Transform function and drag all the selected data to a new time and pitch location.

Eraser

• Tiny transients can cause big problems. The Eraser tool can zero in on these problems with extreme precision and deal with them directly, while leaving the surrounding audio completely untouched. This tool is a game changer, especially in ARA mode. Control the tool’s size, shape, hardness and depth of cut; a configurable limiter option ensures that you’ll never overdo it. The Eraser tool is often the fastest, easiest and least invasive way to attenuate a sound on the spectral graph.

Amplifier

• Make sounds louder by dragging the Amplifier tool over them. The tool’s size, shape, hardness, and gain are all user configurable, with an optional limiter that sets an amplitude ceiling which can’t be breached. First, use the Sampler tool to display a reference amplitude reading anywhere in the sound, then set the limiter in the Amplifier tool to match. Your amplified sounds will never exceed the reference level. The Amplifier and Eraser tool limiters are important keys to precision editing.

Clone Stamp

• The Clone Stamp tool exemplifies the idea of painting with sound, letting you replace audio content with cloned audio content sourced from any point on the spectral graph. Simply register a reference point anywhere on the spectral graph, click to create a clone at a new location, and drag in any direction to expand the cloned area. In the Nuendo postproduction environment, using this tool to shape and balance background textures brings a new level of artistry to the editing process.

Frequency Repair

• This is a simple repair tool used for bridging unwanted gaps in frequencies displayed on the spectral graph. Hover over a target frequency, click-drag across the gap, then release the control on the other side, to create a reconstructed frequency. This is one tool of many in an open system with unlimited possibilities for post and restoration work, music production and sound design, audio mastering, and audio forensics. Visualization, layering, processing, tooling—SpectraLayers has it all.

Select Similar

• Select a sound, and then trigger a search to automatically locate and select every other similar sound in the spectrum. The tool is configurable to match the sensitivity for tones, transients, noise, and intensity, with a slider that lets you dial in the overall level of similarity as a percentage. Try it on beat deconstruction to quickly sort kit pieces before placing them on separate layers or on any task in which the target audio has distinctly repeating elements that you need to isolate.

Load/Save Selections

• The ability to save and recall multiple selections helps to ensure that you’ll never need to repeat a selection process. Make more complex selections with confidence. Save multiple selections with your projects and recall them sequentially, with flexible options that include replacing the current selection, adding to (or subtracting from) a current selection, and more. Retrieve selections from any open project. The ability to store and recall complex selections increases the utility of the Select Similar feature in particular.

Select Harmonics

• Select harmonics automatically based on a single selected frequency, with the ability to designate the fundamental and the number of harmonics. The harmonics selection tools in SpectraLayers are remarkably powerful. For example, you can hover over a clearly visible harmonic while scanning the sound to locate and isolate any obscured (or even invisible) harmonics in its range. Isolate and process harmonics for any application, including remixing, audio mastering, and sound design.

Time/Frequency Range Selection

• The Time Range Selection tool selects full-frequency segments on the spectral graph. You can use the Frequency Range Selection tool to capture precise frequency ranges that span the entire timeline. In both cases, you can apply fades of any size to soften the selection boundaries. Working in Add To Selection mode allows you to create complex selections, which can be saved and recalled. Try experimenting with fades on the Time Range Selection tool in beat making and sound design work.

Marquee Selection (Rectangular, Elliptical)

• The Rectangular and Elliptical selection tools provide basic shapes for making precise selections on the spectral graph. Make selections of any size, all the way down to sample-sized micro selections. Once made, you can drop your selections on an independent layer, shuttle them anywhere in the Steinberg ecosystem with just a few clicks, and much more. With SpectraLayers running in ARA mode in Cubase, Nuendo, or other DAWs, which support ARA processing, positioning a selection anywhere in your project is easy.

Lasso Selection (Lasso, Polygonal Lasso)

• The Lasso Selection tool is used for freehand-drawing closed shapes on the spectral graph, while the Polygonal Lasso Selection tool does the same but with straight, point-to-point lines. Time and frequency fades of any size can be applied to feather the selection boundaries. At this level of editing, the Display Panel controls work together to provide a remarkable level of visual detail.

Brush Selection

• Select a round or square brush shape, tweak the size and aspect ratio, set the Hardness control to fade the selection boundary (if desired), then simply click and drag to paint selections. In Subtract From Selection mode, the brush effectively becomes an eraser tool to refine the selection. As you zoom into the graph, the brush dimensions stay the same, making for a precise and intuitive workflow as you zero in on your target audio for further work.

Magic Wand Selection

• This tool senses and selects events on the spectral graph, based on amplitude. Click-drag the tool over drum hits, plosives, sustained tones, transients, or any other visible object on the graph. Once selected, the sounds can be manipulated exactly as if they were objects cut from a digital photograph. This level of editing, accomplished only in the spectral domain, is what SpectraLayers does best.

Frequency/Harmonics Selection

• The Frequency Selection tool tracks pitch changes over time, and the Harmonics Selection tool pulls harmonics above and below the selected frequency, with user control over the order. For example, if your target sound’s first three harmonics are buried in noise, but the fourth harmonic is unobstructed, set the Master Rank to 4, select the fourth harmonic, and the tool will dig down into the noise and isolate the first three for you, delivering remarkably impressive results.

Transient Selection

• This tool selects transients in a way that only a spectral editing platform can provide. Work in user-defined frequency spans and use the tolerance control to adjust the algorithm sensitivity; high tolerances ignore gaps or spaces in the selected range, resulting in a selection comprising a vertical stack of completely independent segments. The manual tools in SpectraLayers are both smart and sensitive.

Reverb Match Process

• Reverb Match partners with Ambience Match, EQ Match, and Reverb Reduction to provide a new level of ambient space control.

Multiple VST3 Plug-in Support

• Chain multiple plug-ins in the VST3 effects process. In conjunction with selection-based processing functionality, this provides comprehensive and highly targeted plug-in processing options.

Normalization

• Perform audio normalization at the layer level.

Imprint Processes

• Imprinting effectively plays one layer off against another. There are two processes: Mold uses one layer as a modulator for another, for example modulate a synth pad layer with a vocal layer to achieve bit-perfect spectral vocoder effects. Cast does the opposite; it carves the sonic shape and intensity of the source layer into the target layer, opening a space that can then be occupied solely by the source, significantly increasing intelligibility. It’s similar to a sidechain process, but more seamless and custom-tailored to the source.

EQ Match

• Register a selection anywhere on the spectral graph as an EQ profile, and then apply the profile across layers to achieve sonic conformity. Take advantage of this process at the tracking and mastering stages in music, or to establish uniformity in post. This process pairs well with the Ambience Match process to provide an elegant solution for ADR on the Nuendo timeline, with SpectraLayers Pro running smoothly in the background to facilitate the postproduction workflow.

Ambience Match

• Register a selection anywhere on the spectral graph as a room tone or background texture, then apply the sound anywhere in your project. Try this feature in ARA mode on the Cubase or Nuendo timeline for effortless sweetening in post. In ARA mode, SpectraLayers can be focused on tasks ranging from minute spot fixes on the DAW timeline, to sonic transformations across entire projects. The workflow is so seamless, it’s like SpectraLayers and DAW are functioning as a single application.

Noise Reduction

• There are several unique noise reduction processes available in SpectraLayers Pro, including this classic noiseprint-based algorithm that allows you to register band-limited noiseprints, as opposed to being confined to a single, default, full-spectrum noiseprint. In addition to all the usual controls, you can choose the Reduce Signal option, render the noise and make it available on its own independent layer for attenuation, processing or sculpting in sound design and postprocessing applications.

Reverb Reduction

• This AI-assisted process identifies and attenuates room resonances, cleanly, smartly, and effectively. With control over both sensitivity and the amount of reverb reduction, you can audition the content to be removed in isolation before executing the process. Reverb Reduction exists within a flexible system that includes other processes such as Noise Reduction, Voice Denoiser, and Unmix Components, all in addition to the precision manual editing tools that SpectraLayers has to offer.

Hum Reduction

• Automatically detect, isolate and attenuate hum bands. The detected fundamental hum frequency and its associated harmonics can be independently attenuated, and all detected bands isolated on their own layer. SpectraLayers repair operations have various ideal combinations of global automatic processes like this, alongside high-precision manual editing operations using the extensive tool set.

Click Repair

• Automatically detect and repair clicks, crackles, and pops. You can invert the process to audition problem sounds in isolation, then execute the repair after you’ve created the fix you need. Threshold sensitivity, pixel width, and reduction ratio are configurable, with all selected clicks placed on their own layer if required. You can work with speed and precision, routinely salvaging tracks and perform audio enhancements in ways you may never have thought possible.
• In addition to its trademark display, SpectraLayers also has a waveform view option. Clip Repair automatically reconstructs clipped peaks; the clipping threshold is autodetected and configurable, then the Reconstruction Ratio parameter controls the shape of the resulting reconstructed peaks.

De-Esser

• Spectral de-essing is the most precise and least invasive way of taming and shaping vocal sibilants or problematic resonances across a wide variety of sources. You just set the controls, audition, and shape the cut, then click OK to commit. Outside of this process, manual de-essing is also quick and easy—use the Eraser tool with built-in limiter engaged to make elegant and precise cuts. Whether done automatically, manually, or in tandem, spectral de-essing is far more accurate than traditional plug-in processing.

De-Bleed

• You can de-bleed drum-kit tracks and other isolated instrument tracks with AI-driven accuracy. But it doesn’t stop there; you can try the algorithm on other tasks, where one layer can serve as the selection basis for operations on another. In SpectraLayers, there are different ways, and different combinations of ways, of performing de-bleeding, de-essing, voice de-noising, and much more. Every tool and process is part of an active, dynamic workflow.

Voice Denoiser

• Perfect for cleaning up location interview recordings, the Voice Denoiser is trained to recognize and isolate the human voice. There are two AI-powered algorithms to choose from, which together cover all the bases from spoken word to sung vocals. After applying this automatic process, you can reach back into the spectrum to refine and perfect your sound using the manual editing tools. AI-assisted processing on the first pass clears the way for further extreme precision editing.

VST 3 Plug-in Support

• SpectraLayers supports VST 3 plug-in signal and effects processing on a per-layer basis, in both standalone and ARA modes. Divide a sound into independent layers, apply signal and effects processing to each layer, then export mixes to taste, all without leaving the application. This saves time, streamlines the workflow, and propels sound design to new heights. Try using VST 3 plug-in processing in conjunction with the AI-assisted Unmix Stems / Unmix Components processes.