You heard it right, officially announced, Steinbeirg WaveLab is finally available for Mac. Along with these announcement is their confirmation that their future products will only support Windows 7 and Snow Leopard.

Another thing to be excited is WaveLab now includes four task-specific workspace options: Audio File, Audio Montage, Batch Processor and Podcast. Featuring everything from audio file editing to multitrack processing, recording and arranging, it is developed to be a more powerful application. Editing can be either destructive or non-destructive, and the Audio Montage window enables you to apply clip-specific and master effects in real time.

As time progressed, it now includes new plug-ins and now features over 30 VST3 plugs from Steinberg’s DAWs. Cubase users will recognise the RoomWorks reverb plug-in, while Nuendo’s PostFilter is also here. There are 15 other plug-ins, including three restoration tools from Sonnox: DeNoiser, DeClicker and DeBuzzer. These deal with hiss, pops/clicks and hum respectively, and are available as inserts in all workspaces (including Batch). There are 13 offline processes that can be applied too.

Also, metering and analysis, have grown to include lots of real-time and offline options, ranging from Oscilloscope and K-System level meters (real-time) to Loudness Distribution and 3D Frequency Analysis (offline). For frequency-specific editing, Loudness Envelope and Spectrum Display views are combined with the Spectrum Editor.

Surely, you will also be enticed if you know that it also comes with cool features that include SRC Crystal sample rate conversion, DIRAC timestretching, the External Gear plug-in for patching in external hardware, batch editing, DVD audio authoring and, of course, CD mastering.  Indeed, a total satisfaction package!

It has been four years since WaveLab6, and Steinberg has been busy pulling together all existing features to make it work into its four dedicated workspaces.  For those who have two displays, Steinberg designed Control Window for sub-hosting certain information (meters, for example). Truly a complement to the four main workspaces.

When it comes to disc-burning engine, I can say that it really improved, became more stable and is now supporting  DDP (Direct Description Protocol).As a result, you can now master and transfer electronically to the manufacturer without the need to burn discs.

It is really inevitable to have downsides itsfocused OS support will annoy some, although we tried it using OS X 10.5.8 and had no problems. Also, Mac users used to the swish look of Logic will probably find WaveLab 7 a bit drab, and we feel that the fonts and colours should be smartened up in future updates.

But WaveLab is proud to say that there are 15 years’ worth of cool features stuffed away in there. From nifty visualisations like the 3D Frequency Analysis and Oscilloscope, through to creative options such as effects morphing between clips and more practical stuff like flagging ‘errors’, such as digital clipping and clicks, WaveLab could never be accused of lacking functionality.