SpectraLayers Pro 12

Lift your audio to new heights

SpectraLayers 12 delivers a powerful lineup of new features, which push technical and creative boundaries throughout the application. Updated music unmixing algorithms shine in all categories -especially vocals!

Enjoy expanded drum kit unmixing, and extract user-profiled instruments. In post, break soundtracks down into distinct dialogue, music, and effects layers. Speech processing now offers more clarity, less noise, and fewer artifacts, with automatic plosive attenuation, voice resynthesis, and faster transcriptions.

New workflows include editing multiple layers at once, new copy/paste functions, enhanced fade controls, and more. All this, rounded out with additional utilities and visualization options, keeps SpectraLayers at the forefront of innovative spectral audio production.

TOP new features in SpectraLayers 12

Industry-leading new Unmixing features and improvements

• New Unmix Soundtrack Module separating audio into dialogue, FX and music layers
• New Unmix Instrument Module isolates and extracts user-identified instruments
• Unmix Song Al delivers significantly improved quality across the board
• Improved Unmix Drums Module with updated algorithms and isolation of 6 doscrete kit pieces
• Improved Unmix Noisy Speech Module with significant quality enhancements

The new standard in Voice Processing

• New Voice Enhance Module to reconstruct poor-quality voice recordings using Al technology
• New DePlosive Module automatically eliminates distracting plosives in speech recordings
• Improved Voice DeNoise Module providing exceptionally clean results
• Improved Unmix Transcription Module with greatly enhance transcription quality

A more streamlined workflow

• Selection Editing allows for simplified resizing of selection directly on the spectrograph
• Layer Envelope improvements now allow volume envelopes to be rendered in place

Further Enhancements

• Group ARA Clips by Track for an easy overview on ARA-engaged clips
• Improved VST3 effects module can now display multiple plug-in interfaces simultaneously
• Edit Multiple Layers at Once enables processing on multiple layers simultaneously
• Improved Cut to / Copy to actions now allow any layer within a project to be selected as target

Industry-leading new Unmixing features and improvements

With version 12, SpectraLayers once again sets the standard in Unmixing and Voice Processing.

Improved Unmix Song Module

Unmix Song now delivers significantly improved quality across the board, with dramatically better vocal separation, major enhancements to drum, bass, and sax/brass unmixing, and subtle improvements to guitar and piano unmixing. This means cleaner stems, less time spent on corrections, and more professional-sounding results right from the start.

The Unmix Song dialog now includes an option called Unmix Sax & Brass before Vocals. When enabled, the module focuses on sax and brass unmixing before addressing other stems. It is worth trying both modes to find the best separation for the track.

Improved Unmix Drums Module

Unmix Drums now features updated algorithms and can extract toms, hi-hats, ride cymbals, and crash cymbals, for a total of six discrete kit pieces. This process is designed for isolated drum kit tracks: applying Unmix Song first, then using Unmix Drums to separate the kit components.

This gives more precise control over individual drum elements, making it easier to rebalance, process, or replace parts of the kit with greater accuracy and less manual editing.

New Unmix Instrument Module

Unmix Instrument isolates and extracts user-identified instruments. Select up to ten seconds of the target instrument to be registered in the module dialog, and then run process. The Sensitivity parameter allows the separation to be fine-tuned for optimal results. This new feature provides the flexibility to extract custom elements from mixes, making it easier to rework arrangements, apply targeted processing, or create stems for remixing and restoration.

New Unmix Soundtrack Module

A dream come true for post-production engineers! The Unmix Soundtrack module separates audio into dialogue, effects, and music layers. This module is especially useful for post-production workflows involving mixed content such as film soundtracks, trailers, and radio broadcasts.

By isolating the core audio components, it enables more precise dialogue cleanup, music replacement, and effects enhancement. Whether localizing content, restoring archival material, or preparing stems for remixing, Unmix Soundtrack gives the control and flexibility needed to meet professional delivery standards with greater efficiency.

Improved Unmix Noisy Speech Module

The Unmix Noisy Speech module has been significantly improved, delivering much clearer speech/noise separation along with a substantial reduction in artifacts. This results in cleaner dialogue tracks, enhanced intelligibility, reduced listener fatigue, and easier preparation for broadcast or post-production work.

The new industry standard in Voice Processing

SpectraLayers 12 comes with a plethora of high-quality tools to improve the quality of voice recordings

New DePlosive Module

The DePlosive module automatically eliminates distracting plosives in speech recordings. Adjustable Threshold, Frequency, and Reduction Ratio controls let the process be fine-tuned for optimal results.

This module can be combined with the precise control of the Eraser tool, to take full advantage of the seamless integration of automatic processing and manual editing. This is a hallmark of SpectraLayers, which sets it apart as a uniquely powerful application.

New Voice Enhance Module

The Voice Enhance module uses generative Al to literally reconstruct poor-quality voice recordings. It can correct issues such as clipping, limited bandwidth, compression artifacts, excess reverb, noise, and more. Voices are intelligently processed to address these problems, resulting in clearer, more natural-sounding speech that improves intelligibility and overall audio quality, while preserving the speaker's unique identity.

Improved Voice DeNoise Module

The Voice DeNoise module has also been substantially improved, providing exceptionally clean results whether the background is noise or music.
This versatility makes it ideal for diverse audio restoration and post-production tasks, delivering clear, artifact-free results across many use cases.

Improved Unmix Transcription Module

The Unmix Transcription module has been greatly enhanced, resulting in transcription quality that is twice as accurate and supporting twice as many languages. A high-quality mode is now available across all languages, enabling more reliable and precise transcriptions for a wider range of projects and multilingual workflows.

A streamlined workflow

SpectraLayers 12 speeds up daily tasks significantly and lets you enjoy new selection and editing tools

Selection Editing

Active selections can be resized directly on the spectrograph, just by dragging their edges. At the same time, selection fades can now be resized in active selections. Achieve the desired edits with a new level of ease and accuracy.

Improved Frequency Selection

Frequency selection has been improved across the board to track narrow frequencies more accurately. Additionally, frequency selections are now elastic: if you move beyond a desired point or encounter drifting in the spectrum, simply move back slightly to the last safe position to correct it. These enhancements make it easier to perform precise, frustration-free spectral edits - especially when working with fine or shifting frequency content.

Improved Harmonics Selection

Extending the improvements in frequency selection, the Harmonics selection tool introduces a new, more intuitive way to select harmonics no parameter tweaking required. Simply drag over the most accessible harmonic in the target, then shift to an adjacent one; the tool automatically calculates and selects all harmonics in the corresponding series. No more guessing or manually setting parameters before starting a harmonic selection!

Improved Transient Selection

Transient selection is now more accurate and flexible. The tool locks onto the target with greater precision and can include or exclude surrounding spectral content, based on its power. This results in cleaner, more focused selections and reduces the time spent on manual fine-tuning.

Layer Envelope Improvements

Volume envelopes can now be rendered in place, after which they are automatically removed from the project. Additionally, volume envelope visualization has been standardized to align with typical DAW conventions - envelopes now appear consistently, regardless of the waveform zoom level. These improvements make volume adjustments more intuitive and visually predictable, helping you to work faster with greater confidence and precision.

Workflow enhancements

With more than 30 new features, SpectraLayers 12 is the most complete release in product history

New Phase Rotation Module

The Phase Rotation module allows asymmetrical waveforms to be corrected for maximize gain before clipping, resulting in cleaner, more balanced audio with improved headroom. By fixing these imbalances in waveform shape, this process reduces distortion and increases overall loudness.

Improved VST 3 Effects Module

The VST 3 effects module can now display multiple plug-in interfaces simultaneously. Entire chains can be previewed and interacted with at once, improving the workflow and making it easier to fine-tune complex effect setups in real time.

More improvements

New and improved tools

Batch Processing Improvements

Batch processing now supports a custom naming scheme, allowing you to freely define folder and file names generated during batch processing. This flexibility streamlines file organization and ensures outputs fit seamlessly into your existing workflow.

Transferable Tools and Modules Presets

Tool and module presets are now saved as files within folders that can be transferred between computers or between SpectraLayers versions (starting with version 12). This makes it easy to maintain consistent settings across different workstations and ensures seamless workflow continuity when upgrading or switching devices.

Windows Arm Native

SpectraLayers 12 now runs natively as an Arm64 application on Windows Arm. When installed on Windows Arm, both the x64 and Arm64 versions are installed. Running natively on Arm64 improves performance and efficiency, providing a smoother experience on compatible devices. This requires the Arm version of the Steinberg Activation Manager.

Time Estimate

When applying modules, the processing time estimate now updates continuously and more precisely as the operation progresses. The user interface remains fully responsive, allowing processing to be canceled at any point, saving time and maintaining an uninterrupted workflow.

Edit Multiple Layers at Once

This headline feature enables tools and processes to operate on multiple selected layers simultaneously. In standalone mode, tools and processes operate vertically across layers. Events spanning multiple stems can be targeted and edited in one go - ideal for refining performances captured with multiple microphones. The feature extends horizontally in Cubase or Nuendo in ARA mode for example when using SpectraLayers speech processing tools in post, on multiple clips located anywhere in the project. Importantly, this functionality extends to all SpectraLayers tools and processes.

Group ARA Clips by Track

In ARA mode, selecting Group by Track from the SpectraLayers Clip menu displays all ARA-engaged clips on any selected DAW track, both as layers and as project tabs. This enables faster navigation and editing by limiting the view to clips located on individual tracks. The default clip grouping choice can be assigned as a preference, allowing you to maintain an organized workspace, tailored to your editing workflow.

Filter Panels by Typing

The view filtering options in relevant panels - including default categories and custom presets - have been enhanced by the addition of a keyword-based search option. For example, typing "noise" in the Modules panel instantly filters and displays all available noise shaping processes. This makes it faster and easier to locate specific tools, streamlining your workflow and minimizing interruptions during editing.

Octave Units

Frequency fading now scales by octaves instead of hertz, resulting in a more natural and consistent visual representation across the spectrum. Fades now appear smoother and more predictable from top to bottom, better reflecting how sound is actually perceived.

Improved History Panel

The History panel now consolidates successive operations from a single tool (typically a drawing tool) into a single undoable step, based on a user-configurable time window. This optimizes the edit history list and simplifies the undo process. The feature is always active, with a default setting of 1,500 ms. This helps to keep the history list clean and manageable, making it easier to navigate and reverse recent edits.

Improved Cut to... / Copy to...

The "Cut to" and "Copy to" actions now allow any layer within a project to be selected as target. Once a target layer is established, additional actions can be immediately applied to it. This makes multi-layer editing of workflows faster and more intuitive, reducing the number of steps needed to move and manipulate

SpectraLayers for Music Production

Made for professional musicians

Spectral precision, every step of the way

From the demo stage all the way to the mastering suite, SpectraLayers can work wonders by performing a broad range of tasks, from lifesaving error corrections to sound design magic.

Something for everyone

In the digital audio recording process, tiny, fleeting errors can cause big problems. The goal is to find and use the least invasive solutions, avoid audio artifacts, and maintain sonic integrity. This is where SpectraLayers shines, with sample-accurate precision.

Sampler/remix artists & DJs

Take a song or a sample, break it out into individual instrument or frequency layers, and create mixes in the Layers Panel. Use Al to split a single beat loop into myriads of layers, and easily work with these components anywhere in the DAW ecosystem. It will help your creative bursts to consistently deliver fresh and inspiring results.

Experimental music producers

Mold sound down to atomic level in SpectraLayers. Al-driven processes can split sounds into breakout component tracks right on the Cubase and Nuendo timelines. Unmix entire songs into multiple instrument and voice layers, process layers independently and remix the results into completely new composite sounds. Use Spectral Imprinting to play layers off one another, generating nuanced tracks.

Music improvisation

SpectraLayers has intelligent tools that seek and identify sonic targets, quickly and accurately. The combined effect of Al and ARA 2 integration makes high-precision audio editing and creative sound design workflow with your imagination and creative impulses.

Archivists

Great music rises above the technical challenges of its time and place. Unearthed tracks, gems from the vault, that box of multitrack cassette tapes in the attic...breathe new life into these treasures by applying the most advanced Al-assisted processes and the most precise manual editing tools available.

SpectraLayers for Post-Production and Restoration

Essential tools for the movie world

Audio repair and post-production sweetening converge

Speed, precision, workflow, results... this is the formula for success in post-production audio editing. SpectraLayers delivers with Al-driven processes, matchless manual editing tools, unmixing of unwanted noise and ARA 2 integration with Nuendo and Cubase. Program power can be focused on tasks ranging from minute spot fixes on the DAW timeline, to sonic transformations across entire projects. Al does the heavy lifting, clearing the way for the other tools to work with a new level of precision and finesse. And many processes are available in real-time!

Your daily workhorse

SpectraLayers leaps ahead again, with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and a rebuilt engine driving neural networks that make spectral editing more powerful and faster than ever. Comprehensive unmixing of voice & noice, background-voice, crowd noise, sophisticated speech, transcription processing and much more work seamlessly with Al technology which enhances every process. And the Unmix Soundtrack module, separating audio material into dialogue, music and effects layers, is a dream come true for post-production engineers.

SpectraLayers for Sound Design

Dream features for creatives

Expect the unexpected

The creative sound design capabilities inside SpectraLayers might be its best kept secret. Every process designed to do a specific task can be implemented to derive new sounds. The unmixing processes are fast and thorough, with the SpectraLayers Al easily keeping up with your rapid creative flow.

Made for Sound-Design

SpectraLayers is particularly useful for sound designers, allowing to edit, design and manipulate sound in a new, exciting and entirely visual way. The visual "sound-painting" approach helps creating never-heard-before sounds, using the in-built drawing functions.

Speed and serendipity

Sound design work is always full of surprises. SpectraLayers delivers surprising -occasionally startling results at every turn. The tools, processes and layers work non-destructively together on the SpectraLayers platform, all while anchored to the DAW timeline. It's all instantly accessible in your workflow.

Creativity and technical mastery

Freeform expression and technical precision are two sides of the same coin. In SpectraLayers, you can freely move audio around, as well as make very specific edits. You can cycle through random ideas with lightning speed, or dig in and go microscopic, all with technical and artistic brilliance.

Mastering and Forensics

When precision matters

The contemporary audio mastering suite

Nowadays, mastering engineers are being called upon to provide expanded services that intersect with mixing duties, up to and including stem mastering. In any mastering scenario, SpectraLayers Pro provides a unique stage for performing deep editing and production moves. Visually sort, sculpt, and process frequency ranges. Select and isolate discrete audio events for signal and effects processing on independent layers. Perform precise manual and Al-assisted global edits.

Audio Forensics: Every picture tells a story

Spectral analysis is used extensively in audio forensics labs. SpectraLayers transforms sound into detailed visual landscapes that can be explored deeply and meticulously worked on. Discovery, clarification, enhancement - no other application offers this level of power for finding the relevant content within audio source material. In SpectraLayers, every picture tells a story. The deeper you look, the more you'll find.

WaveLab Integration

SpectraLayers features a seamless communication with WaveLab, extending the horizons of what can be accomplished in mastering with operations that are extremely specific and transparent.

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System Requirements

MAC

• macOS Monterey, macOS Ventura, macOS Sonoma, macOS Sequoia
• Intel® Core™ i5 (mid 2013 or later) or Apple silicon
• 8 GB free HD space
• Minimum 1920x1080 display resolution
• OpenGL 3.3 capable graphics adapter
• CoreAudio-compatible audio hardware (Mac)
• An internet connection is required for activation, account setup and personal/product registration. A download is required for the installation.

PC

• 64-bit Windows 10 (21H2), 64-bit Windows 11 (21H2 or higher)
• Intel® Core™ i5 (4th Generation) or AMD Ryzen™™™ or Qualcomm Snapdragon™™™ X
• 8 GB free HD space
• Minimum 1920x1080 display resolution
• DirectX 11 compatible graphics card (DirectX 12 recommended for Al processing)
• OpenGL 3.3 capable graphics adapter
• CoreAudio-compatible audio hardware (Mac)
• An internet connection is required for activation, account setup and personal/product registration. A download is required for the installation.

Please note: SpectraLayers 12 works with Steinberg Licensing only (no eLicenser support).