Steinberg have just announced the launch of SpectraLayers 12, the latest iteration of their acclaimed spectral editing software. Said to be more powerful, versatile and intuitive than ever, the new version comes packed with new features designed for a wide range of applications including music, post-production, restoration, sound design, mastering and audio forensics.
Unmixing
SpectraLayers 12 includes two new unmixing modules designed to bring even more precision and flexibility to the unmixing process. The first is Unmix Soundtrack, which separates audio into dialogue, effects and music layers — especially useful for post-production users who require some additional control over mixed content such as film soundtracks, trailers and radio broadcasts. The second, Unmix Instrument, isolates and extracts user-identified instruments by analysing the target instrument before unmixing.
Alongside the new modules, the existing Unmix Song, Unmix Drums and Unmix Noisy Speech processes have been significantly improved, while Unmix Song now promises to deliver dramatically better vocal separation, major enhancements to drum, bass and brass unmixing, and subtle improvements to guitar and piano unmixing. The Unmix Drums process has been treated to an algorithm update that allows it to extract six discrete kit elements (kick, snare, toms, hi-hats, ride and crash cymbals), and the Unmix Noisy Speech module has been significantly improved to deliver clearer speech/noise separation, along with a substantial reduction in artefacts.
Voice Processing
Steinberg say that the latest version of SpectraLayers takes voice processing to new levels of accuracy, with new and enhanced modules focused on vocal analysis and improvement. a new Voice Enhance module uses generative AI to intelligently process and then reconstruct poor-quality voice recordings, noticeably improving quality while preserving the speaker’s unique identity, and there’s a new DePlosive module that automatically eliminates distracting plosives in speech recordings, with users able to fine-tune the results thanks to adjustable controls for threshold, frequency and reduction ratio. The Voice DeNoise and Unmix Transcription modules will now deliver much cleaner results when the background to speech is noise or music, while transcription now supports twice as many languages and is twice as accurate as before.
Multi-Layer Support
Another standout feature of the release is the ability for all SpectraLayers tools and processes to operate on multiple layers simultaneously. In standalone mode, this operates vertically across layers, allowing events spanning multiple stems to be edited at the same time, and the feature extends horizontally in Cubase or Nuendo in ARA mode.
Selection Tool Upgrades
The selection of frequencies, harmonics and transients have all been significantly upgraded. Narrow frequencies can be tracked more precisely, with elastic frequency selection allowing shifting content to be more accurately processed, while harmonics selection is more intuitive and transient selection is more detailed and flexible.
Other Improvements
Along with the headline features, Steinberg have also implemented a whole host of general operational and interface improvements, including:
- Batch processing now supports a custom naming scheme, allowing users to freely define folder and file names generated during batch processing.
- A new Phase Rotation module allows asymmetrical waveforms to be corrected for maximise gain before clipping.
- Active selections can be resized directly on the spectrograph by dragging their edges, while selection fades can be resized in active selections.
- Volume envelopes can be rendered in place, after which they are automatically removed from the project.
- The VST 3 effects module can now display multiple plug-in interfaces simultaneously, making it easier to fine-tune complex effect setups in real time.
- The History panel now consolidates successive operations from a single tool into a single undoable step, based on a user-configurable time window.
- Tool and module presets are saved as files within folders, which can be transferred between computers or between SpectraLayers versions (starting with version 12).
- SpectraLayers 12 now runs natively as an ARM64 application on Windows ARM (requires the ARM version of the Steinberg Activation Manager).
- When applying modules, the processing time estimate now updates continuously and more precisely as the operation progresses.
- Volume envelopes have been standardised to align with typical DAW conventions, now appearing consistently regardless of the waveform zoom level.
- Frequency fading now scales by octaves instead of Hertz, resulting in a more natural and consistent visual representation.
- 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.
- A keyword-based search option has been added to the view filtering options, making it faster and easier to locate specific tools.
- The Cut to and Copy to actions now allow any layer within a project to be targeted, reducing the number of steps needed to move and manipulate content.
“Since we first introduced unmixing algorithms in SpectraLayers, there hasn’t been any other application that could match its quality. Now, with version 12, the clarity of the separated stems is exceptional — you could almost believe that they were never part of a mix,” says. “This version also has a strong focus on the needs of the post-production industry, with innovative features like soundtrack unmixing and speech enhancement. Existing voice processing algorithms are constantly being refined and updated, while workflow and productivity improvements requested by our loyal users haven’t been forgotten.” - Luis Dongo, Marketing Manager, Pro Audio, Steinberg
Compatibility
SpectraLayers 12 is supported on PCs running Windows 10 or above, and Macs running macOS 12 and higher.
Pricing & Availability
SpectraLayers 12 is available now. Prices are as follows:
- SpectraLayers Pro 12: $349.99£290 including VAT / €349.
- SpectraLayers Elements: $89.99£75 including VAT / €89.99.
Details on upgrade and crossgrade pricing for existing users can be found on the Steinberg website. Those who have activated SpectraLayers Pro or Elements 11, or earlier versions, from 28 May 2025 are eligible for a free, downloadable grace-period update to the latest version.
www.steinberg.net/spectralayers
