Steinberg SpectraLayers 12

Steinberg has today announced the immediate availability of SpectraLayers 12, which includes a range of new and enhanced tools that take the unmixing and speech processing capabilities of SpectraLayers to a new level. Now even more powerful, versatile, and intuitive, the spectral precision and sonic excellence of SpectraLayers 12 ensure that, whether it’s used for music, post-production and restoration, sound design, or mastering and audio forensics, the results are at the forefront of innovative spectral audio production.

SpectraLayers 12 includes two brand-new unmixing modules, which bring even more precision and flexibility to the unmixing process. The new Unmix Soundtrack module separates audio into dialogue, effects, and music layers - 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. The new Unmix Instrument module isolates and extracts user-identified instruments by analyzing the target instrument before unmixing and, if needed, fine-tuning. With the flexibility to extract custom elements from mixes, it’s now easier to re-work arrangements, target processing, and create stems for remixing and restoration.

Alongside the new unmixing modules, the Unmix Song, Unmix Drums, and Unmix Noisy Speech processes have been significantly improved to deliver even better results. Unmix Song now delivers dramatically better vocal separation, major enhancements to drum, bass, and sax/brass unmixing and subtle improvements to guitar and piano unmixing. Updated algorithms of the Unmix Drums process mean it can extract six discrete kit elements - kick, snare, toms, hi-hats, ride, and crash cymbals, while the Unmix Noisy Speech module has been significantly improved to deliver much clearer speech/noise separation, along with a substantial reduction in artifacts.

SpectraLayers 12 takes voice processing to new levels of accuracy, with new and enhanced modules focused on vocal analysis and improvement. The 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. The new DePlosive module automatically eliminates distracting plosives in speech recordings, with adjustable controls for threshold, frequency, and reduction ratio for fine-tuning. Improvements to the Voice DeNoise and Unmix Transcription modules respectively deliver much cleaner results when the background to speech is noise or music, alongside transcription quality that supports twice as many languages and is twice as accurate as before.

There are many workflow improvements which make the powerful processing of SpectraLayers 12 faster and more intuitive to use. A headline feature 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. The feature extends horizontally in Cubase or Nuendo in ARA mode - for example, when using the speech processing tools in post, on multiple clips located anywhere in a project.

The selection of frequencies, harmonics, and transients have all been significantly upgraded in SpectraLayers 12. Narrow frequencies can be tracked more precisely, with elastic frequency selection allowing shifting content to be more accurately processed. Harmonics selection is more intuitive - no more parameter tweaking necessary - and transient selection is more detailed and flexible. These improvements all result in cleaner, more focused selections, reducing the time spent on manual fine-tuning.

And version 12 introduces even more workflow improvements:

• Batch processing 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 maximize 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).

SpectraLayers 12 offers additional user interface enhancements:

• When applying modules, the processing time estimate now updates continuously and more precisely as the operation progresses.
• Volume envelopes have been standardized 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 Marketing Manager Pro Audio, Luis Dongo. “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.”

SpectraLayers Pro 12 and SpectraLayers Elements 12 are available from resellers and through the Steinberg Online Shop. The suggested retail price for SpectraLayers Pro 12 is 349 euros or 349.99 US dollars. An education version is available with a suggested retail price of 179 euros or 179.99 US dollars. The suggested retail price for SpectraLayers Elements 12 is 89.99 euros or 89.99 US dollars.

Updates to SpectraLayers 12 Pro from previous versions of SpectraLayers Pro, upgrades from SpectraLayers Elements and SpectraLayers Go (included in Cubase Pro, Nuendo, and Pro Tools), and crossgrades are available. An update to SpectraLayers 12 Elements from previous versions is also available. Prices may vary according to region. Customers who have activated SpectraLayers Pro or Elements 11 or earlier versions from May 28, 2025, are eligible for a free, downloadable grace period update to the latest version.

New features at a glance

• New Unmix Soundtrack and Unmix Instrument modules
• Improved Unmix Song, Unmix Drums, and Unmix Noisy Speech processes
• New Voice Enhance and DePlosive modules
• Improved Voice DeNoise and Unmix Transcription modules
• Work on multiple layers simultaneously
• Upgraded selection tools for frequencies, harmonics and transients
• Custom naming for batch processing
• Resize active selections directly in the spectrograph
• Volume envelopes rendered in place
• Improved VST 3 module and History panel
• Runs natively on Windows Arm
• A range of other process and user interface improvements

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