SpectraLayers 12 elevates audio with new technical and creative possibilities

Steinberg has announced the immediate availability of SpectraLayers 12, which incorporates a variety of new and enhanced tools that take SpectraLayers’ separation and voice processing capabilities 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.

New unmixing modules

SpectraLayers 12 includes two new unmixing modules that bring even more precision and flexibility to the unmixing process. The Unmix Soundtrack module separates audio into dialogue, effects, and music layers, especially useful for post-production workflows with mixed content such as film soundtracks, trailers, and radio broadcasts. By isolating the core audio components, it allows for more precise dialogue cleanup, music replacement, and effects enhancement. The Unmix Instrument module isolates and extracts user-selected instruments by first analyzing the target instrument and, if needed, fine-tuning it. With the flexibility to extract custom elements from mixes, it is now easier to rework arrangements, apply targeted processing, and create stems for remixing and restoration.

Enhanced unmixing features

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 provides much more precise vocal separation, major improvements in drum, bass, and sax/brass unmixing, as well as subtle improvements in guitar and piano. The updated algorithms of Unmix Drums allow for the extraction of six discrete kit elements: kick, snare, toms, hi-hats, ride, and crash cymbals. Meanwhile, the Unmix Noisy Speech module has been refined to achieve clearer separation between voice and noise, and to significantly reduce artifacts.

New and improved voice processing

SpectraLayers 12 takes voice processing to a new level of precision, with new and improved modules focused on vocal analysis and enhancement. The Voice Enhance module uses generative AI to process and reconstruct low-quality voice recordings, noticeably improving clarity while preserving the speaker’s unique identity. The DePlosive module automatically removes distracting plosives in voice recordings, with adjustable controls for threshold, frequency, and reduction level for fine-tuning. Improvements in the Voice DeNoise and Unmix Transcription modules deliver much cleaner results in recordings with background noise or music, along with transcription quality that now supports twice as many languages and is twice as accurate.

Work on multiple layers simultaneously

SpectraLayers 12 introduces numerous workflow improvements that make its powerful processing faster and more intuitive. One of the main new features is that all tools and processes can now operate on multiple layers at the same time. In standalone mode, this works vertically across layers, allowing events spanning multiple stems to be edited simultaneously. The function extends horizontally in Cubase or Nuendo via ARA, for example, when using voice processing tools on multiple clips spread throughout a project.

Upgraded selection tools

The selection of frequencies, harmonics, and transients has been significantly enhanced in SpectraLayers 12. Narrow frequencies can now be tracked more precisely, thanks to elastic frequency selection that allows shifting content to be processed more accurately. Harmonics selection is more intuitive—no parameter tweaking required—and transient selection is more detailed and flexible. All of these improvements result in cleaner, more focused selections, reducing the time spent on manual adjustments.

Version 12 also introduces many improvements that streamline the workflow:

• - Batch processing now supports custom naming schemes for folders and files generated during processing.
• - A new Phase Rotation module corrects asymmetrical waveforms to maximize gain before clipping.
• - Active selections can be resized directly on the spectrogram by dragging their edges, and selection fades can also be adjusted within the selection itself.
• - Volume envelopes can be rendered in place and are then automatically removed from the project.
• - The VST3 effects module can now display multiple plug-in interfaces simultaneously, making it easier to adjust complex setups in real time.
• - The History panel now consolidates successive operations from the same tool into a single undo step, with a configurable time window.
• - Tool and module presets are saved as files within folders, which can be transferred between computers or SpectraLayers versions (starting with version 12).
• - SpectraLayers 12 runs natively as an Arm64 application on Windows Arm (requires the Arm version of the Steinberg Activation Manager).

SpectraLayers 12 also offers additional user interface enhancements:

• - When applying modules, the processing time estimate now updates continuously and more accurately as the operation progresses.
• - Volume envelopes have been standardized to align with typical DAW conventions and now appear consistently regardless of waveform zoom level.
• - Frequency fades now scale by octaves instead of hertz, offering a more natural and consistent visual representation.
• - In ARA mode, the Group by Track option in the SpectraLayers Clip menu displays all ARA-enabled clips on any selected track, both as layers and as project tabs.
• - A keyword-based search has been added to the view filtering options, making it faster to locate specific tools.
• - The Cut to and Copy to actions now allow any layer within a project to be selected as the target, reducing steps when moving content.

Since we introduced unmixing algorithms in SpectraLayers, no other application has matched its quality. Now, with version 12, the clarity of the separated stems is exceptional… you could almost believe they were never part of a mix. This version also focuses strongly on the needs of the post-production industry, with innovative features like soundtrack unmixing and voice enhancement. Voice processing algorithms are constantly being refined, and the workflow and productivity improvements our loyal users requested haven’t been forgotten, says Luis Dongo, Marketing Manager Pro Audio.

Availability and pricing

SpectraLayers Pro 12 and SpectraLayers Elements 12 are available through resellers and 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 for 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 Pro 12 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 Elements 12 from earlier versions is also available. Prices may vary by region.

Customers who have activated SpectraLayers Pro or Elements 11 or earlier versions from May 28, 2025, are eligible for a free grace period update to the latest version.