Steinberg Cubase 4 Operation Manual

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Working with the Tempo track
Options and settings
Snap
You activate or deactivate Snap by clicking the Snap icon 
on the toolbar. The behavior of the function depends on 
the display format selected for the ruler:
If “Bars+Beats” is selected, tempo curve points will 
snap to the set resolution on the Snap pop-up.
If this is set to 1/1, curve points will snap to the start of bars.
If any other display format is selected, tempo curve 
points will snap to the vertical grid lines in the tempo curve 
display.
The spacing of the grid lines depends on the horizontal magnification.
Time signature events can only be positioned at the start 
of bars, regardless of whether Snap is activated or not.
Autoscroll
When this option is activated, the tempo curve display will 
scroll during playback, keeping the project cursor visible.
The Beat Calculator
The Beat Calculator is a tool for calculating the tempo of 
freely recorded audio or MIDI material. It also allows you to 
set the tempo by tapping.
Calculating the tempo of a recording
1.In the Project window, make a selection that covers an 
exact number of beats of the recording.
2.Select “Beat Calculator…” from the Project menu.
The Beat Calculator window appears.
3.Enter the number of beats that the selection encom-
passes in the Beats field.
The corresponding tempo is calculated and displayed in the BPM field.
If you need to adjust the selection, you can go back to 
the Project window, leaving the Beat Calculator open.
To re-calculate the tempo after adjusting the selection, click Refresh.
4.If you like, you can insert the calculated tempo into the 
Tempo track by clicking one of the buttons in the lower left 
corner of the Beat Calculator window.
Clicking “At Tempo Track Start” will adjust the first tempo curve point, 
while “At Selection Start” will add a new tempo curve point at the selec-
tion’s start position, using the “Jump” curve type (see “Adding tempo 
curve points” on page 397).
Using Tap Tempo
The Tap Tempo function allows you to specify a tempo by 
tapping:
1.Open the Beat Calculator.
2.If you want to tap the tempo to some recorded material, 
activate playback.
3.Click the Tap Tempo button.
The Tap Tempo window appears.
4.Tap the tempo on the computer keyboard’s space bar 
or with the mouse button.
The tempo display will update the calculated tempo between each tap.
5.When you stop tapping, the program calculates the 
average timing of the taps and displays it.
6.Click OK to close the Tap Tempo dialog.
The tapped tempo is now shown in the Beat Calculator’s BPM display. If 
you like, you can insert it into the Tempo track as described above.
!If Fixed tempo mode is selected when you insert the 
calculated tempo, the Fixed tempo will be adjusted, 
regardless of which button you click. 
						

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Working with the Tempo track
Merge Tempo From Tapping
This function allows you to create a complete tempo track 
based on your tapping. Typically, you would use this if you 
have an audio file with no tempo mapping and want to be 
able to add sequenced material afterwards, etc.
1.Create an empty time-based MIDI track and, while 
playing back your audio material, tap the new tempo on 
your MIDI keyboard and record the created notes onto the 
new MIDI track.
Note that you must create note events – pedal events cannot be used for 
this function.
2.Play back the audio and check that the timing of the 
MIDI notes corresponds to that of the audio. 
If necessary, edit the MIDI notes in an editor.
3.Select the part (or the individual notes in an editor) 
that you want to use for the calculation.
4.Select “Merge Tempo From Tapping” from the Func-
tions submenu on the MIDI menu.
A dialog opens.
5.In the dialog, specify what type of note (1/2, 1/4 etc.) 
you tapped during the recording.
If you activate the “Begin at Bar Start” option, the first note will automati-
cally start at the beginning of a bar when calculating the new tempo curve.
6.Click OK.
The project’s tempo is adjusted to the tapped notes.
7.Open the Project menu and select “Tempo Track” to 
check that the new tempo information is reflected in the 
tempo curve.
ÖAnother way of creating a tempo map for freely re-
corded audio would be to use the Time Warp tool, see 
below.
The Time Warp tool
The Time Warp tool lets you adjust the Tempo track so 
that “musical time-based” material (positions related to 
the tempo) matches “linear time-based” material (posi-
tions in time). Some typical applications:
 When you have recorded music (audio or MIDI) without tempo 
reference or metronome click, the Time Warp tool can be used 
for creating a tempo map that fits the recording (allowing you to 
rearrange or add sequenced material).
 When you are creating music for a movie and want to match 
certain positions in the video with certain positions in the music.
The Time Warp tool makes use of the fact that tracks can 
be based on time positions (linear time base) or positions 
related to tempo (musical time base), see “Switching bet-
ween musical and linear time base” on page 42 for a de-
scription of these modes.
Basic procedure
You use the Time Warp tool to drag a musical position (a 
position in bars+beats format) to a certain position in time. 
This can be done in the Project window or in editor win-
dows, as described below. Here is the general procedure:
1.Make sure Tempo track mode is selected.
You cannot use the Time Warp tool in Fixed tempo mode.
2.Select the Time Warp tool.
Bars+Beats format is automatically selected for the ruler in the active 
window, and the ruler is shown in brown.
3.Click in the window at a musical position and drag it 
so that it matches a position in the material you are editing 
– e.g. the start of an event, a certain “hit” within an audio 
event, a frame in a video clip, etc.
When you click with the Time Warp tool, it snaps to the grid in the window.
Dragging the start of bar 3 to the start of the audio event. 
						

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Working with the Tempo track
While you are dragging, the track(s) you are editing are 
temporarily switched to linear time base. This means that 
the contents of the tracks remain at the same time posi-
tions regardless of the tempo (there is an exception to this 
in the Project window, see below).
4.When you release the mouse button, the musical posi-
tion you clicked on matches the time position you dragged 
it to.
This is because the Time Warp tool changed the last tempo event on the 
Tempo track (and/or added new ones, depending on window and us-
age), thereby scaling the tempo track to fit.
Rules
When you use the Time Warp tool, the tempo value of 
the last tempo event (before the click position) is adjusted.
If later tempo events exist, a new tempo event will be 
created at the click position. This way, the later tempo 
event(s) will not be moved.
If you press [Shift] and use the Time Warp tool, a new 
tempo event is created at the click position.
[Shift] is the default modifier for this – you can adjust this in the Prefer-
ences (Editing–Tool Modifiers page).
If you use the Time Warp tool in an editor, a tempo 
event will be created at the start of the edited part or 
event. Only the currently edited track will be affected – but 
note that events to the right of the edited events or parts 
(on the edited track) will be affected as well.
If you have made a selection range (in the Project win-
dow, Audio Part Editor or Sample Editor) and use the 
Time Warp tool within that range, the tempo changes will 
be confined to that range.
This means tempo events will be inserted at the start and end of the se-
lection range, if needed – useful if you need to adjust the tempo within a 
certain area but want all material outside that range to stay in place.
When you click with the Time Warp tool, it snaps to the 
tempo grid in the window.
When you drag the tempo grid to a new position, it can 
be magnetic to events in the window.
In the Project window, this requires that Snap is activated and “Events” 
is selected on the Snap pop-up menu – the grid will then snap to the 
start and end of events or parts, and to markers. In the Sample Editor, 
this requires that Snap to Zero Crossings is activated – the grid will then 
snap to hitpoints (if any). In the MIDI editors, this requires that Snap is 
activated – the grid will then snap to the start and end of notes.
The function will create tempo values up to 300 bpm.
Viewing and adjusting tempo events
When you select the Time Warp tool, the ruler of the ac-
tive window is shown in brown. Existing tempo events are 
shown in the ruler as “flags” with the tempo values dis-
played.
This helps you see what’s going on, but you can also use 
this for editing the tempo track:
If you press the create/erase modifier key (by default 
[Shift]) and click on a tempo event in the ruler, it is deleted.
You can click on a tempo event in the ruler and drag to 
move it.
This automatically edits the tempo value in the event so that elements to 
the right keep their positions.
If you press [Alt]/[Option] and move (or delete) a tempo 
event in the ruler, the tempo value is not adjusted – this 
means elements to the right will be moved.
This is the default modifier key for this – you can adjust this in the Prefer-
ences (Editing–Tool Modifiers page).
Using the Time Warp tool in the Project 
window
In the Project window, there are two modes for the Time 
Warp tool:
 In the default mode, all tracks are temporarily switched to lin-
ear time base when you use the tool. This means that all tracks 
will keep their absolute time positions when you adjust the 
tempo track.
 In the “musical events follow” mode, no tracks are switched to 
linear time base. This means that all tracks that are not set to 
linear time base will follow the changes you make to the tempo 
track.
You select the Time Warp mode by selecting the tool, 
clicking on the tool icon and selecting from the pop-up 
menu that appears. 
						

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Working with the Tempo track
Matching a musical score to video
Here’s an example of how to use the Time Warp tool in 
“musical events follow” mode. Let’s say you are creating 
the music for a film. You have a video track, an audio track 
with a commentary and some audio and/or MIDI tracks 
with your music. Now you want to match the position of a 
musical cue to a position in a video film. The musical cue 
is located in bar 33. There are no tempo changes in the 
project (yet).
1.Make sure tempo track mode is selected in the Trans-
port panel.
2.Now you need to locate the position in the video. If you 
don’t need very high precision, you can simply locate it 
looking at the thumbnails on the video track – otherwise 
you can pinpoint the exact position and add a marker to 
the Marker track (that you can snap to later on).
You can also make a note of the exact position and add an extra ruler 
track set to show the time code (Cubase only).
3.Make sure the correct tracks are set to linear time 
base or musical time base, respectively.
In our example, we want the video track and the audio track with a com-
mentary voice-over to be linear time-based (as well as the marker track, if 
you are using one). All other tracks should be set to musical time base. 
You change this by clicking the time base button in the Track list or In-
spector.
4.Set up the Grid Type pop-up menu as desired.
When you click with the Time Warp tool, it snaps to the selected grid. In 
this case, you will find the musical cue at the start of bar 33, so we can 
set the grid to “Bar”.
Note that this affects the snapping to the ruler (tempo 
grid) when you click! In addition, the tool can be “mag-
netic” to events in the Project window when you drag – for 
this, you need to activate Snap and select “Events” on the 
Snap pop-up menu. 
In our example, this would be useful if you created a marker at the de-
sired position in the video – when you drag the grid (see below), it will 
snap to the marker.
5.Select the Time Warp tool and select the “musical 
events follow” mode.
6.Click in the event display at the start of bar 33 and 
drag to the desired position in the video.
As mentioned above, this can mean dragging to a position indicated by 
the thumbnails on the video track, to a marker on the Marker track or to a 
time position on an additional ruler track (Cubase only).
When you drag, the ruler is scaled – and the music tracks 
will follow.
7.Release the mouse button.
If you look in the ruler at the beginning of the project, you will see that the 
first (and only) tempo event has been adjusted.
8.Try playing back.
The musical cue should now happen at the correct position in the video.
OK, let’s say you need to match another cue to another 
position later on in the video. If you simply repeat this pro-
cedure, you will find that the first cue gets out of sync – 
since you are still changing the first (and only) tempo 
event on the Tempo track!
Musical time base selected.
Linear time base selected. 
						

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Working with the Tempo track
You need to create a “lock point” – a tempo event at the 
first cue position:
9.Press [Shift] and click with the Time Warp tool in the 
event display at the cue position.
In our case this is bar 33.
As you can see, a tempo event (with the same value as the 
first one) is added at that position.
10.Now match the second musical cue to the correct 
video position by dragging the musical position to the 
desired time position as before.
The new tempo event is edited – the first tempo event is unaffected and 
the original cue is still matched.
If you know you are going to match several cues this 
way, you should make it a habit to press [Shift] each time 
you use the Time Warp tool to match positions.
This adds a new tempo event – that way, you don’t have to add tempo 
events afterwards as in step 9 above.
About snapping
If Snap is activated in the Project window and “Events” is 
selected on the Snap pop-up menu, the Time Warp tool 
will be magnetic to events when you drag the tempo grid. 
This makes it easier to snap a tempo position to a marker, 
the start or end of an audio event, etc.
Using the Time Warp tool in an audio editor
Using the Time Warp tool in the Sample Editor or Audio 
Part Editor is different from using it in the Project window, 
in the following ways:
 When you use the Time Warp tool, a tempo event is automa-
tically inserted at the beginning of the edited event or part – 
this tempo event will be adjusted when you warp the tempo 
grid with the tool. This means that material before the edited 
events won’t be affected.
 Only the default mode for the Time Warp tool is available. So 
when you use the tool, the edited track is temporarily switched 
to linear time base.
Making a tempo map for a “free” recording
The following example shows how to use the Time Warp 
tool in the Sample Editor to create a tempo map matching 
freely recorded music. Let’s say you have recorded a drum-
mer, playing without a metronome – this typically means the 
tempo varies ever so slightly. To be able to add sequenced 
material and easily rearrange the recorded audio, you want 
the tempo in Cubase to match the recorded drum track:
1.If necessary, move the recorded event to its desired 
start position.
Move it so that the first downbeat (“one”) happens on the start of the de-
sired bar – zoom in if needed.
2.Open the drum recording in the Sample Editor and 
make sure Hitpoint mode isn’t selected.
The Time Warp tool cannot be used in Hitpoint mode. However, if you 
have calculated hitpoints already, these will be visible when the Time 
Warp tool is selected (see below).
3.Set the zoom so that you can see the individual drum 
hits clearly.
To achieve this type of “visual” beat matching, it’s important to have a 
fairly clean recording, such as the drum track in this example.
4.Select the Time Warp tool.
You have already matched the first downbeat with the 
start of a bar. However, if the recording starts before the 
first downbeat (with a fill, some silence, etc.), you want to 
“lock” the first downbeat so that it stays in position:
5.Press [Shift] and click in the event at the position of 
the first downbeat (the start of the bar).
When you press [Shift], the pointer turns into a pencil. Clicking adds a 
tempo event at the first downbeat – when you later adjust the tempo with 
the Time Warp tool, the first downbeat will stay in place. Note: if the 
event started exactly on the first downbeat (no audio before the “one”), 
you wouldn’t need to do this. This is because a tempo event is automati-
cally added at the start of the edited event.
6.Now, locate the start of the next bar in the ruler.  
						

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Working with the Tempo track
7.Click at that position in the event display and drag the 
position to the downbeat of the second bar in the record-
ing.
When you click, the pointer will snap to the ruler grid.
You do not have to match the downbeats (“ones”) – in this figure, beat 
“2” in the second bar is matched to the “two” in the recording’s second 
bar (simply because the snare drum hits on the upbeats are easier to 
spot in the waveform image).
When you dragged the grid you changed the tempo value 
in the tempo event at the first downbeat. If the drummer 
held a fairly consistent tempo, the following bars should 
now match pretty well too.
8.Check the following bars and locate the first position 
where the audio drifts from the tempo.
Now, if you simply adjusted that beat in the tempo grid to 
match the beat in the recording, the tempo event at the 
first downbeat would be changed – this would ruin the 
match in the previous bars! We need to lock these by in-
serting a new tempo event.
9.Locate the last beat that is in sync.
This would be the beat just before the position where the audio and 
tempo drift apart.
10.Press [Shift] and click at that position to insert a tempo 
event there.
This locks this matched position. The material to the left will not be af-
fected when you make adjustments further along.
11.Now match the tempo grid to the next (unmatched) 
beat by clicking and dragging with the Time Warp tool.
The tempo event you inserted in step 10 will be adjusted.
12.Work your way through the recording this way – when 
you find that the recording drifts from the tempo, repeat 
steps 9 to 11 above.
Now the Tempo track follows the recording and you can 
add sequenced material, rearrange the recording etc.
Matching to hitpoints
If you have calculated hitpoints for the audio event you are 
editing, these will be shown when the Time Warp tool is 
selected.
 The number of hitpoints shown depends on the Hitpoint Sen-
sitivity slider setting you’ve made in Hitpoint mode.
 If you activate the Snap to Zero Crossing button on the tool-
bar, the Time Warp tool will snap to hitpoints when you drag 
the tempo grid.
 You can use the Create Markers from Hitpoints function (on 
the Hitpoints submenu of the Audio menu) to create markers 
at the hitpoint positions. This can be useful when using the 
Time Warp tool in the Project window, as the tool will be mag-
netic to markers (if Snap to Events is activated on the toolbar).
Using the Time Warp tool in a MIDI editor
This is very similar to using the tool in an audio editor:
 When you use the Time Warp tool, a tempo event is automat-
ically inserted at the beginning of the edited part – this tempo 
event will be adjusted when you warp the tempo grid with the 
tool. Material before the edited part won’t be affected.
 Only the default mode for the Time Warp tool is available. So 
when you use the tool, the edited MIDI track is temporarily 
switched to linear time base.
 The rulers in the MIDI editors can be set to “Time Linear” or 
“Bars+Beats Linear” mode (see “The ruler” on page 340) – 
the Time Warp tool requires Time Linear mode. If necessary, 
the ruler mode will be switched when you select the Time 
Warp tool.
 If Snap is activated on the toolbar in the MIDI editor, the tool 
will snap to the start and end of MIDI notes when you drag the 
tempo grid.
Typically, you would use the Time Warp tool in a MIDI 
editor to match the Cubase tempo to freely recorded MIDI 
material (much like the audio example above). 
						

							32
The Project Browser 
						

							408
The Project Browser
Window Overview
While the Project window and the editors display events 
and other data graphically, the Project Browser window 
provides a list based representation of the project. This al-
lows you to view and edit all events on all tracks by using 
regular value editing in a list.
Opening the Project Browser
You open the Project Browser by selecting “Browser” from 
the Project menu. The Browser window can be open while 
you are working in other windows; any changes made in the 
Project window or an editor are immediately reflected in the 
Project Browser and vice versa.
Navigating in the Browser
You use the Project Browser much like you use the Win-
dows Explorer and Mac OS X Finder for browsing folders 
on your hard disk:
Click on an item in the Project Structure list to select it 
for viewing.
The contents of the item are shown in the event display.
In this figure, the parts on a MIDI track are displayed.
Items with hierarchical substructures can be folded out 
by clicking the plus symbols or the “closed folder” symbols 
in the Project Structure list.
When the substructure of an item is revealed, a minus symbol or an “open 
folder” symbol is shown instead – click this to hide the substructure.
To reveal or hide all substructures in the Project Struc-
ture list, use the buttons “(+) All” and “(–) All” above the list.
The Project Structure list. This is where 
you navigate through the project.The event display. This is where you view 
and edit parts, events and Regions. The Add pop-up menu and Add button for 
creating new parts, events and regions.The Filter pop-up menu, 
used when editing MIDI.
The Time Format (display 
format) pop-up menu. 
						

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The Project Browser
The actual editing is done in the event display, using 
regular value editing techniques.
There is one exception: You can rename items in the Project Structure 
list by clicking on their names and typing.
Customizing the view
You can drag the divider between the Project Structure 
list and the event display to make one of them wider and 
the other narrower. Furthermore, the event display can be 
customized in the following ways:
You can change the order of the columns by dragging 
the column headings to the left or right.
You can resize columns by dragging the dividers be-
tween the column headings.
To select a display format for all position and length val-
ues, use the Time Format pop-up menu.
You can sort events in the display by columns, by click-
ing the column heading.
For example, if you want to sort events by their start positions, click that 
column heading. An arrow appears in the column heading, indicating that 
events are sorted by that column. The direction of the arrow indicates 
whether the events are sorted in ascending or descending order. To 
change the direction, click the column heading again.
Importing files via the MediaBay
As the Project Browser is just another view of the project, 
you can import audio, video and MIDI files into the project 
via the MediaBay. For this, select the file in the MediaBay 
and drag and drop it into the Project Browser.
ÖYou can only import into existing tracks. This means, 
for example, that a video track has to exist in the Project 
window prior to importing a video file in the Project 
Browser.
For more information about the MediaBay, see “The Media-
Bay” on page 287.
About the Sync Selection option
If the “Sync Selection” checkbox is activated (in the top 
right corner of the Project Browser), selecting an event in 
the Project window automatically selects it in the Project 
Browser, and vice versa. This makes it easy to locate 
events in the two windows.
Editing tracks
Editing audio tracks
Audio tracks can have two “subitems”: Track Data and 
Automation. 
 The Automation item corresponds to the Automation subtrack 
in the Project window, and contains the track’s automation 
events (see “Editing Automation tracks” on page 411).
 The Track Data item corresponds to the actual audio track in 
the Project window. It contains audio events and/or audio 
parts, which in turn can contain audio events.
Note that if you have not performed any automation or 
opened an automation subtrack, the Browser will only 
contain the audio data.
The following parameters are available for the different 
items:
The list columns for audio events:
Parameter Description
Name Allows you to enter a descriptive comment for the event. 
Double-clicking on the waveform image beside it opens 
the Sample Editor for the event.
File The name of the audio file referenced by the event’s au-
dio clip.
Start The start position of the event. If the event belongs to an 
audio part, you cannot move it outside the part.
End The end position of the event. 
Snap The absolute position of the event’s snap point. Note that 
adjusting this value will not change the position of the 
snap point within the event – instead it is another way of 
moving the event!
Length The length of the event. 
Audio track
Track Data subitem 
of the audio track
Audio parts
Automation 
subtracks
Audio events 
						

							410
The Project Browser
The list columns for audio parts:
Creating audio parts
When the “Audio” item of an audio track is selected in the 
Project Structure list, you can create empty audio parts on 
the track by clicking the Add button on the toolbar. This 
will insert a part between the left and right locator.
Editing MIDI tracks
Just like audio tracks, MIDI tracks can have two “sub-
items”: Track Data and Automation.
 The Track Data item corresponds to the actual MIDI track in 
the Project window and can contain MIDI parts (which in turn 
can contain MIDI events).
 The Automation item corresponds to the automation subtrack 
in the Project window, and contains the track’s automation 
events (see “Editing Automation tracks” on page 411).
Note that if you have not performed any automation or 
opened an automation subtrack, the Browser will only 
contain the MIDI data.
When editing the Track Data, the following parameters are 
available:
The list columns for MIDI events:
Offset This determines “where in the audio clip” the event starts. 
Adjusting this value is the same as sliding the contents of 
the event in the Project window (see “Sliding the con-
tents of an event or part” on page 50). 
You can only specify positive Offset values, since the 
event cannot start before the start of the clip. Likewise, it 
cannot end after the end of the clip. If the event already 
plays the whole clip, the Offset cannot be adjusted at all.
Volume The volume of the event, as set with the Volume handle or 
on the info line in the Project Window.
Fade In
Fade OutThe length of the fade-in and fade-out areas respectively. 
If you use these settings to add a fade (where there pre-
viously was none), a linear fade will be created. If you ad-
just the length of an existing fade, the previous fade 
shape will be maintained.
Mute Click in this column to mute or unmute the event.
Image Displays a waveform image of the event inside a gray box 
corresponding to the clip. The image is scaled according 
to the width of the column.
Parameter Description
Name The name of the part. Double-clicking on the part symbol 
beside it opens the Audio Part Editor for the part.
Start The start position of the part. Editing this value is the 
same as moving the part in the Project window.
End The end position of the part. Editing this value is the same 
as resizing the part in the Project window.
Length The length of the part. Editing this value is the same as 
resizing the part in the Project window.
Offset This adjusts the start position of the events within the 
part. Adjusting this value is the same as sliding the con-
tents of the part in the Project window (see “Sliding the 
contents of an event or part” on page 50). Setting a pos-
itive Offset value is the same as sliding the contents to 
the left, while a negative Offset corresponds to sliding 
the contents to the right.
Mute Click in this column to mute or unmute the part. Parameter Description
Parameter Description
Type The type of MIDI event. This cannot be changed.
Start The position of the event. Editing this value is the same as 
moving the event.
End This is only used for note events, allowing you to view and 
edit the end position of a note (thereby resizing it).
Length This is only used for note events. It shows the length of 
the note – changing this resizes the note and automati-
cally changes the End value as well.
Data 1 The property of this value depends on the type of MIDI 
event:
For notes, this is the note number (pitch). This is dis-
played and edited as a note name and an octave number, 
with the values ranging between C-2 and G8.
For Controller events, this is the type of Controller, dis-
played in words. Note that you can edit this by entering a 
number – the corresponding Controller type is automati-
cally displayed.
For Pitch Bend events, this is the fine adjustment of the 
bend amount.
For Poly Pressure events, this is the note number (pitch).
For other event types, this is the value of the event.
Data 2 The property of this value depends on the type of MIDI 
event:
For notes, this is the note-on velocity.
For Controller events, this is the value of the event.
For Pitch Bend events, this is the coarse bend amount.
For Poly Pressure events, this is the amount of pressure.
For other event types, this is not used.
Channel The event’s MIDI Channel. See “Notes” on page 82.
Comment This column is used for some event types only, providing 
an additional comment about the event.