Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

							231
The Sample Editor
Autoscroll
Autoscroll and Suspend Autoscroll when Editing activated.
When this option is activated in the Sample Editor toolbar, 
the waveform display will scroll during playback, keeping 
the project cursor visible in the editor.
This setting is independent of the Autoscroll setting in the 
Project window toolbar or other editors. You can find 
more information on this function in the section 
“Autoscroll” on page 57.
AudioWarp: Tempo matching audio
AudioWarp is the generic name for the realtime time 
stretching and pitch shifting functions in Cubase. The 
main AudioWarp features are tempo-matching audio 
loops to the project tempo and matching up an audio clip 
with fluctuating tempo to a fixed tempo. 
If you want to tempo-match an audio loop to the project 
tempo, you will normally work with loops with straight 
beats. In this case you will only need to activate the Musi-
cal mode on the toolbar. 
The Musical mode is one of the key AudioWarp features. It 
allows you to lock audio clips to the project tempo by us-
ing realtime time stretching. This is very useful if you want 
to use loops in your project and do not want to worry too 
much about timing.
When Musical mode is activated, audio events will adapt 
to any tempo changes in Cubase, just like MIDI events. 
However, using this function should not be confused with 
quantizing: the timing, i.e. the rhythmic feeling will be 
maintained.
You can activate Musical mode in the AudioWarp tab, in the Definition 
tab and in the toolbar.
It is also possible to activate/deactivate Musical mode 
from within the Pool by clicking the corresponding check-
box in the Musical mode column. 
When you have correctly set a tempo or length for an au-
dio clip, this information is saved with the project. This al-
lows you to import files into the project with Musical mode 
already activated. The tempo (if set) is also saved when 
exporting files.
Proceed as follows to tempo match an audio loop to the 
project tempo: 
1.Import your loop into the project and double-click it to 
open it in the Sample Editor.
2.Activate the Musical mode in the toolbar.
Your loop will automatically be adapted to the project tempo. 
As you can see, it is very easy to adapt audio loops to the 
project tempo. If you want to use an audio file with un-
known tempo instead, or if the beat of your loop is not 
straight, further adjustments could be necessary. These 
are described in the following section.
!Cubase supports ACID® loops. These loops are 
standard audio files but with embedded tempo/length 
information. When ACID® files are imported into Cu-
base, Musical mode is automatically activated and the 
loops will adapt to the tempo set in the project. 
						

							232
The Sample Editor
Manually adjusting grid and tempo
If you want to manually adjust the grid and tempo of your 
audio file, because you have a very special loop and the 
automatic functions did not lead to satisfying results, pro-
ceed as follows:
1.Open the Definition tab in the Sample Editor Inspector 
and activate the Manual Adjust tool.
2.Select a suitable resolution value from the Grid pop-
up menu.
With the Manual Adjust tool you can manipulate the time 
grid for the audio file. If you select the Manual Adjust tool 
and move the mouse in the Sample Editor, the pointer 
turns to a flag. Depending on the position, the tool can 
have the following functions:3.Move the mouse pointer to the beginning of the audio 
file until the pointer changes to a green flag (Set Grid Start).
4.Click and drag the green flag to the right until it 
matches the first downbeat in the sample and release the 
mouse button.
Now the ruler grid is offset so that it starts on the first downbeat in the 
sample.
5.Make sure that the length in bars shown in the toolbar 
corresponds to your settings.
6.Audition the file to determine where the next downbeat 
occurs, i.e. the first beat of the second bar in the sample.
7.Place the mouse pointer at the start of the second bar 
in the waveform display.
Function Description
Set Grid Start 
(green)This tool is shown at the clip start. When it is displayed, 
you can click and drag it with the mouse to the first down-
beat in order to set the grid start at this position.
Stretch Bars 
(red)This tool is shown at beat positions when you hold down 
[Ctrl]/[Command]. When it is displayed, you can click and 
drag it with the mouse to beat positions in order to set the 
start of the next bar. All grid positions will be stretched.
Stretch 
Previous - 
Move Next 
(pink)This tool is shown at bar positions. When it is displayed, 
you can click and drag it with the mouse to bar positions 
in order to set the start of the next bar. The tempo of the 
last bar will be changed, i.e. the beat/grid positions of the 
last bar will be stretched, while all following grid positions 
will be moved.
Adjust Beat 
Position - 
Single (blue)This tool is shown at beat positions. When it is displayed, 
you can click and drag it with the mouse to adjust single 
beat positions. The previous and next beat will be locked. 
Edited or locked beats are displayed in red.
!You can change the modifiers for this in the “Define 
Audio Grid” category in the Preferences dialog (Edit-
ing–Tool Modifiers page). 
						

							233
The Sample Editor
8.Hold down [Ctrl]/[Command], click and drag the red 
flag (Stretch Bars) to the left or right until the second bar 
in the ruler is aligned with the position of the second 
downbeat of the sample, and release the mouse button.
The start of the next bar is set, and all grid positions will be stretched.
9.Check the other beats and use the pink flag (Stretch 
Previous - Move Next) if necessary.
This flag is shown at bar positions. When you drag it with the mouse, the 
start of the next bar is set, and the tempo of the last bar will be changed.
10.Now have a look at the single beats in between the 
bars, and, if necessary, use the blue flag (Adjust Beat Posi-
tion - Single) to adjust them.
Drag the flag until the single beat position is aligned with the waveform, 
and release the mouse button. 
11.Activate Musical Mode and start playback.
If you find that the beat sounds too straight, you can select 
a resolution for the audio by adjusting the Quantize value 
on the AudioWarp tab. When you select the “Bar” option, 
the audio will be synced to tempo without quantizing. The 
Swing fader lets you offset every second position in the 
grid creating a swing or shuffle feel. 
ÖNote that the Quantize pop-up will be only be available 
if the Musical Mode is activated on the toolbar. 
The loop will automatically adjust to the project tempo, 
and follow any further tempo changes you make! In the 
Project window, the audio event will have a note symbol 
and a double arrow in the lower right corner. The note 
symbol indicates Musical mode and the arrow indicates 
that the file is stretched. 
						

							234
The Sample Editor
Selecting an algorithm for realtime playback
In the Algorithm pop-up in the toolbar you can select the 
algorithm to be applied on realtime playback. 
In this pop-up you can find various options that govern the 
audio quality of the realtime time stretching. There are pre-
sets for common types of audio material and an Advanced 
option which allows you to manually set warp parameters:If you select the Advanced menu item, a dialog opens 
where you can manually adjust the three parameters that 
govern the sound quality of the time stretching:
Working with hitpoints and slices
Hitpoint detection is a special feature of the Sample Edi-
tor. It detects attack transients in an audio file and then 
adds a type of marker, i.e. a “hitpoint”, at each transient. 
These hitpoints allow you to create “slices”, where each 
slice ideally represents each individual sound or “beat” in 
a loop (drum or other rhythmic loops work best with this 
feature). When you have successfully sliced the audio file, 
you can do a number of useful things with it:
 Change the tempo without affecting the pitch.
 Extract the timing (a groove map) from a drum loop. This can 
then be applied to quantize other events.
 Replace individual sounds in a drum loop.
 Edit the actual playing in the drum loop without affecting the 
basic feel.
 Extract sounds from loops.
You can further edit these slices in the Audio Part Editor. 
For example you can:
 Remove or mute slices.
 Change the loop by reordering, replacing or quantizing slices.
 Apply processing or effects to individual slices.
 Create new files from individual slices using the “Bounce Se-
lection” function on the Audio menu.
 Realtime transpose and stretch slices.
 Edit slice envelopes.
Option Description
Drums This mode is best for percussive sounds, because it will not 
change the timing of your audio. Using this option for pitched 
audio will lead to noticeable artifacts. In this case, you can try 
the Mix mode.
Plucked This should be used for audio with transients and a relatively 
stable spectral sound character (e.g. plucked instruments).
Pads Use this mode for pitched audio with slower rhythm and a 
stable spectral sound character. This will minimize sound arti-
facts, but the rhythmic accuracy will not be preserved.
Vocals This mode was optimized for slower signals with transients 
and a prominent tonal character (e.g. vocals).
Mix This mode will preserve the rhythm and minimize the artifacts 
for pitched material which does not meet the above criteria 
(i.e. with a less homogenous sound character). 
This will be selected by default for audio that is not catego-
rized.
Advanced This allows for a manual tweaking of the time stretching pa-
rameters. By default, the settings that are shown when you 
open the dialog are those of the last used preset (except if 
the Solo mode was selected, see below). The Advanced set-
tings are described in more detail below this table.
Solo This mode will preserve the formants of the audio. It should 
only be used for monophonic material (solo woodwind/brass 
instruments or solo vocals, monophonic synths or string in-
struments that do not play harmonies).
Parameter Description
Grain size The realtime time stretching algorithm splits the audio into 
small pieces called “grains”. This parameter determines the 
size of the grains. For material with many transients you 
should use low Grain size values for best results. 
Overlap Overlap is the percentage of the whole grain that will over-
lap with other grains. Use higher values for material with a 
stable sound character.
Variance Variance is also a percentage of the whole length of the 
grains and sets a variation in positioning so that the overlap-
ping area will sound smooth. A Variance setting of 0 will 
produce a sound akin to time stretching used in early sam-
plers, whereas higher settings will produce more (rhythmic) 
“smearing” effects but less audio artifacts. 
						

							235
The Sample Editor
ÖThe term “loop” is used throughout this section. Loop 
in this context usually means an audio file with a musical 
time base, i.e. the length of the loop represents a certain 
number of bars and/or beats at a certain tempo. Playing 
the loop back at the right tempo in a cycle set to the cor-
rect length will produce a continuous loop without gaps.
Using hitpoints
The main functionality of using hitpoints to slice up a loop is 
to make a loop fit the tempo of a song, or alternatively to 
create a situation that allows the song tempo to be changed 
while retaining the timing of a rhythmic audio loop, just like 
when using MIDI files. 
Which audio files can be used?
Here are some guidelines as to what type of audio files are 
suited for slicing using hitpoints:
Each individual sound in the loop should have notice-
able attack.
Slow attacks, legato playing, etc. may not produce the desired result.
Poorly recorded audio might be difficult to slice correctly.
In these cases, try to normalize the files or to remove DC Offset.
There may be problems with sounds drowned in smear-
ing effects, like short delays.
Calculating hitpoints and slicing a loop
Before proceeding, find a suitable loop using the criteria 
above. Proceed as follows:
1.Open the event or clip for editing in the Sample Editor.
You can do this by double-clicking an event on an audio track in the Pro-
ject window or a clip in the Pool. In this example, we assume you work 
with an event on a track.
2.Open the Hitpoints tab in the Sample Editor Inspector 
and select an option from the Use pop-up. 
The Use pop-up menu on the Hitpoints tab affects which hitpoints are 
shown and is a useful tool for removing unwanted hitpoints. 
It contains the following options:
3.Move the sensitivity slider to the right to add hitpoints 
or to the left to remove unwanted hitpoints until one indi-
vidual sound is played between each hitpoint.
If your main reason for slicing the loop is to change the tempo, you gener-
ally need as many slices as you can get, but never more than one per indi-
vidual “hit” in the loop. If you want to create a groove, you should try to get 
approximately one slice per eighth note, sixteenth note or whatever the 
loop requires (see “Creating groove quantize maps” on page 237).
In the next step, the loop will be adapted to the project 
tempo set in Cubase. 
4.Verify the Tempo and Bars values in the toolbar. 
5.On the Hitpoints tab, click on the Slice & Close button 
or select “Create Audio Slices from Hitpoints” from the 
Hitpoints submenu on the Audio menu to create audio 
slices from the hitpoints. 
The following happens:
The Sample Editor closes.
The audio event is “sliced” so that the sections between 
the hitpoints become separate events, all referring to the 
same original file.
!When a selection range is defined, hitpoints will only 
be detected within this range. 
!Hitpoints will only be displayed in the waveform if the 
Hitpoints tab is open.
Option Description
All All hitpoints are shown (taking the Sensitivity slider into ac-
count).
1/4, 1/8, 
1/16, 1/32Only hitpoints that are close to the selected note value posi-
tions within the loop are shown (e.g. close to exact sixteenth 
note positions). Again, the Sensitivity slider is taken into ac-
count.
Metric Bias This is like the “All” mode, but all hitpoints that are close to 
even meter divisions (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc.) get a “sensitivity 
boost” – they are visible at lower sensitivity slider settings. 
This is useful if you are working with dense or cluttered ma-
terial with a lot of hitpoints, but you know that the material is 
based on a strict meter. By selecting Metric Bias it will be 
easier to find the hitpoints close to the meter position (al-
though most other hitpoints are also available, at higher sen-
sitivity settings). 
						

							236
The Sample Editor
The audio event is replaced by an audio part, containing 
the slices (double-click the part to view the slices in the Au-
dio Part Editor). If you edited a clip from the Pool, you need 
to drag it to an audio track to get a part with the slices.
The loop is automatically adapted to the project tempo. 
This takes the loop length you specified into account: e. g., if 
the loop was one bar long, the part is resized to fit exactly 
one bar in the Cubase tempo, and the slices are moved ac-
cordingly, keeping their relative positions within the part.
In the Pool, the sliced clip is shown with a different icon.
Dragging the sliced clip from the Pool to an audio track will create an audio 
part with the slices adapted to the project tempo, just as above.
6.Activate cycle playback on the Transport panel.
The loop should now play back seamlessly at the tempo set in the project!
Make sure the “Musical time base” button in the Track 
list or Inspector (the button should show a note symbol – 
see “Switching between musical and linear time base” on 
page 40) is activated. This way the loop will follow any fur-
ther tempo changes.
If the project tempo is lower than the original tempo of 
the loop, there may be audible gaps between each slice 
event in the part.
This can be remedied by using the Close Gaps function on the Advan-
ced submenu of the Audio menu, see “Close Gaps” on page 238. You 
should also consider activating auto fades for the corresponding audio 
track – fade-outs set to about 10 ms will help eliminate any clicks be-
tween the slices when you play back the part. See “Fades, crossfades 
and envelopes” on page 88.
If the project tempo is higher than the loop’s original 
tempo, you may want to activate auto crossfades for the 
track.
You can use the Close Gaps functions in this case as well, see “Close 
Gaps” on page 238.
The slices in the Audio Part Editor. Here, the project tempo was higher 
than the loop’s original tempo – the slice events overlap slightly.
Setting hitpoints manually
If you cannot get the desired result by adjusting the sensi-
tivity, try to set and edit hitpoints manually.
1.Zoom in on the waveform at the point where you wish 
to add a hitpoint.
2.Select the Edit Hitpoints tool to audition the area and 
make sure that the start of the sound is in view.
Activate Snap to Zero Crossing on the Sample Editor 
toolbar.
By finding zero crossings in the waveform (positions where the amplitude 
is close to zero), manually added slices won’t introduce any clicks or pops. 
All hitpoints calculated by the program are automatically placed at zero 
crossings.
3.Press [Alt]/[Option] so that the mouse pointer changes 
to a pencil tool and click just before the start of the sound.
A new hitpoint appears. Manually added hitpoints are locked by default.
If you notice that a hitpoint was either placed too far 
away from the start of the sound or too far into the sound, 
you can move it by clicking on the hitpoint handle and 
dragging it to the new position.
4.Audition the slices by pointing and clicking in any slice 
area.
The pointer changes to a speaker icon and the corresponding slice will be 
played back from the beginning to the end.
!When you create slices, all events containing the ed-
ited clip will also be replaced.
!Only when the audio tempo has been defined and 
the audio grid matches the project tempo, your slices 
will be straight (quantized). 
!“Snap to Zero Crossing” may alter the timing. In 
some cases it might be better to deactivate it, espe-
cially if you just want to generate a groove quantize 
map. However, if you create slices afterwards, auto 
fades will be necessary. 
						

							237
The Sample Editor
If you hear a single sound split into two slice you can 
disable an individual slice by pressing [Alt]/[Option] (the 
pointer turns into a cross) and clicking on the correspond-
ing hitpoint handle. 
The hitpoint handle gets smaller and its line disappears to indicate that it 
is disabled. To reactivate a disabled hitpoint, [Alt]/[Option]-click on the 
hitpoint handle again.
If you hear “double hits” (e.g. a snare hit being followed 
by a hi-hat hit within the same slice) you can add further hit-
points manually, or you can raise the sensitivity slider until 
the hitpoint appears, lock this hitpoint by pointing on the 
handle until it becomes green and click on it. 
Locked hitpoints are displayed in a darker color. After locking the hitpoint 
you can drag the sensitivity slider to the original setting and the locked 
hitpoint will remain shown. You can unlock a locked hitpoint by clicking 
on its handle.
If you want to delete a hitpoint, simply drag it out of the 
Sample Editor window. 
Hitpoints that you have created manually can also be deleted by clicking 
their handle.
Match-quantizing audio
Hitpoints can have individual Q-points. These are mainly 
used for audio quantizing. Their function is to define the 
point to which the quantizing will apply. Sometimes a slice 
might have a slow attack, and a peak further into the slice 
which you wish to use as the Q-point. When you apply 
quantize, the Q-point will define where the warp tab will 
be added. This also defines the point which will be 
stretched to a grid position when quantizing.To activate Q-points, open the Preferences (Editing–
Audio page) and activate the option “Hitpoints have Q-
Points”.
Next time you use the Calculate Hitpoints function, the hitpoints will have 
Q-points.
To offset the position of a Q-point in relation to the hit-
point, simply click on the “Q” icon and drag it to the right 
to the desired position.
Creating groove quantize maps
You can generate groove quantize maps based on the 
hitpoints you have created in the Sample Editor. Groove 
quantizing is not meant for correcting errors, but for creat-
ing rhythmic feels. This is done by comparing your re-
corded music with a “groove” (a timing grid generated 
from the file) and moving the appropriate notes so that 
their timing matches the one of the groove. In other words, 
you can extract the timing from an audio loop and use it for 
quantizing MIDI parts (or other audio loops, after slicing 
them).
Proceed as follows:
1.Check the audio tempo and define the audio grid as 
described above.
2.Create and edit hitpoints as described above.
You don’t have to create slices – just set up the hitpoints.
You should try to get approximately one slice per eighth 
note, sixteenth note or whatever the loop requires when 
setting hitpoints for extracting a groove.
It can be helpful to use one of the note value-based options on the “Use” 
pop-up menu when you’re setting up the hitpoints (see “Calculating hit-
points and slicing a loop” on page 235).
3.When you have finished setting the hitpoints, click on 
the Make Groove button in the Hitpoints tab of the Sample 
Editor Inspector or select “Create Groove Quantize from 
Hitpoints” from the Hitpoints submenu on the Audio menu.
The groove is extracted.
4.If you now pull down the Quantize Type pop-up menu 
in the Project window you will find an additional item at the 
bottom of the list, with the same name as the file from 
which you extracted the groove.
This groove can now be selected as a base for quantizing, just like any 
other quantize value. See “The Quantizing functions” on page 326.
5.If you want to save this groove, open the Quantize 
Setup dialog and store it as a preset.
!Sounds with a slow attack have their rhythmic center 
at some point before the peak. 
						

							238
The Sample Editor
ÖYou can also create grooves from a MIDI part by se-
lecting the part and dragging it on the grid display in the 
middle of the Quantize Setup dialog or by selecting “Part 
to Groove” from the Advanced Quantize submenu on the 
MIDI menu.
Other hitpoint functions
On the Hitpoints tab of the Sample Editor Inspector and 
on the various submenus of the Audio menu, you will also 
find the following functions:
Create Markers
If an audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can 
click on the Create Markers button in the Hitpoints tab to 
add a marker for each hitpoint (see “Marker tracks” on 
page 31). This can be useful to snap to hitpoints, e.g. for 
locating hitpoints and for using the Time Warp tool (see 
“The Time Warp tool” on page 408).
Create Regions
If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can 
click the Create Regions button on the Hitpoints tab to 
automatically create regions from hitpoints. This can be 
useful to isolate recorded sounds, in order to upload them, 
e.g. to HALion either as velocity or keyzones.
When you make a selection, regions will only be calculated 
from the hitpoints that are contained in the selection.
Create Events
When you wish to create separate events according to the 
hitpoints for a file, you can click on the Create Events but-
ton in the Hitpoints tab. This means that you do not have to 
make the same considerations as when slicing for tempo 
changes. You can use any method you like to set hitpoints.
The slices created will appear in the Project window as 
separate events.
Close Gaps
This function from the Advanced submenu on the Audio 
menu is useful if you sliced a loop for tempo changes. 
Lowering the tempo below the loop’s original tempo will 
create gaps between the slices. The lower the tempo is in 
relation to the original tempo, the wider the gaps will be. 
Close Gaps can be used to remedy this.Proceed as follows:
1.Set the desired tempo.
2.Select the part in the Project window.
3.Select “Close Gaps” from the Advanced submenu on 
the Audio menu.
Time stretch is applied on each slice to close the gaps. Depending on 
the length of the part and the algorithm set in the Preferences (Editing–
Audio page), this can take a little while.
4.The waveform is redrawn and the gaps are closed!
Note that this feature creates new clips in the Pool, one 
for each slice.
Close Gaps can also be used when the project tempo 
is higher than the original loop tempo.
This will use the time stretch function to compress the slices to fit.
If you decide to change the tempo again after using the 
Close Gaps function, you should undo the Close Gaps op-
eration or start over again, using the original unstretched 
file.
You can also use this function on individual events (in 
the Audio Part Editor or Project window).
The events don’t have to be slices – you can use Close Gaps simply to 
stretch an audio event to the start position of the next event.
Free Warp
The Free Warp tool allows you to create Warp tabs. Warp 
tabs are a kind of marker or anchor that can be attached to 
musically relevant time positions in an audio event, for ex-
ample the first beat of every bar. Warp tabs can be dragged 
to the corresponding time positions in the project, and the 
audio will be stretched accordingly.  
						

							239
The Sample Editor
A typical application of warp tabs is to use them to synchro-
nize audio to video.
You can also use warp tabs for further tweaking after hav-
ing activated Musical mode.
Using the Free warp tool 
Warp tabs are created using the Free Warp tool on the 
AudioWarp tab of the Sample Editor, but can also be cre-
ated from hitpoints (see “Creating warp tabs from hit-
points” on page 241). In this example, we will show how a 
file with slightly varying tempo can be locked to a steady 
tempo by using warp tabs.
1.Open the audio file you wish to process in the Sample 
Editor.
2.Activate the “Snap to Zero Crossing” button on the 
Sample Editor toolbar.
When you activate this button, warp tabs will snap to zero crossings and 
hitpoints (if shown).
3.Determine the length of the file.
4.On the Definition tab, click the Auto Adjust button so 
that the audio event is stretched to the project tempo.
5.On the AudioWarp tab, select the Free Warp tool.
For aligning the tempo, you should use Bars and Beats as ruler resolution. 
When you place the mouse pointer in the waveform display, it changes to 
a clock with arrows on either side, and a vertical line in the middle which 
represents the pointer. When you move the pointer in the waveform win-
dow, it shows the position in bars, beats and ticks as well as in seconds.
6.Line up the audio file so that the first beat of the first 
bar (in the audio event) starts on the first beat of a bar in 
the project.
If the audio file doesn’t start on a downbeat, you can 
use the Event Start handle in the Sample Editor and adjust 
the position in the Project window so that the first down-
beat in the sample is aligned with the first beat of a bar in 
the grid.
Now the musical first downbeat should be aligned with the first beat of a 
bar in the project. 
The next step is to see where the first warp tab needs to 
be added. It may be useful to hear the metronome click to 
determine when the tempo of the audio clip drifts from the 
project tempo. To hear the metronome, activate the Click 
button on the Transport panel and play back using the 
transport controls.
7.Play back the audio file, either by auditioning in the 
Sample Editor or from the Transport panel, and determine 
where the first beat of a bar in the audio event does not 
match the corresponding ruler position in the project.
If you find it difficult to pinpoint an exact position in the audio event, you 
can switch to the Scrub tool and/or zoom in the view. Switch back to the 
Free Warp tool when you have found the position.
8.In our example, the first beat of the third bar in the au-
dio event is slightly offset from the corresponding grid po-
sition and thus needs to be moved back a bit.
9.Place the pointer at the position of the first beat of the 
third bar in the audio event and click and hold.
When you click, a warp tab is added. If the position where you clicked 
was off, you can adjust it by dragging the tab in the ruler.
!If the AudioWarp tab is open, warp tabs will be dis-
played in the waveform and if the VariAudio tab is 
open, they will be displayed in the ruler.
!When you deactivate the Musical mode, select an-
other Quantize value or move the Swing slider, all 
your warp modifications will be lost.
The third downbeat in the audio event 
						

							240
The Sample Editor
10.With the mouse button still pressed, drag the warp tab 
so that the position lines up with the first beat of the bar in 
the ruler.
11.Release the mouse button.
Now the first beat in the audio event is perfectly aligned with the corre-
sponding position in the project! 
You can also first add warp tabs at the relevant musical 
positions and change their positions later, see “Editing 
warp tabs” on page 240.Next to the warp tab handle in the ruler, a number is 
shown. This number indicates the warp factor, i.e. the 
amount of stretch. Warp factor numbers higher than 1.0 
indicate that the audio region preceding the warp tab is 
expanded and will play back slower. Warp factor numbers 
lower than 1.0 indicate that the audio region preceding 
the warp tab is compressed and will play back faster. 
ÖNote that this ratio is limited to a range between 0.1 
and 10. This factor is updated when you change the pro-
ject tempo with Musical mode enabled or use the Time 
Warp tool.
12.Continue to use the same method to align the first 
beat in each bar to the corresponding ruler position.
You only have to add warp tabs where the downbeat in the audio file 
drifts from the ruler position and/or if you want to lock a warp tab so that 
it is not moved when editing other points. 
When you are done, the previously varying tempo of the 
audio event will be metronome-steady and will adapt to 
any tempo in Cubase.
This example illustrates the general methods of using 
warp tabs and the Free Warp tool. But you can of course 
use warp tabs for other operations than aligning down-
beats to grid positions. With the Free Warp tool, you can 
literally stretch any region within a sample to any position!
Editing warp tabs
Moving the destination of existing warp tabs
To move a destination position of a warp tab (and thus 
stretch the audio), select the Free Warp tool and position 
the pointer on the Warp line in the waveform so that the 
line in the middle of the pointer becomes blue. Then click 
and drag to move the position of the warp tab.