Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

21
The Sample Editor 

262
The Sample Editor
Window overview
The Sample Editor allows you to view and manipulate audio 
by cutting and pasting, removing, or drawing audio data, 
and by processing audio (see the chapter 
“Audio process-
ing and functions” on page 244). This editing is “non-de-
structive”: The actual file will remain untouched so that you 
can undo modifications or revert to the original settings at 
any time.
The Sample Editor also contains most of the realtime time 
stretching functions in Cubase. These can be...

263
The Sample Editor
The toolbar
The toolbar contains various tools for selecting, manipulat-
ing and playing back audio, as well as options that affect 
the appearance and behavior of the Sample Editor. 
In the Musical Information section at the right of the tool-
bar, the estimated length of your audio file is displayed in 
bars and beats (PPQ) together with the estimated tempo 
and the time signature. These values are important for us
-
ing Musical Mode, see “Musical Mode” on page 272.
The Algorithm...

264
The Sample Editor
The info line
The info line is displayed below the toolbar. It shows infor-
mation about the audio clip, such as the audio format and 
the selection range.
Initially, length and position values are displayed in the for-
mat specified in the Project Setup dialog. For information 
about configuring the info line, see 
“Using the Setup op-
tions” on page 534.
•To show or hide the info line, click the “Set up Window 
Layout” button on the toolbar and activate or deactivate 
the Info...

265
The Sample Editor
The Hitpoints tab
On this tab, hitpoints can be marked and edited (see 
“Working with hitpoints and slices” on page 276). Hit-
points allow you to slice your audio and to create groove 
quantize maps from your audio. You can also create mark
-
ers, regions, events, and warp tabs based on hitpoints.
The Range tab
On this tab you will find functions for working with ranges 
and selections (see 
“Making selections” on page 268).
The Process tab
This tab regroups the most important...

266
The Sample Editor
The waveform display and the level scale
The waveform display shows the waveform image of the 
edited audio clip according to the wave image style set in 
the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Audio page), see 
“Adjusting how parts and events are shown” on page 57. 
To the left of the waveform display a level scale is shown, 
indicating the amplitude of the audio.
•You can select whether the level is shown as a percent-
age or in dB.
This is done by opening the level scale pop-up...

267
The Sample Editor
•When the VariAudio tab is active (see “VariAudio (Cu-
base only)” on page 281), you can also zoom by holding 
down [Alt]/[Option] while drawing a selection rectangle 
around the segments that you want to zoom in on. You 
can zoom out by holding down [Alt]/[Option] and clicking 
in an empty area of the waveform.
•The current zoom setting is shown in the info line, as a 
“samples per screen pixel” value.
ÖYou can zoom in horizontally to a scale of less than one 
sample per pixel!...

268
The Sample Editor
3.Drag to the left or right.
The audio is played back. The speed and pitch of the playback depend 
on how fast you drag.
Adjusting the snap point
The snap point is a marker within an audio event. It is used 
as a reference position when you move events with snap 
activated, so that the snap point is “magnetic” to whatever 
snap positions you have selected.
By default, the snap point is set at the beginning of the au-
dio event, but often it is useful to move the snap point to a...

269
The Sample Editor
•The current selection is indicated in the corresponding 
fields on the Range tab of the Sample Editor Inspector.
You can fine-tune the selection by changing these values. Note that the 
values are relative to the start of the clip, rather than to the project timeline.
Using the Select menu
On the Select menu on the Range tab and on the Select 
submenu of the Edit menu you find the following options: 
ÖSeveral of these options are also available on the 
Sample Editor context menu....

270
The Sample Editor
Insert Silence
Selecting “Insert Silence” (on the Edit menu, on the Pro-
cess tab of the Sample Editor Inspector, or on the Range 
submenu of the main Edit menu) inserts a silent section 
with the same length as the current selection, at the selec
-
tion start.
•The selection is not replaced, but moved to the right to 
make room. 
If you want to replace the selection, use the “Silence” function instead 
(see 
“Silence” on page 252).
Processing
The Processing features (on the Select...