Steinberg Cubase 7 User Manual

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The Audio Part Editor
Background
The Audio Part Editor allows you to view and edit the events inside audio parts. 
Essentially, this is the same type of editing that you do in the Project window, which 
means that this chapter contains a lot of references to the chapter 
“Working with 
projects” on page 55.
Audio parts are created in the Project window in one of the following ways:
•By selecting one or several audio events on the same track, and selecting “Events 
to Part” from the Audio menu.
•By gluing together two or more audio events on the same track with the Glue tool.
•By drawing an empty part with the Draw tool.
•By double-clicking between the left and right locators on an audio track.
With the last two methods, an empty part is created. You can then add events to 
the part by pasting, or by using drag and drop from the Pool.
Window overview
The toolbar
The tools, settings, and icons on the toolbar have the same functionality as in the 
Project window, with the following differences:
- A Solo button (see “Auditioning” on page 373).
- Separate tools for auditioning (Speaker) and scrubbing (see “Scrubbing” on page 
374).
- No Line or Glue Tube tools.
- Play and Loop icons and an Audition Volume control (see “Auditioning” on page 
373).
- Independent Track Loop settings (see “The independent track loop function” on 
page 374). 
						

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The Audio Part EditorOpening the Audio Part Editor
- Part List controls for handling several parts: activating parts for editing, restricting 
editing to active parts only and showing part borders (see 
“Handling several parts” 
on page 374).
ÖYou can customize the toolbar by hiding or reordering its items, see “Using the Setup 
options” on page 700.
The ruler and info line
These have the same functionality and appearance as their counterparts in the Project 
window.
•You can select a separate display format for the Audio Part Editor ruler by clicking 
on the arrow button on the right and selecting an option from the pop-up menu.
For a list of the available formats, see “The ruler” on page 50.
Opening the Audio Part Editor
You open the Audio Part Editor by selecting one or more audio part(s) in the Project 
window and double-clicking on any one of them (or using the Edit-Open key 
command, by default [Ctrl]/[Command]-[E]). The Audio Part Editor can display several 
parts at once, and you can also have more than one Audio Part Editor open at the 
same time.
ÖDouble-clicking on an audio event in the Project window will open the Sample Editor 
(see 
“Opening the Sample Editor” on page 326).
About lanes
Lanes can make it easier to work with several audio events in a part. Moving some of 
the events to another lane can make selection and editing much easier. For further 
information about lanes and overlapping events, see the chapter 
“Working with tracks 
and lanes” on page 87.
If the Snap function is deactivated and you want to move an event to another lane 
without accidentally moving it horizontally, press [Ctrl]/[Command] while dragging it 
up or down. 
						

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The Audio Part EditorOperations
Operations
Zooming, selecting and editing in the Audio Part Editor are done just as in the Project 
window (see the chapter 
“Working with projects” on page 55).
ÖIf a part is a shared copy (i. e. you have previously copied the part by [Alt]/[Option]-
[Shift] and dragging), any editing you perform will affect all shared copies of this part.
Auditioning
There are several ways to listen to the events in the Audio Part Editor:
By using the Speaker tool
If you click somewhere in the editor’s event display with the Speaker tool and keep the 
mouse button pressed, the part will be played back from the position where you 
clicked. Playback will continue until you release the mouse button.
By using the Audition icon
The Audition and Audition Loop icons
Clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar plays back the edited audio, according to the 
following rules:
- If you have selected events in the part, only the section between the first and last 
selected event will be played back.
- If you have made a range selection, only this section will be played back.
- If there is no selection, the whole part will be played back. If the project cursor is 
within the part, playback starts from the current cursor position. If the cursor is 
outside the part, playback starts from the beginning of the part.
- If the Audition Loop icon is activated, playback will continue until you deactivate 
the Audition icon. Otherwise, the section will be played back once.
•When auditioning with the Speaker tool or Audition icon, audio will be routed 
directly to the Control Room (Cubase only) or to the Main Mix (the default output 
bus) if the Control Room is disabled. In Cubase Artist, the Main Mix bus is always 
used for auditioning.
By using regular playback
You can of course use the regular playback controls while in the Audio Part Editor. 
Furthermore, if you activate the Solo Editor button on the toolbar, only the events in 
the edited part will be played back.
Using key commands
If you activate the “Playback Toggle triggers Local Preview” option in the Preferences 
dialog (Transport page), you can start/stop auditioning by pressing [Space]. This is 
the same as clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar.
ÖThe Audio Part Editor also supports the key commands “Preview start” and “Preview 
stop” in the Media category of the Key Commands dialog. These key commands stop 
the current playback, no matter if you are in normal playback or in audition mode. 
						

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The Audio Part EditorOperations
The independent track loop function
The independent track loop is a sort of “mini-cycle”, affecting only the edited part. 
When the loop is activated, the events in the parts that are within the loop will be 
repeated continuously and completely independent – other events (on other tracks) 
are played back as usual. The only “interaction” between the loop and the “regular 
playback” is that the loop starts every time the cycle starts over again.
To set up the independent track loop, proceed as follows:
1.Turn on the loop by clicking the Independent Track Loop button on the toolbar.
If it is not visible, right-click the toolbar and add the Independent Track Loop 
Settings section – see 
“Using the Setup options” on page 700.
When the loop is activated, the cycle is not shown in the editor’s ruler. Now you need 
to specify the length of the loop:
2.[Ctrl]/[Command]-click in the ruler to set the start and [Alt]/[Option]-click to set 
the end of the loop.
You can also edit the loop start and end positions numerically in the fields next to 
the Loop button.
The loop is indicated in purple in the ruler.
ÖThe events will be looped as long as the Loop button is activated and the Audio Part 
Editor window is open.
Scrubbing
In the Audio Part Editor, the Scrub tool has a separate icon on the toolbar. Apart from 
that, scrubbing works exactly as in the Project window (see 
“Scrubbing audio” on 
page 70).
Handling several parts
When you open the Audio Part Editor with several parts selected – all on the same 
track or on different tracks – they might not all “fit” in the editor window, which can 
make it hard to get an overview of the different parts when editing.
Therefore, the toolbar features a few functions to make working with multiple parts 
easier and more comprehensive:
•The “Currently Edited Part” pop-up menu lists all parts that were selected when 
you opened the editor, and lets you select which part is active for editing.
When you select a part from the list, it is automatically made active and centered in 
the display.
ÖNote that it is also possible to activate a part by clicking on it with the Object 
Selection tool. 
						

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The Audio Part EditorOptions and Settings
•The “Edit Active Part Only” button lets you restrict editing operations to the active 
part only.
If you for example select “All” from the Select submenu of the Edit menu with this 
option activated, all events in the active part will be selected but not the events in 
other parts.
•You can zoom in on an active part so that it spreads to full dialog width by 
selecting “Zoom to Event” from the Zoom submenu of the Edit menu.
•The “Show Part Borders” button can be used if you want to see clearly defined 
borders for the active part.
When this is activated, all parts except the active one are grayed out, making the 
borders easily discernible. There are also two “markers” in the ruler with the name 
of the active part, marking its beginning and end. These can be moved freely to 
change the part borders.
•It is possible to cycle between parts, making them active using key commands.
In the Key Commands dialog – Edit category, there are two functions: “Activate 
Next Part” and “Activate Previous Part”. If you assign key commands to these, you 
can use them to cycle between parts. See 
“Setting up key commands” on page 
712 for instructions on how to set up key commands.
Options and Settings
The following options and settings are available in the Audio Part Editor:
•Snap
The Snap functionality in the Audio Part Editor is exactly the same as in the Project 
window, see 
“The Snap function” on page 52.
•Auto-Scroll
When Auto-Scroll is activated on the toolbar, the window will scroll during 
playback, keeping the project cursor visible in the editor. This setting can be 
activated or deactivated individually for each window.
•Snap to Zero Crossing
When this option is activated, all audio edits are done at zero crossings (positions 
in the audio where the amplitude is zero). This helps you avoid pops and clicks 
which might otherwise be caused by sudden amplitude changes.  
						

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The Pool
Background
Every time you record on an audio track, a file is created on your hard disk. A 
reference to this file – a clip – is also added to the Pool. Two general rules apply to the 
Pool:
•All audio and video clips that belong to a project are listed in the Pool.
•There is a separate Pool for every project.
The way the Pool displays folders and their contents is similar to the way the 
Mac
 OS X Finder and the Windows Explorer display folders and lists of files.
In the Pool you can, among other things, perform the following operations:
Operations that affect files on disk
- Importing clips (audio files can automatically be copied and/or converted)
- Converting file formats
- Renaming clips (this will also rename the referenced files on disk) and regions
- Deleting clips
- Preparing file archives for backup
- Minimizing files
Operations that only affect clips
- Copying clips
- Auditioning clips
- Organizing clips
- Applying audio processing to clips
- Saving or importing complete Pool files
Opening the Pool
You can open the Pool in any of the following ways:
•By clicking the “Open Pool Window” button on the Project window toolbar.
If this icon is not visible, you need to activate the “Media & MixConsole Windows” 
option on the toolbar context menu first.
•By selecting “Pool” on the Project menu or “Open Pool Window” on the Media 
menu.
•By using a key command – by default [Ctrl]/[Command]-[P].
The content of the Pool is divided into the following main folders: 
•The Audio folder
This contains all audio clips and regions currently in the project.  
						

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The PoolWindow overview
•The Video folder
This contains all video clips currently in the project.
•The Trash folder 
Unused clips can be moved into the Trash folder for later permanent removal from 
the hard disk.
These folders cannot be renamed or deleted from the Pool, but any number of 
subfolders can be added (see 
“Organizing clips and folders” on page 389).
Window overview
Toolbar overview
The info line
Click the “Show Info” button on the toolbar to show or hide the info line at the bottom 
of the Pool window. It shows the following information:
- Audio Files – the number of audio files in the Pool
- Used – the number of audio files in use
- Total size – the total size of all audio files in the Pool
- External Files – the number of files in the Pool that do not reside in the project 
folder (e.
 g. video files)
Audio folder: contains clips and regions
Trash folder Video folder Waveform imageToolbar
Open/Close all 
folders View/Attributes 
pop-up menu Show Info 
buttonProject Folder 
path
Pool Record Folder path
Audition, Audition Loop, 
and VolumeImport and 
Search buttons 
						

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The PoolWindow overview
The Pool window columns
Various information about the clips and regions can be viewed in the Pool window 
columns. The columns contain the following information:
ColumnDescription
MediaThis column contains the Audio, Video and Trash folders. If the 
folders are opened, the clip or region names are shown and can be 
edited. This column is always shown.
UsedThis column displays the number of times a clip is used in the project. 
If there is no entry in this column, the corresponding clip is not used.
StatusThis column displays various icons that relate to the current Pool and 
clip status. See 
“About the Status column symbols” on page 379 for 
a description of the icons.
Musical ModeThe checkbox in this column allows you to activate or deactivate 
Musical Mode. If the Tempo column (see below) displays “???”, you 
have to enter the correct tempo before you can activate Musical 
Mode.
TempoThis shows the tempo of audio files, if available. If no tempo has been 
specified, the column displays “???”. 
Sign.This is the time signature, e. g. “4/4”.
KeyThis is the root key, if one was specified for the file.
AlgorithmDisplays the algorithm preset that is used if the audio file is 
processed. To change the default preset, click the preset name and 
select another preset from the pop-up menu. 
For a detailed 
description of the available presets, see 
“About time stretch and 
pitch shift algorithms” on page 322.
InfoThis column shows the following information for audio clips: The 
sample rate, bit resolution, number of channels and the length in 
seconds. For regions, it displays start and end times in frames, and 
for video clips the frame rate, number of frames, and length in 
seconds. 
TypeThis column shows the file format of the clip.
DateThis column shows the date when the audio file was last changed.
Origin TimeThis column shows the original start position where a clip was 
recorded in the project. As this value can be used as a basis for the 
“Insert into Project” option in the Media or context menu (and other 
functions), you can change it if the Origin Time value is independent 
(i.
 e. not for regions). This can either be done by editing the value in 
the column, or by selecting the corresponding clip in the Pool, moving 
the project cursor to the new desired position and selecting “Update 
Origin” from the Audio menu. 
ImageThis column displays waveform images of audio clips or regions. 
PathThis column shows the path to the location of a clip on the hard disk.
Reel NameIf you have imported an OMF file (see “Exporting and importing OMF 
files (Cubase only)” on page 690), it may include this attribute, which 
is then shown in this column. The Reel Name describes the “physical” 
reel or tape from which the media was originally captured. 
						

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The PoolWindow overview
About the Status column symbols
The Status column can display various symbols that relate to the clips status. The 
following symbols can be shown:
Sorting the Pool contents
You can sort the clips in the Pool by name, date, etc. This is done by clicking on the 
corresponding column heading. Clicking again on the same heading switches 
between ascending and descending sort order.
Customizing the view
•You can specify which of the columns are shown or hidden by opening the 
View/Attributes pop-up menu on the toolbar and selecting/deselecting items.
•You can rearrange the order of the columns by clicking on a column heading and 
dragging the column to the left or right.
The mouse pointer changes to a hand when you place it on the column heading.
SymbolDescription
This indicates the current Pool Record folder (see “Changing the 
Pool Record folder” on page 388).
This symbol is shown if a clip has been processed.
The question mark indicates that a clip is referenced in the project 
but missing from the Pool (see 
“About missing files” on page 384).
This indicates that the clip file is external, i. e. located outside the 
current Audio folder for the project.
This indicates that the clip has been recorded in the currently open 
version of the project. This is useful for finding recently recorded clips 
quickly.
The arrow indicates the 
sort column and sort order. 
						

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The PoolOperations
•The width of a column can also be adjusted by placing the pointer between two 
column headers and dragging left or right.
The pointer changes to a divider when you place it between two column headers.
Operations
Most of the Pool-related main menu functions are also available on the Pool context 
menu (opened by right-clicking in the Pool window).
Renaming clips or regions in the Pool 
To rename a clip or a region in the Pool, select it and click on the existing name, type 
in a new name and press [Return]. 
ÖThis will also rename the referenced files on disk!
Duplicating clips in the Pool
To duplicate a clip, proceed as follows:
1.Select the clip you wish to copy.
2.Select “New Version” on the Media menu.
A new version of the clip appears in the same Pool folder, with the same name but 
with a “version number” after it, to indicate that the new clip is a duplicate. The first 
copy made of a clip will get the version number “2” and so on. Regions within a clip 
are copied too, but keep their name. 
 
Inserting clips into a project
To insert a clip into a project, you can either use the Insert commands on the Media 
menu or use drag and drop.
Using menu commands
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the clip(s) you want to insert into the project.
2.Open the Media menu and select an “Insert into Project” option.
•Note that the clip will be positioned so that its snap point is aligned with the 
selected insert position.
You can also open the Sample Editor for a clip by double-clicking it, and perform 
the insert operation from there. This way you can set the snap point before 
inserting a clip.
3.The clip is inserted on the selected track or on a new audio track.
If several tracks are selected, the clip will be inserted on the first selected track.
!Renaming a clip in the Pool is much preferred to renaming it outside Cubase (for 
example on the computer desktop). This way, Cubase already “knows” about the 
change, and will not lose track of the clip the next time you open the project. See 
“About missing files” on page 384 for details about lost files.
!Duplicating a clip does not create a new file on disk, but a new edit version of the clip 
(referring to the same audio file).