Steinberg Cubase 7 User Manual

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Editing tempo and signatureThe Time Warp tool (Cubase only)
Viewing and adjusting tempo events
When you select the Time Warp tool, the ruler of the active window is shown in 
brown. Existing tempo events are shown in the ruler as “flags” with the tempo values 
displayed.
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.
[Shift] is the default modifier for this – you can adjust this in the Preferences dialog 
(Editing–Tool Modifiers page).
•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 it in the Preferences dialog 
(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. To select the 
desired option, click on the Time Warp tool and click again to open a context menu. 
The available options are:
•Warp Grid
This is the default mode. If you use it, all tracks are temporarily switched to linear 
time base. This means that all tracks will keep their absolute time positions when 
you adjust the tempo track.
•Warp Grid (musical events follow)
If you use this 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.
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). Proceed as 
follows:
1.Make sure tempo track mode is selected on the Transport panel.
2.Now you need to locate the position in the video. If you do not need very high 
precision, you can simply locate it by looking at the thumbnails on the video track – 
otherwise you can pinpoint the exact position and add a marker to the marker track 
(to which you can snap later).
You can also make a note of the exact position and add an extra ruler track set to 
show the timecode (Cubase only). 
						

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Editing tempo and signatureThe Time Warp tool (Cubase only)
3.Make sure that 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 commentary 
voice-over to be linear time-based (as well as the marker track, if used). All other 
tracks should be set to musical time base. You change this by clicking the time 
base button in the track list or Inspector.
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 “magnetic” to events in the Project window when you 
drag – for this, you need to activate the Snap function, open the Snap Type pop-
up menu, and select “Events”. 
In our example, this would be useful if you created a marker at the desired position 
in the video – when you drag the grid (see below), it will snap to the marker.
5.Click on the Time Warp button and click again to open a pop-up menu.
6.Select the “Warp Grid (musical events follow)” mode.
7.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.
8.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.
9.Try playing back.
The musical cue should now happen at the correct position in the video.
Musical time base selectedLinear time base selected 
						

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Editing tempo and signatureThe Time Warp tool (Cubase only)
Let’s say you need to match another cue to another position later on in the video. If 
you simply repeat this procedure, 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!
You need to create a “lock point” – a tempo event at the first cue position:
10.Press [Shift] and click with the Time Warp tool in the event display at the cue 
position.
In our case, this is bar 33.
A tempo event (with the same value as the first one) is added at that position.
11.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, 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 do not have to add tempo events 
afterwards as described above.
About snapping
If Snap is activated in the Project window and “Events” is selected on the Snap Type 
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 automatically 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 will not be affected.
•Only the default mode for the Time Warp tool is available. 
This means that 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 
drummer, playing without a metronome – this typically means the tempo varies ever so 
slightly. To be able to add more 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.
Move it so that the first downbeat (“one”) happens at the start of the bar – zoom in 
if needed.
2.Open the drum recording in the Sample Editor and make sure Hitpoint mode is not 
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 is important to have a fairly clean 
recording, such as the drum track in this example. 
						

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Editing tempo and signatureThe Time Warp tool (Cubase only)
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 that if the event starts exactly on the 
first downbeat (no audio before the “one”), you do not need to do this. This is 
because a tempo event is automatically added at the start of the edited event.
6.Now, locate the start of the next bar in the ruler. 
7.Click at that position in the event display and drag to the downbeat of the second 
bar in the recording.
When you click, the pointer will snap to the ruler grid.
By dragging 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 inserting 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 affected 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 more 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 Sensitivity slider setting 
you have made in Hitpoint mode.
- If you activate the Snap to Zero Crossing button on the toolbar, 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 
magnetic to markers (if the Snap Type is set to Events). 
						

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Editing tempo and signatureTempo Detection (Cubase only)
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 automatically 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 will not 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 485) – 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).
Tempo Detection (Cubase only)
Cubase offers a powerful tempo detection algorithm that can be used on any rhythmic 
musical content, even if it has not been recorded to a metronome click and/or 
contains tempo drift. This feature serves two main purposes:
•Analyzing the tempo of freely recorded audio so that other (audio or MIDI) tracks 
can follow this tempo.
•Adjusting freely recorded audio to the project tempo, which can be fixed or variable.
Audio requirements
- The audio event has to be at least 7 seconds long.
- Musical Mode has to be deactivated for the clip.
- The track has to be set to linear time base (this happens automatically).
- The audio material needs to have discernible beats.
The Tempo Detection Panel
The Tempo Detection Panel contains the functions for analyzing the tempo of an audio 
event. It is opened via the Project menu.
In the top section of the panel, the name of the selected audio event is shown. Below 
the name, the Analyze button is located. Click this button to start the tempo detection 
for an event.
The middle section contains several functions for correcting and fine-tuning the 
detected tempo curve. These functions are described in the section 
“Correcting and 
fine-tuning the detected tempo map” on page 626. 
						

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Editing tempo and signatureTempo Detection (Cubase only)
The arrow buttons at the bottom right let you change the direction in which the 
algorithm will analyze the audio material during a manual correction operation. To work 
backwards, i.
 e. to reanalyze the beginning of the tempo curve, activate the left arrow 
button (see 
“The beginning of the tempo curve needs to be corrected” on page 627).
With the Reset button at the bottom left you can delete the complete analysis data 
and start again from scratch.
ÖAny tempo events beyond the event timeline will also be removed upon reset.
ÖThe Tempo Detection Panel has to be opened specifically for the event that you want 
to analyze. To analyze another event, close the panel, select the event, and reopen the 
panel.
Detecting the basic tempo of an audio event
1.In the Project window, select the audio event that you want to analyze.
2.On the Project menu, select “Tempo Detection…”.
The Tempo Detection Panel opens.
3.Click the Analyze button.
The following happens:
- A rough tempo map based on the beat analysis is created for the selected audio 
clip. 
- A tempo and a signature track are added to the project.
- The project will get a 1/4 signature, because the tempo detection only calculates a 
tempo based on beats, regardless of a musical signature. The signature can be 
modified later.
- The Time Warp Tool is selected for fine-tuning or adjusting the newly generated 
tempo map.
Depending on the rhythmic quality of the source material, the tempo analysis may 
directly lead to a perfect result. However, if this is not the case, you can apply the 
correction and fine-tuning functions. To find out whether such actions are necessary, 
activate the metronome click and play back the project.
Correcting and fine-tuning the detected tempo map
If the metronome click does not match the audio perfectly, perform any of the 
following operations, depending on the situation.
The detected tempo is too fast or too slow
•To double or halve the detected tempo, use the “Multiply by 2” and “Divide by 2” 
buttons.
•To adjust the detected tempo with a factor of 3/4 or 4/3, use the “Multiply by 4/3” 
and “Multiply by 3/4” buttons.
Examples: 
- If your audio is twice as fast as the detected tempo, you can apply the “Multiply by 
2” function.
- If your audio contains dotted notes or triplets and the algorithm detects 3 beats 
where 4 are expected, you can apply the 4/3 conversion.
- If the actual signature is 2/4 and the algorithm detected 6/8 beats or vice versa, 
you can apply a 3/4 conversion combined with the “Multiply by 2” function.
The detected tempo has jumps and spikes although it should be steady
If you get the message that the algorithm has detected irregular tempo changes, even 
though you know that the material has a more or less steady tempo, you can use the 
“Smooth Tempo” function. 
						

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Editing tempo and signatureTempo Detection (Cubase only)
•To retrigger the tempo analysis based on the assumption that the event has a 
steady tempo, click the “Smooth Tempo” button.
Irregular spikes or tempo changes are removed during this analysis.
The detected tempo is off by half a beat
In some cases, the offbeat of a rhythm might be dominant enough to confuse the beat 
detection algorithm resulting in an offset. In that case it is necessary to shift the tempo 
events.
•To shift the detected tempo events by half a beat, click the “Offbeat Correction” 
button. 
The tempo was not detected properly for the whole event
Sometimes it is impossible for the algorithm to properly detect the tempo for the 
whole audio event because the audio contains sections played in a different tempo or 
has special rhythmic characteristics. Manual adjustments are then necessary to create 
a perfect tempo track. 
To manually correct tempo events, proceed as follows:
1.With the Tempo Detection Panel still open, play the track from the beginning and 
listen to the click.
It is useful to zoom in on the waveform so that the transients are visible. Using the 
stationary cursor could be useful as well. 
2.Locate the first tempo event that is off. Use the Time Warp Tool to move this 
tempo event to the correct position.
The material to the right of the corrected event will be reanalyzed and the tempo 
recalculated. 
3.Continue listening to the audio until you reach the next misplaced tempo event and 
repeat the manual correction procedure until you reach the end of the song.
The beginning of the tempo curve needs to be corrected
When you edit a tempo event, the tempo curve by default is reanalyzed from the point 
of editing towards the right. However, if the detection did not produce proper results 
at the beginning of the event, you can change the direction in which the algorithm 
works.
Proceed as follows:
1.At the bottom of the Tempo Detection Panel, activate the left arrow button to 
change the direction of reanalysis. 
2.Locate the first correct tempo event at the beginning of the audio and use the Time 
Warp tool to move the corresponding tempo event slightly back and forth to 
trigger a backwards detection.
The tempo at the beginning of the audio event is corrected and new events are 
added where necessary.
The audio material contains sections with different tempos
In some cases, a track may include multiple sections with different tempo and the 
tempo detection might stop at the position of a tempo change or pause in the audio.
If the manual adjustment of individual tempo events does not give you the desired 
results for files with varying tempo, you can cut the audio event at each major tempo 
change and perform the tempo detection for each of the resulting sections 
independently.
ÖRemember that each cut needs to have a length of at least 7 seconds. 
						

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Editing tempo and signatureAdjusting the audio to the project tempo
Finishing
Once the tempo map is correct, close the Tempo Detection Panel. You can now set 
up signature events with the correct time signature.
Adjusting the audio to the project tempo
If you want freely recorded audio to follow a fixed tempo or a different project tempo, 
you can use the Set Definition From Tempo dialog to save the tempo information from 
the tempo track in the corresponding audio clips.
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the audio events that you want to have follow the project tempo.
For example, this could be the individual tracks in a multi-track drum session. 
2.On the Audio menu, open the Advanced submenu and select the “Set Definition 
From Tempo…” option.
The Set Definition From Tempo dialog opens.
3.Select whether you want to save the tempo information in the project file only or in 
the selected audio clips.
Writing the definition into the audio files allows you to use these in other projects, 
complete with tempo information.
4.Select if you want to set all tracks to musical time base.
If you do not activate this option, only the tracks containing the selected events are 
set to musical time base.
5.Click OK.
The tempo information is now copied into the selected audio clips and the tracks 
are set to musical time base. Furthermore, Musical Mode is activated for the audio 
events.
The audio tracks will now follow any tempo changes in the project. Therefore, you can 
disable the tempo track and set a fixed tempo for your project or edit the tempo track for 
a new tempo map. Warping is applied to the events to match the tempo. By default, the 
“élastique Pro Time” time shifting algorithm is applied, which should lead to the best-
quality results (see 
“About time stretch and pitch shift algorithms” on page 322).
!If you have placed audio events referring to the same audio clip at different positions 
on the timeline and you apply the “Set Definition From Tempo” function simultaneously 
to these events, new audio files are written for all the events except the first. 
						

							629
The Project Browser (Cubase only)
Window Overview
The Project Browser window provides a list based representation of the project. This 
allows 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 Windows 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.
Project 
Structure listEvent 
display Add pop-up menu and 
Add buttonFilter pop-up menu Time Format pop-up menu 
						

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The Project Browser (Cubase only)Editing tracks
•Items with hierarchical substructures can be folded out by clicking the “+” 
symbols or the “closed folder” symbols in the Project Structure list.
When the substructure of an item is revealed, a “-” symbol or an “open folder” 
symbol is shown instead – click this to hide the substructure.
•To reveal or hide all substructures in the Project Structure list, use the buttons “(+) 
All” and “(–) All” above the list.
•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 a selected name and typing.
Customizing the view
You can drag the divider between the Project Structure list and the event display. 
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 between the column headings.
•To select a display format for all position and length values, use the Time Format 
pop-up menu.
•You can sort events in the display by columns, by clicking 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
You can also import audio, video and MIDI files into the Project Browser via the 
MediaBay using drag and drop.
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 MediaBay” on page 393.
About the Sync Selection option
If the “Sync Selection” checkbox is activated (on the Project Browser toolbar), 
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 track in the Project window, 
and contains the track’s automation events (see 
“Editing automation tracks” on 
page 635).
- 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.