Steinberg Cubase 8 Manual
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Quantizing MIDI and Audio Quantize Panel 241 Options for Quantizing to a Groove Groove quantizing is intended for recreating existing rhythmic feels by matching your recorded music to a timing grid generated from a MIDI part or an audio loop. To extract the groove from a MIDI part, from an audio loop, an audio event with hitpoints, or sliced audio, select the material and drag it onto the grid display in the middle of the Quantize Panel. Alternatively, you can use the “Create Groove Quantize Preset” function. Position This parameter lets you determine how much the timing of the groove affects the music. 0 % means that the timing of the music remains unaffected, while 100 % means that the timing is adjusted to match the groove completely. Velocity (MIDI Only) This parameter lets you determine how much the velocity values within the groove affect the music. Note that not all grooves contain velocity information. Length (MIDI Only) This parameter lets you specify how much the length of the notes is affected by the groove. This is done by modifying the note-off value. NOTE For drums, the Length setting is ignored as drum sounds cannot be sustained. Pre-Quantize This pop-up menu lets you quantize your audio or MIDI to a musical grid before groove quantizing. This helps you to get the notes closer to their groove destination. For example, if you apply a shuffle groove to a 16th-note pattern, you can set up a Pre-Quantize value of 16 to straighten up the timing before applying the groove quantizing. Max. Move Here, you can select a note value to specify a maximum distance that the audio or MIDI is moved.
Quantizing MIDI and Audio Quantize Panel 242 Orig. Position If you activate this option, the starting point of the quantizing operation is not the first bar of the project, but the original starting position of the audio or MIDI material used to find the groove. This allows you to synchronize material that does not start from bar 1 of the project. RELATED LINKS Creating Groove Quantize Presets on page 246 Options for Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks In the “Slice Rules” section, you determine how the audio events are sliced at the hitpoints. Hitpoint Tracks This column lists all audio tracks of your edit group that have hitpoints. Priority In this column, you can define a priority for each track. This specifies which hitpoints are used to slice your audio events. The track with the highest priority defines where the audio is sliced. The audio on all tracks is sliced at all hitpoints of this track. If you set up the same priority for several tracks, the cutting position is defined by the track that contains the first hitpoint within the specified range. This is decided for each cutting position anew. • Click and drag to the right or to the left to specify a priority. If you drag the mouse to the far left so that no star is shown, the hitpoints on the corresponding track are not taken into account If the zoom factor is high enough, cutting positions are marked in the Project window by vertical lines: • The red lines indicate the cutting positions on the main track, that is, on the track whose hitpoint defines the cutting position. • The black lines indicate the cutting positions on all other tracks.
Quantizing MIDI and Audio Quantize Panel 243 Range Two hitpoints on different tracks are considered to mark the same beat if they are located within a certain distance from each other. The Range parameter lets you specify this distance. The following rules apply: • If one of the tracks has a higher priority, its hitpoint is used as the cutting position. • If the tracks have the same priority, the first hitpoint in the range is used. Offset With this parameter, you can determine an offset, allowing for slight variations of the cutting position. The Offset value determines how far before the actual hitpoint position an audio event is sliced. This is useful if you want to create crossfades at the slice positions. Furthermore, it helps to avoid cutting off signals on tracks that do not contain any hitpoints. AudioWarp Quantize On/Off Click this button to activate AudioWarp quantizing. This enables the “Warp Marker Creation Rules” section. Slice If you click the Slice button, all audio events of the edit group are sliced at exactly the same positions according to your settings. The event snap points are set to the position of the hitpoint with the highest priority. Reset Click this button to undo the slicing and restore the original state of the audio events. RELATED LINKS Options for AudioWarp Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks on page 244 The Crossfades Section on page 243 The Crossfades Section The Crossfades section becomes available after you have sliced the audio events. The functions in this section are designed to correct the overlaps or the gaps that might appear due to the re-positioning of your audio. Clicking the Crossfade button cuts the end of the first event at the start position of the following event (in case of overlaps), and stretches the second event until it starts at the end of the previous event (in case of gaps).
Quantizing MIDI and Audio Quantize Panel 244 In some cases, you might want to achieve seamless transitions, applying crossfades after closing the gaps. For this purpose, use the following parameters: Open Crossfade Editor This opens the Crossfade editor, where you can specify curve kind, length, and other parameters for your crossfades. Nudge Crossfade Left/Right Clicking these buttons moves the fade area in the audio event to the left or to the right in steps of one millisecond. This is useful if the Offset value in the section “Slice Rules” was not high enough, and you want to avoid that the crossfade cuts an attack. Length With this parameter you can specify the length of the crossfade area. RELATED LINKS The Crossfade dialog on page 254 Options for AudioWarp Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks The “Warp Marker Creation Rules” section becomes available when you activate AudioWarp quantizing for multiple audio tracks. Priority In this column, you can define a priority for each track. The track with the highest priority defines where the warp markers are created. If you set up the same priority for several tracks, the warp marker position is defined by the track that contains the first hitpoint within the specified range. This is decided for each warp marker position anew. • Click and drag the mouse to the right or to the left to specify a priority. If you drag the mouse to the far left so that no star is shown, the hitpoints on the corresponding track are not taken into account.
Quantizing MIDI and Audio Additional Quantizing Functions 245 Range Two hitpoints on different tracks are considered to mark the same beat if they are located within a certain distance from each other. The Range parameter lets you specify this distance. The following rules apply: • If one of the tracks has a higher priority, its hitpoint is used to create the warp marker. • If the tracks have the same priority, the first hitpoint in the range is used. Reset Click this button to undo the creation of warp markers. AudioWarp Quantize On/Off Click this button to deactivate AudioWarp quantizing. This enables the “Slice Rules” section. Create If you click the Create button, warp markers are created for all the tracks. RELATED LINKS Options for Quantizing Multiple Audio Tracks on page 242 Additional Quantizing Functions Freezing MIDI Quantizing The Freeze MIDI Quantize function on the Edit menu, Advanced Quantize submenu, makes the start and end positions of MIDI events permanent. This is useful in situations where you want to quantize a second time, based on the current quantized positions rather than the original positions. Reset Quantize This command on the Edit menu reverts your audio or MIDI to its original, unquantized state. This function is independent from the regular Undo History. NOTE The Reset function also resets any length changes that you performed using the “Scale Length/Legato” slider. RELATED LINKS Length on page 704
Quantizing MIDI and Audio Additional Quantizing Functions 246 Creating Groove Quantize Presets You can generate a groove quantize map based on hitpoints that you have created in the Sample Editor. PROCEDURE 1. Open the Sample Editor for the audio event from which you want to extract the timing. 2. Create and edit hitpoints. 3. On the Hitpoints tab, click the “Create Groove” button. The groove is extracted. RESULT If you open the Quantize pop-up menu on the Project window toolbar, you will find an additional item at the bottom of the list, with the same name as the file from which you have extracted the groove. You can select it as a base for quantizing, just like any other quantize value. AFTER COMPLETING THIS TASK To save the groove, open the Quantize Panel and save it as a preset. RELATED LINKS Working with hitpoints and slices on page 459 Save/Remove Preset on page 238
247 Fades, crossfades, and envelopes Creating fades There are two types of fade ins and fade outs in audio events in Cubase: event-based fades that you create by using the fade handles and clip-based fades created by processing. RELATED LINKS Event-based fades on page 247 Clip-based fades on page 249 Event-based fades Selected audio events have triangular handles in the upper left and right corners. These can be dragged to create a fade in or fade out, respectively. The fade handles are visible when you point the mouse at the event. The fade is automatically reflected in the shape of the event’s waveform, giving you a visual feedback of the result when dragging the fade handle. Fades created with the handles are not applied to the audio clip as such but calculated in realtime during playback. This means that several events referring to the same audio clip can have different fade curves. It also means that having a large number of fades may require more processing power. • If you select multiple events and drag the fade handles of one of them, the same fade is applied to all selected events. • A fade can be edited in the Fade dialog, as described on the following pages. You open the dialog by double-clicking in the area above the fade curve, or by selecting the event and selecting “Open Fade Editor(s)” from the Audio menu (note that this will open two dialogs if the event has both fade in and fade out curves).
Fades, crossfades, and envelopes Creating fades 248 If you adjust the shape of the fade curve in the Fade dialog, this shape will be maintained when you later adjust the length of the fade. • You can make the fade longer or shorter at any time, by dragging the handle. You can do this without selecting the event first, i. e. without visible handles. Just move the mouse pointer along the fade curve until the cursor turns into a bidirectional arrow, then click and drag. • If the “Show Event Volume Curves Always” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Audio page), fade curves are shown in all events, regardless of whether they are selected or not. If the option is deactivated, the fade curves are shown in selected events only. • If the “Use Mouse Wheel for Event volume and Fades” option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio page), moving the mouse wheel moves the volume curve up or down. When you press [Shift] while moving the mouse wheel, and position the mouse pointer somewhere in the left half of the event, the fade in end point is moved. When the mouse pointer is in the right half of the event, the fade out start point is moved. NOTE In the Key Commands dialog (Audio category) you can set up key commands for changing the event volume curve and any fade curves. NOTE Cubase Pro only: As an alternative to dragging the fade handles, you can use the “Fade In to Cursor” and “Fade Out to Cursor” options on the Audio menu to create fades. Position the project cursor on an audio event where you want a fade in to end or a fade out to begin, and select the appropriate option from the Audio menu. A fade will then be created, ranging from the event’s start or end to the position of the cursor. RELATED LINKS Key Commands on page 997 Creating and adjusting fades with the Range Selection tool Event-based fades can also be created and adjusted with the Range Selection tool. PROCEDURE 1. Select a section of the audio event with the Range Selection tool. 2. Open the Audio menu and select “Adjust Fades to Range”. The result depends on your selection: • If you select a range from the beginning of the event, a fade in is created within the range.
Fades, crossfades, and envelopes Creating fades 249 • If you select a range that reaches the end of an event, a fade out is created in the range. • If you select a range encompassing a middle section of the event, but not reaching neither the start nor the end, a fade in is created from the beginning of the event to the beginning of the selected range, and a fade out is created from the end of the selected range to the end of the event. IMPORTANT You can select multiple audio events on separate tracks with the Range Selection tool, and apply the fade to all of them simultaneously. About the volume handle A selected audio event also has a square handle in the top middle: the volume handle. It provides a quick way of changing the volume of an event in the Project window. Note that dragging the volume handle also changes the value on the info line. The volume change is displayed numerically on the info line. The event waveform reflects the volume change. • Drag the Volume handle up or down to change the volume of the event. Removing fades • To remove the fades for an event, select the event and select “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu. • If you want to remove the fades in a specific range only, select the fade area with the Range Selection tool and select “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu. Clip-based fades If you have selected an audio event or a section of an audio event (using the Range Selection tool), you can apply a fade in or fade out to the selection by using the “Fade In” or “Fade Out” function on the Process submenu of the Audio menu. These functions open the corresponding Fade dialog, allowing you to specify a fade curve. Fades created this way are applied to the audio clip rather than to the event.
Fades, crossfades, and envelopes The Fade dialogs 250 IMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANTIMPORTANT The length of the fade area is determined by your selection. In other words, you specify the length of the fade before you open the Fade dialog. You can select multiple events and apply the same processing to all of them simultaneously. • If you later create new events that refer to the same clip, these will have the same fades. • You can remove or modify the fades at any time using the Offline Process History. If other events refer to the same audio clip, you will be asked whether you want the processing to be applied to these events or not. • Continue will apply the processing to all events that refer to the audio clip. • New Version will create a separate, new version of the audio clip for the selected event. • You can also activate the “Please, don’t ask again” option. Regardless of whether you then choose “Continue” or “New Version”, any further processing will conform to the option you select. You can change this setting at any time in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Audio page), under “On Processing Shared Clips”. RELATED LINKS The Offline Process History dialog on page 418 The Fade dialogs The Fade dialogs appear when you edit an existing fade or use the Fade In/Fade Out functions on the Process submenu of the Audio menu. The picture below shows the Fade In dialog; the Fade Out dialog has identical settings and features. If you open the Fade dialog(s) with several events selected, you can adjust the fade curves for all these events at the same time. This is useful if you want to apply the same type of fade in to more than one event, etc.