Steinberg Cubase Ai 5 Manual

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The Audio Part Editor
Operations
Note that if a part is a shared copy (i.e. you have previ-
ously copied the part by [Alt]/[Option]-[Shift] and drag-
ging), any editing you perform will affect all shared copies 
of this part.
To indicate that it is a shared copy, its name is displayed in italics and a 
symbol is displayed in the lower right corner of the part in the Project 
window.
Auditioning
There are three 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 bet-
ween 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, play-
back 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 Main Mix (the de-
fault output bus). 
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.
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” on page 28).
Handling several parts
When you open the Audio Part Editor with several parts se-
lected – 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 comprehen-
sive:
The Part List menu lists all parts that were selected 
when you opened the editor, and lets you select which 
part should be 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 click-
ing on it with the Arrow tool.
The button “Edit Active Part Only” lets you restrict edit-
ing operations to the active part only.
If you for example select “All” from the Select submenu on the Edit menu 
with this option activated, all events in the active part will be selected but 
not the events in other parts.
“Edit Active Part Only” activated on the toolbar.
You can zoom in on an active part so that it fills the 
screen by selecting “Zoom to Event” from the Zoom sub-
menu on the Edit menu.
!Zooming, selecting and editing in the Audio Part Ed-
itor are done just as in the Project window (see 
“Operations” on page 21). 
						

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The Audio Part Editor
The button “Show Part Borders” 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.
“Show Part Borders” activated on the toolbar.
It is possible to cycle between parts, making them ac-
tive 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 com-
mands to these, you can use them to cycle between parts. See “Setting 
up key commands” on page 269 for instructions on how to set up key 
commands.
Common methods
Assembling a “perfect take”
When you record audio in Cycle mode, an event is cre-
ated for each recorded lap (see “Recording audio in cycle 
mode” on page 54). These events are named “Take X”, 
where “X” is the number of the take. You can create a per-
fect take by putting together sections of the different takes 
in the Audio Part Editor.
ÖThe procedure below will not work if you recorded 
with “Keep Last” mode selected on the Transport panel.
In that case, only the last take will be kept on the track.
First, you have to create an audio part from the takes.
Creating an audio part from events
1.In the Project window, use the Object Selection tool to 
draw a rectangle around the recorded events.
This is necessary, since clicking on the event may just select the event on 
top (the last take). If in doubt, check the info line – the info text should be 
yellow.
2.Pull down the Audio menu and select “Events to Part”.
The events are converted to an audio part.
Assembling a take
1.Double-click the part to open the Audio Part Editor.
Now, the different takes will be placed on different lanes, with the last 
take at the bottom.
2.Use the tools to cut out pieces of the takes and as-
semble the final result.
This can include splitting with the Scissors tool, resizing events with the 
Arrow tool or deleting with the Erase tool. 
Remember that the events on the lowest lane have play-
back priority. 
Use the Audition icon to audition the result.
3.Close the Audio Part Editor.
You have now assembled a “perfect take”!
Options and Settings
The following options and settings are available in the 
Audio Part Editor:
Snap
You can specify an independent Snap mode (and snap value for the Grid 
mode) in the editor. The functionality is exactly the same as in the Project 
window.
Autoscroll
When Autoscroll 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.  
						

							14
The Pool 
						

							144
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 fol-
lowing 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)
 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
Opening the Pool
You can open the Pool in any of the following ways:
By clicking the Open Pool button on the Project window 
toolbar.
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] – note that using this key command a second time will 
close the Pool again).The content of the Pool is divided into three main folders: 
The Audio folder
This contains all audio clips currently in the project.
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 re-
moval from the hard disk.
These folders cannot be renamed or deleted from the Pool, 
but any number of subfolders can be added (see “Organi-
zing clips and folders” on page 152).
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 folder
Trash folder Video folderAudio clip name
Waveform imageToolbar
Open/Close all 
folders View/Attributes 
pop-up Show Info 
buttonProject Folder 
path
Pool Record 
Folder path Audition, Audition Loop, and 
Volume controlsImport and Search 
buttons
Number of audio files in 
the Pool
Number of files in the Pool that are not in 
the project folder (e. g. video files)Total size of all audio files in 
the Pool
Number of audio files 
in use 
						

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The Pool
How clips are displayed in the Pool
 Audio clips are represented by a waveform icon followed by 
the clip name.
 Video clips are represented by a camera icon followed by the 
clip name.
The Pool window columns
Various information about the clips can be viewed in the 
Pool window columns. The columns contain the following 
information:
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 as-
cending and descending sort order.
Column Description
Media This column contains the Audio, Video and Trash folders. If 
the folders are opened, the clip names are shown and can 
be edited. This column is always shown.
Used This column displays the number of times a clip is used in 
the project. If there is no entry in this column, the corre-
sponding clip is not used.
Status This column displays various icons that relate to the cur-
rent Pool and clip status. See “About the Status column 
symbols” on page 145 for a description of the icons.
Musical Mode The checkbox in this column allows you to activate or de-
activate Musical Mode. If the Tempo column (see below) 
displays “???”, you have to enter the correct tempo be-
fore you can activate Musical Mode.
Tempo This 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”.
Key This is the root key, if one was specified for the file.
Info This column shows the following information for audio 
clips: The sample rate, bit resolution, number of channels 
and the length in seconds. For video clips it displays the 
frame rate, number of frames, and length in seconds.
Type This column shows the file format of the clip.
Date This column shows the date and time when the audio file 
was last changed.
Origin  Time This column shows the original start position where a clip 
was recorded in the project. This value can be used as a 
basis for the option “Insert into Project” in the Media or 
context menu (and other functions).
Image This column displays waveform images of audio clips. 
Path This column shows the path to the location of a clip on 
the hard disk.
Reel Name Audio files 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.
Symbol Description
This indicates the current Pool Record folder (see 
“Changing the Pool Record folder” on page 152).
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 mis-
sing files” on page 149).
This indicates that the clip file is external, i.e. located out-
side the current Audio folder for the project.
This indicates that the clip has been recorded in the cur-
rently open version of the project. This is useful for finding 
recently recorded clips quickly. Column Description
The arrow indicates the sort 
column and sort order. 
						

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The Pool
Customizing the view
You can specify which of the columns are shown or hid-
den 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.
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
ÖMost of the Pool-related main menu functions are also 
available on the Pool context menu (opened by right-click-
ing in the Pool window).
Renaming clips in the Pool
To rename a clip in the Pool, select it and click on the ex-
isting 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. 
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.Pull down the Media menu and select an “Insert into 
Project” option.
“At Cursor” will insert the clip(s) at the current project cursor position. 
“At Origin” will insert the clip(s) at their Origin Time position(s).
!Renaming a clip in the Pool is much preferred to re-
naming it outside Cubase AI (for example on the com-
puter desktop). This way, Cubase AI 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 149 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). 
						

							147
The Pool
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.
Using drag and drop
When using drag and drop to insert clips into the Project 
window, please note the following:
Snap is taken into account if activated.
While you drag the clip in the Project window, its position 
is indicated by a marker line and a numerical position box.
Note that these indicate the position of the snap point in the clip. For ex-
ample, if you drop the clip at the position 10.00, this will be where the snap 
point ends up. See “Adjusting the snap point” on page 129 for information 
on how to set the snap point.
If you position the clip in an empty area in the event dis-
play (i.e. below existing tracks), a new track is created for 
the inserted event.
Deleting clips
Removing clips from the Pool
To remove a clip from the Pool without deleting it from the 
hard disk, proceed as follows:
1.Select the clip(s) and select “Delete” from the Edit 
menu (or press [Backspace] or [Delete]).
A prompt asks whether you want to move the clip to the Trash or remove 
it from the Pool.
If you try to delete a clip that is used by one or more 
events, the program will ask you whether to remove these 
events from the project.
If you cancel, neither the clip nor the associated events are deleted.
2.In the window that appears, select “Remove from Pool”.
The clip is no longer associated with the project, but still exists on the hard 
disk and can be used in other projects, etc. This operation can be undone.
Deleting from the hard disk
To delete a file permanently from the hard disk, it must first 
be moved to the Trash folder:
1.Follow the instructions for deleting clips above, but click 
the Trash button instead of the Remove from Pool button.
Alternatively, you can drag and drop clips into the Trash folder.
2.On the Media menu, select “Empty Trash”.
A warning message is displayed.
3.Click “Erase” to delete the file on the hard disk perma-
nently.
This operation cannot be undone!
ÖTo retrieve a clip from the Trash folder, drag it back 
into an Audio or Video folder.
Removing unused clips
This function finds all clips in the Pool that are not used in 
the project. You can then decide whether to move them to 
the Trash folder (from where they can be permanently de-
leted) or to remove them from the Pool:
1.Select “Remove Unused Media” on the Media or con-
text menu.
A message appears asking you whether you want to move the file to the 
Trash or to remove it from the Pool.
2.Make your selection.
Snap point
!Before you permanently delete audio files from the 
hard disk, make sure that they are not used by another 
project! 
						

							148
The Pool
Locating events and clips
Locating events via clips in the Pool
If you want to find out which events in the project refer to a 
particular clip in the Pool, proceed as follows:
1.Select one or more clips in the Pool.
2.Select “Select in Project” on the Media menu.
All events that refer to the selected clip(s) are now selected in the Project 
window.
Locating clips via events in the Project window
If you want to find out which clip belongs to a particular 
event in the Project window, proceed as follows:
1.Select one or more events in the Project window.
2.Pull down the Audio menu and select “Find Selected 
in Pool”.
The corresponding clip(s) are located and highlighted in the Pool.
Searching for audio files
The search functions can help you locate audio files in the 
Pool, on your hard disk or on other media. This works 
much like the regular file search, but with a couple of extra 
features:
1.Click the Search button in the toolbar.
A search pane appears at the bottom of the window, displaying the 
search functions.
The search pane in the Pool
By default, the search parameters available in the search 
pane are “Name” and “Location”. For using other filter cri-
teria, see “Extended Search functionality” on page 148.
2.Specify the name of the file(s) to search for in the 
Name field.
You can use partial names or wildcards (*). Note that only audio files of 
the supported formats will be found.
3.Use the Location pop-up menu to specify where to 
search.
The pop-up menu will list all your local drives and removable media. 
If you want to limit the search to certain folders, choose 
“Select Search Path” and select the desired folder in the 
dialog that appears.
The search will include the selected folder and all subfolders. Note also 
that folders you have recently selected using the “Select Search Path” 
function will appear on the pop-up menu, allowing you to quickly select 
them again.
4.Click the Search button.
The search is started and the Search button is labeled Stop – click this 
to cancel the search if needed.
When the search is finished, the files found are listed to 
the right.
To audition a file, select it in the list and use the play-
back controls to the left (Play, Stop, Pause and Loop).
If Auto Play is activated, selected files will automatically be played back.
To import a file into the Pool, double-click on it in the list 
or select it and click the Import button.
5.To close the search pane, click the Search button in 
the toolbar again.
Extended Search functionality
Apart from the search criterion Name, additional search fil-
ters are available. The Extended Search options allows for 
a very detailed search, helping you to master even the 
largest sound database.
To use them, proceed as follows:
1.Click the Search button on the toolbar.
The Search pane is displayed in the lower part of the Pool window. 
						

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The Pool
2.Move the mouse pointer over the “Name” text to the 
right of the name field and click on the arrow that appears.
3.The Extended Search pop-up menu opens.
It contains six options determining which search criterion is displayed 
above the Location field (Name, Size, Bitsize, Channels, Sample Rate or 
Date), as well as the Add Filter and Presets submenus.
The search criteria have the following parameters:
 Name: partial names or wildcards (*)
 Size: Less than, More than, Equal, Between (two values), in 
seconds, minutes, hours and bytes
 Bitsize (resolution): 8, 16, 24, 32
 Channels: Mono, Stereo and from 3 to 16
 Sample Rate: various values, choose “Other” for free setting
 Date: various search ranges
4.Select one of the search criteria in the pop-up menu to 
change the search option above the Location pop-up 
menu.
5.If you want to display more search options, select the 
desired element from the “Add filter” submenu.
This allows you, for example, to add the Size or the Sample Rate parame-
ters to the already displayed Name and Location parameters.
You can save presets of your search filter settings. To 
do this, click Save Preset on the Presets submenu and 
enter a name for the preset.
Existing presets can be found at the bottom of the list. To remove a pre-
set, click on the preset to activate it, then select Remove Preset.
The Find Media window
Alternatively to the search pane in the Pool, you can open a 
stand-alone Find Media window by selecting the “Search 
Media…” option from the Media or context menu (also 
available from the Project window). This offers the same 
functionality as the search pane. 
To insert a clip directly into the project from the Find 
Media window, select it in the list and choose one of the 
“Insert into Project” options from the Media menu.
The options are described in the section “Inserting clips into a project” 
on page 146.
About missing files
When you open a project, the Resolve Missing Files dialog 
(see below) may open, warning you that one or more files 
are “missing”. If you click Close, the project will open any-
way, without the missing files. In the Pool, you can check 
which files are considered missing. This is indicated by a 
question mark in the Status column.
A file is considered missing under one of the following 
conditions:
The file has been moved or renamed outside the pro-
gram since the last time you worked with the project, and 
you ignored the Resolve Missing Files dialog when you 
opened the project for the current session.
You have moved or renamed the file outside the pro-
gram during the current session.
You have moved or renamed the folder in which the 
missing files are located.
Move the mouse pointer over 
the “Name” text to the right of 
the name field and click…
…to show the Extended Search pop-up menu. 
						

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The Pool
Locate missing files
1.Select “Find Missing Files…” from the Media or con-
text menu.
The Resolve Missing Files dialog opens. 
2.Decide if you want the program to try to find the file for 
you (Search), if you want to do it yourself (Locate) or if you 
want to specify in which directory the program should 
search for the file (Folder).
If you select Locate, a file dialog opens, allowing you to 
locate the file manually.
Select the file and click “Open”.
If you select Folder, a dialog opens to let you specify the 
directory in which the missing file can be found.
This might be the preferred method if you have renamed or moved the 
folder containing the missing file, but the file still has the same name. Once 
you select the correct folder, the program finds the file and you can close 
the dialog.
If you select Search, a dialog opens to let you specify 
which folder or disk should be scanned by the program. 
Click the Search Folder button, select a directory or a disk and click the 
Start button. If found, select the file from the list and click “Accept”. 
Afterwards Cubase AI tries to map all other missing files automatically.
Reconstructing missing edit files
If a missing file cannot be found (e. g. if you have acciden-
tally deleted it from the hard disk), it will normally be indi-
cated with a question mark in the Status column in the 
Pool. However, if the missing file is an edit file (a file cre-
ated when you process audio, stored in the Edits folder 
within the project folder), it may be possible for the pro-
gram to reconstruct it by recreating the editing to the orig-
inal audio file.Proceed as follows:
1.Open the Pool and locate the clip(s) for which files are 
missing.
2.Check the Status column – if it says “Reconstruct-
ible”, the file can be reconstructed by Cubase AI.
3.Select the reconstructible clips and select “Recon-
struct” from the Media menu.
The editing is performed and the edit files are recreated.
Removing missing files from the Pool
If the Pool contains audio files that cannot be found or re-
constructed, you may want to remove these. For this, select 
“Remove Missing Files” from the Media or context menu. 
This will remove all missing files from the Pool as well as the 
corresponding events from the Project window.
Auditioning clips in the Pool
There are three ways to audition clips in the Pool:
By using key commands.
If you activate the “Playback Toggle triggers Local Preview” option in the 
Preferences (Transport page), you can use [Space] to audition. This is 
the same as clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar.
By selecting a clip and activating the Audition button.
The whole clip will play back, unless you stop playback by clicking the 
Audition button again.
By clicking somewhere in the waveform image for a clip.
The clip will play from the position in the waveform you click until the end 
of the clip, unless you stop playback by clicking the Audition button, or 
by clicking anywhere else in the Pool window.
Click in the waveform image to audition a clip.
The audio is routed directly to the Main Mix (the default 
output) bus, bypassing the audio channel’s settings, ef-
fects and EQs. 
ÖYou can adjust the auditioning level with the miniature 
level fader on the toolbar. This does not affect the regular 
playback level.