Steinberg Cubase LE Operation Manual

CUBASE LEWorking with hitpoints and slices 14 – 271
Auditioning slices
A slice is a section of the waveform, from one hitpoint to the next. 
The first thing you should do before editing hitpoints is to listen to 
each slice in the Sample Editor, to determine what they contain. The 
aim is basically to avoid “double hits”, like a snare hit being followed 
by a hi-hat hit within the same slice. You also want to determine 
whether any hitpoints have been added that should be removed: 
1.Open a loop in the...

CUBASE LE14 – 272 Working with hitpoints and slices
Setting the sensitivity
The loop is first analyzed to determine where hitpoints should appear 
(where the individual “beats” in the loop are), then you manually set the 
sensitivity with the Sensitivity slider to determine how many hitpoints 
there should be.
•Try raising the sensitivity to add “missing” hitpoints, and lowering it to 
remove unwanted hitpoints.
This may or may not work, depending on the situation, but as a general rule you should 
try...

CUBASE LEWorking with hitpoints and slices 14 – 273
Setting hitpoints according to note values
The “Use” pop-up menu on the Sample Editor toolbar also features dif-
ferent note values for setting hitpoints. 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 notes 
can be selected. Only hitpoints that are close to the selected note value 
positions within the loop (e.g. close to exact sixteenth note positions, if 
you have selected the 1/16 option) will be shown – all other hitpoints 
will be disabled.
• For this to work properly,...

CUBASE LE14 – 274 Working with hitpoints and slices
Disabling slices
You might run into situations where there are too many slices – a single 
sound may have been split into two slices for example. You could of 
course reduce the sensitivity to get rid of the hitpoints you don’t want, 
but then other hitpoints could disappear too, which may be undesirable. 
What you need to do in a situation like this is to disable an individual 
slice, using the Hitpoint Edit tool in Disable mode:
1.Select the Hitpoint...

CUBASE LEWorking with hitpoints and slices 14 – 275
Locking slices
If you lock a hitpoint, by clicking on its handle with the Hitpoints Edit 
tool in Lock mode, it will stay even if you drag the Sensitivity slider all 
the way to zero. This can be used in situations where one or several 
slices contain double hits, but raising the sensitivity adds a lot of un-
wanted slices.
1.Find the place where you hear double hits when auditioning.
2.Remember the current slider setting.
3.Raise the sensitivity slider...

CUBASE LE14 – 276 Working with hitpoints and slices
Setting hitpoints manually
If you cannot get the desired result by adjusting sensitivity, disabling 
or locking, you can add, move and delete hitpoints manually.
❐Note that you should always try to use the hitpoints found by the Calcu-
late function before manually moving or adding hitpoints. 
Adding hitpoints
Manually adding hitpoints can be done in situations where a hitpoint is 
missing at a specific point, but doesn’t appear even if the sensitivity...

CUBASE LEWorking with hitpoints and slices 14 – 277
4.Select the Pencil tool from the Sample Editor toolbar and click just be-
fore the start of the sound.
A new hitpoint appears. Manually added hitpoints are locked by default.
•If you click and keep the mouse button pressed, you can adjust the 
position of the new hitpoint by dragging.
Releasing the mouse button adds the hitpoint.
5.Audition the new slice with the Play tool to make sure you got what 
you wanted. 

CUBASE LE14 – 278 Working with hitpoints and slices
Moving hitpoints
If you manually added a hitpoint, and it was either placed too far away 
from the start of the sound, or too far into the sound, you can manually 
move the hitpoint.
1.Make sure Snap to Zero Crossing is activated on the Sample Editor 
toolbar.
2.Select the Hitpoint Edit tool and click the tool icon again to select the 
Move mode.
3.Click on the tool handle and drag it to the new position.
Deleting hitpoints
To delete a hitpoint, select...

CUBASE LEWorking with hitpoints and slices 14 – 279
Creating slices
After you have specified the correct loop length and time signature and 
worked on the hitpoints in the Sample Editor so that one sound per 
slice is heard, it is time to actually slice the file. This is done by selecting 
“Create Audio Slices” from the Hitpoints submenu on the Audio menu.
Now the following happens:
•The Sample Editor closes.
•The audio event is “sliced” so that there is a separate event for each 
hitpoint.
In other...

CUBASE LE14 – 280 Working with hitpoints and slices
Creating Groove Quantize maps
You can generate groove quantize maps based on the hitpoints you 
have created in the Sample Editor. Groove quantizing is not meant for 
correcting errors, but for creating rhythmic feels. This is done by com-
paring your recorded music with a “groove” (a timing grid generated 
from the file) and moving the appropriate notes so that their timing 
matches the one of the groove. In other words, you can extract the 
timing...