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 Sample Editor.
If you have already created slices you can open them in the Sample Editor by double-
clicking any event in the Audio Part Editor. If it is a new loop, follow the instructions in 
the tutorial.
2.Select the Speaker tool.
3.Now you can simply point and click on any slice and it will be played 
back.
Listen for “double hits” and slices that contain parts of a single sound. 
If you find hitpoints that need to be removed or instances where a hit-
point needs to be added, the first thing to try is to change the sensitiv-
ity setting – see the following section. 
						

							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 this first.
•Audition the slices again to determine if changing the sensitivity has 
improved matters.
How many slices do I need?
If your main reason for slicing the loop is to change the tempo, you 
generally need as many slices as you can get, but never more than 
one per individual “beat” in the loop. 
If you want to create a groove (see page 280), you should try to get 
approximately one slice per eighth note, sixteenth note or whatever 
the loop requires. 
						

							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, you must have specified the correct length 
(bars and beats) and time signature of the loop in the toolbar.
This is useful if you know the loop consists of exact note values with 
no timing variations (e.g. a loop from a drum machine) or if you’re only 
interested in hits around certain note values (e.g. if you’re creating 
grooves – see page 280). 
						

							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 Edit tool and click the tool icon on the toolbar again.
A pop-up menu appears, listing the three modes of the Hitpoint Edit tool.
2.Select the Disable mode.
The pointer turns into a cross in the Sample Editor window. 
3.Click on the handle (the triangle) of the hitpoint you wish to disable.
The hitpoint handle is diminished and its line disappears to indicate that it is disabled.
4.Now, the hitpoint won’t be taken into account when you create slices.
5.To reactivate a disabled hitpoint, click on the hitpoint handle with the 
Disable tool. 
						

							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 to a higher value so that a hitpoint appears, 
separating the two sounds.
Most likely this will add a lot of other unwanted hitpoints as well.
4.Audition to make sure you got what you wanted.
5.Select the Hitpoint Edit tool and click the tool icon again to select 
Lock mode.
A lock icon is shown beside the pointer in the Sample Editor window. 
6.Lock the new slice by clicking on its handle.
7.Drag the sensitivity slider to the original setting.
The locked hitpoint will remain shown.
•You can unlock a locked hitpoint by clicking it again with the Hitpoint 
Edit tool in Lock mode. 
						

							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 is 
set to full.
1.Zoom in on the waveform at the point where you wish to add a hitpoint.
2.Audition the area with the Speaker tool to make sure that the start of 
the sound is in view.
3.Activate Snap to Zero Crossing on the Sample Editor toolbar.
By finding zero crossings in the waveform (positions where the amplitude is close to 
zero), manually added slices won’t introduce any clicks or pops. All hitpoints found by 
the Calculate function are automatically placed at zero crossings. 
						

							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 the Move tool and drag it out of the Sample 
Editor window.
• Don’t delete hitpoints that were found by the Calculate function – it is 
better to disable them.  
						

							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 words, the sections between the hitpoints become separate events, all refer-
ring to the same original file.
•The audio event is replaced by an audio part, containing the slices.
•The loop is automatically adapted to the tempo set in Cubase LE.
This takes the loop length settings you made into account: if the loop was e.g. one bar 
long, the part is resized to fit exactly one bar in the Cubase LE tempo, and the slices 
are moved accordingly – keeping their relative positions intact within the part.
Now, you can change the tempo and have the loop automatically follow. 
Furthermore, you can double click the part to edit the slices in the Audio 
Part Editor: 
• Remove or mute slices.
• Change the loop by reordering, replacing or quantizing slices.
• Apply processing to individual slices.
• Create new files from individual slices using the “Bounce Selected” function 
on the Audio menu. 
						

							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 from an audio loop and use it for quantizing MIDI parts (or other 
audio loops, after slicing them).
Proceed as follows:
1.Create and edit hitpoints as described earlier in this chapter.
You don’t have to create slices – just set up the hitpoints.
•You should try to get approximately one slice per eighth note, sixteenth 
note or whatever the loop requires when setting hitpoints for extracting a 
groove. Therefore it can make sense to use note value-based hitpoints.
Pull down the “Use” pop-up menu in the Sample Editor toolbar and instead of the reg-
ular “Sense” option, select the note value that is most suited as a base for quantizing. 
1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 notes can be selected. What to choose depends on the loop; 
typically, rock, pop and dance loops are based on 1/16 or 1/8 notes.
2.When you have finished setting the hitpoints, select “Create Groove 
Quantize” from the Hitpoints submenu on the Audio menu.
The groove is extracted.
3.If you now pull down the Quantize pop-up in the Project window you 
will find an additional item at the bottom of the list, with the same 
name as the file from which you extracted the groove.
This groove can now be selected as a base for quantizing, just like any other quantize 
value. See page 333.