Steinberg Cubase SE 3 Operation Manual

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•If you click the Play button to audition a clip, it will repeat indefinitely 
until you stop playback by clicking the Play or Loop button again.
•If you click in the waveform image to audition, the section from the 
point you clicked to the end of the clip will repeat indefinitely until you 
stop playback.
Opening clips in the Sample Editor
The Sample Editor allows you to perform detailed editing on the clip 
(see the Sample Editor chapter for details). If you double click on a 
clip waveform icon, the clip will open in the Sample Editor.
One practical use for this is to set a snap point for a clip (see page 
284). When you later insert the clip from the Pool into the project, you 
can have it properly aligned according to the set snap point.
Import Medium...
The Import Medium dialog lets you import files directly into the Pool. It 
is opened from the Pool menu or with the Import button in the Pool 
window.
Clicking the Import button...
...opens the Import dialog:  
						

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This is a standard file dialog, where you can navigate to other folders, 
audition files etc. The following audio file formats can be imported:
• Wave (see page 491)
• AIFF and AIFC (Compressed AIFF)
• REX or REX 2 (see page 553)
• Sound Designer II 
• MPEG Layer 2 and Layer 3 (mp2 and mp3 files – see page 554)
• Ogg Vorbis (ogg files – see page 554)
• Windows Media Audio (Windows – see page 554)
• Stereo or mono
• Any sample rate (although files with another sample rate than the one used in 
the project will play back at the wrong speed and pitch – see below).
• 8, 16 or 24 bit resolution
In addition, AVI, QuickTime, WMV (Windows only), DV (Mac OS X 
only) and MPEG 1 and 2 video files can be imported into the Pool.
It is also possible to use the commands on the Import submenu on the 
File menu to import audio or video files into the Pool.
For video files to be played back correctly, the right codecs have to be 
installed.
When you select a file in the Import Medium dialog and click Open, 
the Import Options dialog will appear.  
						

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It contains the following options:
• Copy File to Working Directory.
Activate this if you want a copy of the file to be made in the Project’s Audio folder, and 
have the clip refer to this copy. If the option is off, the clip will refer to the original file in 
the original location (and will thus be marked as “external” in the Pool – see page 332).
• Convert to Project.
Here you can choose to convert the sample rate and/or the sample size (resolution) to 
the current format used in the project. The options will only be available if necessary (if 
the sample rate is different than the one set for the project and/or if the sample size is 
lower than the record format used in the project).
Note that if you are importing several audio files in one go, the Import Options dialog 
will instead contain a “Convert if needed” checkbox. When this is activated, the im-
ported files will be converted only if the sample rate is different or the sample size is 
lower than the project’s.
• Do not Ask again.
If this is ticked, you will always import files according to the settings you have made, 
without this dialog appearing. This can be reset in the Preferences–Audio Editing dialog. 
You can always convert later should you so wish, by using the Convert 
Files (see page 348) or Conform Files (see page 349) options.
Importing audio CD tracks
You can import tracks (or sections of tracks) from an audio CD directly 
into the Pool by using the “Import Audio CD” function on the Pool menu. 
This opens a dialog in which you can specify which tracks should be 
grabbed from the CD, converted to audio files and added to the Pool.
For details about the Import Audio CD dialog, see page 550. 
						

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Changing the Pool Record folder
The Pool Record folder.
The Pool Record folder is where all audio clips that you record in the 
project will end up in the Pool. The Pool Record folder is indicated by 
the text “Record” in the Status column, and by a red dot on the folder 
itself, as shown in the picture above. By default, this is the main Audio 
folder. You can, however, at any time create a new Audio subfolder 
and designate this as your Pool Record folder. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the Audio folder or any audio clip.
You cannot designate the Video folder (or a subfolder in it) as the Pool Record folder.
2.Select “Create Folder” on the Pool menu.
A new empty audio subfolder appears in the Pool.
3.Select the new folder.
4.Select “Set Pool Record Folder” on the Pool menu, or click in the new 
folders Status column.
The new folder now becomes the Pool Record folder, and any audio recorded in the 
project will from this point on end up in this folder. 
						

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Organizing clips and folders
If you accumulate a large number of clips in the Pool, it may sometimes 
be difficult to quickly find specific items. In such cases, organizing 
clips in new subfolders with suitable names that reflect the content 
can be a solution. For example, you could put all sound effects in one 
folder, all lead vocals in another etc. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the type of folder, audio or video, in which you want to create a 
subfolder.
You cannot put audio clips in a video folder and vice versa.
2.Select “Create Folder” on the Pool menu.
A new empty subfolder named “New Folder” appears in the Pool.
3.Click on the name and type in a new appropriate name for the folder.
4.Select and drag the clips you wish to move to the new folder.
5.Repeat steps 1-4 as necessary.
Applying processing to clips in the Pool
You can apply audio processing to clips from within the Pool, just like 
you can to events in the Project window. Simply select the clip(s) and 
select a processing method from the Audio menu. To find out more 
about audio processing, see page 256.
Freeze Edits
If you have applied processing to a clip, either in the Project window 
or in the Pool, this is indicated by the red and grey waveform symbol in 
the Status column. You can also use the Freeze Edits function to cre-
ate a new file with processing applied or replace the original with a 
processed version – see page 274. 
						

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Minimize File
This item on the Pool menu allows you to change the size of audio 
files according to the audio clips referenced in a project. The files pro-
duced using this option will only contain the audio file portions actu-
ally used in the project, which can significantly reduce the size of the 
project (given that large portions of the audio files are unused). 
•This operation will permanently alter the selected audio files in the Pool 
(the process cannot be undone), so be careful with this command!
If this is not what you want, you can use the “Save Project to New Folder” File menu 
item instead. This function also has the option of minimizing files, but copies all files 
into a new folder, leaving the original project untouched. See page 542.
It is useful for archiving purposes. If you have completed a project and 
wish to minimize the project size as much as possible, use this function. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the file(s) you wish to minimize in the Pool.
2.Select “Minimize File” from the Pool menu.
An alert appears informing you that the entire Edit History will be cleared. You will at 
this point have the option of cancelling or continuing the operation.
3.After the operation is finished, another alert asks you to save the 
project, to update the new file references.
Do so.
The audio file(s) in the Pool Record folder will now be cropped so that 
only the audio actually used in the project remains in the correspond-
ing audio file. 
						

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Prepare Archive
This Pool menu command should be used when you want to archive a 
project. It checks that every clip referenced in the project is located in 
the same folder. To be more precise, it does the following:
•Any files that are located outside the current project folder will be 
copied to it.
Please note that audio files that reside within the project folder will not be copied to 
the audio folder. You will therefore have to copy them there manually before backing 
up the audio folder or save them separately during backup, see below.
•If any processing has been applied, you will be asked whether you 
want to Freeze Edits.
If you do this, you don’t have to archive the Edit folder. Everything belonging to the 
project will be contained in the project file and the Audio folder.
•Once you have performed a Prepare Archive, you can copy the project 
file, the Audio folder and any other audio material you saved in the 
project folder to backup disks, etc.
It is not necessary to archive the Images folder, since these can be recreated by Cu-
base SE. You may also find a file with the extension “.csh” in the project folder. This 
contains image information for edited clips and other data that can be recreated, and 
can safely be deleted.
Video clips are always referenced, and are not stored in the project folder. 
						

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Convert Files
Selecting Convert Files on the Pool menu opens the Convert Options 
dialog which operates on selected files. Use the pop-up menus to 
specify which audio file attributes you want to keep and which you 
want to convert. The options are:
• Sample Rate
Keep as is, or convert to a sample rate between 8.000 and 96.000 kHz.
• Sample Width
Keep the sample width (resolution) as is, or convert to 16 bit or 24 bit.
• Channels
Keep as is, or convert the file to Mono or Stereo Interleaved.
• File Format
Keep as is, or convert to Wave or AIFF format.
Options
When you convert a file, you can use the Options pop-up to set one 
of the following options regarding what to do with the new file:
Option Description
New Files Creates a copy of the file in the audio folder and converts this new file 
according to the chosen attributes. The new file is added to the Pool, 
but all clip references will still point to the original, unconverted file.
Replace Files Converts the original file without changing clip references. The refer-
ences are however saved with the next save action. 
						

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Conform Files
By using this Pool menu command, you will change all selected files 
that have different file attributes than what is specified for the project, 
to conform to this standard. Proceed as follows:
1.Select all clips in the Pool.
2.Select “Conform Files” on the Pool menu.
A dialog opens allowing you to choose between keeping or replacing the original un-
converted files in the Pool. The following applies:
• Clip/event references in the pool are always redirected to the conformed files.
• If any 'keep' option is selected, original files remain in the Project’s Audio 
folder and new files are created.
• If you select the “Replace” option, files in the Pool and in the Project’s Audio 
folder are replaced.
New + Replace 
in PoolCreates a new copy with the chosen attributes, replaces the original 
file with the new one in the Pool and redirects the current clip refer-
ences from the original file to the new file. This is the option to select 
if you want your audio clips to refer to the converted file, but still want 
to keep the original file on disk (e.g. if the file is used in other projects). Option Description 
						

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Options and Settings
Customizing the view
•You can specify which of the columns should be shown or hidden by 
selecting the View pop-up on the toolbar and ticking items on or off.
•You can rearrange the order of the columns by clicking on a column 
heading and dragging the column to the left or to the 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.