Steinberg Cubase Studio 4 Operation Manual Studio Manual

251
The Sample Editor
8.Click and drag the red flag (Stretch Bars) to the left or 
right until the second bar in the ruler is aligned with the 
position of the second downbeat of the sample, and re-
lease the mouse button.
The start of the next bar is set, and all grid positions will be stretched.
9.Check the other beats and hold down [Alt]/[Option] to 
use the pink flag (Stretch Previous - Move Next) if neces-
sary.
This flag is shown at bar positions. When you drag it with the mouse, the 
start of the...

252
The Sample Editor
Determining the tempo of an audio loop and 
slicing your audio
1.Import a suitable audio file, for example a drum loop.
2.Double-click the loop to open it in the Sample Editor.
I f you r want to w ork with longe r aud io file, possibly with an upbeat, define 
a loop or resize the event as described in the section “Determining the 
audio tempo automatically and time-stretching your audio” on page 247.
3.Open the Definition tab and make sure the length in 
bars corresponds to the...

253
The Sample Editor
Calculating hitpoints and slicing a loop
Before proceeding, find a suitable loop using the criteria 
above. Proceed as follows:
1.Open the event or clip for editing in the Sample Editor.
You can do this by double-clicking an event on an audio track in the 
Project window or a clip in the Pool. In this example, we assume you 
work with an event on a track.
2.Open the Hitpoints tab in the Sample Editor Inspector 
and select an option from the Use pop-up. 
These settings don’t affect...

254
The Sample Editor
8.To make the loop follow any further tempo changes, 
make sure the track is set to “Musical time base” by using 
the respective button in the Track list or Inspector (the 
button should show a note symbol – see “Switching bet-
ween musical and linear time base” on page 42).
Note that if the project tempo is lower than the original 
tempo of the loop, there may be audible gaps between 
each slice event in the part.
This can be remedied by using the Close Gaps function on the Ad-...

255
The Sample Editor
3.Now you can simply point and click in any slice area 
and the corresponding slice will be played back from the 
beginning to the end.
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 hitpoint needs to be added, the first thing to try is 
to change the sensitivity setting – see the following sec-
tion.
Setting the sensitivity
The loop is first analyzed to determine where hitpoints 
should...

256
The Sample Editor
Locking slices
If you lock a hitpoint by clicking on its handle with the Edit 
Hitpoints tool, 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 unwanted slices.
1.Find the place where you hear double hits when audi-
tioning.
2.Remember the current slider setting.
3.Raise the sensitivity slider to a higher value so that a 
hitpoint...

257
The Sample Editor
Match-Quantizing audio
Optionally, hitpoints can have individual Q-points. These 
are mainly used for audio quantizing. Their function is to 
define the point to which the quantizing will apply. Some-
times a slice might have a slow attack, and a peak further 
into the slice which you wish to use as the Q-point. When 
you apply quantize, the Q-point will define where the warp 
tab will be added. This also defines the point which will be 
stretched to a grid position when...

258
The Sample Editor
Proceed as follows:
1.Check the audio tempo and define the audio grid as 
described above.
2.Create and edit hitpoints as described above.
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.
It can be helpful to use one of the note value-based options on the “Use” 
pop-up menu when you’re setting up the hitpoints (see...

259
The Sample Editor
You can also use this function on individual events (in 
the Audio Part Editor or Project window).
The events don’t have to be slices – you can use Close Gaps simply to 
stretch an audio event to the start position of the next event.
Free Warp
Warp tabs are a kind of marker or anchor that can be 
attached to musically relevant time positions in an audio 
event, e.g. the first beat of every bar. Warp tabs can be 
dragged to the corresponding time positions in the 
project, and the...

260
The Sample Editor
8.In our example, the first beat of the third bar in the au-
dio event is slightly offset from the corresponding grid po-
sition and thus needs to be moved back a bit.
9.Place the pointer at the position of the first beat of the 
third bar in the audio event and click and hold.
When you click, a warp tab is added. If the position where you clicked 
was off, you can adjust it by dragging the tab in the ruler.
10.With the mouse button still pressed, drag the warp tab 
so that the...