Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Operation Manual

CUBASE SX/SLAudio warp realtime processing19 – 441
3.Select an algorithm and click OK.
When the processing is finished, any loop that was previously stretched in realtime or 
had been pitch shifted will play back exactly the same, but Musical mode will be deac-
tivated and the realtime pitch shifting will be set to 0.
The audio clip is now like any standard audio clip before applying 
realtime processing, i.e. it will not follow tempo changes. The freeze 
processing is best used when you have determined...

CUBASE SX/SL19 – 442 Audio warp realtime processing 

20
Working with hitpoints and
slices 

CUBASE SX/SL20 – 444 Working with hitpoints and slices
Background
Hitpoint detection is a special feature of the Sample Editor. It auto-
matically detects attack transients in an audio file, and then adds a 
type of marker, a “hitpoint”, at each transient. These hitpoints allow 
you to create “slices”, where each slice ideally represents each indi-
vidual sound or “beat” in a loop (drum or other rhythmic loops work 
best with this feature). When you have successfully sliced the audio 
file, you can do a...

CUBASE SX/SLWorking with hitpoints and slices 20 – 445
Using hitpoints
The basic functionality of using hitpoints to slice up a loop is to make 
a loop fit the tempo of a song, or alternatively to create a situation that 
allows the song tempo to be changed whilst retaining the timing of a 
rhythmic audio loop, just like when using MIDI files. 
What audio files can be used?
Here are some guidelines to what type of audio files will render the 
best results when slicing files using hitpoints:
• Each...

CUBASE SX/SL20 – 446 Working with hitpoints and slices
4.Click the Hitpoint Mode button on the toolbar.
Now the Sensitivity slider is added, and the Use menu is activated. The items on this 
pop-up don’t affect the actual detection but rather which hitpoints will be shown after-
wards. If you e.g. know that your loop is based on 1/16th notes, select “1/16”. If you’re 
uncertain, set this to “All” – you can change this setting afterwards if needed.
 
5.Select “Calculate Hitpoints” on the Audio menu –...

CUBASE SX/SLWorking with hitpoints and slices 20 – 447
As you now can see, hitpoints have been set at the beginning of each 
sound in the loop (or at least at most of them).
7.If you now move the hitpoint sensitivity slider to the left, this gradually 
hides the hitpoints. Moving the slider to the right increases the sensitiv-
ity to reveal additional hitpoints detected during the calculate process.
The basic aim is to add, remove or in various other ways edit the hitpoints so that one 
individual sound...

CUBASE SX/SL20 – 448 Working with hitpoints and slices
The slices in the Audio Part Editor. Here, the project tempo was higher than the 
loop’s original tempo – this means the slice events will overlap slightly.
•If you opened the Sample Editor for a clip in the Pool, you will find that 
the icon for the clip changes in the Pool (to indicate that it is sliced).
Dragging the sliced clip from the Pool to an audio track will create an audio part with 
the slices adapted to the project tempo, just as above....

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Editing hitpoints
In this section, we go back a bit and look at what can be done with hit-
points in the Sample Editor. There are two ways to invoke the hitpoint 
calculation:
• Select Calculate Hitpoints from the Hitpoints submenu on the Audio menu.
• Select the Hitpoint Edit tool from the toolbar or Quick menu.
The last method will calculate hitpoints if they haven’t already been calculated.
As outlined in the previous section, this makes the...

CUBASE SX/SL20 – 450 Working with hitpoints and slices
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...