Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Operation Manual

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio processing and functions 16 – 371
Time Stretch
This function allows you to change the length and “tempo” of the se-
lected audio, without affecting the pitch. The dialog contains the fol-
lowing parameters:
Input section
This section contains information and settings regarding the “input”, 
the audio selected for processing:
Parameter Description
Length in Samples The length of the selected audio, in samples.
Length in Seconds The length of the selected audio, in seconds.
Tempo in BPM If you are processing music, and know the actual tempo of the 
audio, you can enter it here as beats per minute. This makes it 
possible to time stretch the audio to another tempo, without hav-
ing to compute the actual time stretch amount.
Bars If you use the tempo setting, you need to specify the length of 
the selected audio here, as bars, beats, 1/16-notes and ticks 
(with 120 ticks per 1/16-note).
Time Signature If you use the tempo setting, you specify the time signature here.  
						

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Output section
These settings are used if you want to stretch the audio to fit within a 
specific time span or tempo. The values will change automatically if 
you adjust the Timestretch amount (see below).
Timestretch
The Timestretch parameter determines the amount of timestretch, as 
a percentage of the original length. If you use the settings in the Out-
put section to specify the amount of timestretch, this value will change 
automatically. The possible timestretch range depends on the “Effect” 
option:
•If the “Effect” checkbox is deactivated, the range is 75-125%.
This is the preferred mode if you want to preserve the character of the sound.
•If the “Effect” checkbox is activated, you can specify values between 
10 and 1000%. 
This mode is mainly useful for special effects, etc.
Parameter Description
Samples The desired length in samples.
Seconds The desired length in seconds.
BPM The desired tempo (beats per minute). For this to work, you have to 
know the actual tempo of the audio, and specify this (along with time 
signature and length in bars) in the Input section to the left.
Range Allows you to specify the desired length as a range between two 
time positions.
Set to Locators 
RangeClicking this button sets the Range values to the length of the Cycle. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio processing and functions 16 – 373
Algorithm
Allows you to select one of four time stretch algorithms: Standard, 
MPEX 2 (Cubase SX only, see below) Drum and Realtime mode. 
Standard is quicker and gives lower audio quality while MPEX 2 is 
slower and gives the highest audio quality.
The MPEX mode has 4 quality settings, 1 to 4, which can also be set 
using the Mono-Poly slider: 1 should be used for single voices/instru-
ments, 2 for polyphonic material (fast), three for polyphonic material 
(medium) and 4 for polyphonic material with highest quality results 
(slow). 
•About the MPEX 2 algorithm (Cubase SX only):
This mode is based on Prosoniq's proprietary MPEX (Minimum Perceived Loss Time 
Compression/Expansion) algorithm. This algorithm (which is also used in Prosoniq’s 
TimeFactory™ application) uses an artificial neural network for time series prediction in 
the scale space domain to achieve high end time and pitch scaling. This gives the best 
possible audio quality result. 
Note that you should not use the Preview function in MPEX mode, since the MPEX al-
gorithm isn’t designed for realtime processing. 
•Drum mode:
This is a special algorithm, optimized for processing rhythmic material. The Accuracy 
parameter and Preview function are not available in Drum mode.
•Realtime mode:
This is the algorithm used for the realtime time stretching features in Cubase SX/SL. 
Although this algorithm is optimized for time stretching in realtime, you can use it for of-
fline processing as well. The Presets pop-up contains the same presets as found in 
the Warp settings pop-up in the Sample Editor, see page 435. 
						

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Applying plug-ins (Cubase SX only)
As described in the chapter “Audio effects”, you can add plug-in effects 
in real-time during playback. However, sometimes it’s useful to “perma-
nently” apply effects processing to one or several selected events. In 
Cubase SX, this is done in the following way:
1.Make a selection in the Project window, the Pool or an editor.
Effects are applied according to the same rules as Processing (see page 356).
2.Select “Plug-ins” from the Audio menu.
3.Select the desired effect from the submenu that appears.
The Process Plug-in dialog appears.
About stereo and mono
If you are applying an effect to mono audio material, only the left side 
of the effect’s stereo output will be applied.
The process plug-in dialog
The process plug-in dialog for the Chorus effect.
The upper section of the process plug-in dialog contains the actual 
effect parameters of the selected plug-in. For details on the included 
plug-ins’ parameters, see the separate “Audio Effects and VST Instru-
ments” pdf document.  
						

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio processing and functions 16 – 375
The lower section of the dialog contains settings for the actual pro-
cessing. These are common to all plug-ins.
•If the lower section is hidden, click the “More...” button to display it.
Clicking the button again (now labeled “Less...”) will hide the lower section.
The following settings and functions are available in the common, 
lower section of the dialog:
Wet mix/Dry mix
These two sliders allow you to specify the balance between wet (pro-
cessed) and dry (original) signal in the resulting clip. 
Normally the two sliders are “reverse-ganged”, so that raising the Wet 
mix slider lowers the Dry mix slider by the same amount. However, if 
you press [Alt]/[Option] and drag a slider, you can move it indepen-
dently. This allows you to set e.g. 80% dry and 80% wet signal. Be 
careful to avoid distortion.
Tail
This parameter is useful if you are applying an effect that adds material 
after the end of original audio (such as reverb and delay effects). When 
the checkbox is activated, you can specify a tail length using the slider. 
The tail time is included when playing back with the Preview function, 
allowing you to find the appropriate tail length.
Pre/Post Crossfade
These settings allow you to gradually mix the effect in or out. If you ac-
tivate Pre-Crossfade and specify a value of e.g. 1000 ms, the effect 
will be applied gradually from the start of selection, reaching full effect 
1000 ms after the start. Similarly, if you activate Post-Crossfade, the 
processing will gradually be removed starting at the specified interval 
before the end of the selection.
The sum of the Pre- and Post-Crossfade times cannot be larger than the 
length of the selection. 
						

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Preview button
Allows you to listen to the result of the processing with the current 
settings. Playback will continue repeatedly until you click the button 
again (the button is labeled “Stop” during Preview playback). You can 
change the effect settings during Preview playback if needed.
Process button
Applies the effect and closes the dialog.
Cancel button
Closes the dialog without applying the effect. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio processing and functions 16 – 377
The Offline Process History dialog
Procedures
If you find you want to remove some or all processing from a clip, this 
can be done in the Offline Process History dialog. Processing that can 
be modified in the Offline Process History dialog includes the functions 
on the Process menu, any applied plug-in effects, and Sample Editor 
operations such as Cut, Paste, Delete and drawing with the Pencil tool.
Due to the clip-file relationship (see page 354), it is even possible to 
modify or remove some processing “in the middle” of the Process His-
tory, while keeping later processing! This feature depends on the type of 
processing performed (see page 378).
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the clip in the Pool or one of its events in the Project window.
You can see which clips have been processed by checking the Status column in the 
Pool – the waveform symbol indicates that processing or effects have been applied to 
the clip (see page 378).
2.Select “Offline Process History...” from the Audio menu.
The Offline Process History dialog appears.
The left part of the dialog contains a list of all processing you have 
added to the clip, with the most recent operations at the bottom of the 
list. The “Start” and “Length” columns indicate which section of the 
clip was affected by each operation. The “Status” column indicates if 
the operation can be modified or removed.  
						

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3.Locate the operation you want to edit and select it by clicking on it in 
the list.
•To modify the settings of the selected processing, click the “Modify” 
button.
This opens the dialog for the processing function or applied effect, allowing you to 
change the settings. This works just as when you applied the processing or effect the 
first time.
•To replace the selected operation with another processing function or 
effect, select the desired function from the pop-up menu and click the 
“Replace By” button.
If the selected function has settings, a dialog will appear as usual. The original opera-
tion will then be removed and the new processing will be inserted in the Offline Pro-
cess History.
•To remove the selected operation, click the “Remove” button.
The processing is removed from the clip.
•To undo the selected operation and remove the processing from the 
clip click the “Deactivate” button.
The processing is removed from the clip, but the operation remains in the list. To redo 
the operation and apply the processing again, click the button, now renamed to “Acti-
vate”, again.
4.Click “Close” to close the dialog.
Restrictions
•If there are no settings for the processing function, you can’t modify it.
•If you have applied processing that changes the length of the clip 
(such as Cut, Insert or Time Stretch), you can only remove this if it is 
the most recent processing in the Offline Process History (at the bot-
tom of the list in the dialog). If an operation can not be removed or 
modified, this is indicated by an icon in the “Status” column. Also, the 
corresponding buttons will be greyed out. 
						

							CUBASE SX/SLAudio processing and functions 16 – 379
Freeze Edits
The Freeze Edits function on the Audio menu allows you to make all 
processing and applied effects permanent for a clip:
1.Select the clip in the Pool or one of its events in the Project window.
2.Select “Freeze Edits…” from the Audio menu.
•If there is only one edit version of the clip (no other clips refer to the 
same audio file), the following dialog will appear:
If you select “Replace”, all edits will be applied to the original audio file (the one listed 
in the clip’s Path column in the Pool). If you select “New File”, the Freeze Edits opera-
tion will create a new file in the Audio folder within the project folder (leaving the origi-
nal audio file unaffected).
•If the selected clip (or the clip played by the selected event) has sev-
eral edit versions (i.e. there are other clips referring to the same audio 
file), the following alert will appear:
As you can see, you don’t have the option to Replace the original audio file in this case. 
This is because that audio file is used by other clips. Select “New File” to have a new 
file created in the Audio folder within the project folder.
Now, the clip refers to a new, single audio file. If you open the Offline 
Process History dialog for the clip, the list will be empty. 
						

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Detect Silence
The Detect Silence function on the Audio menu isn’t really a process-
ing function, since it doesn’t actually affect the audio clip. Instead, it 
searches for silent sections in an event, and either splits the event, re-
moving the silent parts from the project, or creates regions corre-
sponding to the non-silent sections. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the event in the Project window or the Audio Part Editor.
You can select several events if you like, in which case you will be allowed to make 
separate settings for each selected event.
2.Select “Detect Silence” from the Audio menu.
The Detect Silence dialog appears.