Steinberg Cubase SX/SL 3 Operation Manual
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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 the tempo or key of a project, but you can of course always adapt the audio to a new key or tempo should you change your mind. It is then best to revert back to the original audio clip rather than to process the already pro- cessed file again.
CUBASE SX/SL19 – 442 Audio warp realtime processing
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 number of useful things with it: • Change the tempo without affecting pitch. • Extract the timing (a groove map) from a drum loop. This can then be applied to quantize other events. • Replace individual sounds in a drum loop. • Edit the actual playing in the drum loop without affecting the basic feel. • Extract sounds from loops. • The term “loop” is used throughout this chapter. Loop in this context usu- ally means an audio file with a musical timebase, i.e. the length of the loop represents a certain number of bars and/or beats at a certain tempo. Playing the loop back at the right tempo in a cycle set to the correct length will produce a continuous loop, without gaps.
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 individual sound in the loop should have some noticeable attack. Slow attacks, legato playing etc. may not produce the desired result. • Poorly recorded audio might be difficult to slice correctly. However, the hitpoint detection function can automatically normalize the audio to im- prove the detection results – see below. • There may be problems with sounds drowned in smearing effects, like short delays. Calculating hitpoints and slicing a loop – a quick tutorial Before proceeding, find a suitable loop using the criteria above. At this point it doesn’t matter whether you know the original tempo of the loop, as this will be automatically detected. Proceed as follows: 1.Open the event or clip for editing in the Sample Editor. You could 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.Select the Audio Tempo Definition tool on the Sample Editor toolbar. 3.Enter the length and the time signature of the loop in the respective fields on the toolbar. The tempo is calculated automatically.
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 – Hitpoints submenu. Now a dialog appears with settings for the hitpoint detection. On the Presets pop-up you can choose a preset detection mode best suited to the audio material. Alternatively you can select “Advanced” where you can specify settings yourself. •The “Sense” parameter sets the sensitivity of the detection. The higher the setting the more transients will be detected. •The “Threshold” parameter sets the level threshold. The lower you set this the more low level transients will be detected. 6.Click Process. The hitpoints are detected.
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 is played between each hitpoint. This is described in detail starting on page 449. In the next step, the loop will adapt to the project tempo set in Cubase SX/SL. 8.Pull down the Audio menu, and select “Create Audio Slices from Hit- points” from the Hitpoints submenu. Now the following happens: • The Sample Editor closes. • The audio event is “sliced” so that there is a separate event for each hitpoint. • The audio event is replaced by an audio part, containing the slices (double click the part to view the slices in the Audio Part Editor). • The loop is automatically adapted to the project tempo.
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. 9.If you activate cycle playback on the Transport panel, the loop should now play back seamlessly at the tempo set in the program! 10.To make the loop follow any further tempo changes, make sure it’s set to “Musical time base” by using the toggle button in the Track list or Inspector (the button should show a note symbol – see page 120). •Note that if the project tempo is lower than the loop’s original tempo, there may be audible gaps between each slice event in the part. This can be remedied by using the Close Gaps function on the Advanced submenu – see page 461. You should also consider activating auto fades for the part’s audio track – fade-outs set to about 10 ms will help eliminate any clicks between the slices when you play back the part. See page 193. •If the project tempo is higher than the loop’s original tempo, you may want to activate auto crossfades for the track. You can use the Close Gaps functions in this case as well if needed.
CUBASE SX/SLWorking with hitpoints and slices 20 – 449 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 program calculate (or detect) hitpoints in the audio event, and you can use the Sensitivity slider to change how many hitpoints are shown. For some loops, this may be all that is needed to set the hitpoints so that each slice to be created will contain a single “hit” or sound. How- ever there will almost certainly be cases when the automatic calculation may add a hitpoint where there shouldn’t be one, and fail to add a hit- point where one is needed, even if the Sensitivity slider is set to maxi- mum. If there are too many or too few hitpoints in a loop, it will most probably not play back properly. When this occurs, you have to edit the hitpoints manually in the Sample Editor.
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 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 Hitpoint Edit tool. When you point in the waveform display the pointer changes to a speaker icon. 3.Now you can simply point and click in any slice area and the corre- sponding 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 hit- point needs to be added, the first thing to try is to change the sensitiv- ity setting – see the following section.