Steinberg Nuendo 3 Operation Manual

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Working with hitpoints and slices 19 – 461
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.
Setting the sensitivity
The loop is first analyzed to determine where hitpoints should appear 
(where the individual “beats” in the loop are), then you manually set the 
sensitivity with the Sensitivity slider to determine how many hitpoints 
there should be.
•Try raising the sensitivity to add “missing” hitpoints, and lowering it to 
remove unwanted hitpoints.
This may or may not work, depending on the situation, but as a general rule you should 
try this first.
•Audition the slices again to determine if changing the sensitivity has 
improved matters.  
						

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19 – 462 Working with hitpoints and slices
The “Use” pop-up menu
The “Use” pop-up menu on the toolbar affects which hitpoints are 
shown and is a useful tool for removing unwanted hitpoints. The op-
tions on the pop-up menu are:
How many slices do I need?
If your main reason for slicing the loop is to change the tempo, you 
generally need as many slices as you can get, but never more than 
one per individual “hit” in the loop.
If you want to create a groove (see page 468), you should try to get 
approximately one slice per eighth note, sixteenth note or whatever 
the loop requires.
Option Description
All All hitpoints are shown (taking the Sensitivity slider into account).
1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 Only hitpoints that are close to the selected note value positions 
within the loop (e.g. close to exact sixteenth note positions, if you 
have selected the 1/16 option) will be shown. Again, the Sensi-
tivity slider is taken into account.
Metric Bias This is like the “All” mode, but all hitpoints that are close to even 
meter divisions (1/4 notes, 1/8 notes, 1/16 notes, etc.) get a 
“sensitivity boost” – they are visible at lower Sensitivity slider set-
tings. This is useful if you are working with dense or cluttered ma-
terial with a lot of hitpoints, but you know that the material is 
based on a strict meter. By selecting Metric Bias it will be easier 
to find the hitpoints close to the meter position (although most 
other hitpoints are also available, at higher sensitivity settings).  
						

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Working with hitpoints and slices 19 – 463
Disabling slices
You might run into situations where there are too many slices – a sin-
gle sound may have been split into two slices for example. You could 
of course reduce the sensitivity to get rid of the hitpoints you don’t 
want, but then other hitpoints could disappear too, which may be un-
desirable. What you need to do in a situation like this is to disable an 
individual slice, using the Hitpoint Edit tool:
1.Select the Hitpoint Edit tool.
2.Press [Alt]/[Option] and move the pointer to the handle (the triangle).
The pointer turns into a cross in the Sample Editor window. 
3.Click on the handle of the hitpoint you wish to disable.
The hitpoint handle is diminished and its line disappears to indicate that it is disabled.
4.Now, the hitpoint won’t be taken into account when you create slices.
5.To reactivate a disabled hitpoint, [Alt]/[Option]-click on the hitpoint 
handle with the Hitpoint Edit tool.
Locking slices
If you lock a hitpoint by clicking on its handle with the Hitpoint Edit 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 auditioning.
2.Remember the current slider setting.  
						

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19 – 464 Working with hitpoints and slices
3.Raise the Sensitivity slider to a higher value so that a hitpoint appears, 
separating the two sounds.
Most likely this will add a lot of other unwanted hitpoints as well.
4.Audition to make sure you got what you wanted.
5.Select the Hitpoint Edit tool and point at the handle.
The speaker icon changes to a normal arrow pointer.
6.Lock the new slice by clicking on its handle.
Locked hitpoints are dark blue in color.
7.Drag the Sensitivity slider to the original setting.
The locked hitpoint will remain shown.
•You can unlock a locked hitpoint by clicking it again with the Hitpoint 
Edit tool with [Alt]/[Option] pressed.
Setting hitpoints manually
If you cannot get the desired result by adjusting sensitivity, disabling 
or locking, you can add, move and delete hitpoints manually.
Adding hitpoints
Manually adding hitpoints can be done in situations where a hitpoint is 
missing at a specific point, but doesn’t appear even if the sensitivity is 
set to full.
1.Zoom in on the waveform at the point where you wish to add a hitpoint.
2.Audition the area with the Hitpoint Edit tool to make sure that the start 
of the sound is in view.
3.Activate Snap to Zero Crossing on the Sample Editor toolbar.
By finding zero crossings in the waveform (positions where the amplitude is close to 
zero), manually added slices won’t introduce any clicks or pops. All hitpoints found by 
the Calculate function are automatically placed at zero crossings. 
						

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Working with hitpoints and slices 19 – 465
4.Press [Alt]/[Option] with the Hitpoint Edit tool selected so that the 
mouse pointer changes to a pencil tool and click just before the start 
of the sound.
A new hitpoint appears. Manually added hitpoints are locked by default.
•If you click and keep the mouse button pressed, you can adjust the 
position of the new hitpoint by dragging.
Releasing the mouse button adds the hitpoint.
5.Audition the new slice with the Play tool to make sure you got what 
you wanted.
Moving hitpoints
If you manually added a hitpoint, and it was either placed too far away 
from the start of the sound, or too far into the sound, you can manually 
move the hitpoint. It is also possible to move calculated hitpoints this 
way.
1.Make sure Snap to Zero Crossing is activated on the Sample Editor 
toolbar.
2.Select the Hitpoint Edit tool.
3.Click on the hitpoint handle and drag it to the new position.
Deleting hitpoints
To delete a hitpoint, select the Hitpoint Edit tool and drag it to the left 
out of the Sample Editor window. Hitpoints that you have created man-
ually can also be deleted by clicking its handle with the Hitpoint Edit 
tool.   
						

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19 – 466 Working with hitpoints and slices
About Q-points
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. Sometimes 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 and thus the point which will be stretched to a grid po-
sition when quantizing.
•To activate Q-points, open the Preferences–Editing–Audio page on 
the File menu and check the “Hitpoints have Q-Points” option.
Next time you use the Calculate Hitpoints function, the hitpoints will have Q-points. 
Manually added hitpoints do not have Q-points.
•To offset the position of a Q-point in relation to the hitpoint, simply 
point and click on the “Q” icon and drag it to the right to the desired 
position.
For a description of quantizing audio, see page 449.  
						

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Working with hitpoints and slices 19 – 467
Creating slices
After you have specified the correct loop length and time signature and 
worked on the hitpoints in the Sample Editor so that one sound per 
slice is heard, it is time to actually slice the file (if that is what you want 
to do – there are other uses for hitpoints as well, as described on the 
following pages). This is done by selecting “Create Audio Slices from 
Hitpoints” from the Hitpoints submenu on the Audio menu.
Now the following happens:
•If you edited an event on an audio track, the Sample Editor closes.
•The audio event is “sliced” so that there is a separate event for each 
hitpoint.
In other words, the sections between the hitpoints become separate events, all refer-
ring to the same original file.
•On the audio track, the audio event is replaced by an audio part, con-
taining the slices.
If you edited a clip from the Pool, you need to drag it to an audio track to get a part with 
the slices.
•The loop is automatically adapted to the tempo set in Nuendo.
This takes the loop length settings you made into account: if the loop was e.g. one bar 
long, the part is resized to fit exactly one bar in the Nuendo tempo, and the slices are 
moved accordingly – keeping their relative positions intact within the part.
Now, you can change the tempo and have the loop automatically follow 
(provided that the track is set to musical time base – see page 124). 
Furthermore, you can double click the part to edit the slices in the Au-
dio Part Editor. You can: 
• Remove or mute slices.
• Change the loop by reordering, replacing or quantizing slices.
• Apply processing or effects to individual slices.
• Create new files from individual slices using the “Bounce Selection” function 
on the Audio menu. 
						

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19 – 468 Working with hitpoints and slices
Creating groove quantize maps
You can generate groove quantize maps based on the hitpoints you 
have created in the Sample Editor. Groove quantizing is not meant for 
correcting errors, but for creating rhythmic feels. This is done by com-
paring your recorded music with a “groove” (a timing grid generated 
from the file) and moving the appropriate notes so that their timing 
matches the one of the groove. In other words, you can extract the 
timing from an audio loop and use it for quantizing MIDI parts (or other 
audio loops, after slicing them).
Proceed as follows:
1.Create and edit hitpoints as described earlier in this chapter.
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 page 462).
2.When you have finished setting the hitpoints, select “Create Groove 
Quantize from Hitpoints” from the Hitpoints submenu on the Audio 
menu.
The groove is extracted.
3.If you now pull down the Quantize pop-up in the Project window you 
will find an additional item at the bottom of the list, with the same 
name as the file from which you extracted the groove.
This groove can now be selected as a base for quantizing, just like any other quantize 
value. See the chapter “MIDI Processing” in the separate PDF document “Working 
with MIDI”.
• You can also create grooves from a MIDI part, by selecting the part and 
selecting “Part to Groove” from the Advanced Quantize submenu on the 
MIDI menu. 
						

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Working with hitpoints and slices 19 – 469
Other hitpoint functions
On the various submenus on the Audio menu you will also find the fol-
lowing functions:
Create Markers from Hitpoints
This is located on the Hitpoints submenu. If an audio event contains 
calculated hitpoints, this function can be used to add markers – one 
for each hitpoint – to an automatically created marker track (see page 
178). This can be useful for locating to hitpoints, and for using the 
Timewarp tool (see page 517) to snap to hitpoints.
Divide Audio Events at Hitpoints
This Hitpoints submenu item can be used when you simply wish to 
create separate events according to the hitpoints for a file. This means 
that you do not have to make the same considerations as when slicing 
for tempo changes. You can use any method you like to set hitpoints, 
use sensitivity, note values, manually or any combination.
•The slices created will appear in the Project window as separate 
events.
Set Audio Event from Loop
This Advanced submenu function will resize the event according to 
the loop range in the Sample Editor. For example, if you have a long 
loop event and want to “extract” the first bar only, select the Audio 
Tempo Definition tool and adjust the end loop point handle in the ruler 
to one bar. Then use Set Audio Event from Loop before calculating 
hitpoints. 
						

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19 – 470 Working with hitpoints and slices
Set Tempo from Event
This Advanced submenu function sets the project tempo according to 
the original tempo of the loop (as calculated by the Audio Tempo Def-
inition tool). The result depends on whether you are using the Tempo 
track or a fixed tempo.
• If you are using fixed tempo, you will be asked to confirm that you want to 
change this – click Yes to set the fixed tempo to the event’s original tempo.
• If you are using the Tempo track, but there are no tempo changes, you will be 
asked whether to change the global tempo or not:
Click Yes to change the global tempo (the first tempo event on the Tempo track) or No 
to insert tempo events at the beginning and end of the audio event (i.e. the project 
tempo will be adapted to the loop tempo but only during the course of the event).
• If you are using the Tempo track with tempo changes, new tempo events will 
be inserted at the beginning and end of the audio event.
The project tempo will be adapted to the loop tempo during the course of the event.
Stretch to Project Tempo
The Stretch to Project Tempo function on the Advanced submenu 
(Audio menu) makes use of the tempo calculated by the Audio Tempo 
Definition tool and applies time stretch to the selected event, so that it 
fits the current project tempo.
This can be used for stretching a whole loop (not sliced) to the project 
tempo. Note: for this function to be available, you must close the Sam-
ple Editor and select the audio event in the Project window.