Steinberg Nuendo 4 Operation Manual

							261
The Sample Editor
Initially, length and position values are displayed in the for-
mat specified in the Project Setup dialog. If you click in the 
middle field, a pop-up menu opens, where you can select 
another display format. This selection affects the Sample 
Editor ruler as well.
You can customize the toolbar by right-clicking it and 
using the pop-up menu to hide or show items.
Selecting Setup from the pop-up menu allows you to 
reorder sections on the toolbar, store presets, etc. See 
“The Setup dialogs” on page 506.
The Sample Editor Inspector
To the left of the Sample Editor, you will find the Sample 
Editor Inspector. It contains all the tools and functions for 
working in the Sample Editor. 
You open a tab by clicking on it. If you want to open an-
other tab without closing the first, [Ctrl]/[Command]-click 
on it. To open all tabs in the Inspector [Alt]/[Option]-click 
on any tab.ÖYou can show/hide Inspector sections by right-click-
ing on an Inspector tab and activating/deactivating the de-
sired option(s).
Make sure you right-click on an inspector tab and not on the empty area 
below the Inspector, as this will open the Quick context menu instead. 
						

							262
The Sample Editor
The Definition tab
The topmost tab of the Sample Editor Inspector is used to 
define the musical context of your audio. Here, you can de-
fine the grid, i.e. measure the audio tempo and the groove. 
Open this tab, if you want to use your audio in a musical 
context, so that you can later activate the Straighten Up 
mode, create a groove quantize map or slices.
The upper section of the Definition tab will help you to ad-
just the audio grid. You can select a grid resolution from 
the pop-up menu and adjust the grid manually by activat-
ing the Manual Adjust tool, or automatically by clicking the 
Auto Adjust button. When you click on the Auto Adjust 
button, the Manual Adjust tool will be activated, so that 
you can afterwards verify and change the grid manually, if 
necessary. The Preview mode should be activated (default 
setting) to use the grid for playback. Preview is linked to 
the Straighten Up mode and Quantize menu on the Play-
back tab. If you only want to create slices or quantize 
grooves, you can deactivate the Preview mode.
The lower section displays the length of your audio file in 
bars and beats (PPQ) together with the estimated tempo 
and the time signature. You should always verify if the 
length in bars corresponds to the audio file you imported. 
If necessary, listen to your audio and enter the correct bar 
length.
The Playback tab
In this tab, the audio grid and the tempo of the audio can 
be adjusted to the project grid by activating the Straighten 
Up mode.
From the algorithm pop-up, you can select an algorithm 
for the realtime time-stretching.
If you activate Straighten Up mode, the audio file will snap 
to the project grid. The Quantize pop-up lets you select a 
resolution for the audio, allowing you to specify how exact 
the quantization will be. When you select the “Bars” option, 
the audio will be synced to tempo without quantizing. The 
Swing fader lets you offset every second position in the grid 
creating a swing or shuffle feel.
In Free Warp mode you can manually change the rhythm 
of the audio. When this button is activated, you can drag 
beats to time positions in the grid. This is described in the 
section “Free Warp” on page 285.
When the Transpose track has been added to the project, 
or when the event root key is defined and the project root 
key is set, you can follow global transpose by activating the 
Follow Global mode (see “Realtime pitch-shifting of audio 
events” on page 288). Note that the Transpose function on 
the Playback tab is not available if you opened the Sample 
Editor by double-clicking on an event in the Pool.
If you click the Flatten button, the realtime warp processing 
will be applied to the clip, making the settings permanent 
(see “Flattening the realtime processing” on page 288).
!If you work with audio with triplet feeling, set the ba-
sic grid resolution to 1/8 or 1/16 and the signature 
to 12/8. Note that you should afterwards also set the 
time signature for the project to 12/8 (in the Trans-
port panel).
!Warp tabs will only be displayed in the waveform, if 
this tab is open. 
						

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The Sample Editor
The Hitpoints tab
In this tab, the transients, i.e. hitpoints of the audio can be 
marked. 
Adjust the sensitivity slider to determine how many hit-
points should be shown, and edit them with the Edit Hit-
points tool, if necessary. If you want to clear all hitpoints, 
e.g. to re-detect hitpoints, click the Remove All button.
Click the Slice & Close button, if you want to slice your 
audio to quantize the rhythm of the different slices sepa-
rately (see “Creating slices” on page 283).
Click the Make Groove button, if you want to create an au-
dio groove for quantizing other material to the groove of 
your audio (see “Creating groove quantize maps” on page 
283).
Click the Create Markers button, if you want to create mark-
ers for the hitpoints (see “Create Markers” on page 284).
Use the Create Regions button, if you want to create re-
gions, e.g. for further use in a sampler (see “Create Regi-
ons” on page 284).
Use the Create Events button, if you wish to create sepa-
rate events according to the hitpoints for a file (see “Create 
Events” on page 284).
Before you can use the Make Groove and the Slice & Close 
buttons, the tempo and the time signature of the audio must 
be defined (the Definition tab will light up in blue to indicate 
this). 
The Range tab
In this tab you will find some utility functions for working 
with ranges and selections (see “Making selections” on 
page 267).
The Process tab
This tab regroups the most important audio editing com-
mands from the Audio and the Edit menus. For further in-
formation on the Select Process and Select Plug-in pop-
up menus, see the chapter “Audio processing and func-
tions” on page 238.
The thumbnail display
The thumbnail display provides an overview of the whole 
clip. The section currently shown in the main waveform 
display of the Sample Editor is indicated by a blue rectan-
gle in the thumbnail, while the current selection range is 
shown in blue.
You can move the blue rectangle in the thumbnail to 
view other sections of the clip.
Click in the lower half of the rectangle and drag to the left or right to 
move it.
You can resize the blue rectangle (by dragging its left or 
right edge) to zoom in or out, horizontally.
You can define a new viewing area by clicking in the up-
per half of the overview and dragging a rectangle with the 
mouse.
!Hitpoints will only be displayed in the waveform, if 
this tab is open. 
						

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The Sample Editor
The ruler
The Sample Editor ruler is located between the thumbnail 
and the waveform display. It shows the timeline in the dis-
play format specified in the Project Setup dialog (see “The 
Project Setup dialog” on page 33). If you like, you can se-
lect an independent display format for the ruler by clicking 
on the arrow button to the right of it and selecting an op-
tion from the pop-up menu that appears (this affects the 
values in the info line too). For a list of the display format 
options, see “The ruler” on page 31.
The waveform display and the level scale
The waveform display shows the waveform image of the 
edited audio clip – in the style selected in the Preferences 
(Event Display–Audio page), see “Adjusting how parts 
and events are shown” on page 37. To the left of the 
waveform display, a level scale can be shown, indicating 
the amplitude of the audio.
When the level scale is shown, you can select whether 
the level should be shown as a percentage or in dB.
This is done by right-clicking the level scale and selecting an option from 
the pop-up menu that appears. This also allows you to hide the level scale.
To display the level scale after hiding it, right-click to 
bring up the Quick menu and activate “Level Scale” on the 
Elements submenu.
This submenu also allows you to select whether you 
want the zero axis and/or the half level axis indicated in the 
waveform display.
Half 
level 
axis Zero axis 
						

							265
The Sample Editor
General Operations
Zooming
Zooming in the Sample Editor is done according to the 
standard zoom procedures, with the following special 
notes:
The vertical zoom slider changes the vertical scale rela-
tive to the height of the editor window, in a way similar to 
the waveform zooming in the Project window (see “Zoom 
and view options” on page 34).
The vertical zoom will also be affected if the option “Zoom Tool Standard 
Mode” (Preferences on the Editing–Tools page) is deactivated and you 
drag a rectangle with the Zoom tool.
The following options relevant to the Sample Editor are 
available on the Zoom submenu (on the Edit menu and the 
Quick context menu):
You can also zoom by resizing the rectangle in the 
thumbnail display.
See “The thumbnail display” on page 263.
The current zoom setting is shown in the info line, as a 
“samples per screen pixel” value.
Note that you can zoom in horizontally to a scale with 
less than one sample per pixel! 
This is required for drawing with the Pencil tool (see “Drawing in the 
Sample Editor” on page 271).
If you have zoomed in to one sample per pixel or less, 
the appearance of the samples depend on the option 
“Interpolate Audio Images” in the Preferences (Event Dis-
play–Audio page).
If the option is deactivated, single sample values are drawn as “steps”. If 
the option is activated, they are interpolated to “curves” form.
Auditioning
While you can use the regular play commands to play 
back audio when the Sample Editor is open, it is often 
useful to listen to the edited material only.
ÖWhen auditioning, audio will be routed to the Control 
Room (if the Control Room is activated) or to the Main Mix 
(the default output bus). For information about routing, see 
the chapter “VST Connections: Setting up input and out-
put busses” on page 10.
ÖYou can adjust the auditioning level with the miniature 
level fader on the toolbar.
By using key commands
If you activate the “Playback Toggle triggers Local Pre-
view” option in the Preferences (Transport page), you can 
use the [Space] bar to audition. This is the same as click-
ing the Audition icon on the toolbar.
By using the Audition icon
Clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar plays back the 
edited audio, according to the following rules:
 If you have made a selection, this selection will be played 
back.
 If there is no selection, but the option “Show Event” is acti-
vated (see “Show audio event” on page 271), the section of 
the clip corresponding to the event will be played back.
 If there is no selection, and “Show Event” is deactivated, play-
back will start at the cursor position (if the cursor is outside 
the display, the whole clip will be played back).
 If the Loop icon is activated, playback will continue repeatedly 
until you deactivate the Audition icon. Otherwise, the section 
will be played back once.
ÖNote that there is a separate Play button for audition-
ing regions. See “Auditioning regions” on page 270.
Option Description
Zoom In Zooms in one step, centering on the position cursor.
Zoom Out Zooms out one step, centering on the position cursor.
Zoom Full Zooms out so that the whole clip is visible in the editor.
Zoom to 
SelectionZooms in so that the current selection fills the screen.
Zoom to 
Selection (Horiz.) 
(Edit menu only)Zooms in horizontally so that the current selection fills 
the screen.
Zoom to Event 
(Edit menu only)Zooms in so that the editor shows the section of the clip 
corresponding to the edited audio event. This is not 
available if you opened the Sample Editor from the Pool 
(in which case the whole clip is opened for editing, not 
an event).
Zoom In/Out 
Vertical (Edit 
menu only)This is the same as using the vertical zoom slider (see 
above). 
						

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The Sample Editor
By using the Speaker tool
If you click somewhere in the waveform display with the 
Speaker (“Play”) tool and keep the mouse button pressed, 
the clip will be played back from the position at which you 
clicked. Playback will continue until you release the mouse 
button.
Scrubbing
The Scrub tool allows you to locate positions in the audio 
by playing back, forwards or backwards, at any speed:
1.Select the Scrub tool.
2.Click in the waveform display and keep the mouse 
button pressed.
The project cursor is moved to the position at which you click.
3.Drag to the left or right.
The project cursor follows the mouse pointer and the audio is played 
back. The speed and pitch of the playback depends on how fast you 
move the pointer.
You can adjust the response of the Scrub tool with the 
Scrub Response (Speed) setting in the Preferences 
(Transport–Scrub page).
There you will also find a separate Scrub Volume setting.
Adjusting the snap point
The snap point is a marker within an audio event (or clip, 
see below). This is used as a reference position when you 
are moving events with snap activated, so that the snap 
point is “magnetic” to whatever snap positions you have 
selected. 
By default, the snap point is set at the beginning of the au-
dio event, but often it is useful to move the snap point to a 
“relevant” position in the event, such as a downbeat, etc.
1.Activate the “Audio Event” option so that the event is 
displayed in the editor.
2.Scroll so that the event is visible, and locate the “S” 
flag in the event.
If you haven’t adjusted this previously, it will be located at the beginning 
of the event.
3.Click on the “S” flag and drag it to the desired position.
When you drag the snap point, a tool tip shows its current position (in 
the format selected on the Sample Editor ruler).
If the Scrub tool is selected when you move the snap 
point, you will hear the audio while dragging (just like 
when scrubbing).
This makes it easier to find the correct position. 
						

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The Sample Editor
You can also adjust the snap point by setting the project 
cursor:
1.Place the cursor at the desired position (intersecting 
the event).
You may want to do this by scrubbing, to spot the right position exactly.
2.Right-click to open the Quick menu and select “Snap 
Point To Cursor” from the Audio submenu.
The snap point will be set to the position of the cursor. This method can 
also be used in the Project window and the Audio Part Editor.
It is also possible to define a snap point for a clip (for 
which there is no event yet).
To open a clip in the Sample Editor, double-click it in the Pool (or drag it 
from the Pool to the Sample Editor). After having set the snap point using 
the procedure described above, you can insert the clip into the project 
from the Pool or the Sample Editor, taking the snap point position into 
account.
Making selections
To select an audio section in the Sample Editor, you click 
and drag with the Range Selection tool.
If Snap to Zero Crossing is activated on the toolbar, the 
start and end of the selection will always be at zero cross-
ings (see “Snap to Zero Crossing” on page 271).You can resize the selection by dragging its left and 
right edge or by [Shift]-clicking.
The current selection is indicated in the corresponding 
fields in the Range tab of the Sample Editor Inspector.
You can fine-tune the selection by changing these values numerically. 
Note that the values are relative to the start of the clip, rather than to the 
project timeline.
Using the Select menu
In the Select menu in the Range tab and in the Select sub-
menu of the Edit menu you can find the following options:
!When you set the Grid Start in the Definition tab, the 
snap point will be moved to the Grid Start (see “Ma-
nually adjusting grid and tempo of your audio” on 
page 275).
A selected range
Function Description
Select All Selects the whole clip.
Select None Selects no audio (the selection length is set to “0”).
Select in Loop Selects all audio between the left and right locator.
Select  Event Selects the audio that is included in the edited event only. 
This is not available if you opened the Sample Editor from 
the Pool (in which case the whole clip is opened for edit-
ing, not an event).
Locators to Se-
lection (Range 
tab only)Sets the locators to encompass the current selection. 
This is available if you have selected one or several 
events or made a selection range.
Locate Selec-
tion (Range tab 
only)Moves the project cursor to the beginning or end of the 
current selection. For this to be available, you must have 
selected one or more events or parts, or made a selection 
range.
Loop Selection 
(Range tab only)This activates playback from the start of the current se-
lection and keeps starting over again when reaching the 
selection end.
From Start to 
Cursor (Edit 
menu only)Selects all audio between the clip start and the project 
cursor.
From Cursor to 
End (Edit menu 
only)Selects all audio between the project cursor and the end 
of the clip. For this to work, the project cursor must be 
within the clip boundaries.
Left Selection 
Side to Cursor 
(Edit menu only)Moves the left side of the current selection range to the 
project cursor position. For this to work, the cursor must 
be within the clip boundaries.
Right Selection 
Side to Cursor 
(Edit menu only)Moves the right side of the current selection range to the 
project cursor position (or the end of the clip, if the cursor 
is to the right of the clip). 
						

							268
The Sample Editor
Editing selection ranges
Selections in the Sample Editor can be processed in sev-
eral ways. Please note:
If you attempt to edit an event that is a shared copy (i.e. 
the event refers to a clip that is used by other events in the 
project), you are asked whether you want to create a new 
version of the clip or not (if you haven’t made a “perma-
nent” choice already – see below).
Select “New Version” if you want the editing to affect the selected event 
only. Select “Continue” if you want the editing to affect all shared copies. 
Note: If you activate the option “Do not show this message again” in the 
dialog, any further editing you do will conform to the selected method 
(“Continue” or “New Version”). You can change this setting at any time 
with the “On Processing Shared Clips” pop-up menu in the Preferences 
(Editing–Audio page).
Any changes to the clip will appear in the Offline Process 
History, making it possible to undo them at a later point (see 
“The Offline Process History dialog” on page 251).
Cut, Copy and Paste
The Cut, Copy and Paste commands (on the Edit menu in 
the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the 
main Edit menu) work according to the following rules:
Selecting Copy copies the selection to the clipboard.
Selecting Cut removes the selection from the clip and 
moves it to the clipboard.
The section to the right of the selection is moved to the left to fill out the 
gap.
Selecting Paste copies the data on the clipboard into 
the clip.
If there is a selection in the editor, this will be replaced by the pasted 
data. If there is no selection, the pasted data will be inserted starting at 
the selection line. The section to the right of the line will be moved to 
make room for the pasted material.
The pasted data will be inserted at the selection line.
Delete
Selecting Delete (on the Edit menu in the Process tab of 
the Sample Editor Inspector or in the main Edit menu or 
pressing [Backspace]) removes the selection from the 
clip. The section to the right of the selection is moved to 
the left to fill out the gap.
Insert Silence
Selecting “Insert Silence” (on the Edit menu in the Pro-
cess tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the Range 
submenu of the main Edit menu) will insert a silent section 
with the same length as the current selection, at the selec-
tion start. 
The selection will not be replaced, but moved to the 
right to make room. 
If you want to replace the selection, use the “Silence” function instead 
(see “Silence” on page 247). 
						

							269
The Sample Editor
Processing
Processing (on the Select Process menu in the Process 
tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the Process sub-
menu on the Audio menu) can be applied to selections in 
the Sample Editor, as can the effects (on the Select Plug-
in menu in the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector 
or in the Plug-ins submenu on the Audio menu). See the 
chapter “Audio processing and functions” on page 238. 
Creating a new event from the selection
You can create a new event that plays only the selected 
range, using the following method:
1.Make a selection range.
2.Press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag the selection range 
to the desired audio track in the Project window.
Creating a new clip or audio file from the selection
You can extract a selection from an event and either cre-
ate a new clip or a new audio file, in the following way:
1.Make a selection range.
2.Right-click to open the Quick menu and select 
“Bounce Selection” from the Audio submenu.
A new clip is created and added to the Pool, and another 
Sample Editor window will open with the new clip. The 
new clip will refer to the same audio file as the original clip, 
but will only contain the audio corresponding to the selec-
tion range.
Working with regions
Regions are sections within a clip. One of the main uses for 
regions is Cycle recording, in which the different “takes” 
are stored as regions (see “Recording audio in cycle mode” 
on page 73). You can also use this feature for marking im-
portant sections in the audio clip. Regions can be dragged 
into the Project window from the Editor or the Pool to cre-
ate new audio events. You can also export a region to disk 
as a new audio file, from the Pool.
Regions are best created, edited and managed in the 
Sample Editor.
Creating a region
1.Select the range you want to convert into a region.
2.Click the “Show Regions” button on the toolbar, or ac-
tivate the “Regions” option on the Elements submenu on 
the Quick menu.
The regions list is displayed to the right in the Sample Editor window.
3.Click the Add region button above the Regions list (or 
select “Event or Range as Region” from the Advanced 
submenu of the Audio menu).
A region is created, corresponding to the selected range.
4.To name the region, click on it in the list and enter a 
new name.
Regions can be renamed at any time, using this procedure.
When a region is selected in the Regions list, it is in-
stantly displayed and selected in the Sample Editor.
Creating regions from Hitpoints
If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can 
choose to automatically create regions from hitpoints. This 
can be useful to isolate recorded sounds. For further infor-
mation on hitpoints, see “Working with hitpoints and sli-
ces” on page 278. 
						

							270
The Sample Editor
Editing regions
The region selected in the list is displayed in gray in the 
waveform display and thumbnail.
There are two ways to edit the start and end position of a 
region:
Click and drag its start and end handles in the waveform 
display (with any tool).
When you move the pointer over the handles, it will automatically change 
to an arrow pointer to indicate that you can drag the handles.
Edit the Start and End positions numerically in the Re-
gions list.
The positions are shown in the display format selected for the ruler and 
info line, but are relative to the start of the audio clip, rather than the 
project timeline.
Auditioning regions
You can listen to a region by selecting it in the list and 
clicking the Play Region button (above the list). The region 
will play back once or repeatedly, depending on whether 
the Loop icon on the toolbar is activated or not.
Making selections from regions
If you select a region in the list and click the Select Region 
button above, the corresponding section of the audio clip 
is selected (as if you had selected it with the Range Se-
lection tool). This is useful if you want to apply processing 
to the region only.
Note that you can also double-click a region in the Pool 
to have its audio clip open in the Sample Editor with the 
area of the region automatically selected.
Creating new events from regions
You can create new audio events from regions, using the 
following method:
1.Click in the Region’s leftmost column in the list and 
keep the mouse button pressed.
2.Move the pointer to the desired audio track and posi-
tion in the Project window.
3.Release the mouse button.
A new event is created.
You can also use the function “Events from Regions” 
from the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu for this 
(see “Region operations” on page 55).
Removing regions
To remove a region from a clip, select it in the list and click 
the Remove Region button above the list.
Exporting regions as audio files
If you create a region in the Sample Editor, the region can 
be exported to disk as a new audio file. This is done from 
the Pool, see “Exporting regions as audio files” on page 
308.