Steinberg Nuendo 4 Operation Manual

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The Sample Editor
Drawing in the Sample Editor
It is possible to edit the audio clip at sample level by draw-
ing with the Pencil tool. This can be useful if you need to 
manually edit out a spike or click, etc.
1.Zoom in to a zoom value lower than 1.
This means that there is more than one screen pixel per sample.
2.Select the Pencil tool.
3.Click and draw at the desired position in the waveform 
display.
When you release the mouse button, the edited section is automatically 
selected.
Options and settings
Show audio event
When the Show Audio Event button is activated on the 
toolbar (or the option “Audio Event” is activated on the Ele-
ments submenu on the Quick menu), the section corre-
sponding to the edited event is highlighted in the waveform 
display and Thumbnail. The sections of the audio clip not 
belonging to the event are shown with a dark gray back-
ground.In this mode, you can adjust the start and end of the 
event in the clip by dragging the event handles in the 
waveform display.
When you move the pointer over the event handles (no matter what tool 
may be selected), it takes on the shape of an arrow, to indicate that you 
can click and drag.
Snap to Zero Crossing
Snap to Zero Crossing activated.
When this option is activated, all audio edits are done at 
zero crossings (positions in the audio where the amplitude 
is zero). This helps you avoid pops and clicks which might 
otherwise be caused by sudden amplitude changes.
This setting affects the Sample Editor only. In the 
Project window and other editors, the Snap to Zero 
Crossing setting on the Project menu toolbar or in the 
Preferences (Editing–Audio page) is used.
ÖIf hitpoints have been calculated, these will also be 
taken into account when snapping to zero crossings.
Autoscroll
Autoscroll activated.
When this option is activated, the waveform display will 
scroll during playback, keeping the project cursor visible 
in the editor.
!Any changes created by drawing will appear in the 
Offline Process History, making it possible to undo 
them at a later stage (see “The Offline Process His-
tory dialog” on page 251).
!This is only available if you opened the Sample Editor 
by double-clicking an audio event in the Project win-
dow or the Audio Part Editor and not, if you opened 
the audio event from within the Pool. 
						

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Audio Warp realtime processing / 
Tempo matching audio to the 
project tempo
Audio warp is the generic name for the realtime time-
stretching and pitch-shifting functions in Nuendo. The main 
audio warp features are tempo-matching any audio loop to 
the project tempo (see “Determining the tempo of an audio 
loop and slicing your audio” on page 277) and matching up 
an audio clip with fluctuating tempo to a fixed tempo. 
If you want to tempo match an audio loop to the project 
tempo, you will normally work with loops with straight 
beats. In this case you will only need to activate the 
Straighten Up mode. 
Proceed as follows: 
1.Import your loop into the project and double-click it to 
open it in the Sample Editor.
2.Open the Playback tab in the Sample Editor Inspector 
and activate the Straighten Up mode.
Your loop will automatically adapt to the project tempo. 
If you want to use an audio file instead, or if the beat of 
your loop is not straight, further adjustments could be 
necessary. These are described in the following sections.
Determining the audio tempo automatically 
and time-stretching your audio
If you want to use an audio file with an unknown tempo in 
your project context, the easiest way to determine the 
tempo is to define a loop. You can then determine the 
tempo of the loop automatically (or manually) and finally 
match the tempo of this loop to the project tempo in Nu-
endo. 
1.Import a suitable audio file, for example a drum loop 
and double-click on it to open it in the Sample Editor.
2.Make sure that the first downbeat of the audio clip is 
aligned with the first beat of the first bar in the Sample Ed-
itor.
If your audio file is a two or four bar loop, you can import it 
into your project and proceed with step three, if you have 
a longer audio file, possibly with an upbeat, you have the 
following possibilities to define a loop:
Resize your event by adjusting the Event Start and the 
Event End and make sure that the Preview mode is acti-
vated.
Or 
						

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Make a selection range in a longer clip and click the Au-
dition Loop button.
Adjust the selection range until the loop is smooth. 
A 4 bar loop has been selected.
3.Open the Definition tab and make sure the Bars value 
corresponds to the length of the audio file, or the selection 
range, respectively.
If necessary, listen to your audio to determine the correct bar length.
4.Cick the Auto Adjust button to automatically adjust the 
grid to the audio file.When you click Auto Adjust, the following happens:
 If you created a loop by defining a selection range in a longer 
audio file, the snap point (S symbol) will be moved to the loop 
start.
 In the waveform, vertical lines will be displayed. The thick lines 
should match the bar positions and the thin lines the beat po-
sitions. You can adjust these lines by means of the Manual 
Adjust tool, see below.
 In the Definition tab the Manual Adjust tool will be activated 
(see “Manually adjusting grid and tempo of your audio” on 
page 275).
 In the Playback tab the Straighten Up button will be switched 
on (see “About the Straighten Up mode” on page 275).
5.Open the Playback tab to select an algorithm that 
should be applied on realtime playback.  
						

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The Sample Editor
In this pop-up you can find various options that govern the 
audio quality of the realtime time-stretching. There are pre-
sets for common types of audio material and an Advanced 
option where you can manually set warp parameters:If you select the Advanced menu item, a dialog opens 
where you can manually adjust the three parameters that 
govern the sound quality of the time-stretching:
6.If you are satisfied with the result, i.e. the vertical lines 
match bars and beats positions, close the Sample Editor 
and activate playback.
If your audio file contained an upbeat and you resized the audio event to 
a smooth loop with the event handles, you might want to move the audio 
event to the beginning of the project:
The loop will now automatically adjust to the project 
tempo, and follow any further tempo changes you make! In 
the Project window, the audio event will have a note sym-
bol and two arrows in the upper right corner. The note 
symbol indicates Straighten Up mode and the arrow indi-
cates that the file is stretched.
Option Description
Drums This mode is best for percussive sounds, because it will not 
change the timing of your audio. Using this option for pitched 
audio will lead to noticeable artefacts. In this case, you can try 
the Mix mode.
Plucked This should be used for audio with transients and a relatively sta-
ble spectral sound character (e.g. plucked instruments).
Pads Use this mode for pitched audio with slower rhythmics and a 
stable spectral sound character. This will minimize sound arte-
facts, but the rhythmic accuracy will not be preserved.
Vocals This mode was optimized for slower signals with transients and 
a prominent tonal character (e.g. vocals).
Mix This mode will preserve the rhythm and minimize the artefacts 
for pitched material which does not meet the above criteria (i.e. 
with a less homogenous sound character). 
This will be selected by default for audio that is not categorized.
Advanced This allows for a manual tweaking of the time-stretching param-
eters. By default, the settings that are shown when you open the 
dialog are those of the last used preset (except if the Solo mode 
was selected, see below). The Advanced settings are described 
in more detail below this table.
Solo This mode will preserve the formants of the audio. It should only 
be used for monophonic material (solo woodwind/brass instru-
ments or solo vocals, monophonic synths or string instruments 
that do not play harmonies).
Parameter Description
Grainsize The realtime time-stretching algorithm splits the audio into 
small pieces called “grains”. This parameter determines the 
size of the grains. For material with many transients you 
should use low Grainsize values for best results. 
Overlap Overlap is the percentage of the whole grain that will over-
lap with other grains. Use higher values for material with a 
stable sound character.
Variance Variance is also a percentage of the whole length of the 
grains and sets a variation in positioning so that the overlap-
ping area will sound smooth. A Variance setting of 0 will 
produce a sound akin to time-stretching used in early sam-
plers, whereas higher settings will produce more (rhythmic) 
“smearing” effects but less audio artefacts. 
						

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About the Straighten Up mode
The Straighten Up mode is one of the key audio warp fea-
tures. It allows you to lock audio clips to the project tempo 
by using realtime time-stretching. This is very useful if you 
want to use loops in your project and do not want to worry 
too much about timing.
Straighten Up mode is automatically activated if the Pre-
view button on the Definition tab is activated and the 
tempo of the audio file or loop has been specified either 
automatically by clicking the Auto Adjust button or manu-
ally by using the Manual Adjust tool. 
When this mode is activated, audio events will adapt to 
any tempo changes in Nuendo, just like MIDI events. How-
ever, using Straigthen Up function should not be confused 
with quantizing: the timing, i.e. the rythmic feeling will be 
maintained.
The Straighten Up mode in the Playback tab is automatically activated, 
when the audio tempo (time positions) is specified and the internal au-
dio quantization (musical positions) has been defined.
It is also possible to activate/deactivate Straighten Up 
mode from within the Pool by clicking the respective 
checkbox in the Straighten Up column. When you have correctly set a tempo or length for an au-
dio clip, this information is saved with the project. This al-
lows you to import files into the project with Straighten Up 
mode already activated. The tempo (if set) is also saved 
when exporting files.
Manually adjusting grid and tempo of your 
audio
If you want to manually adjust the grid and the tempo of 
your audio file, because you have a very special loop and 
the automatic functions did not lead to satisfying results, 
proceed as follows:
1.Open the Definition tab in the Sample Editor Inspector 
and activate the Manual Adjust tool.
The Sample Editor ruler does not reflect the audio event 
position in the Project window, but the length of the audio 
file in bars and beats. With the Manual Adjust tool you can 
manipulate this time grid for the audio file. If you select the 
Manual Adjust tool and move the mouse in the Sample 
Editor the pointer turns to a flag. Depending on the posi-
tion, the tool can have the following functions:
!Nuendo supports ACID® loops. These loops are 
standard audio files but with embedded tempo/
length information. When ACID® files are imported 
into Nuendo, Straighten Up mode is automatically 
activated and the loops will adapt to the tempo set in 
the project.
Function Description
Set Grid Start 
(green)This tool is shown at the clip start. When it is displayed, 
you can drag it with the mouse to the first downbeat in or-
der to set the grid start at this position.
Stretch Bars 
(red)This tool is shown at beat positions. When it is displayed, 
you can drag it with the mouse to beat positions in order 
to set the start of the next bar. All grid positions will be 
stretched.
Stretch 
Previous - Move 
Next (pink)This tool is shown at bar positions when you hold down 
[Alt]/[Option]. When it is displayed, you can drag it with 
the mouse to bar positions in order to set the start of the 
next bar. The tempo of the last bar will be changed, i.e. the 
beat/grid positions of the last bar will be stretched, while 
all following grid positions will be moved.
Adjust Beat 
Position - Single 
(blue)This tool is shown at beat positions when you hold down 
[Ctrl]/[Command]. When it is displayed, you can drag it 
with the mouse to adjust single beat positions, the previ-
ous and next beat will be locked. Edited or locked beats 
will be displayed in red. 
						

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2.Audition the file to determine where the first downbeat 
occurs.
3.Move the mouse pointer to the beginning of the audio 
file until the pointer changes to a green flag (Set Grid 
Start).
4.Click and drag the green flag to the right until it 
matches the first downbeat in the sample and release the 
mouse button.
Now the ruler grid is offset so that it starts on the first downbeat in the 
sample.
5.Make sure that the length in bars shown in the lower 
section of the Definition tab corresponds to your settings.
6.Audition the file to determine where the next downbeat 
occurs, i.e. the first beat of the second bar in the sample.7.Place the mouse pointer at the start of the second bar 
in the waveform display.
8.Click and drag the red flag (Stretch Bars) to the left or 
right until the second bar in the ruler is aligned with the 
position of the second downbeat of the sample, and re-
lease the mouse button.
The start of the next bar is set, and all grid positions will be stretched.
9.Check the other beats and hold down [Alt]/[Option] to 
use the pink flag (Stretch Previous - Move Next) if neces-
sary.
This flag is shown at bar positions. When you drag it with the mouse, the 
start of the next bar is set, and the tempo of the last bar will be changed.
! You can change the modifiers for this in the “Define 
Auto Grid” category in the Preferences dialog (Edit-
ing-Tool Modifier page). 
						

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10.Now have a look at the single beats in between the 
bars, and, if necessary, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] to use 
the blue flag (Adjust Beat Position - Single) to adjust them.
Drag the flag until the single beat position is aligned with the waveform, 
and release the mouse button. 
11.Activate playback.
If you find that the beat sounds too straight, you can either adjust the 
Quantize value on the Playback tab or move the Swing slider to add 
swing.
The loop will automatically adjust to the project tempo, 
and follow any further tempo changes you make! In the 
Project window, the audio event will have a note symbol 
and two arrows in the upper right corner. The note symbol 
indicates Straighten Up mode and the arrow indicates that 
the file is stretched.
Determining the tempo of an audio loop and 
slicing your audio
1.Import a suitable audio file, for example a drum loop.
2.Double-click the loop to open it in the Sample Editor.
If your want to work with longer audio file, possibly with an upbeat, define 
a loop or resize the event as described in the section “Determining the 
audio tempo automatically and time-stretching your audio” on page 272.
3.Open the Definition tab and make sure the length in 
bars corresponds to the actual audio file.
If necessary, listen to your audio and enter the correct bar length.
4.On the Hitpoints tab, open the “Use” pop-up and se-
lect the desired option.
This affects which hitpoints should be shown when moving the Sensitiv-
ity slider (see “Setting the sensitivity” on page 280).
5.Adjust the Sensitivity slider.
The hitpoints are shown. 
6.If necessary, select the Edit Hitpoints tool to edit hit-
points manually.
You can add, delete and listen to hitpoints by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and 
clicking in the waveform. For detailed informations about hitpoints and 
their editing, see below.
7.Now, click the Slice & Close button in the Hitpoints 
tab to create audio slices from your hitpoints.
The loop will be sliced and adjusted to the project tempo. The Sample 
Editor will be closed.
In the following sections you will find more detailed infor-
mation on editing and using hitpoints. 
						

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The Sample Editor
Working with hitpoints and slices
Hitpoint detection is a special feature of the Sample Edi-
tor. It 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 individual 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 the 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.
ÖThe term “loop” is used throughout this chapter. Loop 
in this context usually means an audio file with a musical 
time base, 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 cor-
rect length will produce a continuous loop without gaps.
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 while retaining the timing of a rhythmic audio 
loop, just like when using MIDI files. 
Which audio files can be used?
Here are some guidelines as to what type of audio files are 
suited for slicing using hitpoints:
Each individual sound in the loop should have some no-
ticeable attack. 
Slow attacks, legato playing etc. may not produce the desired result.
Poorly recorded audio might be difficult to slice cor-
rectly.
In these cases, try to normalize the files or to remove DC Offset.
There may be problems with sounds drowned in smear-
ing effects, like short delays.
Calculating hitpoints and slicing a loop
Before proceeding, find a suitable loop using the criteria 
above. Proceed as follows:
1.Open the event or clip for editing in the Sample Editor.
You can 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.Open the Hitpoints tab in the Sample Editor Inspector 
and select an option from the Use pop-up. 
These settings don’t affect the actual detection but rather which hit-
points will be shown afterwards. 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 (see “Setting the sensiti-
vity” on page 280). 
The Use pop-up menu
3.Adjust the sensitivity slider.
Now, as you can see, hitpoints have been set at the beginning of each 
sound in the loop.
!When a selection range is defined, hitpoints will only 
be detected within this range.  
						

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The Sample Editor
4.If you now move the hitpoint sensitivity slider to the 
left, this gradually hides the hitpoints. Moving the slider to 
the right increases the sensitivity to reveal additional hit-
points detected during the calculate process.
The basic aim is to add, remove or edit the hitpoints in various other ways 
so that one individual sound is played between each hitpoint. For details, 
see “Editing hitpoints” on page 279.
5.Verify the tempo and bars in the Definition tab. 
In the next step, the loop will adapt to the project tempo 
set in Nuendo. 
6.In the Hitpoints tab, click on the Slice & Close button 
to create audio slices from hitpoints. (You can also use the 
option “Create Audio Slices from Hitpoints” from the Au-
dio menu.)
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.
The slices in the Audio Part Editor. Here, the project tempo was higher 
than the loop’s original tempo – the slice events overlap slightly.
Sliced clips are represented by a different icon in the 
Pool.
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.
7.If you activate cycle playback on the Transport panel, 
the loop should now play back seamlessly at the tempo 
set in the program!
8.To make the loop follow any further tempo changes, 
make sure the track is set to “Musical time base” by using 
the respective button in the Track list or Inspector (the 
button should show a note symbol – see “Switching bet-
ween musical and linear time base” on page 40).
Note that if the project tempo is lower than the original 
tempo of the loop, there may be audible gaps between 
each slice event in the part.
This can be remedied by using the Close Gaps function on the Ad-
vanced submenu of the Audio menu, see “Close Gaps” on page 284. 
You should also consider activating auto fades for the respective audio 
track – fade-outs set to about 10 ms will help eliminate any clicks be-
tween the slices when you play back the part. See “Auto Fades and 
Crossfades” on page 96.
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, see “Close 
Gaps” on page 284.
Editing hitpoints
In this section, we go back a bit and look at what can be 
done with hitpoints in the Sample Editor. There are two 
ways to invoke the hitpoint calculation:
Use the sensitivity slider on the Hitpoints tab of the 
Sample Editor Inspector.
Select Calculate Hitpoints from the Hitpoints submenu 
on the Audio menu.
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. However, there will almost certainly 
be cases when the automatic calculation may add a hit-
point 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 maximum. 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. 
						

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The Sample Editor
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 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 Ed-
itor by double-clicking any event in the Audio Part Editor. If it is a new 
loop, follow the instructions below.
2.Open the Hitpoints tab and select the Edit Hitpoints 
tool.
When you point in the waveform display, the pointer changes to a 
speaker icon.
Click on this button to edit hitpoints
3.Now you can simply point and click in any slice area 
and the corresponding 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 hitpoint needs to be added, the first thing to try is 
to change the sensitivity setting – see the following sec-
tion.
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.