Steinberg Nuendo 5 Manual
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291 The Sample Editor Creating a new clip or audio file from the selection To extract a selection from an event and either create a new clip or a new audio file, proceed as follows: 1.Make a selection range. 2.Open the context menu and select “Bounce Selec- tion” from the Audio submenu. A new clip is created and added to the Pool, and another Sample Editor window opens with the new clip. This clip refers to the same audio file as the original clip, but con - tains the audio corresponding to the selection range only. 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 cy- cle mode” on page 99). You can also use this feature for marking important sections in the audio clip. Regions can be dragged into the Project window from the Sample Edi - tor or the Pool to create new audio events. Regions are best created, edited, and managed in the Sample Editor. Creating and removing regions 1.Select the range that you want to convert into a region. 2.Click the “Set up Window Layout” button and activate the Regions option. The regions list is displayed on the right. 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, double-click on it in the list and enter a new name. Using this procedure, regions can be renamed at any time. •When you click on a region in the regions list, it is in- stantly displayed in the Sample Editor. •To remove a region from a clip, select it in the list and click the Remove Region button above the list. 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 slices” on page 299. Editing regions The region selected in the list is displayed in gray in the waveform display and the overview line. There are two ways to edit the start and end positions of a region: •Click and drag the region start and end handles in the waveform display (with any tool). When you move the pointer over the handles, it automatically changes to indicate that you can drag the handles. •Edit the Start and End positions in the corresponding fields in the regions 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. You can also listen to a region by selecting it in the list and clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar. This way you can preview separate regions by clicking on them in the list or by selecting them with the up/down arrow keys on your computer keyboard.
292 The Sample Editor 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) and zoomed. This is useful if you want to ap- ply processing to the region only. ÖYou can also double-click a region in the Pool to have its audio clip opened in the Sample Editor with the area of the region automatically selected. Creating audio events from regions To create new audio events from regions using drag & drop, proceed as follows: 1.In the list, click on the region and keep the mouse but- ton pressed. 2.Drag the region to the desired position in the project and release the mouse button. A new event is created. •You can also use the “Events from Regions” function from the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu (see “Re- gion operations” on page 79). 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 330. 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. Proceed as follows: 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. ÖThe Pencil tool cannot be used when the VariAudio tab is open. Options and settings Show Audio Event When the “Show Audio Event” button is activated on the toolbar, the section corresponding to the edited event is highlighted in the waveform display and the Overview. The sections of the audio clip not belonging to the event are shown with a gray background. •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. Snap The Snap function helps you to find exact positions when editing in the Sample Editor by restricting horizontal movement and positioning to certain grid positions. You turn Snap on or off by clicking the Snap button in the Sample Editor toolbar. ÖThe Sample Editor Snap function is independent of the Snap setting in the Project window toolbar or other editors. It has no effect outside the Sample Editor. Snap to Zero Crossing When this option is activated, editing is done at zero crossings (positions in the audio where the amplitude is zero). This helps you to avoid pops and clicks which might otherwise be caused by sudden amplitude changes. ÖIf hitpoints have been calculated, these are also taken into account when snapping to zero crossings. !This button is only available if you have opened the Sample Editor by double-clicking an audio event in the Project window or the Audio Part Editor. It is not available if you have opened the audio event from the Pool.
293 The Sample Editor ÖThe Sample Editor function “Snap to Zero Crossing” is independent of the same setting in the Project window toolbar or other editors. It has no effect outside the Sam - ple Editor. Auto-Scroll When the Auto-Scroll option is activated on the Sample Editor toolbar, the waveform display will scroll during play - back, keeping the project cursor visible in the editor. ÖThis setting is independent of the Auto-Scroll setting in the Project window toolbar or other editors. AudioWarp: Tempo matching audio AudioWarp means realtime time stretching functions in Nuendo. The main AudioWarp features are tempo match - ing audio loops to the project tempo and matching up an audio clip with fluctuating tempo to a fixed tempo. Musical Mode 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 only need to activate the Musical Mode on the toolbar. The Musical Mode is one of the key AudioWarp features. 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 without worrying too much about timing. When Musical Mode is activated, audio events will adapt to any tempo changes in Nuendo, just like MIDI events. You can activate Musical Mode on the AudioWarp tab, the Definition tab, and the toolbar. It is also possible to activate/deactivate Musical Mode from within the Pool by clicking the corresponding check - box in the Musical Mode column. To tempo match an audio loop to the project tempo, pro- ceed as follows: 1.Import your loop into the project and double-click it to open the Sample Editor. If you open the Definition tab and take a look at the rulers, you will see that the project tempo grid (upper ruler) and the grid of your audio (lower ruler) do not match.
294 The Sample Editor 2.Activate the Musical Mode button on the toolbar. Your clip is warped and stretched automatically to adapt it to the project tempo. The rulers reflect the change. In the Project window, the audio event is now shown with a note symbol and a double arrow in the upper right cor - ner to indicate that Musical Mode is activated. The Musical Mode state is saved with the project. This al- lows you to import files into the project with Musical Mode already activated. The tempo is also saved when exporting files. Auto Adjust If you want to use an audio file with unknown tempo or if the beat of your loop is not straight, you have to change the “definition” of this audio file first. This is done with the Auto Adjust function on the Definition tab of the Sample Editor Inspector. The Auto Adjust function quantizes your audio automati- cally, i. e. the transients are moved to exact note values in the audio grid. Proceed as follows: 1.Open the Sample Editor and define a selection range for your audio clip. Alternatively, you can define a range by setting the start and end of the audio event. 2.Open the Definition tab and click the Auto Adjust button. The transients, i. e. the significant positions of your audio are moved to exact note values in the audio grid. 3.Activate the Musical Mode button on the toolbar. Your clip is warped and stretched automatically to adapt it to the project tempo. The rulers reflect the change. You can see that the event snap point is moved to the start of the selected range. If you take a look at the lower ruler, you will see that red vertical lines are shown. These indicate that your audio has been aligned to bar and beat positions. !Nuendo supports ACID® loops. These loops are standard audio files but with embedded tempo/length information. When ACID® files are imported into Nu - endo, Musical Mode is automatically activated and the loops will adapt to the project tempo.
295 The Sample Editor Manual Adjust You might have a very special loop where the automatic function does not lead to satisfying results. In this case you can manually adjust the grid and tempo of your audio file. Proceed as follows: 1.Open the Definition tab in the Sample Editor Inspector and activate the Manual Adjust tool. 2.Select a suitable value from the Grid pop-up menu. This determines the grid resolution for your audio. The vertical lines of the grid represent bar positions, and the red vertical lines beat positions. 3.Move the mouse pointer to the beginning of the audio file until the tooltip “Set Grid Start” is displayed. The mouse pointer turns into a double arrow to indicate that you can edit the time grid for the audio file. 4.Click and drag to the right to set the grid start at the first downbeat, and release the mouse button. The lower ruler (for the audio) changes to reflect your edits. 5.Audition the file to determine where the second bar in the sample begins. 6.In the upper part of the waveform, move the mouse pointer to the vertical line nearest to the second bar so that the tooltip “Stretch Grid” and a blue vertical line are shown. The functionality of the Manual Adjust tool changes depending on its po-sition, e. g. if applied in the lower part of the waveform on a vertical line, it is used to set a bar position, see below. 7.Click and drag the blue vertical line to the left or right to the position of the first downbeat in the second bar and release the mouse button. The beginning of the next bar is set, and all following bars are stretched or compressed by the same amount. 8.Check the positions of the following bars and, if nec- essary, move the mouse pointer over the grid lines in the lower part of the waveform until the tooltip “Set Bar Posi - tion (Move Following Bars)” and a green vertical line are shown. This allows you to set the bar positions. When you drag the mouse, the beginning of the next bar is set, and the tempo of the previous bar is changed. 9.Now have a look at the single beats in between the bars and, if necessary, move the mouse pointer to a beat position to adjust them. The Set Beat Position function is displayed with a light blue line. Drag it until the single beat position is aligned with the waveform, and release the mouse button.
296 The Sample Editor •If you are not satisfied with a specific edit, you can hold down any modifier key and click on the adjusted grid line (bar or beat). The Eraser tool appears together with a tooltip indicating that you can re-move your edit. When you are done, you can activate Musical Mode to ad- just your audio loop to the project tempo. Applying swing If you find that your audio sounds too straight, e. g. after having quantized it with the Auto Adjust function, you can add swing. Proceed as follows: 1.Activate Musical Mode. 2.On the AudioWarp tab, select a suitable grid resolu- tion from the Resolution pop-up menu. This defines the positions that the swing is applied to. If you select 1/2, the swing is applied in steps of half notes, if you select 1/4, it is applied in steps of quarter notes, etc. 3.Move the Swing fader to the right to offset every sec- ond position in the grid. This creates a swing or shuffle feel. Depending on how far you move the fader to the right and what grid resolution you chose, this function offers every - thing from half-note swing to 64th-note swing. Selecting an algorithm for realtime playback In the Algorithm pop-up menu on the toolbar you can se- lect the algorithm preset to be applied on realtime play- back. This setting affects warp changes in Musical Mode, FreeWarp, Swing, as well as VariAudio warping and pitching (only the Solo preset can be used). On this pop-up menu you can find various options that govern the audio quality of the realtime time stretching. There are presets that allow you to manually set warp pa - rameters: OptionDescription DrumsThis mode is best for percussive sounds, because it does not change the timing of your audio. Using this option for pitched audio will lead to noticeable artifacts. In this case, you can try the Mix mode. PluckedUse this mode for audio with transients and a relatively stable spectral sound character (e. g. plucked instruments). PadsUse this mode for pitched audio with slower rhythm and a sta-ble spectral sound character. This minimizes sound artifacts, but the rhythmic accuracy is not preserved. VocalsThis mode is suitable for slower signals with transients and a prominent tonal character (e. g. vocals). MixThis mode preserves the rhythm and minimizes the artifacts for pitched material which does not meet the above criteria (i. e. with a less homogenous sound character). This is selected by default for audio that is not categorized. AdvancedThis allows for a manual tweaking of the time stretching pa-rameters. By default, the settings that are shown when you open the dialog are those of the last preset used (except if the Solo mode has been selected, see below). The Advanced settings are described more in detail below this table. SoloThis mode preserves the timbre of the audio. Only use it for monophonic material (solo woodwind/brass instruments or solo vocals, monophonic synths or string instruments that do not play harmonies).
297 The Sample Editor 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: Free Warp The Free Warp tool allows you to create warp tabs. Warp tabs are a kind of marker or anchor that can be attached to musically relevant time positions in an audio event, for ex - ample the first beat of every bar. Warp tabs can be dragged to the corresponding time positions in the project, and the audio will be stretched accordingly. A typical application of warp tabs is to use them to syn- chronize audio to video (see the chapter “Audio editing to picture” on page 535). You can also use warp tabs for further tweaking after hav- ing activated Musical Mode. Using the Free Warp tool Warp tabs are created using the Free Warp tool on the Au- dioWarp tab of the Sample Editor, but can also be created from hitpoints (see “Creating warp tabs from hitpoints” on page 298). In this example, we will show how a file with slightly varying tempo can be locked to a steady tempo by using warp tabs. It illustrates the general methods of using warp tabs and the Free Warp tool. But you can of course use warp tabs for other operations than aligning downbeats to grid positions. With the Free Warp tool, you can literally stretch any region within a sample to any position! Proceed as follows: 1.Open the audio file that you wish to process in the Sample Editor. 2.Activate the “Snap to Zero Crossing” button on the Sample Editor toolbar. When you activate this button, warp tabs will snap to zero crossings and hitpoints (if shown). 3.On the Definition tab, click the Auto Adjust button. 4.Line up the audio file so that the first beat of the first bar (in the audio event) starts on the first beat of a bar in the project. •If the audio file does not start on a downbeat, you can use the Event Start handle in the Sample Editor and adjust the position in the Project window so that the first down - beat in the sample is aligned with the first beat of a bar in the grid. Now the first musical downbeat should be aligned with the first beat of a bar in the project. The next step is to find out where the first warp tab needs to be added. Activate the metronome click on the Trans - port panel and play back your audio clip to determine po- sitions where its tempo drifts from the project tempo. ParameterDescription Grain sizeThe 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, use low Grain size values for best results. OverlapOverlap is the percentage of the whole grain that will overlap with other grains. Use higher values for material with a stable sound character. VarianceVariance is also a percentage of the whole length of the grains, and sets a variation in positioning so that the overlap-ping area sounds smooth. A Variance setting of 0 will pro-duce a sound akin to time stretching used in early samplers, whereas higher settings produce more (rhythmic) “smear-ing” effects but less audio artifacts. !If the VariAudio tab is open, only the warp handles are shown. !When you activate or deactivate Musical Mode or select another Resolution value, all your warp modifi - cations will be lost.
298 The Sample Editor 5.Play back the audio file and determine where the first beat of a bar in the audio event does not match the corre - sponding ruler position in the project. If you find it difficult to pinpoint an exact position in the audio event, you can use the Scrub tool and/or zoom in the view. 6.On the AudioWarp tab, select the Free Warp tool, place the pointer at the position of the beat that you want to adjust, click, and hold. When you place the mouse pointer in the waveform display, it changes to a clock with arrows on either side and a vertical line in the middle, which represents the pointer. 7.With the mouse button still pressed, drag the warp tab to the desired position in the ruler and release the mouse button. A warp tab is added and your beat should be perfectly aligned with the corresponding position in the project. If the position where you clicked was off, you can adjust it by dragging the handle. ÖYou can also first add warp tabs at the relevant musi- cal positions and change their positions later, see “Editing warp tabs” on page 298. Next to the warp tab handle in the ruler, a number is shown. This number indicates the warp factor, i. e. the amount of stretch. Warp factor numbers higher than 1.0 indicate that the audio region preceding the warp tab is expanded and will play back slower. Warp factor numbers lower than 1.0 indicate that the audio region preceding the warp tab is compressed and will play back faster. 8.Repeat the described steps to align the first beat in each bar to the corresponding ruler position. ÖYou only have to add warp tabs where the downbeat in the audio file drifts from the ruler position and/or if you want to lock a warp tab so that it is not moved when edit - ing other points. Editing warp tabs Moving the destination of existing warp tabs To move the destination position of a warp tab (and thus stretch or compress the audio), select the Free Warp tool and position the pointer on the warp line in the waveform, click and drag. Moving the insert position of existing warp tabs If you wish to change the insert position of a warp tab in the audio, click and drag the warp tab handle in the ruler. This will change the warping. Disabling warp tabs You can disable all warp modifications by clicking the “Disable Warp Changes” button on the AudioWarp tab or by setting up and using the “VariAudio - Disable Warp Changes” key command in the Key Commands dialog, Sample Editor category (see “Key commands” on page 580). Deleting warp tabs To delete a warp tab, hold down [Alt]/[Option] so that the pointer becomes an eraser and click on the warp tab. To delete several warp tabs, hold down [Alt]/[Option] while drawing a selection rectangle. Resetting warp modifications To reset your Free Warp edits, click the Reset button on the AudioWarp tab. This also resets the “Disable Warp Changes” button on the same tab. ÖIf Musical Mode is activated, only Free Warp edits are reset. Creating warp tabs from hitpoints You can also create warp tabs from hitpoints by selecting “Create Warp Tabs from Hitpoints” on the Realtime Pro - cessing submenu of the Audio menu.
299 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 adds a type of marker, i. e. 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. The groove map can then be used 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. You can further edit these slices in the Audio Part Editor. You can, for example: • 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. • Transpose in realtime and stretch slices. • Edit slice envelopes. ÖHitpoints are only displayed in the waveform if the Hit- points tab is open. Using hitpoints The main 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 a notice- able attack. Slow attacks, legato playing, etc. may not produce the desired result. •Poorly recorded audio might be difficult to slice correctly. 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, check if your audio file is suited for slicing using hitpoints, see above. Proceed as follows: 1.Open the Hitpoints tab and select an option from the Use pop-up menu. The Use pop-up menu on the Hitpoints tab affects which hitpoints are shown and is a useful tool for removing unwanted hitpoints. The following options are available: ÖIf you select one of the options of the Use pop-up menu (except “All”), a second ruler that displays the musical structure of the audio file is shown below the ordinary ruler. 2.Move the Sensitivity slider to the right to add hitpoints or to the left to remove unwanted hitpoints until one indi - vidual sound is played between two hitpoints. If your main reason for slicing the loop is to change the tempo, you gen- erally 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, try to get ap -proximately one slice per eighth note, sixteenth note, or whatever the loop requires (see “Creating groove quantize maps” on page 301). In the next step, the loop will be adapted to the project tempo set in Nuendo. 3.On the Hitpoints tab, click the Create Slices button or select “Create Audio Slices from Hitpoints” from the Hit - points submenu of the Audio menu. OptionDescription AllAll hitpoints are shown (taking the Sensitivity slider into ac-count). 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32Only hitpoints that are close to the selected note value posi-tions within the loop are shown (e. g. close to exact sixteenth note positions). Again, the Sensitivity slider is taken into ac-count. Metric BiasThis is like the “All” mode, but all hitpoints that are close to even meter divisions (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc.) get a “sensitivity boost” – they are visible at lower sensitivity settings. This is useful if you are working with dense or cluttered material with a lot of hitpoints, but you know that the material is based on a strict meter. By selecting Metric Bias it is easier to find the hit -points close to the meter position (although most other hit-points are also available, at higher sensitivity settings).
300 The Sample Editor The following happens: • The Sample Editor closes. • The audio event is “sliced” so that the sections between the hitpoints become separate events, all referring to the same original file. • 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. This takes the specified loop length into account: e. g., if the loop was 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 within the part. • In the Pool, the sliced clip is shown with a different icon. Drag- ging the sliced clip from the Pool to an audio track creates an audio part with the slices adapted to the project tempo, just as above. 4.Activate cycle playback on the Transport panel. The loop should now play back seamlessly at the tempo set in the project! Hitpoints and tempo settings The musical time base setting and the project tempo af- fect how your loops are played back. •Make sure that the “Musical time base” button in the track list or Inspector is activated (the button shows a note symbol – see “Switching between musical and linear time base” on page 63). This way the loop will follow any fur- ther tempo changes. •If the project tempo is slower than the original tempo of the loop, there may be audible gaps between each slice event in the part. To remedy this, you can use the Close Gaps function on the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu, see “Close Gaps” on page 302. Also con- sider activating auto fades for the corresponding audio track – fade-outs set to about 10 ms will help eliminate any clicks between the slices when you play back the part. See “Auto fades and crossfades” on page 120 for details. •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 302. The slices in the Audio Part Editor. Here, the project tempo was higher than the loop’s original tempo – the slice events overlap. Setting hitpoints manually If you cannot get the desired result by adjusting the sensi- tivity, try to set and edit hitpoints manually. Proceed as follows: 1.Zoom in on the waveform at the point where you wish to add a hitpoint. 2.Select the Edit Hitpoints tool to audition the area and make sure that the start of the sound is in view. 3.Activate “Snap to Zero Crossing” on the Sample Edi- tor toolbar. By finding zero crossings in the waveform (positions where the amplitude is close to zero), manually added slices will not insert any clicks or pops. All hitpoints calculated by the program are automatically placed at zero crossings. 4.Press [Alt]/[Option] 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 notice that a hitpoint was either placed too far away from the start of the sound or too far into the sound, you can move it by dragging the hitpoint to the new position. !When you create slices, all events referring to the edited clip are also replaced. !“Snap to Zero Crossing” may alter the timing. In some cases it is better to deactivate it, especially if you just want to generate a groove quantize map. However, if you create slices afterwards, auto fades are necessary.