User manual

257
The Sample Editor
Match-Quantizing audio
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. Some-
times 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. This also defines the point which will be
stretched to a grid position when quantizing.
• To activate Q-points, open the Preferences (Editing–
Audio page) and activate the option “Hitpoints have Q-
Points”.
Next time you use the Calculate Hitpoints function, the hitpoints will have
Q-points.
• To offset the position of a Q-point in relation to the hit-
point, simply click on the “Q” icon and drag it to the right
to the desired position.
Creating slices
When you have specified the correct loop length and time
signature and worked on the hitpoints in the Sample Edi-
tor so that one sound per slice is heard, it is time to actu-
ally slice the file (if that is what you want to do – there are
other uses for hitpoints as well, as described on the fol-
lowing pages). This is done either by clicking on the Slice
& Close button in the Hitpoints tab of the Sample Editor
Inspector or by selecting “Create Audio Slices from Hit-
points” from the Hitpoints submenu on the Audio menu.
The following happens:
• If you edited an event on an audio track, the Sample Ed-
itor 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 referring to the same original file.
• On the audio track, the former audio event is replaced
by an audio part that contains 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.
See also the section “Calculating hitpoints and slicing a
loop” on page 253.
• The loop is automatically adapted to the tempo set in
Cubase.
This takes the loop length you specified into account: e.g., if the loop
was one bar long, the part is resized to fit exactly one bar in the Cubase
tempo, and the slices are moved accordingly, keeping their relative posi-
tions within the part.
You can change the tempo and have the loop automati-
cally follow (provided that the track is set to musical time
base, see “Switching between musical and linear time
base” on page 42). Furthermore, you can double-click the
part to edit the slices in the Audio Part Editor to:
• 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 Se-
lection” function on the Audio menu.
• Realtime transpose and stretch slices.
• Edit slice envelopes.
Creating groove quantize maps
You can generate groove quantize maps based on the hit-
points you have created in the Sample Editor. Groove
quantizing is not meant for correcting errors, but for creat-
ing rhythmic feels. This is done by comparing your re-
corded 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).
!
Sounds with a slow attack have their rhythmic center
at some point before the peak.
!
Only when the audio tempo has been defined and
the audio grid matches the project tempo, your slices
will be straight (quantized).
!
When you create slices, all events containing the ed-
ited clip will also be replaced.