User manual

27
The Project window
Audio handling
When you work with audio files, it is crucial to understand
how audio is handled in Cubase:
When you edit or process audio in the project window,
you always work with an audio clip that is automatically
created on import or when you record audio. This audio
clip refers to the audio file on the hard disk that remains
untouched. This means, that audio editing and processing
is “non-destructive”, in the sense that you can always
undo changes or revert to the original versions.
The audio clip does not necessarily refer to just one orig-
inal audio file! If you apply e.g. some processing to a sec-
tion of an audio clip, this will actually create a new audio
file that contains only the section in question. The pro-
cessing will then be applied to the new audio file only,
leaving the original audio file unchanged. Finally, the audio
clip is automatically adjusted, so that it refers both to the
original file and to the new, processed file. During play-
back, the program will switch between the original file and
the processed file at the correct positions. You will hear
this as a single recording, with processing applied to one
section only. This feature makes it possible to undo pro-
cessing at a later stage, and to apply different processing
to different audio clips that refer to the same original file.
The audio event is the object that you place on a time po-
sition in Cubase. If you make copies of an audio event and
move them to different positions in the project, they will
still all refer to the same audio clip. Furthermore, each au-
dio event has an Offset value and a Length value. These
determine at which positions in the clip the event will start
and end, i.e. which section of the audio clip will be played
back by the audio event. For example, if you resize the au-
dio event, you will just change its start and/or end position
in the audio clip – the clip itself will not be affected.
An audio region is a section within a clip with a length
value, a start time, and a snap point. Audio regions are
shown in the pool and are best created and edited in the
Sample Editor.
Ö If you want to use one audio file in different contexts, or
if you want to create several loops from one audio file, you
should convert the corresponding regions of the audio clip
to events and bounce them into separate audio files. This is
necessary since different events that refer to the same clip
access the same clip information.