User manual

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The Sample Editor
Selecting an algorithm for realtime playback
In the Algorithm pop-up in the toolbar you can select the
algorithm to be applied on realtime playback.
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 which allows you to 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:
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, 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. 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.
You can further edit these slices in the Audio Part Editor.
For example you can:
• 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.
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 artifacts. In this case, you can try
the Mix mode.
Plucked This should be used for audio with transients and a relatively
stable spectral sound character (e.g. plucked instruments).
Pads Use this mode for pitched audio with slower rhythm and a
stable spectral sound character. This will minimize sound arti-
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 artifacts
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 catego-
rized.
Advanced This 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 used preset (except if
the Solo mode was selected, see below). The Advanced set-
tings 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
instruments or solo vocals, monophonic synths or string in-
struments that do not play harmonies).
Parameter Description
Grain size 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 Grain size 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 artifacts.