Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

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Audio processing and functions
7.Create a new curve point to set the duration of the 
pitchbend, i.e. the time the pitch should remain trans-
posed by 2 semitones.
8.Finally, create a point where you want the pitchbend to 
end.
You do not have to create a new point if you are at the end of the audio 
file, since there is always an end point at the right side of the waveform 
display.
9.If necessary, make additional settings in the Pitch Shift 
Mode section, see “Pitch Shift Mode” on page 209.
10.Click Process.
The pitchbend is applied according to the specified settings.
Remove DC Offset
This function will remove any DC offset in the audio selec-
tion. A DC offset is when there is too large a DC (direct 
current) component in the signal, sometimes visible as the 
signal not being visually centered around the “zero level 
axis”. DC offsets do not affect what you actually hear, but 
they affect zero crossing detection and certain process-
ing, and it is recommended that you remove them.
There are no parameters for this function. Note that you can 
check for DC Offset in an audio clip using the Statistics 
function (see “Statistics (Cubase only)” on page 218).
Resample
The Resample function can be used for changing the 
length, tempo and pitch of an event.
The original sample rate of the event is listed in the dialog. 
Resample the event to a higher or lower sample rate by ei-
ther specifying a sample rate or by specifying the differ-
ence (as a percentage value) between the original sample 
rate and the desired new one.Resampling to a higher sample rate will make the event 
longer and cause the audio to play back at a slower speed 
with a lower pitch.
Resampling to a lower sample rate will make the event 
shorter and cause the audio to play back at a faster speed 
with a higher pitch.
You can audition the result of the resampling by enter-
ing the desired value and clicking “Preview”.
The event will then be played back as it will sound after the resampling.
When you are satisfied with the preview result, click 
“Process” to close the dialog and apply the processing.
Reverse
Reverses the audio selection, as when playing a tape 
backwards. There are no parameters for this function.
Silence
Replaces the selection with silence. There are no parame-
ters for this function.
Stereo Flip
This function works with stereo audio selections only. It al-
lows you to manipulate the left and right channel in various 
ways. 
The dialog contains the following parameters:
Mode
 
!It is recommended that this function is applied to 
complete audio clips, since the DC offset (if any) is 
normally present throughout the entire recording. 
						

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This pop-up menu determines what the function does:
Time Stretch
This function allows you to change the length and “tempo” 
of the selected audio without affecting the pitch. The dia-
log contains the following parameters:
Define Bars section
In this section, you set the length of the selected audio 
and the time signature:
Original Length section
This section contains information and settings regarding 
the audio selected for processing:
Resulting Length section
These settings are used if you want to stretch the audio to 
fit within a specific time span or tempo. The values will 
change automatically if you adjust the Time Stretch Ratio 
(see below).
Seconds Range section
These settings allow you to set the desired range for the 
time stretch.
Time Stretch Ratio section
The Time Stretch Ratio determines the amount of time 
stretch as a percentage of the original length. If you use 
the settings in the Resulting Length section to specify the 
amount of time stretch, this value will change automati-
cally. The possible range depends on the “Effect” option:
If the “Effect” checkbox is deactivated, the range is 75–
125 %.
This is the preferred mode if you want to preserve the character of the 
sound.
If the “Effect” checkbox is activated, you can specify val-
ues between 10 and 1000 % (Realtime), or 50 and 200 % 
(MPEX 4). 
This mode is mainly useful for special effects, etc.
Option Description
Flip Left-Right Swaps the left and right channel.
Left to Stereo Copies the left channel sound to the right channel.
Right to Stereo Copies the right channel sound to the left channel.
Merge Merges both channels on each side for mono sound.
Subtract Subtracts the left channel information from the right and 
vice versa. This is typically used as a “Karaoke effect”, 
for removing centered mono material from a stereo sig-
nal.
Option Description
Bars If you use the tempo setting (see below), you can specify 
the length of the selected audio here, in bars.
Beats If you use the tempo setting, you can specify the length of 
the selected audio here, in beats.
Sign. If you use the tempo setting, you can specify the time sig-
nature here.
Option Description
Length in 
SamplesThe length of the selected audio, in samples.Length in 
SecondsThe length of the selected audio, in seconds.
Tempo in BPM If you are processing music, and know the actual tempo 
of the audio, you can enter it here as beats per minute. 
This makes it possible to time-stretch the audio to an-
other tempo, without having to compute the actual time 
stretch amount.
Option Description
Samples The desired length in samples.
Seconds The desired length in seconds.
BPM The desired tempo (beats per minute). For this to work, 
you have to know the actual tempo of the audio, and 
specify this (along with time signature and length in bars) 
in the Original Length section to the left.
Option Description
Range Allows you to specify the desired length as a range be-
tween two time positions.
Use Locators Clicking the diamond-shaped button below the Range 
fields sets the Range values to the left and right Locator 
positions, respectively. Option Description 
						

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Audio processing and functions
Algorithm section
Allows you to select a time stretch algorithm: MPEX 4 and 
Realtime mode. 
MPEX 4 mode
This mode is based on Prosoniq’s proprietary MPEX (Minimum Percei-
ved Loss Time Compression/Expansion) algorithm. This algorithm (which 
is also used in Prosoniq’s TimeFactory™ application) uses an artificial 
neural network for time series prediction in the scale space domain to 
achieve high end time and pitch scaling. This gives the best possible au-
dio quality result. You can choose between 7 quality settings, see “Pitch 
Shift Mode” on page 209.
Realtime mode
This is the algorithm used for the realtime time stretching features in Cu-
base. Although this algorithm is optimized for time stretching in realtime, 
you can use it for offline processing as well. The Presets pop-up con-
tains the same presets as found in the Algorithm pop-up in the Sample 
Editor, see “Selecting an algorithm for realtime playback” on page 234.
Applying plug-ins (Cubase only)
You can add plug-in effects in realtime during playback 
(see the chapter “Audio effects” on page 150). However, 
sometimes it is useful to “permanently” apply effects to 
one or several selected events. In Cubase, this is done in 
the following way:
1.Make a selection in the Project window, the Pool or an 
editor.
Effects are applied according to the same rules as Processing (see 
“Common settings and features” on page 206).
2.Select “Plug-ins” from the Audio menu.
3.Select the desired effect from the submenu.
The Process Plug-in dialog appears.
About stereo and mono
If you are applying an effect to mono audio material, only 
the left side of the effect’s stereo output will be applied.
The process plug-in dialog
The process plug-in dialog for the StudioChorus effect.
The upper section of the process plug-in dialog contains 
the effect parameters of the selected plug-in. For details 
on the parameters of the included plug-ins, see the sepa-
rate PDF document “Plug-in Reference”.
The lower section of the dialog contains settings for the 
actual processing. These are common to all plug-ins.
If the lower section is hidden, click the “More…” button 
to display it.
Clicking the button again (now labeled “Less…”) will hide the lower sec-
tion.
The following settings and functions are available in the 
common, lower section of the dialog:
Wet mix/Dry mix
These two sliders allow you to specify the balance be-
tween wet (processed) and dry (original) signal in the re-
sulting clip. 
Normally the two sliders are “reverse-ganged”, so that 
raising the Wet mix slider lowers the Dry mix slider by the 
same amount. However, if you press [Alt]/[Option] and 
drag a slider, you can move it independently. This allows 
you to set e.g. 80 % dry and 80 % wet signal. Be careful to 
avoid distortion. 
						

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Audio processing and functions
Tail
This parameter is useful if you are applying an effect that 
adds material after the end of original audio (such as re-
verb and delay effects). When the checkbox is activated, 
you can specify a tail length using the slider. The tail time 
is included when playing back with the Preview function, 
allowing you to find the appropriate tail length.
Pre/Post-Crossfade
These settings allow you to gradually mix the effect in or 
out. If you activate Pre-Crossfade and specify a value of 
e.g. 1000 ms, the effect will be applied gradually from the 
start of selection, reaching full effect 1000 ms after the 
start. Similarly, if you activate Post-Crossfade, the pro-
cessing will gradually be removed starting at the specified 
interval before the end of the selection.
Preview button
Allows you to listen to the result of the processing with the 
current settings. Playback will continue repeatedly until you 
click the button again (the button is labeled “Stop” during 
Preview playback). You can change the effect settings dur-
ing Preview playback if needed.
Process button
Applies the effect and closes the dialog.
Cancel button
Closes the dialog without applying the effect.
The Offline Process History dialog
If you want to remove or modify some or all processing 
from a clip, this can be done in the Offline Process History 
dialog. Processing that can be modified in the Offline Pro-
cess History dialog includes the functions on the Process 
menu, any applied plug-in effects (Cubase only), and Sam-
ple Editor operations such as Cut, Paste, Delete and draw-
ing with the Pencil tool.
ÖDue to the clip-file relationship (see “Background” on 
page 205), it is even possible to modify or remove some 
processing “in the middle” of the Process History, while 
keeping later processing! This feature depends on the type 
of processing performed (see “Restrictions” on page 215).
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the clip in the Pool or one of its events in the 
Project window.
You can see which clips have been processed by checking the Status 
column in the Pool – the waveform symbol indicates that processing or 
effects have been applied to the clip (see “About the Status column sym-
bols” on page 262).
2.Select “Offline Process History…” from the Audio 
menu.
The Offline Process History dialog appears.
The left part of the dialog contains a list of all processing 
you have added to the clip, with the most recent opera-
tions at the bottom of the list. The “Start” and “Length” 
columns indicate which section of the clip was affected by 
each operation. The “Status” column indicates if the oper-
ation can be modified or undone.
3.Locate the operation you want to edit and select it by 
clicking on it in the list.
!The sum of the Pre- and Post-Crossfade times can-
not be larger than the length of the selection. 
						

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To modify the settings of the selected processing, click 
the “Modify” button.
This opens the dialog for the processing function or applied effect, allow-
ing you to change the settings. This works just as when you applied the 
processing or effect the first time.
To replace the selected operation with another pro-
cessing function or effect, select the desired function from 
the pop-up menu and click the “Replace By” button.
If the selected function has settings, a dialog will appear as usual. The 
original operation will then be removed and the new processing will be 
inserted in the Offline Process History.
To remove the selected operation, click the “Remove” 
button.
The processing is removed from the clip.
To undo the selected operation and remove the pro-
cessing from the clip click the “Deactivate” button.
The processing is removed from the clip, but the operation remains in the 
list. To redo the operation and apply the processing again, click the but-
ton, now renamed to “Activate”, again.
4.Click “Close” to close the dialog.
Restrictions
If there are no settings for the processing function, you 
cannot modify it.
If you have applied processing that changes the length 
of the clip (such as Cut, Insert or Time Stretch), you can 
only remove this if it is the most recent processing in the 
Offline Process History (at the bottom of the list in the di-
alog). If an operation cannot be removed or modified, this 
is indicated by an icon in the “Status” column. Also, the 
corresponding buttons will be grayed out.
Freeze Edits
The Freeze Edits function on the Audio menu allows you 
to make all processing and applied effects permanent for 
a clip:
1.Select the clip in the Pool or one of its events in the 
Project window.
2.Select “Freeze Edits…” from the Audio menu.
If there is only one edit version of the clip (no other clips 
refer to the same audio file), the following dialog will appear:
If you select “Replace”, all edits will be applied to the orig-
inal audio file (the one listed in the clip’s Path column in 
the Pool). If you select “New File”, the Freeze Edits opera-
tion will create a new file in the Audio folder within the pro-
ject folder (leaving the original audio file unaffected).
If the selected clip (or the clip played by the selected 
event) has several edit versions (i.e. there are other clips 
referring to the same audio file), the following alert will 
appear:
As you can see, you do not have the option to Replace the 
original audio file in this case. This is because that audio 
file is used by other clips. Select “New File” to have a new 
file created in the Audio folder within the project folder.
!After a Freeze Edits, the clip refers to a new, single 
audio file. If you open the Offline Process History di-
alog for the clip, the list will be empty. 
						

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Audio processing and functions
Detect Silence
The Detect Silence function on the Advanced submenu of 
the Audio menu searches for silent sections in an event 
and either splits the event, removing the silent parts from 
the project, or creates regions corresponding to the non-
silent sections. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the event in the Project window or the Audio 
Part Editor.
You can select several events if you like, in which case you will be al-
lowed to make separate settings for each selected event.
2.Select “Detect Silence” from the Advanced submenu 
of the Audio menu.
The Detect Silence dialog appears.
3.Adjust the settings in the Detection section to the left.
They have the following functionality:
4.Click the “Compute” button.
The audio event is analyzed, and the waveform display is redrawn to indi-
cate which sections will be considered “silent”, according to your set-
tings. Above the Compute Button the number of detected regions is 
displayed.
If you activate the “auto” checkbox next to the Compute 
button, the audio event will be analyzed (and the display 
will be updated) automatically every time you change the 
settings in the Detection section of the dialog.
Please note that you should not activate this option when you are work-
ing with very long files, as this process might take some time.
Setting Description
Open 
ThresholdWhen the audio level exceeds this value, the function will 
“open”, i.e. let the sound through.
Set this low enough to open when a sound starts, but 
high enough to remove unwanted noise during “silent” 
sections.
Close 
ThresholdWhen the audio level drops below this value, the function 
will “close”. This value cannot be higher than the Open 
Threshold value. 
Set this high enough to remove unwanted noise during 
“silent” sections.
Linked If this checkbox is ticked, Open and Close Threshold will 
be set to the same value.
min. time 
openDetermines the minimum time that the function will re-
main “open” after the audio level has exceeded the Open 
Threshold value.
If the audio contains repeated short sounds, and you find 
that this results in too many short “open” sections, try 
raising this value.
min. time 
closedDetermines the minimum time that the function will re-
main “closed” after the audio level has dropped below 
the Close Threshold value.
Usually you would want to set this to a low value, to avoid 
removing sounds.
Pre-Roll Allows you to have the function “open” slightly before the 
audio level exceeds the Open Threshold value. In other 
words, the start of each “open” section is moved to the 
left according to the time you set here.
This is useful to avoid removing the attack of sounds.
Post-Roll Allows you to have the function “close” slightly after the 
audio level drops below the Close Threshold value.
This is useful to avoid removing the natural decay of 
sounds. Setting Description 
						

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Audio processing and functions
You can use the Preview function to listen to the result.
The event is played back repeatedly in its entire length, but with the 
“closed” sections silenced.
5.Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you are satisfied with the 
result.
6.Now activate the “Add as Regions” or the “Strip Si-
lence” checkbox, or both.
“Add as Regions” will create regions according to the non-silent sec-
tions. “Strip Silence” will split the event at the start and end of each non-
silent section, and remove the silent sections in between.
7.If you activate “Add as Regions”, you can specify a 
name for the Regions in the Region Name field.
In addition to the name, the regions will be numbered, starting with the 
number specified in the Auto Number Start field.
8.Click “Process”.
The event is split and/or regions are added.
The result of the “Strip Silence” option.
If you selected more than one event in step 1 above, you 
can activate the “process all” checkbox to apply the same 
settings to all selected events. If you do not activate this, 
the dialog will appear again, allowing you to make sepa-
rate settings for each event.
The Spectrum Analyzer 
(Cubase only)
This function analyzes the selected audio, computes the 
average “spectrum” (level distribution over the frequency 
range) and displays this as a two-dimensional graph, with 
frequency on the x-axis and level on the y-axis.
1.Make an audio selection (a clip, an event or a range se-
lection).
2.Select “Spectrum Analyzer” from the Audio menu.
A dialog with settings for the analysis appears.
The default values give good results in most situations, but 
you can adjust the settings if you like:
3.Click the “Process” button.
The spectrum is computed and displayed as a graph.
Option Description
Size  in Samples The function divides the audio into “analysis blocks”, the 
size of which is set here. The larger this value, the higher 
the frequency resolution of the resulting spectrum.
Size of Overlap The overlap between each analysis block.
Window used Allows you to select which window type should be used 
for the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform, the mathematical 
method used for computing the spectrum). 
Normalized 
ValuesWhen this is activated, the resulting level values are 
scaled, so that the highest level is displayed as “1” 
(0 dB).
From  Stereo When analyzing stereo material, there is a pop-up menu 
with the following options:
Mono mix – the stereo signal is mixed to mono before 
analyzing.
Mono left/right – the left or right channel signal is used 
for analysis.
Stereo – both channels are analyzed (two separate 
spectrums will be displayed). 
						

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Audio processing and functions
4.You can adjust the display with the settings in the dis-
play window:
5.If you move the mouse pointer over the graph, a cross-
hair cursor follows the graph curve and the display in the 
upper right corner shows the frequency/note and level at 
the current position.
To compare the level between two frequencies, move the pointer to one 
of the frequencies, right-click once and move the pointer to the second 
frequency. The delta value (the difference in level between the current 
position and the right-click position) is displayed in the upper right corner 
(labeled “D”).
If you analyze stereo audio and selected the “Stereo” op-
tion in the first dialog, the graphs for the left and right chan-
nel are superimposed in the display, with the left channel 
graph in white and the right channel graph in yellow.
The display in the upper right corner shows the values for the left channel 
– to see the right channel values, hold down [Shift]. An “L” or “R” is dis-
played to indicate which channel values are shown.
6.You can leave the window open or close it by clicking 
the “Close” button.
If you leave it open and the “Active” checkbox is ticked, the result of the 
next Spectrum Analysis will be displayed in the same window.
Statistics (Cubase only)
The Statistics function on the Audio menu analyzes the 
selected audio (events, clips or range selections) and dis-
plays a window with the following information:
Setting Description
dB When this is activated, the vertical axis shows dB values. 
When it is deactivated, values between 0 and 1 are 
shown.
Freq. log When this is activated, frequencies (on the horizontal 
axis) are displayed on a logarithmic scale. When it is de-
activated, the frequency axis is linear.
Precision Indicates the frequency resolution of the graph. This 
value cannot be changed here, but is governed by the 
Size in Samples setting in the previous dialog.
Frequency/
NoteAllows you to select whether you want the frequencies to 
be displayed in Hertz or with note names.
Min. Sets the lowest frequency shown in the graph.
Max. Sets the highest frequency shown in the graph. By ad-
justing the Min and Max values, you can take a closer look 
at a smaller frequency range.
Active When this is activated, the next Spectrum Analysis will ap-
pear in the same window. When deactivated, new Spec-
trum Analysis results will appear in separate windows.
Item Description
Min. Sample 
ValueThe lowest sample value in the selection, as a value be-
tween -1 and 1 and in dB.
Max. Sample 
ValueThe highest sample value in the selection, as a value be-
tween -1 and 1 and in dB.
Peak 
AmplitudeThe largest sample value (in absolute numbers) in the se-
lection, in dB.
DC Offset The amount of DC Offset (see “Remove DC Offset” on 
page 211) in the selection, as a percentage and in dB.
Estimated 
ResolutionEven though an audio file is in 16 or 24 bits, it may have 
been converted from a lower resolution. The Estimated 
Resolution value makes an educated guess about the ac-
tual audio resolution, by computing the smallest level dif-
ference between two samples.
Estimated 
PitchThe estimated pitch of the audio selection.
Sample Rate The sample rate of the audio selection.
Min. RMS 
PowerThe lowest loudness (RMS) measured in the selection.
Max. RMS 
PowerThe highest loudness (RMS) measured in the selection.
Average The average loudness over the whole selection. 
						

							16
The Sample Editor 
						

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The Sample Editor
Background
The Sample Editor allows you to view and manipulate audio 
by cutting and pasting, removing or drawing audio data, 
processing or applying effects (see “Audio processing and 
functions” on page 204). This editing can be called “non-
destructive”: The actual file (if created or imported from 
outside the project) will remain untouched and using the 
Offline Process History you can undo modifications or re-
vert to the original settings at any time (see “The Offline 
Process History dialog” on page 214).
The Sample Editor also contains most of the AudioWarp 
related functions, i.e. the realtime time stretching and pitch 
shifting functions in Cubase. These can be used to match 
the tempo of any audio loop to the project tempo (see “Au-
dioWarp: Tempo matching audio” on page 231).
The VariAudio features allow you to edit monophonic vocal 
recordings in pitch and time, as easily as editing MIDI in the 
Key Editor. In these realtime pitch modifications the transi-
tions will be kept so that the sound will remain natural. The 
pitch detection and correction is “non-destructive”, i.e. you 
can always undo modifications or revert to the original ver-
sions. See “VariAudio (Cubase only)” on page 243.
Another special feature of the Sample Editor is hitpoint 
detection. Hitpoints allow you to create “slices”, which are 
useful, for example, if you want to change the tempo with-
out affecting the pitch (see “Working with hitpoints and 
slices” on page 234).
Opening the Sample Editor
You open the Sample Editor by double-clicking an audio 
event in the Project window or the Audio Part Editor, or by 
double-clicking an audio clip in the Pool. You can have 
more than one Sample Editor window open at the same 
time.
Note that double-clicking an audio part in the Project 
window will open the Audio Part Editor, even if the part 
only contains a single audio event.
This is described in a separate chapter, see “The Audio Part Editor” on 
page 254.