Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

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Quantizing MIDI and audio
However, if you have selected the “Quantize Link” option 
on the Length Quantize pop-up menu, the function resizes 
the notes according to the quantize grid, taking the Swing, 
Tuplet, and Catch Range settings into account. 
Quantize MIDI Event Ends
The “Quantize MIDI Event Ends” function on the Edit 
menu, Advanced Quantize submenu, moves the ends of 
your MIDI notes to the nearest grid positions, taking the 
Quantize pop-up menu setting into account.
Freeze MIDI Quantize 
The Freeze MIDI Quantize function on the Edit menu, Ad-
vanced Quantize submenu, makes the start and end posi-
tions of MIDI events permanent. This is useful in situations 
where you want to quantize a second time, based on the 
current quantized positions rather than the original posi
-
tions. 
Create Groove Quantize Preset
This lets you create a groove quantize preset from a MIDI 
part, a sliced audio part, or an audio event containing hit
-
points.
To extract the timing, i. e. generate a groove quantize map 
based on hitpoints that you have created in the Sample 
Editor, proceed as follows: 
1.Open the Sample Editor for the audio event from 
which you want to extract the timing.
2.Create and edit hitpoints.
For further information, see “Working with hitpoints and slices” on page 276.
3.On the Hitpoints tab in the Sample Editor, click the 
“Create Groove” button.
The groove is extracted.
If you open the Quantize pop-up menu on the Project win-
dow toolbar, you will find an additional item at the bottom 
of the list, with the same name as the file from which you 
have extracted the groove. You can select it as a base for 
quantizing, just like any other quantize value.
4.To save the groove, open the Quantize Panel and store 
it as a preset, see 
“Save/Remove Preset” on page 111.
The Quantize Panel
You can open the Quantize Panel by clicking on the corre-
sponding button on the toolbar or by opening the Edit 
menu and selecting “Quantize Panel”.
Using the Quantize Panel, you can quantize audio or MIDI 
to the grid or to a groove. Depending on what method you 
choose, different parameters are shown on the Quantize 
Panel. However, there is also a set of common settings. 
Common settings
Quantize Presets pop-up menu
On this pop-up menu, you can select a quantize or a 
groove preset.
Save/Remove Preset
The preset controls allow you to store the current settings 
as a preset, making them available on all Quantize Presets 
pop-up menus. To save a preset, proceed as follows:
1.Set up the quantize parameters as desired.
This includes Swing, Catch Range, etc.
2.Click the Save Preset button (the plus sign) to the 
right of the Quantize Presets pop-up menu.
A preset name is generated automatically, according to your settings. 
•If you want to rename the preset, open the Quantize 
Presets pop-up menu, select “Rename Preset” and enter 
the desired name in the dialog that appears.
•To remove a user preset, select it and click the “Remove 
Preset” button.
Non-Quantize
This setting allows you to set a “distance” in ticks (120 
ticks correspond to one 16th note), so that events that are 
within the specified distance from the nearest quantize 
grid position are not quantized. This allows you to keep 
slight variations when you quantize, but still correct notes 
that are too far away from the grid. 
						

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Quantizing MIDI and audio
Grid display
In the middle of the Quantize Panel the grid display is 
shown. The green lines indicate the quantize grid, i.
 e. the 
positions that audio or MIDI is moved to.
The grid display showing a 1/32 grid
Randomize
This setting allows you to set a “distance” in ticks (120 
ticks correspond to one 16th note), so that your audio or 
MIDI is quantized to random positions within the specified 
distance from the quantize grid. This creates a loose 
quantizing and allows for slight variations. At the same 
time, it prevents your audio or MIDI from ending up too far 
away from the grid.
Move MIDI CC
If this is activated, controllers related to MIDI notes (pitch-
bend, etc.) are automatically moved with the notes when 
these are quantized.
Auto Apply 
If you activate this option, any changes you make are im-
mediately applied to the selected parts or events. A way of 
using this feature is to set up a playback loop and adjust 
the settings until you get the desired result. 
iQ option and Iterative Strength setting
If you quantize your audio or MIDI with the iQ option acti-
vated, a “loose” quantization is applied. This means that 
your audio or MIDI moves only part of the way to the clos
-
est quantize grid position. You can specify an Iterative 
Strength value to the right of the iQ option. This lets you 
specify how close your audio or MIDI moves towards the 
grid. 
ÖIterative quantizing is based on the current, quantized 
positions and not on the original event positions. This 
makes it possible to repeatedly use Iterative Quantize, 
gradually moving your audio or MIDI closer to the quantize 
grid until you have found the desired timing.
Reset Quantize 
This button is identical with the Reset Quantize function 
on the Edit menu (see 
“Reset Quantize” on page 110). 
Quantize 
Clicking this button applies your settings. 
!If you move an audio event manually, the original start 
time is changed to the new position. Therefore, the 
Reset Quantize function has no effect on an event 
that has been moved manually. 
						

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Quantizing MIDI and audio
Options for quantizing to a musical grid
Quantizing to a grid is useful if you want to place your re-
corded audio or MIDI on the nearest position that is musi-
cally relevant.
Grid
On this pop-up menu you can determine the basic value 
for the quantize grid. 
Swing
This parameter lets you offset every second position in the 
grid, creating a swing or shuffle feel. When you adjust the 
Swing parameter, the result is shown in the grid display. 
This setting is only available when a straight value is se-
lected for the grid and Tuplet is off (see below). 
Catch Range
This parameter allows you to specify that only audio or 
MIDI within a certain distance from the grid lines is af
-
fected by quantizing. This allows for complex quantization 
tasks, e.
 g. quantizing only the heavy beats near each beat, 
and not the events in-between. 
With a value of 0 %, all audio or MIDI is affected by quan-
tizing. With higher percentages, wider Catch Ranges are 
shown around the green lines in the grid display and only 
the events within a Catch Range are quantized.
Tuplet
This parameter allows you to create rhythmically more 
complex grids by dividing the grid into smaller steps.
Options for quantizing to a groove
Groove quantizing is intended for creating certain rhyth-
mic feels by matching your recorded music to a timing grid 
generated from a MIDI part or an audio loop.
To extract the groove from a MIDI part, from an audio loop, 
an audio event with hitpoints, or sliced audio, select the 
desired material and drag it onto the grid display in the 
middle of the Quantize Panel. Alternatively, you can use 
the “Create Groove Quantize Preset” function (see 
“Cre-
ate Groove Quantize Preset” on page 111).
Position
This parameter lets you determine how much the timing of 
the groove affects the music (expressed as a percentage). 
0
 % means that the timing of the music remains unaf-
fected, while 100 % means that the timing is adjusted to 
match the groove completely.
Velocity (MIDI only)
This parameter lets you determine how much the velocity 
values within the groove affect the music. Note that not all 
grooves contain velocity information. 
						

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Quantizing MIDI and audio
Length (MIDI only)
Use this parameter to specify how much the length of the 
notes is affected by the groove. This is done by modifying 
the note-off value.
ÖFor drums, the Length setting will be ignored as drum 
sounds cannot be sustained.
Pre-Quantize
This pop-up menu lets you quantize your audio or MIDI to 
a musical grid before groove quantizing. This helps you to 
get the notes closer to their groove destination. 
For example, if you apply a shuffle groove to a 16th note 
pattern, you can try to set up a Pre-Quantize value of 16 to 
“straighten up” the timing before applying the groove 
quantizing.
Max. Move
Here, you can specify a note value that defines the maxi-
mum distance by which your audio or MIDI is moved 
within the quantize grid. This prevents you from moving 
material that you do not want to move.
Orig. Position
If you activate this option, the selected audio or MIDI re-
verts to its original position on the grid when quantizing. 
Quantizing multiple audio tracks 
(Cubase only)
You can quantize multiple audio tracks at the same time. 
However, to maintain phase accuracy, all tracks have to be 
sliced at exactly the same start and end positions. Only then 
the resulting slices can be quantized without risk of getting 
phase errors.
Multi-track quantization comprises the following steps:
• Creating edit groups and calculating hitpoints (preparations)
• Creating slices
• Setting up quantize options
• Crossfading
These steps are described in the following paragraphs.
Preparations
To prepare your audio tracks for quantization, proceed as 
follows:
1.Place the audio tracks that you want to quantize simul-
taneaously in a folder track.
For further information on folder tracks, see “Organizing tracks in folder 
tracks” on page 79.
2.Activate the “=” button for Group Editing for the folder 
track.
When you select one event, all other events belonging to the edit group 
are also selected. This ensures that all edits are performed on all audio 
tracks inside the edit group, see 
“About Group Editing (Cubase only)” on 
page 80.
3.Open the Sample Editor and calculate hitpoints for at 
least one of the audio tracks in the group. 
Calculating hitpoints for the “main” track that provides the characteristic 
groove (e.
 g. kick, snare, hihat) will suffice. For further information on calcu-
lating hitpoints, see “The Sample Editor” on page 261. 
4.Open the Quantize Panel.
The Quantize Panel for multiple audio tracks 
						

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Quantizing MIDI and audio
If you open the Quantize Panel for an edit group and at 
least one of the tracks has hitpoints, the “Slice Rules” 
section appears. 
The section “Slice Rules”
In this section you determine how the audio events are 
sliced at the hitpoints. 
Hitpoint Tracks
In this column, all audio tracks of your edit group that have 
hitpoints are displayed. 
Priority
In this column, you define a priority for each track. This 
specifies which hitpoints are used to slice your audio 
events. 
•Click on the stars and drag the mouse to the right or to 
the left to specify a priority.
If you drag the mouse to the far left so that no star is shown, the corre-sponding track has no priority and will not be considered for slicing.
•The track with the highest priority will define where the 
audio is sliced, i.
 e., the audio on all tracks will be sliced at 
all hitpoints of this track. 
•If you set up the same priority for several tracks, the cut-
ting position is defined by the track, with the first hitpoint 
within the range defined by the Range parameter (see be
-
low). This will be decided for each cutting position anew.
If the zoom factor is high enough, cutting positions are 
marked in the Project window by vertical lines:
• The red lines indicate the cutting position on the main track, 
i.
 e. on the track whose hitpoint defines the cutting position.
• The black lines indicate the cutting position on all other tracks.
Range
With this parameter, you can set the minimum distance 
between two hitpoints on different tracks. Hitpoints that 
are located within this range are considered as marking 
the same beat, according to the following rules: 
• One of the tracks has a higher priority, its hitpoint will be used 
as cutting position.
• The tracks have the same priority, the first hitpoint in the range 
will be used.
Offset
With this parameter, you can determine an offset, allowing 
for slight variations of the cutting position. The Offset value 
determines how far before the actual hitpoint position an 
audio event is sliced. This is useful if you want to create 
crossfades at the slice positions (see 
“The Crossfades sec-
tion” on page 116). Furthermore, it helps to avoid cutting off 
signals on tracks that do not contain any hitpoints.
Slice
If you click the Slice button all audio events of the edit 
group are sliced at exactly the same positions according 
to your settings. The event snap points are set to the posi
-
tion of the hitpoint with the highest priority.
The original start time will be attached to the resulting au-
dio events. If you move an audio event manually, the origin 
start time is reset to the new position (like MIDI) and func
-
tions like Undo Quantize have no longer effect on such 
events.
Reset
This undoes the slicing and restores the original state of 
the audio events. 
						

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Quantizing MIDI and audio
The Quantize section
After having sliced your audio events, you can proceed 
with setting up the quantize parameters, see 
“Options for 
quantizing to a musical grid” on page 113 or “Options for 
quantizing to a groove” on page 113.
Quantize
Click this button to apply your settings and quantize your 
audio.
The Crossfades section
The Crossfades section only appears after you have sliced 
your audio. The functions in this section are designed to 
correct the overlaps or the gaps that might appear due to 
the re-positioning of your audio after using the Quantize 
function. 
Crossfade
Clicking this button cuts the end of the first event at the 
start position of the following event (in case of overlaps), 
and stretches the second event until it starts at the end of 
the previous event (in case of gaps). 
Making crossfade settings
In some cases, you might want to achieve seamless tran-
sitions, i. e. apply crossfades after closing the gaps. For 
this purpose, use the following parameters:
•Open Crossfade Editor
This opens the Crossfade editor, where you can specify curve kind, 
length, and other parameters for your crossfades, see “The Crossfade 
dialog” on page 121.
•Length
With this parameter you can specify the length of the crossfade area.
•Nudge Crossfade Left/Right
Clicking these buttons moves the fade area in the audio event to the left 
or to the right in steps of one millisecond. This is useful if the Offset value 
in the section “Slice Rules” was not high enough, and you want to avoid 
that the crossfade cuts an attack.  
						

							10
Fades, crossfades and envelopes 
						

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Fades, crossfades and envelopes
Creating fades
There are two types of fade ins and fade outs in audio 
events in Cubase: event-based fades that you create by us
-
ing the fade handles and clip-based fades created by pro-
cessing (see “Clip-based fades” on page 119).
Event-based fades
Selected audio events have triangular handles in the up-
per left and right corners. These can be dragged to create 
a fade in or fade out, respectively.
Creating a fade in. The fade is automatically reflected in the shape of 
the event’s waveform, giving you a visual feedback of the result when 
dragging the fade handle. 
Fades created with the handles are not applied to the audio 
clip as such but calculated in realtime during playback. This 
means that several events referring to the same audio clip 
can have different fade curves. It also means that having a 
large number of fades may require more processing power.
•If you select multiple events and drag the fade handles 
of one of them, the same fade is applied to all selected 
events.
•A fade can be edited in the Fade dialog, as described 
on the following pages. 
You open the dialog by double-clicking in the area above the fade curve, 
or by selecting the event and selecting “Open Fade Editor(s)” from the 
Audio menu (note that this will open two dialogs if the event has both 
fade in and fade out curves).
 If you adjust the shape of the fade curve in the Fade dialog, this shape 
will be maintained when you later adjust the length of the fade.
•You can make the fade longer or shorter at any time, by 
dragging the handle.
You can do this without selecting the event first, i. e. without visible han-dles. Just move the mouse pointer along the fade curve until the cursor 
turns into a bidirectional arrow, then click and drag.
•If the “Show Event Volume Curves Always” option is ac-
tivated in the Preferences dialog (Event Display–Audio 
page), fade curves are shown in all events, regardless of 
whether they are selected or not.
If the option is deactivated, the fade curves are shown in selected events 
only.
•If the “Use Mouse Wheel for Event volume and Fades” 
option is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing–Au
-
dio page), pressing [Shift] while moving the mouse wheel 
moves the volume curve up or down. 
When you position the mouse pointer somewhere in the left half of the 
event, the fade in end point is moved. When the mouse pointer is in the 
right half of the event, the fade out start point is moved.
ÖIn the Key Commands dialog (Audio category) you can 
set up key commands for changing the event volume curve 
and any fade curves, see 
“Key commands” on page 541.
ÖCubase only: As an alternative to dragging the fade 
handles, you can use the “Fade In to Cursor” and “Fade 
Out to Cursor” options on the Audio menu to create 
fades. Position the project cursor on an audio event where 
you want a fade in to end or a fade out to begin, and select 
the appropriate option from the Audio menu. A fade will 
then be created, ranging from the event’s start or end to 
the position of the cursor.
Creating and adjusting fades with the Range Selection 
tool
Event-based fades can also be created and adjusted with 
the Range Selection tool.
Proceed as follows:
1.Select a section of the audio event with the Range Se-
lection tool.
2.Pull down the Audio menu and select “Adjust Fades to 
Range”.
The result depends on your selection:
• If you select a range from the beginning of the event, a fade in 
is created within the range. 
• If you select a range that reaches the end of an event, a fade 
out is created in the range. 
The fade handles are visible 
when you point the mouse at 
the event. 
						

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Fades, crossfades and envelopes
• If you select a range encompassing a middle section of the 
event, but not reaching neither the start nor the end, a fade in 
is created from the beginning of the event to the beginning of 
the selected range, and a fade out is created from the end of 
the selected range to the end of the event.
About the volume handle
A selected audio event also has a square handle in the top 
middle: the volume handle. It provides a quick way of 
changing the volume of an event in the Project window. 
Note that dragging the volume handle also changes the 
value on the info line.
Removing fades
To remove the fades for an event, select the event and se-
lect “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu.
If you want to remove the fades in a specific range only, 
select the fade area with the Range Selection tool and se
-
lect “Remove Fades” from the Audio menu.
Clip-based fades
If you have selected an audio event or a section of an au-
dio event (using the Range Selection tool), you can apply 
a fade in or fade out to the selection by using the “Fade In” 
or “Fade Out” function on the Process submenu of the 
Audio menu. These functions open the corresponding 
Fade dialog, allowing you to specify a fade curve. Fades 
created this way are applied to the audio clip rather than 
to the event. 
• If you later create new events that refer to the same clip, these 
will have the same fades.
• You can remove or modify the fades at any time using the Of-
fline Process History (see “The Offline Process History dialog” 
on page 254).
If other events refer to the same audio clip, you will be 
asked whether you want the processing to be applied to 
these events or not.
• Continue will apply the processing to all events that refer to 
the audio clip.
• New Version will create a separate, new version of the audio 
clip for the selected event.
•You can also activate the “Please, don’t ask again” op-
tion. Regardless of whether you then choose “Continue” 
or “New Version”, any further processing will conform to 
the option you select.
You can change this setting at any time in the Preferences dialog (Edit-
ing–Audio page), under “On Processing Shared Clips”.
!You can select multiple audio events on separate 
tracks with the Range Selection tool, and apply the 
fade to all of them simultaneously.
Drag the Volume handle 
up or down to change 
the volume of the event. The volume change is displayed numerically on the info line.
The event waveform reflects the volume change.
!The length of the fade area is determined by your se-
lection. In other words, you specify the length of the 
fade before you open the Fade dialog. You can select 
multiple events and apply the same processing to all 
of them simultaneously. 
						

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Fades, crossfades and envelopes
The Fade dialogs
The Fade dialogs appear when you edit an existing fade or 
use the Fade In/Fade Out functions on the Process sub
-
menu of the Audio menu. The picture below shows the 
Fade In dialog; the Fade Out dialog has identical settings 
and features.
If you open the Fade dialog(s) with several events se-
lected, you can adjust the fade curves for all these events 
at the same time. This is useful if you want to apply the 
same type of fade in to more than one event, etc.
The available options are:
Applying a fade
Depending on whether you are editing a fade made with the 
fade handles or applying a fade using processing, different 
buttons are shown in the bottom row of the Fade dialog.
The Edit Fade dialogs have the following buttons:
The Process Fade dialogs have the following buttons:OptionDescription
Curve KindThese buttons determine whether the fade curve con-sists of spline curve segments (left button), damped 
spline segments (middle button), or linear segments 
(right button).
Fade displayThis shows the shape of the fade curve. The resulting 
waveform shape is shown in dark gray, with the cur-rent waveform shape in light gray. Click on the curve to add points, and click and drag 
existing points to change the shape. To remove a 
point from the curve, drag it outside the display.
Curve shape 
buttonsThese buttons give you quick access to some com-mon curve shapes.
Restore buttonThis button is only available when editing fades made 
by dragging the fade handles. Click this to cancel any 
changes you have made since opening the dialog.
Fade Length ValueThis parameter is only available when editing fades 
made by dragging the fade handles. It can be used to 
enter fade lengths numerically. The format of values 
displayed here is determined by the Time Display in 
the Transport panel.
 When you activate the Apply Length option, the value 
entered in the Fade Length value field is used when 
clicking Apply or OK. 
 When you set the current fade as the default fade, the 
length value is included as part of the default settings.
PresetsIn this section you can set up presets for fade in or 
fade out curves that you want to apply to other 
events or clips.
 To apply a stored preset, select it from the pop-up 
menu.  To rename the selected preset, double-click on the 
name and type in a new one.  To remove a stored preset, select it from the pop-up 
menu and click Remove.
As Default buttonThis button is only available when editing fades made 
by dragging the fade handles. Click this to store the 
current settings as the default fade, to be used 
whenever you create new fades by dragging event 
handles. 
ButtonFunction
OKApplies the set fade curve to the event, and closes the 
dialog.
CancelCloses the dialog without applying any fade.
ApplyApplies the set fade curve to the event, without closing 
the dialog.
ButtonFunction
PreviewPlays back the fade area. Playback will repeat until you 
click the button again (the button is labeled “Stop” during 
playback).
ProcessApplies the set fade curve to the clip, and closes the 
dialog.
CancelCloses the dialog without applying any fade.
Option Description