Steinberg Nuendo 4 Manual

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The Sample Editor
The “Use” pop-up menu in Hitpoints tab of the Sample 
Editor Inspector affects which hitpoints are shown and is 
a useful tool for removing unwanted hitpoints. The options 
on the pop-up menu are:
If your main reason for slicing the loop is to change the 
tempo, you generally need as many slices as you can get, 
but never more than one per individual “hit” in the loop.
If you want to create a groove (see “Creating groove 
quantize maps” on page 283), you should try to get ap-
proximately one slice per eighth note, sixteenth note or 
whatever the loop requires.
Disabling slices
You might run into situations where there are too many 
slices – a single sound may have been split into two 
slices, for example. You could of course reduce the sensi-
tivity to get rid of the hitpoints you don’t want, but then 
other hitpoints could disappear too, which may be unde-
sirable. What you need to do in a situation like this is to 
disable an individual slice:
1.Open the Hitpoints tab in the Sample Editor Inspector 
and select the Edit Hitpoints tool.
2.Press [Alt]/[Option] and move the pointer to the han-
dle (the triangle).
The pointer turns into a cross. 
3.Click on the handle of the hitpoint you wish to disable.
The hitpoint handle is diminished and its line disappears to indicate that 
it is disabled.
4.Now, the hitpoint won’t be taken into account when 
you create slices.
5.To reactivate a disabled hitpoint, [Alt]/[Option]-click 
on the hitpoint handle in Edit Hitpoints tool.
Locking slices
If you lock a hitpoint by clicking on its handle with the Edit 
Hitpoints tool, it will stay even if you drag the sensitivity 
slider all the way to zero. This can be used in situations 
where one or several slices contain double hits, but raising 
the sensitivity adds a lot of unwanted slices.
1.Find the place where you hear double hits when audi-
tioning.
2.Remember the current slider setting.
3.Raise the sensitivity slider to a higher value so that a 
hitpoint appears, separating the two sounds.
Most likely this will add a lot of other unwanted hitpoints as well.
4.Audition to make sure you got what you wanted.
5.Point at the handle with the Edit Hitpoints tool.
The speaker icon changes to a normal arrow pointer.
Option Description
All All hitpoints are shown (taking the sensitivity slider into 
account).
1/4, 1/8, 
1/16, 1/32Only hitpoints that are close to the selected note value 
positions within the loop will be shown (e.g. close to ex-
act sixteenth note positions, if the 1/16 option is se-
lected). Again, the sensitivity slider is taken into account.
Metric Bias This is like the “All” mode, but all hitpoints that are close 
to even meter divisions (1/4 notes, 1/8 notes, 1/16 
notes, etc.) get a “sensitivity boost” – they are visible at 
lower sensitivity slider settings. This is useful if you are 
working with dense or cluttered material with a lot of hit-
points, but you know that the material is based on a strict 
meter. By selecting Metric Bias it will be easier to find the 
hitpoints close to the meter position (although most other 
hitpoints are also available, at higher sensitivity settings). 
						

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The Sample Editor
6.Click on the handle to lock the new slice.
Locked hitpoints are displayed in a darker color.
7.Drag the sensitivity slider to the original setting.
The locked hitpoint will remain shown.
You can unlock a locked hitpoint by clicking it again 
with the Edit Hitpoints tool.
Setting hitpoints manually
If you cannot get the desired result by adjusting sensitivity, 
disabling or locking, you can add, move and delete hit-
points manually.
Manually adding hitpoints can be done in situations where 
a hitpoint is missing at a specific point, but doesn’t appear 
even if the sensitivity is set to full.
1.Zoom in on the waveform at the point where you wish 
to add a hitpoint.
2.Select the Edit Hitpoints tool to audition the area and 
make sure that the start of the sound is in view.
3.Activate Snap to Zero Crossing on the Sample Editor 
toolbar.
By finding zero crossings in the waveform (positions where the amplitude 
is close to zero), manually added slices won’t introduce any clicks or 
pops. All hitpoints found by the Calculate function are automatically 
placed at zero crossings.
4.With the Edit Hitpoints tool selected press [Alt]/[Op-
tion] so that the mouse pointer changes to a pencil tool 
and click just before the start of the sound.
A new hitpoint appears. Manually added hitpoints are locked by default.
If you click and keep the mouse button pressed, you can 
adjust the position of the new hitpoint by dragging.
Releasing the mouse button adds the hitpoint.
5.Audition the new slice with the Audition tool to make 
sure you got what you wanted.
If you manually added a hitpoint, and it was either placed 
too far away from the start of the sound or too far into the 
sound, you can manually move the hitpoint. It is also pos-
sible to move calculated hitpoints this way.
1.Make sure Snap to Zero Crossing is activated on the 
Sample Editor toolbar.
2.Select the Edit Hitpoints tool.
3.Click on the hitpoint handle and drag it to the new po-
sition.
To delete a hitpoint, select the Edit Hitpoints tool and drag 
the hitpoint out of the Sample Editor window. Hitpoints 
that you have created manually can also be deleted by 
clicking their handle.
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.
!“Use Snap” may alter the timing. In some cases it 
might be better to deactivate it, especially if you just 
want to generate a groove quantize. However, if you 
create slices afterwards, auto fades will then be nec-
essary.
!Sounds with a slow attack have their rhythmic center 
at some point before the peak.  
						

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The Sample Editor
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 278.
The loop is automatically adapted to the tempo set in 
Nuendo.
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 Nuendo 
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 40). 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).
Proceed as follows:
1.Check the audio tempo and define the audio grid as 
described above.
2.Create and edit hitpoints as described above.
You don’t have to create slices – just set up the hitpoints.
You should try to get approximately one slice per eighth 
note, sixteenth note or whatever the loop requires when 
setting hitpoints for extracting a groove.
It can be helpful to use one of the note value-based options on the “Use” 
pop-up menu when you’re setting up the hitpoints (see “Setting the sen-
sitivity” on page 280).
3.When you have finished setting the hitpoints, click on 
the Make Groove button in the Hitpoints tab of the Sam-
ple Editor Inspector or select “Create Groove Quantize 
from Hitpoints” from the Hitpoints submenu on the Audio 
menu.
The groove is extracted.
!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. 
						

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The Sample Editor
4.If you now pull down the Quantize Type pop-up menu 
in the Project window you will find an additional item at the 
bottom of the list, with the same name as the file from 
which you extracted the groove.
This groove can now be selected as a base for quantizing, just like any 
other quantize value. See “The Quantizing functions” on page 352.
5.If you want to save this Groove, open the Quantize 
Setup dialog and store it as a preset.
ÖYou can also create grooves from a MIDI part by se-
lecting the part and dragging it on the grid display in the 
middle of the Quantize Setup dialog or by selecting “Part 
to Groove” from the Advanced Quantize submenu on the 
MIDI menu.
Other hitpoint functions
On the Hitpoints tab of the Sample Editor Inspector and 
on the various submenus of the Audio menu, you will also 
find the following functions:
Create Markers
If an audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can 
click on the Create Markers button in the Hitpoints tab to 
add markers – one for each hitpoint (see “Using the Mar-
ker track” on page 111). This can be useful to snap to hit-
points, e.g. for locating hitpoints and for using the 
Timewarp tool (see “The Time Warp tool” on page 422).
Create Regions
If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can 
click the Create Regions button in the Hitpoints tab to au-
tomatically create regions from hitpoints. This can be use-
ful to isolate recorded sounds, in order to upload them, 
e.g. to HALion either as velocity or keyzones.
When you make a selection, regions will only be calcu-
lated from the hitpoints that are contained in the selection.
Create Events
When you simply wish to create separate events according 
to the hitpoints for a file, you can click on the Create Events 
button in the Hitpoints tab. This means that you do not have 
to make the same considerations as when slicing for tempo 
changes. You can use any method you like to set hitpoints.
The slices created will appear in the Project window as 
separate events.
Close Gaps
This Advanced submenu function on the Audio menu is 
useful, if you have sliced a loop for tempo changes. Low-
ering the tempo below the loop’s original tempo will cre-
ate gaps between the slices. The lower the tempo is in 
relation to the original tempo, the wider the gaps will be. 
Close Gaps can be used to remedy this.
1.Set the desired tempo.
2.Select the part in the Project window.
3.Select “Close Gaps” from the Audio menu – Ad-
vanced submenu.
Now time-stretch is applied on each slice to close the gaps. Depending 
on the length of the part and the algorithm set in the Preferences, this 
can take a little while.
4.The waveform is redrawn and the gaps are closed!
Note that this feature creates new clips in the Pool, one 
for each slice.
Close Gaps can also be used when the project tempo 
is higher than the original loop tempo.
This will use the time-stretch function to compress the slices to fit.
If you decide to change the tempo again after using the 
Close Gaps function, you should undo the Close Gaps 
operation or start over again, using the original un-
stretched file.
You can also use this function on individual events (in 
the Audio Part Editor or Project window).
The events don’t have to be slices – you can use Close Gaps simply to 
stretch an audio event to the start position of the next event. 
						

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The Sample Editor
Free Warp
Warp tabs are a kind of marker or anchor that can be 
attached to musically relevant time positions in an audio 
event, e.g. the first beat of every bar. Warp tabs can be 
dragged to the corresponding time positions in the 
project, and the audio will be stretched accordingly. 
A typical application of warp tabs is to use them to synchro-
nize audio to video, i.e. manipulate audio that is not musical.
You can also use warp tabs for further tweaking after hav-
ing applied Straighten Up (see “About the Straighten Up 
mode” on page 275).
Using the Free warp tool 
Warp tabs are created using the Free Warp tool on the 
Playback tab of the Sample Editor, but can also be cre-
ated from hitpoints (see “Creating warp tabs from hit-
points” on page 287). In this example, we will show how a 
file with a slightly varying tempo can be locked to a steady 
tempo by using warp tabs.
1.Open the audio file you wish to process in the Sample 
Editor.
2.Activate the “Use snap” button in the Sample Editor 
toolbar.
When you activate this button, warp tabs will snap to zero crossings and 
hitpoints (if shown).
3.Determine the original tempo (if this is non-varying) or 
the length of the file (see “Determining the audio tempo au-
tomatically and time-stretching your audio” on page 272).4.Click the Auto Adjust button so that the audio event is 
stretched to the project tempo.
The Straighten Up mode is automatically activated.
5.Select the Free Warp tool by clicking on it.
For aligning the tempo, you should use Bars and Beats as the ruler reso-
lution. When you place the mouse pointer in the waveform display, it 
changes to a clock with arrows on either side, and a vertical line in the 
middle which represents the pointer. When you move the pointer in the 
waveform window, it shows the position in bars, beats and ticks as well 
as in seconds.
6.Line up the audio file so that the first beat of the first 
bar (in the audio event) starts on the first beat of a bar in 
the project.
If the audio file doesn’t start on a downbeat, you can 
use the Event Start handle in the Sample Editor and adjust 
the position in the Project window so that the first down-
beat in the sample is aligned with the first beat of a bar in 
the grid.
Now the musical first downbeat should be aligned with the first beat of a 
bar in the project. The next step is to see where the first warp tab needs 
to be added. It may be useful to hear the metronome click to determine 
when the tempo of the audio clip drifts from the project tempo. To hear 
the metronome, activate the Click button on the Transport panel and play 
back using the transport controls.
7.Play back the audio file, either by auditioning in the 
Sample Editor or from the Transport panel, and determine 
where the first beat of a bar in the audio event does not 
match the corresponding ruler position in the project.
If you find it difficult to pinpoint an exact position in the audio event, you 
can switch to the Scrub tool and/or zoom in the view. Switch back to the 
Free Warp tool when you have found the position.
!When you change the Straighten Up mode, select 
another Quantize value or move the Swing slider, all 
your warp edits will be lost. 
						

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The Sample Editor
8.In our example, the first beat of the third bar in the au-
dio event is slightly offset from the corresponding grid po-
sition and thus needs to be moved back a bit.
9.Place the pointer at the position of the first beat of the 
third bar in the audio event and click and hold.
When you click, a warp tab is added. If the position where you clicked 
was off, you can adjust it by dragging the tab in the ruler.
10.With the mouse button still pressed, drag the warp tab 
so that the position lines up with the first beat of the bar in 
the ruler.11.Release the mouse button.
Now the first beat in the audio event is perfectly aligned with the corre-
sponding position in the project! 
You can also first add warp tabs at the relevant musical 
positions and change their positions later, see “Editing 
warp tabs” on page 287.
Next to the warp tab handle in the ruler, a number is 
shown. This number indicates the warp factor, i.e. the 
amount of stretch. Warp factor numbers higher than 1.0 
indicate that the audio region preceding the warp tab is 
expanded and will play back slower. Warp factor numbers 
lower than 1.0 indicate that the audio region preceding 
the warp tab is compressed and will play back faster. 
ÖNote that this ratio is limited to a range between 0.1 and 
10. This factor is updated when you change the project 
tempo with Straighten Up mode enabled or apply the 
timestretch tool in the project.
12.Continue to use the same method to align the first 
beat in each bar to the corresponding ruler position.
You only have to add warp tabs where the downbeat in the audio file 
drifts from the ruler position and/or if you want to lock a warp tab so that 
it is not moved when editing other points. 
When you are done, the previously varying tempo of the 
audio event will be metronome-steady and will adapt to 
any tempo in Nuendo.
The third downbeat in the audio event. 
						

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The Sample Editor
This example illustrates the general methods of using 
warp tabs and the Free Warp tool. But you can of course 
use warp tabs for other operations than aligning down-
beats to grid positions. With the Free Warp tool, you can 
literally stretch any region within a sample to any position!
Editing warp tabs
Moving the destination position of existing warp tabs
To move a destination position of a warp tab (and thus 
stretch the audio), select the Free Warp tool and position 
the pointer on the Warp line in the waveform so that the 
line in the middle of the pointer becomes blue. Then click 
and drag to move the position of the warp tab. 
Moving the source position of existing warp tabs
If you simply wish to change the position of a warp tab re-
garding the audio, click and drag the warp tab header in 
the ruler. However, this will change the warping.
Deleting warp tabs
To delete a warp tab, press [Shift] so that the pointer be-
comes an eraser and click on the warp tab.
Unstretching audio files
By selecting “Unstretch Audio” from the Realtime Process-
ing submenu of the Audio menu, all realtime time-stretching 
(by sizing or by warp tabs) can be removed.
ÖNote that realtime transpose (in the infoline) and 
Straighten Up mode will not be removed by this.
Whether the “Unstretch Audio” menu item is available de-
pends on whether the time-stretching was applied on the 
event or clip level: 
If you sized an audio event in the Project window using 
“Sizing Applies Time Stretch” (see “Resizing events using 
time stretch” on page 49), you can undo the time-stretch-
ing by selecting the event in the Project window and then 
applying “Unstretch Audio”.
This will remove all time-stretching and warp tabs.
When you have entered a tempo and/or length using 
the Definition tab, this information is saved for the source 
clip and all events that use it.
Creating warp tabs from hitpoints
You can also create warp tabs from hitpoints selecting 
“Create Warp Tabs from Hitpoints” on the Realtime Pro-
cessing submenu of the Audio menu.
For descriptions of how hitpoints are created and edited 
please see “Using hitpoints” on page 278. 
						

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The Sample Editor
Realtime pitch-shifting of audio 
events
Audio events can be pitch-shifted in realtime just like MIDI 
events. The process is very simple:
1.Open the audio event in the Sample Editor and open 
the Playback tab.
2.Set a value in the corresponding field in the Transpose 
section.
The value range is up/down two octaves in semitone steps. 
3.Press [Enter].
The audio event is now transposed to the set value using pitch-shift.
4.If a root key is specified or if the Transpose track has 
been added, you can click the Follow Global mode to ac-
tivate/deactivate Global Transpose.
Event transpose will be added to the Global transpose value.
For more information on the transpose functions and the 
Transpose track, see the chapter “The Transpose func-
tions” on page 114. 
You can also select the audio event in the Project win-
dow and change the Transpose value on the infoline. In 
this case, you can also fine-tune selected audio events in 
cent steps (100ths of a semitone) by entering a value in 
the Finetune field to the right.
Flattening the realtime processing
You can “flatten” any realtime processing at any time. This 
can be done to serve two purposes; to conserve CPU 
power and to optimize the sound quality of the processing. 
Select the audio event(s) you wish to process and se-
lect “Flatten Timestretch and Transpose” from the Real-
time Processing submenu of the Audio menu.
You should also use this function before applying any offline processing. 
When the flatten processing is applied, a copy of the original file is auto-
matically created in the Pool so that the original audio clip remains intact.
Selecting an algorithm for the flattening
When you flatten the realtime processing, you can use the 
MPEX 3 algorithm to process the audio, which may pro-
duce better sound quality than the realtime processing. 
This is also the only way to achieve polyphonic formant 
conserving pitch-shifting, apart from offline processing. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the audio event(s) you wish to process.
2.Click the Flatten button on the Playback tab of the 
Sample Editor Inspector, or select “Flatten Timestretch 
and Transpose” from the Realtime Processing submenu of 
the Audio menu.
A dialog appears where you can select an algorithm for the processing. 
You can either select the MPEX 3 algorithm, which will produce the high-
est sound quality, or the Realtime algorithm which is much quicker but 
will not improve the audio quality of the processing (although it will 
lessen the CPU load).
!Audio and MIDI events cannot be transposed simul-
taneously. 
						

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The Sample Editor
The MPEX3 algorithm allows you to select one of seven 
different quality settings:
ÖNote that you can only select the MPEX 3 algorithm if 
the time-stretching factor is between 0.5 and 2 through-
out the whole event. For audio that has been stretched 
with a factor outside this range, only the Realtime algo-
rithm can be used.
If the audio has been transposed, the dialog also con-
tains the option “Formant Correction”. Activate this if you 
want to e.g. avoid a “chipmunk voice” effect.
3.Select an algorithm and click OK.
When the processing is finished, any loop that was previously stretched 
in realtime or had been pitch-shifted will play back exactly the same, but 
Straighten Up mode will be deactivated and the realtime pitch-shifting 
will be set to 0.
The audio clip is now like any standard audio clip before 
applying realtime processing, i.e. it will not follow tempo 
changes. The flattening processing function is best used 
when you have determined the tempo or key of a project, 
but you can of course always adapt the audio to a new key 
or tempo. In this case, it is better to revert back to the orig-
inal audio clip rather than to process the already pro-
cessed file again.
Option Description
Preview This mode should only be used for preview.
Mix Fast This mode is a very fast mode for preview. This works best 
with composite music signals (mono or stereo material).
Solo Fast Use this mode or single instruments (monophonic mate-
rial) and voice.
Solo Musical Same as above but higher quality.
Poly Fast Use this for processing monophonic and polyphonic ma-
terial. This is the fastest setting that gives still very good 
results. You can use this for drum loops, mixes, chords.
Poly Musical Use this for processing monophonic and polyphonic ma-
terial. This is the recommended MPEX default quality set-
ting. You can use this for drum loops, mixes, chords.
Poly Complex This high quality setting is quite processor intense and 
should be used only when processing difficult material or 
for stretch factors above 1,3. 
						

							19
The Audio Part Editor