Steinberg Nuendo 5 Manual
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301 The Sample Editor 5.Audition the slices by pointing and clicking in any slice area. The pointer changes to a speaker icon and the corresponding slice is played back from the beginning to the end. •If you hear a single sound split into two slices you can disable an individual slice by clicking on the handle of the corresponding hitpoint. The hitpoint handle gets smaller and its line disappears to indicate that it is disabled. To reactivate a disabled hitpoint, click on the hitpoint handle again. •If you hear “double hits” (e. g. a snare hit being followed by a hi-hat hit within the same slice), you can add further hitpoints manually, or you can move the Sensitivity slider to the right until the hitpoint appears and lock the hitpoint by holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] or [Shift] and clicking on its handle. Locked hitpoints are displayed in a darker color. After locking the hitpoint you can drag the sensitivity slider to the original setting and the locked hitpoint will remain shown. You can unlock a locked hitpoint by clicking on its handle. •If you want to delete a hitpoint, hold down [Ctrl]/[Com- mand] and click on it. If you want to delete several hit- points, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag a selection rectangle. You can also hold down [Shift] and click to delete hitpoints. Creating groove quantize maps You can generate groove quantize maps based on the hitpoints that you have created in the Sample Editor. Groove quantizing is not meant for correcting errors, but for creating 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 tim - ing matches the one of the groove. In other words, you can extract the timing from an audio loop and use it for quantiz - ing MIDI parts (or other audio loops, after slicing them). Proceed as follows: 1.Check the audio tempo and define the audio grid. 2.Create and edit hitpoints as described above. Try to get approximately one slice per eighth note, sixteenth note, or whatever the loop requires. It can be helpful to use one of the note value- based options on the Use pop-up menu (see “Calculating hitpoints and slicing a loop” on page 299). ÖYou do not have to create slices – just set up the hit- points. 3.When you have finished setting the hitpoints, click the Create Groove button on the Hitpoints tab or select “Cre - ate Groove Quantize from Hitpoints” from the Hitpoints submenu of the Audio menu. The groove is extracted. 4.If you now pull down the Quantize Type pop-up menu in the Project window you find an additional item at the bottom of the list, with the same name as the file from which you have 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 392. 5.If you want to save the 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 of 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 the Create Markers button on the Hitpoints tab to add a marker on the active marker track for each hitpoint. If your project has no marker track, it will be added and acti - vated automatically (see “Using markers” on page 136). Markers can be useful to snap to hitpoints, e. g. for locat- ing hitpoints and for using the Time Warp tool (see “The Time Warp tool” on page 459). Create Regions If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can click the Create Regions button on the Hitpoints tab to automatically create regions from hitpoints. This can be useful to isolate recorded sounds. Create Events When you wish to create separate events according to the hitpoints for a file, you can click the Create Events but - ton on the Hitpoints tab and use any method you like to set hitpoints.
302 The Sample Editor ÖThe created slices are shown as separate events in the Project window. Close Gaps This function from the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu is useful if you have sliced a loop for tempo changes and you change the project tempo. Lowering the project tempo below the loop’s original tempo creates gaps be - tween the slices – the slower the tempo, the wider the gaps. Increasing the project tempo over the loop’s original tempo compresses the slices using the time stretch func - tion and creates overlaps. In both cases, you can use the Close Gaps function. Proceed as follows: 1.Set the desired tempo. 2.In the Project window select the part containing the slices. 3.From the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu se- lect “Close Gaps”. Time stretch is applied to each slice to close the gaps. Depending on the length of the part and the algorithm set in the Preferences dialog (Edit -ing–Audio page), this can take a while. 4.The waveform is redrawn and the gaps are closed! If you open the Pool, you will see that new clips were created, one for each slice. If you decide to change the tempo again after using the Close Gaps function, undo the Close Gaps operation or start over again, using the original, unstretched file. ÖIn the Audio Part Editor or Project window you can also use Close Gaps on audio events. This will stretch the audio event to the start position of the next event. VariAudio With the AudioWarp features, editing audio in the time domain has become significantly easier. However, editing pitch was limited to having just one single numeric “trans - pose” value per event or part. VariAudio offers completely integrated vocal editing and pitch alteration of individual notes in monophonic vocal re - cordings and can solve intonation and timing problems with only a few mouse clicks. It was developed and opti - mized specifically to be used with monophonic vocal re- cordings. Though the detection and stretching of notes of other monophonic audio recordings, such as those of a saxophone, may work well, the quality of the end result de - pends greatly on the generic condition and structure of the recording’s texture. And how does it work? First, the vocal line is analyzed and split into segments shown as graphic representation of the notes sung. After the detection process is complete, the recognized notes can be modified entirely “non-de - structively” so that any modifications to the audio material can be undone. VariAudio allows you to change your audio on the vertical axis (see “Changing the pitch” on page 306) and on the horizontal axis (see “Warping segments” on page 309). Understanding the waveform display in VariAudio When you open monophonic vocal recordings in the Sam- ple Editor and activate the Segments or the Pitch & Warp tool on the VariAudio tab, your audio is analyzed and seg - mented to display the tonal portions, i. e. the notes sung or played. This process is called segmentation. The segmen - tation allows you to easily associate the audio with your lyr- ics and to introduce pitch and timing changes.
303 The Sample Editor In between the different segments you may find gaps where non-tonal portions have been detected. Such gaps can be caused by non-tonal portions of the audio, e. g. breath sounds. At the beginning of the waveform, you can see a gap where no segment is shown. ÖThe audio waveform displayed on the VariAudio tab is always shown as mono, even if you have opened a stereo or multi-channel file. The vertical position of a segment indicates its average pitch. If the Pitch & Warp tool is active and you move the mouse pointer over a segment, a piano keyboard is dis - played, showing the found pitches. Furthermore, if you move the mouse pointer over a seg- ment and the zoom factor is high enough, the average pitch – note name and fine tuning in cent steps (100ths of a semitone) – is shown on top of the segment. When you select a segment, this is also shown in the info line. Note pitches represent the perceived fundamental fre- quency of a sound. The note A4 is perceived to be of the same pitch as a sine wave of 440 Hz. The notation of pitches is a logarithmic frequency scale. The table below shows the relation between pitch (note name) and frequency in Hz: The average pitch of a segment is calculated from its micro- pitch curve. Micro-pitch curves represent the progression of the pitch for the tonal portion of the audio. The horizontal position of a segment indicates the time position and the length. You can navigate through the segments by using the left/ right arrow keys on your computer keyboard. You can zoom in on the segments that you want to edit by holding down [Alt]/[Option] while drawing a selection rectangle. To zoom out hold down [Alt]/[Option] and click in an empty area of the waveform. If you hold down [Alt]/ [Option] and double click in an empty area, the display will be zoomed out to show all segments. Audio waveformSegments Gap …a piano keyboard is shown in the waveform. If you move the mouse over a segment… Note name Fine tuning in cents C4C#4/ Db4D4D#4/ Eb4E4F4F#4/ Gb4 261.63277.18293.66311.13329.63349.23369.99 G4G#4/ Ab4A4A#4/ Bb4B4C5 392.00415.30440.00466.16493.88523.25 Micro-pitch curves
304 The Sample Editor Applying editing, offline processes, and VariAudio The following offline processes and edits that affect the length of the audio file may lead to the reanalysis of the audio material: •Options on the Select Process menu, on the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector, or in the Process sub - menu of the Audio menu that can be applied to selections. •Effect processing using the options on the Select Plug- in menu on the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspec - tor or in the Plug-ins submenu of the Audio menu (see the chapter “Audio processing and functions” on page 263). •Cut, paste, and delete (see “Editing selection ranges” on page 290), or drawing notes (see “Drawing in the Sample Editor” on page 292). If you apply editing that affects the audio itself (like cutting portions, etc.) to a file containing VariAudio data, the follow - ing warning message is displayed: •If you click “Proceed”, your edits are applied and you will lose your VariAudio data. Click “Cancel” to return to your audio file without applying any changes. If you apply offline processing to a file containing VariAudio data, the following warning message is displayed: •If you click “Proceed”, your edits are applied, and you will lose your VariAudio data. Click “Cancel” to return to your audio file without applying any changes. •If you click “Proceed and Keep”, your edits are applied. Any VariAudio data in the audio file is kept. Offline processes that may not affect existing VarioAudio data are Enve- lope, Fade In/Out, Normalize, or Silence. •If you activate the “Please don’t display this warning again” option in one of these warning dialogs before pro - ceeding, Nuendo will always proceed with the selected option. You can reactivate the warning messages by deactivating the “Inhibit warning when changing the Sample Data” or “Inhibit warning when apply - ing Offline Processes” options in the Preferences dialog (VariAudio page). Segments mode If you activate Segments mode on the VariAudio tab, your audio file is analyzed and split into separate segments. When you want to change the pitch of audio that includes non-tonal portions, e. g. consonants or effect sounds like reverberation, you may have to edit the segmentation in order to include the non-tonal portions in the segments. Otherwise, pitch modifications will only affect the tonal portions. Editing the segmentation includes changing the start and end position of a segment, cutting or gluing segments, and moving or deleting them. Just select the section of the file that you want to change, activate Segments mode, and edit the segmentation for the desired section. If you are not satisfied with your changes, you can go back to the original segmentation (see “Reset” on page 311). ÖIn Segments mode, the segments are shown with a hatched background. You can toggle between “Pitch & Warp” and “Segments” mode (see “Pitch & Warp tool” on page 306) by pressing the [Tab] key. !Because of the reanalysis any existing VariAudio data becomes invalid. Therefore, you should always apply offline processing or edits before using the VariAudio features. !Due to the data gained during this process, the au- dio and thus the size of your project can increase. Furthermore, the analysis of long audio files might take some time. !Editing the segmentation always leads to a recalcu- lation of the segment’s pitch. Therefore, it is recom- mended that you edit the segmentation before changing the pitch.
305 The Sample Editor The following paragraphs list the corrections that can be performed when Segments mode is activated. Changing the note start or end point If you find that a note starts or ends too early or too late, e. g. when the reverb of a note or a consonant is not in- cluded in the segment, proceed as follows: 1.On the VariAudio tab activate Segments mode. 2.To change the length of a segment, move the mouse pointer over the start/end of the segment. The mouse pointer becomes a double arrow. 3.Click and drag the segment start/end to the left or right. The segment length changes accordingly. As the average pitch is recal- culated, the segment may jump upwards or downwards. Snap will not be taken into account. ÖYou can drag the segment start/end only until it reaches the start/end of the next segment. Segments cannot over - lap each other. Cutting a segment If you notice that a segment includes more than one note, proceed as follows: 1.On the VariAudio tab activate Segments mode. 2.Move the mouse pointer over the lower border of the segment that you would like to cut. The mouse pointer becomes a scissor. 3.Click at the desired position to cut the segment. The segment is cut accordingly taking Snap into account. ÖThere is a minimum size for a segment. Very short seg- ments cannot be cut. Gluing segments If you notice that a single note is spread over two seg- ments, proceed as follows: 1.On the VariAudio tab activate Segments mode. 2.Hold down [Alt]/[Option] and move the mouse pointer over the segment that you want to glue to the next. The mouse pointer becomes a glue tube. 3.Click to glue the active segment to the next segment. If several segments are selected, they are all glued together. Snap is not taken into account. !If the resulting segment pitch cannot be calculated because of an increase in non-tonal data, the seg - ment will be deleted. !When the resulting segment pitch cannot be calcu- lated because of an increase in non-tonal data, the segment will be deleted. !We recommend to correct the segmentation before pitching. If you glue together segments after changing the pitch (this includes manual pitch modifications, Quantize Pitch, and Straighten Pitch), your modifica - tions are reset and the original pitch will be heard. !If the resulting segment pitch cannot be calculated because of an increase in non-tonal data, the seg - ment will be deleted.
306 The Sample Editor Moving segments horizontally After cutting a segment it may be necessary to move seg- ments horizontally, for example, if you notice that a note is at the wrong position. Proceed as follows: 1.On the VariAudio tab activate Segments mode. 2.Move the mouse pointer over the upper border of the segment. The mouse pointer becomes a double arrow. 3.Click and drag the whole segment to the left or right. The segment is moved accordingly. If several segments are selected, they are all moved together. Snap is not taken into account. ÖYou can only drag the segment start/end until it reaches the start/end of the next segment. Segments can - not overlap each other. Deleting segments Sometimes it might be useful to delete segments. This is the case in situations where you want the original audio to be played back, e. g. for non-tonal portions or consonants. •You can delete segments by selecting them in Seg- ments mode and pressing [Backspace]. Saving the segmentation The corrected segmentation is saved with the project, no additional saving is required. Pitch & Warp tool If you activate the Pitch & Warp tool on the VariAudio tab, you can change the pitch and the timing of your audio. You can edit the pitch and timing of audio segments for corrective purposes but also creatively. VariAudio allows you to experiment freely with note pitches in order to change the melody with or without preserving a natural sound. Furthermore, you can change the timing of the audio. ÖIn Pitch & Warp mode, the segments are shown with a plain background. You can toggle between “Pitch & Warp” and “Segments” mode by pressing the [Tab] key. ÖThere are some restrictions concerning the highest and lowest possible note pitch. You cannot choose note pitches above C5 and below E0. Changing the pitch If you want to edit the pitch of a segment, proceed as follows: 1.On the VariAudio tab activate the Pitch & Warp tool. 2.Move the mouse pointer over the segment. The mouse pointer becomes a hand symbol to indicate that you can change the pitch of the segment. If the zoom factor is high enough, a tooltip indicates the found note pitch and the segment’s deviation from this pitch in percent. !If the resulting segment pitch cannot be calculated because of an increase in non-tonal data, the seg - ment will be deleted. !Before changing the pitch or timing of your segments, make sure that the segments you want to change are correct (see “Segments mode” on page 304).
307 The Sample Editor There are three different modes that affect the way in which a note will snap to a certain pitch that can be accessed us - ing the following modifier keys: ÖThe default modifier key can be changed in the Prefer- ences dialog (Editing–Tool Modifier page). 3.Drag the segment up or down to the desired pitch and release the mouse. However, be careful: The more the pitch deviates from the original pitch, the less likely it is that your audio sounds natural. If the Solo algorithm is not turned on already, a warning appears informing you that Nuendo has selected it automatically. The segment is pitched ac -cordingly. While dragging, the original micro-pitch curve of the segment is shown in orange. If several segments are selected, they are all pitched. You can also use the up/down arrow keys on your com- puter keyboard to edit the note pitches. Proceed as follows: •Use the up/down arrow keys to change the pitch in semitone steps. •Hold down [Shift] while using the up/down arrow keys to change the pitch in cent steps. Quantize Pitch You can also quantize the audio pitch upwards or down- wards to iteratively reduce the deviation from the nearest semitone position. Proceed as follows: 1.Select the segments that you want to quantize. 2.Move the Quantize Pitch slider to the right. The selected segments are quantized iteratively. You can set up a key command for Quantize Pitch in the Sample Editor category of the Key Commands dialog (see “Key commands” on page 580). When using the key com- mand, the segments are directly quantized to the next semi- tone position. Tilting the micro-pitch curve Sometimes changing the pitch of the whole note segment is not enough. In these cases you will have to modify how the pitch changes inside the segment. This is indicated by the micro-pitch curve (see “Understanding the waveform display in VariAudio” on page 302). Proceed as follows: 1.On the VariAudio tab, activate the Pitch & Warp tool. 2.To change the micro-pitch of a segment, move the mouse pointer over the top left/right corner of the segment. The mouse pointer becomes an up/down arrow. 3.Drag upwards/downwards with the mouse to change the micro-pitch curve. OptionDescriptionDefault modifier Absolute Pitch SnappingPitches the segment to the next semitone.None Relative Pitch SnappingSnaps the segment in rela-tion to its current deviation in cents, i. e. if the segment has a pitch of C3 and a deviation of 22 %, and you move it up by one semitone, it will be pitched to C#3 while keep -ing the deviation of 22 %. [Ctrl]/[Command] No Pitch SnappingLets you edit the pitch freely.[Shift] !If you pitch-shift audio events with the Transpose op- tions (see “The transpose functions” on page 129) the transposition is added to the pitch modifications that you introduced with the Pitch & Warp tool, even if this is not reflected in the segmentation display. !The micro-pitch curve displays the progression of the pitch for the tonal portion of the segment. For non-tonal portions of the audio, micro-pitch curves cannot be shown. If the pitch falls at the end of the segment……activate the Pitch & Warp tool, point at the top right corner and drag upwards.
308 The Sample Editor If you want to change the pitch modulation only for the segment start or end, you can set an “anchor point” to specify which part of the segment is affected. Proceed as follows: 1.Move the mouse pointer over the top border of the segment. The mouse pointer becomes an I-beam symbol. 2.Click at the position where you want to set an anchor. A vertical line appears at the position where you clicked. A segment can only have one anchor. 3.Move the mouse pointer over the top left/right corner of the segment and drag upwards or downwards to tilt the micro-pitch curve. The modulation curve is only changed from the segment border to the anchor. •If you press [Alt]/[Option] while dragging up/down, the tilt anchor is used as an axis around which the micro-pitch curve can be rotated. 4.Repeat the steps above to set anchors and tilt the mi- cro-pitch curve until you are satisfied with the result. •If you want to remove a tilt anchor from a segment, hold down [Alt]/[Option], position the mouse pointer at the top border of the segment until it turns to a glue tube, and click. The tilt anchor is deleted. Straighten Pitch If you want to compensate for the rise and fall of notes, i. e. the deviation of the micro-pitch curve from the representa - tive pitch, you can use the Straighten Pitch slider. This cor- rection comes in handy when a note is played flat (pitch rises) or sharp (the pitch falls) at the end. Proceed as fol - lows: 1.Select the segments whose pitch you want to straighten. 2.Move the Straighten Pitch slider to the right. The pitch of the selected segments is straightened. MIDI Input You can change the pitch on the fly by selecting the seg- ment you want to change and pressing a key on your MIDI keyboard or using the Virtual Keyboard (Nuendo Expan - sion Kit only – see “The Virtual Keyboard (Nuendo Expan- sion Kit only)” on page 89). Move the mouse over the top border and click to set an anchor……if you only want to compensate for the descending pitch at the end of the segment. If you set a tilt anchor… …to indicate that you can rotate the micro-pitch curve.…and press [Alt]/[Option], the mouse pointer becomes a diagonal arrow… This micro-pitch looks a bit off. By moving the Straighten Pitch slider to the right… …the micro-pitch curve is straightened.
309 The Sample Editor Proceed as follows: 1.After having corrected the segmentation, select the segment for which you would like to change the pitch. 2.Activate the Pitch & Warp tool and click the MIDI Input button. 3.Press a key on your MIDI keyboard or use the Virtual Keyboard (Nuendo Expansion Kit only) to change the pitch of the segment. The pitch of the segment changes according to the note you play. The MIDI Input function has two modes: Still mode and Step mode. You can switch between them by [Alt]/[Op - tion]-clicking on the MIDI Input button: •In Still mode you can select individual segments by click- ing on them and change their pitch by pressing a MIDI key. You can also select several segments and press a MIDI key to change the pitch of several segments simultaneously. The pitch of the first selected segment is changed to the pitch of the MIDI note you play. The pitches of the other se - lected segment are changed by the same amount. •In Step mode you can step through the segments by selecting the first segment that you would like to change and pressing a MIDI key. The next segment will automati - cally be selected afterwards. This allows you to work in a more creative way, for example, to develop completely new melody lines via MIDI. 4.When you are done, deactivate the MIDI Input button. ÖMIDI controller data like pitchbend or modulation are ignored. Warping segments Time correction, i. e. warping at segment level, is useful if you want to align a musical accent to a certain position, or change or quantize the timing of single segments in mono - phonic vocal recordings. When warping audio segments, warp tabs will be created. These are shown on the VariAu - dio and the AudioWarp tabs of the Sample Editor Inspec- tor. (For information on warping complete audio files, see “Free Warp” on page 297.) To warp a segment, proceed as follows: 1.On the VariAudio tab activate the Pitch & Warp tool. 2.To change the timing of a segment, move the mouse pointer over the start/end of the segment. The mouse pointer becomes a double arrow and the warp tabs are dis-played in the ruler. 3.Drag the start/end of the segment to the desired posi- tion. If the Snap button is activated, the segment border will snap to the grid. When you drag the segment border, warp tabs are shown not only at the border but also at the adjacent segment borders to indicate which por - tions of the audio are stretched/affected. ÖWarping a segment will also change the timing of the adjacent segments. Still mode is activated for MIDI Input. Step mode is activated for MIDI Input. !Any correction of the segmentation must be applied before warping segments.
310 The Sample Editor ÖTiming modifications introduced this way will not adapt to the project tempo. If this is what you want, use Musical Mode (see “AudioWarp: Tempo matching audio” on page 293). •You can change the insert position of a warp tab in the audio by clicking and dragging the warp tab handle in the ruler. This will change the warping (see “Editing Warp tabs” on page 310). •Hold down [Shift] (by default) to delete warp tabs. To delete a warp tab, hold down the tool modifier so that the pointer becomes an eraser and click on the warp handle. •If you are not satisfied with your changes, you can revert the timing of the selected segments by choosing the “Warp Changes” option from the Reset pop-up menu (see “Reset” on page 311). Editing Warp tabs In some cases the beginning of the waveform does not cor- respond to the beginning of a segment, e. g. when the audio starts with non-tonal portions like breath sounds (see “Un- derstanding the waveform display in VariAudio” on page 302). But when it comes to warping, any changes you wish to make must affect the waveform as a whole. You can of course change the segmentation to achieve this, but if you want to pitch your audio afterwards, this would affect also any non-tonal portions of the audio. If this is not what you want, proceed as follows: 1.Activate the Pitch & Warp tool and activate the Snap button. In this example the beginning of the segment does not correspond to the beginning of the waveform. 2.Move the mouse pointer over the start of the segment so that it becomes a double arrow and drag the segment start to the beginning of the bar. The segment border snaps to the grid at the exact bar position. Now the beginning of the segment matches the beginning of the bar, but we want the beginning of the waveform to match the beginning of the bar: 3.Point at the warp handle displayed in the ruler so that it turns into a double arrow and drag it to the beginning of the waveform. The background is displayed in orange to indicate which part of the waveform is affected by the change.