Impressed with Cubase- am I crazy? What impresses you?

[koolkeys]

There is a great Loopmash tutorial on the Steinberg Youtube site that you can check out if you have any questions. It pretty much explains everything in the plugin.

By the way, what exactly IS the difference between an audio "part" and an audio file, or whatever it's called? I notice that, for instance, you can slice an audio loop and the whole loop is then a part and each slice is it's own event/file/whatever.

Brent

[glasgene]

Top thread; keep those tips coming!

I'm not using C5 yet but I'm a happy C4 user and a trick I do a lot is dragging and dropping audio from the arrange window or sample editor to the key map on Halion 3; you may also be able to do this with Groove Agent One.. import/record audio file into the arrange window then go into sample/audio edit; create hitpoints (these can be roughly adjusted) then select hitpoints to create individual events; go back to arrange window select the now individual events and drag them all onto say C1 on Halion keymap the individual slices will then be mapped one key per slice without affecting pitch... very creative fun and you have the added bonus of being able to adjust the start and end point of a particular sample should it need fine tuning. Looking through the thread and the level of Cu Skills this may not be news to some but for me it is a great feature that doesn't get a mention very often.

Point to note that any processing you do will need to be bounced as a new audio part before you drop onto the Halion key mapper..

[MOK19]

If I'm understanding correctly, when you bring an audio file from out of your audio pool and into your project, the result that you've introduced is termed a 'audio part'. Basically it's a way of delineating between the source file, and the 'part' as it exists inside your project. Thus, a part may have been chopped in half or time stretched or effected or enveloped, etc, while the file is simply the un-altered source file.

It might seem a little silly, but when there's common knowledge of these fiddly-bit terms between people, it makes communication a lot more clear. Less room for confusion.

In theory.

[glasgene]

If I'm understanding correctly, when you bring an audio file from out of your audio pool and into your project, the result that you've introduced is termed a 'audio part'. Basically it's a way of delineating between the source file, and the 'part' as it exists inside your project. Thus, a part may have been chopped in half or time stretched or effected or enveloped, etc, while the file is simply the un-altered source file.

It might seem a little silly, but when there's common knowledge of these fiddly-bit terms between people, it makes communication a lot more clear. Less room for confusion.

In theory.

Very true and edited import/record audio part - process/edit (bounce processing) - drag and drop

[LawrenceF]

By the way, what exactly IS the difference between an audio "part" and an audio file, or whatever it's called? I notice that, for instance, you can slice an audio loop and the whole loop is then a part and each slice is it's own event/file/whatever.

Brent

Let me try this again, my first explanation wasn't clear.

1. Drag and drop a file into the project, it's a clip or event.
2. Glue two clips or events together (or a blank event and a clip/event) you create an audio part... a group of events inside a container.

Audio parts are clips or events that have been glued together and exist inside of a common container. When you double click an audio part you get the part editor which is a big editor with lanes. When you double click an event or clip (in the part editor or on the timeline) you get the sample editor.

So essentially "parts" are timeline containers for audio clips. Quite handy for arranging audio clips to bars, beats or snapping them to something and still having them trimmed.

Part on timeline, and then part in the part editor below. A cute touch that the part color in the container is a color mix of the clip color and the container color. This "part" contains 5 clips.



So the glue function doesn't actually glue parts together, it puts them in a common container so they move together and can be snapped to a common reference. You can size the outer edges of the container, and snap it, without actually sizing the clips inside of it.

[koolkeys]

Ok, that all makes sense. Thanks! And keep the tips coming.

BTW, and I probably just need to read the manual on this, but is there any way of importing multiple MIDI files? I am importing projects from other hosts(not all support things like OMF) and found them in the Media Bay, and tried to drag them in, but it only drags one of them in and it names the clip "Instrument track" and creates an instrument track. What if I just want to drag in MIDI files and create MIDI tracks and have them go to separate tracks?

It may be a dumb question, and after I get some sleep I'll look into it more. I'm too lazy to go searching right now. Thanks!

Brent

[LiteOn]

An audio file or a section of an audio file is an event. T

Nope, an audio file is an audio file - an entity of the hosting OS.


- OS Layer -
audio file: wav, aiff etc.

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- Cubase Layer -
audio clip
Within cubase, every physical audio file is wrapped/proxied by an audio clip. This is the central conception for all non-destructive manipulations. Roughly, such a clip contains a pointer to the audio-file as well as all required playback meta-information on the affected/repesented audio-section (begin/end, processing steps etc.). Consequently, an audio file can be represented by many clips having different meta-information for playback of different sections (1:n relationsship). Confusingly, a clip can also contain variations of those sections which are then called regions......

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V

audio event
Once a clip is placed somewhere on the timeline in the arranger window on a track it's becoming an event in Steinbergs Cubase terminology. When you have different copies of such an event, they all point to the same clip - once again, the 1:n paradigm.

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V

audio part
Simply an aggregation of/container for consecutive events on a given track.



cheers,
LiteOn

Edit: too late

[LawrenceF]

Ok, that all makes sense. Thanks! And keep the tips coming.

BTW, and I probably just need to read the manual on this, but is there any way of importing multiple MIDI files? I am importing projects from other hosts(not all support things like OMF) and found them in the Media Bay, and tried to drag them in, but it only drags one of them in and it names the clip "Instrument track" and creates an instrument track. What if I just want to drag in MIDI files and create MIDI tracks and have them go to separate tracks?

It may be a dumb question, and after I get some sleep I'll look into it more. I'm too lazy to go searching right now. Thanks!

Brent

You can import multiple midi files/songs into the same project but not all at once. Import one and then import another into the same project if you want two midi songs in one project.

Look at your midi import options to split ordinary type 0 files.

Preferences | Midi | Midi File (Import Options)...

► Auto Dissolve Format 0 (split channels to different tracks)
► Import To Instrument Tracks (1 Halion One GM sound per track)
► Extract First Patch (to Inspector)
► Extract First Volume/Pan (to Inspector)

As far as midi loops from media bay, I think you can only drag one at a time.

P.S. It might be worth the $70 or so to buy Sequel 2 just to get the audio and midi loops. Many of the midi loops + Halion instrument channel presets with FX are pretty good... even as starting points if you don't use the midi data in the loop.

[standalone]

Ok, that all makes sense. Thanks! And keep the tips coming.

BTW, and I probably just need to read the manual on this, but is there any way of importing multiple MIDI files? I am importing projects from other hosts(not all support things like OMF) and found them in the Media Bay, and tried to drag them in, but it only drags one of them in and it names the clip "Instrument track" and creates an instrument track. What if I just want to drag in MIDI files and create MIDI tracks and have them go to separate tracks?

It may be a dumb question, and after I get some sleep I'll look into it more. I'm too lazy to go searching right now. Thanks!

Brent

Can't you select all your proyect's midi files at once in your previous host and export the selection as midi ? . Cubase will assign one instument track to every midi track . Just drop the midi file into cubase's desktop icon .

[ericj23]

[P.S. It might be worth the $70 or so to buy Sequel 2 just to get the audio and midi loops. Many of the midi loops + Halion instrument channel presets with FX are pretty good... even as starting points if you don't use the midi data in the loop.

I've thought about that a few times - £70 for a 3 gig sample cd all tagged for use, but with lots of midi presets too. Do you know if the little sequel packs are any good ? - they look mainly like audio loops, which I already have loads of but they are nice and cheap

[LawrenceF]

[P.S. It might be worth the $70 or so to buy Sequel 2 just to get the audio and midi loops. Many of the midi loops + Halion instrument channel presets with FX are pretty good... even as starting points if you don't use the midi data in the loop.

I've thought about that a few times - £70 for a 3 gig sample cd all tagged for use, but with lots of midi presets too. Do you know if the little sequel packs are any good ? - they look mainly like audio loops, which I already have loads of but they are nice and cheap

I bought a hip-hop pack and it's... ok. No midi loops came with it all audio. The audio loops are decent though.

Anyway... here is a Cubase project file (from a SMF) to play around with. Multiple (12 I think) Halion One Instrument tracks and two midi tracks pointing to two instances of Groove Agent One... and one REVerence for ambience.

No eq on anything but the kick drum, a couple of limiters. Fun project to play around with and get more familiar with the midi/instrument/mix paradigm.

http://dawsession.com/pics/spain.cpr 1.68mb

[susiwong]

I am importing projects from other hosts(not all support things like OMF) and found them in the Media Bay, and tried to drag them in, but it only drags one of them in and it names the clip "Instrument track" and creates an instrument track. What if I just want to drag in MIDI files and create MIDI tracks and have them go to separate tracks?

Check your import preferences.
No multiple files possible though, I'm afraid. The rest is possible.
Cheers,
susiwong

[LawrenceF]

That project ^ on my AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 2GHZ...

11 Halion Ones
2 Groove Agent Ones
1 REVerence
A couple of limiters and enhancers

CPU peaking at 30% at 2048 buffers, about 40% at 256 buffers

Point being, you don't need a GM VSTi, Halion is GM. It will find GM sounds for each track, but then you can go through and find better sounds later for each track.

[glasgene]

Lawrence/Susi some advice :

I am finding that without adjusting any delay settings on my tracks that the info line will display a negative delay; the notes or events are playing correctly but as soon as I adjust the delay in the info line the parts will be playing off beat? like I said I am not adding delay in the track inspector and this will happen on VSTi tracks and audio and ideas?

[LawrenceF]

Not sure what you mean exactly. Track delay is not shown in the info line, only track offset which is something different.