Cubase sx3 questions

[Mac Hine]

I have tested Cubase2 on my friend and there are somethings which I dont like it. Operating piano roll is little bit inconvinient. Are there any chances in sx3 to this? It is just how it feels when I insert notes, clear them etc...
What about inserting vst effects? Is it similar in sx3 than sx2? Or is it more logical?

Can I do this in arrange window in sx3: I have vocal part, want to slice it and correct it so that it is in rhythm. I want to scretsh sliced up part invidually in arrange window to match beats
and make it sound so that there are no gaps. I mean if one sliced part is too short I want scretsh it fast in arrange window to fit it nicely. I have tested various demo versions and in fruitystudio
this works almost like I want it but when I scretch one sliced part it scretsh all sliced parts. This can propably changed in fruitystudio but am not so into fruity so I want some other sequencer which
has good flexible audio editing directly in arrange window.

There are some feature comparations awailable in web but those mainly are telling feature differencies between sx2 and sx3. I want to know if basic things has changed since sx2 to sx3 before i decide if I will buy it.

[efluon]

I have tested Cubase2 on my friend and there are somethings which I dont like it. Operating piano roll is little bit inconvinient. ..

same approach with sx3

What about inserting vst effects? Is it similar in sx3 than sx2? Or is it more logical?

same logic.

Can I do this in arrange window in sx3: I have vocal part, want to slice it and correct it so that it is in rhythm.

you needn't cut it for that, you'd warp it directly (but not in arrange page). you could do the same thing with live though, may be that'd even be more logical to you? look into some magazines or better still, music-shops, before spending that kind of money!

[bduffy]

SX 3 is going to be just about the best bet for this, as the Audio Warp/Quantize feature is designed just for that sort of thing. I wasn't aware Live could do that in realtime too, though. There's also Melodyne, designed primarily for strecthing to tempo.

SX 3 workflow is basically the same as SX 2, so if you really don't like how SX 2 works, then I don't think you will find a big change with SX 3. Personally, I love the SX Piano Roll, etc, but it took me awhile to get used to it after using Sonar for years. Now I can't use anything else. You do have to spend time with a program to fully enjoy it - but definitely shop around, it's a lot of money.

[kritikon]

What about inserting vst effects? Is it similar in sx3 than sx2? Or is it more logical?

What's not logical about it? You can slot in insert FX extremely easily - either from the mixer and individual channels screens, or in the arrange page from the Inspector...simply click on the insert slot, choose your FX and it's in. I don't see how it could be any easier And send FX are easy too.

this works almost like I want it but when I scretch one sliced part it scretsh all sliced parts.

Just a different way of doing it is all (and most hosts work slightly differently). In SX2, if you chop an audio clip, any chopped parts are still related to the original part (which does make sense if you think about it). Took me a while to figure this one with regards to bouncing clips (reading the manual helps... )....you can render any individual chopped clips to become separate .wavs - that way you can process them all individually, such as time-stretching etc. But you have to be in the audio pool to bounce those individual clips. Just make a habit if you're chopping loops etc to go into the audio pool dropdown. There's a Bounce function in there that does the rendering to different clips and will replace the chopped parts with the new .wavs. Bounce works ever so slightly differently in the arrange window.

So if you're just rearranging audio bits, do it in the arrange screen in a part editor. If you're audio mangling, do it in the Pool.
It can be a bit tedious in SX2, but it makes complete sense when you get used to it. (Although I preferred VST5.1 in the fact that you could bounce chopped clips directly within an audio part, and replace them with the new ones without changing editors). Sounds like SX3 is a bit easier for timestretching etc though. I'm still on SX2, but the warping in SX3 is one of the things that might tempt me to upgrade someday soon. (Then again I might wait until SX4 )

[Mac Hine]

Thanks for your help!

look into some magazines or better still, music-shops, before spending that kind of money!

I have read magazines, reviews etc. but they dont give very good picture about product. Usually these are more concentrated to tell what new about them. I love to try it somewhere but here music shop mainly sells quitars and are not interested in anyway to sell software. So, there are no places where I could try this and because there is no demo available i have to buy it with experiences from sx2 and what i hear. I propably will buy that SL version which is not so expensive and I have noticed any features in SX version which i would really need? Or have I missed something important?

Anyway, I think that I get used to Cubase interface quite fast. I tried demo versions from Sonar, Orion, Project 5, Tracktion but sx2 was closest (even I have only about hour to test it) what I am looking for. I dont want to buy MAC and logic, even i am tempted.

In SX2, if you chop an audio clip, any chopped parts are still related to the original part

So, basicly you have to render chopped parts so that whey are invidual files before tretching them. So, another approach would be cutting them before and inserting them to audiotrack and then strech. I just would like fast workflow when I work with bad singers who dont stay in rhythm. I would like to slice and schretsh same time as I hear beat going on on beat track. Thats why I dont want to do schretshing in different window.

[UltraJv]

Fruity is designed to work fine without a midi keyboard controller. Cubase expects you to have one and play the notes thats why the step input isnt good. So dont get Cubase unless you have one

[Mac Hine]

Cubase expects you to have one and play the notes thats why the step input isnt good. So dont get Cubase unless you have one

I am used to this and have keyboards... so no problem
there.

[ericj23]

in sx 3 you can chop a part up and apply effects to it in the arrange window -set up a macro to get hitpoints and then chop into parts - then if you click on the file a little arrange window opens where you can see all the parts

you can then right click on them to apply any affect to just that section only - you can also move the parts about

if you don't want to work recycle style then if use the hitpoints to make warp tabs. set it to musical mode it is stretched to fit and will follow any tempo changes you make - you can also adjust the pitch from the arrange window as well

[efluon]

also, if you have chopped part, there is a function called "close gaps" to stretch the selected parts so that they do not overlap and are saemless. depending on the selected algo this actually works (timebandit advanced (sx2) ie standard (sx3) seems to do this best)!

[jasonsantiago]

Fruity is designed to work fine without a midi keyboard controller. Cubase expects you to have one and play the notes thats why the step input isnt good. So dont get Cubase unless you have one

There is always the drum editor which is fruity style.

[bduffy]

Hmmm...I'm not sure why I'm hearing about a different program than what I use...but here's my experience:

Can I do this in arrange window in sx3: I have vocal part, want to slice it and correct it so that it is in rhythm. I want to scretsh sliced up part invidually in arrange window to match beats
and make it sound so that there are no gaps

Cubase is totally flexible in the slicing department. Here are some methods:

1. Audio Warp: you can auto-slice or manually draw Warp Tabs in your audio track. You can then freely drag each tab's end point to snap to Grid and stretch or compress its time. If you need it to be independant of the next slice, drop another tab before the next one. This is great, because it's non-destructive and real-time.
2. Hitpoints: Create or manually draw Hitpoints - ReCycle-style - on the audio track. Create Audio Slices. Then you can either close the gaps all at once, or you can go in and use the Time Sctretch tool to do it only on certain slices.

The slices aren't going to affect the original files (in fact, no editing in Cubase ever has to), and Audio Warp is designed to work for people trying to keep poorly-timed performances in time. It isn't called "Audio Quantize" for nothing! It's an amazing feature that puts SX ahead of the pack, AFAIAC.

Fruity is designed to work fine without a midi keyboard controller. Cubase expects you to have one and play the notes thats why the step input isnt good. So dont get Cubase unless you have one

Sorry man, I have to disagree. I don't have a keyboard controller, and I've used Cubase for 6 years.

[kritikon]

The slices aren't going to affect the original files (in fact, no editing in Cubase ever has to), and Audio Warp is designed to work for people trying to keep poorly-timed performances in time. It isn't called "Audio Quantize" for nothing! It's an amazing feature that puts SX ahead of the pack, AFAIAC.

SX2 doesn't have the warp feature, so using slices is a different working method. That's why he mentioned the difficulties he came across. You can use FX on slices etc, but timestretching does it to the whole file. Good to know it's more flexible in SX3 though.

I still can't figure why Steiny don't have demo versions though...that's exactly the sort of thing you need to play with to make a decision on buying a host. Sounds like this guy likes SX, but can only make a decision based on SX2, as that's the only one he can get access to. Can't help but feel that without sites like KvR etc that Steinberg would lose more potential sales.

[bduffy]

SX2 doesn't have the warp feature, so using slices is a different working method. That's why he mentioned the difficulties he came across

I know SX 2 doesn't have the Warp feature - but he asked:

Can I do this in arrange window in sx3...?

So I was telling him what you can do in SX 3.

You can use FX on slices etc, but timestretching does it to the whole file. Good to know it's more flexible in SX3 though.

I must be losing it. I can take a loop, import it into a track, make Hitpoints+Audio Slices, then hit "1" twice for the Time Stretch Tool and stretch any one Audio Slice as I wish! I don't have to stretch the whole thing. Maybe I'm not clear or I don't understand the O.G. question.

Yeah, they really should have a demo! Can't believe they don't...I think they're always slow with demos, as I recall.