For the life of me, I wish the Cubase manuals were not nearly so self-referential. They regularly refer to tools and concepts which Steinberg created, while not explaining what-exactly-these things are, or what their differences are between each other. I would like it if they explained these concepts with the understanding that until you know what they’re talking about . . . well, you don’t know what they’re talking about. Try explaining like we’re 2 years old, Steinberg.
OK, enough of the rant. I’m really trying to get my head around when to use each one of these tools. They all seem to be able to do roughly the same things: getting audio, that has not necessarily been recorded with the straightest tempo (or even audio whose tempo a user hasn’t the slightest idea of,) to line up in a satisfying way, in a project with perfectly straight tempo (including projects with many different tempo changes.)
So this is good. Very good, in fact. The problem is: I’m not sure about the differences between the methods, and understanding these differences is an important factor in helping me determine which method I’d use. Just as a for instance, a few days ago I figured out I wouldn’t be able to Audio Quantize some tracks which-by using Tempo Detection-I had just beautifully lined up with a straight-tempo’d project. Apparently one cannot apply Audio Quantizing to any track that is set to Musical Mode (and anyone who has used the Tempo Detection method (and ending it with the Set Definition from Tempo step) knows that you’re going to, at the very least, have to set the tempo-defining audio track to Musical Mode.)
Thus my search for greater clarity. My first inclination was to sort of think of this issue in the same way that I, during my days as a Graphics Production Artist, came to look at Photoshop: a tool with a wonderful sense of Redundancy. There typically are many, many different ways to effect one desired change in PS, and that’s part of it’s success: each individual artist can craft his/her own methods to match his/her own style, personality, perspective and skill set.
But after seeing that, in Cubase, there are some distinctions between the results of two different methods gives me pause, and makes me think I need a much better understanding of these different methods, so I can make the right workflow decisions.
Hope that all was clear. Any answers out there?