Why in the world does my knowledge of Cubase still be an ample thorn in my side?
I got given stems at 130bpm and I do not know how to make this 175bpm. Time stretch = trash, when I entered in 130 and then change to 175, it was so bad.
Musical mode didn’t do anything dignifying of a four figure daw that’s update-hungry > production principals.
What am I missing here? I know the stems are 130bpm. There is no argument about it.
The files themselves don’t cut off clean ‘on bar’ so the only thing I can think to do is, export 32 bit float that cuts off on the end/start of a bar and then press ‘1’ twice and drag it that way with the stretch tool. Is this the answer?
I have had this issue with Cubase since day of using it 20 years so before you judge me at least point to one clear explanation in the manual / a tutorial that shows me how to use this like a respectable DAW. The thing with their rampant updates is that they fail to provide short to the point tutorials. Dom and Greg do not cut it competitively and a huge waste of money compared to actually providing 60-90 second how’s to’s.
Last night I was happy in Cubase land. It was a friend’s birthday BBQ. I had a few hours, until it started. I’m loading and exporting finished 16 bit wav songs into Rekord Box so I can DJ them. I was noodling around - pc running like a champ. Then the stems arrived.
I through them in, exported the midi from The bassline pad, and began to audition the mini vibe I had curated by being choice with the stems I used. 45 mins later and I’m rushing out the door wondering why and how this is still an issue in Cubase 14 in 2026, with nothing close to a draft version of a song to play at the party.
I am totally willing to accept its me but ‘dang it’ Cubase I love you but this can’t go on!
Do I have to buy ableton to be able to expect to be able remix? I don’t want the quantized phasing squashed sound of ableton warping!
Make your project 130…Do they line up with the click.
Put the track into music mode. Change the project tempo what you want (170)
Stems should follow.
Second way
Put 130 stems into 170 project. Use the time stretch tool .. stretch the file.
130 to 170 is quite a jump .. depending on the type/quality of the file. Maybe it’s too much for a clean time stretch.
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which version and edition of Cubase are you using? For the moment, I’ll assume that you have Cubase Pro 15, unless you correct me.
(B)
what kind of music are you referring to?
And why do you want to raise the tempo of the mix to 175 bpm?
Time Stretch in Cubase is not “trash”. Apart from the fact that you don’t really need it to just change the project’s tempo, despite your stems being at 135 bpm - if this is what you intended to do. Would the following short tutorial perhaps help you to make things work - in the way you had in mind?
And please don’t take this personally: I have a feeling that even after 20 years you could still profit from practicing more by also using the user manual.
(1)
(2)
(3)
Regarding your editing task, and generally spoken:
by boosting the tempo of a given track (or remix) from 135 bpm to 175 bpm - by using time stretching, - there is a certain danger to completely ruin a mix, in terms of already existing groove and rhythmic feel. I’m sure you’re aware of that.
By comparison, after stretching everything to 175 bpm results in a mix about 30% faster - and then the piece will be 30% shorter on the time line, which means 30% more “musical energy” (or “density”) within the same overall time frame. Was this your initial plan?
If you just want to use those 135 bpm stems and then add something to your project at nominal 175 bpm, that’s something else. Since in such a case you may not need to stretch or manually quantize your stems at all, apart from maybe some transient detection and grid quantizing (via scanned hitpoints).
Are you wanting to pitch lock like on a pioneer cdj or tractor (because 135 to 170 is an insane amount) or do you want them pitched up like in an old akai sampler?
Because if you just want the tempo adjusted and are ok with the chipmunk effect u can just drop them into a sampler track. You can exactly calculate the semitones and cents needed to go to your desired tempo and it will work perfectly.
If you want to maintain pitch… I dont know of anything that would do a perfect job with that much of a tempo jump.
well put.
With such a strong increase in bpm, the only realistic way would be to have discrete tracks with (hopefully) good enough drum instrument isolation - instead of just stems - and then decide to go through the necessary “tour-de-force” editing. Which means gain staging, cutting out all drum instrument hits at their transients and with enough sample decay, then set all the fades / cross fades, and finally put everything on grid at the desired bpm. Can be extremely tedious work, but can also lead to good results.
