Cubase 6.5 - removing tempo track without affecting audio

Hi,

We recorded a long a capella piece that had many sections with tempo changes programmed in. We used a midi export from the notation program as a guide track, and as we recorded the tracks, we adjusted length of sections slightly - mainly rubato sections that had been notated and of course the notation program spit out a strictly timed midi file. Each section is on a separate set of tracks, and I recorded them independently in order to use the guide tracks as they were, putting each section in a folder. I thought I would be able to slide the start points of each section around to suit my needs… however when I do that, they move over the original tempo and time sig boundaries. Cubase tries to calculate where they should go now, and tracks that are continuous are fine, but tracks that are not (i.e. punch-ins) get moved, making the thing a mess even though I simply dragged and dropped all the files together. Their relative locations get changed. It’s a mess.

Any easy way to remove the tempo track without affecting anything? I have tried removing the tempo events, and I’ve tried using the glue tool to glue all the sections together into one track - but it still insists on moving and changing the alignment of events. I seem to be left with the only option of moving the tracks one at a time into the right position after a move, or possibly mixing down each track of each section and re-importing them each into their channels so the audio is continuous and frozen. Both are time-consuming and crazy-making. Any advice?

If I understand your issue correctly, it appears like you are trying to warp the grid in such a way that certain tracks stay in their current location in time while other tracks move with the warp. The solution to this is to lock the tracks you want to stay put—by clicking the padlock symbol on the tracks—and setting the timebase to linear—by clicking the quarter-note symbol on the tracks to turn it into a clock symbol. When you warp the grid, the locked tracks will stay put while the unlocked ones will warp.

Also, if you want to remove the tempo track without affecting anything, lock all of the tracks except the tempo track, set the timebase on all of the tracks to linear, then delete the tempo track.

You can also lock individual events if that better suits your needs. Select an event, and in the info bar (or whatever that black bar is called that contains the name of the event) click “lock” to choose whether you want to lock the event’s size, position, etc.