Free Warp issues

First let me say: Great progress with C6! A lot of things have been addressed and the program looks better than ever. This is from a 15 year Pro Tools user who sold his HD rig and works in Cubase only now.

Since C5 I was having some issues with Free Warp and was hoping this would have been improved in C6.

Let me give you an example:

Let’s say I record acoustic guitar for the full length of the song and punch in here and there.

In the end I notice some notes that are a bit too much out of time, so I go into Sample Editor> Free Warp.
I don’t use Music Mode as this generally isn’t subtle enough for only a few tweaks and messes everything up once pressed.

What I do is create only a few Warp points for the offending notes and move them ‘in time’.

Now, although there is a Snap button at the top of the editor there is no way to set the resolution of the Snap or Grid. It seems to be fixed at 1/4 notes.

I have no way of reference when working in Shuffle or Swing. (Dotted or T, etc) Even to see a 1/16 note grid is sometimes necessary. Would be good to have the same features like in the MIDI editors where most of that is possible.

1/4 grid is not enough to give you a reference when working with Free Warp markers.
shouldn’t be difficult to add…

Maybe the moderators can forward this as a wish list feature?

Keep up the good work! (and don’t forget to give us the VCA busses that we all want then we are truly happy!)

PS: I tried to update my signature in the profile but get this after pressing ‘save profile’:
Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /home/steinberg/web2010/Eventmanager_V1.0/classes.dbtables.inc.php on line 316

You have to switch to Musical Mode (under Audio Warp), than you can change the resolution up to 1/64 plus the amount of Swing.

Yes, but I don’t want to switch to music mode! Did you read what I said? :slight_smile:

Music mode interferes with everything and moves countless things I don’t want to! Just by pressing ‘musical mode’ you can see how things shift in the audio clip and it sounds completley different.

I only want to make a few hand selected edits. Musical mode does too many things automatically.

But to make a few edits with FreeWarp I still need a proper grid (or even snap on occasion) and not just 1/4 notes.

Anybody else?

Hmmm, can’t confirm this. I’m running only into problems when the file has a wrong tempo tag. Have you checked if the file shows the right tempo? (either in pool or at the top of the editor)

Yes, completely agree. I have this subject rolling in another couple of threads. This is EXACTLY what I would like to be able to do. I’d like to be able to do it in the project window as well. Let me set the event to warp mode, set the markers and then move individual markers in the project window. WITHOUT musical mode.

It can’t have a tempo tag.

Imagine I punch in somewhere random and go out. Recording some acoustic instruments. I don’t want to go and and have to edit begin and end points to the 1 of a beat and also tempo label everything. It’s not possible anyway…

All I want is to go (into any random recording) and tweak/add a few free warps. For this you need a selectable grid reference in the background of the sample window. At the moment all you see are quarter notes which is no good if you work in shuffle/swing or with dotted notes. Sometimes you need 1/16 notes etc.

But you can set and move warp markers without music mode. Just go into the sample editor and select AudioWarp>Free Warp. Maybe I misunderstand something…

The only problem is that the grid is set to quarter notes only. Would be nice to have a Resolution & Swing parameter for the grid/snap.

Can you send a link for the other threads you mentioned?

Yes, you misunderstand … I don’t want to go back into the editor. I don’t want to set it to free mode. Once I’ve set the markers, I want to be able to move them while in the project view and snap to the project grid.

got you! nice Idea! Although I wouldn’t mind double clicking and opening the sample editor. As long as I could have the correct grid of course…

So what are the other threads you mentioned?

The problem with that approach is you can’t see it in relation to other tracks. Maybe I just want to move a horn accent a 64th to tie with a kick that is riding just a hair early (on purpose). If you have a 30 minute song and 64+ tracks (4 nights x 16 tracks) it’s painful to pop the editor open on every one of them a zillion times as you move down timeline.

Here’s one of the other threads

Insert Measure in Timewarp

good point!

It does not matter if you punch or not, the recorded file should have the same tempo as the project (have a look into the pool). If file and project tempo are not in sync in the beginning, that could have indeed nasty side effects because every calculation would be based on wrong tempo assumptions.

FWIW, I understand that the warp grid has to be created and tempo mapped to get things started. I’m just saying that once the markers are set, I should be able to adjust individual markers more easily. And, in context of the project. Having to go to musical mode to get a decent view of the enhanced grid is a head scratcher.

EDIT: I could be talking out my ass though. I don’t have 6 yet. I’m going off the docs, videos and other peoples comments. I know how I want it to work. I’m just hoping I can get close.

There is no difference in C6 to C5 what free warp concerns (unfortunately!)

Also: I can’t use musical mode because the beginning and end of the files do not align with bars. So how on earth can you know the length of one audio clip? It will make a mess even though you enter the correct tempo.

exactly …

Although, you can set the beginning and end Q points, which has helped me sometimes.

What should I say? I’m sitting in front of the computer, just have recorded a guitar track that is not in line with the bars and in the pool the tag says “120 BPM” which is the tempo of the project.
Went to the Audio Editor, chosen Audio Warp tab, select free warp, done. When activating musical mode I have a higher resolution plus swing factor. Works also fine.
Do we have a fundamental misunderstanding? You want to move warp transients “inside” the file and you do not want to stretch the whole file?

Yes, with the additional capability to do it in the project window and anchor a note to a project level tempo marker.

So you ask for an “Edit in place” function like on the MIDI tracks?

I guess you could say that. But, not entirely. When I finally get C6 (USA seems to have lost their copy) I’ll mock up some screen shots. But, just imagine that when in warp mode in the project window, the hitpoint handles were available on each event that has been set to warp mode. Those handles could be snapped to whatever Q resolution currently set, including the new triplets etc… And, only the audio to the immediate right and left of the moved hit point are stretched/shrunk. So previous/next markers remain tied to the grid.