Hi- I am attempting to vari audio quantize a bass guitar track recorded to a click. It’s a simple 1/4 note “walking” bassline and the note attacks can be clearly seen. However, when I choose detect hitpoints, the hitpoints are sometimes ahead of the bass note attack by varying amounts of about 15 milliseconds. Sometimes a hitpoint is in the middle of a bass note- even though the signal is low in level, and sometimes hitpoints are in between notes- where it is basically silent. I tried adjusting the threshold- but the hitpoints still don’t line up consistently with the bass note attacks. I know I can “edit” the hitpoints -deleting the extras and manually move the others to line up with the attack edge of the bass notes, but there are so many- it would take forever. Any suggestions- what am I missing or doing wrong? THANKS! steve
No system is perfect, I always end up making a few manual adjustments on the few occasions that I use hitpoints and I guarantee it doesn’t take forever, half a minute to five minutes at the most.
A start would be to limit the hitpoints to 1/4s, even if you’ve got some 1/8 notes thrown in it most likely would work anyway, otherwise you can add them in manually. Regarding hitpoints being 15 ms or so off the attack, it might be a “difficult” sound and you’ll likely have to live with it. Quantize first, listen, and if something sounds off then adjust manually.
The obvious solution is otherwise not to let someone play if they have such a bad time that you have to use hitpoints on their whole track. I mostly don’t and instead send my clients back home to practice or simplify the part. Somtimes, sadly, that’s not an option…
/A
I had the exact same problem while making hitpoints for drums. Unfortunately, I found no help on this issue even after sending screenshots to Steinberg of the hitpoints falling nowhere near my snare hits. The only advice I did get was to move them manually, and to record a more isolated snare next time.
That was no help at all when converting hitpoints to midi for a 9 minute piece! Neither was the assumption that the engineers were complete boneheads who let everything bleed through the snare mic.
If anybody does have a solution for this, it would be greatly appreciated!
I absolutely second the initial post. While the whole Hitpoint-Engine has been massively improved for Cubase 6 (before it was not usable at all imo), I think it’s time to take it to the next level.
While it seems to work on snare tracks most of the time, even on other drum tracks often the visual curve is so obvious (e.g. one big peak) but the hitpoint is in the middle of nowhere.
I think there should be some ways to tweak the analysis. Lowcut would be a starting point. Also different presets for different instruments (Kick, Snare, Ride, Cymbal, HH, Bassguitar, etc.)
When I first used the new Hitpoint feature, I felt the hitpoints should kinda move with the change of the threshold setting. But they don’t, it’s just you get more or less “lines”, but the initial analysis determines where the algorithm thinks the attack is.
Anyway, to suggest a workaround: Copy the original basstrack. Do some processing on the copy that will emphasize the attacks (Lowcut filter, Transient Designer with the sustain reduced, EQ,…). Put both the original track and the processed copy in a group and activate the link switch. Use the processed track for the hitpoint detection.
Let me now if this helped.