In Ableton you can warp audio like this:
In Cubase, if I try to do something similar with the end of the clip, I am hampered by the fixed warp tab at the end of the clip:
How can I accomplish the task shown in the Ableton example with Cubase? (The example is an earlier Cubase, but warping is the same all the way through Cubase 9 as far as I can tell.) Thanks.
You can move the EVENT END marker but Im not sure if you can delete it fully. Thats what it looks like here, the EVENT END is your variable point if you will
Thanks for your reply. I could be wrong, but I think the event end marker (which isn’t visible in my example) doesn’t have anything to do with warping, it just affects what portion of the clip is displayed in the audio event shown in the project window.
Open your window up and try it. It is the fixed endpoint of the file and its adustable, it also affects the warping preceding that point
Is this what you mean?
It doesn’t affect the warping of the clip as far as I can tell.
The only way I can think of to mimic the Ableton behavior in the original post is to create a copy of the clip in question, warp it as desired, cut out the middle portion, and then arrange this warped middle portion in between the unwarped ends of the original clip. That’s fine, but can anyone think of an easier way to do this?
Create a warp marker at the end of the file. Move your actual marker by, say 1 bar. Then move the end of file warp marker by the same amount. If needed, insert silence at the end of file so that you can warp without distorting the very end. Trim the silence later.
Not an elegant solution but at least its possible.
That’s the answer I was looking for. Thanks!
I suppose you adapt to what you’re used to; looking at that GIF (I’m not an Ableton user) I would find that behaviour extremely disruptive, as it shortens the event. I admit I’ve only ever used warping in Cubase, so I have no comparison, but to me it works very intuitively in Cubase and I’d have a hard time adjusting to the Ableton way as described above – which I would call time “changing” rather than time “warping”.
It took me a while for it to sink in… It would appear that the orange marker, the half of it at the end is what’s causing the issue. If that wasn’t there, the Ableton way would work.
Both ways have their uses. If we can’t remove it perhaps we can in the future… Off to experiment.
Yes, like I said in the original post, the problem is the fixed warp tab at the end of the clip in Cubase’s free warp mode. Also, while I agree with @MrSoundman that the Ableton example is, in a sense, more “disruptive” to the clip, the fact that everything possible in Cubase free warp mode is possible in Ableton, but not vice versa, means that Cubase seems to be imposing unnecessary constraints when it comes to free warping.
After thinking about it, I believe the design choice to have the fixed warp tab might be related to the fact that warped clips in Cubase may or may not be in musical mode, whereas in Ableton, all warped clips are always in musical mode. It’s just a theory, and I could certainly be wrong, but here’s my reasoning:
You can’t have a “musical mode” without an “abstract” timeline that allows you to define the locations of bars and beats in the clip independent of the current project and the current tempo. This abstract timeline is what you see in the Definition tab of the Cubase Audio Editor, and it’s the only timeline you see when you warp clips in Ableton.
However, unlike Ableton, Cubase also allows free warping to occur on a “real” timeline, against which the audio can be stretched arbitrarily to match actual locations in the current project at the current tempo. This real timeline is what you see in the AudioWarp tab of the Cubase Audio Editor. (Apparently the Cubase 9 manual calls the abstract timeline the “audio definition grid,” among other names, and calls the real timeline the “project tempo grid.”)
While free warping without fixed ends makes perfect sense both for clips in musical mode (which is what Ableton does) and for clips that aren’t in musical mode, it only makes sense on an abstract timeline and the real timeline, respectively. Put another way, it doesn’t make sense to be able to specify the overall length of a clip on a real timeline and remain in a well-defined musical mode. Note that it does make sense to perform free warping of clips in musical mode on the real timeline if the overall length of the clip can’t change, because regardless of how the clip is internally warped, the information necessary for automatic adjustment of the clip to the project tempo will be maintained.
Because Cubase’s free warping only occurs on the real timeline in the AudioWarp tab, maybe the design decision was made to add the fixed ends so that clips in both musical mode and those not in musical mode could be free warped in the same way, on the same timeline. I admit that doesn’t really explain why the fixed ends are required when the clip is not in musical mode though.
[quote=
Because Cubase’s free warping only occurs on the real timeline in the AudioWarp tab, maybe the design decision was made to add the fixed ends so that clips in both musical mode and those not in musical mode could be free warped in the same way, on the same timeline. I admit that doesn’t really explain why the fixed ends are required when the clip is not in musical mode though.[/quote]
Agreed, Now I want Abelton, thanks LOL
Although I’ve found a few little things like this warping issue that Ableton does better (or at least differently), I’m actually more committed than ever to Cubase. If you haven’t already, I would recommend checking out Ableton to see what all the fuss is about, even if the only result is that you come to appreciate Cubase more.
That’s kind of what happened for me. Given that I have no interest in using a DAW in a live performance context, and given that editing (especially MIDI editing) is how I spend 95% of my time, for me there’s no contest: Ableton is almost like a toy compared to Cubase. I didn’t really know this until I took a close look at Ableton though.
Of course, that’s just my experience. Your mileage may vary. There’s no question that Ableton does a lot of unique stuff that I never would have imagined was possible based on my experience with traditional linear DAWs.