how do i get everything to lock to the grid, so i can change the tempo and not have everything move around. i cntrl-a in the project and choose advance/set definition from tempo. that seems to work, is there another way, or can someone explain this.
I think you are interested in “Musical/Linear Timebase”. Say you have a project where the beginning of bar 5 is at exactly 30 seconds (0:30) with an audio event that starts there. If you are in Linear Timebase and change the tempo, the start of the audio event will remain at 0:30. If you are in Musical Timebase and change the tempo, the start of the audio event will always be at bar 5. It is a little toggle button below the track name that switches between a clock symbol and a note symbol.
HTH
J.L.
is there a way to make the right side lock by doing that? by seting to music note, only locks the left side of the audio item, not the right
I don’t think so. Everything is based on the START of the events/parts as far as I know.
Trying to think of a way. Will post if if I think of a way.
HTH
J.L.
For that (in addition to the Linear vs Musical Timebase that jaslan correctly mentions), you also have to make sure that the audio clips themselves (in the Pool) are switched to Musical Mode, and that the clips’ original tempo, as entered in the appropriate column, match the original tempo in the Cubase project.
Thanks, checking the box for musical in the pool did the trick! Now can someone explain the advantages or differences in workflow from doing this, “checking box in pool” to selecting all events in the timeline and choosing Audio/Advanced/set definition to tempo?
They are related, but they don’t perform the same job…
The first, is for what you were wanting to do.
The second, is (for want of a better description) for preparing the audio clips for the first job, in the case where the clips’ tempo is not the same as that in the Project, and is especially useful if the project (and/or the audio clip) has several varying tempi.
Just remember that Cubase doesn’t actually know what music the audio files contain (unless you go still further, and work with Hitpoints etc.), so when changing the tempo, all it is really doing is making percentage tempo changes between the original tempo and the new one (so it really does need to know what the original tempo is at any given moment in the original audio clip).
Then, “Musical Mode” simply switches that function on 
.
Thanks for responding vic_france, for sake of complete clarification and to understand cubase way of handling this
the best way to stay on top of this is to constantly check the musical boxs in the pool,?
or before i change the tempo make sure i run the audio/advanced/set definition from tempo?
and also if im importing loops does it matter if they are locked to grid “by cubase” before i import them, or does that not matter in the future scenario of changing tempo afterwards.
As regards loops, the simplest answer is…
Without doing anything specifically, does the imported loop play in sync with Cubase’s metronome? If so, then chances are it is already in Musical Mode. The worst that can happen is, you’ll change the tempo in Cubase, but the loop’s tempo won’t change, so put Cubase’s tempo back where it was, go into the Pool and activate Musical Mode for that loop, then change Cubase’s tempo as you wish. There should be no need to “check constantly for Musical Mode”… audio that you record into Cubase will not be set to Musical Mode automatically, but loops that you drag from MediaBay will be set to Musical Mode by default, if you have activated MediaBay Previewer’s “Align Beats to Project” button.
In practice, you probably won’t need to use “Tempo Definition” very often… its most usual purpose is when you record some free-tempo audio, ignoring Cubase’s metronome, then you later want to create a Tempo Map for that audio, so that you can then change the tempo of the freely-recorded audio… You would make the tempo map (Musical mode should not be active while doing this), either by using the TimeWarp tool, or by tapping a MIDI click while listening to the free audio then using the function “Merge Tempo from Tapping”. Then you’d use the Set Tempo Definition function on the audio clip, then you activate Musical Mode, then you can change the tempo.
vic that’s awesome! thanks for the info…merge tempo from tapping, that’s so cool!
Sorry here too for the misunderstanding. 
I thought you wanted to anchor the audio event to the grid based on its END point. For example to have it always end at a specific point. Didn’t realize you were talking about stretching the audio file. Nice save Vic!
Sincerely,
J.L.
np jaslan, after re reading my post i can see how you would get that, cause of the way i mentioned having locked on left of item but not on right! thanks for the participation though, any help is good help in my book. Thanks every1.
Woah, I agree, thank you vic_france for that awesome explanation! 
if i remember correctly from cubase 3 you didnt have to do this type of this, it was just set project to musical mode in file/prefs and that was it, i see now they have changed it up a bit, what new uses come out of this new functionality, again i used cubase 3, haven’t used since then.
… but it didn’t work with varying tempos. But even now, like I said earlier, if the audio is already in sync with the metronome, and the tempo in the Pool is correct (which had to be true in SX3 also 
), just activate Musical Mode, and you’re good to go.
cool, thanks vic, everything seems coming along great with cubase now with all the help here on the forums.