Saving time stretch edits?

Cubase
1

Hey all. I’m brand new to Cubase. Been digging for an hour on this one. Hoping for some detailed help.

I’m importing audio tracks that were recorded at slightly varying tempo. I’m opening them in the sample editor, adjusting the event start and stop times around certain spots (basically 4 bar measures). I then go back to the project window. The new clip is slightly over or under the 4 bar length now as expected.

I select the 3rd item down from the arrow tool “Sizing applies time stretch”. I re-size and it now snaps the clip nicely to the 4th bar mark. When I set the loop points on these 4 bars, the clip loops seamlessly. I’m happy.

I now want to export/mixdown/bounce/whatever the clip into a stand alone file (we’ll say it’s a WAV for now). This seems to work, but here’s the problem…

… when I re-open the file I just exported, and drop it onto a new track, it comes back up with the original time length - it is still over or under the 4 bar mark a bit and plays out of sync with the time stretched version of the same clip in the track above.

I’ve tried to “Flatten” the clip in the sample editor. Once I go back to the project, the time stretch marks are no longer visible in the upper right corners of the clip. I thought I’d nailed it at that point, but no good - I export the same way, re-open, and it’s again the original length.

I’ve tried this with the time base in both musical and linear (the mode where the orange-yellow note is in the time base box, and the mode where the grey clock is in the time base box). I think I understand the difference between the two but maybe not.

In the end, I’m trying to take longer takes that were slightly above or below 130 bpm, chop them into shorter pieces of several bars, then to permanently apply this slight timing /tempo change in the output file, so once they are brought back into Cubase (or another DAW) with the tempo set to 130 bpm, all the clips should match beat to beat.

I’m happy to read the manual if there’s a section I’m missing. I searched for quite a while in the time tempo and flattening areas and feel like what I’m doing should be causing the desired result.

Much thanks.

2

When you had the audio event the way you wanted it, did you use Bounce Audio? That will make a completely new file on your hard drive and it should be exactly the same, only with permanent edits. Make sure that the audio event starts on the bar and ends on the bar. Not just the snap point, but the whole event start and end points.

3

Thanks for the reply.

I just tried this, and still… the clips come back in as they were before time stretching. I select the region once the region is snapped right to the bar markers using the 3rd pointer down the list “Sizing applies time stretch”. As stated before, I see a little time stretch icon in the upper right corner of the region. I then select the region. I then select “Bounce Selection”. I get “Replace events?” - I have tried this both Yes and No.

The time stretch icon then goes away, as if it has been rendered as a new clip with the stretch applied.

I then goto File > Export > Audio Mixdown, and select the output file options and save it. I then go to where I saved it, grab the exported file which seems to have the correct name, etc, and drag it back into my project window on a new track. It pops up on the new track - I expect it to look exactly like the one I just used to export, but it doesn’t. It comes back in as the non-time stretched length.

Frustrating is and understatement. :imp:

4

Figured it out.

What I was seeing was a mis-match in the sample rates. I was working with 48K in a 44K project, and I didn’t have it re-sampled on import, so everything I exported went out as one data rate then came back in as another. Once I started a new project and matched project settings to data rate settings of my clips, everything worked fine.

Thanks. :smiley: