Variaudio quantise reversal issue/bug?

I’ve searched but can’t find this same issue so here goes:

I’m a newbie but I’ve studied & practised Variaudio a lot and am trying the approach for my current project of quantise all notes (segments) using Ctrl+A to select all then move quantise slider to 100%, then listen to see whether certain segments may be better off not quantised, therefore then select each one & slide the quantise slider to 0% to undo the quantise on that segment. This seems to work on most segments but there are some segments that have 2 issues. The same segment will sometimes not have the quantise slider active (greyed out so unavailable) even though I watched it quantise (move up/down), and at other times the same segment has the slider active but when I slide it to 0%, the segment box doesn’t actually move at all (should move off the line back to it’s original ‘out of tune’ position).

Has anyone experienced this please and if so, is there a valid reason or is it a bug?

Also, is there a keyboard shortcut to quantise (to 100%) & unquantise (to 0%) please? (‘Q’ doesn’t work like it does for timing).

Finally, is there a way to process all segments across a whole track/channel e.g. if there’s been lots of takes with comping and punch-in’s on one vocal channel meaning there will be many separate parts and events making up the final track output, are we limited to having to double-click every single part one at a time in the project window to open in the editing window then pressing Ctrl+A to select all notes then apply quantising across all notes in that event, or is there a way to select all parts/events on 1 whole track/channel and quantise all notes in one quantise process?
I have tried selecting more than one part/event but the audio editing window only shows segments from the first event and won’t scroll past the end of that file.
Frustratingly, when opening a single event in the editing window, it does show segments after the ‘end of event’ marker which I have somtimes missed the marker and got carried away continuing editing the segments after the ‘end of event’ marker, such segments are of course unused so I have wasted my time (and rightly feel stupid! please tell me I’m not the only one :slight_smile:).

Many thanks in advance to anyone understanding my attempted explanation (sorry if some of my terminology re track/channel & part/events isn’t perfect).

Not a solution, but seeing as you asked…you’re not the only one :slight_smile:

My workflow is the same: there has to be a better method than selecting segments individually, ctrl A, slide to 100%, so will be watching this thread for advice.

As for the bug: I can’t replicate this…

Thanks ieaston.

I will keep poughing on and if experience more stubborn segments that won’t ‘unquantise’ to 0% I will upgrade to latst version 10.5.12 in case that bug has been fixed.

With regard to a better way of working, I just remembered that Cubase is RTFM technology! (Read The Flippin Manual!)

In the manual under section ‘Assembling a Perfect Take’ there is a feature, quote :
“To create a new and continuous event of all selected takes, select Audio > Bounce Selection.”

This does what is says on the tin, if you select (with the range selection tool) all parts on the track it creates 1 continuous event that you can open and apply Ctrl+A and quantise the whole track! yippee!

Note (not in manual!), when selecting the parts, do not select in the lanes, just the top track (sorry, don’t know what it’s called). If you select parts in the lanes without the top track it does nothing.

Also read the whole of that page in the manual as there are steps to do before bouncing e.g. comping and autofades etc.

I believe it’s best practice to leave the variaudio until last to avoid undoing it with this bouncing process and other audio processes like silence etc. that re-analyse the audio, thereby losing your variaudio editing :frowning:
Of course if you’ve already processed some segments with variaudio, don’t include those when selecting parts for bouncing :wink:

Hope the above is helpful to other newbies too.

Hi yes - I use this exact method too on occasion and seen the same behaviour. :slight_smile:

Spotting a segment that won’t ‘unquantise’ as you say, I’ve come to realise that VA has in fact tried to ‘intelligently’ couple the pitch curves of adjoining segments (internally) and based the quantise movement on these segments, together… Arguably, its initial analysis made a split/segment where there shouldn’t have been one and making any adjustment will ‘spoil’ some of these note transitions anyway. So you wonder if it couldn’t just leave some things alone…?!

Anyway, I’m rambling - when you next see a segment that shows the Quantise Pitch slider blank/greyed out, try rubber-banding one, two or three surrounding pitches to the one you want and notice when the slider becomes ‘active’. Now Undo the quantise setting (to 0%). From here, you may have to experiment gluing/splitting and working manually on this whole little section of notes, to get where you want.

And again, even this does not always workout - and the pitch curve gets messed up with artifacts introduced that I now can’t seem to get rid of, no matter what I ‘undo’.! Arrgh.!

In which case, I give up and splice back into the original (you have made copies first, haven’t you…? :slight_smile: ) and retrieve that little section to start again and try and re-work it…

Its not perfect, but they’ve made some great strides with all the recent updates to VA. Loving the workflow now… :smiley:

Bob

Hi Bob,

Many thanks for your well informed advice!
I assume when you say ‘rubber band’ you mean try various selections either with the range tool and/or with pointer and Ctrl key to see which multiple selection reactivates the quantise slider. As soon as it happens I’ll try that, thanks!

When you say ‘made copies’, I always back up the whole project to external drive after every session but would you recommend duplicating tracks on the fly before working on same, or perhaps some other better backup method?

I’m just updating to 10.5.12 anyway as I experienced numerous crashes last night when pressing A on a selection to apply fade-in to an audio file (this was after selecting auto fadein/out/crossfade in the ‘project/global settings’). I thought it best to update then see if it still crashes before exploring why and reporting to Steinberg with dump reports.

I’m just getting to grips at the stage where I can start being productive and really looking forward to using all these tips & processes and getting good workflow too! :slight_smile:

My pleasure - what I meant was you can simply click and drag with the mouse, to create a selection area (sometimes also called ‘lassoing’) that encompasses the note segments (and gaps and pitch curve) over your area of interest.

Backup projects are essential practice for all…! For me, I also make use of ‘Duplicates’. I always have a folder in my working project that holds all my (Vox) ‘originals’ - fold that closed and right-click and make a duplicate. Easy. I disable all original tracks (Select all ->Right-click ->Disable Tracks). I then re-name the new duplicate tracks, doing a bounce selection (or Render-In-Place) on them, so there’s no naming conflict with the originals. The Pool can get messy/confusing with multiple instances of similar looking filenames with just an added ‘01, 02, 03…’ etc to distinguish each.

Bummer - but if you send along crash logs, that’s the best advice; and/or a small project file that demos the crash reliably…

Oh you’ll have some fun - tons to get stuck in to.! And plenty of cooped up time to do so… :wink:

Good luck,
Bob

Hey Bob!

Many thanks for the tips which I’ve been trying out (well trying to try out :slight_smile:).
I’ve been studying all the ‘render in place’ options and Cubase really have customised the facilities to suit so many situations!
Unfortunately this knuckle head can’t get past the first step as when I follow the manual =unselect parts, select a track/channel then Edit, Render in place, my 'Render settings ’ option is still greyed out. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong please?

Also, for simple backup of raw vocal data, which settings would you recommend please?
Many thanks in advance (if you have time).

Ken