General Operations

Zooming

Zooming in the Sample Editor is done according to the standard zoom procedures, with the following special notes:

•The vertical zoom slider changes the vertical scale relative to the height of the editor window, in a way similar to the waveform zooming in the Project window (see “Zoom and view options” on page 34).

The vertical zoom will also be affected if the option “Zoom Tool Standard Mode” (Preferences on the Editing–Tools page) is deactivated and you drag a rectangle with the Zoom tool.

•The following options relevant to the Sample Editor are available on the Zoom submenu (on the Edit menu and the Quick context menu):

•You can also zoom by resizing the rectangle in the thumbnail display.

See “The thumbnail display” on page 263.

•The current zoom setting is shown in the info line, as a “samples per screen pixel” value.

•Note that you can zoom in horizontally to a scale with less than one sample per pixel!

This is required for drawing with the Pencil tool (see “Drawing in the Sample Editor” on page 271).

• If you have zoomed in to one sample per pixel or less, the appearance of the samples depend on the option “Interpolate Audio Images” in the Preferences (Event Dis- play–Audio page).

If the option is deactivated, single sample values are drawn as “steps”. If the option is activated, they are interpolated to “curves” form.

Auditioning

While you can use the regular play commands to play back audio when the Sample Editor is open, it is often useful to listen to the edited material only.

ÖWhen auditioning, audio will be routed to the Control Room (if the Control Room is activated) or to the Main Mix (the default output bus). For information about routing, see the chapter “VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses” on page 10.

ÖYou can adjust the auditioning level with the miniature level fader on the toolbar.

By using key commands

If you activate the “Playback Toggle triggers Local Preview” option in the Preferences (Transport page), you can use the [Space] bar to audition. This is the same as clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar.

By using the Audition icon

Clicking the Audition icon on the toolbar plays back the edited audio, according to the following rules:

•If you have made a selection, this selection will be played back.

•If there is no selection, but the option “Show Event” is activated (see “Show audio event” on page 271), the section of the clip corresponding to the event will be played back.

•If there is no selection, and “Show Event” is deactivated, playback will start at the cursor position (if the cursor is outside the display, the whole clip will be played back).

•If the Loop icon is activated, playback will continue repeatedly until you deactivate the Audition icon. Otherwise, the section will be played back once.

Ö Note that there is a separate Play button for auditioning regions. See “Auditioning regions” on page 270.

By using the Speaker tool

If you click somewhere in the waveform display with the Speaker (“Play”) tool and keep the mouse button pressed, the clip will be played back from the position at which you clicked. Playback will continue until you release the mouse button.

Scrubbing

The Scrub tool allows you to locate positions in the audio by playing back, forwards or backwards, at any speed:

1.Select the Scrub tool.

2.Click in the waveform display and keep the mouse button pressed.

The project cursor is moved to the position at which you click.

3.Drag to the left or right.

The project cursor follows the mouse pointer and the audio is played back. The speed and pitch of the playback depends on how fast you move the pointer.

• You can adjust the response of the Scrub tool with the Scrub Response (Speed) setting in the Preferences (Transport–Scrub page).

There you will also find a separate Scrub Volume setting.

Adjusting the snap point

The snap point is a marker within an audio event (or clip, see below). This is used as a reference position when you are moving events with snap activated, so that the snap point is “magnetic” to whatever snap positions you have selected.

By default, the snap point is set at the beginning of the audio event, but often it is useful to move the snap point to a “relevant” position in the event, such as a downbeat, etc.

1.Activate the “Audio Event” option so that the event is displayed in the editor.

2.Scroll so that the event is visible, and locate the “S” flag in the event.

If you haven’t adjusted this previously, it will be located at the beginning of the event.

3. Click on the “S” flag and drag it to the desired position.

When you drag the snap point, a tool tip shows its current position (in the format selected on the Sample Editor ruler).

• If the Scrub tool is selected when you move the snap point, you will hear the audio while dragging (just like when scrubbing).

This makes it easier to find the correct position.

You can also adjust the snap point by setting the project cursor:

1.Place the cursor at the desired position (intersecting the event).

You may want to do this by scrubbing, to spot the right position exactly.

2.Right-click to open the Quick menu and select “Snap Point To Cursor” from the Audio submenu.

The snap point will be set to the position of the cursor. This method can also be used in the Project window and the Audio Part Editor.

When you set the Grid Start in the Definition tab, the snap point will be moved to the Grid Start (see “Manually adjusting grid and tempo of your audio” on page 275).

• It is also possible to define a snap point for a clip (for which there is no event yet).

To open a clip in the Sample Editor, double-click it in the Pool (or drag it from the Pool to the Sample Editor). After having set the snap point using the procedure described above, you can insert the clip into the project from the Pool or the Sample Editor, taking the snap point position into account.

Making selections

To select an audio section in the Sample Editor, you click and drag with the Range Selection tool.

A selected range

•You can resize the selection by dragging its left and right edge or by [Shift]-clicking.

•The current selection is indicated in the corresponding fields in the Range tab of the Sample Editor Inspector.

You can fine-tune the selection by changing these values numerically. Note that the values are relative to the start of the clip, rather than to the project timeline.

Using the Select menu

In the Select menu in the Range tab and in the Select submenu of the Edit menu you can find the following options:

(Range tab only) lection and keeps starting over again when reaching the

Editing selection ranges

Selections in the Sample Editor can be processed in several ways. Please note:

•If you attempt to edit an event that is a shared copy (i.e. the event refers to a clip that is used by other events in the project), you are asked whether you want to create a new version of the clip or not (if you haven’t made a “permanent” choice already – see below).

Select “New Version” if you want the editing to affect the selected event only. Select “Continue” if you want the editing to affect all shared copies. Note: If you activate the option “Do not show this message again” in the dialog, any further editing you do will conform to the selected method (“Continue” or “New Version”). You can change this setting at any time with the “On Processing Shared Clips” pop-up menu in the Preferences (Editing–Audio page).

•Any changes to the clip will appear in the Offline Process History, making it possible to undo them at a later point (see “The Offline Process History dialog” on page 251).

Cut, Copy and Paste

The Cut, Copy and Paste commands (on the Edit menu in the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the main Edit menu) work according to the following rules:

•Selecting Copy copies the selection to the clipboard.

•Selecting Cut removes the selection from the clip and moves it to the clipboard.

The section to the right of the selection is moved to the left to fill out the gap.

• Selecting Paste copies the data on the clipboard into the clip.

If there is a selection in the editor, this will be replaced by the pasted data. If there is no selection, the pasted data will be inserted starting at the selection line. The section to the right of the line will be moved to make room for the pasted material.

The pasted data will be inserted at the selection line.

Delete

Selecting Delete (on the Edit menu in the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the main Edit menu or pressing [Backspace]) removes the selection from the clip. The section to the right of the selection is moved to the left to fill out the gap.

Insert Silence

Selecting “Insert Silence” (on the Edit menu in the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the Range submenu of the main Edit menu) will insert a silent section with the same length as the current selection, at the selection start.

• The selection will not be replaced, but moved to the right to make room.

If you want to replace the selection, use the “Silence” function instead (see “Silence” on page 247).

Processing

Processing (on the Select Process menu in the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the Process submenu on the Audio menu) can be applied to selections in the Sample Editor, as can the effects (on the Select Plugin menu in the Process tab of the Sample Editor Inspector or in the Plug-ins submenu on the Audio menu). See the chapter “Audio processing and functions” on page 238.

Creating a new event from the selection

You can create a new event that plays only the selected range, using the following method:

1.Make a selection range.

2.Press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag the selection range to the desired audio track in the Project window.

Creating a new clip or audio file from the selection

You can extract a selection from an event and either create a new clip or a new audio file, in the following way:

1.Make a selection range.

2.Right-click to open the Quick menu and select “Bounce Selection” from the Audio submenu.

A new clip is created and added to the Pool, and another Sample Editor window will open with the new clip. The new clip will refer to the same audio file as the original clip, but will only contain the audio corresponding to the selection range.

Working with regions

Regions are sections within a clip. One of the main uses for regions is Cycle recording, in which the different “takes” are stored as regions (see “Recording audio in cycle mode” on page 73). You can also use this feature for marking important sections in the audio clip. Regions can be dragged into the Project window from the Editor or the Pool to create new audio events. You can also export a region to disk as a new audio file, from the Pool.

Regions are best created, edited and managed in the Sample Editor.

Creating a region

1.Select the range you want to convert into a region.

2.Click the “Show Regions” button on the toolbar, or activate the “Regions” option on the Elements submenu on the Quick menu.

The regions list is displayed to the right in the Sample Editor window.

3.Click the Add region button above the Regions list (or select “Event or Range as Region” from the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu).

A region is created, corresponding to the selected range.

4.To name the region, click on it in the list and enter a new name.

Regions can be renamed at any time, using this procedure.

• When a region is selected in the Regions list, it is instantly displayed and selected in the Sample Editor.

Creating regions from Hitpoints

If your audio event contains calculated hitpoints, you can choose to automatically create regions from hitpoints. This can be useful to isolate recorded sounds. For further information on hitpoints, see “Working with hitpoints and slices” on page 278.

Editing regions

The region selected in the list is displayed in gray in the waveform display and thumbnail.

There are two ways to edit the start and end position of a region:

•Click and drag its start and end handles in the waveform display (with any tool).

When you move the pointer over the handles, it will automatically change to an arrow pointer to indicate that you can drag the handles.

•Edit the Start and End positions numerically in the Regions list.

The positions are shown in the display format selected for the ruler and info line, but are relative to the start of the audio clip, rather than the project timeline.

Auditioning regions

You can listen to a region by selecting it in the list and clicking the Play Region button (above the list). The region will play back once or repeatedly, depending on whether the Loop icon on the toolbar is activated or not.

Making selections from regions

If you select a region in the list and click the Select Region button above, the corresponding section of the audio clip is selected (as if you had selected it with the Range Selection tool). This is useful if you want to apply processing to the region only.

• Note that you can also double-click a region in the Pool to have its audio clip open in the Sample Editor with the area of the region automatically selected.

Creating new events from regions

You can create new audio events from regions, using the following method:

1.Click in the Region’s leftmost column in the list and keep the mouse button pressed.

2.Move the pointer to the desired audio track and position in the Project window.

3.Release the mouse button.

A new event is created.

• You can also use the function “Events from Regions” from the Advanced submenu of the Audio menu for this (see “Region operations” on page 55).

Removing regions

To remove a region from a clip, select it in the list and click the Remove Region button above the list.

Exporting regions as audio files

If you create a region in the Sample Editor, the region can be exported to disk as a new audio file. This is done from the Pool, see “Exporting regions as audio files” on page 308.