Multiple Takes

Assembling 'the perfect take' is easy in Cubase's Audio Part Editor.

Before we get started this month, I'd just like to mention that, unless otherwise stated, all mentions of Cubase now refer to Cubase SX/SL rather than Cubase VST.

Recording MIDI or audio tracks is a fairly simple task in Cubase: prepare a track, press Record and perform that perfect take. If you don't like the performance, undo the recording and try again; if you're happy, move on to the next part of the project — simple. But what if there are parts of a performance (or take) you'd like to combine with other attempts?

Cubase's facility for working with multiple takes is accessed via a procedure known as Cycle Record, which works in much the same way as using Cycle Playback. Simply set the left and right locators to encompass the section of the Project you'd like to record, and enable Cycle mode by clicking the Cycle button on either the Transport Panel or Project window toolbar, or by pressing the / key on the numeric keypad.

If you're recording on a MIDI track, make sure that the Cycle Record mode is set to Overwrite by clicking the value above the Cycle Rec label on the Transport Panel. The other, default Cycle Record setting is Mix, meaning that each take is merged with the last, which is ideal for building up drum parts, but not for recording different takes of the same part. If you're recording on an audio track, the Cycle Record mode setting on the Transport Panel has no effect.

When you press Record, Cubase will give you the Precount (if enabled) and start recording from the left locator as usual until the Project Cursor reaches the right locator. At this point, the Project Cursor will cycle back to the left locator to begin recording another take, and since there's no break between takes, you might want to set the locators slightly wider than the length of your Part so you have a chance to prepare yourself for the next pass.

If you're Cycle Recording on a MIDI track, the bad news is that because Cubase only stores the last take you recorded, then once you start recording the next take, the section of the previous take after you begin playing again is gone forever — and not even Cubase's multiple undo function can save you. However, there's also some good news because Cubase will keep the last take on the Project window intact until you start performing again. So after you've finished a take and the Project Cursor loops back to the left locator, you can listen to that take while staying in Cycle Record mode as many times as you like before performing another or pressing Stop to end Cycle Record and 'freeze' the last part played.

It's important to note that this 'only the last take is kept' behaviour only applies to MIDI tracks and not to Audio tracks as well. Plus, it's also important to stress that when Cycle Recording a MIDI part, you only lose the previous take from the point you start recording the next. If you've recorded a four-bar section, for example, and play a new take from the beginning of the third bar when the Project Cursor loops around again, you'll end up with a Part consisting of the original first two bars, with the final two bars being replaced with whatever you played during the second take.

So what happens when you record multiple takes via Cycle Record on an audio track? Well, this partly depends on you, because while Cubase always stores every audio take no matter what, the way these takes are presented can be configured in the Preferences window. Open the Preferences window (Windows: File / Preferences; Mac: Cubase / Preferences) and select the Audio panel. The Cycle Record Mode pop-up menu is what we're interested in, and this contains three options: Create Regions (the default), Create Events and Create Events and Regions.

If you've recorded your audio takes as Regions, you can select different takes with the Set To Region command.

The first step in assembling what the manual describes as 'the perfect take' is to convert your Audio Events into a single Part by drawing a box around them and selecting Audio / Events To Part. In the case that these are the only Events on a Track, you could also select them all by Right/Control-clicking the Track in the Track List and choosing Select All Events from the Quick Menu. If you initially had your takes created as Regions, you can turn these Regions into an Audio Part by simply selecting the Audio Event and, again, choosing Audio / Events To Part. When asked if you want to create a Part using Regions, click Regions.

Double-click the newly created Audio Part to open it in the Audio Part Editor, and you'll notice that the takes appear from top to bottom in different Lanes. The lowest lane always has playback priority, so by cutting and either removing or muting Events from the bottom up, you can compile the final take.

One thing to bear in mind, though, is that you can't crossfade between two Events on different lanes by using their respective fade handles. So to make the final take as smooth as possible, delete all the Events you're not using, so only the Events used in the final take remain in the editor, and extend the start and end points of every second Event slightly. Move all the events onto the same Lane —you can lock an Event's position horizontally when moving it vertically by holding down the Control/Apple key as you drag. And when all the Events are on the same Lane, select them and press the X key to put a crossfade between each of them. Voilà!

The final Cycle Record Mode setting creates both Events and Regions, and this is perhaps the option to go for as it gives you the most flexibility. You can manipulate the Events as much as you like, and always restore an original version of a take as a new Audio Event by dragging the appropriate Region from the Sample Editor's Region List (or the Pool) to the Project window.

As a footnote to this month's Cubase Notes, the Mac OS X version of Cubase SX should be shipping by the time you read this, and, as an added bonus, the same Cubase SX dongle is compatible with both Mac and Windows versions, allowing you to run your sequencer of choice wherever you go. At the time of writing, it seems as though the shipping version of SX on the Mac will be 1.04, which should also be available as a downloadable update for Windows users from www.steinberg.net.

Regional Variations     Regions contained within a Clip are always shown in the Pool, associated with that Clip. The Cubase manual describes a Region as a section within a Clip, and you can basically think of a Region as a kind of bookmark. Clips can contain many Regions, and once a Region has been created, you can make a selection in the Sample Editor based on its start and end points, drag it to the Project window to create a new Audio Event, or save it to disk as a new audio file. Regions are automatically created when Cycle Record Mode is set to do so, but there are many other ways to create them, including manually in the Sample Editor. To open the Sample Editor, double-click an Audio Event on either the Project window or Audio Part Editor — remember that double-clicking an Audio Part on the Project window always opens the Audio Part Editor first. The Sample Editor always shows the complete Clip an Audio Event is taken from, but the parts of the Clip not used by the Audio Event you're editing are greyed out. The Sample Editor allows you to work with Regions. You can see the list of Regions for the Clip being displayed in the Sample Editor by enabling the Show Regions button on the Sample Editor's toolbar — this is the button that shows two flags facing each other, second button in, to the right of the pop-up menus. To create a new Region, simply mark up the area you'd like to define as a Region, select Audio / Create Region (or press the Add button in the Region List), type in a name for the Region and press return. Once the Region List is visible, you can select a Region by clicking in the unlabelled column to the far left of the list. Clicking in the Description column renames a Region, and clicking in either the Start or End columns allows you to change these values by typing in new positions. The currently selected Region is always shown by default in the Sample Editor and you can remove a selected Region in the list by clicking Remove, or select the area in the Sample Editor defined by a region by click Select. When a Region is selected, you can resize it graphically by dragging the Region Start and End flags in the Sample Edit window, just as you can change the start and end points of the Audio Event you're editing by dragging the Event Start and End flags. And you can create a new Audio Event based on a Region by dragging the Region from the unlabelled column in the Region List to the Project window.

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