fixing timing issues

jimistone

jimistone

long standing member
I have Cubase LE and also nuendo. They look simular but I know nuendo is supposed to be better. I'm pretty much lost on anything to do with editing tracks on either daw.
What I am wondering is this...
Can I take recorded drum overhead tracks, that have a few slight timing issues and fix the timing with the editing tools of either Cubase LE or nuendo?

If so can anyone explain, in pretty simple terms, how to go about doing it?
The built in tutorials are kind of hard to understand and they take for granted that you already know what the jargon they are using means.
I'm more of a "push the green colored button" kind of guy.
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Either program can do it.

group the drum tracks together, so when you make a cut, it cuts all the drum tracks.

Hopefully the drums were played to a click, as that makes it so much easier to find and fix timing problems

find the out of time hit, make a cut (alt+click) just befor the hit and another one just before the next hit.

Move the hit to where it needs to be.

Fill the gaps by grabbing the lower left corner of the audio AFTER the gap and dragging it left.

Resize any audio that overlaps and crossfade (x)

So let me get this straight, you have the free version of cubase AND the $2000 Nuendo, and you aren't sure which one to use after spending all that money?

Nuendo isn't necessarily 'better' than cubase. It is meant for post production, whereas cubase is for music production. Most of what makes it different from cubase (and much more expensive) are the various encoders and features necessar for doing serious film work (ac3 encoding, advanced sound to picture, 12.3 surround capabilities, etc...)

The only reason I have it instead of cubase is because I bought version 1 when I needed some of that, and it was always cheaper to upgrade than buy Cubase. Now, some of the music production features are add-ons for nuendo that you have to pay extra for.

Of course, the LE version is the very limited version of cubase.
 
Actually for me, the easier way after cutting as mentioned above, is to 'slip' edit. While holding down Ctrl+Alt, left click and drag the section where you want it. Then crossfade.
 
jimmys69 said:
Actually for me, the easier way after cutting as mentioned above, is to 'slip' edit. While holding down Ctrl+Alt, left click and drag the section where you want it. Then crossfade.
Click to expand...

That does work most of the time. Sometimes I get into goofy situations where I really have to dig in and do some fancy stuff, so I tend to just do it all manually.
 
Farview said:
Either program can do it.

group the drum tracks together, so when you make a cut, it cuts all the drum tracks.

Hopefully the drums were played to a click, as that makes it so much easier to find and fix timing problems

find the out of time hit, make a cut (alt+click) just befor the hit and another one just before the next hit.

Move the hit to where it needs to be.

Fill the gaps by grabbing the lower left corner of the audio AFTER the gap and dragging it left.

Resize any audio that overlaps and crossfade (x)

So let me get this straight, you have the free version of cubase AND the $2000 Nuendo, and you aren't sure which one to use after spending all that money?

Nuendo isn't necessarily 'better' than cubase. It is meant for post production, whereas cubase is for music production. Most of what makes it different from cubase (and much more expensive) are the various encoders and features necessar for doing serious film work (ac3 encoding, advanced sound to picture, 12.3 surround capabilities, etc...)

The only reason I have it instead of cubase is because I bought version 1 when I needed some of that, and it was always cheaper to upgrade than buy Cubase. Now, some of the music production features are add-ons for nuendo that you have to pay extra for.

Of course, the LE version is the very limited version of cubase.
Click to expand...
A good friend of mine, who works in production, came out to check out my band a.few years ago. I was recording the livw performance and he got there early. He said " man I'll run the recorder for you and you can focus on playing". He asked what daw i had on my laptop and i told him cubase le that came with my interface. He said " let me fix you up with something better". He went our to his car and got 2 cds and loaded them on my laptop. It was nuendo and 100's of vst plugings...audacity...soundforge...the entire waves library...you name it. I literally haven't been able to check it all out because it's page after page after page of it.
He gave me the cd 's and told me " you have some serious recording software now and it's a registered version so you can get all the updates.
Anyway, thats how I ended up with nuendo.
I've used it some but Cubase le is easy and I'm a little intimidated by nuendo. I have never seen why I need more than cubase le until recently when I wanted to run more than 2 effects on a track. I see nuendo that's not a problem so, I may need to switch over and start using it.


I have never understood daw editing. I can cut and past. Easy things like that, but fixing timing errors against a grid ...no. I wouldn't even know where to start. Thanks so much for explaining it a little to me.
 
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So he gave you the steinberg dongle and the iLok for the waves plugins? That's over ten grand worth of software your buddy gave you.
 
That's what he gave me.
It's kind of a waste though because I don't have the time to really dig in a learn how to really use it to the fullest. I've wanted to do some things and went to help and searched the index and the results are way over my head because I'm not even well versed in the basics
 
Yup, unless he gave you two thumb drive looking things, you are a pirate for halloween this year.
 
Farview said:
Yup, unless he gave you two thumb drive looking things, you are a pirate for halloween this year.
Click to expand...
If he purchased it how is it illegal?
Its registered. It looks to me like if he bought the software he should be able to put it on any computer he is using to record a project with.
I'll admit that im no expert on this. I've never really given it alot of thought since I don't even use it. It's not like I was chomping to get it or anything.
all I know is that if I paid thousands if dollars for a piece of software I would damn well put it on any computer I felt like putting it on.
end of story.

anyway thanks for your help.
 
Because he didn't purchase the software from the people who wrote the software. If that were the case, there would be an Ilok for authorization, and a dongle plugged into your computer for them to work at all.

I'm not going to harsh on you because you do not seem like you went out of your way to steal the stuff. But you are in possession of stolen goods. That itself is a crime. Using them is just as bad in the eyes of the law.

Sorry man. Some of that software is not legit. :(
 
Well, I suppose you know more than me about this but this guy has the means to purchase high dollar software and then some. He's wealthy. He may have put it on a cd for simplicity, or for the sole purpose of putting it on my computer... or like you say he may pirated it. All I can say for sure is he told me it was registered software. I would be shocked if he stole it and then lied to me about it...when I didn't even ask him for it to start with. Also, in the dealings I had with him throughout the years I would consider him a man of integrity.
We've been out of touch for a while now but I will contact him and press him further on this.
 
Here's the way it works, the only way it works...

All steinberg software, other than cubase le, requires a usb thumb drive-looking dongle which carries the authorizations. Without that plugged into the computer, the program won't open.

All waves plugins require iLok authorizations, which reside on yet another, usb thumbdrive-looking thing.

Without those two thumbdrives, legitimate copies of Nuendo and waves will not work.

You can have the software installed on multiple machines, but you can only use it when the dongles are plugged in. So you can only use it on one machine at a time.
 
I'll drop it, since you seem to have no idea, but as someone who is a victim of pirating and someone who actually paid for Nuendo, it kind of rubs me the wrong way when people obviously using pirated software are so up front about it.
 
Farview said:
I'll drop it, since you seem to have no idea, but as someone who is a victim of pirating and someone who actually paid for Nuendo, it kind of rubs me the wrong way when people obviously using pirated software are so up front about it.
Click to expand...
I understand. Thanks for explaining it to me. Like I said I haven't used it...I have been using cubase le and really had no reason to use anything else.
actually the laptop that he installed nuendo on is giving me hard rive failure warnings and I'm using a desktop now. Nuendo isn't installed on the desktop. I was going to try to install it but if it's not legal software I will leave it alone.
thanks again for the info on this.
I appreciate it.
 
Thanks for these tips. I've applied everything except "resize everything that overlaps and cross fade".
How do you resize...cut with the scissors tool and then delete with the eraser tool? Trimming a piece off the small block of audio that has been moved?
Also, what is coss fading?
 
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jimistone said:
Thanks for these tips. I've applied everything except "resize everything that overlaps and cross fade".
How do you resize...cut with the scissors tool and then delete with the eraser tool? Trimming a piece off the small block of audio that has been moved?
Also, what is coss fading?
Click to expand...
At the bottom corners of a piece of audio, you will see a red square. Grab the red square and pull it left or right. That's how you resize something. You can only pull it as far as the audio exists.

When you move two pieces of audio together so they overlap, cubase will only play the one on top. If you want to meld them together, you cross fade them. Basically, crossfading is fading out the first clip while fading up the second one. You do this to avoid the clicks and pops that happen when you cut and edit.
 
Thanks.
So, when you say "fade" you're talking about the same operation as fading out on the end if a song only a much shorter duration?
 
I read an article about recording a track of manually tapping on a snare drum with the down beat of a song. Them after doing that converting that into a click track with a grid that you could snap any other tracks you recorded to.
Even with the article I couldn't figure out how to do that. It sucks to be so illiterate of basic editing functions (I get lost in the explanations because I don't understand alot of the terminology being used). I've just always been a 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4....play the song with no click track kind of guy. It's sometimes hard to overdub bass and several guitar tracks and stay in time. It would be very handy to have a grid that lined up with the snare and bass drum you could snap and lock in other parts to the groove.
I can't even figure out how to do a grid ...I'm setting the mouse to scrub and lining the big cursor up with the bass drum and cutting each end and the lining up the guitar strum...the the snare hit...then the bass drum. The results are good but man is that tedious!!
It's very slow going and I know there has to be a better way.
 
Set the tempo and turn on the click track. Play to that and you will automatically be on the grid on the screen.

The only time you need to manually slave the grid to something is if you recorded it without the click and then decided you needed the grid.

Go to project -> beat calculator. Tap out the tempo you want on the spacebar. It will tell you the tempo you were tapping. Then enter that into the tempo of the session. Turn on the click and play to it.

You may not have to edit anything if you play to the click in the first place.
 
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