Project out of tune!

rob aylestone

Moderator
I'm a long term cubase user - this has never happened before.

Opened version 10 of a project I'm working on. v9 that I did yesterday was fine. made a small edit and saved it as 10.

It loaded as usual, and I pressed play and the intro started and I was wracking my brains to remember if it was a soprano or alto sax part I could see on the screen - so I figured soprano, so picked it up and played what was on the screen. Out of tune - enough to need a twist and a mouthpiece out. This didn't seem right so I bashed a note on a powered up synth. Out of tune too!

The song is in G - one sharp. It's playing back in F and a bit. So maybe 75% of a whole tone flat. sample rate 44.1K as usual. Every single track flat, and I think a tiny bit slow. To me it's a sample rate issue, as everything is slightly wrong.

I've never had this before. Has anyone else? Very odd!
 
Never used Cubase so probably pointless guessing here...

Is there a project/media folder where you can inspect the original audio files (assuming they weren't converted on input)?

I have had something like that happen when the project and audio file import sample rates did not match (48k file, 44.1 project, e.g.), and usually something happened on the first import, like I canceled or something, and then a re-import didn't prompt for sample rate conversion, and didn't do it when it should have.
 
even stranger - I saved the audio - did the usual export of an mp3, and labelled it carefully out of tune - but it isn't! The mp3 saved at the proper pitch. I'm shutting the thing down and for me this means a staged power up - something I usually avoid by never turning out off - as I have to remember an order, disconnecting some USB devices before powering up others. A stream Deck seems to grab the drivers Cubase needs for the Kontakt keyboard, so I need to unplug the stream deck and only connect it once everything else is powered up and running.

Cubase played back out of tune, but the mp3 export was fine - even more weird!!
 
Do you have a converter connected by SPDIF or ADAT? It sounds like the audio was converted at 48kHz but marked as 44.1kHz, which can happen with a converter the DAW can't "see" directly.
 
No but the shift was not as big and obvious as the 48/44.1 which changes tone quite obviously. This was almos like the varispeed on a reel to reel during mastering. I powered down the computer - first time in months - and started it all up again, and it's not happened again, but I hate not knowing. If the computer was running say at 45.5khz, then if have expected the MP3 to have been recorded wrong too, and it wasn't. I guess it's one to remember is possible, but unusual.
 
Long shot, but it happened to me in another DAW. If you have anything MIDI and you do a pitch bend and you do something with that track and don't reset the pitch bend back to 0, then that plug in will play at the last known pitch bend value, not 0 and will make the song out of tune.

Like I said, probably not the issue, but I have had that happen to me several times and it is hard to to find. If that is not the case, then ignore. But all MIDI notes need to be set to default values or else it will sound like, ya know.
 
I did think that when I found it out of tune, but MIDI and real tracks all out of tune. Probably have to remain a mystery, but at least now I know it's possible. I'd have probably said this was impossible if anyone had posted it. I just wish I could work out what it was.
 
Well, controllers use MIDI signals, while I believe it not likely, it is possible.
 
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