Using the AudioSnap palette

The AudioSnap palette provides easy access to time stretching and tempo-related tools.

Except for the AudioSnap enable/disable command, the AudioSnap palette’s controls apply to the currently selected audio clip or clips.

To show the AudioSnap palette

Do one of the following:

On the Views menu, click AudioSnap Palette.

Press A.

or

1.	Select the Smart tool in the Control Bar.

2.	Assign the track’s Edit Filter control to Audio Transients.

3.	Click an audio clip that you want to edit.

The AudioSnap palette contains the following controls.

Figure 227. AudioSnap palette controls

A. Bypass B. Copy as MIDI C. Split into clips by transient markers D. Toggle sample/musical based clip start time E. Average Tempo F. AudioSnap properties G. Set project tempo from clip H. Clip follows project tempo I. Edit clip tempo map J. Quantize K. Extract Groove L. Apply Groove M. Resolution N. Threshold O. Applies to P. Online render mode Q. Offline render mode

Toolbar section

Bypass . This button enables or disables AudioSnap on selected audio clips.

Copy as MIDI . This button saves the selected audio as a MIDI clip, which you can paste from the Clipboard into a MIDI track. You select the MIDI note that the transients in the audio clip will be converted to in the AudioSnap Options dialog box, which opens when you click the Options button.

Split Beats into Clips . This button splits a clip at each transient marker into multiple clips.

Clip Timebase (Absolute or Musical) / . There are two timebase settings for a clip in SONAR:

Musical (default) . Musical Timebase means the clip start position will follow Musical Time (MIDI Tick).

Absolute . Absolute Timebase means that the clip start time will follow Absolute Time (SMPTE).

Average Tempo. This list shows the average tempo candidates: original, 0.5x and 2x. SONAR will do its best to detect the correct average tempo, but a clip can often have multiple potential tempos (60 BPM, 120 BPM, 240 BPM, etc.). If SONAR is unable to detect a tempo, Average Tempo will be set to Original, which is the project’s tempo at the location the clip was recorded or imported. If you change the Average Tempo setting, all clip tempo changes are adjusted to scale.

This list also contains the Set Clip Tempo From Project command, which copies the project’s tempo map to the clip’s tempo map. This allows the project’s measure boundaries to align with the audio clip.

AudioSnap Options . This button opens the AudioSnap Options dialog box. This dialog box has its own Help topic, which appears when you click its Help button.

Tempo section

Set Project Tempo From Clip .  This button copies the clip’s tempo map to the project’s global tempo map and automatically triggers the Clip Follows Project Tempo command. This allows the project’s measure boundaries to align with the audio clip. The drop-down list lets you specify at which resolution the clip’s tempo map should be copied to the project tempo. The options are as follows:

Beats

Measures (default)

Clip

Clip Follows Project Tempo .  This button forces the clip to follow the project’s global tempo map. The drop-down list lets you specify at which resolution the clip should follow tempo changes. The options are as follows:

Beats

Measures

Clip (default)

Note: The Clips follow project tempo command only works on clips that are configured to use musical time (the Time Base property is set to Musical in the Clip Inspector).

Edit Clip Tempo Map . Each audio clip has an internal tempo map. This button exposes controls that allow you to edit a clip’s tempo map. For details, see Editing a clip’s tempo map.

Timing section

Quantize . This button opens the Quantize dialog box, which has options to quantize AudioSnap Beats and Audio Clip Start Times, and also to set automatic crossfade options.

Extract Groove . This button adds the selected clip’s transients to the Pool (see Using the Pool) and shows vertical Pool lines. To apply the pool (groove) to another clip, select the desired clip and click the Apply Groove button. To clear the Pool, click the Extract Groove button again.

Note: If an existing Pool exists when you click the Extract Groove button, the existing Pool will first be cleared.

Apply Groove . This button applies the currently extracted groove (Pool) to the selected clips, clears the Pool and releases the Extract Groove button. See also To quantize an audio clip to another audio clip (Quantize to Pool).

Filter section

Threshold. This slider is available when a clip’s transient markers are showing. The slider disables markers based on their volume. This clears out unwanted markers to make editing easier. Dragging the slider to the right creates a bigger volume threshold, which disables markers that are fall below that threshold. Works on selected clips.

Resolution. This drop-down list is available when a clip’s transient markers are showing. The selected Resolution value lets you disable markers based on their time location. This clears out unwanted markers to make editing easier. Larger values create a bigger time window, based on musical time values, which preserves markers that are closest to the displayed musical time value, and disables others. Works on selected clips.

Render mode section

Applies To. This drop-down menu lets you choose whether any changes to the Online and Offline settings apply to clips, tracks, or the default settings. The choices in the drop-down menu are as follows:

Clips. When selected, the Online and Offline render mode settings apply to any selected clips. The Online and Offline lists display the current render modes for the selected clip. If you select multiple clips that have different render modes, the Online and Offline lists display (Multi). If the selected clip has inherited render mode settings from the track or from the Default Settings settings, the Online and Offline lists display the inherited render mode in parenthesis.

Tracks. When selected, the Online and Offline render mode settings apply to all current and future clips in the selected tracks.

Default Settings. When selected, the Online and Offline render mode settings apply to the Default (track/global) render mode.

Online. This choice determines what stretch algorithm is used during real-time playback. The Percussion options works better than the Groove Clip option on percussive material, especially if the stretching is by more than a few beats per minute. For more information about render modes, see Algorithms and rendering.

Note: The Online render mode is for preview purposes only during playback. The final audio quality will be greatly improved after the Offline render mode is applied during mixdown/export.

Offline. This drop-down menu lets you choose the algorithm that is used when you export or freeze stretched audio. The choices in the drop-down menu are as follows:

Groove clip. This choice works faster, using less processing power.

iZotope Radius Mix. This is better for clips containing polyphonic, stereo data.

iZotope Radius Mix Advanced. This choice is similar to iZotope Radius Mix, but exposes a Smoothing slider that adjust how much detail to preserve.

iZotope Radius Solo. This is better for clips containing monophonic, solo instruments.

Percussion. This is the best choice for percussion sounds.

AudioSnap palette auto load

AutoLoadAudioSnapPalette=<0 or 1>, default = 1

By default, the AudioSnap palette appears automatically whenever you enable AudioSnap on a clip. If you prefer to never auto-show the AudioSnap palette, you can change this behavior by adding a variable to the Cakewalk.ini file.

This variable should be set in the [WinCake] section. For example:

[WinCake]

AutoLoadAudioSnapPalette=0

 

See:

Using global tools on AudioSnap transient markers

Editing transient markers

Fixing timing problems in audio clips

Synchronizing audio and the project tempo

Extracting MIDI timing information from audio

General editing

Using the Pool

Algorithms and rendering