Hitpoints

Hitpoints mark musically relevant positions in audio files. Cubase can detect these positions and create hitpoints automatically by analyzing onsets and melodic changes of the audio.

Note

All hitpoint operations can be performed in the Sample Editor window and in the lower zone editor.

When you add an audio file to your project by recording or by importing, Cubase automatically detects hitpoints if Enable Automatic Hitpoint Detection is activated in the Preferences dialog (Editing—Audio page).

In the Project window, hitpoints are shown for the selected event, provided that the zoom factor is high enough.

The hitpoint functions are available in the Hitpoints section of the Sample Editor.

You can use hitpoints for the following purposes:

  • Create slices of the audio

    Slices allow you to change the tempo and the timing of the audio without affecting its pitch and quality, or to replace or extract individual sounds from loops.

  • Quantize audio

  • Extract the groove from the audio

    The timing is extracted from the audio, and a groove quantize preset is created. You can use this to quantize other events.

  • Create markers from the audio

  • Create regions from the audio

  • Create events from the audio

  • Create warp markers from the audio

  • Create MIDI notes from the audio

Note

Hitpoints work best with drums, rhythmic recordings, or loops.

If the automatic hitpoint detection does not meet your expectations, you can edit hitpoints manually or add additional hitpoints. The following editing operations are available in the Sample Editor:

  • Locking hitpoints prevents them from being filtered out, regardless of the settings in the Hitpoints section. You can lock a hitpoint by pointing at the triangle that represents the hitpoint and clicking on it.

  • Disabling hitpoints excludes them from further operations. You can disable a hitpoint that you do not need by pressing Shift and clicking on the line that represents the hitpoint.

  • You can insert an additional hitpoint by pressing Alt/Opt and clicking at the position where you want to insert the hitpoint.

  • You can move a hitpoint by moving the mouse pointer on the vertical line that represents the hitpoint and dragging to the left or to the right.