Cross fading - Cubase Tutorial

- [Instructor] So you conclude this trio of movies looking at the simple yet powerful fade in functionality. Let me show you a couple of examples of what we can do with fades, to correct audio issues. I've created this very simple project with just the one audio event, that I've duplicated. It's the same audio loop we've heard already, in the other Gatsby project. Here's a reminder of it. However, right at the end of the event, do notice a very loud, disagreeable click, that requires removing. Have a listen. (upbeat samba music) (popping click) Okay, you can't have failed to have heard that loud click at the end of the loop. If I left-click on the ruler and drag down to zoom in on the event end, you'll see why there's that loud click. There's the start of an extra beat at the end. Let's have another listen now that we know what's causing the issue. Here goes. (upbeat samba music) If I dragged the second event up against it, this doesn't disguise the problem, it compounds it. Have another listen. (upbeat samba music) One way to remove that click is to shorten the length of the event, so the click part is removed. But that of course would shorten the length of the loop. And that could cause consequences in terms of lining up repeated or duplicated versions of it. So, alternatively, so we can retain the loop length, we can use a short fade out. This will have the effect of quickly silencing the last few milliseconds of the loop. I'll show you what I mean. Zoomed in close to the end of this first event again. I can see and access the fade out handle, found at the top right of the event. Then by dragging to the left, to create a short fade, I have now silenced the click. Have another listen now that the click at the end of the event has been silenced by the fade. Here goes. (upbeat samba music) Perfect. And if I drag the second clip up against it again, the move from the first event to the second is pretty seamless. At the very least, the click at the transition point, has now gone. Have another listen, well actually, just before we do listen, I'll need to create a short fade out at the end of the second event too. Even though the second event is a duplicated version of the first event, the fade out was only applied to that first event. It doesn't automatically get copied to the second event. So, with both events now having short fades at the end, let's listen again. (upbeat samba music) Right, that works well enough. I'll move the second clip away now, and reintroduce the click on the first event, by vertically flatlining the fade. And this means no fade occurs, and the click at the end of the event is heard once more, at full volume. Let's now look at using crossfades, where the end of one event fades away, and the start of a following event fades in, for the duration of the overlapped area. I'll drag the second clip over to the left now, so the start of it overlaps the end of the first clip. The overlapping area is indicated by the light diagonal cross-hatching. We'll have listened to this, but, bear in mind, left like this, it doesn't create a crossfade. The clips don't merge together over the crosshatch transition area. Instead, we will hear the end of clip one, abruptly cut short as the second clip starts. Have a listen. (upbeat samba music) Okay, we heard the end of the first clip is cut short. And the start of the second clip immediately begins, and, as we heard, no crossfading occurs. To be able to create a crossfade is simple, left-click, and range over the clips that you wish to create a crossfade. You could use the shortcut X now, to create a crossfade, or go to Audio on the menu, and roll down to Crossfade there. You can see the shortcut X is indicated there too. Now, by selecting the option, we see two fades are automatically created at the overlapping point. We see the first clip gets an automatic fadeout, and the second clip gets an automatic fade in. The two fade lines, one fading out, whilst the other fades in, displays as an X or a cross, hence the name, crossfade, and the shortcut being X. Let's have a listen to how this merged crossfade sounds. Here goes. (upbeat samba music) Okay, despite it now playing as if it's an unusual offbeat time signature, it is seamless, and no clicks occur at that crossover point. Let's left-click the second clip again, and drag further to the left, and listen to this now. Notice the crossfade length has increased as more of each clip is covered. Let's listen. (upbeat samba music) Okay, still seamless, with no clicks. And, once more, let's drag further to the left, and play this. (upbeat samba music) Okay, all sounding good. So, that's how we can utilize crossfading. A very simple but powerful function, that not only allows us to nullify any clicks, but also allows allows us to combine clips, to become more creative. Why not explore this option, crossfading, with a crossfade of two different singers, singin' the same note? So one fades out, whilst another fades in. Anyway, I'll leave that for you to try out.