# Sample rate mismatches and conforming in Cubase 9.5 - How to retain sample rate fidelity on import?



## Paul Cardon (Oct 22, 2018)

Hey y'all! I want to import audio files into Cubase 9.5 without losing the original sample rate while also not losing the original pitch, but have a weird feeling there's no way to do this.

I've had "convert to project sample rate when imported" enabled but realized that sucks because I lose all upper fidelity of my high sample rate .WAVs and it creates new .WAVs so my project foldersize BALLOONS. But without that, the classic "44.1k plays high pitched"/"96k plays half speed" thing happens unless I turn on "elastique - Tape" as default and manually restretch every sample I import.

I'd be fine with an extra step or two each time I import stuff to get that functionality similar to modern DAWs that have the ability to do real-time resampling when you import audio of varying rates. (i.e. Ableton and Reaper), but it seems like there's no proper workflow to do this in Cubase.

Becoming especially aggravating when doing sound design work and I decide I want to manipulate pitch down an octave, but there's no high-end detail that would have otherwise been in there if I didn't have to convert on import.

TL;DR How do I import audio without offline resampling to maintain high-rate fidelity while also conforming to the proper playback speed?


----------



## labornvain (Oct 22, 2018)

Cubasis sample rate conversion sucks. I don't understand your a version 2 using an external sample rate converter since you're actually importing the audio files into Cubase. I think if you want to maximize the Fidelity you're going to have to go outside of Cubase. For that I recommend voxengo R8 brain. It's free and according to several tests I've seen, one of which you can find on YouTube I think, at least that's what I seem to remember, it's about the best.


----------



## Paul Cardon (Oct 22, 2018)

labornvain said:


> Cubasis sample rate conversion sucks. I don't understand your a version 2 using an external sample rate converter since you're actually importing the audio files into Cubase. I think if you want to maximize the Fidelity you're going to have to go outside of Cubase. For that I recommend voxengo R8 brain. It's free and according to several tests I've seen, one of which you can find on YouTube I think, at least that's what I seem to remember, it's about the best.



I'm talking about using high-sample-rate files in Cubase at proper playback speed (so I have the option to manipulate and stretch the audio later at full detail), not complaining about Cubase's resampling.


----------



## gregh (Oct 22, 2018)

If you want to pitch down the best way is to retag the file to 44k (or whatever), not resample - Reaper does not do that on the fly, it resamples so you aren't pulling in those higher frequencies. You can set each individual item to do that retagging individually though. I use RX7 for that, but lots of editors have that facility. Once you have the retagged the file at whatever speed you want, then you can time stretch or compress to get the speed you want

Either that or do your project at 96kHz


----------



## Paul Cardon (Oct 22, 2018)

gregh said:


> If you want to pitch down the best way is to retag the file to 44k (or whatever), not resample - Reaper does not do that on the fly, it resamples so you aren't pulling in those higher frequencies. You can set each individual item to do that retagging individually though. I use RX7 for that, but lots of editors have that facility. Once you have the retagged the file at whatever speed you want, then you can time stretch or compress to get the speed you want
> 
> Either that or do your project at 96kHz



I may be a little confused about what you mean by retagging, but I think my query was unclear.

Cubase requires conversion for proper playback speed of non-project-rate audio clips. Cubase does have real-time resampling algorithms, including the "elastique Pro - Tape" algorithm, and I'd love to use the algorithms with high rate audio clips (such as a 192khz clip) in a 48khz project, but have them stretched to their proper playback speed with some function. I can't seem to find such a function is my issue.

Also, not to dispute, but I'm pretty positive Reaper does real-time resampling whenever you import an audio clip in a sample rate different than the project's rate, playing it back at the proper speed regardless of sample rate. Compare this to Cubase and Pro Tools which seem to require conversion for proper playback of non-project-rate audio clips.


----------



## gregh (Oct 22, 2018)

Paul Cardon said:


> Not to dispute, but I'm pretty positive Reaper does realtime resampling whenever you import an audio clip in a sample rate different than the project's rate, playing it back at the proper speed regardless of sample rate. Compare this to Cubase and Pro Tools which seem to require conversion for proper playback of non-project-rate audio clips.
> 
> However! Cubase does have resampling algorithms, including the "elastique Pro - Tape" algorithm, and I'd love to use the algorithms with high rate audio clips (such as a 192khz clip) in a 48khz project, but have them stretched to their proper playback speed with some function. I can't seem to find such a function is my issue.



Yeah Reaper does live resampling, but that is no help to you as resampling gets rid of the high frequencies that I think you are wanting to hear when pitched down. For that you need retagging the file so it plays slower but keeps the high frequency content (just pitched down coz it is playing slower). Then you can stretch the clip or compress the clip in time to get the playback speed you want at the pitch you want. If you do a lot of this then get Reaper coz it is trivially easy to do in Reaper.


----------



## Paul Cardon (Oct 22, 2018)

gregh said:


> Yeah Reaper does live resampling, but that is no help to you as resampling gets rid of the high frequencies that I think you are wanting to hear when pitched down. For that you need retagging the file so it plays slower but keeps the high frequency content (just pitched down coz it is playing slower). Then you can stretch the clip or compress the clip in time to get the playback speed you want at the pitch you want. If you do a lot of this then get Reaper coz it is trivially easy to do in Reaper.



Exactly, with live resampling, if I were to pitch a sample down in Reaper (or Ableton, or Studio One, or etc.), then that high frequency content would be brought down into the audible range because the resampling is being done on the original high-rate clip even though my project is in a lower rate. No "retagging" required.

I can't find any easy way to do this in Cubase. The functions are all built into Cubase, there are real-time resampling algorithms, but I'm wondering if they can be automatically used to conform non-project-rate files to their intended playback speed while still being "stretchable" for later down-pitched use. When you do import something like a 96khz .WAV into a 48khz Cubase project, it does play it at half speed, no "retagging" required. But if I set this as the default, I have to manually compress/uncompress each clip I import to get back to proper playback speeds. I'm asking if there's some way/function to automate this process


----------



## gregh (Oct 22, 2018)

Paul Cardon said:


> Exactly, with live resampling, if I were to pitch a sample down in Reaper (or Ableton, or Studio One, or etc.), then that high frequency content would be brought down into the audible range because the resampling is being done on the original high-rate clip even though my project is in a lower rate. No "retagging" required.



Maybe we are using terms differently but that is not how it works in Reaper when you import an audio file and Reaper converts it to the project sample rate - resampling down puts an antialiasing filter on the file - just as if you were recording live. The antialiasing filter cuts out the frequencies above Nyquist - they get chucked away.
Once you have the file in Reaper, time stretching or compressing is retagging on the fly under one setting or using pitchshifting as well if that setting is checked

I'm amazed Cubase won't resample on the fly so pitch is preserved - that seems crazy


----------



## Paul Cardon (Oct 22, 2018)

gregh said:


> Maybe we are using terms differently but that is not how it works in Reaper when you import an audio file and Reaper converts it to the project sample rate - resampling down puts an antialiasing filter on the file - just as if you were recording live. The antialiasing filter cuts out the frequencies above Nyquist - they get chucked away.
> Once you have the file in Reaper, time stretching or compressing is retagging on the fly under one setting or using pitchshifting as well if that setting is checked
> 
> I'm amazed Cubase won't resample on the fly so pitch is preserved - that seems crazy



Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the wording and functions, but I'm not worried about how this stuff actually functions in the back end, only about how to make this act the way I want. I hope that's clear.

Do you use Cubase yourself?


----------



## gregh (Oct 22, 2018)

Paul Cardon said:


> Do you use Cubase yourself?



no, I use Reaper, I only posted because you mentioned Reaper and it seemed to me you were confused about the mechanics of resampling in Reaper so might be searching for a solution in Cubase using the wrong terms. 
To summarise what I would do if cubase does not resample and keep pitch when importing - I would use a 96kHz project setting so there was no resampling, then use time stretching and pitch shifting. I think that will be easier


----------



## Paul Cardon (Oct 22, 2018)

gregh said:


> no, I use Reaper, I only posted because you mentioned Reaper and it seemed to me you were confused about the mechanics of resampling in Reaper so might be searching for a solution in Cubase using the wrong terms.
> To summarise what I would do if cubase does not resample and keep pitch when importing - I would use a 96kHz project setting so there was no resampling, then use time stretching and pitch shifting. I think that will be easier



It isn't just about 96khz -> 48khz, it's about any sample rate conformity. I have music and sound effect clips that are in all sorts of sample rates, and for a while I've been enabling a function in Cubase that automatically offline resamples all audio outside the project's set rate, but I lose fidelity and flexibility in both directions and my project folder's disk space goes nuts.


----------



## gregh (Oct 22, 2018)

Paul Cardon said:


> It isn't just about 96khz -> 48khz, it's about any sample rate conformity. I have music and sound effect clips that are in all sorts of sample rates, and for a while I've been enabling a function in Cubase that automatically offline resamples all audio outside the project's set rate, but I lose fidelity and flexibility in both directions and my project folder's disk space goes nuts.


well as I say - if you have a 96kHz file it will have audio up to 48kHz (approx) ie way higher than we can hear. If you resample that file to 48kHz the first thing the software will do is low pass filter the 96kHz file so that there is no information above 24kHz (approx). It will not bring that high frequency information into audible range, it will discard it.


----------



## Paul Cardon (Oct 22, 2018)

gregh said:


> well as I say - if you have a 96kHz file it will have audio up to 48kHz (approx) ie way higher than we can hear. If you resample that file to 48kHz the first thing the software will do is low pass filter the 96kHz file so that there is no information above 24kHz (approx). It will not bring that high frequency information into audible range, it will discard it.



Yeah I get that.


----------



## JamieLang (Oct 25, 2018)

Maybe I'm confused by the confusion. I import/export from Cubase at different sample rates all day-as someone who avoids work at single rate like the plague. When you import a file it ASKS YOU in a single dialogue:

1- do you want to copy to the project folder
2- do you want to change the sample rate from 44.1 to 88.2 (or bit rate from 16 ro 24)
3- do you want to split stereo files into mono

And the options for #2 are contextual based on the project and the file you're trying to import, and are greyed out if what you're importing already matches.

I may not have the wording exact...but...this has nothing to do with musical mode and the various timestretch algorithms. If you want to do THAT...in addition...you would set that up in the "audio pool" AFTER it's imported and converted to the session rate.


EDIT

I've reread. It needs to convert. Always--and I'll stop using it if it doesn't. Real time resampling is the quality killer--not offline.


----------



## Paul Cardon (Oct 25, 2018)

JamieLang said:


> Maybe I'm confused by the confusion. I import/export from Cubase at different sample rates all day-as someone who avoids work at single rate like the plague. When you import a file it ASKS YOU in a single dialogue:
> 
> 1- do you want to copy to the project folder
> 2- do you want to change the sample rate from 44.1 to 88.2 (or bit rate from 16 ro 24)
> ...



Oh yes, I'm aware of all of that. What I'm asking about is the ability to import a file who's sample rate doesn't match the project rate without converting, and then easily conforming that imported files playback to it's intended speed.

i.e., if my project rate is 48khz and I import a 96khz file without converting, it will play back at half speed by default. However, if I set the timestretch algorithm to "elastique Pro - Tape" and time stretch the file to half it's original length, it is now playing back at the proper speed and pitch using a simple Tape-style resampling algorithm. I've played with this. It sounds just fine. Now this is not too hard to do, but things become instantly more difficult when you're dealing with sample rate ratios containing non-integer ratios.

What I'm saying is that there are many other DAWs nowadays (Ableton, Reaper, Studio One, etc.) that allow you to import files of all sorts of sample rates and they never require offline destructive resampling to get them to the proper playback speed. They just resample and filter them to the project rate in real time so that later manipulation is possible because it's all non-destructive and done at playback.

You can kind of get this behavior in Cubase by doing the timestretching method above, but I'm wondering if anyone's found a way to make this more feasable/efficient, especially at sample rate ratios that aren't clean numbers, like 96khz -> 44.1khz (~2.177:1)


----------

