Introduction
You can open the Pool Window by pressing Ctrl-P or by selecting Open Pool Window from the Media menu.
The Pool window contains three categories by default:
- Audio,
- Video, and
- Trash
As the name suggests, all the audio files that are recorded or imported to the
project can be found in the Audio folder
The videos that are imported into the
project can be found in the Video folder and the clips and files that are not
used in the project can be moved to the Trash folder and then permanently
removed from the hard disk.
The Basics
The Pool Window provides information about the available
files in various columns such as:
Media
This shows the Audio, Video and Trash folders. You can open the folders and the
files that are available in the project can be seen in this column.
You can
change the name of the files by double-clicking on the file name.
Used
This
column shows the number of times that the clip is used in the project.
If this
column is empty, it means that the clip has not been used in the project. You
can click on this column to sort the clips by the frequency of their usage
Status
This
shows the various states of the clips and files in the project. If Record is displayed on the Audio
folder, it means that this folder is being used for the location of the audio
files that are being recorded.
If a red wave icon is shown near the audio clip,
it means that the file has been processed in some way. This way you can easily
find the clips that have been processed by you.
If there is a ? symbol beside a clip, it means that
the clip was being used in the project, but is missing now.
If there is a blue
X near the clip, it means that the
file is not present in the project’s folder, but is referenced from some other
location.
The last icon is a red R that shows that the clip was recorded recently in the project. You can sort
through it to find the most recent recorded clips and use them accordingly.
Musical
Mode
This option allows you to activate or deactivate the Musical Mode for
a clip. If there are ??? in the tempo column, you have to enter the correct
tempo in order to activate the Musical Mode.
Tempo
This displays the current tempo of the clip. You can adjust the tempo of the
clip by clicking on this item and entering the new tempo. If a tempo is not
available for the clip, ??? will be displayed instead.
Sign
This
column displays the time signature of the clip. You can edit it by clicking on
this column and editing the values.
Info
This
displays various information related to the clip or regions. It includes details
such as sample rate, bit depth, channels, length, frame rate etc.,
Type
This shows the format of the clip. This value is not editable.
Date
This
column displays the last date and time that it was edited.
Origin
Time
This displays the time and place where the clip was recorded. You can
use this value to determine the position of the clip according to the project.
You have the option to edit this value and it will be automatically applied to
the clip.
Image
The waveform of the clip or the regions are displayed in this column. You can
use this information to find out an overview of the clip. You can easily find
out if there are any clipping or any other noise in the clip.
Path
This is the location of the clip on the hard disk. You can find out the folder
and the file name in this column.
Reel
Name
This displays the reel from which the clip has been included.
Other features
Other features that can be used in the Pool Window includes
the sorting function. You can click on any of the top headings and the list
will be arranged according to the sort order.
You can sort it in ascending or
descending order just by clicking on the arrow besides the column’s name.
Common Operations
All the common functions like renaming, deleting,
duplicating etc., can be done in the Pool Window.
You also have the option to select the various information
that is shown in the columns. Click on the View/Attributes drop down menu and
select the ones that you want and deselect the ones that you don’t want.
You
can rearrange the order of the columns by dragging the name of the column
towards the left or the right according to your need. Clicking on the left or
right border of the column allows you to change the width of the column.
To rename a clip, select the clip and then click on it to
type in the new name. This method is safer than manually renaming in the hard
disk. If you rename a file in the Pool Window, it will automatically be updated
and re-linked in the project folder. If you do it the other way, the file will
not be properly linked and will be shown as missing.
To duplicate a clip, select the clip and right-click on it.
Choose the New Version option on
it and a copy of the clip will be created. Remember that this will not create a
new file on the disk, but will create an edited copy referring to the same
file.
To insert the clips from the Pool Window to the project, you
can either drag and drop it onto the project or select Insert Into Project option in the right-click context menu of the
clip. In this menu, you can insert the clip at three positions:
- At
Cursor: This will insert the clip on the position of the cursor. It is
always a good idea to position the cursor where you want the clip to be
positioned and then select this option - At Left
Locator: This will insert the clip on the left locator if it has been set.
Else it will be posted at the start of the project - At
Origin: This will insert the clip on the Origin Time that is stamped on the
clip. You can always change this according to your need by typing in the new
values in the Pool Window
Deleting Clips
There are two ways that you can remove a clip from the Pool
Window. The first one is to move the clip to the Trash, and the next is to
remove it permanently from the hard disk. In order to move the clip to the
Trash, select the clip that you want to delete and press the Delete or Backspace key.
If the clip is being used in the project, Cubase
will show you a dialog box telling you that it is being used in the project. After
this dialog box, you will be again shown a dialog box which asks you to move
the clip to the trash or remove from the pool. If you remove it from the pool,
the clip will not be associated with the project, but can be still used in
other projects.
The next option is to permanently remove the clip from the
hard disk. To do so, select the clip and press the Delete or Backspace key.
Select the Move to Trash option.
Alternatively, you can drag the clip from the pool and drop it into the Trash.
Now secondary-click the Trash folder and select Empty Trash, or select this option from the Media menu.
After a
warning message, the clip will be permanently removed from the hard disk and
can not be recovered through Cubase.
Another useful option in Cubase is the Remove Unused Clips option. This allows you to save valuable hard
disk space.
To do so, select the Remove
Unused Clips option from the Media menu. Here select the Trash and press
OK. You can also directly remove it from the Pool. Now you can empty your trash
and the file will be completely removed from the hard disk.
Conclusion
In this part, you learned about the basics of using the Pool
Window. You can perform the basic functions in the Pool Window by following
this tutorial. In the next part of this tutorial, I’ll show you how to perform advanced functions.
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