Cakewalk stretches when I just want to slip edit

[Starship Krupa]

This is actually a happy accident, because as often happens when I'm doing an EDM track an unintentional result winds up sounding cool or opening up possibilities I hadn't been considering.

I have one dialog phrase sample that I'm dropping in from time to time, a girl's voice saying "Why is it you wish to...." I'm chopping it up into "Why? Why? Why?" "Why is it?" "Why is it you wish?" "Why?" "Why?" etc. as you do in this genre.

All was going fine, copying and pasting the clip along the timeline in multiple locations, slip editing, copying and pasting the slip-edited phrase, and so on. This is the most basic way of working with audio clips, or so I thought.

Then, during my breakdown section, I decided I wanted to put in a few more "Why?s" and copied and pasted one. Then I decided I wanted more of the original phrase and dragged the right edge out to get it and this is where things went unexpectedly: The figure "178% appeared in the clip header and the phrase was slowed down with no pitch change. Sounded very smooth, that is one pimpin' algorithm there. But not what I wanted.

I figured that I must have been holding down a key or clicked in the wrong area of the clip or something, so I deleted the clip and pasted it in again. Carefully grabbed the right edge, dragged it out, and....178%

The cursor isn't switching to the stretch cursor when I do this, so I don't know what could be making this happen. As it turns out, the phrase actually sounds better time-stretched because the girl is talking kinda fast (and that algorithm is really frickin' smooth), so I want to explore this more, BUT I don't want to be doing it by accident, I want to be in control of it.

What did I do wrong (right)? How did slip editing, something I've done hundreds of times in Cakewalk, suddenly start time stretching?

I will toddle off to bed as it's 5AM and the track is sounding good, so this seems like a good time to stop, go beddy, and wait for answers from the forum.

Behold yon clip with the sigil "178%" upon its header. The one to the right of it is the full phrase, non time -stretched, so you can see the stretching that went on. It's like....the first clip is about....178% the length of the other one. Coincidence? I think not.

[msmcleod]

No idea how this could happen - I can only get it to do this if CTRL + SHIFT are held down, and this has to be done BEFORE you start the drag operation.

[Will.]

8 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

This is actually a happy accident, because as often happens when I'm doing an EDM track an unintentional result winds up sounding cool or opening up possibilities I hadn't been considering.

I have one dialog phrase sample that I'm dropping in from time to time, a girl's voice saying "Why is it you wish to...." I'm chopping it up into "Why? Why? Why?" "Why is it?" "Why is it you wish?" "Why?" "Why?" etc. as you do in this genre.

All was going fine, copying and pasting the clip along the timeline in multiple locations, slip editing, copying and pasting the slip-edited phrase, and so on. This is the most basic way of working with audio clips, or so I thought.

Then, during my breakdown section, I decided I wanted to put in a few more "Why?s" and copied and pasted one. Then I decided I wanted more of the original phrase and dragged the right edge out to get it and this is where things went unexpectedly: The figure "178% appeared in the clip header and the phrase was slowed down with no pitch change. Sounded very smooth, that is one pimpin' algorithm there. But not what I wanted.

I figured that I must have been holding down a key or clicked in the wrong area of the clip or something, so I deleted the clip and pasted it in again. Carefully grabbed the right edge, dragged it out, and....178%

The cursor isn't switching to the stretch cursor when I do this, so I don't know what could be making this happen. As it turns out, the phrase actually sounds better time-stretched because the girl is talking kinda fast (and that algorithm is really frickin' smooth), so I want to explore this more, BUT I don't want to be doing it by accident, I want to be in control of it.

What did I do wrong (right)? How did slip editing, something I've done hundreds of times in Cakewalk, suddenly start time stretching?

I will toddle off to bed as it's 5AM and the track is sounding good, so this seems like a good time to stop, go beddy, and wait for answers from the forum.

Behold yon clip with the sigil "178%" upon its header. The one to the right of it is the full phrase, non time -stretched, so you can see the stretching that went on. It's like....the first clip is about....178% the length of the other one. Coincidence? I think not.

Can you attach a full window of the screenshot? 

[Starship Krupa]

There's not really anything out of the ordinary in the full screen view.

Looking more closely, the clip I copied from also has the "178%" on its header. I have used stretch maybe two other times, in much different contexts, so all this is new to me.

I guess this is my message that it's time to study up on stretching.

[msmcleod]

You can also turn on stretching by selecting it in the Edit tool.  Hard to see how this would be selected by accident though.

[Will.]

1 hour ago, msmcleod said:

You can also turn on stretching by selecting it in the Edit tool.  Hard to see how this would be selected by accident though.

Not entirely true. If you press F8 twice - it will display the stretch tool and ones when you're already on the edit tool. Then theres of course the quick shortcut Ctrl+Shift (which you had pointed out already.)

The only thing that comes to mind that can cause this would either be a Shift button that is slightly stuck on the keyboard (Left or Right) or a shortcut bind key that has been created with the F8 button. 

[Starship Krupa]

I think I know what I did to induce this behavior. Since I'm sometimes a buttermouse, I get used to using the Shift key for constraining horizontal or vertical movement, often in conjunction with Ctrl for copying, in the Piano Roll. I probably accidentally grabbed a clip edge while I was holding Ctrl+Shift to make a constrained copy. Wouldn't want to slip with the mouse and have the clip end up on the wrong track. Because it would certainly be the first time....🙄

I'm an advocate for editing skills consistency between different Cakewalk views, and making it as difficult as possible to generate unintended results, but some of Cakewalk's horses escaped the barn so long ago that their descendants managed to swim to offshore islands and start vast wild herds that are now genetically distinct from other horses (notice how I strrrrrrretched that metaphor?).

Thanks for the helping me figure this out. I knew I could count on the mighty forum.