Steinberg Nuendo 3.0 User manual

Operation Manual

Original Manual: Synkron

Revision and Quality Control for Nuendo 3:

Ashley Shepherd, Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Sabine Pfeifer, Claudia Schomburg

Thanks: Bryce Atcheson, Georg Bruns

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent

a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described

by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media

except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publication may be

copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior

written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. Windows

XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license.

Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks.

Table of Contents

NUENDO

4 Table of Contents

9 About this manual

10 Welcome!

13 VST Connections:

Setting up input and

output busses

14 Introduction

15 Setting up busses

24 Using the busses

28 Setting up Groups and FX

channels

29 About the Audition bus

33 Playback and the

Transport panel

34 Background

38 Operations

43 Options and Settings

47 Recording

48 Background

49 Basic recording methods

54 Audio recording specifics

75 MIDI recording specifics

88 Options and Settings

93 The Project window

94 Background

96 Window Overview

111 Operations

152 Options

157 The play order track

158 Introduction

159 Setting up the play order

track

160 Creating a play order

163 Playing back the play order

164 Flattening the play order

165 Folder tracks

166 About folder tracks

167 Handling folder tracks

169 Working with folder parts

173 Using markers

174 About markers

174 The Marker window

178 Using the Marker track

182 Marker key commands

183 Editing markers in the

Project Browser

185 Fades, crossfades

and envelopes

186 Creating fades

190 The Fade dialogs

193 Creating crossfades

195 The Crossfade dialog

204 Auto Fades and Crossfades

206 Event Envelopes

207 The mixer

208 About this chapter

209 Overview

213 Configuring the mixer

220 The audio channel strips

222 The MIDI channel strips

223 The common panel

224 The input & output channels

225 Basic mixing procedures

235 Audio specific procedures

252 MIDI specific procedures

254 Utilities

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Table of Contents 5

259 Audio effects

260 About this chapter

260 Overview

262 Insert effects

273 Send effects

284 Using external effects

287 Making settings for the

effects

290 Installing and managing

effect plug-ins

297 Surround sound

298 Background

301 Window overview

303 Operations

321 Automation

322 Background

326 Automation track operations

333 Using Write/Read

automation

339 Working with automation

curves

346 Tips and common methods

347 Options and Settings

349 Remote controlling

the mixer

350 About this chapter

350 Setting Up

352 Operations

354 The Generic Remote device

359 Audio processing and

functions

360 Background

361 Audio processing

384 Applying plug-ins

386 The Offline Process History

dialog

388 Batch Processing

391 Freeze Edits

392 Detect Silence

395 The Spectrum Analyzer

398 Statistics

399 The Sample Editor

400 Background

400 Opening the Sample Editor

401 Window overview

406 Operations

418 Options and settings

421 The Audio Part Editor

422 Background

422 Opening the Audio Part

Editor

423 Window overview

426 Operations

430 Common methods

432 Options and Settings

433 Audio warp realtime

processing

434 Background

435 Using the Audio Tempo

Definition tool

442 Warp tabs and the Warp

Samples tool

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6 Table of Contents

449 Quantizing audio

451 Realtime pitch shifting of

audio events

452 Freezing the realtime

processing

455 Working with

hitpoints and slices

456 Background

456 Using hitpoints

460 Editing hitpoints

466 About Q-points

467 Creating slices

468 Creating groove quantize

maps

469 Other hitpoint functions

473 The Pool

474 Background

476 Window Overview

481 Operations

500 Options and Settings

501 Working with the

Tempo track

502 Background

503 The Tempo Track Editor –

overview

506 Operations

512 Process Tempo

513 Options and settings

514 The Beat Calculator

516 Merge Tempo From

Tapping

517 The Time Warp tool

529 The Project Browser

530 Background

530 Opening the Project

Browser

530 Window Overview

531 Navigating in the Browser

532 Customizing the View

532 About the Sync Selection

option

533 Editing audio tracks

535 Editing MIDI tracks

538 Editing Automation tracks

538 Editing the Video track

539 Editing the Marker track

540 Editing the Tempo track

540 Editing Time Signatures

541 Deleting Events

543 The Track Sheet

544 Overview

548 Printing the Track Sheet

549 Export Audio

Mixdown

550 Introduction

551 Mixing down to an audio file

554 File format specifics

569 Synchronization

570 Background

578 Window Overview

579 Operations

594 Options

597 VST System Link

598 Introduction

599 Preparations

604 Activating VST System Link

611 Application examples

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Table of Contents 7

615 Video

616 Background

617 Operations

626 Options

626 The Edit Mode

629 ReWire

630 Introduction

631 Launching and quitting

632 Activating ReWire channels

633 Using the transport and

tempo controls

634 How the ReWire channels

are handled in Nuendo

635 Routing MIDI via ReWire2

636 Considerations and

limitations

637 File handling

638 File Operations

668 Options and Settings

671 Customizing

672 Background

673 Workspaces

676 Customizing the Transport

panel

678 Customizing the toolbars

680 Customizing track controls

685 Configuring the main menu

items

687 About preference presets

690 Appearance

692 Applying track and event

colors

694 Where are the settings

stored?

697 Key commands

698 Background

699 Setting up Key Commands

712 Setting up tool modifier keys

713 Index

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8 Table of Contents

1

About this manual

NUENDO

1 – 10 About this manual

Welcome!

This is the Operation Manual for Steinberg’s Nuendo 3. Here you will

find detailed information about virtually all features and functions in the

program.

How to use the manuals and the Help

When it comes to manuals, different users look for information in dif-

ferent ways, depending on their previous knowledge and personal

preferences. You may be looking for a complete description of a pro-

cedure, you may just be trying to find a certain function in the program,

you may have found a function in the program and want it explained –

or you may simply want to learn it all!

Therefore, there are several ways to enter the documentation and get

help:

•

Use the Table of Contents to browse the manual or the Help and find

the section you need to know more about.

In the pdf version of the Operation Manual (and in the help) you can click directly on a

chapter or section to go there.

•

Use the Index to look up specific features and functions.

Again, in the pdf (and the help) you can click directly on the page number for an index

entry or on the help list index entry to go to there. The help also allows you to perform

a free search of any term.

•

In the program you will find Help buttons in most dialogs – click to get

information about that specific dialog.

Similarly, you can press [F1] to get information about the current window.

•

If you want information about a specific menu item, use the Menu

Reference section in the Help.

All main menu items in Nuendo are listed and explained there.

•

Finally, you could read the manuals from start to end if you like.

See below for a description of all parts of the Nuendo documentation package.

NUENDO

About this manual 1 – 11

Other documents

Apart from the Operation Manual and the help, the following docu-

ments are included with Nuendo:

Getting Started

In this book (also available in Adobe Acrobat pdf format) you will find:

• Requirements, installation and setting up your system.

• Basic concepts and terminology.

• Basic methods – e.g. how to set values, use tools and menus.

• A list of all default key commands.

• A number of tutorials, helping you get started with working in Nuendo.

Audio Effects and VST Instruments

In this pdf document you will find:

• Descriptions of the included VST audio effect plug-ins.

• Descriptions of the included VST Instruments.

These descriptions can also be found in the help.

Working with MIDI

In this pdf document you will find:

• Descriptions of the MIDI processing functions

• Descriptions of the MIDI editors

• Information on effect handling and descriptions of the included MIDI effect

plug-ins

• Information on how to set up and manage MIDI devices and device panels in

Nuendo.

• Information on how to edit MIDI System Exclusive messages.

• Information on how to use the Logical Editor and Input Transformer.

Networking

This pdf document describes how you can use Nuendo’s project shar-

ing and networking features to collaborate with other users of Nuendo

in a TCP/IP based peer-to-peer network.

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1 – 12 About this manual

Remote Control Devices

This pdf document lists the supported MIDI remote control devices

and describes how to set up and use them with Nuendo.

Score Layout and Printing

This pdf document describes the score editing features in Nuendo.

Using Nuendo with DSP Factory (Windows only)

In this pdf document you will find detailed information about Nuendo’s

implementation for the Yamaha DSP Factory audio card.

All pdf documents can be opened from the Help menu in the program.

Under Windows, you can also open them from the Nuendo Documenta-

tion subfolder on the Windows Start menu. Under Mac OS X, the pdf

documents are located in the folder /Contents/Documentation/ within

the program folder or the folder /Library/Documentation/Nuendo 3.

2

VST Connections: Setting up

input and output busses

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2 – 14 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses

Introduction

As described in the Getting Started book, Nuendo uses a system of

input and output busses to transfer audio between the program and

the audio hardware.

• Input busses let you route audio from the inputs on your audio hardware into

the program. This means that when you record audio, you will always do this

through one or several input busses.

• Output busses let you route audio from the program to the outputs on your

audio hardware. When you play back audio, you will always do this through

one or several output busses.

• The audition bus creates a special audio path for monitoring your mix, pre-

viewing audio while importing, editing in the Sample editor, and for the special

Listen Mode in the mixer which provides AFL/PFL solo. There is only one au-

dition bus but it can have any channel configuration from mono all the way up

to 10.2 surround.

The audition bus is new to Nuendo 3 and users who have upgraded

from earlier versions should pay special attention to its function since it

affects the way you monitor audio in Nuendo. The audition bus should

be connected to your monitoring system.

As you can see, the input and output busses are vital when you work

with Nuendo. That’s the reason why you find this chapter at the begin-

ning of the Operation Manual – once you understand the bus system

and set up the busses properly, it will be easy to go on with recording,

playing back, mixing and doing surround work.

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 15

Setting up busses

Strategies

You can create any number of busses in Nuendo, in virtually any chan-

nel configuration – mono, stereo or a number of surround formats.

• The bus configuration is saved with the projects – therefore it’s a good

idea to add and set up the busses you need and save these in a tem-

plate project (see page 641).

When you start working on new projects, you start from this template. That way you

get your standard bus configuration without having to make new bus settings for each

new project. If you need to work with different bus configurations in different projects,

you could either create several different templates or store your configurations as pre-

sets (see page 23). The templates can of course also contain other settings that you

regularly use – sample rate, record format, a basic track layout, etc.

So, which type of busses do you need? This depends on your audio

hardware, your general audio setup (e.g. surround speaker setup) and

what kind of projects you work with. Here’s an example:

Let’s say you are using audio hardware with eight analog inputs and

outputs and digital stereo connections (10 inputs and outputs all in

all). Furthermore, you work with a surround setup in 5.1 format. Here’s

a list of busses you may wish to add:

Input busses

• Most likely you need at least one stereo input bus assigned to an analog input

pair. This would let you record stereo material. If you want to be able to record

in stereo from other analog input pairs as well, you could add stereo input

busses for these too.

• Although you can record mono tracks from one side of a stereo input, it may

be a good idea to add a dedicated mono input bus. This could be assigned to

an analog input to which you have connected a dedicated microphone pre-

amp for example. Again, you could have several different mono busses.

• You probably want a dedicated stereo input bus assigned to the digital stereo

input, for digital transfers.

• If you want to transfer surround material directly to a surround track, e.g. from

surround-configured location recording equipment, you need an input bus in

that surround format (here, this would be a 5.1 input bus).

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2 – 16 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses

Output busses

• You will need one or several stereo output busses for routing stereo mixes to

master recorders or other destinations.

• For digital transfers, you need a stereo bus assigned to a digital stereo output

as well.

• You might also need a surround bus in the format of your speaker configura-

tion (here, 5.1) assigned to the correct outputs (which in turn are connected

to the correct speakers).

• You may want additional surround busses if you tend to work in different sur-

round formats.

• The audition bus is a special output bus used to monitor your mix, preview ma-

terial for importing, listening to realtime audio exports and for Listen mode which

provides standard AFL/PFL solos for channels in the mixer. Every project con-

tains an audition bus. It is configured under the Studio tab in the VST Connec-

tions window. This should be connected to your monitoring system.

Different busses can use the same inputs/outputs on the audio hard-

ware! Be aware that assigning the audition bus to the same set of outputs

as your default bus can sometimes cause clipping due to the special re-

lationship of these two busses. By default, audio passing through the de-

fault output bus will also be heard through the audition bus. If they share

the same ASIO output, the signals will combine in the audio card causing

the levels to rise by 6dB and possibly clipping the D/A converter’s out-

puts. See page 21.

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 17

Preparations

Before you set up busses, you should name the inputs and outputs on

your audio hardware. For example, if you are using a 5.1 surround

speaker setup, you should name the outputs according to which

speaker they are connected to (Left, Right, Center and so on).

The reason for this is compatibility – it makes it easier to transfer

projects between different computers and setups. For example, if you

move your project to another studio, the audio hardware may be of a

different model. But if both you and the other studio owner have given

your inputs and outputs names according to the surround setup (rather

than names based on the audio hardware model), Nuendo will auto-

matically find the correct inputs and outputs for your busses and you

will be able to play and record without changing the settings.

You name your inputs and outputs in the Device Setup dialog:

1.

Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.

2.

Select the VST Outputs device in the list to the left.

The available output ports on your audio hardware are listed.

3.

To rename a port, click its name in the list and type a new name.

•

If needed, you can also disable ports by clicking in the “Visible” col-

umn (so that it says “No”).

Disabled ports won’t show up in the VST Connections window when you are making

bus settings. If you attempt to disable a port that is already used by a bus, you will be

asked whether that is really what you want – note that this will remove the port from the

bus!

4.

Select the VST Inputs and name them in the same way.

5.

Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog.

• If you open a project created on another computer and the port names

don’t match (or the port configuration isn’t the same – e.g. the project is

created on a system with multi-channel i/o and you open it on a stereo

in/out system), a Pending Connections dialog will appear.

This allows you to manually re-route ports used in the project to ports available in your

system.

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2 – 18 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses

The VST Connections window

You add and set up busses in the VST Connections window, opened

from the Devices menu.

There are five tabs in the window:

• The Input and Output tabs are for viewing input busses or output busses, re-

spectively.

• The Group/FX tab allows you to create Group and FX channels/tracks and to

make output assignments for these. See page 28.

• The External FX tab allows you to create effect send/return busses for con-

necting external effects which can then be selected via the effect pop-up

menus from inside the program. See page 284 for a description of how to use

external effects.

• The Studio tab is for the audition bus, which is a dedicated output bus for

monitoring your mix, auditioning material for import, editing in the Sample ed-

itor, realtime exports, listen mode etc. See page 29.

For the time being we shall focus on how to set up input and output

busses.

NUENDO

VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 19

Depending on which tab you have selected, Input or Output, the win-

dow lists the current input or output busses, with the following columns:

Adding a bus

1.

Click the Inputs or Outputs tab depending on which you want to add.

2.

Click the Add Bus button.

A dialog appears.

3.

Select the desired (channel) configuration.

The pop-up menu contains Mono and Stereo options as well as the most common sur-

round formats. To select another surround format, use the “More...” submenu.

•

Alternatively you can right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) in the VST

Connections window and add a bus in the desired format directly

from the context menu that appears.

The new bus appears with the ports visible.

4.

Click in the Device Port column to select an input/output port for a

channel in the bus.

The pop-up menu that appears lists the ports with the names you have given them in

the Device Setup dialog. Repeat this for all channels in the bus.

Column Description

Bus Name Lists the busses. You can select busses and rename them by clicking

on them in this column.

Speakers Indicates the speaker configuration (mono, stereo, surround formats)

of each bus.

Audio Device This shows the currently selected Master ASIO driver.

Device Port When you have “opened” a bus (by clicking its + button in the Bus

Name column) this column shows which physical input/output on your

audio hardware is used by the bus.

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2 – 20 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses

Adding a child bus

A surround bus is essentially a set of mono channels – 6 channels in

the case of 5.1 format. If you have a mono track in the project, you can

route it to a separate speaker channel in the bus (or route it to the

whole surround bus and use the surround panner to position it in the

surround image). But what if you have a stereo track that you simply

want to route to a stereo channel pair within the bus (Left and Right or

Left Surround and Right Surround for example)? For this you need to

create a child bus:

1.

Select the surround bus in the list and right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click

(Mac) it.

A pop-up menu appears.

2. Select a channel configuration from the “Add Child Bus” submenu.

As you can see, you can create stereo child busses (routed to various speaker channel

pairs in the surround bus) or other surround bus formats (with fewer channels than the

“parent bus”).

The child bus you created will be available for direct routing in the

mixer. It’s a part of the parent surround bus, which means there will be

no separate channel strip for it.

Although child busses are probably most useful in output busses, you

could also create child busses within a surround input bus – for exam-

ple if you want to record a stereo channel pair (e.g. front left-right) in

the surround bus to a separate stereo track.

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Steinberg Nuendo 3.0 User manual

Steinberg Nuendo 3.0 User manual

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