Steinberg Nuendo - 2.0 Operation Manual

Operation Manual

Manual by Ludvig Carlson, Anders Nordmark, Roger Wiklander Quality Control: C. Bachmann, H. Bischoff, S. Pfeifer, C. Schomburg

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 2000 and Windows XP are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks.

Table of Contents

9 About this manual

149 Using markers

10 Welcome!

13 VST Connections:

Setting up input and output busses

14 About this chapter 14 Setting up busses 20 Using the busses

25 Playback and the

Transport panel

26 Background 30 Operations 34 Options and Settings

37 Recording

38 Background 39 Basic recording methods 43 Audio recording specifics 64 MIDI Recording Specifics 76 Options and Settings

81 The Project window

82 Background 84 Window Overview 97 Operations 137 Options

141 Folder tracks

142 About folder tracks 143 Handling folder tracks 145 Working with folder parts

150 About markers 150 The Marker window 154 Using the Marker track 159 Marker key commands 160 Editing markers in the

Project Browser

161 Fades and crossfades

162 Creating fades 165 The Fade dialogs 168 Creating crossfades 170 The Crossfade dialog 178 Auto Fades and Crossfades

181 The mixer

182 About this chapter 183 Overview 187 Configuring the mixer 194 The audio channel strips 196 The MIDI channel strips 197 The common panel 198 The input & output channels 199 Basic mixing procedures 207 Audio specific procedures 221 MIDI specific procedures 223 Utilities

229 Audio effects

230 About this chapter 230 Overview 232 Insert effects 242 Send effects 253 Making settings for the

effects

256 Installing and managing

effect plug-ins

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4 Table of contents

263 VST Instruments

264 Introduction 265 Activating and using VST

Instruments

271 The Instrument Freeze

function

275 Surround sound

276 Background 279 Window overview 281 Operations

360 Detect Silence 363 The Spectrum Analyzer 366 Statistics

367 The Sample Editor

368 Background 368 Opening the Sample Editor 369 Window overview 374 Operations 386 Options and settings

389 The Audio Part Editor

293 Automation

294 Background 297 Automation track operations 303 Using Write/Read

automation

309 Working with automation

curves

315 Tips and common methods 316 Options and Settings

317 Remote controlling

the mixer

318 About this chapter 318 Setting Up 320 Operations 322 The Generic Remote device

327 Audio processing and

functions

328 Background 329 Audio processing 351 Applying plug-ins 354 The Offline Process History

dialog

356 Batch Processing 359 Freeze Edits

390 Background 390 Opening the Audio Part

Editor

391 Window overview 396 Operations 398 Common methods 400 Options and Settings

401 Working with

hitpoints and slices

402 Background 403 Using hitpoints 409 Editing hitpoints 416 Creating slices 417 Creating groove quantize

maps

418 Other Advanced submenu

items

421 The Pool

422 Background 424 Window Overview 428 Operations 447 Options and Settings

Table of contents 5

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449 MIDI realtime para-

meters and effects

549 The Tempo Track

Editor

450 Introduction 451 The Inspector – General

handling

452 Basic track settings 455 Track parameters 459 MIDI effects 465 Merge MIDI in Loop

467 MIDI processing and

quantizing

468 Introduction 469 Quantizing 479 Other MIDI menu functions 484 Dissolve Part

487 The MIDI editors

488 About editing MIDI 489 Opening a MIDI editor 492 The Key Editor – Overview 498 Key Editor operations 523 The Drum Editor – Overview 526 Drum Editor operations 529 Working with drum maps 537 Using drum name lists 538 The List Editor – Overview 540 List Editor operations 547 Common MIDI editor op-

tions and settings

550 Background 551 Window overview 554 Operations 560 Options and settings 561 The Beat Calculator 563 Merge Tempo From Tapping 564 The Time Warp tool

575 The Project Browser

576 Background 576 Opening the Project

Browser

576 Window Overview 577 Navigating in the Browser 578 Customizing the View 578 About the Sync Selection

option

579 Editing audio tracks 582 Editing MIDI tracks 585 Editing Automation tracks 585 Editing the Video track 586 Editing the Marker track 587 Editing the Tempo track 587 Editing Time Signatures 588 Deleting Events

589 The Track Sheet

590 Overview 594 Printing the Track Sheet

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6 Table of contents

595 Export Audio

Mixdown

596 Introduction 597 Mixing down to an audio file 599 File format specifics

613 Synchronization

614 Background 622 Window Overview 623 Operations 637 Options

639 VST System Link

640 Introduction 641 Preparations 646 Activating VST System Link 653 Application examples

657 Video

658 Background 659 Operations 665 Options 666 The Edit Mode

669 ReWire

677 File handling

678 File Operations 702 Options and Settings

705 Customizing

706 Background 707 Working with window

layouts

710 Customizing the Transport

panel

712 Customizing the toolbars 714 Customizing track controls 719 Configuring the main menu

items

722 About preference presets 724 Appearance 724 Where are the settings

stored?

727 Key commands

728 Background 729 Setting up Key Commands 742 Setting up tool modifier keys

743 Index

670 Introduction 671 Launching and quitting 672 Activating ReWire channels 673 Using the transport and

tempo controls

674 How the ReWire channels

are handled in Nuendo

675 Routing MIDI via ReWire2 676 Considerations and limita-

tions

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Table of contents 7

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8 Table of contents

About this manual

Welcome!

This is the Operation Manual for Steinberg’s Nuendo 2.1. 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 different ways, depending on their previous knowledge and personal preferences. You may be looking for a complete description of a procedure, 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 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.

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1 – 10 About this manual

About this chapter

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.

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 in the beginning 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.

Setting up busses

Strategies

You can create any number of busses in Nuendo, in virtually any channel 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 template project (see page 682).

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 presets (see page 19). The templates can of course also contain other settings that you regularly use – sample rate, record format, a basic track layout, etc.

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

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 speaker 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 preamp 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 in Nuendo (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).

Output busses

• You probably want one or several stereo output busses for monitoring and listening to stereo mixes.

• For digital transfers, you need a stereo bus assigned to the digital stereo output as well.

• You need a surround bus in the format of your speaker configuration (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 surround formats.

❐

Different busses can use the same inputs/outputs on the audio hardware! You may for example want a stereo output bus assigned to the same outputs as the front stereo channels in your surround bus – this makes it easy to listen to stereo mixes without having to reconnect.

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

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 automatically 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:

Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.

Select the VST Output Ports device in the list to the left and make sure the Setup tab is selected.

The available output ports on your audio hardware are listed.

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” column (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!

Select the VST Input Ports and name them in the same way.

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 – 16 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 two tabs in the window, for viewing input busses or output busses. Depending on which tab you have selected, the window lists the current input or output busses, with the following three columns:

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.

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

Adding a bus

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

Click the Add Bus button.

A dialog appears.

Select the desired (channel) configuration.

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

Click in the ASIO Device Port 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.

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

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

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 example if you want to record a stereo channel pair (e.g. front left-right) in the surround bus to a separate stereo track.

Other bus operations

• To change the port assignment for a bus you proceed as when you

added it – make sure the channels are visible (by clicking the + button next to the bus, or by clicking the “+ All” button at the top of the window) and click in the ASIO Device Port column to select ports.

• To remove a bus you don’t need, select it in the list, right-click (Win) or

[Ctrl]-click (Mac) and select “Remove Bus” from the pop-up menu.

• You can store and recall bus Presets with the pop-up menu at the top

of the window.

To store the current configuration as a preset, click the store (+) button and enter a name for the preset. You can then select the stored configuration directly from the Presets popup menu at any time. To remove a stored preset, select it and click the (-) button.

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

Using the busses

This section describes briefly how to use the input and output busses you have created. This is described in more detail in the chapters “Re-

cording” and “The mixer”.

Routing

When you play back an audio track (or any other audio channel in the mixer – VST Instrument channels, ReWire channels, etc.), you route it to an output bus. In the same way, when you record on an audio track you select from which input bus the audio should be sent.

• For audio tracks, you can select input and output busses in the Inspector, using the “In” and “Out” pop-up menus.

• For all audio-type channels, you select busses in the Input and Output Settings panel at the top of each channel strip in the mixer.

For VST Instrument channels, ReWire channels, Group channels and FX channels you will only be able to select output busses.

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

• If the Input and Output Settings panel isn’t shown, click the Show Input and Output Settings field in the common panel to the left in the mixer.

When selecting an input bus for a track you can only select busses that correspond to the track’s channel configuration. Here are the details:

• Mono tracks can be routed to mono busses or individual channels within a stereo or surround bus (input or output). You can also route a mono track to the “whole” stereo or surround output bus, in which case a pan control (stereo pan or surround panner) will be used to position the sound.

• Stereo tracks can be routed to stereo busses or stereo child busses within a surround bus (input or output).

• Surround tracks can be routed to busses with the same number of speaker channels as the track (or to corresponding child busses within a “larger” surround bus).

Viewing the busses in the mixer

In the mixer, busses are represented by input and output channels (shown in separate panes to the left and right in the window). You can show or hide the input and output channels independently by clicking the buttons Hide Input Channels and Hide Output Channels in the mixer’s common panel to the left:

Hide Input Channels

Hide Output Channels

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 21

Input channels

The input channels are shown to the left in the mixer. As you can see, each input channel resembles a regular mixer channel strip. Here you can do the following:

• Check and adjust the recording level using the Input Gain knobs and/or the level fader.

See page 47.

• Change the phase of the input signal.

This is done by clicking the Input Phase button next to the Input Gain control.

• Add effects or EQ to the input bus.

See page 60 for an example of how to add effects to your recording at the input bus stage.

❐

The settings you make in the input channel strip will be a permanent part of the recorded audio file!

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2 – 22 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses

Output channels

The output channels are shown to the right in the mixer. Here you can do the following:

• Adjust the total output level for the busses with the faders.

For stereo output busses you can also adjust the stereo balance with the pan control.

• Add effects or EQ.

These will affect the whole bus. Examples of effects you may want to add here include compressors, limiters and dithering. See page 239.

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VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses 2 – 23

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2 – 24 VST Connections: Setting up input and output busses

Playback and the Transport

panel

Background

This chapter describes the various methods available for controlling Playback and Transport functions in Nuendo.

The Transport panel

Below you can find a brief description of each item on the Transport panel.

• You can customize the look of the Transport panel, hiding unneeded controls and moving controls as desired – see page 710.

The pictures below show the Transport panel with all controls visible and in their default position. The Transport panel is divided into sections, from left to right.

Record mode pop-up

Cycle Record mode pop-up

CPU load and Disk Cache meters

Left locator: record start point, punch in point and beginning of Cycle

Activates punch in

Activates punch out

Right locator: punch out point and end of Cycle

Primary Time Display and format pop-up

Nudge position right/left

Position slider

Go to previous marker or project start

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3 – 26 Playback and the Transport panel

Rewind Stop

Fast forward

Go to next marker or project end

Activates Auto Quantize

Preroll setting and on/off switch

Nudge +/- 1 Frame

Jog Wheel (project scrubbing)

Shuttle speed

Postroll setting and on/off switch

Exchange time formats

Cycle on/off

Secondary position display and format pop-up

Record

Play

Precount on/off

Metronome click on/off

Tempo follows Tempo track on/off

Synchronization on/off The tempo and time signature display

MIDI In (left meter)/ MIDI Out activity

Show Markers (opens Marker window)

Jump to Marker

Level Control (Output bus 1)

Audio activity (Output bus 1)Audio input activity (Input bus 1)

• The main Transport functions (Cycle/Stop/Play/Record) can also be

shown on the toolbar.

In addition, various play options are available on the Transport menu.

Hiding and showing

The Transport panel is shown by default when you launch a new project. To hide or show it, select the “Transport Panel” item from the Transport menu (or use a key command - by default [F2]).

About Preroll and Postroll

These items are described in the chapter “Recording” – see page 77.

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Playback and the Transport panel 3 – 27

Customizing the Transport panel

You can customize the appearance of the Transport panel by rightclicking (Win) or [Ctrl]-clicking (Mac) anywhere on the panel and making selections on the pop-up menu that appears.

• On the upper half of the pop-up menu you can hide or show elements on the panel by activating or deactivating the corresponding menu items.

• Selecting the Show All item displays all sections of the Transport panel.

• Selecting Default shows all sections in their default positions on the panel.

• The items in the lower half of the pop-up menu are preset configurations for the Transport panel. You will also find your own stored presets here, for quick selection.

• Selecting Setup brings up a dialog where you can set show/hide status for the separate sections, configure where the sections should be placed on the panel and store different Transport panel layouts as presets for instant recall.

For more about customizing the Transport panel, see page 710.

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3 – 28 Playback and the Transport panel

The numeric keypad

In the default Key Command settings, the numeric keypad on the computer keyboard is assigned various Transport panel operations The keypads are slightly different on PC and Macintosh computers:

PC:

Cycle On/Off

Go to Marker number 3-9

Go to right locator

Go to left locator

Stop

Mac:

Cycle On/Off

Go to Marker number 3-9

Num Lock

x —

7 8 9

4 5 6+

1 2 3

num lock

= / *

Enter

7 8 9 –

Record

Rewind

Fast Forward

Play

Return to Zero

Record

Rewind

Fast Forward

Go to right locator

Go to left locator

Stop

4 5 6 +

1 2 3

enter

Playback and the Transport panel 3 – 29

Play

Return to Zero

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Operations

Setting the project cursor position

There are several ways to move the project cursor position:

• By using Fast Forward and Rewind.

• By using the Jog/Shuttle/Nudge control on the Transport panel (see page 33).

• By dragging the project cursor in the lower part of the ruler.

• By clicking in the ruler.

Double clicking in the ruler will start or stop playback, moving the cursor at the same time.

• If the option “Locate when Clicked in Empty Space” is activated in the Preferences dialog (Transport page) you can click anywhere in an empty section of the Project window to move the cursor position.

• By changing the value in any of the position displays.

• By using the position slider above the transport buttons.

The range of the slider relates to the Length setting in the Project Setup dialog. Hence, moving the slider all the way to the right will take you to the end of the project.

• By using markers (see page 150).

• By using playback options (see page 35).

• By using functions on the Transport menu.

The following functions are available:

Function Description

Locate Selection Moves the project cursor to the beginning of the current se-

lection. For this to be available, you must have selected one or more events or parts, or made a selection range.

Locate Next/Previous Marker

Locate Next/Previous Event

This moves the project cursor to the closest marker to the right or left (see page 150).

This moves the project cursor forwards or backwards respectively, to the closest beginning or end of any event on the selected track(s).

• If Snap is activated when dragging the project cursor, the Snap value is taken into account. This can be helpful for finding exact positions quickly.

• There are also numerous key commands available for moving the project cursor (in the Transport category in the Key Commands dialog).

For example, you can assign key commands to the “Step Bar” and “Step Back Bar” functions, allowing you to move the project cursor in steps of one bar, backwards and forwards.

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3 – 30 Playback and the Transport panel

+ 732 hidden pages