Home > Steinberg > Music Production System > Steinberg Nuendo 4 Operation Manual

Steinberg Nuendo 4 Operation Manual

    Download as PDF Print this page Share this page

    Have a look at the manual Steinberg Nuendo 4 Operation Manual online for free. It’s possible to download the document as PDF or print. UserManuals.tech offer 523 Steinberg manuals and user’s guides for free. Share the user manual or guide on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

    Page
    of 540
    							181
    Audio effects
    Proceed as follows:
    1.Select the vocal track. 
    2.On the Project menu, select “Duplicate Tracks”.
    Now you can use the vocal events on the second track to silence the de-
    lay effect.
    3.Open the Insert tab for the first Vocal track in the In-
    spector and select “PingPongDelay” from the Effects 
    pop-up menu.
    The control panel for the effect opens.
    4.On the control panel for the effect, make the desired 
    effect settings and activate the Side Chain button.
    Try out the effect settings to find out which settings will work best with your 
    project. For detailed descriptions of the parameters, see the separate man-
    ual “Nuendo Expansion Kit – Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”.
    5.In the Track list, select the second vocal track.
    6.Pull down the Output Routing pop-up menu and on 
    the Side-Chain submenu, select the PingPongDelay ef-
    fect you set up for the vocal track.
    This way, the signals from the second (duplicate) track are routed to the 
    effect (and do not end up in the mix).
    Now every time the signals on the vocal track exceed the 
    threshold, the delay will be deactivated. Since the thres-
    hold for the delay effect is fixed, you may have to adjust 
    the volume of track 2, in this example, to ensure that vocal 
    parts of low or middle volume will also silence the delay 
    effect.
    Dynamics plug-ins
    Compression, expansion or gating can be triggered by 
    side-chain signals exceeding a specified threshold.
    You may run into a situation where you want to lower the 
    volume of one instrument every time another instrument is 
    played. You could e. g. want to lower the volume of the bass 
    guitar during the bass drum hits. This can be achieved by 
    applying compression to the bass guitar signal every time 
    the drum signals are present on the respective track.
    Proceed as follows:
    1.Select the bass guitar track.
    2.Open the Inserts tab in the Inspector, click in an insert 
    slot to open the effect selection pop-up menu and, on the 
    Dynamics submenu, select “Compressor”.
    The effect is loaded into the effect slot and the effect control panel opens. 
    3.Make the desired effect settings (you will most likely 
    have to adjust them later to get the right compression 
    level) and activate the Side-Chain button.
    4.Select the bass drum track. 
    5.Open the Sends Inspector section, click in a send slot 
    and from the Side-Chain submenu, select the Compres-
    sor effect you created for the bass guitar track. Adjust the 
    Send level.
    This way, the bass drum signal triggers the compressor on the bass gui-
    tar track.
    When you now play back the project, the bass guitar will 
    be compressed whenever the signals on the bass drum 
    track exceed the threshold.
    Modulation plug-ins
    Side-chain signals bypass the built-in LFO modulation 
    and instead apply modulation according to the envelope 
    of the side-chain signal. Since each channel will be ana-
    lyzed and modulated separately, this allows for creating 
    astonishing spatial stereo or surround modulation effects. 
    Feel free to experiment with the functions to see what they 
    have to offer! 
    						
    							182
    Audio effects
    About drag&drop and Side chain connections
    When you drag effects from one insert slot to another (on 
    the same channel or between different channels), the fol-
    lowing applies:
     When you move an effect within a channel (e. g. from slot 4 to 
    slot 6), the side chain connections will be kept.
     When you drag and drop an effect between two channels, the 
    side chain connections will not be kept.
     When copying an effect into another effect slot (for the same 
    or a different channel), the side chain connections will not be 
    copied, i.  e. they will be lost.
    Using external effects
    Although this program comes with a top selection of VST 
    effect plug-ins, and although there’s a huge range of addi-
    tional plug-ins available on the market, you may still have 
    some hardware effect units that you want to use – valve 
    compressors, reverb units, vintage tape echo machines, 
    etc. By setting up external FX busses you can make your 
    outboard equipment part of the Nuendo virtual studio!
    An external FX bus is a combination of outputs (sends) 
    and inputs (returns) on your audio hardware, along with a 
    few additional settings. All external FX busses you have 
    created will appear on the effect pop-up menus and can 
    be selected like the internal effect plug-ins. The difference 
    is that if you select an external effect as an insert effect for 
    an audio track, the audio will be sent to the corresponding 
    audio output, processed in your hardware effect (provided 
    that you have connected it properly) and returned via the 
    specified audio input.
    ÖCreating and handling of external effects is described 
    in detail in the chapter “VST Connections: Setting up in-
    put and output busses” on page 10.
    Making settings for the effects
    Editing effects
    All inserts and sends have an Edit (“e”) button. Clicking 
    this opens the control panel for the effect, in which you 
    can make parameter settings.
    The contents, design and layout of the control panel de-
    pends on the selected effect. However, all effect control 
    panels have an On/Off button, a Bypass button, Read/
    Write automation buttons (for automating effect parameter 
    changes, see the chapter “Automation” on page 213), a 
    preset pop-up menu and a Preset Management pop-up 
    menu for saving and loading effect presets. Some plug-ins 
    also feature a side-chain button, see “Using the Side-Chain 
    input” on page 180.
    The Rotary effect control panel.
    Please note that all effects can be edited using a simpli-
    fied control panel (horizontal sliders only, no graphics). This 
    panel is opened by pressing [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Alt]/[Op-
    tion]+[Shift] and clicking on the Edit button for the effect 
    send or slot.
    Effect control panels may have any combination of knobs, 
    sliders, buttons and graphic curves. 
    ÖThe included effects and their parameters are de-
    scribed in detail in the separate manual “Nuendo Expan-
    sion Kit – Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”.
    If you edit the parameters for an effect, these settings are 
    saved automatically with the project.
    You can also save the current settings as a preset, see 
    below.
    Effects parameters can be automated – see the chapter 
    “Automation” on page 213. 
    						
    							183
    Audio effects
    Effect presets
    Effect preset management in Nuendo is very versatile. In 
    the MediaBay – or with certain limits in the Save Preset di-
    alog – you can assign attributes to presets which allow 
    you to organize and browse them according to various cri-
    teria. Nuendo comes with a huge array of categorized 
    track and VST presets that you can use straight out of the 
    box. You can also preview effect presets before loading 
    them which considerably speeds up the process of find-
    ing the right effect preset.
    Effect presets can be divided into the following main cate-
    gories:
    VST presets for a plug-in.
    These are stored parameter settings for a specific effect.
    Inserts presets that contain insert effect combinations.
    These can contain the whole insert effects rack, complete with settings 
    for each effect, see “Saving insert effect combinations” on page 185.
    Selecting effect presets
    Most VST effect plug-ins come with a number of useful 
    presets for instant selection.
    The preset browser
    To select an effect preset in the preset browser, proceed 
    as follows:
    1.Load an effect, either as a channel insert or into an FX 
    channel.
    The control panel for the effect is displayed.
    2.Click in the preset field at the top of the control panel.
    This opens the preset browser.
    You can also open the Preset browser from the Inspec-
    tor (Inserts tab) or the Channel Settings window.
    3.Select the desired preset in the list.4.Activate playback to audition the selected preset.
    Simply step through the presets until you found the right sound. It may be 
    helpful to set up cycle playback of a section to make comparisons be-
    tween different preset settings easier.
    5.Double-click on the desired preset (or click outside 
    the Preset browser) to apply the preset.
    To return to the preset that was selected when you 
    opened the Preset browser, click the Reset button.
    You can also open the Preset browser by clicking the 
    SoundFrame button to the right of the preset field an se-
    lecting Load Preset from the Preset Management pop-
    up menu.
    The preset handling for VST 2 plug-ins is slightly differ-
    ent, see “About earlier VST effect presets” on page 184.
    The Browser sections
    The Preset browser contains the following sections:
    The “Search & Viewer” section (displayed by default) 
    lists the available presets for the selected effect.
    The Filter section (displayed when you click the Cate-
    gories button) shows the available preset attributes for the 
    selected effect.
    If no attributes have been specified for the effect presets, the columns 
    will be empty. If attributes have been assigned to a preset for this effect, 
    you can click on the attribute in the respective column (Category, Style 
    etc.), to filter out all presets that do not match the selected attribute(s).
    If you also activate the “Show Location” button, the 
    Browser & Filter section is displayed, allowing you to 
    specify the Presets folder that should be searched for 
    preset files. 
    						
    							184
    Audio effects
    Saving effect presets
    You can save your edited effect settings as presets for 
    further use (e.g. in other projects):
    1.Click the SoundFrame button to open the Preset 
    Management pop-up menu.
    2.Select “Save Preset…” from the pop-up menu.
    This opens a dialog where you can save the current settings as a preset.
    3.In the File name field in the lower part of the Save Pre-
    set dialog, enter a name for the new preset.
    If you wish to assign attributes to the preset, click the 
    Tag Editor button.
    Click in the Value column to select an appropriate “tag” for one or sev-
    eral of the available categories in the Attributes column. For further infor-
    mation on preset handling and the Tag Editor, see the chapter “The 
    MediaBay” on page 314.
    4.Click OK to store the preset and exit the dialog.
    User-defined presets are saved in the following location:
     Win: Documents and Settings/User name/Application data/
    VST3 presets\ 
     Mac: Users//Library/Audio/Presets//
    You cannot change the default folder, but you can add fur-
    ther subfolders inside the individual effect preset folders.
    About earlier VST effect presets
    As stated previously, you can use any VST 2.x plug-ins in 
    Nuendo. For a description of how to add VST plug-ins see 
    “Installing and managing effect plug-ins” on page 186.
    When you add a VST 2 plug-in, any previously stored pre-
    sets for it will be in the old FX program/bank format (.fxp/
    .fxb). You can import such files, but the preset handling will 
    be slightly different. You will not be able to use the new fea-
    tures like the Tag editor until you have converted the old 
    “.fxp/.fxb” presets to VST 3 presets. If you save new pre-
    sets for the included VST 2 plug-ins, these will automati-
    cally be saved in the new “.vstpreset” format.
    Importing and converting FXB/FXP files
    To import .fxp/.fxb files, proceed as follows:
    1.Load any VST 2 effect you may have installed, and click 
    on the SoundFrame button to open the Preset Manage-
    ment pop-up menu.
    2.Select “Import FXB/FXP…” from the pop-up.
    This menu item is only available for VST 2 plug-ins.
    3.In the file dialog that opens, locate the .fxp file and 
    click Open.
    If you load a bank (.fxb), it will replace the current set of all effect pro-
    grams. If you load a single program, it will replace the currently selected 
    effect program only. Note that such files exist only if you created your 
    own .fxp/.fxb presets with a previous version of Nuendo (or any other 
    VST 2 application).
    !All VST 2 presets can be converted to VST 3 presets. 
    						
    							185
    Audio effects
    4.After importing, you can convert the current program 
    list to VST presets by selecting “Convert Program List to 
    VST Presets” from the Preset Management pop-up.
    After converting, the presets will be available in the Preset Browser, and 
    you can use the Tag Editor to add attributes and audition the presets. 
    The new converted presets will be stored in the VST3 Preset folder.
    Saving insert effect combinations
    You can save the complete insert effect rack for a channel 
    together with all parameter settings as an inserts preset. 
    Inserts presets can be applied to audio, instruments, FX 
    channel or group tracks.
    This works as follows:
    1.Select the desired track in the Track list and open the 
    Inserts Inspector section.
    2.Load a combination of insert effects and adjust the pa-
    rameters (or select effect presets) for each effect.
    3.At the top of the Inserts tab, click the SoundFrame 
    button to open the Preset Management pop-up menu for 
    the inserts and select “Store Preset”.
    This can also be done from the Channel Settings window using the 
    SoundFrame button at the top of the Inserts section.
    4.Type in a name for the preset in the dialog that appears.
    5.Select the track (audio/group/instrument/fx channel) 
    you wish to apply the new preset to, and click its Sound-
    Frame button.
    As you can see, the new preset is available at the top of the pop-up menu.
    6.Select the preset you created from the pop-up menu.
    The effects are loaded into the Insert slots of the new track, and the con-
    trol panels for all effects are opened.
    Note that when loading insert combination presets, any 
    plug-ins that were previously loaded for the track will be 
    removed, regardless of whether these slots are used in 
    the preset.
    In other words, saving an inserts preset means saving the states of all in-
    sert slots.
    You can use the Preset Management pop-up to save 
    your settings as preset, or to rename or remove the cur-
    rent preset.
    Extracting insert effect settings from track presets
    You can extract the effects used in a track preset and load 
    them into your inserts “rack”: 
    Select “From Track Preset…” on the Preset Manage-
    ment pop-up menu to open a dialog where all track pre-
    sets are shown.
    Select an item in the list to load the effects used in the 
    track preset.
    Track presets are described in their own chapter in the 
    Operation Manual. 
    						
    							186
    Audio effects
    Installing and managing effect plug-
    ins
    Nuendo supports two plug-in formats; the VST 2 format 
    (with the file name extensions “.dll” on the PC and “.VST” 
    on the Mac) and the VST 3 format (extension “.vst3” on 
    both platforms). The formats are handled differently when 
    it comes to installation and organizing.
    Installing additional VST plug-ins
    Installing VST 3 plug-ins under Mac OS X
    To install a VST 3.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Nuendo 
    and drag the plug-in file into one of the following folders:
    /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
    This is only possible if you are the system administrator. Plug-ins in-
    stalled in this folder will be available to all users, for all programs that 
    support them.
    Users/Username/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
    “Username” is the name you use to log on to the computer (the easiest 
    way to open this folder is to go to your “Home” folder and use the path /
    Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ from there). Plug-ins installed in this folder 
    are only available to you.
    When you launch Nuendo again, the new effects will ap-
    pear on the effect pop-up menus. In the VST 3 protocol, the 
    effect category, sub-folder structure etc. are built-in and 
    cannot be changed. The effect(s) will simply show up in the 
    assigned category folder(s) on the Effect pop-up menu.
    Installing VST 2.x plug-ins under Mac OS X
    To install a VST 2.x plug-in under Mac OS X, quit Nuendo 
    and drag the plug-in file to one of the following folders:
    /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
    This is only possible if you are the system administrator. Plug-ins in-
    stalled in this folder will be available to all users, for all programs that 
    support them.
    Username/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
    “Username” is the name you use to log on to the computer (the easiest 
    way to open this folder is to go to your “Home” folder and use the path /
    Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ from there). Plug-ins installed in this folder 
    are only available to you.
    When you launch Nuendo again, the new effects will ap-
    pear on the effect pop-up menus.ÖIf an effect plug-in comes with its own installation ap-
    plication, you should use this.
    As a general rule, always read the documentation or readme files before 
    installing new plug-ins.
    Installing VST 3 plug-ins under Windows
    Under Windows, VST 3 plug-ins are installed by dragging 
    the files (with the extension “.vst3”) into the vst3 folder in 
    the Nuendo application folder. When you launch Nuendo 
    again, the new effects will appear on the Effect pop-up 
    menus. In the VST 3 protocol, the effect category, sub-
    folder structure etc. are built-in and cannot be changed. 
    The installed new effect(s) will simply show up in the as-
    signed category folder(s) on the effect pop-up menu.
    Installing VST 2 plug-ins under Windows
    Under Windows, VST 2.x plug-ins are installed by drag-
    ging the files (with the extension “.dll”) into the Vstplugins 
    folder in the Nuendo application folder, or into the Shared 
    VST Plug-in folder – see below. When you launch Nuendo 
    again, the new effects will appear on the effect pop-up 
    menus.
    ÖIf an effect plug-in comes with its own installation ap-
    plication, you should use this.
    As a general rule, always read the documentation before installing new 
    plug-ins.
    Organizing VST 2 plug-ins
    If you have a large number of VST 2 plug-ins, having them 
    all on a single pop-up menu in the program may become 
    unmanageable. For this reason, the VST 2 plug-ins in-
    stalled with Nuendo are placed in appropriate subfolders 
    according to the effect type.
    Under Windows, you can organize VST plug-ins by mov-
    ing, adding or renaming subfolders within the Vstplugins 
    folder. 
    When you launch the program and pull down an effects pop-up menu, 
    the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical submenus, each listing 
    the plug-ins in the corresponding subfolder.
    Under Mac OS X, you cannot change the hierarchic ar-
    rangement of the “built-in” VST plug-ins.
    However, you can arrange any additional plug-ins you have installed (in the 
    /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ folders, see above) by placing them in sub-
    folders. In the program, the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical 
    submenus, each listing the plug-ins in the corresponding subfolder.
    !Plug-ins in Mac OS 9.X format cannot be used. 
    						
    							187
    Audio effects
    About the effects from previous Nuendo versions
    The Legacy folder on the program DVD contains effects 
    from previous versions of Nuendo.
    The main reason for installing these earlier plug-ins is 
    backwards compatibility, allowing you to import old Nu-
    endo projects and get the correct effect settings.
    The Plug-in Information window
    On the Devices menu, you will find an item called “Plug-in 
    Information”. Selecting this opens a dialog listing all the 
    available VST compatible plug-ins in your system (includ-
    ing VST Instruments), along with all MIDI plug-ins.
    Managing and selecting VST plug-ins
    To display all available VST plug-ins, open the “VST 
    PlugIns” tab.
    To enable a plug-in (make it available for selection), put 
    a check mark in the left column.
    Only the enabled plug-ins will appear on the effect menus.
    The Instances column indicates how many instances of 
    the plug-in are currently used in Nuendo.
    Clicking in this column for a plug-in which is already in use produces a 
    pop-up showing exactly where each use occurs.
    ÖA plug-in may be in use even if it isn’t enabled in the 
    left column. 
    You might for example have opened a project containing effects that are 
    currently disabled on the menu. The left column only determines whether 
    or not the plug-in will be visible on the effect menus.
    All columns can be resized by dragging the divider in 
    the column header.The other columns show the following information about 
    each plug-in:
    Update button
    Clicking this button will make Nuendo re-scan the desig-
    nated VST folders for updated information about the plug-
    ins.
    VST 2.x Plug-in Paths button
    This opens a dialog where you can see the current paths 
    to where VST 2.x plug-ins are located. You can freely 
    Add/Remove folder locations by using the corresponding 
    buttons. If you click “Add”, a file dialog is opened, where 
    you can select a folder location.
    About the “shared” plug-ins folder (Windows and VST 
    2.x only)
    You can designate a “shared” VST 2.x plugins folder. This 
    will allow VST 2.x plug-ins to be used by other programs 
    that support this standard.
    You designate a shared folder by selecting a folder in the 
    list and clicking the “Set As Shared Folder” button in the 
    VST 2.x Plug-in Paths dialog.
    Column Description
    Name The name of the plug-in.
    Vendor The manufacturer of the plug-in.
    File This shows the complete name of the plug-in (with extension).
    Category This indicates the category of each plug-in (such as VST In-
    struments, Surround Effects, etc.).
    Version Shows the version of the plug-in.
    SDK Shows with which version of the VST protocol a plug-in is 
    compatible.
    Latency This shows the delay (in samples) that will be introduced if the 
    effect is used as an Insert. This is automatically compensated 
    for by Nuendo.
    Side Chain 
    InputsShows the number of side-chain inputs for a plug-in.
    I/O This column shows the number of inputs and outputs for each 
    plug-in.
    Path The path and name of the folder in which the plug-in file is 
    located. 
    						
    							188
    Audio effects
    Exporting plug-in information files
    You can also save plug-in information as an .xml file, e. g. 
    for archiving purposes or troubleshooting. The Export func-
    tion is available for VST, MIDI and Audio Codec plug-ins. 
    Proceed as follows:
    1.Right-click on the desired tab in the Plug-in Information 
    window (for VST, MIDI or Audio Codec plug-ins), to open 
    the context menu and select “Export”.
    A file dialog opens.
    2.In the dialog, specify a name and location for the Plug-
    in Information export file and click OK to export the file.
    The Plug-in Information file contains information on the 
    currently installed/available plug-ins, their version, vendor, 
    etc.
    The .xml file can then be opened in any editor applica-
    tion supporting the xml format. 
    						
    							14
    VST Instruments and Instrument tracks 
    						
    							190
    VST Instruments and Instrument tracks
    Introduction
    VST Instruments are software synthesizers (or other sound 
    sources) that are contained within Nuendo. They are played 
    internally via MIDI. You can add effects or EQ to VST Instru-
    ments, just as with audio tracks.
    ÖThis chapter describes the general procedures for 
    setting up and using VST Instruments.
    ÖDepending on the VST version the instrument is com-
    patible with, an icon may be displayed in front of the in-
    strument name, see “About VST 3” on page 169.
    ÖNote that VST instruments are only supplied as part of 
    the Nuendo Expansion Kit. You can, however, use your 
    own VST instruments in Nuendo. The VST instrument in-
    cluded in the Nuendo Expansion Kit are described in de-
    tail in the separate manual “Nuendo Expansion Kit – 
    Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”.
    VST Instrument channels vs. instru-
    ment tracks
    Nuendo allows you to make use of VST Instruments in two 
    different ways:
    By activating instruments in the VST Instruments win-
    dow.
    This creates a VST Instrument channel, which can be played by one (or 
    several) MIDI track(s) routed to it.
    By creating instrument tracks.
    Instrument tracks are a combination of a VST Instrument, an instrument 
    channel and a MIDI track. You play and record MIDI note data directly for 
    this track.
    Both methods have their advantages, and should be se-
    lected according to what best suits your needs. The fol-
    lowing sections describe the two approaches.
    VST Instrument channels
    You can access a VST Instrument from within Nuendo by 
    creating a VST Instrument channel and associating this 
    channel with a MIDI track. Proceed as follows:
    1.On the Devices menu, select “VST Instruments”.
    The VST Instruments window opens.
    2.Click in one of the empty slots to open the instrument 
    pop-up menu and select the desired instrument.
    3.You will be asked if you want to create an associated 
    MIDI track connected to the VST Instrument. Do so.
    The instrument is loaded and activated, and its control panel is opened. 
    A MIDI track with the name of the instrument is added to the Track list. 
    The output of this track is routed to the instrument.
    In the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page), you can 
    specify what should happen when loading a VST instru-
    ment in an instrument slot. Open the pop-up menu “Cre-
    ate MIDI track when loading VSTi” and select one of the 
    available options:
     When you select “Always”, a corresponding MIDI track will al-
    ways be created.
     When you select “Do not”, no track will be created and only 
    the instrument will be loaded.
     Select “Always ask to” if you want to decide whether a MIDI 
    track should be created whenever you load an instrument.
    You can also use modifiers to specify what should happen 
    when you load a VST instrument (overriding the Prefer-
    ence setting):
     When you hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] while selecting a VST 
    Instrument for an instrument slot, a corresponding MIDI track 
    with the name of the instrument is automatically created.
     When you hold down [Alt]/[Option] while selecting a VST In-
    strument for an instrument slot, no MIDI track will be created 
    for the instrument. 
    						
    All Steinberg manuals Comments (0)

    Related Manuals for Steinberg Nuendo 4 Operation Manual