Steinberg Nuendo 5 Manual

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Control Room
•In the Project Mixer, the Studio Sends are accessed by 
choosing the Studio Sends option from the View options 
pop-up menu in each channel or by clicking the star icon 
(“Show Studio Sends”) on the common panel of the ex
-
tended Project Mixer.
The Studio Sends view in the Project Mixer
•In the Inspector, a Studio Sends tab can be found. This 
displays all Studio Sends for the selected track.
Please note that not all Inspector sections are available by default. To 
show/hide a section, right-click on an Inspector section and select/dese
-lect the corresponding option on the context menu.
The Studio Sends tab in the Inspector
Each Studio can have a unique name in order to help 
identify what it is being used for. For example, the four 
Studios could be named as follows:
• Vocalist Mix
• Guitarist Mix
•Bassist Mix
• Drummer’s Mix
The name of each Studio is displayed in the Control Room 
Mixer. To hear the Studio Sends mix in the Studio output, 
the input selector for each Studio must be set to “Aux”.
Setting up a Studio cue mix
The Studio Sends are very flexible. There are several ways 
to create a cue mix for each Studio in a very fast and effi
-
cient manner. Simple “more me” mixes and more complex 
discrete mixes are easily accommodated by the Studio 
Sends.
Using fader and pan settings from the Project Mixer
You can create a cue mix from the fader and pan levels al-
ready used in the Project Mixer and then alter them to 
meet the needs of an individual performer. You can do this 
with any single channel or group of channels at any time. 
A Studio channel in 
the Control Room 
Mixer with its input 
set to Aux. 
						

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Control Room
To copy fader and pan information from the main mix, pro-
ceed as follows:
1.In the Project Mixer, select all the channels that you 
wish to copy settings from.
The following operations affect only selected channels.
2.In the Control Room Mixer, right-click anywhere on a 
Studio channel strip to open the context menu that has the 
Studio’s name as a submenu.
This submenu contains all the Studio Send functions for that Studio. If 
you open the context menu outside of a Studio channel strip, the sub-
menu will be for All Studios. 
The Control Room Mixer’s context menu
3.Choose the “Use Current Mix Levels” option to copy 
the fader levels on the selected tracks to the Studio 
Sends.
This option sets all Studio Send levels for the selected tracks to the 
same level as the main channel fader. It also changes the Studio Send 
status to pre-fader so that changes in the main mix do not affect the Stu
-
dio Sends.
4.Choose the “Use Current Pan Settings” option to 
copy pan information from the main mix to the Studio 
Sends on selected tracks.
Studio Sends are either mono or stereo. If the Send is mono, the pan 
setting will still be copied. However, the output of the Studio Send will 
be a sum of the left and right channels.
5.Choose the “Enable Studio Sends” option to activate 
the Sends on selected channels.
By default, Studio Sends are not enabled even when level and pan infor-
mation is copied to them. You must enable them in order to hear the Stu-
dio cue mix.
By copying the level and pan information from the main 
mix to the Studio Sends, a rough balance can be created 
in a matter of moments. Next, you may alter the level and 
pan settings on any channel’s Studio Sends to change the 
mix to meet the performer’s needs. This may require in
-
creasing the volume of the performer herself. This is often 
referred to as a “more me” mix.
Adjusting the overall Studio Send level
Levels in the main mix are often optimized for the loudest 
signal level possible without clipping. However, when you 
are creating a “more me” mix, you may find that there is not 
enough headroom available in the Studio Send to turn up 
channels without clipping becoming a possibility.
Fortunately, the Studio Sends have an option to adjust 
multiple send levels at the same time, allowing you to keep 
the blend intact while lowering the overall volume to make 
room for “more me” signals.
Once you have created a Studio Send mix, proceed as 
follows to adjust their relative levels:
1.Select all the channels you wish to modify.
Only selected channels are affected by the context menu commands.
2.Right-click anywhere on the Studio channel strip in the 
Control Room Mixer to open the context menu for that 
Studio channel. 
You may also use the context menu outside of the Studio channel strip to 
adjust all four Studio Sends on the selected channels at the same time.
3.Choose the “Change Studio Sends Level” option from 
the Studio submenu.
This will bring up a gain window with a checkbox that reads “Relative 
Mode”. Make sure this is activated if you want to adjust already existing 
levels.
4.Either use the up and down arrow buttons or click on 
the numeric readout to open a pop-up fader and adjust 
the gain as necessary.
The level of all selected Studio Sends will be adjusted by the amount 
shown here. For example, if the amount reads -3
 dB, each Studio Send 
level is reduced by 3 dB.
5.Click OK to change the level.
It is possible to view these changes as they occur if you have the Project 
Mixer open and the extended view set to show the Studio Sends. 
						

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Control Room
Using Studio Sends from outputs
Each output also has Studio Sends. Studio Sends from 
the Main Mix output can be used to route the main mix in
-
stantly to the Studio output. 
Any level changes made to the main mix are reflected in 
the signal sent by the Studio Send. Setting the level lower 
than 0
 dB can leave headroom for “more me” signals in the 
Studio channel output.
Post-Fader Studio Sends
It is also possible to use the Studio Sends as post-fader 
aux sends. This is another way for the cue mix to follow 
changes made to the Main Mix. The Reset function is very 
helpful in this regard.
To reset the Studio Sends to the post-fader default level 
of -6
 dB, proceed as follows:
1.Select all the channels you wish to reset.
Studio Send commands only work on selected channels.
2.On the Studio channel strip right-click to open the 
context menu. In the Studio submenu, select the “Reset 
Studio Sends” command.
If you open the context menu in other areas of the Control Room Mixer 
besides the Studio channel strips, the context menu commands will af-
fect all Studios at the same time.
3.Selecting the “Reset Studio Sends” option changes 
the Send level of all selected channels to -6
 dB and sets 
the signal source to post-fader.
The -6 dB level is designed to allow for headroom for “more me” signals 
in the Studio outputs.
Once all Studio Sends have been set to -6 dB, post-fader, 
any changes to the main mix will also change the Studio 
mix. For “more me” channels, simply turn up the level on 
that channel or even set the signal to pre-fader for abso
-
lute control.
Studio Send cue mix summary
Using various combinations of the above techniques al-
lows you to create complex discrete cue mixes for per-
formers in very little time. Modifications to these mixes can 
occur in the Project Mixer or the Inspector, giving you the 
most accessibility for quick changes.
To familiarize yourself with how the Studio Sends work, 
open the extended Project Mixer and set the view to the 
Studio Sends. Follow the above examples and watch how 
the Studio Sends react to various commands. This should 
help you get a feel for how they function and increase the 
workflow productivity of recording sessions.
The Control Room Overview
You can access the Control Room Overview from the De-
vices menu. The Control Room Overview is designed to 
display the current configuration of the Control Room. The 
window shows all possible channels, with active channels 
highlighted once they have been created in the VST Con
-
nections window. Channels that are grayed out have not 
been defined in the VST Connections window.
!If you deactivate the Relative Mode option, all Studio 
Sends are set to the same absolute level. While the 
dialog window is still open, you may activate the Rel-
ative Mode checkbox again and reload the previous 
relative levels. Only when you click OK, the level set-
tings are made permanent. Clicking Cancel returns 
all send levels to their previous settings. 
						

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Control Room
The Control Room Overview allows you to see the signal 
flow through the Control Room Mixer. All the routing func
-
tions of the Control Room Mixer are duplicated in the 
Overview.
Open the Control Room Mixer and the Control Room Over-
view windows side by side. As you operate the controls in 
the Mixer you will see the various pale squares light up in 
the Overview, indicating changes in signal flow. You can 
also click the squares in the Overview and watch the con
-
trols in the Mixer reflect the changes in signal flow.
Direct Monitoring and latency
The Control Room and Studio Sends functions use the in-
ternal processing power of the host computer system for 
all routing and processing, which means they are subject 
to the computer’s latency.
When recording with several performers at once, a system 
capable of running at very low ASIO buffer settings will be 
necessary to take full advantage of all the Studio Send 
features. 
Studio Sends are not capable of controlling the Direct 
Monitoring features of various audio hardware interfaces. 
This means that unless the internal latency of the system is 
very low (128 samples or less), monitoring of record-en
-
abled tracks through the Studio Sends will have some de-
lay that can affect performers during recording.
In the situation where internal latency is too much for 
record monitoring, it is advisable to use the Studio Sends 
for monitoring of tracks that have already been recorded 
and use normal Direct Monitoring for tracks currently be
-
ing recorded. 
						

							15
Audio effects 
						

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Audio effects
About this chapter
Nuendo comes with a number of effect plug-ins included. 
This chapter contains general details about how to assign, 
use and organize effect plug-ins. The effects and their pa
-
rameters are described in the separate PDF document 
“Plug-in Reference”.
Overview
There are three ways to use audio effects in Nuendo:
•As insert effects.
An insert effect is inserted into the signal chain of an audio channel, which 
means that the whole channel signal passes through the effect. This makes 
inserts suitable for effects for which you do not need to mix dry and wet 
sound, e.
 g. distortion, filters or other effects that change the tonal or dy-
namic characteristics of the sound. You can have up to eight different in-
sert effects per channel (and the same is true for input and output busses 
– for recording with effects and “master effects”, respectively).
•As send effects.
Each audio channel has eight sends, each of which can be freely routed 
to an effect (or to a chain of effects). Send effects are practical for two 
reasons: you can control the balance between the dry (direct) and wet 
(processed) sound individually for each channel using the sends, and 
several different audio channels can use the same send effect. In Nu
-
endo, send effects are handled by means of FX channel tracks. 
•By using offline processing.
You can apply effects directly to individual audio events – this is de-
scribed in the chapter “Audio processing and functions” on page 263.
About VST 3 
The new VST 3 plug-in standard offers many improve-
ments over the previous VST 2 standard, yet retains full 
backwards compatibility, i.
 e. you will still be able to use 
your previous VST effects and presets.
In the program, effects compatible with previous VST ver-
sions will be easily recognized:
Nuendo is able to run plug-ins originally developed for dif-
ferent platforms: you can use a 32-bit plug-in under Win-
dows Vista/Windows 7 64 bit, and you can use plug-ins 
developed for Mac PPC on Mac Intel systems.
As the use of 32-bit plug-ins on 64-bit computers affects 
the computer performance, these will be marked by an 
icon in the plug-in menus.
ÖPlease note that this functionality is provided to allow 
you to load older projects including their original plug-ins 
on current computers. However, the plug-ins will require 
higher CPU performance when compared to their native 
platform. Therefore, it is recommended to use 64 bit ver
-
sions or Mac Intel (Universal Binary) versions of such 
plug-ins or instruments once available.
VST preset management
From a user perspective, the main difference between 
VST
 2 and VST 3 is in the effect preset management. The 
FXP/FXB files used in VST 2 have been replaced by 
VST
 3 Presets (extension “.vstpreset”). Using the preset 
management features, you can assign various attributes to 
your effect presets to help you quickly find the right patch. 
You can also preview effect presets before you load them. 
A large number of presets for effects are included with the 
program. If you have any previous VST plug-ins installed 
on your computer, you can still use them, and you can also 
convert their programs to VST 3 presets, see 
“Effect pre-
sets” on page 209.
Smart plug-in processing
Another feature of the VST3 standard is “smart” plug-in 
processing. Previously, any loaded plug-in was processing 
continuously, regardless of whether a signal was present 
or not. In VST3, processing by a plug-in can be disen
-
gaged if there is no signal present. This can greatly reduce 
the CPU load, thus allowing for more effects to be used. 
This is achieved by activating the “Suspend VST3 plug-in 
processing when no audio signals are received” option in 
the Preferences dialog (VST–Plug-ins page).
When this is activated, VST 3 plug-ins will not consume 
CPU power on silent passages, i.
 e. when no audio data 
runs through them.
!This chapter describes audio effects, i. e. effects that 
are used to process audio, group, VST instrument 
and ReWire channels. 
An effect compatible 
with a previous VST 
versionA VST 3 effect 
						

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Audio effects
However, be aware that this can lead to a situation where 
you added more plug-ins on “transport stop” than the sys
-
tem can handle on playback. Therefore, you should always 
find the passage with the largest number of events playing 
simultaneously to make sure that your system offers the 
required performance.
ÖActivating this option can increase your system perfor-
mance a lot in certain projects, but it also makes it more 
unpredictable whether the project can play back fine on 
any timecode position of the project. 
About side-chain inputs
Several VST3 effects feature side-chain inputs. This means 
that the operation of the effect can be controlled via exter
-
nal signals routed to the side-chain input. The effect pro-
cessing is still applied to the main audio signal, see “Using 
the side-chain input” on page 207.
About plug-in delay compensation
A plug-in effect may have some inherent delay or latency. 
This means that it takes a brief time for the plug-in to pro
-
cess the audio fed into it – as a result, the output audio 
will be slightly delayed. This especially applies to dynam
-
ics processors featuring “look-ahead” functionality. 
Nuendo provides full plug-in delay compensation through-
out the entire audio path. All plug-in delays are compen-
sated for, maintaining the sync and timing of all audio 
channels.
Normally, you do not have to make any settings for this. 
However, VST3 dynamics plug-ins with look-ahead func
-
tionality have a “Live” button, allowing you to disengage 
the look-ahead to minimize latency, if they are to be used 
during realtime recording (see the separate PDF docu
-
ment “Plug-in Reference”).
You can also constrain the delay compensation, which is 
useful to avoid latency when recording audio or playing a 
VST instrument in real time, see 
“Constrain Delay Com-
pensation” on page 225.
About tempo sync
Plug-ins can receive timing and tempo information from 
the host application (in this case, Nuendo). Typically, this 
is used to synchronize certain plug-in parameters (such as 
modulation rates or delay times) to the project tempo.
•This information is automatically provided to any VST 
plug-in (2.0 or later) that “requests it”.
You do not have to make any special settings for this.
•You set up tempo sync by specifying a base note value. 
You can use straight, triplet or dotted note values (1/1 to 1/32).
Please refer to the separate PDF document “Plug-in Ref-
erence” for details about the included effects.
Insert effects
Background
As the name implies, insert effects are inserted into the 
audio signal path – this means that the audio channel data 
will be routed through the effect. You can add up to eight 
different insert effects independently for each audio-re
-
lated channel (audio track, group channel track, FX chan-
nel track, VST instrument channel or ReWire channel) or 
bus. The signal passes through the effects in series from 
the top downwards, with the signal path shown below:
Input gain
Insert effect 1
Insert effect 2
Insert effect 3
Insert effect 6
EQ
Volume (fader)
Insert effect 7
Insert effect 8
Insert effect 4
Insert effect 5 
						

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Audio effects
As you can see, the last two insert slots (for any channel) 
are post-EQ and post-fader. Post-fader slots are best 
suited for insert effects where you do not want the level to 
be changed after the effect, such as dithering (see 
“Dith-
ering” on page 201) and maximizers – both typically used 
as insert effects for output busses.
ÖApplying several effects on several channels may be 
too much for your CPU to handle! If you want to use the 
same effect with the same settings on several channels, it 
may be more efficient to set up a group channel and to ap
-
ply your effect only once, as a single insert for this group. 
You can use the VST Performance window to keep an eye 
on the CPU load.
Routing an audio channel or bus through 
insert effects
Insert effect settings are available in the Mixer (in extended 
mode), the Channel Settings window and the Inspector. 
The examples below show the Channel Settings window, 
but the procedures are the same for all the inserts sections:
1.Bring up the Channel Settings window.
By default, the inserts are located to the far left.
2.Pull down the effect type pop-up menu for one of the 
insert slots, and select an effect.
The effect is loaded and automatically activated and its 
control panel opens. You can open or close the control 
panel for an effect by clicking the “e” button for the insert 
slot.
•If the effect has a dry/wet Mix parameter, you can use 
this to adjust the balance between the dry signal and the 
effect signal.
See “Editing effects” on page 208 for details about editing effects.
•To remove an effect, pull down the effect type pop-up 
menu and select “No Effect”.
To reduce the CPU load, do this for all effects that you do not intend to 
use.
•You can add up to 8 insert effects per channel this way.
•You can reorder the effects by clicking in the area above 
the name field and dragging the effect onto another slot.
•You can copy an effect into another effect slot (for the 
same channel or between channels) by holding down [Ctrl]/
[Command] and dragging it onto another effect slot.
•You can apply or remove an effect to or from all the se-
lected channels at once by holding down [Shift]-[Alt]/[Op-
tion] and selecting the desired effect from any of the effect 
slots.
Deactivating vs. bypassing
If you want to listen to the track without having it pro-
cessed by a particular effect, but do not want to remove 
this effect completely from the insert slot, you can either 
deactivate or bypass it.
Deactivating means to terminate all processing, whereas 
bypassing means to play back only the unprocessed origi
-
nal signal – a bypassed effect is still processing in the 
background. Bypassing allows for crackle-free comparison 
of the original (“dry”) and the processed (“wet”) signal.
•To deactivate an effect, click the blue button on the left 
above the insert slot.
If you hold down [Shift]-[Alt]/[Option] when clicking the button, you acti-
vate or deactivate this effect slot for all selected channels.
•To bypass an effect, click its Bypass button (the middle 
button above the insert slot).
When an effect is bypassed, this button is yellow.
This effect is activated, and its control 
panel is open.
This insert effect is bypassed. 
						

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Audio effects
•To bypass all inserts for a track, click the global bypass 
button. 
This button can be found at the top of the Inserts section in the Inspector 
or the Channel Settings window. It lights up in yellow to indicate that the 
inserts of this track are bypassed. In the track list and the channel strip in 
the Mixer, the Inserts State button will also light up in yellow.
Insert effects in the channel overview
If the “Channel” section is selected in the Inspector or the 
“Channel Overview” view mode is selected in the extended 
Mixer, you will get an overview of which insert effects, EQ 
modules and effect sends are activated for the channel.
You can activate or deactivate individual insert effect slots 
by clicking the corresponding number (in the top part of 
the overview).
The channel overview in the Inspector
Using effects in multi-channel configurations
Whether an effect plug-in supports mono, stereo, or multi-
channel processing depends on the capabilities of the cor
-
responding plug-in. Regardless of this, all VST2 and VST3 
plug-ins can be inserted on tracks with a multi-channel 
configuration. Surround-capable plug-ins are applied to all 
speaker channels (or a subset of these), while mono or ste
-
reo effects can only process one or two channels.
For example, if you insert a plug-in on a 5.1 track, Nuendo 
tries to apply a 5.1 configuration to this plug-in. If the plug-
in is surround capable, this is accepted. However, if you in
-
sert a stereo insert effect, the first speaker channels of the 
track (L and R) are routed through the effect’s available 
channels, and the other channels of the track are left un
-
processed.
Setting up the channel configuration for the plug-in
Even though many plug-ins can be applied to several or all 
speaker channels in a surround configuration, this may not 
always be what you want. For example, you might want to 
apply a compression plug-in only to the Center channel in 
a 5.1 mix or apply reverb to everything except the LFE 
channel.
Nuendo offers you all the flexibility you need. From a pop-
up menu in the plug-in panel you can choose a setup with 
less channels, and you can also modify the effect routing 
manually in the Routing Editor.
On the Effect Routing pop-up menu you can change the channel 
configuration of the plug-in.
The first entry (default) is always identical with the channel 
configuration of the track. Below this you will find all pos
-
sible channel subsets of the default configuration that are 
supported by Nuendo. 
ÖNot all plug-ins support all the channel configurations 
offered by Nuendo. If you select a configuration that is not 
supported by a plug-in, it will automatically chooses a dif
-
ferent configuration.
The blue color of inserts 1 and 2 and the 
blue Inserts State button in the channel strip 
indicate that this track has active inserts. 
						

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Audio effects
Using the Routing Editor
If the Effect Routing pop-up menu does not contain the 
configuration that you need, you can use the Routing Editor. 
It allows you to freely set up the routing for the individual 
channels. For example, if you want to apply an effect only to 
the right speaker, you can choose the Mono configuration 
from the pop-up menu and use the Routing Editor to move 
the connection from the left speaker (L) to the right (R).
•To open the Routing Editor, select “Open Routing Edi-
tor…” on the Effect Routing pop-up menu for the plug-in 
in question.
The columns in the diagram represent the channels in the 
current configuration, with signals passing from top to 
bottom. The gray field in the middle represents the actual 
effect plug-in.
• The squares above the effect represent inputs to the effect 
plug-in.
• The squares below the effect represent outputs from the ef-
fect plug-in.
• A line that passes through the effect (with no square input/
output indicators) represent a bypass connection – the audio 
on that speaker channel passes the effect without being pro
-
cessed.
• A “broken” line indicates a broken connection – the audio on 
that speaker channel will not be sent to the output at all.
Here, the effect will process the L and R channels. The Ls, Rs, and C 
channels are not processed, while the Lfe connection is broken.
Operations
You can change the input/output assignment of the chan-
nels by moving connections to the left or right. To do this, 
use the arrow buttons to the right.
•The upper arrow buttons move the input connections, 
and the lower arrow buttons move the output connections.
If the Link checkbox is activated, the input and output connections are al-
ways moved together. This is the mode to use when you simply want to 
process other channels than the default.
•If you move inputs or outputs independently, you create 
a “cross-connection”.
The audio on the Ls-Rs channels is processed in the plug-in and output 
on the L-R channels. Since the L-R channels are bypassed, this means 
the final L-R output will contain both the original L-R signals and the 
processed Ls-Rs signals.
•If a channel is bypassed (a straight line is shown through 
the plug-in), you can click on the line to break the connec
-
tion.
Click again to replace the broken connection with a bypass.
•Clicking Reset takes you back to the original setup.
ÖChanges you make in this window are audible immedi-
ately.
Insert Routing in the Channel Settings window
You can also open the Routing Editor via the Channel 
Settings window of the audio track on which the plug-in is 
inserted. To do so, make sure that the Insert Routing sec
-
tion is shown (via the Customize View submenu of the 
window’s context menu). You can then double-click on 
the signal diagram to open the Routing Editor.