Steinberg Nuendo 3 Audio Effects And VSTi Manual

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Loading and saving presets
Full presets are only available for Mixconvert when it is used as an in-
sert effect. When Nuendo automatically places Mixconvert in place of 
a panner, the preset menu displays only presets for the current input/
output configurations.
Presets are selected and managed at the top of the middle section of 
the plug-in interface. The name of the currently selected preset is dis-
played in the text field. Click the symbol next to the text field to open a 
pop-up menu from which you can select a different preset. Which pre-
sets are available from this pop-up menu depends on the downmix op-
tions available for the current input configuration. You save a new set of 
parameters by entering a new name in the text field and selecting Save 
Preset from the pop-up menu that appears when you click the Save 
button. You can save up to 64 presets for every input/output configura-
tion. To delete a user preset, select Delete Preset from the Save pop-
up menu. Note that the factory-defined presets cannot be deleted.
General Notes
Level
The volume of the downmixed signal can be different from the volume 
of the original mix. There are several reasons for this:
•The input signals must be scaled to avoid clipping.
•The number of speakers used influences the overall volume.
•The level of the downmixed signal depends on the correlation of all added sig-
nals, which is why phase shifting can influence the volume level.
LFE channel
The LFE channel is automatically filtered using a low-pass filter. The 
cutoff frequency of this low-pass filter is 120 Hz, the filter slope is 
12 dB/Oct. An LFE channel present in the input configuration, but not 
present in the output configuration, is mixed evenly to the front-left 
and front-right channels since it is assumed that these will be the 
channels using the speakers with the widest frequency range. 
						

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Keyboard shortcuts
The plug-in interface is designed for mouse operation. There are two 
commands for which keyboard shortcuts exist:
•Store Parameter Memory: [M] (for “memory”)
•Toggle Parameters: [S] (for “swap”)
Solo mode
Since there is no dedicated solo bus, all solos are inplace, i.e. all other 
(non-solo) channels are muted.
Functionality and available conversions
The speaker configuration of the input mix (Input Configuration) is 
defined by the width of the channel it is inserted in. It is displayed au-
tomatically. The speaker configuration of the output mix (Output Con-
figuration) is automatically selected when Mixconvert is inserted in the 
panner position of a channel or aux send. If it is used as an insert ef-
fect, the output configuration can be selected either from the corre-
sponding menu or by loading a preset. 
Note, however, that not all theoretically possible combinations are ac-
tually available. Mixconvert is limited to channels with 8 audio paths 
(this means that 10.2 or 8.1 are not supported). In the appendix on 
page 136 you find the tables listing all available and all unavailable 
combinations. 
						

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Brief description of Mixconvert parameters
Parameter name Description
Width Modifies the panorama
- 0% (minimum width)
- 50% (normal width, unaltered)
- 100% (maximum width)
Global Gain Attenuates or increases all channels to compensate for clipping 
or low levels in the converted signal
Surround level Level of the surround channel
LFE level Level of the LFE channel
Center level Level of the front center channel
Phase shift Phase shift of a channel (settings: 0˚, 90˚, 180˚, 270˚), available 
for front and surround left/right. Click once for shifting a further 
90˚. Right-click/[Ctrl]-click to reset to 0˚.
Speaker Click a speaker symbol to set the speaker to mute or solo mode. 
Click once for activating the Solo mode. [Alt]/[Option]-click for 
activating the Mute mode. [Ctrl]/[Command]-click for activating 
the exclusive solo (mute all other channels even if they are also 
solo). Click again on a speaker to reset the channel.
Solo buttonSoloes all front and surround channels
Mute button Mutes all front and surround channels
Output Config Only available when used as insert. Sets the output speaker con-
figuration
Store Memory Temporarily saves the current parameter set
Toggle Memory Toggles between the current and the temporary parameter set
Clear MemoryClears the temporary parameter buffer
Save Preset Saves or deletes the preset specified in the preset text field
Preset pop-up menuLoads a preset 
						

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MixerDelay
The MixerDelay is a tool that allows you to adjust and manipulate each 
individual channel in a surround track, group or bus. Each channel has 
the following controls:
•Level faders allow you to fine-tune the volume balance between the surround 
channels.
•Mute and Solo buttons are useful for listening to individual channels, etc.
•Phase switches let you invert the phase or polarity for individual channels.
•Delay controls allow you to delay individual speaker channels. The delay times 
are shown in milliseconds and centimeters, making this feature very useful for 
distance compensation when playing back surround mixes on different speaker 
setups, etc. 
It is common for the center channel in a 5.1 speaker configuration to be closer to the 
mix position in order to accommodate large video monitors or projection screens. In 
cases like this, Mixerdelay can be used to compensate for the center channel being 
too close. Simply adjust the delay for the center channel by the difference in distance 
(in cm) between it and the other speakers to the mix position. You must delay the 
closer speaker so that the sound from it arrives at the same time as the sound from the 
more distant speakers. Note that Mixerdelay has a wide range (up to 1000ms) and fine 
adjustments are best made by numerically entering the delay time in centimeters for 
speaker alignment. 
						

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•The channel routing section lets you select/switch the desired outputs for the 
channels quickly. You can assign the same output to several channels by hold-
ing down the [Alt]/[Option] key while selecting. Note that there are also several 
channel routing presets available. (Simply click the “Select Presets” button on 
the common panel to open a pop-up menu listing the available presets.)
Finally there is a common panel to the right with global buttons for 
turning off Mute, Solo and Input Phase switches for all channels.
The MixerDelay is not a mixer – the number of outputs is the same as the 
number of inputs. If you need to mix down a surround signal to stereo, 
you should use the Mix6to2, Mix8to2 or Mixconvert plug-ins.
SurroundDither
SurroundDither is not an “effect” as such. Dithering is a method for 
controlling the noise produced by quantization errors in digital record-
ings. The theory behind this is that during low level passages, only a 
few bits are used to represent the signal, which leads to quantization 
errors and hence distortion. For example, when “truncating bits”, as a 
result of moving from 24- to 16-bit resolution, quantization errors are 
added to an otherwise immaculate recording. By adding a special kind 
of noise at an extremely low level, the effect of these errors is mini-
mized. The added noise could be perceived as a very low-level hiss 
under exacting listening conditions. However, this is hardly noticeable 
and much preferred to the distortion that otherwise occurs.  
						

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When should I use SurroundDither?
•Basically anytime you mix down to a lower resolution, either in real-time 
(playback) or with the Export Audio Mixdown function, you should con-
sider dithering.
•Since SurroundDither is capable of dithering up to six channels at the 
same time, it is recommended if you’re using surround channels.
If not, you may want to use the UV22 HR instead, see page 61.
The following options can be set in the SurroundDither control panel:
Dithering Type
There are no hard and fast rules for the following options, it all depends 
on the type of material you are processing. We recommend that you 
experiment and let your ears be the final judge:
Noise Shaping Options (Off, Type 1 - 3)
This parameter alters the character of the noise added when dithering. 
Again, there are no fixed general rules, but you may notice that the 
higher the number selected here, the more the noise is moved out of 
the ear’s most sensitive range, the mid-range.
Ditherbits
This is used to specify the intended bit resolution for the final result. 
•The section has six buttons, one for each channel.
•Above each button there are six corresponding value fields that display 
the bit resolution the files will be converted to. 
Clicking a button several times cycles through the available bit resolution values. 
Option Description
Off No dithering is applied.
Type 1 Try this first, it is the most “all-round” type.
Type 2 This method emphasizes higher frequencies more than Type 1. 
						

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An Example 
Say you have set up a project to record 24-bit files. After completion, 
you want to create a digital 16-bit master for CD burning. Proceed as 
follows:
1.Add SurroundDither to a post fader insert effect slot for the output bus.
I.e. in one of the last two slots.
2.Open the control panel for SurroundDither, and select the Dithering 
and Noise Shaping Type.
3.Set the Ditherbit destination to “16” for all the master mix outputs cur-
rently used, as defined in the VST Connections dialog.
If you are not using Surround channels, this will be Channel 1 and 2.
4.When you now play back the Project, the digital outputs of your audio 
hardware will output the mix with 16-bit resolution, with dithering ap-
plied. 
						

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SurroundPan
The SurroundPan plug-in provides a graphical overview representing 
the speaker arrangement and the sound source, allowing you to dy-
namically position the audio in the surround field.
This plug-in is described in detail in the Operation Manual chapter 
“Surround Sound”.  
						

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Tools
This section describes the plug-ins in the “Tools” category.
MultiScope
The MultiScope can be used for viewing the waveform, phase linearity 
or frequency content of a signal. There are three different modes:
•Oscilloscope (Ampl.)
•Phase Correlator (Scope)
•Frequency Spectrum analyzer (Freq.)
Ampl (Oscilloscope) mode
•To view a signal waveform, open the MultiScope control panel and 
make sure that the button “Ampl.” in the lower left corner is lit.
•If the source signal is stereo you can now select either the Left or Right 
channel for viewing, or Stereo for both channels to be shown in the win-
dow. If it is a Mono signal, this won’t matter. 
						

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•If the MultiScope is used with a multi-channel track or output bus, you 
can select any speaker channel for viewing, or All Channels to view 
them all at once.
•You can now adjust the Amplitude knob to increase/decrease the ver-
tical size of the waveform, and the frequency knob to select the fre-
quency area for viewing.
•The “Freeze” button can be used to freeze the display for all three 
Scope modes.
Click it again to exit freeze mode.
Phase Correlator mode
To select the phase correlator, click the “Scope” button so that it lights 
up. The phase correlator indicates the phase and amplitude relation-
ship between channels in a stereo pair or a surround configuration.
For stereo pairs, the indications work in the following way:
•A vertical line indicates a perfect mono signal (the left and right channels are 
the same).
•A horizontal line indicates that the left channel is the same as the right, but 
with an inverse phase.