Steinberg Nuendo 3 Audio Effects And VSTi Manual

							NUENDO
The included effect plug-ins 1 – 81
Using the Matrix Encoder/Decoder
1.Set up the mix roughly the way you want it.
Use the Surround Panner to place channels in the Surround mix, or assign channels to 
the individual LRCS outputs.
2.Activate the Matrix Encoder.
What you now hear is the encoded stereo mix, the way it will sound when played back 
on a normal stereo reproducer. If you open the Matrix Encoder control panel you can 
adjust the Gain of the Lt/Rt output by using the fader.
3.Activate the Matrix Decoder, open the control panel and click on the 
Steering “On” button.
Now you can hear how the mix will be reproduced in surround on a Pro Logic compat-
ible system. 
•The “Steering” display shows a ball within the LRCS axis. The position 
of this ball indicates the dominant direction of the mix, sometimes re-
ferred to as the “dominance vector”. Part of the processing that is ap-
plied, for various technical reasons, results in the dominant channel 
being enhanced and the non-dominant channels being reduced in gain.
4.By switching the Matrix Decoder “Bypass” button on and off, you can 
compare the decoded mix with the encoded stereo mix, and make ad-
justments in the Mixer as necessary.
The main goal is to produce a mix that sounds good in both the encoded and the de-
coded version. If you wish to compare the encoded or decoded mix with the unproc-
essed mix, you should switch off both the Matrix Encoder and the Decoder.
The encoding/decoding process will produce significant signal loss com-
pared to the unprocessed mix. This is normal, and does not indicate that 
something isn’t working properly. You can however, with careful tweaking 
of the mix decrease the signal degradation to a much more acceptable 
level. You have to adjust levels and other settings before the Matrix En-
coder, neither the encoder or decoder can “control” the mix in any way. 
						

							NUENDO
1 – 82 The included effect plug-ins
5.When you are satisfied with the result, Bypass the Matrix Decoder, or 
remove it from its effect slot.
6.Connect a master recording device to the stereo mix output and per-
form a mixdown as usual.
The resulting encoded stereo mix will now be compatible with common home systems 
that use the Pro Logic standard.
Using the Matrix Encoder with the 5.0 surround format
There are situations when you may want to mix for several Surround 
formats. For example, you might need to mix the same material for 5.1 
and one for LRCS.
5.1 is similar to LRCS. Omitting the LFE channel is easy, but more of 
a problem is that LRCS only has one Surround Channel whereas 5.1 
has two.
For this reason there are two Surround Channels in the Matrix Encoder, 
making a total of 5 Channels. This is meant to be used in conjunction 
with the 5.0 surround format. Proceed as follows.
1.Create your mix for 5.1.
2.Create an output bus with the “5.0” speaker arrangement, in the VST 
Connections window, and route it to the physical outputs on your au-
dio hardware.
3.Run the mix through the Matrix Encoder.
Now, the two Surround channels will first be merged together to make 
the mix compatible with LRCS. Then the four resulting signals will be 
encoded as usual. This will require much fewer adjustment when mov-
ing between 5.1 and LRCS.
Using the Matrix Decoder with the 5.0 surround format
The Matrix Decoder also has five channels. This is for similar reasons. 
Normally two surround speakers are used even when playing back 
LRCS. The two speakers then simply use the same material. The Ma-
trix decoder simulates this by delivering the Surround channel to two 
outputs. This allows you to move between formats and listening situa-
tions with less repatching of speaker channels. 
						

							NUENDO
The included effect plug-ins 1 – 83
Matrix Encoder
The Matrix Encoder is intended for Pro Logic compatible encoding of 
multichannel files. This is a process where a 4 channel Surround mix is 
“packed” into two channels for broadcasting or distribution on video 
tape, for example. The Matrix Encoder takes four separate inputs; left, 
right, center, and surround (LRCS), and creates two final outputs, left-
total and right-total (Lt and Rt). 
						

							NUENDO
1 – 84 The included effect plug-ins
Mix6To2
The Mix6To2 effect allows you to control the levels of up to six surround 
channels, and to mix these down to a stereo output. The pop-up menu 
contains a number of speaker arrangement presets that correspond to 
some default surround formats. The Mix6To2 lets you quickly mix down 
your surround mix format to stereo, and to include parts of the surround 
channels in the resulting mix.
•Note that Mix6To2 does not simulate a surround mix or add any psy-
cho-acoustical artifacts to the resulting output – it is simply a mixer. 
Also note that the Mix6To 2 should be placed in one of the post fader 
insert effect slots for the output bus.
Each of the surround channels has the following parameters:
•Two volume faders that govern the levels of the surround bus to the left and 
right side of the (master) bus.
•A Link button that links the two volume faders.
•Two Invert buttons allow you to invert the phase of the left and right side of the 
surround bus.
The Master bus has the following parameters:
•A Link button that links the two Master faders.
•A Normalize button. If activated, the mixed output will be normalized, i.e. the 
output level will automatically be adjusted so that the loudest signal is as loud 
as possible without clipping.  
						

							NUENDO
The included effect plug-ins 1 – 85
Mix8To2
The Mix8To2 effect allows you to control the levels of up to eight sur-
round channels, and to mix these down to a stereo output. The pop-
up menu contains a number of speaker arrangement presets that cor-
respond to some default surround formats. The Mix8To2 allows you to 
quickly mix down your surround mix format to stereo, and to include 
parts of the surround channels in the resulting mix.
•Note that the Mix8To2 does not simulate a surround mix or add any 
psycho-acoustical artifacts to the resulting output – it is simply a mixer.
•Also note that the Mix8To 2 should be placed in one of the post fader 
insert effect slots for the output bus.
Each of the surround channels have the following parameters:
•Two volume faders that govern the levels of the surround bus to the left and 
right side of the (master) bus.
•A Link button that links the two volume faders.
•Two Invert buttons allow you to invert the phase of the left and right side of the 
surround bus.
The Master bus has the following parameters:
•A Link button that links the two Master faders.
•A Normalize button that will normalize the mixed output if activated.
Normalize is a function for controlling the overall loudness of the output. When this is 
activated, the level of the mixed output will be boosted to exactly 0dB. 
						

							NUENDO
1 – 86 The included effect plug-ins
Mixconvert
The Mixconvert plug-in is similar to the Mix6To2 and Mix8To2 plug-ins 
in that it is used to quickly convert a multichannel mix into another for-
mat that uses less channels when used as insert (for example convert-
ing a 5.1 surround mix to a stereo mix). Mixconvert can convert 
surround mixes into other surround formats such as mixing a 7.1 Cin-
ema surround format down to a 5.1 home theater format.
There are several obvious applications for this:
•Auditioning what an automatically generated downmix will sound like at the 
customer’s location.
•Quickly generating an additional mix that uses a different number of channels 
or a different speaker configuration.
•Outputting several mix configurations simultaneously in various surround for-
mats for broadcast purposes.
Users can use presets with standard upmix/downmix setups for spe-
cific configurations. It is possible to save up to 64 user-defined pre-
sets for each input/output configuration.
Mixconvert is unique as a plug-in since it is used automatically by 
Nuendo in certain situations (like SurroundPanner). Nuendo will sub-
stitute Mixconvert for the panner in either the main channel or in the 
aux send panner position when an upmix or a downmix is needed. 
These are the possible scenarios:  
						

							NUENDO
The included effect plug-ins 1 – 87
•Whenever a multichannel audio track (more than three audio paths), group 
channel or FX channel is routed to an output bus or group channel with a dif-
ferent number of audio paths (e.g. 5.1 to stereo), a Mixconvert plug-in will be 
inserted in place of the panner in that channel.
•Whenever a multichannel audio track, group channel, FX channel or Output 
bus has an aux send that is routed to a Group channel or Output bus with a 
different number of audio paths, a Mixconvert plug-in will be inserted in place 
of the aux send’s panner.
Indicates that Mixconvert is 
inserted in place of the panner.
Indicates that Mixconvert is inserted 
in the aux send panner position.   
						

							NUENDO
1 – 88 The included effect plug-ins
Interface
Overview
The plug-in’s interface has three different sections. On the left you 
find the input Configuration display with all parameters that directly af-
fect the input configuration. In the middle section the level parameters 
for the upmix/downmix are displayed. Above this, the preset controls 
can be found. On the right the output configuration is displayed with 
all parameters that affect the output configuration. Additionally, on the 
far left there is a gain fader.
The following sections explain all controls in detail. Note that when 
you move the mouse pointer over a control, a tooltip is displayed at 
the bottom of the MixConvert window.
Global Gain fader
Gain depends on the input signal, the number of loudspeakers and a 
number of downmix parameters (see page 91). You can use this fader 
to globally adjust gain by ±12 dB for all channels.
Max Output Level
This field shows the maximum output level. The LED display on the 
right hand side of the field indicates whether this maximum level is 
above 0 dB (clipping). Click the LED to reset the value field and the in-
dicator.
Input Configuration
The Input Configuration is determined by the channel width of the 
track, group or output bus Mixconvert is inserted in. 
Output Configuration
The Output Configuration can only be modified when used as an insert 
effect. When Nuendo automatically replaces the panner by Mixconvert, 
the Output configuration is determined by the destination of the chan-
nel or aux send. When used as an insert effect, the Output configura-
tion can be changed either directly in the pop-up menu above the 
Output Configuration display or indirectly by loading a preset. 
						

							NUENDO
The included effect plug-ins 1 – 89
Faders for Surround, Center and LFE
These faders control the levels for the surround channels, front center 
channel and LFE channel in the upmix/downmix. The surround chan-
nels cannot be modified individually. For center and surround chan-
nels, the level can be changed between -∞ and +6 dB. For the LFE 
channel it can be changed between -∞ and +10 dB, since in some 
mixes the LFE channel may be attenuated by 10 dB (see page 91). 
The names Surround, Center and LFE refer to the corresponding 
channels in the Input Configuration.
Solo and Mute buttons
Using the Solo and Mute buttons (on the left of the Input Configuration 
and the right of the Downmix Configuration sections) you can mute or 
solo all front or surround channels simultaneously (see page 92).
Soloing or muting individual speakers
If you want to solo or mute a single loudspeaker in the Input Configura-
tion or Output Configuration displays, you can click on it. Simply click-
ing will solo the channel. When you hold down the [Alt]/[Option] key 
while clicking, the channel will be muted. Holding down the [Ctrl]/[Com-
mand] key while clicking will also mute all channels currently in solo 
mode. Clicking again (without a modifier key) will reset the channel.
Phase shift
You can shift the phase of the front left/right channels and the sur-
round left/right channels in steps of 90˚. Clicking the button once will 
increase the phase by a further 90˚. You can reset the phase value by 
right-clicking (Windows) or [Ctrl]-clicking (Mac) on the button.
Phase shifting can be used for various purposes. In a downmix from 2 
channels to 1 channel it may be useful to introduce a 90° phase shift 
on one channel to avoid level increases in the downmix signal (caused 
by frequencies present in both channels). Also, phase shifts can be 
used to create “virtual” reverberation by cancelling all center informa-
tion, leaving the resulting ambience. 
						

							NUENDO
1 – 90 The included effect plug-ins
As a general rule, you should be careful when using phase shifts, as 
they might have negative repercussions on the frequency spectrum and 
the level of the downmix. Also, when you generate matrixed downmixes, 
you should avoid introducing additional phase shifts, since these would 
prevent the decoding of the mix for different speaker configurations.
Toggling between parameter sets
You can use the Memory, Toggle and Clear buttons to toggle be-
tween two different sets of downmix parameters, for direct compari-
son. Click the Memory button to write all current parameters to the 
temporary parameter buffer. This buffer is cleared when clicking the 
Clear button. Using the Toggle button, you can switch between the 
buffered parameter set and the (changed) current parameter set. Note 
that here the Output Configuration is not a parameter, but must be 
identical for both parameter sets.
Modifying the width
The front and back Width controls are used to set the width of the au-
dible panorama. At minimal width (0%) the panorama is very narrow. 
In most cases, the default setting will be 50%. The 50% setting re-
sults in unaltered signals. Values above 50% will create an artificial 
widening of the panorama; similar to phase shifting. You should be 
careful when modifying the panorama width when you want to gener-
ate matrixed downmixes. 
Drag the Width controls (the colored lines at the top and bottom of 
the input Configuration display) to set the width. You can also click on 
the name of the control to open a pop-up menu from which you can 
select set values (0%, 25%, 50% and 100%).
Any signals that are equally in either the surround channels or the main 
left and right channels will be completely out of phase (180°) when the 
width parameter is set to 100%. This will cause those signals to be com-
pletely cancelled when played over a mono system, such as AM radio 
broadcast or mono television. Always check for mono compatibility with 
mixes that are to be broadcast.