Steinberg Nuendo 3 Getting Started Manual

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List Editor
The List Editor shows MIDI events as a list, allowing you to view and 
edit their properties numerically.
Drum Editor
The Drum Editor is similar to the Key Editor, but takes advantage of 
the fact that with drum parts, each key corresponds to a separate 
drum sound.   
						

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Tempo Track Editor
For each audio and MIDI track, you can specify whether it should use a 
musical or linear Time base. Tempo based tracks follow a tempo, which 
can either be fixed through the whole project or follow the Tempo Track. 
In the Tempo Track Editor you can draw curves that determine how the 
tempo will change over time or record tempo changes in real time.
Time signature events
The tempo curve  
						

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The Mixer
The Mixer is where you mix your audio and MIDI channels, that is, adjust 
the levels (volume), panning, effect sends, EQ, etc. You will also find 
channel strips for the output busses here (as well as input busses and 
a dedicated bus for auditioning functions).
•There are different mixer windows that can be configured to show 
different views of the mixer.
This allows you to e.g. control all audio channels in one window and all VST Instrument 
channels in another.
•Each audio channel in the mixer can carry up to 12 speaker channels.
Surround sound is fully supported in Nuendo; from the input busses via audio mixer 
channels to the output busses.  
						

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Channel Settings
The Channel Settings window is used for adding effects and EQ to 
individual channels. Each mixer channel has its own Channel Settings 
window.
VST Connections
This is where you set up input and output busses – the audio connec-
tions between Nuendo and the inputs and outputs on your audio 
hardware.
Inserts section Equalizer sectionSends section   
						

							8
Tutorial 1: Recording and
playing back audio 
						

							NUENDO8 – 96 Tutorial 1: Recording and playing back audio
About this tutorial
This chapter contains a step-by-step description of how to make a sim-
ple audio recording and play it back. The purpose is for you to try out 
some of the most common recording and playback features. However, 
you should make sure to read the Recording chapter in the Operation 
Manual before doing any “serious” recording, as there are a lot of set-
tings, options and methods that are not mentioned here. 
Before you start
This chapter assumes that:
•You have installed and set up your audio hardware.
•Your audio source (a mixer or tape recorder, for example) is properly 
connected to the inputs of the audio hardware.
•The outputs of the audio hardware are connected to some sort of lis-
tening equipment, allowing you to listen to the recorded audio during 
playback.
•You are monitoring your audio source through Nuendo.
This means that when you are recording, the audio source is sent into Nuendo and then 
back out again to your monitoring equipment. This way of monitoring allows you to ad-
just monitoring levels from within the program, add effects to the monitor signal, etc. 
However, it also requires audio hardware with low latency – otherwise the monitored 
signal will be noticeably delayed.
Even if you find that the latency is too high for monitoring through Nuendo – please bear 
with us through this tutorial! In the Operation Manual you will find other methods for 
monitoring that may suit you better.
•You have launched Nuendo. 
						

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Creating a new project
Before you can start recording, you need a working environment – a 
project:
1.Pull down the File menu and select “New Project”.
A dialog appears, listing a number of project templates for various purposes.
2.Select the “Empty” item in the list and click OK.
A file dialog appears, allowing you to specify a location for the project folder. This will 
contain all files related to the project. 
3.Navigate to the desired location of the project folder, and select it by 
clicking OK, or click “Create” to create and name a new folder.
The project folder is created on disk, and an empty Project window appears.
At this point, you can make various settings for the project, such as 
sample rate, resolution, etc. However, to keep things simple we will 
use the default settings for now.   
						

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The next step is to create an audio track to record on:
4.Pull down the Project menu and select “Add Track”.
A submenu appears, listing the various types of tracks available in Nuendo.
5.Select “Audio”.
In the dialog that appears, you can select the channel configuration for the track – 
mono, stereo or one of several different surround configurations.
6.In this example, set the track to stereo by selecting Stereo from the 
pop-up menu and clicking “OK”.
An empty audio track appears in the Project window.    
						

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Preparing to record
Before you can start recording, there are some preparations to make:
Setting up input and output busses
When you record in Nuendo, the signal passes from the inputs on 
your audio hardware to an input bus in the program. This is where you 
check levels and adjust the sound to be recorded. From the input bus 
the signal is written to an audio file on your hard disk, and sent to the 
track’s channel in the mixer for monitoring etc.
You can have as many input busses as you like, but for this example 
we only need a stereo input bus:
1.Pull down the Devices menu and select “VST Connections”.
The VST Connections window appears. This is where you view, add and set up input 
and output busses.
2.Select the “Inputs” tab by clicking on it.
By default, there is a stereo bus present – if there wasn’t you could easily add one by 
clicking the Add Bus button.
Audio Hardware Sound to be 
recorded
Input bus in NuendoMixer channel for 
the audio track
Audio file on hard disk  
						

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3.Click the “+” button to the left so that the individual inputs in the bus 
are shown.
The Device Port column shows the physical inputs on your audio hardware that are 
used by the bus.
4.Click in the Device Port column for the “Left” channel.
A pop-up menu appears, listing all inputs on your audio hardware.
5.Select the input you want to use for the left channel in the stereo bus.
6.Select the input for the right channel in the same way.
7.Click the “Outputs” tab and set up a stereo output bus in the same way.
This is not strictly required for recording – but you need it for monitoring and for play-
ing back the recording afterwards.
8.Close the VST Connections window and open the Mixer from the 
Devices menu.
This is Nuendo’s Mixer window, used for setting levels, etc. The mixer contains channel 
strips for all tracks in the project and all busses.