Steinberg Nuendo 3 Getting Started Manual

							15
Tutorial 8: Arranging with the
play order function 
						

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About this tutorial
This tutorial describes how you can arrange projects using the play or-
der function. The Play order allows you to work with parts and events 
in a non-linear fashion. Instead of moving, copying and pasting events 
in the Project window event display to create a linear project, you can 
define how different sections are to be played back, like a “playlist”.
You start by creating a play order track. On this track you can draw 
play order parts that define time line regions, or “zones” in the current 
project. Parts can be added to a play order list where you can specify 
how many times an event is to be repeated and in what order events 
should be played. 
This offers a different and more pattern-oriented way of working which 
complements the usual linear editing methods in the Project window. 
When you have created a play order list that you like, you have the op-
tion of “flattening” the list, which creates a normal linear project accord-
ing to the play order list and removes the play order track. 
						

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Setting up
This tutorial is also based on an existing file, included on the Nuendo 
DVD. 
•Below, we assume that you have followed the previous tutorial and cop-
ied the “Tutorial Projects” folder to your hard drive.
If not, please see page 122. 
•Open the folder “Tutorial Projects” on your hard disk and double click 
on the file “Tutorial 8.npr”.
Whether file extensions are shown or not depends on the settings for your operating 
system.
The “Tutorial 8” project opens in Nuendo. Again, the project uses the 
same basic loops as used in the previous tutorials. It contains four au-
dio tracks and one MIDI track which is connected to the LM-7 VST In-
strument.
Adding the Play Order track
The first step is to create a play order track:
1.Select “Play Order” from the Project menu “Add Track” submenu.
A play order track is added. There can be only one play order track in a project.
2.On the Project window toolbar, make sure Snap is activated, with the 
Grid resolution set to Bar.
This means that you can create events of exact bar lengths.   
						

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Creating play order parts
In this section, we shall draw some play order parts on the play order 
track. 
1.Select the Pencil tool on the toolbar.
Now, let’s define a two bar “zone” by drawing a play order part.
2.On the play order track, use the Pencil tool to draw a 2 bar part from 
the beginning of bar 3 to the end of bar 4.
A play order part is added, by default this is named “A”. Any consecutive parts you add 
will be named in alphabetical order. You can rename play order parts, but for now let’s 
keep the default names.
•Do not double-click play order parts at this stage. This would add the 
part to the play order list which is described later.   
						

							NUENDOTutorial 8: Arranging with the play order function 15 – 195
3.Using the same method, first draw a one bar part between the start 
and end of bar 1, then a second one bar part between the start and 
end of bar 7.
You should now have three play order parts: A, B and C. On the time line, B is placed 
first, A is second and C is last.
Up until now, we have added play order parts of exact bar lengths. 
We will now add three new parts that are shorter than a bar:
4.On the Project window toolbar, set the Grid resolution to “Beat”.
This means that you can draw parts in beat increments. As the time signature is 4/4, 
there are 4 beats to a bar.
5.Click and hold anywhere on the play order track with the Pencil tool.
There should be a rectangular outline visible. This time, we want to create a part ex-
actly 1 beat long. You can see exactly how many beats long the new part will be in the 
tool tip that appears.    
						

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6.Release the mouse button to create the new part.
7.Create a new part in the same way, but make this 3 beats long.
Like in the previous step, it doesn’t matter where you draw the part, as we will move 
them later.
8.Finally, create another new part, one beat long.
You should now have 6 parts, from “A” to “F”. We are now going to move the three 
new parts “D” to “F”.
9.Select the Arrow tool.
Make sure that Snap is activated and that the Grid resolution is set to Beat.
10.Click and drag part “D” to the start of bar 3 (at the same position part 
“A” starts).
Play order parts can freely overlap. 
11.In the same way, move part “E” to position 4.02.01, i.e. the second 
beat of the fourth bar.
The position is displayed in the tooltip as you move the part.
12.Finally, move part “F” to the second beat of the first bar.
Next, let’s see what we can do with the parts in the Play Order Editor!     
						

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Creating a play order list
The Play Order Editor is where you assign parts to a play order list. In 
this list you can decide how many times a part should be repeated 
and in what order they should play. Proceed as follows:
1.In the Track list click the “e” button for the play order track.
The Play Order editor opens.
To the right all the parts we created are listed, in the order they appear 
on the time line. To the left is the play order list which is currently empty 
(unless you have accidentally double-clicked a play order part in the 
event display – see below). 
By adding parts to this list you create play order “steps”. The play order 
of the parts added to this list is from the top down.
Now let’s add parts to the play order list. In this tutorial the first step 
will play part “A”:  
						

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2.In the play order Parts section, double-click the “A” part in the Name 
column.
The part is added at the top of the play order list to the left. You can also drag parts 
from the Parts window into the play order list or double-click play order parts in the 
event display which adds them to the play order list. 
Activate the Play Order mode by clicking the respective button on the 
toolbar and click the Start button. The region or zone defined by part 
“A” will repeat until you click the Stop button.
We want this part to repeat 4 times. This is done as follows:
3.Click in the Repeats field, type in 4 and press [Enter].
There should now be 4 bars in the Counter column indicating that this part will repeat 
4 times before moving on to the next play order step. 
4.Make sure part “A” is not selected (the Name and Repeats columns 
should not be dark) in the play order list by clicking somewhere below 
the list.
The reason for this is that if a part is selected in the play order list, the next part you add 
(by double-clicking in the Parts window) will be placed above the selected part, which 
we don’t want in this case. Should this happen by mistake, you can easily rearrange 
the order by moving parts manually in the list.
5.As the second play order step, add part “B”.
It is added below part “A”. We only want this to repeat once, so you can leave the 
Counter column as it is.
6.Using the same methods, add the following parts (in this order): part 
“C”, part “D”, and part “E”. 
Each part should only play once so the Repeats column should read 1 for these parts.  
						

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7.Repeat step 6 twice.
The part step order from the top down should now be “A/B/C/D/E/C/D/E/C/D/E”.
8.Finally, add part F to the bottom of the list, and set it to repeat 4 times.
The list should now look like in the picture below.
9.Click in the arrow column for part A at the top of the list so that the ar-
row becomes blue.
10.Make sure that Play Order mode is activated.
This button should be activated.
11.Position the Play Order Editor window so you can see the play order 
track in the project window.
12.Activate playback, either from the Play Order Editor or the Transport 
panel.
The following happens:
•First part A is repeated 4 times. 
The blue arrow in the left column indicates which play order part is currently playing.   
						

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•After the fourth repeat, the project cursor jumps to part B and plays 1 
bar with only drums and percussion. 
•Next is part C which plays 1 bar with a string note rising in volume. 
This is cut off as the cursor jumps back to bar 3 where part D plays 
one beat before jumping forward to part E which is 3 beats long (start-
ing at the second beat of the fourth bar).
This repeats 2 more times.
•Finally, part F, which plays a short drum figure, repeats 4 times before 
the play order starts over with part A.
You should now understand the basic operation of the play order 
function! It is very easy to use, and is especially useful if you like to 
play around with the structure of a song. 
Many types of modern dance music and electronica consist of repeated 
sections with subtle variations and for this purpose the play order func-
tion is ideal. If you want to play and record over a structure created by 
the play order function, you can make the current arrangement into a 
linear project at any time by using the “Flatten Play Order” function.
For a complete description of the play order function please refer to 
the chapter “The Play Order track” in the Operation Manual.