Steinberg Nuendo 3 Operation Manual

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The Project window 5 – 121
Handling tracks
To add a track to the project, select “Add Track” from the Project 
menu and select a track type from the submenu that appears. The 
new track is added below the currently selected track in the Track list.
•The items on the “Add Track” submenu are also available on the 
Quick menu.
This is accessed by right-clicking (Win)/[Ctrl]-clicking (Mac) in the Track list.
•There is an additional option at the bottom of the Add Track submenu, 
called “Multiple...”. Selecting this brings up a dialog allowing you to 
add more than one track in one operation.
The number of tracks to add is entered in the “Count” value field. You can set whether 
audio, MIDI or group tracks should be created by selecting from the Track pop-up in 
the dialog. For audio and group tracks, the channel configuration – mono, stereo or a 
surround configuration – can be set in the Configuration pop-up.
Once you have created tracks, you can manipulate and rearrange 
them in various ways:
•To rename a track, double click the name field and type in a new name.
If you hold down any modifier key when pressing [Return] to close the name field, all 
events on the track will get the name you entered.  
						

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5 – 122 The Project window
•To select a track, click on it in the Track list.
A selected track is indicated by a light grey color in the Track list. 
It is possible to select several tracks, by pressing [Ctrl]/[Command] and clicking them. 
To select a continuous range of tracks, use [Shift]-clicking.
•To move a track, click and drag it up or down in the list.
•To duplicate a track, complete with all contents and channel settings, 
right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) in the Track list and select “Dupli-
cate track” from the context menu.
The duplicated track will appear above the original track.
•You can select a default color for a track by activating “Show Track 
Colors” above the track list and selecting a color at the top of the In-
spector. This color will be used for all events on the track and will also 
be shown in the Mixer. If you like, you can override the default track 
color for individual events and parts by using the Color tool or the 
Color Selector pop-up menu. This is described in detail in the Getting 
Started manual. 
The option “Colorize Event Background” in the Preferences dialog (Event Display 
page) determines whether the backgrounds or waveforms of events will be colorized.
•To remove a track, right-click (Win)/[Ctrl]-click (Mac) on it in the Track 
list and select “Remove Track” from the context menu that appears.
You can also remove multiple selected tracks, by selecting “Remove Selected Tracks” 
either from the Project menu or from the context menu. Furthermore, you can remove 
all tracks not containing any events by selecting “Remove Empty Tracks” from the 
Project menu.
Disabling tracks
Tracks can be disabled by selecting “Disable Track” from the Track 
list context menu. Disabling a track in a way is the same as Muting it 
(see page 142), since a disabled track will not be played back. How-
ever, disabling a track not only “zeroes” the output volume from the 
track, but actually shuts down all disk activity for it. See page 43 for 
more information.
This track is selected.  
						

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The Project window 5 – 123
Dividing the Track list
It is possible to divide the Track list into two parts. Both sections will 
have independent zoom and scroll controls (if needed), but resizing 
the window vertically will affect the lower section only (if possible). 
This could be convenient for example if you’re working with a video 
track along with multi-track audio. This way, you can place the video 
track in the upper Track list, letting you scroll the audio tracks sepa-
rately in the lower Track list, referencing them against the video track.
•To divide the Track list, click the “Divide Track List” button in the top 
right corner of the Track list.
The “Divide Track List” button.
•To revert to a single Track list, click the button again.
When the Track list is divided into two parts, the following applies:
•If you add tracks from the Project–Add Track submenu, Video tracks, 
Marker tracks and ruler tracks will automatically be placed in the up-
per part of the Track list.
All other types of tracks will be placed in the lower part.
•If you add tracks from the context menu invoked by right-clicking (Win)/
[Ctrl]-clicking (Mac) in the Track list, tracks will be added to the part of 
the Track list in which you click.
•You can move any type of track from the lower Track list to the upper 
and vice versa by right-clicking or [Ctrl]-clicking it in the Track list and 
selecting “Toggle Track List” from the context menu.
•If the Track list already contains tracks of the type Video or Marker, 
these will automatically be moved to the upper part when you divide 
the Track list.  
						

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5 – 124 The Project window
•You can resize the upper part by clicking and dragging the divider be-
tween the Track lists.
Switching between musical or linear time base
Tracks can be either “musical” (tempo) or “linear” (time) based.
• On a track using linear time base, the events will be positioned on specific 
time positions – changing the playback tempo will not affect the time position 
of events.
• On a track using musical time base, the positions of events are represented 
as meter values (bars, beats, 1/16th notes and ticks, with 120 ticks per 1/
16th note). If you change the playback tempo, the events will play back at an 
earlier or later time.
Whether to use musical or linear time base depends on the type of 
project and recording situation. By default, all track types featuring a 
time base setting use linear time base. However, you can change this 
setting individually for each track. This is done by clicking the musical/
linear time base button in the Inspector or Track list. Musical time 
base is indicated by a note symbol, while linear time base is indicated 
by a clock symbol.
The musical/linear time base button.
Linear time base selected. Musical time base selected.    
						

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The Project window 5 – 125
Note that internally, events on musical time based tracks use the same 
high precision for positioning (64 bit floating point values) as linear time 
based events.
However, switching between linear and musical time base results in a 
very small loss of precision (introduced by the mathematical operations 
used for scaling values in the two different formats). Therefore you 
should avoid switching repeatedly between the two modes.
For more information about tempo changes, see page 502.
Adding events to a track
There are a number of ways to add events to a track:
• By recording (see page 49).
This is possible for audio and MIDI tracks.
• By selecting “Audio File...” or “Video File...” from the Import submenu on the 
File menu.
This opens a file dialog, allowing you to locate the file you wish to import. When you 
import a file this way, a clip is created for the file and an event that plays the whole clip 
is added to the selected track, at the position of the project cursor.
You can also import MIDI files by using the Import submenu, but this works in a slightly 
different way (see page 655).
• By grabbing audio CD tracks and converting them to audio files (see page 
662).
• By importing only the audio portion of a video file and converting it to an audio 
file (see page 623).
• By using Copy and Paste on the Edit menu.
This allows you to copy all kinds of events between projects. You can also copy events 
within the project, from the Audio Part Editor or Sample Editor.
• By drawing.
Some types of events (markers and automation events) can be drawn directly into the 
Project window. For audio and MIDI tracks, you can draw parts (see page 127).
• By dragging files and dropping them on the track at the desired position.
You can create events by dragging and dropping from the following locations:
• The Desktop.
• The Pool.
• A Library (A Pool file that is not attached to a project). 
						

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5 – 126 The Project window
• The Project window of another open project.
• The Audio Part Editor of any open project.
• The Sample Editor of any open project – press [Ctrl]/[Command] and drag to 
create an event of the current selection, or click in the left column of the re-
gion list and drag to create an event from a region.
• The “Find media” dialog.
While you drag the clip in the Project window, its position will be indicated by a 
marker line and a numerical position box. See also page 484.
Audio file import options
When you are importing audio files there are a number of options con-
cerning how the files should be treated by Nuendo: 
• You can choose to copy the file into the project’s audio folder and have the 
project make reference to the copied file rather than the original file. This 
helps you keep your project “self-contained”.
• You can choose to split stereo- and multi-channel files into a number of mono 
files.
• Furthermore, you may want all files in the project to have the same sample rate 
and sample size (resolution).
The Preferences dialog (Editing – Audio page) contains a setting that 
lets you decide which options, if any, to use. Select the desired option 
on the “On Import Audio Files” pop-up:   
						

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The Project window 5 – 127
•Open Options Dialog.
An Options dialog appears when you import, allowing you to select whether you want 
to copy the files to the Audio folder and/or convert them to the project settings. Note:
- When importing a single file of a format other than the project settings, you can spec-
ify which properties (sample rate and/or resolution) should be changed.
- When importing multiple files at the same time, you can select to have the imported 
files automatically converted if necessary, i.e. if the sample rate is different than the 
project’s or the resolution is lower than the project setting.
•Use Settings.
No Options dialog will appear when you import. Instead, you can choose to make any 
of the options below the pop-up the standard action(s). Activate any number of the fol-
lowing options to have them performed automatically each time you import audio files:
Creating parts
Parts are containers for MIDI or audio events. If you record MIDI, a 
MIDI part is automatically created, containing the recorded events. 
You can also create empty audio or MIDI parts and later add events to 
them. There are two ways to do this:
•Draw a part on a MIDI or audio track with the Pencil tool.
You can also draw parts by pressing [Alt]/[Option] and using the Arrow tool.
Option Description
Copy Files to Working 
DirectoryIf files are not already in the project’s audio folder they are 
copied there before being imported.
Convert and Copy to 
Project If NeededIf files are not already in the project’s audio folder they are 
copied there before being imported. Furthermore, if the 
files have a different sample rate or a lower resolution than 
the project settings, they are automatically converted.
Split multi channel files If you import a multi-channel audio file (including two-
channel stereo files), it will be split into a number of mono 
files – one for each channel – which are placed on sepa-
rate, automatically created mono tracks. 
						

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5 – 128 The Project window
•Double click with the Arrow tool on a MIDI or audio track, between the 
left and right locator.
To add events to a MIDI part, you use the tools and functions in a MIDI 
editor, see the separate PDF document “Working with MIDI”. Adding 
events to audio parts is done in the Audio Part Editor (see page 423) 
by pasting or by using drag and drop.
•You can also gather existing audio events into a part, by using the 
“Events to Part” function on the Audio menu.
This creates an audio part containing all selected audio events on the same track. To 
remove the part and make the events appear as independent objects on the track 
again, select the part and use the “Dissolve Part” function on the Audio menu.
Auditioning audio parts and events
Audio parts and events can be auditioned in the Project window with 
the Speaker tool:
When auditioning, audio will be routed directly to the Audition bus, by-
passing the audio channel’s settings, effects and EQs.
1.Select the Play tool.
Note that the Play tool and the Scrub tool share the same tool button. If the rightmost 
tool icon on the toolbar isn’t a Speaker symbol, first click on the icon to select it, then 
click again and select “Play” from the pop-up menu that appears.
2.Click where you want playback to start, and keep the mouse button 
pressed.
Only the track on which you click is played back, starting at the click position. 
3.Release the mouse button to stop playback.   
						

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The Project window 5 – 129
Scrubbing
The Scrub tool allows you to locate positions in the audio by playing 
back, forwards or backwards, at any speed:
1.Select the Scrub tool.
Note that the Play tool and the Scrub tool share the same tool button. If the rightmost 
tool icon on the toolbar isn’t a “Scrub symbol”, first click on the icon to select it, then 
click again and select “Scrub” from the pop-up menu that appears.
2.Click at the desired position and keep the mouse button pressed.
The project cursor is moved to the position at which you click.
3.Drag to the left or right.
The project cursor follows the mouse pointer and the audio is played back. The speed 
and pitch of the playback depends on how fast you move the pointer.
You can adjust the responsiveness of the Scrub function in the Pref-
erences dialog (VST page).
• It is also possible to “scrub” the whole project with the Jog wheel on the 
Transport panel.
See page 42.
Editing parts and events
This section describes techniques for editing in the Project window. If 
not explicitly stated, all descriptions apply to both events and parts, 
even though we use the term “event” for convenience.
• When you are using the tools for editing, you can in many cases get ad-
ditional functions by pressing modifier keys (e.g. pressing [Alt]/[Option] 
and dragging with the Arrow tool creates a copy of the dragged event). 
On the following pages, the default modifier keys are described – you can customize 
these in the Preferences dialog on the Editing –Tool Modifiers page (see page 712).  
						

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5 – 130 The Project window
Selecting events
Selecting events is done using any of the following methods:
•Use the Arrow tool.
The standard selection techniques apply.
•Use the Select submenu on the Edit menu.
The options are:
Note that these functions work differently when the Range Selection 
tool is selected (see page 146).
•Select all events on a track by right-clicking in its Track list and select-
ing “Select All Events” from the pop-up menu that appears.
•You can also use the arrow keys on the computer keyboard, to select 
the closest event to the left, right, above or below.
If you press [Shift] and use the arrow keys, the current selection will be kept, allowing 
you to select several events.
Option Description
All Selects all events in the Project window.
None Deselects all events.
Invert Inverts the selection – all selected events are deselected and 
all events that were not selected are selected instead.
In Loop Selects all events that are partly or wholly between the left 
and right locator.
From Start to Cursor Selects all events that begin to the left of the project cursor.
From Cursor to End Selects all events that end to the right of the project cursor.
Equal Pitch These are available in the MIDI Editors, see the separate PDF 
document “Working with MIDI”.
All on Selected Tracks Selects all events on the selected track.
Select Event This is available in the Sample Editor (see page 401).
Left/Right Selection 
Side to CursorThese two functions are only used for range selection editing 
(see page 146).