Steinberg Nuendo 3 Operation Manual

							NUENDO
The mixer 10 – 231
Using Listen mode
The Listen button
Clicking the Listen button for a channel routes that channel to the au-
dition bus without interrupting the normal signal flow. The following 
applies:
• When the Audition channel is set to after-fader (also referred to as post-
fader), the signal being routed to the Audition channel will come after the 
fader and pan controls of the Listen enabled channel.
• When the Audition channel is set to pre-fader, the signal will be routed from 
just before the fader.
A Listen-enabled channel is indicated by a lit Listen button, and also by 
the lit Global Listen button on the common panel. Click the Listen but-
ton again to turn off Listen mode. You may also turn off Listen mode for 
every listen-enabled track at once by clicking the Listen button on the 
common panel.
…and to pre-fader.
Audition channel set to after-fader…    
						

							NUENDO
10 – 232 The mixer
Setting pan in the mixer
The pan control.
The pan controls in the mixer are used to position a channel between 
the left and right side of the stereo spectrum. For stereo audio chan-
nels, pan (by default) controls the balance between the left and right 
channels. By selecting one of the other pan modes (see below) you 
can set pan independently for the left and right channel.
•To make fine pan adjustments, hold down [Shift] when you move the 
pan control.
•To select center pan position, hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and click 
on the pan control.
•For MIDI channels, the pan control sends out MIDI pan messages.
The result depends on how your MIDI instrument is set to respond to pan – check your 
documentation for details.
• The Surround Panner is described on page 311.  
						

							NUENDO
The mixer 10 – 233
About the three pan modes
If you right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) in the pan control field for 
a (stereo) audio channel you can select one of three pan modes:
•Stereo Balance Panner controls the balance between the left and 
right channels.
This is the default mode.
•If Stereo Dual Panner is selected, there will be two pan controls with 
the upper controlling pan for the left channel, and the lower controlling 
pan for the right channel.
This allows you set pan independently for the left and right channels. Note that it is 
possible to reverse the left and right channels, i.e. the left channel can be panned to 
the right and vice versa. You can also “sum” two channels by setting them to the same 
pan position (i.e. mono) – note that this will increase the volume of the signal.   
						

							NUENDO
10 – 234 The mixer
•If Stereo Combined Panner is selected, the left and right pan posi-
tions are shown as two lines with a blue/gray area between them.
If you reverse the left and right channels, the area between the pan controls will be red 
instead of blue/gray.
Stereo Combined mode also allows you set pan independently for the 
left and right channels. This is done by holding down [Alt]/[Option] 
and dragging the corresponding pan control. When you release the 
[Alt]/[Option] key, the left and right pan controls are linked, and can be 
moved left and right like a single pan control (with their relative posi-
tions intact). 
When moving combined pan controls so that the left or right pan con-
trol reaches its maximum pan value, it naturally cannot go any further. 
If you do continue to move further in the same direction, only the other 
pan control will move, thus altering the set relative pan range until 
both channels are panned fully to one side. If you move the pan con-
trols in the opposite direction without releasing the mouse, the previ-
ously set pan range will be restored.
• The pan settings made with the Dual Panner are reflected in the Com-
bined Panner and vice versa.
About the “Stereo Pan Law” Preference (audio channels only)
In the Project Setup dialog there is a pop-up menu named “Stereo 
Pan Law”, on which you can select one of three pan modes. This is all 
related to the fact that without power compensation, the power of the 
sum of the left and right side will be higher (louder) if a channel is 
panned center than if it’s panned left or right. 
To remedy this, the Stereo Pan Law setting allows you to attenuate 
signals panned center, by -6, -4.5 or -3dB (default). Selecting the 
0dB option effectively turns off “constant-power panning”. Experiment 
with the modes to see which fits best in a given situation.  
						

							NUENDO
The mixer 10 – 235
Audio specific procedures
This section describes the options and basic procedures regarding 
audio channels in the mixer.
Options for the extended audio channel strip
When using the extended channel strip view options, the upper panel 
can be set to show different views for each audio channel strip. You 
can select what to display in the extended panel individually for each 
channel or globally for all channels (see page 215).
The following views are possible:
• The 8 insert effect slots.
The inserts can also be found in the Inspector and the Channel Settings window, see 
page 237.
• The 8 effect sends, with pop-ups and send level value sliders.
The sends can also be found in the Inspector and the Channel Settings window, see 
page 237.
• You also have the option of displaying four sends at a time (the Sends 1-4 
and 5-8 menu items). 
These modes offer the additional benefit of displaying send levels as dB values.
• There are no sends for Input channels.    
						

							NUENDO
10 – 236 The mixer
• The EQ section, either with parameter dials (“EQ +” menu item), value sliders 
(“EQs” item) or as numerical settings with a curve display (“EQs curve” item).
These three views have exactly the same controls but different graphic layouts. The EQ 
section is also available in the Channel Settings window. For EQ parameter descrip-
tions, see page 240.
• The Surround Panner section (where applicable).
If the channel is routed to a surround bus you can view a compact version of the Sur-
round Panner in the extended panel – double click to open the full Surround Panner 
panel. Also in this section, three parameters of the Mixconvert plug-in will be shown 
(provided that this plug-in is inserted and active). They are  SRD (surround), CTR (cen-
ter) and LFE levels. You can edit these values by clicking on them and typing in new 
values.
• The “Meter” option shows large level meters in the extended panel. 
These operate exactly like the regular meters.
• The User Panel option displays Device panels for the audio track, including 
panels for inserted VST effects, see page 101. You can access User panels 
by clicking on the tab at the top of the User Panel display in the extended 
mixer.
Refer to the separate PDF document “Working with MIDI” for information on how to 
import or create Device Setups and Panels.
The User Panel pop-up in the VST Mixer
• Selecting the “Empty” option will display a blank panel in the extended strip.
• You can also select the “Overview” option – this shows a graphic overview of 
which insert effect slots, EQ modules and effects sends are activated for the 
channel.
You can click the indicators to turn the corresponding slot/EQ module/send on or off.  
						

							NUENDO
The mixer 10 – 237
• If you have selected a parameter for the extended channel strip and 
then switch to “narrow” mode, only the channel overview is shown in the 
extended channel strip. When you switch back to “wide” mode, the para-
meter settings are displayed again.
Using Channel Settings 
For each audio channel strip in the mixer (and in the Inspector and 
Track list for each audio track) there is an Edit button (“e”).
Clicking this opens the VST Audio Channel Settings window. This 
window contains a simplified common panel, a duplicate of the mixer 
channel strip (without the extended panel but with the input and output 
settings panel), a section with eight insert effect slots (see page 262), 
four EQ modules and an associated EQ curve display (see page 240) 
and a section with eight effect sends (see page 276). Every channel 
has its own channel settings (although you can view each in the same 
window if you like – see below).
Click the Edit button to open 
the Channel Settings window:   
						

							NUENDO
10 – 238 The mixer
The Channel Settings window is used for the following operations:
• Apply equalization, see page 240.
• Apply send effects, see page 273.
• Apply insert effects, see page 262.
• Copy channel settings and apply them to another channel, see page 245.
All channel settings are applied to both sides of a stereo channel.
Changing channels in the Channel Settings window
You can view any channel’s settings from a single window. 
If the option “Mixer Selection Follows Project” is activated in the Pref-
erences (Editing page), this can be done “automatically”:
•Open the Channel Settings window for a track and position it so that 
you can see both the Project window and the Channel Settings 
window.
Selecting a track in the Project window automatically selects the cor-
responding channel in the mixer (and vice versa). If a Channel Settings 
window is open, this will immediately switch to show the settings for 
the selected channel. This allows you to have a single Channel Set-
tings window open in a convenient position on the screen, and use this 
for all your EQ and channel effect settings. 
						

							NUENDO
The mixer 10 – 239
You can also select a channel manually (thereby changing what is 
shown in the open Channel Settings window). Proceed as follows:
1.Open the Channel Settings window for any channel.
2.Open the Channel Select pop-up on the common panel.
3.Select a channel from the pop-up to show the settings for that chan-
nel in the open Channel Settings window.
•Alternatively, you can select a channel in the mixer by clicking the strip 
at the bottom of the channel strip (above the channel name).
This selects the channel, and the Channel Settings window will be updated.
•To open several Channel Settings windows at the same time, press 
[Alt]/[Option] and click the Edit buttons for the respective channels.   
						

							NUENDO
10 – 240 The mixer
Making EQ settings
Each audio channel in Nuendo has a built-in parametric equalizer with 
up to four bands. There are several ways to view and adjust the EQs:
• By selecting one of the three EQ display modes (“EQs”, “EQs +” or “EQs 
Curve”) for the extended channel strip in the mixer.
These three modes contain the same settings but present them in different ways:
From left to right, “EQs” mode (sliders), “EQs +” mode (dials) and “EQs Curve” 
mode (numeric values with a curve display).
• By selecting the “Equalizers” or “Equalizer Curve” tab in the Inspector.
The “Equalizers” section is similar to the “EQs” mode in the extended mixer, while the 
“Equalizer Curve” section shows a display in which you can “draw” an EQ curve. Set-
ting EQ in the Inspector is only possible for track-based audio channels (not for Re-
Wire channels).
• By using the Channel Settings window.
This offers both parameter dials and a clickable curve display and also lets you store 
and recall EQ presets.
Below we describe how to set up EQ in the Channel Settings window, 
but the parameters are the same in the mixer and Inspector (apart from 
the presets and reset function).
The outer ring of the 
dial controls the fre-
quency, while the in-
ner controls gain.
The small dial sets 
the Q parameter. The top value slider 
controls the gain, the 
middle controls fre-
quency and the lower 
sets the Q parameter 
for each EQ band.In this mode, EQ 
settings are shown 
as a curve. Param-
eters are set by 
clicking on the 
value and adjust-
ing with the fader 
that appears.