Steinberg Nuendo 3 Operation Manual
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NUENDO Audio effects 11 – 291 Organizing VST plug-ins If you have a large number of VST plug-ins, having them all on a single pop-up menu in the program may become unmanageable. For this reason, the plug-ins installed with Nuendo are placed in appropriate subfolders according to the effect type. •Under Windows, you can rearrange this by moving, adding or renam- ing subfolders within the Vstplugins folder if you like. When you launch the program and pull down an Effects pop-up menu, the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical submenus, each listing the plug-ins in the corre- sponding subfolder. •Under Mac OS X, you cannot change the hierarchic arrangement of the “built-in” VST plug-ins. You can however arrange any additional plug-ins you have installed (in the /Library/ Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ folders, see above) by placing them in subfolders. In the pro- gram, the subfolders will be represented by hierarchical submenus, each listing the plug-ins in the corresponding subfolder. About shared VST plug-ins (Windows only) While Nuendo’s own plug-ins reside in the Vstplugins folder within the Nuendo program folder, the program can also access plug-ins in an additional location, called the shared VST plug-ins folder. This lets you use plug-ins installed by other VST compatible applications, etc. You can change what folder is considered the “shared” Vstplugins folder at any time in the Plug-in Information window, see page 292. About the “Nuendo 1.x Plug-ins” In the Additional Content folder on the program DVD you can find the effects from previous program versions of Nuendo. The foremost reason for installing these earlier plug-ins is backwards compatibility, allowing you to import old Nuendo projects and get the correct effect settings.
NUENDO 11 – 292 Audio effects DirectX plug-ins (Windows only) To be able to use DirectX plug-ins, you must have Microsoft DirectX installed on your computer (Version 8.1 – or later – recommended and included on the Nuendo DVD). DirectX plug-ins should not be placed in the Vstplugins folder, as these are installed under the operating system rather than for Nuendo exclusively. Rather, you should follow the installation instructions in- cluded with the plug-ins. See also page 296. • On the effect menus, all DirectX plug-ins are listed on the DirectX sub- menu. Selecting, activating and editing them is done as with VST effects. The Plug-in Information window On the Devices menu, you will find an item called “Plug-in Informa- tion”. Selecting this opens a dialog listing all the available VST and Di- rectX compatible plug-ins in your system (including VST Instruments), along with all MIDI plug-ins. The MIDI plug-ins are described in the separate PDF document “Working with MIDI”.
NUENDO Audio effects 11 – 293 Managing and selecting VST plug-ins To see which VST plug-ins are available in your system, click the “VST Plug-ins” tab at the top of the window. The window now displays all plug-ins in the Nuendo and the shared Vstplugins folder. • The plug-ins are color-coded to help you find plug-ins of a specific type - re- fer to the color fields at the top of the window. • To enable a plug-in (make it available for selection), click in the left column. Only the currently enabled plug-ins (shown with a check sign in the left column) will appear on the effect menus. • The second column indicates how many instances of the plug-in are currently used in Nuendo. Clicking in this column for a plug-in which is already in use produces a pop-up show- ing exactly where each use occurs - select an instance to open the control panel for the plug-in. • Plug-ins which crash when you try to start them, will be marked as “unload- able” in the VST plugin window and skipped at the next start. These plug-ins can be activated again in the VST plug-in window. • If you activate the “Show used only” checkbox, only the plug-ins that are used will be shown in the list. • A plug-in may be in use even if it isn’t enabled in the left column. You might for example have opened a project containing effects that currently are dis- abled on the menu. The left column purely determines whether or not the plug-in will be visible on the effect menus. • All columns can be resized by using the divider in the column header. The other columns show the following information about each plug-in: Column Description Name The name of the plug-in. Nb I/O This column shows the number of inputs and outputs for each plug-in. Category This indicates the category of each plug-in (such as VST Instruments, Surround Effects, etc.). Vendor The manufacturer of the plug-in. VST Version Shows with which version of the VST protocol a plug-in is compatible.
NUENDO 11 – 294 Audio effects Update Button Pressing this button will make Nuendo re-scan the designated Vstplu- gins folders for updated information about the plug-ins. Export List button •If you click this button, a text file with the plug-in info is generated. This document could be useful if you need to contact Steinberg Technical Support – or you might want to use it just as a handy reference of the installed effects. Delay (sample) This shows the delay (in samples) that will be introduced if the effect is used as an Insert. This is automatically compensated for by Nuendo. Use Delay CompensationThis option (checked by default) means that plug-in delay compensa- tion is used for this plug-in (see page 261). Note that you can tempo- rarily constrain delay compensation - see the VST Instruments chapter in the separate PDF document “Working with MIDI”. Nb Params The number of parameters for the plug-in. Nb Programs The number of programs for the plug-in. Old Host BehaviourCheck this column for a specific plug-in if you want it to be processed like it was by previous versions of Nuendo, to avoid problems such as feedback-like sounds. Note that you have to reload the plug-in for the change to take effect. Modified The last modification date of the plug-in file. Path The path and name of the folder in which the plug-in file is located. Column Description
NUENDO Audio effects 11 – 295 Changing the Shared Plug-ins Folder (Windows only) If you like, you can change what folder is to be the “shared” Vstplugins folder. For example, if you have Steinberg’s Cubase installed on your computer, you can get access to the Cubase-specific plug-ins in Nu- endo by switching to the Vstplugins folder within the Cubase folder. The currently selected Shared Folder is displayed in the text field at the top of the window. Clicking the “Change...” button opens a file di- alog where you can browse to another Vstplugins folder on your hard drive. Clicking OK selects the new folder as the shared VST plug-ins folder. After selecting a new shared plug-ins folder, you will first be prompted to confirm your choice, and you will then need to restart Nuendo for the effects in the new folder to become available. •Similarly, you can also add additional Shared Plug-ins folders by click- ing the “Add” button and browsing to another Vstplugins folder on your hard drive. If you have several folders assigned as Shared Plug-ins Folders, you can at any time use the text field pop-up menu to decide which of the assigned folders should be the designated active one. •To remove a Shared Plug-ins Folder, select it and click the “Remove” button.
NUENDO 11 – 296 Audio effects Managing and selecting DirectX plug-ins (Windows only) To see which DirectX plug-ins are available in your system, click the “DirectX Plug-ins” tab at the top of the window. •To enable a plug-in (make it available for selection), click in the left- most column. Only the currently enabled plug-ins (shown with a check sign in the left column) will appear on the Effect menus. The idea here is that there could be a variety of DirectX plug-ins in your system, many of which are not intended for musical audio pro- cessing. Disabling these helps you keep the effect menus in Nuendo more manageable. •The second column indicates how many instances of the plug-in are currently used in Nuendo. Clicking in this column for a plug-in which is already in use produces a pop-up show- ing exactly where each use occurs. Please note that a plug-in may be in use even if it isn’t enabled in the left column. You might for example have opened a project containing ef- fects that currently are disabled on the menu. The left column purely de- termines whether or not the plug-in will be visible on the effect menus.
NUENDO 12 – 298 Surround sound Background What is Surround sound? Surround is a common name for various techniques for positioning audio in reference to the listener. Whereas regular stereo is limited to left/right positioning, within a relatively narrow field, surround sound opens possibilities of positioning an audio source anywhere around the listener. Surround sound comes in many flavors, from the ill-fated Quadraphonic format for vinyl discs launched in the 70s, to today’s more successful incarnations. The differences between the formats are in two areas: • The number and configuration of speakers. This varies from two speakers up to 12. • The intended final coding format. This depends on the media the audio will be “stored” on: film, broadcast video or DVD, for example. Surround sound is a large topic, there are entire books and regular publications devoted to the subject. This chapter will not provide an in-depth introduction to surround sound as such. Instead it will con- centrate on the specific implementation in Nuendo. Surround sound in Nuendo Nuendo has integrated surround sound features with support for sev- eral formats. This support goes all the way through the audio path – all audio channels and busses can handle multiple speaker channel con- figurations (up to 12 channels). An individual channel in the mixer can either carry complete surround mixes, or an individual speaker channel which is part of a surround setup. • Audio channels can be routed freely to surround channels. • The Surround Panner function in the mixer allows you to graphically position channels in the surround field. • The Mixconvert plug-in allows conversion of one surround channel into an- other with a different speaker configuration. Nuendo places Mixconvert auto- matically where needed.
NUENDO Surround sound 12 – 299 • Nuendo is ready for surround specific plug-ins, that is plug-ins with multi channel support specifically designed for surround sound mixing tasks (the included “Mix8to2” plug-in is an example of this). There are also surround aware plug-ins, which are not designed specifically for Surround but which due to their multi-channel support work well in a Surround configuration. An example is the Surrounddither plug-in. • You configure Nuendo for surround by defining input and output busses in the desired surround format, and specifying which audio inputs and outputs should be used for the different channels in the busses. This is done in the VST Connections window. Requirements for using Surround The following additional equipment is required for taking advantage of Nuendo’s surround sound implementation: • An audio card with more than two outputs. The card must have as many outputs as the surround format you plan to select. • A matching amplifier/speaker configuration. Encoding The result of a surround mix in Nuendo is either the multi-channel au- dio sent from the surround output bus to your surround speaker setup, or (if you use the Export audio feature) audio file(s) on your hard disk. Exported surround mixes can either be split (one mono file per speaker channel) or interleaved (a single file containing all the surround chan- nels). Getting from this step to the final product (surround sound on DVD disc, DTS etc.) requires special software and possibly hardware. This equipment will encode the signal into the desired format, possibly compress the audio and store it on the final media. Exactly what type of software and/or hardware you need depends on what kind of format you are mixing for and is not dependent on Nuendo in any way. •Steinberg provides Dolby Digital and DTS encoders for purchase, tai- lored for use with Nuendo. For details, please go to www.steinberg.net.
NUENDO 12 – 300 Surround sound About surround plug-ins Included with the program are some specific surround plug-ins. These are: •MatrixEncoder and MatrixDecoder. These are used for working with LRCS Surround encoded material. In LRCS Sur- round, four audio channels are converted to two channels, for distribution via regular video and broadcast formats. These plug-ins perform such conversions (in both ways) and are compatible with the LRCS Surround format. •Mixconvert Mixconvert gives you an easy way to take surround mixes and convert them to other formats with less channels. For example, Mixconvert can be used to downmix a 5.1 surround mix to a normal stereo mix. This plug-in is unique in that Nuendo will automat- ically insert it in place of the channel panner or aux send panner in certain situations. Please refer to the Audio Effects and VST Instruments pdf for complete information about Mixconvert. •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. • Mix8to2 The Mix8To2 effect allows you to control the levels of up to eight surround channels, and to mix these down to a stereo output. •Mixer Delay The Mixer Delay effect is useful for time aligning surround speakers if your room config- uration does not allow for proper ITU-R speaker placement. It is also handy for re-rout- ing surround channels to their proper speaker channels in your setup (refer to the Nuendo 3 Audio Effects and VST Instruments pdf for more information on setting up Mixer Delay). •SurroundDither This is a dithering plug-in capable of handling six channels at the same time – use this for applying dithering to a surround output bus. •SurroundPanner This is described on page 311. • Surround plug-ins (apart from the SurroundPanner) are described in the separate pdf document “Audio Effects and VST Instruments”.