Steinberg Nuendo 3 Operation Manual

							NUENDO
Audio processing and functions 15 – 361
Audio processing
Basically, you apply processing by making a selection and selecting a 
function from the Process submenu on the Audio menu. Processing is 
applied according to the following rules:
• Selecting events in the Project window or the Audio Part Editor will apply pro-
cessing to the selected events only.
Processing will only affect the clip sections that are referenced by the events.
• Selecting an audio clip in the Pool will apply processing to the whole clip.
• Making a selection range will apply processing to the selected range only.
Other sections of the clip are not affected.
If you attempt to process an event that is a shared copy (i.e. the event 
refers to a clip that is used by other events in the project), you are 
asked whether you want to create a new version of the clip or not.
Select “New Version” if you want the processing to affect the selected event only. 
Select “Continue” if you want the processing to affect all shared copies. 
• If you activate the “Do not show this message again” option, any and all 
further processing you do will conform to the selected method (“Con-
tinue” or ”New Version”). 
You can change this setting at any time by using the “On Processing Shared Clips” 
pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog (Audio page).  
						

							NUENDO
15 – 362 Audio processing and functions
Common settings and features
If there are any settings for the selected Audio processing function, 
these will appear when you select the function from the Process sub-
menu. While most settings are specific for the function, some features 
and settings work in the same way for several functions:
The “More...” button
If the dialog has a lot of settings, some options may be hidden when 
the dialog appears. To reveal these, click the “More...” button.
To hide the settings, click the button again (now labeled “Less...”).
The Preview, Process and Cancel buttons
These buttons have the following functionality:
Pre/post crossfade
Some processing functions allow you to gradually mix the effect in or 
out. This is done with the pre and post crossfade parameters. If you 
activate Pre-crossfade and specify a value of e.g. 1000 ms, the pro-
cessing will be applied gradually from the start of selection, reaching 
full effect 1000 ms after the start. Similarly, if you activate post-cross-
fade, the processing will gradually be removed, starting at the speci-
fied interval before the end of the selection.
The sum of the pre- and post-crossfade times cannot be larger than the 
length of the selection.
Button Description
Preview Allows you to listen to the result of the processing with the current set-
tings. Playback will continue repeatedly until you click the button again 
(the button is labeled “Stop” during Preview playback). You can make ad-
justments during Preview playback, but the changes are not applied until 
the start of the next “lap”. Some changes may automatically restart the 
Preview playback from the beginning.
Process Performs the processing and closes the dialog.
Cancel Closes the dialog without processing.  
						

							NUENDO
Audio processing and functions 15 – 363
Acoustic Stamp
The Acoustic Stamp function is a convolution tool, which allows you 
to apply room characteristics (reverb) to the audio. This is done by 
processing the audio signal according to an impulse response – gen-
erally a stereo or mono recording of a very short signal (the impulse) in 
a room or other location. As a result, the processed audio will sound 
as if it were played in the same location.
This function requires a lot of processing power, especially when using 
the Preview function. If you are working with long impulse response 
files or stereo files, you may find that Preview playback stutters or stops. 
In that case, it’s better to process the material, listen to the result and 
modify it in the Offline Process History (see page 386) if necessary.  
						

							NUENDO
15 – 364 Audio processing and functions
The dialog contains the following settings:
Impulse and Envelope display
This display shows the loaded impulse response (in white) and the 
Envelope (in red). You can zoom in vertically on the impulse response 
using the slider to the right of the display (this can be useful since im-
pulse responses typically are very weak). Zooming does not affect the 
processing in any way.
Load Impulse button
Clicking the “Load Impulse” button allows you to load an impulse re-
sponse file from disk. These are ordinary wave or aiff audio files, with a 
maximum duration of 12 seconds. The name of the currently loaded 
impulse response file is shown above the display.
•A number of demonstration impulse response files are included in the 
Nuendo program folder. 
For proper use of the Acoustic Stamp function, we recommend that you acquire files 
from a professional impulse response library.
Play Impulse button
Plays back the currently loaded impulse response.
Channel selector
If the currently loaded impulse response is a stereo file, this pop-up 
menu allows you to select whether the left channel, right channel or 
both (stereo) should be used for the convolution process. 
						

							NUENDO
Audio processing and functions 15 – 365
Envelope controls
The five sliders below the display are used for setting up the “reverb 
envelope”, that is, a gain curve modifying how the impulse response is 
applied over time, and thereby the reverb character. These settings 
are reflected in the red Envelope display above. The sliders have the 
following functionality:
Filter controls
The three sliders to the right allow you to tailor the tonal character of 
the processed sound. In essence, this is a graphic equalizer with three 
broad bands: the LPF slider governs the low frequency content, the 
BPF governs the midrange and the HPF governs the high frequency 
content.
•Setting a slider to 100% means that the corresponding filter is “fully 
open”.
When all three sliders are set to 100%, the processed audio is not filtered at all.
Reset button
Sets all parameters in the upper section of the dialog to their default 
values.
Parameter Description
First Reflections A level control for the first section of the reverb (the length of which 
is set with the next parameter, see below). Usually, this governs the 
volume of the first reflection(s) of the reverb.
First Ref. Length This determines the length of the First Reflections section (the level 
of which is controlled by the previous parameter). Usually you would 
want to set this so that it includes the first reflection in the impulse 
response (normally about 5% of the total length).
After Hall A level control for the end section of the reverb (the section after the 
First Reflections, see above).
Reverb Length Governs the reverb time, in milliseconds.
Gain Allows you to adjust the gain of the impulse response. This may be 
necessary for optimal results, since different impulse response files 
may be recorded at different levels. 
						

							NUENDO
15 – 366 Audio processing and functions
Wet/Dry Mix
These two sliders allow you to specify the balance between wet (pro-
cessed) and dry (original) signal in the resulting Clip.
Normally the two sliders are “reverse-ganged”, so that raising the Wet 
mix slider lowers the Dry mix slider by the same amount. However, if 
you press [Alt]/[Option] and drag a slider, you can move it indepen-
dently. This allows you to set e.g. 80% dry and 80% wet signal. Be 
careful to avoid distortion.
Tail
This parameter allows you to “add space” after the original audio sec-
tion, to avoid that the reverb tail is cut off. When the checkbox is acti-
vated, you can specify a tail length using the slider. The tail time is 
included when playing back with the Preview function, allowing you to 
find the appropriate tail length. A good value would be the Reverb 
Length value, displayed in ms to the right of the Reverb Length para-
meter.
Pre- and Post-Crossfade
See page 362. 
						

							NUENDO
Audio processing and functions 15 – 367
Envelope
The Envelope function allows you to apply a volume envelope to the 
selected audio. The dialog contains the following settings:
Curve Kind buttons
These determine whether the envelope curve should consist of spline 
curve segments (left button), damped spline segments (middle but-
ton) or linear segments (right button).
Fade display
Shows the shape of the envelope curve. The resulting waveform shape 
is shown in dark grey, with the current waveform shape in light grey. 
You can click on the curve to add points, and click and drag existing 
points to change the shape. To remove a point from the curve, drag it 
outside the display.
Presets
If you have set up an envelope curve that you may want to apply to other 
events or clips, you can store it as a preset by clicking the Store button. 
•To apply a stored preset, select it from the pop-up menu. 
•To rename the selected preset, double click on the name and type a 
new one in the dialog that appears. 
•To remove a stored preset, select it from the pop-up menu and click 
Remove.  
						

							NUENDO
15 – 368 Audio processing and functions
Fade In and Fade Out
These function are described in the chapter “Fades, crossfades and 
envelopes” (see page 186).
Gain
Allows you to change the gain (level) of the selected audio. The dialog 
contains the following settings:
Gain
This is where you set the desired gain, between -50 and +20dB. The 
setting is also indicated below the Gain display as a percentage.
Clip detection text
If you use the Preview function before applying the processing, the 
text below the slider indicates whether the current settings result in 
clipping (audio levels above 0 dB). If that is the case, lower the Gain 
value and use the Preview function again.
•If you want to increase the level of the audio as much as possible with-
out causing clipping, you should use the Normalize function instead 
(see page 371).
Pre- and Post-Crossfade
See page 362.  
						

							NUENDO
Audio processing and functions 15 – 369
Merge Clipboard
This functions mixes the audio from the clipboard into the audio 
selected for processing, starting at the beginning of the selection.
For this function to be available, you need to have Cut or Copied a range 
of audio in the Sample Editor first.
The dialog contains the following settings:
Sources mix
Allows you to specify a mix ratio between the Original (the audio se-
lected for processing) and the Copy (the audio on the clipboard).
Pre- and Post-Crossfade
See page 362.  
						

							NUENDO
15 – 370 Audio processing and functions
Noise Gate
Scans the audio for sections weaker than a specified threshold level, 
and replaces them with silence. The dialog contains the following 
settings:
Threshold
The level below which you want audio to be silenced. Levels below 
this value will close the gate.
Attack Time
The time it takes for the gate to open fully after the audio level has 
exceeded the threshold level.
Min. Opening Time
This is the shortest time the gate will remain open. If you find that the 
gate opens and closes too often when processing material that varies 
rapidly in level, you should try raising this value.
Release Time
The time it takes for the gate to close fully after the audio level has 
dropped below the threshold level.
Linked Channels
This is available for stereo audio only. When it is activated, the Noise 
Gate is opened for both channels as soon as one or both channels 
exceed the Threshold level. When Linked Channels is deactivated, 
the Noise Gate works independently for the left and right channel.