Steinberg Nuendo 3 Operation Manual
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NUENDO Audio processing and functions 15 – 391 Freeze Edits The Freeze Edits function on the Audio menu allows you to make all processing and applied effects permanent for a clip: 1.Select the clip in the Pool or one of its events in the Project window. 2.Select “Freeze Edits…” from the Audio menu. •If there is only one edit version of the clip (no other clips refer to the same audio file), the following dialog will appear: If you select “Replace”, all edits will be applied to the original audio file (the one listed in the clip’s Path column in the Pool). If you select “New File”, the Freeze Edits opera- tion will create a new file in the Audio folder within the project folder (leaving the origi- nal audio file unaffected). •If the selected clip (or the clip played by the selected event) has sev- eral edit versions (i.e. there are other clips referring to the same audio file), the following alert will appear: As you can see, you don’t have the option to Replace the original audio file in this case. This is because that audio file is used by other clips. Select “New File” to have a new file created in the Audio folder within the project folder. Now, the clip refers to a new, single audio file. If you open the Offline Process History dialog for the clip, the list will be empty.
NUENDO 15 – 392 Audio processing and functions Detect Silence The Detect Silence function on the advanced submenu of the Audio menu isn’t really a processing function, since it doesn’t actually affect the audio clip. Instead, it searches for silent sections in an event, and either splits the event, removing the silent parts from the project, or creates regions corresponding to the non-silent sections. Proceed as follows: 1.Select the event in the Project window or the Audio Part Editor. You can select several events if you like, in which case you will be allowed to make separate settings for each selected event. 2.Select “Detect Silence” from the Audio menu. The Detect Silence dialog appears.
NUENDO Audio processing and functions 15 – 393 3.Adjust the settings in the area below the waveform display. They have the following functionality: 4.Click the “Compute” button. The audio event is analyzed, and the waveform display is redrawn to indicate which sections will be considered “silent”, according to your settings. Setting Description Open Threshold When the audio level exceeds this value, the function will “open”, i.e. let the sound through. Set this low enough to open when a sound starts, but high enough to remove unwanted noise during “silent” sections. Close Threshold When the audio level drops below this value, the function will “close”. This value cannot be higher than the Open Threshold value. Set this high enough to remove unwanted noise during “silent” sec- tions. Linked If this checkbox is ticked, Open and Close Threshold will have the same value. Min. Opening TimeDetermines the minimum time that the function will remain “open” af- ter the audio level has exceeded the Open Threshold value. If the audio contains repeated short sounds, and you find that this re- sults in too many short “open” sections, try raising this value. Min. Closing TimeDetermines the minimum time that the function will remain “closed” af- ter the audio level has dropped below the Close Threshold value. Usually you would want to set this to a low value, to avoid removing sounds. Pre-Roll Allows you to have the function “open” slightly before the audio level exceeds the Open Threshold value. In other words, the start of each “open” section is moved to the left according to the time you set here. This is useful to avoid removing the attack of sounds. Post-Roll Allows you to have the function “close” slightly after the audio level drops below the Close Threshold value. This is useful to avoid removing the natural decay of sounds.
NUENDO 15 – 394 Audio processing and functions •If you like, you can use the Preview function to listen to the result. The event is played back repeatedly in its entire length, but with the “closed” sections silenced. 5.Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you are satisfied with the result. 6.Select what you want the function to do, by activating either the “Add as Regions” checkbox, the “Strip Silence” checkbox, or both. “Add as Regions” will create regions according to the non-silent sections. “Strip Si- lence” will split the event at the start and end of each non-silent section, and remove the silent sections in between. 7.If you activated “Add as Regions”, you can specify a name for the Re- gions in the Regions Name field. In addition to the name, the regions will be numbered, starting with the number speci- fied in the Auto Number Start field. 8.Click “Process”. The event is split and/or regions are added. The result of the “Strip Silence” option. •If you selected more than one event in step 1 above, the dialog will appear again, allowing you to make separate settings for each se- lected event.
NUENDO Audio processing and functions 15 – 395 The Spectrum Analyzer This function analyzes the selected audio, computes the average “spectrum” (level distribution over the frequency range) and displays this as a two-dimensional graph, with frequency on the x-axis and level on the y-axis. 1.Make an audio selection (a clip, an event or a range selection). 2.Select “Spectrum Analyzer” from the Audio menu. A dialog with settings for the analysis appears. The default values are chosen to give good results in most situations, but you can adjust the settings if you like: Setting Description Size in Samples The function divides the audio into “analysis blocks”, the size of which is set here. The larger this value, the higher the frequency resolution of the resulting spectrum. Size of Overlap The overlap between each analysis block. Window used Allows you to select which window type should be used for the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform, the mathematical method used for computing the spectrum). Normalized values When this is activated, the resulting level values are scaled, so that the highest level is displayed as “1” (0 dB). From Stereo When analyzing stereo material, there is a pop-up menu with the following options: Mono mix – the stereo signal is mixed to mono before analyzing. Mono left/right – the left or right channel signal is used for analysis. Stereo – both channels are analyzed (two separate spectrums will be displayed).
NUENDO 15 – 396 Audio processing and functions 3.Click the “Process” button. The spectrum is computed and displayed as a graph. 4.You can adjust the display with the settings in the display window: Setting Description dB When this is activated, the vertical axis shows dB values. When it is deactivated, values between 0 and 1 are shown. Freq. log When this is activated, frequencies (on the horizontal axis) are dis- played on a logarithmic scale. When it is deactivated, the frequency axis is linear. Precision Indicates the frequency resolution of the graph. This value cannot be changed here, but is governed by the Size in Samples setting in the previous dialog. Frequency/Note Allows you to select whether you want the frequencies to be dis- played in Hertz or with note names. Min. Sets the lowest frequency shown in the graph. Max. Sets the highest frequency shown in the graph. By adjusting the Min and Max values, you can take a closer look at a smaller frequency range. Active When this is activated, the next Spectrum Analysis will appear in the same window. When deactivated, new Spectrum Analysis results will appear in separate windows.
NUENDO Audio processing and functions 15 – 397 5.If you move the mouse pointer over the graph, a crosshair cursor fol- lows the graph curve and the display in the upper right corner shows the frequency/note and level at the current position. To compare the level between two frequencies, move the pointer to one of the frequen- cies, right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) once and move the pointer to the second fre- quency. The delta value (the difference in level between the current position and the right/[Ctrl]-click position) is displayed in the upper right corner (labeled “D”). •If you analyzed stereo audio and selected the “Stereo” option in the first dialog, the graphs for the left and right channel are superimposed in the display, with the left channel graph in white and the right channel graph in yellow. The display in the upper right corner shows the values for the left channel – to see the right channel values, hold down [Shift]. An “L” or “R” is displayed to indicate which channel values are shown. 6.You can leave the window open or close it by clicking the “Close” button. If you leave it open and the “Active” checkbox is ticked, the result of the next Spectrum Analysis will be displayed in the same window.
NUENDO 15 – 398 Audio processing and functions Statistics The Statistics function on the Audio menu analyzes the selected audio (events, clips or range selections) and displays a window with the fol- lowing information: Item Description Min. Sample ValueThe lowest sample value in the selection, as a value between -1 and 1 and in dB. Max. Sample ValueThe highest sample value in the selection, as a value between -1 and 1 and in dB. Peak Amplitude The largest sample value (in absolute numbers) in the selection, in dB. DC Offset The amount of DC Offset (see page 378) in the selection, as a per- centage and in dB. Estimated ResolutionEven though an audio file is in 16 or 24 bits, it may have been con- verted from a lower resolution. The Estimated Resolution value makes an educated guess about the actual audio resolution, by computing the smallest level difference between two samples. Estimated Pitch The estimated pitch of the audio selection. Sample Rate The sample rate of the audio selection. Min. RMS Power The lowest loudness (RMS) measured in the selection. Max. RMS Power The highest loudness (RMS) measured in the selection. Average The average loudness over the whole selection.
NUENDO 16 – 400 The Sample Editor Background The Sample Editor allows you to view and manipulate audio at the au- dio clip level, by cutting and pasting, removing or drawing audio data or applying effects. This editing can be called “non-destructive”, in the sense that you can undo changes or revert to the original versions at any point, using the Offline Process History. For details, see the section about non-destructive processing on page 360 and the description of the Offline Process History on page 386. The Sample Editor also contains most of the Audio warp related fea- tures. These are described in a separate chapter, see page 434. Opening the Sample Editor You open the Sample Editor by double clicking an audio event in the Project window or the Audio Part Editor, or by double clicking an au- dio clip in the Pool. You can have more than one Sample Editor open at the same time. •Note that double clicking on an audio part in the Project window will open the Audio Part Editor, even if the part only contains a single au- dio event. See page 422.