Steinberg Nuendo 3 Operation Manual

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Playback and the Transport panel 3 – 41
•By creating cycle markers you can store any number of left and right 
locator positions, which can be recalled by simply double clicking on 
the corresponding marker (see page 178).
•The “Locators to Selection” item on the Transport menu (default key 
command [P]) sets the locators to encompass the current selection.
This is available if you have selected one or several events or made a selection range.
•You can also adjust the locators numerically in the Transport panel.
Clicking the L/R buttons in the locator section on the Transport panel will move the 
project cursor to the respective locator. If you press [Alt]/[Option] and click the L or R 
button, the corresponding locator will be set to the current project cursor position.
The Shuttle Speed control
The shuttle speed control (the outer wheel on the Transport panel) al-
lows you to play the project at any playback speed, forwards or back-
wards. This provides a quick way to locate or “cue” to any position in 
the project.
•Turn the shuttle speed wheel to the right to start playback.
The further to the right you move the wheel, the faster the playback speed.
•If you turn the wheel to the left instead, the project will play back-
wards.
Similarly, the playback speed depends on how far to the left you turn the wheel.  
						

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3 – 42 Playback and the Transport panel
Project scrubbing – the Jog Wheel
The middle wheel on the Transport panel serves as a jog wheel. By 
clicking and dragging it to the right or left you will move the playback 
position manually forwards or backwards – much like scrubbing on a 
tape deck. This helps you pinpoint exact locations in the project.
•Note that the jog wheel is an “endless dial” – you can turn it as many 
times as needed to move to the desired location.
The faster you turn the wheel, the faster the playback speed.
•If you click the jog wheel during playback, playback will automatically 
stop.
The nudge position buttons
The + and – buttons in the middle of the Shuttle/Jog Wheel allows 
you to nudge the project cursor position to the right or left, respec-
tively. Each time you click a nudge button, the project cursor is moved 
by one frame.  
						

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Playback and the Transport panel 3 – 43
Options and Settings
The “Return to Start Position on Stop” preference
This setting is found on the Transport page in the Preferences dialog 
(found on the File menu under Windows, on the Nuendo menu under 
Mac OS X).
•If “Return to Start Position on Stop” is activated when you stop play-
back, the project cursor will automatically return to the position where 
recording or playback last started.
•If “Return to Start Position on Stop” is deactivated, the project cursor 
will remain at the position where you stop playback.
Pressing Stop again will return the project cursor to the position where recording or 
playback last started.
About track disable/enable
For audio tracks, the track context menu contains an item named “Dis-
able Track”. This shuts down all disk activity for the track, as opposed 
to using Mute, which merely turns down the output volume for a track. 
For example, if you often record “alternative takes” you can easily build 
up a large number of takes on different tracks. Even though these 
tracks are muted, they are actually still “playing back” from the hard 
disk during playback. This puts an unnecessary load on your disk sys-
tem, so using “Disable Track” is recommended for such situations.
•Select “Disable Track” for tracks that you want to keep in the project 
for later use (but don’t want to play back now).
Select “Enable Track” from the track context menu to re-enable disabled tracks. 
						

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3 – 44 Playback and the Transport panel
Playback functions
Apart from the standard transport controls on the Transport panel, you 
can also find a number of functions that can be used to control play-
back on the Transport menu. The items have the following functionality:
The functions listed above (except “Play until Next Marker”) are only avail-
able if you have selected one or more events or made a selection range.
Option Description
Postroll from Selection 
Start/EndStarts playback from the beginning or end of the currently 
selected range and stops after the time set in the Postroll 
field on the Transport panel.
Preroll to Selection Start/ 
EndStarts playback from a position before the start or end of the 
currently selected range and stops at the selection start or 
end, respectively. The playback start position is set in the 
Preroll field on the Transport panel.
Play from Selection Start/
EndActivates playback from the beginning or end of the current 
selection.
Play until Selection Start/ 
EndActivates playback two seconds before the start or end of 
the current selection and stops at the selection start or end, 
respectively.
Play until Next Marker This activates playback from the project cursor and stops at 
the next marker.
Play Selection Range This activates playback from the start of the current selec-
tion and stops at the selection end.
Loop Selection This activates playback from the start of the current selection 
and keeps starting over again when reaching the selection 
end. 
						

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Playback and the Transport panel 3 – 45
About Chase
Chase is basically a function that makes sure your MIDI instruments 
sound as they should when you locate to a new position and start 
playback. This is accomplished by having the program transmitting a 
number of MIDI messages to your instruments each time you move to 
a new position in the project, making sure all MIDI devices are set up 
correctly with regard to program change, controller messages (such 
as MIDI Volume) etc.
For example, let’s say you have a MIDI track with a program change 
event inserted at the beginning. This event makes a synth switch to a 
piano sound.
In the beginning of the first chorus you have another program change 
event which makes the same synth switch to a string sound.
You now play back the song. It begins with the piano sound and then 
switches to the string sound. In the middle of the chorus you stop and 
rewind to some point between the beginning and the second program 
change. The synth will now still play the string sound although in this 
section it really should be a piano!
The Chase function takes care of that. If program change events are 
set to be chased, Nuendo will track the music back to the beginning, 
find the first program change and send this out, so that the synth is set 
to the right sound.
The same thing can apply to other event types as well. The Chase 
Events settings in the Preferences dialog–MIDI page determine which 
event types will be chased when you locate to a new position and 
start playback.
• Event types for which the checkbox is activated here will be chased.  
						

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3 – 46 Playback and the Transport panel 
						

							4
Recording 
						

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4 – 48 Recording
Background
This chapter describes the various recording methods that you can 
use in Nuendo. As it is possible to record both audio and MIDI tracks 
in Nuendo, both these recording methods are covered in this chapter.
Before you start 
This chapter assumes that you are reasonably familiar with certain ba-
sic recording concepts, and that the following initial preparations have 
been made:
•You have properly set up, connected and calibrated your audio hard-
ware. 
This is described in the Getting Started book.
•You have opened a project and set the project setup parameters to 
your specifications.
Project setup parameters determine the record format, sample rate, project length etc. 
that affect the audio recordings you make during the course of the project. See page 
111.
•If you plan to record MIDI, your MIDI equipment should be set up and 
connected correctly.
See the Getting Started book. 
						

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Recording 4 – 49
Basic recording methods
This section describes the general methods used for recording. How-
ever, there are additional preparations and procedures that are specific 
to audio and MIDI recording respectively. Make sure to read these sec-
tions before you start recording (see page 54 and page 75).
Record enabling a track
Nuendo can record on a single track or on several tracks (audio and/
or MIDI) simultaneously. To make a track ready for recording, click the 
Record Enable button for the track in the Track list, in the Inspector or 
in the mixer. When activated, the button(s) turn red, indicating record 
ready mode.
Record Enable in the Inspector, Track list and mixer.
• If the option “Enable Record on Selected Track” is activated in the Pref-
erences dialog (Editing page), tracks are automatically record enabled 
when you select them in the Track list.
• The exact number of audio tracks you can record simultaneously de-
pends on your computer CPU and hard disk performance.    
						

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4 – 50 Recording
Manually activating recording
You activate recording by clicking the Record button on the Transport 
panel or toolbar, or by using the corresponding key command (by de-
fault [*] on the numeric keypad).
Recording can be activated from Stop mode (from the current cursor 
position or from the left locator) or during playback:
• If you activate recording from Stop mode, and the option “Start Record at Left 
Locator” is activated on the Transport menu, recording will start from the left 
locator.
The preroll setting or the metronome count-in will be applied (see page 88).
• If you activate recording from Stop mode, and “Start Record at Left Locator” 
is deactivated, recording will start from the current project cursor position.
• If you activate recording during playback, Nuendo will immediately enter 
Record mode and start recording at the current project cursor position.
This is known as “manual punch in”.
Activating recording in Sync mode
If you are synchronizing the Nuendo transport to external equipment 
(Sync is activated on the Transport panel) and you activate recording, 
the program will go into “record ready” mode (the record button on 
the Transport panel will light up). Recording then starts when a valid 
timecode signal is received (or when you manually click the Play but-
ton). See page 570 for more information about synchronization.