Steinberg Nuendo 3 Operation Manual
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NUENDO Export Audio Mixdown 24 – 551 Mixing down to an audio file 1.Set up the left and right locator to encompass the area that you want to mix down. 2.Set up your tracks, so that they play back the way you want. This includes muting unwanted tracks or parts, making manual mixer settings and/or activating the R (Read) automation buttons for some or all mixer channels. 3.Pull down the File menu and select “Audio Mixdown…” from the Export submenu. The Export Audio Mixdown dialog appears. The upper half of this dialog is a standard file dialog, while the lower half contains file format options and settings for the mixdown function. Note that the available settings and options differ depending on the selected file format (see page 554).
NUENDO 24 – 552 Export Audio Mixdown 4.Select the bus or channel you want to mix down with the Outputs pop-up menu. This lists all output busses and channels in the active project. 5.Select the channel configuration for the mixdown file with the Channels pop-up menu. Typically you would select the same channel configuration as the bus or channel you’re mixing down, but it’s also possible to e.g. mix down a stereo bus to a mono file. In this case a warning will appear, asking if that’s what you want to do. Here you will also find the “N. Chan. Split” and “N. Chan. Interleaved” options – these allow you to create a surround mixdown file, either as one mono file per surround chan- nel – split – or as a single multi-channel file – interleaved. • The Channels pop-up and the “N. Chan” options are only available when an uncompressed file format is selected (AIFF, uncompressed Wave, Wave64 or Broadcast Wave). For the other formats you can select stereo or mono using controls that are specific to each format. When mixing down to 5.1 Surround, you also have the option to mix down to Windows Media Audio Pro (Windows only) – see page 563. 6.Select a file format with the File type pop-up menu. 7.Make additional settings for the file to be created. This includes selecting sample rate, resolution, quality, etc. The available options de- pend on the selected file format – see page 554. 8.If you want to automatically import the resulting audio file back into Nuendo, activate the “Import to” checkboxes. If you activate the “Pool” checkbox, a clip referring to the file will appear in the Pool. Activating the “Audio Track” checkbox as well will create an audio event that plays the clip, and place it on a new audio track, starting at the left locator. • The Import options are only available if you have selected an uncom- pressed file format (AIFF, uncompressed Wave, Wave64 or Broadcast Wave files). 9.If you activate Real-Time Export, the export will happen in real time, i.e. the process will take the same time as regular playback. Some VST plug-ins require this to have time to update correctly during the mixdown – consult the plug-in manufacturers if uncertain.
NUENDO Export Audio Mixdown 24 – 553 •When Real-Time Export is activated, the exported audio will be played back on the Audition bus. The fader below the Real-Time Export checkbox allows you to adjust the volume of the Audition bus. 10.If you activate Update Display, the meters will be updated during the export process. This allows you to check for clipping, for example. 11.Select a folder and a name for the audio file to be created. • With some file formats you can create split stereo files (see page 555). This will create two files (one for each side) with the same name, but with the letter “L” appended for the left channel file and “R” for the right channel file. In the same way, split multi-channel (surround) files will have the same name followed by a number indicating the surround channel. 12.Click Save. •Depending on the file format, an additional dialog may appear. For example, when exporting to MP3 format a dialog appears where you can add info about the song title, artist, etc. Make the desired settings and click OK to proceed. A dialog with a progress bar is displayed while the audio file is cre- ated. If you change your mind during the file creation, you can click the Abort button to abort the operation. •If you have activated any of the “Import to” options, the file will be im- ported back into the project. When playing back the re-imported file in Nuendo, remember to mute the original tracks so that you really hear the true result.
NUENDO 24 – 554 Export Audio Mixdown File format specifics The following pages describe the different export file formats, and their options and settings. • AIFF files (see page 554). • Sound Designer II files (Mac OS X only, see page 557). • Wave files (see page 557). • Wave 64 files (see page 559). • Broadcast Wave files (see page 559). • MP3 files (see page 560). • Ogg Vorbis files (see page 561). • Real Audio G2 files (Windows only, see page 562). • Windows Media Audio files (Windows only, see page 562). • Windows Media Audio Pro files (Windows, see page 563). • Steinberg also offers optional Dolby Digital (AC3) and DTS encoders for export directly to AC3 or DTS format. Please go to www.steinberg.net for more information. AIFF files AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format, a standard defined by Apple Computer Inc. AIFF files have the extension “.aif” and are used on most computer platforms. The following settings are available for the AIFF export file format:
NUENDO Export Audio Mixdown 24 – 555 Channels Resolution Allows you to select 8, 16, 24 bit or 32 bit (float) files. • If the file is an “intermediate mixdown” that you plan to re-import and continue working on in Nuendo, we recommend that you select the 32 bit (float) option. 32 bit (float) is a very high resolution (the same resolution as used internally for audio processing in Nuendo), and the audio files will be twice the size of 16 bit files. Option Description Mono The audio is mixed down to mono. Stereo Split Two mono files are created, one for each side of the stereo mix. The files will have the name you specify in the dialog, but with “L” and “R” added, respectively. Select this format if you plan to use the resulting file in another application that doesn’t support stereo interleaved files. If you plan to re-import the file into Nuendo, we recommend that you use the Stereo Interleaved option instead, since Nuendo doesn’t automatically handle stereo split files as one entity. Stereo Interleaved A stereo audio file is created. This is the recommended stereo op- tion if you want to re-import the file into Nuendo. N. Chan. Split This is used when you want to export surround channels or mixes (busses). Exporting with this option will create a set of mono files, with each file containing the audio of one of the surround channels. The number and configuration of the channels depends on the for- mat of the output bus (or channel) you have selected on the Out- puts pop-up menu. For example, if you have selected a 5.1 output bus this will result in six mono audio files. They will have the name specified in the File name field above, followed by a number (1-6). N. Chan. InterleavedThis is used when you want to export surround channels or mixes (busses). Exporting with this option will create a single audio file containing all surround channels. The number and configuration of channels in the interleaved file depends on the format of the output bus (or channel) you have selected on the Outputs pop-up menu. For example, if you have selected a 5.1 output bus this will result in a 5.1 audio file (containing six channels).
NUENDO 24 – 556 Export Audio Mixdown • If you are making a mixdown for CD burning, you should use the 16 bit option, as CD audio is always 16 bit. In this case, we recommend that you activate the UV-22HR dithering plug-in (see page 269). This reduces the effects of quantization noise and artifacts from being introduced when converting the audio down to 16 bit. • 8 bit resolution should only be used if required, since it will result in limited au- dio quality. 8 bit audio may be suitable in some multimedia applications, etc. Sample Rate This is the sample rate of the exported file. In most cases, you should select the sample rate set for the project, since a lower sample rate will degrade the audio quality (mainly reducing the high frequency content) and a higher sample rate will only increase the file size, with- out adding to audio quality. Also consider the future usage of the file – if you e.g. plan to import the file into another application, you should select a sample rate supported by that application. • If you are making a mixdown for CD burning, you should select 44.100 kHz, since this is the sample rate used on audio CDs. Broadcast options (embedded information) AIFF files exported from Nuendo can have some additional information embedded: date and time of creation, a timecode position (allowing you to insert exported audio at the correct position in other projects, etc.) along with author, description and reference text strings. •If the option “Include Broadcast Options in created AIFF Files” is acti- vated in the Preferences (Record-Broadcast Wave page), the exported AIFF file will contain embedded information. Some applications may not be able to handle AIFF files with embedded info – if you get problems using the file in another application, turn off the option and re-export. •If the option “Show Broadcast Options for AIFF Export” is activated on the same page, a dialog will appear when you click Save to export the file – use this to enter the desired embedded information. You can enter default text strings for author, description and reference on the same Preferences page – these will automatically appear in the Broadcast Options dialog when it appears.
NUENDO Export Audio Mixdown 24 – 557 Sound Designer II files (Mac OS X only) The SD II format was developed by Digidesign. It is one of the most popular audio file formats on the Macintosh, especially for professional audio work. The following export settings are available: Channels Allows you to select mono or stereo files, with the same options as for AIFF files (see page 555). Resolution The bit resolution of the file, with the same options as for AIFF files (see page 555), except that 32-bit (float) files are not supported. Sample Rate The options are the same as for AIFF files. See page 556. Wave files Wave files have the extension “.wav” and are the most common file format on the PC platform. Wave files can be uncompressed or com- pressed, as described below. For uncompressed Wave files (the most common choice), the following settings are available: Channels Allows you to select mono, stereo or multi-channel files with the same options as for AIFF files (see page 555). Resolution The bit resolution of the file, with the same options as for AIFF files (see page 555). Sample Rate The options are the same as for AIFF files. See page 556.
NUENDO 24 – 558 Export Audio Mixdown Coding (Windows only) The Coding pop-up menu allows you to select a compression scheme for the Wave file, creating smaller files (with a loss of audio quality). • Which options are available depends on the installed and activated codecs in the ACM (Audio Compression Manager) under Windows. See the operating system documentation for details. • When a compression option is selected, not all Channels, Resolution and Sample Rate options may be available (depending on the selected compres- sion scheme). The Attributes pop-up menu displays the currently selected properties for the file. • For regular, uncompressed Wave files, select “PCM / uncompressed Waves”. Wave files exported by Nuendo for Mac OS X are always uncompressed. Broadcast options (embedded information) Wave files exported from Nuendo can have some additional information embedded: date and time of creation, a timecode position (allowing you to insert exported audio at the correct position in other projects, etc.) along with author, description and reference text strings. •If the option “Include Broadcast Options in created WAVE Files” is activated in the Preferences (Record-Broadcast Wave page), the ex- ported Wave file will contain embedded information. Some applications may not be able to handle Wave files with embedded info – if you get problems using the file in another application, turn off the option and re-export. •If the option “Show Broadcast Options for WAVE Export” is activated on the same page, a dialog will appear when you click Save to export the file – use this to enter the desired embedded information. You can enter default text strings for author, description and reference on the same Preferences page – these will automatically appear in the Broadcast Options dialog when it appears.
NUENDO Export Audio Mixdown 24 – 559 Wave64 files Wave64 is a proprietary format developed by Sonic Foundry Inc. In terms of audio quality, Wave64 files are identical to standard wave files, but there is one major difference: •In the file headers, Wave64 files use 64-bit values for addressing where wave files use 32-bit values. The consequence of this is that wave64 files can be considerably larger than standard wave files. Wave64 is therefore a good file format choice for really long recordings (file sizes over 2GB), e.g. live surround recordings. Wave64 files have the same options as regular wave files (see page 557) and have the extension “.w64”. •If the option “Show Broadcast Options for WAV64 Export” is acti- vated in the Preferences (Record-Broadcast Wave page) a dialog will appear when you click Save to export the file. This allows you to enter information (date and time, description strings etc.) to be em- bedded in the file. Note that you can enter default text strings for author, description and reference on the same Preferences page – these will automatically appear in the Broadcast Options dialog when it appears. Broadcast Wave files Audio-wise, Broadcast Wave files are the same as regular Wave files. They have the same options as Wave files, but there are no Coding (compression) options for Broadcast Wave files. If the option “Show Broadcast Options for Broadcast WAVE Export” is activated in the Preferences (Record-Broadcast Wave page) a dia- log will appear when you click Save to export the file. This allows you to enter information to be embedded in the file: date and time of cre- ation, a timecode position (allowing you to insert exported audio at the correct position in other projects, etc.) and author, description and reference text strings. •You can enter default text strings for author, description and reference in the Preferences dialog (Record–Broadcast Wave page). These will automatically appear in the Broadcast Options dialog when it appears. •If you don’t want to add embedded information, you can deactivate “Show Broadcast Options” in the Preferences.
NUENDO 24 – 560 Export Audio Mixdown MPEG Layer 3 files MPEG Layer 3 files have the extension “.mp3”. By use of advanced audio compression algorithms, mp3 files can be made very small, maintaining good audio quality. The following options are available for MPEG Layer 3 files: Channels Use the radio buttons to select mono or stereo files. This setting af- fects which options are available on the Attributes pop-up menu (see below). Sample Rate Determines the frequency range of the audio – the lower the sample rate, the lower the highest audible frequency in the audio. This setting will also affect which options are available on the Attributes pop-up menu, as described below. Attributes This pop-up menu allows you to select a bit rate for the mp3 file. As a rule, the higher the bit rate, the better the audio quality and the larger the file. For stereo audio, 128 kBit/s is often considered to result in “good” audio quality. • Note that the available options on this pop-up menu depend on the Channels and Sample Rate settings. This is because for mono audio and/or low sample rates, there is no point in using the highest bit rates – they would simply create larger files without adding to audio quality. Quality These options determine the “depth” of the encoding algorithm and thus the quality of the resulting file. In the “Highest” mode, the encod- ing will take the longest time, while in the “Fast” mode, the audio qual- ity may be lower. The file size is not affected by these options.