Steinberg Nuendo 3 Operation Manual

							NUENDO
Recording 4 – 61
Monitoring
In this context, “monitoring” means listening to the input signal during 
recording. There are three fundamentally different ways to do this: via 
Nuendo, externally (by listening to the signal before it reaches Nuendo) 
or by using ASIO Direct Monitoring (which is a combination of both of 
the other methods – see below).
Monitoring via Nuendo
If you monitor via Nuendo, the input signal is mixed in with the audio 
playback. The advantage of this is that you can adjust the monitoring 
level and panning in the mixer, and add effects and EQ to the monitor 
signal just as during playback (using the track’s channel strip – not 
the input bus!). 
The disadvantage of monitoring via Nuendo is that the monitored sig-
nal will be delayed according to the latency value (which depends on 
your audio hardware and drivers). Therefore, monitoring via Nuendo re-
quires an audio hardware configuration with a low latency value (see 
the Getting Started book). You can check the latency of your hardware 
in the Device Setup dialog (VST Audiobay page).
• If you are using plug-in effects with large inherent delays, the automatic 
delay compensation function in Nuendo will increase the latency.
If this is a problem you can use the Constrain Delay Compensation function while re-
cording - see the chapter “VST instruments” in the separate PDF document “Working 
with MIDI”.
When monitoring via Nuendo, you can select one of four modes in the 
Preferences dialog (VST page):  
						

							NUENDO
4 – 62 Recording
• Manual.
This option allows you to turn input monitoring on or off by clicking the Monitor button 
in the Inspector, the Track list or in the mixer.
• While Record Enabled.
With this option you will hear the audio source connected to the channel input when-
ever the track is record enabled.
• While Record Running.
This option switches to input monitoring only during recording.
• Tapemachine Style.
This option emulates standard tapemachine behavior: input monitoring in Stop mode 
and during recording, but not during playback.
External monitoring
External monitoring (listening to the input signal before it goes into 
Nuendo) requires some sort of external mixer for mixing the audio 
playback with the input signal. This can be a stand-alone physical 
mixer or a mixer application for your audio hardware, if this has a mode 
in which the input audio is sent back out again (usually called “Thru”, 
“Direct Thru” or similar).
When using external monitoring, you cannot control the level of the 
monitor signal from within Nuendo, or add VST effects or EQ to the 
monitor signal. The latency value of the audio hardware configuration 
does not affect the monitor signal in this mode.
• If you want to use external monitoring, you need to make sure that mon-
itoring via Nuendo isn’t activated as well.
Select the “Manual” monitoring mode in the Preferences dialog (VST page) and simply 
don’t activate the Monitor buttons. 
						

							NUENDO
Recording 4 – 63
ASIO Direct Monitoring
If your audio hardware is ASIO 2.0 compatible, it may support ASIO 
Direct Monitoring. In this mode, the actual monitoring is done in the 
audio hardware, by sending the input signal back out again. However, 
monitoring is controlled from Nuendo. This means that the audio hard-
ware’s direct monitoring feature can be turned on or off automatically 
by Nuendo, just as when using internal monitoring.
•To activate ASIO Direct Monitoring, open the Device Setup dialog on 
the Devices menu and check the Direct Monitoring checkbox on the 
VST Audiobay page.
If the checkbox is greyed out, your audio hardware (or its driver) doesn’t support ASIO 
Direct Monitoring. Consult the audio hardware manufacturer for details.
•When ASIO Direct Monitoring is activated, you can select a monitor-
ing mode in the Preferences dialog (VST page), as when monitoring 
via Nuendo (see page 61).
•Depending on the audio hardware, it may also be possible to adjust 
monitoring level and panning from the mixer.
Consult the documentation of the audio hardware if in doubt.
•VST effects and EQ cannot be applied to the monitor signal in this 
mode, since the monitor signal doesn’t pass through Nuendo.
•Depending on the audio hardware, there may be special restrictions 
as to which audio outputs can be used for direct monitoring.
For details on the routing of the audio hardware, see its documentation.
•The latency value of the audio hardware configuration does not affect 
the monitor signal when using ASIO Direct Monitoring. 
						

							NUENDO
4 – 64 Recording
Recording
Recording is done using any of the general recording methods (see 
page 49). After you finish recording, an audio file has been created in 
the Audio folder within the project folder. In the Pool, an audio clip is 
created for the audio file, and an audio event that plays the whole clip 
appears on the recording track. Finally, a waveform image is calcu-
lated for the audio event. If the recording was very long, this may take 
a while.
• If the option “Create Audio Images During Record” is activated in the 
Preferences dialog (Record page), the waveform image will be calcu-
lated and displayed during the actual recording process.
This real-time calculation uses some processing power – if your processor is slow or 
you are working on a CPU-intensive project you should consider turning this option off.
Undoing recording
If you decide that you don’t like what you just recorded, you can delete 
it by selecting Undo from the Edit menu. The following will happen:
• The event(s) you just created will be removed from the Project window.
• The audio clip(s) in the Pool will be moved to the Trash folder.
• The recorded audio file(s) will not be removed from the hard disk.
However, since their corresponding clips are moved to the Trash folder, you can delete 
the files by opening the Pool and selecting “Empty Trash” from the Pool menu. 
						

							NUENDO
Recording 4 – 65
Recording overlapping events
The basic rule for audio tracks is that each track can play back a sin-
gle audio event at a time. This means that if two or more events are 
overlapping, only one of them will be heard at any given time.
What happens when you record overlapping events (record in an area 
where there’s already events on the track) depends on the Linear 
Record Mode setting on the Transport panel:
•In “Normal” or “Merge” mode, recording where something has already 
been recorded creates a new audio event that overlaps the previous 
one(s).
When you record audio there is no difference between “Normal” and “Merge” mode – 
the difference only applies to MIDI recording (see page 80).
•In “Replace” mode, existing events (or portions of events) that are 
overlapped by the new recording will be removed.
This means that if you record a section in the middle of a longer existing recording, that 
original event will be cut into two events with a gap for the new event.
Which event will be heard?
If two or more events are overlapping, you will only hear the events (or 
portions of events) that are actually visible. Overlapped (hidden) 
events or sections are not played back.
•The functions “Move to Front” and “Move to Back” on the Edit menu 
(see page 132) are useful for managing overlapping events, as is the 
“To Front” function (see below).   
						

							NUENDO
4 – 66 Recording
Recording audio in cycle mode
If you are recording audio in cycle mode, the result depends on two 
factors:
•The Cycle Record Mode setting on the Transport panel.
•The “Audio Cycle Record Mode” setting in the Preferences dialog 
(Record page).
Cycle Record Modes on the Transport panel
There are five different modes on the Transport panel, but the differ-
ences between two of the modes only apply to MIDI recording. For 
audio cycle recording, the following applies:
•If “Keep Last” is selected, the last complete “take” (the last completely 
recorded lap) is kept as an audio event.
In reality, all laps you recorded are saved in one audio file divided into regions – one re-
gion for each take. You can easily select a previous take for playback – this is done as 
when recording in “Create Regions” mode (see page 68).
•If “Stacked” is selected, each take will appear as an event on a sepa-
rate “lane” on the track.
This is useful when you want to view and edit the different takes and eventually com-
bine them to one recording. In this mode, the Audio Cycle Record Mode preference 
doesn’t matter. Stacked 2 (No Mute) is the same as Stacked, except that all the takes 
will be audible. See page 70. 
•If any of the other cycle recording modes is selected, the result de-
pends entirely on the Audio Cycle Record Mode setting in the Prefer-
ences.
These options are described below.  
						

							NUENDO
Recording 4 – 67
Create Events mode (Preferences)
When Audio Cycle Record Mode (Preferences–Record page) is set 
to “Create Events”, the following will happen when you record audio 
in cycle mode:
• One continuous audio file is created during the entire recording process. 
• For each recorded lap of the cycle, one audio event is created.
The events will have the name of the audio file plus the text “Take *”, where “*” indi-
cates the number of the take.
• The last take (the last recorded lap) will be on top (and will thus be the one 
you hear when you activate playback).
To select another take for playback, proceed a follows:
1.Right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) the event and select “To Front” 
from the pop-up menu that appears.
A submenu appears, listing all the other (obscured) events.
2.Select the desired take.
The corresponding event is brought to front.   
						

							NUENDO
4 – 68 Recording
This method allows you to quickly combine the best parts of each 
take, in the following way:
1.Use the Scissors tool to split the events in several sections, one for 
each part of the take.
For example, if you recorded four lines of vocals (in each take), you can split the events 
so that each line gets a separate event.
The events after splitting. Note that since the original take events overlap each 
other, clicking with the Scissors tool will split all takes at the same position.
2.For each section of the take, use the “To Front” function to bring the 
best take to the front.
This way, you can quickly combine the best sections of each take, using the first vocal 
line from one take, the second line from another take and so on.
You can also compile a “perfect” take in the Audio Part Editor, as de-
scribed on page 430.
Create Regions mode (Preferences)
When Audio Cycle Record Mode (Preferences–Record page) is set 
to “Create Regions”, the following will happen when you record audio 
in cycle mode:
• One continuous audio file is created during the entire recording process. 
• The audio event in the Project window shows the name of the audio file plus 
the text “Take *” (with “*” being the number of the last completed cycle lap).
• If you play back the recorded event, you will only hear what was recorded dur-
ing the last lap of the cycle recording. 
The previous “takes” recorded in the cycle are still available, however.   
						

							NUENDO
Recording 4 – 69
• The audio clip is divided into regions (called takes), one for each lap of the cy-
cle that was recorded.
If you locate the audio file you just recorded in the Pool, and click on the plus sign be-
side it, you can see the regions that have been created, one for each lap of the cycle 
that was completed during recording.
“Take” regions in the Pool window.
To play back the different “takes”, proceed as follows:
1.In the Project window, right-click (Win) or [Ctrl]-click (Mac) the event 
that was created during cycle recording.
The Quick menu appears.
2.Select the “Set To Region” menu item.
A submenu appears with the takes you recorded during cycle record.
3.Now you can freely select any of the takes from the submenu and it 
will replace the previous take event in the Project window.
Use this method to listen through the various takes. Select the best 
single take, or compile a “perfect” take by cutting out the best bits 
from each take and putting them together (see page 430).   
						

							NUENDO
4 – 70 Recording
Create Events + Regions mode (Preferences)
In this mode, both events and regions are created. If you work with the 
takes as events in this mode, you can edit the events freely (e.g. split-
ting them as described on page 67). However, in case you want to go 
back to the original takes, they are still available as regions (on the 
“Set To Region” submenu, in the Pool or in the Sample Editor).
Recording audio in Stacked mode
When you record audio in cycle mode and the “Stacked” Cycle Record 
Mode is selected on the Transport panel, the following happens: 
• Each complete recorded cycle lap is turned into a separate audio event.
• The track is divided into “lanes”, one for each cycle lap.
• The events are stacked above each other, each on a different lane.
This makes it easy to create a “perfect take” by combining the best 
parts from the different cycle laps:
1.Zoom in so you can work comfortably with the stacked events.
If you play back the recorded section, only the lowest (last) take will 
be heard. 
2.To audition another take, either mute the lower take(s) with the Mute 
tool or move the takes between the lanes.
This can be done by dragging or by using the functions Move to Next Lane/Previous 
Lane on the Quick menu or Edit menu.