Steinberg Nuendo 3 Working With MIDI Manual

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Objects area (right) 
This area contains the predefined objects which can be dragged and 
dropped into the edit area. At the top of this area there is a pop-up 
menu where you can select Object categories; backgrounds, faders, 
knobs, data entry, switches and labels, see page 172.
Device item properties (bottom left)
This contains all data and options pertaining to the currently selected 
node, subnode or parameter.
• When a node or subnode is selected in the device structure, you can rename 
it and add or remove parameters, variables and subnodes. 
• When a parameter is selected in the device structure, you can edit its name, 
value and transmission type (Control Change or SysEx messages).
At the top you can see and edit the node name. In the Views area, you 
see the list of panels assigned to the current node. Using the buttons 
to the right of the list, you can add a new (blank) panel to a node, and 
edit or remove and existing panel. The way to reach a particular panel 
or subpanel is to select a node in the device structure area, and then 
select the desired panel in the Views window area. If you click the Edit 
Panel button, the panel will open in the edit area.
•It is also possible to drag a subnode’s panel from the “Views” area 
into the panel of a parent node.
Control to parameter assignment (bottom middle) 
This is where you couple parameters with controls. Once you have 
added a control object (knob, data entry, fader or switch), you can ei-
ther edit its parameter options directly, or – if you have defined para-
meters already – assign any of those parameters to your new control 
by first selecting the control, then selecting a Parameter in the Device 
structure area, then clicking on the Assign Parameter button.
All Templates list (bottom right)
As panels are created, they are added to the All Templates list. 
• You can switch between templates, copy objects that you need, switch back 
to the Panel you’re currently editing and paste the objects into that panel. 
						

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The available objects
On the Objects pop-up in the top right corner you can select between 
object categories. Faders, knobs, data entry and switches are control 
objects, i.e. you have to define a parameter assignment to them when 
inserted into the edit area, whereas labels and backgrounds are only 
graphic elements. The object categories are as follows:
Object category Description
Backgrounds Here you can select various background colors and borders.
Faders There are four basic horizontal and vertical fader/slider types, each 
with three options: basic, with title field, and with title field and min-
max values.
Knobs Various types of knobs, with and without title fields and min-max 
values.
Data entry Various types of data entry fields for entering values. There are data 
entry fields for direct entry, and data entry types for using up/down 
arrows or sliders (or both) to set values.
Switches Switches can only send two values. There are three basic types of 
switches: on/off, momentary and one shot. Momentary switches 
change to the second value as long as the switch is pressed and 
revert back when released. One shot switches activate a command, 
e.g. resetting a value to a default value.
Labels Labels of various sizes and styles. 
						

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Operations in the Edit Panel window
On the following pages, we will describe the basic operations in the 
Edit Panel window. For a more “hands on” description of how to cre-
ate panels, see page 178.
Creating a panel
1.Either create a new MIDI Device (see page 152), or select a preset 
device from the Add MIDI Device dialog, see page 168.
2.In the MIDI Device Manager dialog, select the device in the Installed 
Devices list and click the “Open Device” button.
Now the Devices window opens with the Device structure to the left.
3.Select the node, subnode or parameter you wish to add a panel to.
4.Click the Add Panel button, and select a name and size for the panel, 
see page 169.
The Edit Panel window opens.
When you have created a new panel you will see a light blue rectangle 
which defines the size of the Panel. When you click on the rectangle, 
resize handles will appear. These allow you to customize the Panel size. 
• If you are creating a specific Inspector or Channel Strip panel you 
should not resize the panel.
Adding objects and assigning parameters
You build a panel by dragging objects from the Objects area on the 
right hand side of the window into the rectangle in the edit area. 
						

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When you add graphic objects (backgrounds and labels) these are sim-
ply added to the edit area, but when you add control objects (switches, 
faders etc.), the Control Parameter Assignment dialog appears:
In this dialog you can create and define a name for the parameter and 
set the parameter value range and a transmission message (see be-
low). When you have set up the parameters as desired, click OK to 
close the dialog.
Parameter value
In the “Min” and “Max” fields you can set the value range for the para-
meter. The Default value determines what the value will be when you 
open the device.
Transmission
Here’s where you set the parameter assignment. Clicking in the value 
field opens a pop-up menu where you can select either “Channel Mes-
sages” i.e. MIDI Control Change messages, or SysEx messages. 
If you wish to create custom SysEx messages, click the “Create Sysex” 
button to open the respective dialog.
For information on SysEx and SysEx editing, see page 193 and the 
chapter “Working with System Exclusive messages”.  
						

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Object handling
Selecting objects
You select an individual object by clicking on it.
• Select multiple objects by pressing [Shift] and clicking on each object in turn.
• You can also click in an empty area and drag a selection rectangle around 
one or more objects, to select them.
Moving objects
Simply click-drag an object to a new location and drop it. 
• You can also use the arrow keys to move a selected object one pixel horizon-
tally or vertically. 
• If you press [Shift] the arrow keys will move the object in steps of 10 pixels.
Using cut/copy/paste 
You can use standard key commands ([Ctrl]/[Command]+[X], [Ctrl]/
[Command]+[C], [Ctrl]/[Command]+[V]) or the corresponding Edit 
menu items to cut, copy and paste selected objects.
Deleting objects
Select any object(s) and hit [Backspace] or [Delete] or select “Delete” 
from the context menu.
Resizing objects
Click on any object to make resize handles appear. Click and move 
the handles to resize the object.
Sending objects to front/background
Select an object and right-click/[Ctrl]-click to bring up the context 
menu. 
• Choose “To Front” to make the selected object the topmost one. 
• Choose “To Background” to place the object behind all other objects. 
						

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Editing text
Double-click on any text (text object or text label on a control object) 
and enter the text.
Aligning objects horizontally/vertically
Select multiple objects, then right-click/[Ctrl]-click to open the context 
menu. 
• For horizontal alignment, your options are Left, Centre and Right. 
• For vertical alignment, you can choose Top, Middle and Bottom.
Spacing objects evenly
Select multiple Objects and open the context menu. Select “Space 
Evenly Horizontally” or “Space Evenly Vertically” to place the objects 
in a row or column with identical distances between the objects.
Making objects the same size
Select multiple Objects and resize one of them. All selected Objects 
will be resized in accordance with the source Object.
Import Bitmap
You can use bitmaps (pictures) as backgrounds as well. Open the 
context menu and select “Import Bitmap…”. You can import custom 
bitmaps in the following formats: PNG (Portable Network Graphics), 
PSD (Photoshop) or BMP (Windows bitmap).
Edit Object Parameter
Double-click on a control object (knob, fader, data entry, switch) to 
open the Control Parameter Assignment window. In this window you 
can also assign previously defined parameters to an object by choosing 
one from the Assignment list, or create new parameters. 
						

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Panel Edit Settings
Test Template
Puts the currently edited panel into live test mode. All controls will be 
fully functional, transmitting MIDI data to the device. Activate this mode 
when you want to try out the panel to make sure that all parameters are 
set up correctly. You cannot edit objects while in test mode, so make 
sure to deactivate Test Template when you’re done testing.
Depth Focus
This is useful when editing very complex panels, or panels featuring 
nested views (subpanels). By enabling Depth Focus, you get a red 
rectangle around the area whose level is currently in edit focus. By 
double-clicking inside a subpanel, the red rectangle will mark the 
boundaries of the subpanel and you can only edit objects inside the 
focus area. For each double-click you go down one level. To go up 
one level, press [Return].
Use Raster 
This activates an invisible grid that objects will snap to when moved. 
The value (5 by default) dictates the resolution of the grid. With a value 
of 20, the raster will be made up of squares of 20*20 pixels in size. The 
raster is anchored in the top left corner of the actual panel (not in the 
edit area).   
						

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Building a control panel – a tutorial
In this tutorial we will create a simple control panel for a device:
1.Open the MIDI Device Manager window, and click the Install Device 
button.
Here you can choose from a list of pre-defined devices, or define a custom device. In 
this example we will use a Korg Triton preset.
2.Once you have installed the Triton device, select it by clicking on its 
name in the Installed Devices list and click the “Open Device” button.
Now you will see the Device structure to the left of the window. In this 
example, we will select Channel 1.
3.Select the Channel 1 node and click the Add Panel button.
Now you can set a size for the panel - see page 169 for details.  
						

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4.For this tutorial, select “Inspector size” and click OK.
The main Panel Edit window will now open. The blue rectangle is the panel edit area.
Now you can begin adding objects to the Panel. Let’s start with a suit-
able background. Backgrounds are selected from the area to the right 
of the edit area.
5.Drag a background object into the blue rectangle (in the edit area) 
and release the mouse button.   
						

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Once an object is selected you can adjust its size to your liking using 
the resize handles. 
6.Stretch this background so that it covers the entire Panel area.
All objects, both backgrounds and other, can overlap. By right-clicking/
[Ctrl]-clicking the object you can bring up a context menu with the items 
“To Front” and “To Background”. If you select an object and then select 
“To Front”, it will become the foremost object (while “To Background” 
results in the opposite). This is useful when you’re dealing with back-
grounds, labels and controls sharing the same panel space.
Now that the panel has a background, we can move on to control 
objects. 
7.Select “Knobs” from the Objects pop-up menu.
This brings up an assortment of rotary knobs.
8.Select one and drag it into the panel.