Steinberg Nuendo 4 Manual

171
Audio effects
As you can see, the last two insert slots (for any channel) 
are post-EQ and post-fader. Post-fader slots are best 
suited for insert effects where you don’t want the level to 
be changed after the effect, such as dithering (see “Dith-
ering” on page 173) and maximizers – both typically used 
as insert effects for output busses.
ÖApplying several effects on several channels may be 
too much for your CPU to handle!
If you want to use the same effect with the same settings on several...

172
Audio effects
To bypass all inserts for a track, click the global bypass 
button. 
This button can be found at the top of the Inserts section in the Inspector 
or the Channel Settings window. It lights up in yellow to indicate that the 
inserts of this track are bypassed. In the track list and the channel strip in 
the mixer, the Inserts State button will also light up in yellow.
Insert effects in the channel overview
If the “Channel” section is selected in the Inspector or the 
“Channel Overview”...

173
Audio effects
 A line that passes through the effect (with no square input/
output indicators) represent a bypass connection – the audio 
on that speaker channel passes the effect without being pro-
cessed.
 A “broken” line indicates a broken connection – the audio on 
that speaker channel will not pass on to the output at all.
Here, the effect will process the L and R channels. The Ls, Rs and C 
channels are not processed, while the Lfe connection is broken.
Operations
You can move connections to...

174
Audio effects
When should I use dithering?
Consider dithering when you mix down to a lower reso-
lution, either in real-time (playback) or with the Export Au-
dio Mixdown function. 
A typical example is when you mix down a project to a 16-bit stereo au-
dio file for audio CD burning.
What is a “lower resolution” then? Well, Nuendo uses 32-
bit float resolution internally, which means that all integer 
resolutions (16 bit, 24 bit, etc.) are lower. The negative ef-
fects of truncation (no dithering)...

175
Audio effects
Freezing (rendering) insert effects for a track
Effect plug-ins can sometimes require a lot of processor 
power. If you are using a large number of insert effects for 
a track, you may eventually reach a point where the com-
puter cannot play back the track properly (the CPU over-
load indicator in the VST Performance window lights up, 
you get crackling sounds, etc.).
To remedy this, you can freeze the track, by clicking the 
Freeze button in the Inspector.
The Freeze Channel Options...

176
Audio effects
Setting up send effects
Adding an FX channel track
1.Pull down the Project menu and select “FX Channel” 
from the “Add Track” submenu.
A dialog appears.
2.Select a channel configuration for the FX channel 
track.
Normally, stereo is a good choice since most effect plug-ins have stereo 
outputs.
3.Select an effect for the FX channel track.
This is not strictly necessary at this point – you can leave the plug-in 
pop-up menu set to “No Effect” and add effects to the FX channel later if...

177
Audio effects
You can reorder the effects by clicking in the area above 
the name field and dragging the effect onto another slot.
You can copy an effect into another effect slot (for the 
same channel or between channels) by holding down 
[Ctrl]/[Command] and dragging it onto another effect slot.
To remove an insert effect from a slot, click in the slot 
and select “No Effect” from the pop-up menu.
You should do this for all effects that you don’t intend to use, to reduce 
the CPU load.
You can...

178
Audio effects
6.If you want the signal to be sent to the FX channel be-
fore the audio channel’s volume fader in the mixer, click on 
the Pre-Fader button for the send so that it lights up.
Normally you want the effect send to be proportional to the channel vol-
ume (post-fader send). The picture below shows where the sends are 
“tapped” from the signal in pre and post-fader mode.
A send set to pre-fader mode.
ÖYou can choose whether a send in pre-fader mode 
should be affected by the channel’s Mute...

179
Audio effects
You set up send panning in the following way:
1.Open the Channel Settings window for the audio 
channel.
2.Right-click somewhere in the Channel settings win-
dow (not the EQ display), to open the context menu and 
open the “Customize View” submenu.
3.From the submenu, select “Send Routing” and “Con-
trol Strip”.
In the Send Routing section of the Channel Settings window, each send is 
shown as a small routing diagram showing a pre/post selector to the right 
and a pan fader (where...

180
Audio effects
In the mixer, you can use the level fader for the FX chan-
nel to set the effect return level.
By adjusting the return level, you control the amount of the signal sent 
from the FX channel to the output bus.
Setting the effect return level.
FX channels and the Solo Defeat function
When mixing, you might sometimes want to solo specific 
audio channels, and listen only to these while other chan-
nels are muted. However, this will mute all FX channels as 
well. If the soloed audio channels...