Steinberg Nuendo 4 Operation Manual

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22.Channel Labels
These labels reflect the names created in the VST Connections window.
23.Talkback Level
This pop-up fader controls the amount of Talkback signal fed to the output 
of each Studio.
24.Talkback Enable
In order for Talkback signals to be routed to a Studio, this button must be 
lit. Clicking on it turns it on or off. When Talkback Enable is deactivated, 
the Talkback DIM setting has no effect on this output.
25.Metronome Mix
These level and pan controls determine how the Metronome will be 
heard in each channel. These controls are independent for each channel.
26.Metronome Enable
This determines whether click signals are sent to each channel. When lit, 
click signals will be heard in that output.
27.Channel Level Control
This is the main volume for each Control Room output. These faders do not 
affect recording input levels or the Main Mix level for exporting mixdowns.
28.External input switching
There are six available external inputs. These buttons determine which 
external input is currently being used. The names for each external input 
are displayed here as they were created in the VST Connections.
29.Signal Presence Indicators
In the Preferences dialog, there is the option to display these Signal 
Presence Indicators as a substitute for the full size meters.
The Monitor controls in the Control Room Mixer
30.Individual Speaker Solos
Each speaker icon is a solo button for that channel. [Shift]-clicking a 
speaker will solo all the speakers in that row (front or rear). [Ctrl]/[Com-
mand]-clicking on a speaker that is already soloed will mute that speaker 
and solo all other channels.
31.LFE Solo
The plus icon solos the LFE channel.
32.Solo Rear Channels
This solos all rear channels.
33.Listen to Rear Channels on Front Monitors
This button solos the rear channels and routes them to the front speak-
ers.
34.Listen to Solo Channels on Center Monitor
When this button is enabled, all speakers that are soloed will be heard in 
the center channel if there is one in the configuration. If not (as with stereo) 
the soloed channel will be heard equally in both left and right speakers.
35.Edit Down-Mix
Clicking on this tab opens the MixConvert plug-in used to down-mix mul-
tichannel signals for monitoring.
36.Down-Mix Labels
This area displays the names of the four down-mix presets. You may click 
on a name to change it. A “?” appears when there is no preset defined 
for that down-mix.
37.Monitor Labels
This area displays the names of the four possible Monitors. The names 
are created in the VST Connections when you define a Monitor channel.
38.Monitor Selection
These buttons select the current Monitor set. Each Monitor has its own 
settings including down-mix preset, solo enables, inserts, Input Gain and 
Input Phase. These settings are automatically recalled when a Monitor is 
selected.
39.Down-Mix Preset Selection
These buttons select the down-mix preset for the current Monitor.
40.Speaker Solo Defeat
This button defeats all speaker solos, resetting them for normal playback.
41.Solo Front Channels
This button solos all front speakers.
42.Solo Left and Right Channels
This button solos the left and right channels.
30.
31.
33. 32.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 
						

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Control Room
The Main Mix and the Control Room channel
The channel configuration of the “Main Mix” (the default 
output) determines what the channel configuration of the 
Control Room channel will be. Switching between a project 
that has a stereo Main Mix to a project that has a 5.1 Main 
Mix will cause the Control Room channel in the Control 
Room Mixer to change from a stereo to a 5.1 configuration.
The Main Mix configuration also determines the layout of 
the Speaker Solo panel. If the Main Mix is stereo, there will 
only be a left and right speaker in the solo panel.
Any external input that has more channels than the Main 
Mix will not be heard correctly when routed to the Control 
Room channel. Only the channels available will be heard.
ÖIf a 5.1 external input is routed to a stereo Control 
Room channel, only the left and right channels will be heard 
even if a 5.1 Monitor is selected. Only two channels can be 
routed through a stereo Control Room channel. You could 
use an instance of MixConvert on the external input’s in-
serts to down-mix the material to stereo in order to hear it.
Suggested settings
With all the versatility that the Control Room provides 
there are also opportunities for confusion when first set-
ting up the Control Room. The following list contains sug-
gestions that could help to quickly set up the Control 
Room to get started for recording and mixing.
 If you do not have a master recording device and only use the 
Export Mixdown function to create finished mix files, set your 
Main Mix output to “Not Assigned”. This eliminates many con-
fusing errors and unpredictable behavior since outputs and 
Control Room Monitors can share hardware outputs. The 
Main Mix is automatically routed to the Control Room channel 
and will not be affected.
 Create one stereo Monitor to familiarize yourself with the Con-
trol Room level controls, DIM settings, the Listen Bus and 
other monitoring features. Once you have become acquainted 
to some of these functions, create additional Monitors for ev-
ery set of speakers you intend to use.
 Use the inserts on Monitor channels for surround decoding 
and bass management plug-ins among other things.
 Use the inserts on the Control Room channel for metering and 
spectral analysis plug-ins. All solos including the Listen Bus 
will come through the Control Room channel allowing analysis 
of individual sounds. A brickwall limiter in the last insert of the Control Room chan-
nel can prevent accidental overloads and damage to speaker 
systems.
 Use the inserts for the Talkback channel to control the dynam-
ics of the talkback microphone. This will help protect perform-
ers’ hearing and ensure that everyone can be heard over the 
talkback microphone.
 Use the Gain settings on the external inputs to level balance 
CD players and other sources to the Main Mix level for A/B 
comparisons.
 Use the Gain settings on each Monitor to level balance all your 
monitor systems. Switching between sets of speakers will re-
sult in the same playback volume.
 Use the calibrated Control Room level for film or DVD mixing. 
Set this level to the proper speaker volume as determined by 
the mixing standard you choose to follow.
Control Room preferences
There are several preferences for the Control Room Mixer. 
These are found in the Preferences (VST–Control Room 
page).
The Control Room Preferences
Most of these preferences deal with what options are visi-
ble in the Control Room Mixer. This allows you to custom-
ize the layout of the Mixer and only have the controls 
visible that you use the most without added clutter. 
						

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Control Room
The other preferences have the following functionality:
Reference Level 
This setting determines the Control Room level used when the Refer-
ence Level button is activated.
Main Dim Volume 
This is the amount of gain reduction applied to the Control Room chan-
nel when the DIM button is activated.
Show Control Room Volume in Transport Panel
This option makes the small fader at the right hand side of the Transport 
Panel control the Control Room level. When this option is not activated 
(or the Control Room is disabled), that fader controls the level of the 
Main Mix bus.
Disable Talkback during Recording
When activated, this option will turn off the Talkback channel when the 
transport enters Record. It is advisable to set the Talkback DIM to 0dB 
when using this feature so as not to radically change the mix level when 
punching in and out of Record.
Use Phones Channel as Preview Channel
When activated, the Headphone output will be used for Preview options 
such as Import preview, scrubbing, offline process preview and certain 
Sample Editor operations. Note that when using the Headphones output 
for preview, the Control Room channel will no longer output preview audio.
Dim Studio during Talkback
When this option is enabled, the cue mix heard in a Studio will be dimmed 
(by the amount set in the Talkback dim level field (below the TALK button) 
for as long as the Talkback channel is used. When disabled, the cue mix 
level remains the same during Talkback.
Studios and Studio Sends
Studio Sends are displayed in the Nuendo Project Mixer 
and the Inspector. Each Studio Send is intended for the 
creation of a discrete cue mix for performers to listen to 
during recording. Studio Sends are essentially stereo aux 
sends that are routed to Studio outputs in the Control 
Room Mixer. There are up to four Studios and Studio 
Sends available.
Configuring Studio Sends
Studio Sends only become active when a Studio channel 
has been created in the VST Connections window. Other-
wise they remain grayed out. For every Studio defined in 
the VST Connections, every channel in the Project Mixer 
has an additional aux send with level, pan and pre/post-
fader selection. This aux send is used to create a mix for a 
performer to listen to while recording.In the Project Mixer, the Studio Sends are accessed by 
choosing the Studio Sends option from the View options 
pop-up menu in each channel or by clicking the star icon 
(“Show Studio Sends”) on the common panel of the ex-
tended Project Mixer.The Studio Sends view in the Project Mixer 
						

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Control Room
In the Inspector, a Studio Sends tab can be found. This 
will display all Studio Sends for the selected track.
Please note that not all Inspector sections are available by default. To 
show/hide a section, right-click on an Inspector section and activate/
deactivate the desired option on the context menu.
The Studio Sends tab in the Inspector
Each Studio can have a unique name in order to help 
identify what it is being used for. For example, the four 
Studios could be named:
 Vocalist Mix


 Drummer’s Mix
The name of each Studio is displayed in the Control Room 
Mixer. To hear the Studio Sends mix in the Studio output, 
the input selector for each Studio must be set to “Aux”.
A Studio channel in the Control Room Mixer with its input set to Aux.
Setting up a Studio cue mix
The Studio Sends are very flexible. There are several ways 
to create a cue mix for each Studio in a very fast and effi-
cient manner. Simple “more me” mixes and more complex 
discrete mixes are easily accommodated by the Studio 
Sends.
Using fader and pan settings from the Project Mixer
You can create a cue mix from the fader and pan levels al-
ready used in the Project Mixer and then alter them to 
meet the needs of an individual performer. You can do this 
with any single channel or group of channels at any time. 
To copy fader and pan information from the main mix, pro-
ceed as follows:
1.In the Project Mixer, select all the channels that you 
wish to copy settings from.
The following operations affect only selected channels. 
						

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Control Room
2.In the Control Room Mixer, right-click anywhere in a 
Studio Channel’s mixer strip and a context menu will ap-
pear that has the Studio’s name as a submenu.
This submenu contains all the Studio Send functions for that Studio. If 
you open the context menu outside of a Studio mixer strip, the submenu 
will be for All Studios. 
The Control Room Mixer’s context menu
3.Choose the “Use Current Mix Levels” option to copy 
the fader levels on the selected tracks to the Studio Sends.
This option sets all Studio Send levels for the selected tracks to the 
same level as the main channel fader. It also changes the Studio Send 
status to pre-fader so that changes in the main mix do not affect the Stu-
dio Sends.
4.Choose the “Use Current Pan Settings” option to 
copy pan information from the main mix to the Studio 
Sends on selected tracks.
Studio Sends are either mono or stereo. If the Send is mono, the pan 
setting will still be copied. However, the output of the Studio Send will 
sum the left and right channels together.
5.Choose the “Enable Studio Sends” option to activate 
the Sends on selected channels.
By default, Studio Sends are not enabled even when level and pan infor-
mation is copied to them. You must enable them in order to hear the Stu-
dio cue mix.
By copying the level and pan information from the main 
mix to the Studio Sends, a rough balance can be created 
in a matter of moments. Next, you may alter the level and 
pan settings on any channel’s Studio Sends to change the 
mix to meet the performer’s needs. This may require in-
creasing the volume of the performer herself. This is often 
referred to as a “more me” mix.
Adjusting the overall Studio Send level
Levels in the main mix are often optimized for the loudest 
signal level possible without clipping. However, when you 
are creating a “more me” mix, you may find that there is not 
enough headroom available in the Studio Send to turn up 
channels without clipping becoming a possibility.
Fortunately, the Studio Sends have an option to adjust 
multiple send levels at the same time, allowing you to keep 
the blend intact while lowering the overall volume to make 
room for “more me” signals.
Once you have created a Studio Send mix, proceed as 
follows to adjust their relative levels.
1.Select all the channels you wish to modify.
Only selected channels are affected by the context menu commands.
2.Right-click anywhere in the Studio mixer strip on the 
Control Room Mixer to open the context menu for that 
Studio. 
You may also use the context menu outside of the Studio strip to adjust 
all four Studio Sends on the selected channels at the same time.
3.Choose the “Change Studio Sends Level” option from 
the Studio submenu.
This will bring up a gain window with a checkbox that reads “Relative 
Mode”. Make sure this is activated if you want to adjust already existing 
levels.
4.Either use the up and down buttons or click on the nu-
meric readout to open a pop-up fader and adjust the gain 
as necessary.
The level of all selected Studio Sends will be adjusted by the amount 
shown here. For example, if the amount reads -3dB, then each Studio 
Send level is reduced by 3 dB. 
						

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Control Room
5.Click OK and the level change will be performed.
It is possible to view these changes as they occur if you have the Project 
Mixer open and the extended view set to show the Studio Sends.
Using Studio Sends from outputs
Each output also has Studio Sends. Studio Sends from 
the Main Mix output can be used to route the main mix in-
stantly to the Studio output. 
Any level changes made to the main mix will be reflected 
in the signal sent by the Studio Send. Setting the level 
lower than 0dB can leave headroom for “more me” signals 
in the Studio channel output.
Post-Fader Studio Sends
It is also possible to use the Studio Sends as post-fader 
aux sends. This is another way for the cue mix to follow 
changes made to the Main Mix. The Reset function is very 
helpful in this regard.
To reset the Studio Sends to the post-fader default level 
of -6dB, proceed as follows:
1.Select all the channels you wish to reset.
Studio Send commands only work on selected channels.
2.In the Studio Channel mixer strip right-click to open 
the context menu. In the Studio submenu, select the “Re-
set Studio Sends” command.
If you open the context menu in other areas of the Control Room Mixer 
besides the Studio mixer strips, the context menu commands will affect 
all Studios at the same time.
3.Selecting the “Reset Studio Sends” option changes 
the Send level of all selected channels to -6dB and sets 
the signal source to post-fader.
The -6dB level is designed to allow for headroom for “more me” signals 
in the Studio outputs.
Once all Studio Sends have been set to -6dB, post-fader, 
any changes to the main mix will also change the Studio 
mix. For “more me” channels, simply turn up the level on 
that channel or even set the signal to pre-fader for abso-
lute control.
Studio Send cue mix summary
Using various combinations of the above techniques 
should allow you to create complex discrete cue mixes for 
performers in very little time. Modifications to these mixes 
can occur in the Project Mixer or the Inspector, giving you 
the most accessibility for quick changes.
To familiarize yourself with how the Studio Sends work, 
open the extended Project Mixer and set the view to the 
Studio Sends. Follow the above examples and watch how 
the Studio Sends react to various commands. This should 
help you get a feel for how they function and increase the 
workflow productivity of recording sessions.
Direct Monitoring and latency
The Control Room and Studio Sends functions use the in-
ternal processing power of the host computer system for 
all routing and processing, which means they are subject 
to the computer’s latency.
When recording with several performers at once, a system 
capable of running at very low ASIO buffer settings will be 
necessary to take full advantage of all the Studio Send 
features. 
Studio Sends are not capable of controlling the Direct 
Monitoring features of various audio hardware interfaces. 
This means that unless the internal latency of the system is 
very low (128 samples or less), monitoring of record-en-
abled tracks through the Studio Sends will have some de-
lay that could affect performers during recording.
In the situation where internal latency is too much for 
record monitoring, it is advisable to use the Studio Sends 
for monitoring of tracks that have already been recorded 
and use normal Direct Monitoring for tracks currently be-
ing recorded.
!If you deactivate the “Relative Mode” option, all Stu-
dio Sends will be set to the same absolute level. 
While the dialog window is still open, you may check 
the “Relative Mode” box again and reload the previ-
ous relative levels. Only when you click OK, will the 
level settings be made permanent. Choosing Cancel 
returns all Send levels to their previous settings. 
						

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WK-Audio’s ID Controller
With the implementation of the Control Room Features, 
functionality for the Monitoring Section of the ID control 
surface has been enabled. The ID has controls for most of 
the Control Room features including:
 Control Room Level

 Control Room Level Meter

 Talkback (with built in mic preamp)
 Talkback DIM
 Listen Bus AFL/PFL

 Monitor Selection

 External Input Switching
 Headphones (with built-in headphone amp)

 Input Selection for Control Room and Headphones
!Complete documentation on the ID features is avail-
able from WK-Audio. 
						

							13
Audio effects 
						

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Audio effects
About this chapter
Nuendo comes with a number of effect plug-ins included. 
This chapter contains general details about how to assign, 
use and organize effect plug-ins. The effects and their pa-
rameters are described in the separate manual “Nuendo 
Expansion Kit – Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”.
Overview
There are three ways to use audio effects in Nuendo:
As insert effects.
An insert effect is inserted into the signal chain of an audio channel, which 
means that the whole channel signal passes through the effect. This makes 
inserts suitable for effects for which you don’t need to mix dry and wet 
sound, e.g. distortion, filters or other effects that change the tonal or dy-
namic characteristics of the sound. You can have up to eight different in-
sert effects per channel (and the same is true for input and output busses 
– for recording with effects and “master effects”, respectively).
As send effects.
Each audio channel has eight effect sends, each of which can be freely 
routed to an effect (or to a chain of effects). Send effects are practical for 
two reasons: you can control the balance between the dry (direct) and 
wet (processed) sound individually for each channel using the sends, 
and several different audio channels can use the same send effect. In 
Nuendo, send effects are handled by means of FX channel tracks. 
By using offline processing.
You can apply effects directly to individual audio events – this is de-
scribed in the chapter “Audio processing and functions” on page 238.
About VST 3 
The new VST 3 plug-in standard offers many improve-
ments over the previous VST 2 standard, yet retains full 
backwards compatibility, i.e. you will still be able to use 
your previous VST effects and presets.
Nuendo is able to run plug-ins originally developed for dif-
ferent platforms: you can use a 32-bit plug-in under Win-
dows Vista 64 bit, and you can use plug-ins developed for 
Mac PPC on MacIntel systems.
As the use of 32-bit plug-ins on 64-bit computers affects 
the computer performance, these will be marked by an 
icon in the plug-in menus.ÖPlease note that this functionality is provided to allow 
you to load older projects including their original plug-ins 
on current computers. However, the plug-ins will require 
higher CPU performance when compared to their native 
platform. Therefore, it is recommended to use 64 bit ver-
sions or Intel Mac (Universal Binary) versions of such 
plug-ins or instruments once available.
In the program, effects compatible with previous VST ver-
sions will be easily recognized:
VST Preset management
From a user perspective, the main difference between 
VST 2 and VST 3 is in the effect preset management. The 
“.fxp/.fxb” files used in VST 2 have been replaced by 
VST 3 Presets (extension “.vstpreset”). Using the preset 
management features, you can assign various attributes to 
your effect presets to help you quickly find the right patch. 
You can also preview effect presets before you load them. 
A large number of presets for effects are included with the 
program. If you have any previous VST plug-ins installed 
on your computer, you can still use them, and you can also 
convert their programs to VST 3 presets. See “Effect pre-
sets” on page 183 for details.
Smart plug-in processing
Another feature of the VST3 standard is “smart” plug-in 
processing. Previously, any loaded plug-in was processing 
continuously, regardless of whether a signal was present or 
not. In VST3, processing by a plug-in can be disengaged if 
there is no signal present. This can greatly reduce the CPU 
load, thus allowing for more effects to be used. 
This is achieved by activating the option “Deactivate VST3 
Plug-in when silence is detected” in the Preferences dia-
log (VST – Plug-ins page).
When this is activated, VST 3 plug-ins will not consume 
CPU power on silent passages, i.e. when no audio data 
runs through them.
!This chapter describes audio effects, i.e. effects that 
are used to process audio, group, VST Instrument 
and ReWire channels. 
An effect compatible with 
a previous VST version.A VST 3 
effect. 
						

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Audio effects
Be aware, however, that this can lead to a situation where 
you added more plug-ins on transport stop than the sys-
tem can handle on playback. Therefore, you should always 
find the passage with the largest number of events playing 
simultaneously to make sure that your system offers the re-
quired performance.
ÖActivating this option can increase your system perfor-
mance a lot in certain projects, but it also makes it more 
unpredictable whether the project can play back fine on 
any timecode position of the project. 
About side-chain inputs
Several VST3 effects feature side-chain inputs. This 
means that the operation of the effect can be controlled 
via external signals routed to the side-chain input. The ef-
fect processing is still applied to the main audio signal. 
See “Setting up side-chain” on page 180.
About plug-in delay compensation
A plug-in effect may have some inherent delay or latency. 
This means that it takes a brief time for the plug-in to pro-
cess the audio fed into it – as a result, the output audio 
will be slightly delayed. This especially applies to dynam-
ics processors featuring “look-ahead” functionality. 
However, Nuendo provides full plug-in delay compensa-
tion throughout the entire audio path. All plug-in delays 
are compensated for, maintaining the sync and timing of 
all audio channels.
Normally, you don’t have to make any settings for this. How-
ever, VST3 dynamics plug-ins with look-ahead functionality 
have a “Live” button, allowing you to disengage the look-
ahead to minimize latency, if they are to be used during real-
time recording (see the separate manual “Nuendo Expan-
sion Kit – Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”).
You can also constrain the delay compensation, which is 
useful to avoid latency when recording audio or playing a 
VST Instrument in real time. See “VST Instruments and In-
strument tracks” on page 189.
About tempo sync
Plug-ins can receive timing and tempo information from 
the host application (in this case, Nuendo). Typically, this 
is used to synchronize certain plug-in parameters (such as 
modulation rates or delay times) to the project tempo.
This information is automatically provided to any VST 
(2.0 or later) plug-in that “requests it”.
You don’t need to make any special settings for this.
You set up tempo sync by specifying a base note value. 
You can use straight, triplet or dotted note values (1/1 - 1/32).
Please refer to the separate manual “Nuendo Expansion 
Kit – Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4” for details about 
the included effects.
Insert effects
Background
As the name implies, insert effects are inserted into the 
audio signal path – this means that the audio channel data 
will be routed through the effect. You can add up to eight 
different insert effects independently for each audio chan-
nel (audio track, group channel track, FX channel track, 
VST Instrument channel or ReWire channel) or bus. The 
signal passes through the effects in series from the top 
downwards, with the signal path shown below:
Input gain
Insert effect 1
Insert effect 2
Insert effect 3
Insert effect 6
EQ
Volume (fader)
Insert effect 7
Insert effect 8
Insert effect 4
Insert effect 5