Steinberg Nuendo 4 Operation Manual

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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 
channels, it may be more efficient to set up a group channel and to apply 
your effect only once, as a single insert for this group. You can use the 
VST Performance window to keep an eye on the CPU load.
Routing an audio channel or bus through 
insert effects
Insert effect settings are available in the mixer (in extended 
mode), the Channel Settings window and the Inspector. 
The examples below show the Channel Settings window, 
but the procedures are the same for all three inserts sec-
tions:
1.Bring up the Channel Settings window, the Inserts 
pane in the extended mixer, or open the Inspector’s Inserts 
section.
In the Channel Settings window, the inserts are located to the far left by 
default.
2.Pull down the effect type pop-up for one of the insert 
slots, and select an effect.
The effect is loaded and automatically activated and its con-
trol panel opens. You can open or close the control panel 
for an effect by clicking the “e” button for the insert slot.If the effect has a dry/wet Mix parameter you can use 
this to adjust the balance between the dry signal and the 
effect signal.
See “Making settings for the effects” on page 182 for details about edit-
ing effects.
To remove an effect, pull down the effect type pop-up 
menu and select “No Effect”.
You should do this for all effects that you don’t intend to use, to reduce 
the CPU load.
You can add up to 8 insert effects per channel this way.
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.
Deactivating vs. bypassing
If you want to listen to the track without having it pro-
cessed by a particular effect, but don’t want to remove 
this effect completely from the insert slot, you can either 
deactivate or bypass it:
To deactivate an effect, click the blue button on the left 
above the insert slot.
To bypass an effect, click its Bypass button (the middle 
button above the insert slot).
When an effect is bypassed, this button is yellow.
Deactivating means to terminate all processing, whereas 
bypassing means to play back only the unprocessed origi-
nal signal – a bypassed effect is still processing in the 
background. Bypassing allows for crackle-free comparison 
of the original (“dry”) and the processed (“wet”) signal.
This effect is activated, and 
its control panel is open.
This insert effect is bypassed. 
						

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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” view mode is selected in the extended 
mixer, you will get an overview of which insert effects, EQ 
modules and effect sends are activated for the channel.
You can activate or deactivate individual insert effect slots 
by clicking the corresponding number (in the top part of 
the overview).
The channel overview in the Inspector.
Using mono or stereo effects with a surround 
channel
Whether your effect supports mono, stereo or multi-chan-
nel processing, depends entirely on the effect plug-in.
Normally, when you apply a mono or stereo insert effect to 
a surround (multi-channel) track, the first speaker chan-
nels of the track (often L and/or R) are routed through the 
effect’s available channels, and the other channels of the 
track are left unprocessed.However, you may want to apply the effect to other speaker 
channels. This is done in the Channel Settings window:
1.Right-click somewhere in the Channel Settings win-
dow (except the EQ display) to open the Channel Settings 
context menu.
2.Select “Customize View” from the menu, and select 
“Insert Routing” from the submenu.
The Insert Routing section appears to the left of the EQ display. It con-
tains a row of small signal diagrams.
3.Double-click on the small signal diagram for the effect 
to open the Routing Editor window.
The Routing Editor window.
The columns in the diagram represent the channels in the 
current configuration, with signals passing from top to 
bottom. The gray field in the middle represents the actual 
effect plug-in.
 The squares above the effect represent inputs to the effect 
plug-in.
 The squares below the effect represent outputs from the ef-
fect plug-in.
The blue color of inserts 1 and 2 and 
the blue Inserts State button in the 
channel strip indicate that this track 
has active inserts. 
						

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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 the effect inputs and out-
puts sideways to route the audio to/from inputs/outputs 
other than the standard configuration. To do this, click the 
arrow buttons to the right.
The upper two arrows move the input connections, and 
the lower two arrows move the output connections.
If the “Link” checkbox is activated, the input and output connections will be 
moved at the same time. This is the mode to use when you simply want to 
process other channels than the default, without any cross-connections.
If you move inputs or outputs independently of each 
other, this means you create a “cross-connection”.
The audio on the Ls-Rs channels is processed in the plug-in and output 
on the L-R channels. Since the L-R channels are bypassed, this means 
the final L-R output will contain both the original L-R signals and the 
processed Ls-Rs signals.
If a channel is bypassed (a straight line is shown 
through the plug-in) you can click the line to break the 
connection.
Click again to replace the broken connection with a bypass.
Clicking Reset takes you back to the original standard 
connection.
ÖChanges you make in this window are audible immedi-
ately.
Adding insert effects to busses
All input and output busses have eight insert slots, just like 
regular audio channels. The procedures for adding insert 
effects are the same.
Adding insert effects to an input bus allows you to 
record with effects.
The effects will become a permanent part of the recorded audio file (see 
the chapter “Recording” on page 64).
Insert effects added to an output bus will affect all audio 
routed to that bus, like a “master insert effect”.
Typically you would add compressors, limiters, EQ or other plug-ins to 
tailor the dynamics and sound of the final mix. Dithering is a special case, 
as described below.
ÖPlease note that the input/output busses only appear 
as tracks in the Track list, when their automation W(rite) 
buttons have been activated once. I.e. you can only use 
the Inspector section to make Inserts settings for the bus-
ses if you have activated Write automation for the respec-
tive bus beforehand.
However, you can always make Inserts settings in the Channel Settings 
window and the extended mixer.
Dithering
Dithering is a method for controlling the noise produced 
by quantization errors in digital recordings. The theory be-
hind this is that during low level passages, only a few bits 
are used to represent the signal, which leads to quantiza-
tion errors and hence distortion. 
For example, when “truncating bits”, as a result of moving 
from 24 to 16 bit resolution, quantization errors are added 
to an otherwise immaculate recording. By adding a spe-
cial kind of noise at an extremely low level, the effect of 
these errors is minimized. The added noise could be per-
ceived as a very low-level hiss under exacting listening 
conditions. However, this is hardly noticeable and much 
preferred to the distortion that otherwise occurs. 
						

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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) are most noticeable when 
mixing down to 8 bit, 16 bit and 20 bit format; whether to 
dither when mixing down to 24 bits is a matter of taste.
Applying dithering
1.Open the VST Output Channel Settings window by 
clicking the “e” button for the Output channel in the mixer.
You can also display the Inserts section in the extended mixer pane.
2.Open the Inserts pop-up menu for slot 7 or 8.
The two last Insert effect slots (for all channels) are post-fader, which is 
crucial for a dithering plug-in. The reason is that any master gain change 
applied after dithering would bring the signal back to the internal 32 bit 
float domain, rendering the dithering settings useless.
3.Select the included UV22HR dithering plug-in from 
the pop-up menu.
The included dithering plug-ins and their parameters are 
described in the separate manual “Nuendo Expansion Kit 
– Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”. If you have installed 
another dithering plug-in that you prefer, you can of 
course select this instead.
4.Make sure the dithering plug-in is set to dither to the 
correct resolution.
This would be the resolution of your audio hardware (on playback) or the 
desired resolution for the mixdown file you want to create (as set in the 
Export Audio Mixdown dialog, see the chapter “Export Audio Mixdown” 
on page 437).
5.Use the other parameters in the control panel to set up 
the dithering to your liking.
Using group channels for insert effects
Like all other channels, group channels can have up to 
eight insert effects. This is useful if you have several audio 
tracks that you want to process through the same effect 
(e.g. different vocal tracks that all should be processed by 
the same compressor). 
Another special use for group channels and effects is the 
following:
If you have a mono audio track and want to process this 
through a stereo insert effect (e.g. a stereo chorus or an 
auto panner device), you cannot just insert the effect as 
usual. This is because the audio track is in mono – the 
output of the insert effect will be in mono as well, and the 
stereo information from the effect will be lost.
One solution would be to route a send from the mono 
track to a stereo FX channel track, set the send to pre-
fader mode and lower the fader completely for the mono 
audio track. However, this makes mixing the track cumber-
some, since you cannot use the fader.
Here’s another solution:
1.Create a group channel track in stereo and route it to 
the desired output bus.
2.Add the desired effect to the group channel as an in-
sert effect.
3.Route the mono audio track to the group channel.
Now the signal from the mono audio track is sent directly 
to the group, where it passes through the insert effect, in 
stereo. 
						

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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 dialog is opened, allowing 
you to set a “Tail” time in seconds.
This adds time at the end of the rendered file to allow reverb and delay 
tails to fully fade out.
The program now renders the output of the track, in-
cluding all pre-fader insert effects, to an audio file.
This file is placed in the “Freeze” folder within the Project folder (Win-
dows). On the Mac, the Freeze folder is stored under “User/Documents”.
The frozen audio track is locked for editing in the Project 
window.
The frozen insert effects cannot be edited or removed and you cannot 
add new insert effects for the track (except post-fader effects).
On playback, the rendered audio file is played back. 
You can still adjust the level and panning in the Mixer, 
make EQ settings and adjust the effect sends.
In the Mixer, the channel strip for a frozen track is indicated by a “snow 
flake” symbol on the volume fader handle.
After freezing the Inserts for a track, you hear the track 
play back as before but the insert effects don’t have to be 
calculated in real time, easing the load on the computer 
processor. Typically, you would freeze a track when it’s 
finished and you don’t need to edit it anymore.
You can only freeze audio tracks this way, not group 
channel tracks or FX channel tracks.
The last two insert effects will not be frozen. This is 
because these are post-fader insert slots.
You can also freeze VST instruments and their insert 
effects – see “VST Instruments and Instrument tracks” on 
page 189.
Unfreezing
If you need to edit the events on a frozen track or make 
settings for the insert effects, you can unfreeze the track:
1.Click the Freeze button in the Inspector for the track.
You will be asked whether you really want to unfreeze the channel and if 
you wish to keep or delete the freeze files.
2.Click “Unfreeze” or “Keep Freeze files”.
This reactivates the frozen insert effects. Clicking “Keep Freeze Files” 
will unfreeze the channel but not delete the freeze files. After editing you 
can freeze the track again.
Send effects
Background
As their name implies, send effects are outside of an audio 
channel’s signal path, i. e. the audio data to be processed 
must be sent to the effect (as opposed to insert effects, 
which are inserted into the channel’s signal path).
To this end, Nuendo provides FX channel tracks. When 
you have created such a track, it is added to the track list 
and can be selected as a routing target in the Send slots 
of audio channels.
When selecting an FX channel track in one of the send 
slots of an audio channel, the audio is sent to the FX chan-
nel and through any insert effects set up for it.
Each audio channel has eight sends, which can be routed to different FX 
channels, and thus different FX channel insert effect configurations. You 
control the amount of signal sent to the FX channel by adjusting the ef-
fect send level.
If you have added several effects to the FX channel, the 
signal passes through the effects in series, from the top 
(the first slot) downward.
This allows for “custom” send effect configurations – e.g. a chorus fol-
lowed by a reverb followed by an EQ and so on.
The FX channel track has its own channel strip in the 
mixer, the effect return channel.
Here you can adjust the effect return level and balance, add EQ and 
route the effect return to any output bus.
Each FX channel track can have any number of automa-
tion tracks, for automating various effect parameters. 
See the chapter “Automation” on page 213 for more information. 
						

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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 
you like.
4.Click OK.
An FX channel track is added to the track list, and the selected effect, if 
any, is loaded into the first insert effect slot for the FX channel (in that 
case, the lit Inserts tab for the FX channel track in the Inspector indicates 
that an effect has been assigned and automatically activated).
All FX channel tracks you create will appear in a dedi-
cated “folder” track in the Track list.
This makes it easy to manage and keep track of all your FX channel 
tracks, and also allows you to save screen space by folding in the FX 
Channel folder.
FX channel tracks are automatically named “FX 1”, “FX 2” etc., but you 
can rename them if you wish. Just double-click the name of an FX chan-
nel track in either the Track list or the Inspector and type in a new name.
Adding and setting up effects
As mentioned above, you can add a single insert effect 
when you create the FX channel track. To add and set up 
effects after the FX channel track is created, you can ei-
ther use the Inspector for the track (click the Inserts tab) 
or the VST FX Channel Settings window:
1.Click the Edit (“e”) button for the FX channel track (in 
the Track list, mixer or Inspector).
The FX Channel Settings window appears, similar to a regular Channel 
Settings window.
To the left in the window is the Inserts section with eight effect slots.
2.Make sure the FX channel is routed to the correct out-
put bus.
This is done with the output routing pop-up menu at the top of the fader 
section (also available in the mixer and Inspector).
3.To add an insert effect in an empty slot (or to replace 
the current effect in a slot), click in the slot and select an 
effect from the pop-up menu.
This works just like when selecting insert effects for a regular audio 
channel.
4.When you add an effect, its control panel will automat-
ically appear. When you set up send effects, you would 
normally set the wet/dry Mix control to all “wet”.
This is because you control the balance between the wet and the dry sig-
nal with the effect sends. For more information, see “Making settings for 
the effects” on page 182.
You can add up to eight effects for an FX channel.
The signal will pass through all the effects in series. It is not possible to 
adjust the effect send and return levels separately for the effects – this is 
done for the FX channel as a whole. If what you want is several separate 
send effects (where you can control the send and return levels indepen-
dently), you should instead add more FX channel tracks – one for each 
effect. 
						

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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 bypass individual effects (or all effects) by 
clicking the corresponding Bypass button(s) for the FX 
channel track.
See “Routing an audio channel or bus through insert effects” on page 171.
You can also adjust level, pan and EQ for the effect re-
turn in the FX Channel Settings window.
This can also be done in the mixer or in the Inspector.
ÖRemember that the more effect units you use, the 
higher the CPU load.
Setting up the sends
The next step is to set up a send for an audio channel and 
route it to the FX channel. This can be done in the mixer (in 
the extended panel), in the Channel Settings window or in 
the Inspector for the audio track. The example below 
shows the Channel Settings window, but the procedure is 
similar for all three sections:
1.Click the “e” button for an audio channel to bring up its 
Channel Settings window.
In the mixer you would select one of the Sends modes for the extended 
mixer panel; in the Inspector you would click the Sends tab.
In the Channel Settings window, the send section is lo-
cated to the left of the channel strip by default. Each of the 
eight sends has the following controls:
 An On/Off button for activating/deactivating the effect
 A send level slider
 A pre/post-fader switch
 An “e” (edit) button
Note that the last three items are not shown until the send 
is activated and an effect has been loaded.2.Pull down the routing pop-up menu for a send by 
clicking in the empty slot, and select the desired routing 
destination.
 If the first item on this menu (“No Bus”) is selected, the send 
isn’t routed anywhere.
 Items called “FX 1”, “FX 2” etc. correspond to existing FX 
tracks. If you renamed an FX track (see “Adding an FX channel 
track” on page 176) that name will appear on this menu in-
stead of the default.
 The menu also allows for routing a send directly to output bus-
ses, separate output bus channels or Group channels.
3.Select an FX channel track from the pop-up menu.
Now the send is routed to the FX channel.
4.Click the power button for the effect send so that it 
lights up in blue.
This activates the send.
5.Click and drag the send level slider to a moderate 
value.
The send level determines how much of the signal from the audio chan-
nel is routed to the FX channel via the send.
Setting the Send level. 
						

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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 button or not.
This is done with the option “Mute Pre-Send when Mute” in the Prefe-
rences dialog (VST page).
When one or several sends are activated for a channel, 
the Send Effects buttons light up in blue in the mixer and 
the Track list. Click the button for a channel to bypass 
(disable) all its effect sends.
When the sends are bypassed, the button is yellow. Click the button again 
to enable the sends. Note that this button is also available in the Inspector 
and the Channel settings window.
Click this button to bypass the sends.
You can also bypass individual sends in the channel 
overview.
See “Insert effects in the channel overview” on page 172.
You can also bypass the send effects by clicking the 
“Bypass Inserts” button for the FX channel.
This bypasses the actual send effects which may be used by several dif-
ferent channels. Bypassing a send affects that send and that channel 
only. If you bypass the insert effect the original sound will be passed 
through. This may lead to unwanted side effects (higher volume). To de-
activate all effects, use the mute button in the FX channel.
Setting pan for the sends
By default, the sends for an audio channel follow any pan 
settings – stereo or surround – you make for the channel 
itself. This means that if an audio channel is panned to the 
right, the signal from its effect sends will be panned the 
same way, making the stereo imaging as clear and true as 
possible.
However, you may want to have different pan settings for 
the sends. There are several uses for this:
 If you route a send from a mono channel to a stereo FX chan-
nel track, you can position the send signal at center pan in the 
stereo FX channel (or anywhere you like).
 If you route a send from a stereo channel to a mono FX chan-
nel track, the pan control works as a crossfader, determining 
the balance between the stereo sides when the stereo send 
signal is mixed to mono.
 If you route a send from a mono or stereo channel to a FX 
channel track in surround format, you can use the surround 
panner to position the send signal in the surround image.
 If you route a send from a surround channel to an FX channel in 
a format with less channels, you can set the panning with the 
Mixconvert plug-in.
Input gain
Insert effects 1-6
EQ
Volume (fader)
Insert effects 7-8
Pre-fader sends
Post-fader sends 
						

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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 applicable). In the Control Strip section, you can 
activate the option “Link Send Routing Panners to Channel Panner as De-
fault”. When this is activated, the send panners follow the pan for the chan-
nel. This item is also available in the Preferences dialog (VST page).
The Sends, Send Routing and Control Strip sections in the Channel Set-
tings window.
4.Click and drag the pan control for the desired send(s) 
in the display.
You can reset the pan control to the center position by [Ctrl]/[Command]-
clicking on the pan control.
If the FX channel is configured in a surround format, the 
pan control will be a miniature surround panner, similar to 
the one found in the mixer.
You can click and drag the “ball” in the miniature panner display to posi-
tion the send in the surround field, or double-click in the display to bring 
up the surround panner. See the chapter “Surround sound” on page 202.
ÖIf both the send (the audio channel) and the FX chan-
nel are in mono, the pan control is not available.
About sends for FX channels
The FX channels themselves have sends, too. However, 
these can only be routed to output busses, not to effects.
Setting effect levels
When you have set up the sends as described in the pre-
vious sections, you can do the following:
You can use the send level slider in the Channel Set-
tings window, the Inspector or the extended mixer panel to 
set the send level.
By adjusting the send level, you control the amount of signal sent from 
the audio channel to the FX channel.
Setting the effect send level.
Link Send Routing 
Panners to Channel 
Panner
The Control Strip section 
						

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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 have sends routed to FX 
channels, this means you won’t hear the send effects for 
the channels.
To remedy this, you can use the Solo Defeat function for 
the FX channel:
1.[Alt]/[Option]-click the Solo button for the FX channel.
This activates the Solo Defeat function for the FX channel. In this mode, 
the FX channel will not be muted if you solo another channel in the mixer.
2.You can now solo any of the audio channels without 
having the effect return (the FX channel) muted.
To turn off the Solo Defeat function for the FX channel, 
[Alt]/[Option]-click the Solo button for the FX channel 
again.
Using the Side-Chain input
Many VST 3.0 effects feature a side-chain input. Side-
chaining allows you e. g. to lower the music volume when 
someone is speaking (“ducking”) or to use compression 
on e. g. a bass sound when the drums are hit, thereby 
“harmonizing” the intensity of the two instruments. An-
other possibility is to use the side chain signal as a source 
for modulation.
The following types of effects feature side-chain inputs:
Delay plug-ins
The included delay plug-ins with side-chain functionality are MonoDelay, 
PingPongDelay and StereoDelay.
Dynamics plug-ins
The included dynamics plug-ins with side-chain functionality are Com-
pressor, Expander, Gate and VintageCompressor.
Modulation plug-ins
The included modulation plug-ins with side-chain functionality are Auto-
Pan, Flanger, Phaser, StudioChorus, Tremolo and Vibrato.
Filter plug-ins
The included filter plug-in with side-chain functionality is the WahWah 
effect.
Setting up side-chain
ÖCertain combinations of tracks and side-chain inputs 
may lead to feedback loops and added latency. If this is 
the case, the side-chain options will not be available.
Delay plug-ins
The delay repeats can be silenced by side-chain signals 
exceeding a certain threshold.
You can use this feature to create a so-called “ducking 
delay” for your vocals. Let’s say you want to add a delay 
effect that is audible only when no signal is present on the 
vocal track. For this, you need to set up a delay effect 
which is deactivated every time the vocals start again.
!For detailed descriptions of the plug-ins that feature 
side-chaining, see the separate manual “Nuendo Ex-
pansion Kit – Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”.