Steinberg Nuendo 4 Operation Manual

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SoundFrame 
						

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SoundFrame
Introduction
One of the biggest challenges in typical project studio en-
vironments is how to manage the ever-growing number of 
plug-ins, instruments, presets, etc. Nuendo provides a 
truly universal, fully integrated solution to this problem: 
SoundFrame.
What constitutes SoundFrame?
The Nuendo SoundFrame is what links the MediaBay and 
instrument tracks as well as track and VST3 presets. 
The MediaBay is a universal Media Management Sys-
tem providing different views that allows you to find and 
tag media files, quickly import media files into projects and 
more (see “The MediaBay” on page 314).
Instrument tracks are a sound-oriented combination of 
MIDI tracks and VST Instruments, another way of applying 
sounds to tracks easily (see “VST Instruments and Instru-
ment tracks” on page 189).
Track presets are a combination of track settings, ef-
fects and mixer settings that can be applied to new tracks 
of various types. So right from the start, you can set up 
your tracks for a specific sound (see “Track Presets” on 
page 327). With the introduction of the VST3 plug-in standard, Nu-
endo makes use of VST presets as an additional way to 
apply sounds to instrument tracks and effects to audio 
track (see “Inserts and EQ settings from track presets” on 
page 337). Plug-in parameters can be saved as VST pre-
sets, and you can also generate VST presets (i. e. sounds) 
from VST2 Instruments.
You can identify SoundFrame features through the 
SoundFrame logo.
The SoundFrame logo
The SoundFrame logo is used in various places in Nu-
endo, for example:
In the Inspector as a button for applying track presets.
You will only see track presets corresponding to the type of track you are 
working on.
The Nuendo SoundFrame 
						

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SoundFrame
In the Inspector for instrument tracks as a button for ex-
tracting sounds.
In the Inspector or the Channel settings window as but-
tons for extracting Inserts or EQ settings from track presets.
What can SoundFrame do for you?
SoundFrame allows you to manage any sound from any 
software or hardware synthesizer under a single, unified 
user interface.
SoundFrame can help you find any sound, not only by in-
strument but also by category, type, style, character or 
other attributes (Track presets organized in the MediaBay).
SoundFrame comes with more than 1000 ready-to-play 
sounds, which are also conveniently organized by instru-
ment category, type, and character. These can even be in-
stantly previewed before loading (Instrument track presets 
managing the VST instruments – again organized in the 
MediaBay).
SoundFrame can manage your VST plug-in presets. 
These can be organized and categorized to form one big 
effects library (VST presets organized in the MediaBay). 
						

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The MediaBay 
						

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The MediaBay
Introduction
Modern media production involves having to deal with a 
multitude of media files, e. g. audio, MIDI, video, etc.
Nuendo features a powerful media file management data-
base that allows you to control all your media files from 
within your sequencer program. This may involve several 
different tasks: 
You can browse the folders of your file system to view 
folders and files.
You can define searches to find specific files and filter 
the search results.
You can organize your files in a folder structure.
You can use the tagging features to assign your files to 
specific categories, and use these categories as the basis 
for your searches.
Which file formats are supported?
The following media file formats are supported by the Nu-
endo Media Management System:
Audio: .wav, .w64, .aiff, .aifc, .rex, .rx2, .mp3, .mp2, .ogg, 
.sd2, .wma (Windows only)
MIDI: .mid and .midiloop
Track Presets: .trackpreset
These are templates for audio tracks, MIDI tracks and instrument tracks. 
Track Presets are described in detail in the chapter “Track Presets” on 
page 327.
VST Presets: .vstpreset
VST presets are files containing all parameter settings for a particular 
VST plug-in. VST preset files are described in detail in the section “In-
serts and EQ settings from track presets” on page 337.
Video: .avi, .mov, .qt, .mpg, .wmv (Windows only)
Project files (from Cubase, Nuendo, Sequel): .cpr, .npr, 
.steinberg-project
Accessing the Media Management System
Nuendo provides the following options to access the 
Media Management System:
Pull down the Media menu and select “Open MediaBay”, 
“Open Loop Browser” or “Open Sound Browser” (or use 
the respective key commands).
When one of these windows is open, selecting the menu option or using 
the key command will close it instead.
The preconfigured windows of the Media 
Management System
The Media Management System in Nuendo can be ac-
cessed via the MediaBay, the Loop Browser or the Sound 
Browser.
Which of these to use depends entirely on your working 
environment, and you may find that you want to change 
the default setup to better meet your requirements.
By default, the MediaBay is configured to show all win-
dow sections and display all file types. The default search 
mode is Details search.
If you want to work on media files of various types, if you have to move 
files to different locations using the Browser section, or if you want to 
perform other general file management tasks, the MediaBay is probably 
the best view configuration.
The Loop Browser is configured to show audio files, with 
Category search mode selected by default.
Use this if your focus is on audio files of any kind.
The Sound Browser is focussed on the SoundFrame 
node (see “The SoundFrame node” on page 318). Its filter 
buttons are set to showing track preset and VST preset 
files. Its default search mode is the Category search.
Use this if you want to work with the available presets.
Whenever you read about the “MediaBay” in this manual, 
please remember the following:
ÖThe MediaBay is only one of these three preconfigured 
views of the Nuendo Media Management System. In the 
MediaBay window, all controls of the Media Management 
System are visible by default, so we will refer to the Media-
Bay throughout this manual when describing functions. 
However, what you can do in the MediaBay can also be 
done in the Loop Browser and the Sound Browser. 
						

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The MediaBay
Window overview
The info line
The info line is located at the bottom of the window.
The info line shows the number of files displayed in the 
Viewer section and the path to the folder selected in the 
Browser section in which these files were found.
MediaBay sections
You can use the three buttons below the Browser section 
to show/hide the respective sections in the MediaBay 
window. The Viewer section cannot be hidden.
Click this button to hide the Browser section.
You can change the size of the individual sections by 
dragging the divider line between two sections.
When saving a Nuendo project, the current status of the 
MediaBay is also saved.
This means that if the MediaBay was open when you saved a project, it 
will be opened again the next time you open this particular project. The 
last MediaBay window configuration will also be restored.
Browsing for media files
To the left in the default MediaBay window you will find 
the Browser section. 
The Browser section of the MediaBay window
ÖNote that the Browser section can only show folders; 
any media files contained in a selected folder are dis-
played in the Viewer section to the right.
This also depends on the “Deep Results” setting, see “Filtering the 
Viewer display” on page 319.
The Scope section, 
see “Previewing files 
in the Scope sec-
tion” on page 322. The Tag Editor, see 
“The Tag Editor” 
on page 323.
The Viewer 
section, see 
“Finding files 
in the Viewer 
section” on 
page 319. The Browser 
section, see 
“Browsing for 
media files” 
on page 316.The Filter section, see “Finding files in the Viewer section” on page 319. 
						

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The MediaBay
Scanning operations
When you open the MediaBay, the Loop Browser or the 
Sound Browser for the first time, a scan for the media files 
needs to be performed. Specify which folders or directories 
should be included in the scan by activating the check 
boxes to the left of their name. Depending on the amount of 
media files on your computer, the scan may take a while. 
The scan result is saved in the MediaBay database. 
To include a folder, activate its check box.
These folders will be scanned for files.
You can also only scan individual subfolders.
This will be reflected in the icon for the folder the subfolder resides in.
Only the VST3 Presets subfolder of the Factory Content folder will be 
scanned for files. The Track presets folder will not be searched.
When you select a folder in the Browser display, the 
MediaBay will scan this folder and all its subfolders for 
media files, even if they have been scanned before (unless 
“Rescan on select” is deactivated, see below).
When “Stop scanning folders when closing MediaBay” 
is activated in the Preferences dialog (MediaBay page), 
Nuendo will scan for media files only when the MediaBay 
window is open. When this is deactivated, the folders will 
be scanned in the background, even when the MediaBay 
window is not open.
Even if scanning in the background is activated, Nuendo will not scan 
folders while playing back or recording.
Scanning indicator and status
At the top right in the in the Viewer section, you will find 
the scanning indicator, which shows whether the Media-
Bay is scanning for files or whether the scan is complete.
When the folders specified in the Browser section are 
being scanned, the scanning indicator appears.When the scan is complete, the scanning indicator will 
not be shown.
The scanning status for the individual folders in the 
Browser section is indicated by the color of the icons:
 A red icon means that this folder is currently being scanned.
 A light blue icon means this folder has been scanned.
 Orange folder icons are displayed when a scanning process 
was interrupted. 
 Yellow icons are displayed for folders that have not been 
scanned.
Deep Results
Clicking the “Deep Results” button switches the Viewer 
display between showing only the folders and files con-
tained in the selected folder, and showing the files con-
tained in the selected folder and in any subfolders (without 
showing the subfolders).
The Deep Results button
About “Rescan on Select”
The “Rescan on Select” button
When this button is activated, selecting a folder in the 
Browser section will always cause this folder to be re-
scanned. This ensures that the MediaBay will always dis-
play the current content of a folder.
When “Rescan on Select” is deactivated, you can always 
right-click in the Browser section and select “Refresh” from 
the context menu to force a rescan of the currently selected 
folder.
When this indicator ap-
pears, a scan is performed.
!When a folder contains a large number of media files, 
the scanning process may take some time – you may 
want to deactivate “Rescan on Select”, if you know 
that you haven’t made any changes to the content of 
your media folders since they were last scanned. 
						

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The MediaBay
Folder operations
The Browser section shows the folder structure of your 
computer’s file system in a way very similar to the Win-
dows Explorer or the Mac OS Finder:
Click on the folder icons in the Browser display to se-
lect the corresponding folder.
Double-click on the folder icons in the Browser display 
to open the corresponding folder.
When a folder contains subfolders, this is indicated by a 
plus icon in front of the folder icon. The plus icon changes 
to a minus icon when the folder is open. To open or close 
a folder, you can also click the plus/minus icons.
You can switch the Browser display between the Full 
view and the Focus view.
Focussing a selected folder means showing only this folder and any sub-
folders it contains. Any folder levels above the focussed folder are not 
displayed. When you switch back to the Full view, the entire file system 
node can be accessed.
The Focus view for the Audio folder.
You can hide all folders not being scanned for files by 
clicking the “Show Mediabay Managed Items Only” button.
This will keep the list less cluttered.
Use the buttons “Previous Browse Location”, “Next 
Browse Location” and “Browse Containing Folder” to 
navigate to folders.
Click “Previous Browse Location” or “Next Browse Location” to select 
the previous or next folder in a sequence of previously selected folders. 
Clicking the “Browse Containing Folder” button will select the parent 
folder of the previously selected folder.
You can create a new folder inside the folder selected in 
the Browser section by clicking the “Create New Folder” 
button (the folder icon).
A dialog is opened in which you can enter a name for the new folder.
The SoundFrame node
The SoundFrame node in the Browser section.
The Browser section provides a shortcut to user content 
and factory content files, including the preset folders. You 
find this node at the top of the Browser folder hierarchy, at 
the same level as the File System node. 
The folders below the SoundFrame node represent the 
folders in which content files and newly created track pre-
sets, VST presets, etc. are stored by default.
To find out the “true” location of such a file, right-click on it in the Viewer 
section and select “Open in Explorer” (Win)/“Reveal in Finder” (Mac). 
This will open an Explorer/Finder window in which the corresponding file 
is highlighted.
Creating Favorites
If you constantly find yourself returning to specific folders 
during your work, you can save these browse locations as 
presets so that selecting such a preset will take you to the 
folder instantly. Proceed as follows:
1.Select the desired folder in the folder display.
2.Click the Add Browse Location Preset button (the “+” 
icon).
A naming dialog for the new preset is displayed.
3.Accept the default name (the complete folder path) or 
enter a new name for the preset.
The “Create new 
folder” buttonThe folder navigation 
buttons 
						

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The MediaBay
4.Click OK.
The new preset is added to the Select Browse Location Presets pop-up 
menu (which can be opened by clicking on the down arrow icon).
When you now open the Select Browse Location Presets 
pop-up menu and select the new preset, the respective 
preset folder will be selected in the Browser display.
To remove a preset from the Select Browse Location 
Presets pop-up, select it from the pop-up and click the 
“Remove Browse Location Preset” button (the “-” icon).
Finding files in the Viewer section
The Viewer section consists of two panes: the Filter section 
at the top and below it, the Viewer display. In the Filter sec-
tion, you can set up filters and define searches for specific 
files. The Viewer display lists any files contained in the folder 
selected in the Browser, and tags of these files. How to set 
up the tag display in the Viewer is described in the section 
“Managing the tag lists” on page 323. 
ÖNote that it is only possible to edit tags in the Viewer if 
“Allow Editing in Viewer” is activated in the Preferences 
dialog (MediaBay page). 
When this preference is deactivated, editing is only possible in the Tag 
Editor (see “Editing tags in the Tag Editor” on page 324).
The Viewer section
Depending on your settings, the number of files displayed 
in the Viewer can be huge (the info line at the bottom of 
the window shows the number of files found with the cur-
rent filter settings). Therefore, the MediaBay provides a 
number of ways to display only specific files and to per-
form very refined file searches.
ÖBy default, the number of files displayed in the Viewer 
section is limited to 10,000 files. You can change this by 
specifying a new value for “Maximum Number of Results in 
Viewer” in the Preferences dialog (MediaBay page).
Filtering the Viewer display
The MediaBay provides a number of filter buttons that can 
be used to limit the number of files displayed in the Viewer 
section.
At the top of the Viewer section you will find the filter 
buttons that can be used to show all supported file types 
or any combination of file types.
For example, when you activate the Audio and the MIDI filter buttons, 
only the audio and the MIDI files contained in the folder selected in the 
Browser will be displayed. When none (or all) of these buttons are acti-
vated, files of all supported types will be displayed.
The filter buttons. The display is filtered to show only audio files.
Defining searches for specific files
The filter buttons let you find files according to the folder(s) 
they might be located in, or according to their file type. 
However, you can also perform very detailed searches for 
files that meet certain criteria.
The Details search mode allows you to perform a search 
for a specific file tag value.
You define which tag to search for, e. g. “Name”, and specify the corre-
sponding value, e. g. “myfilename.wav”.
In Category search mode, the Filter section will display 
all values found for a specific tag (or “category”). Select-
ing one of these values will result in a list of files all show-
ing this particular tag value.
For example, you could look for sample rates and pick 44.1 kHz to give 
you a list of all files with that particular sample rate. But Category search 
mode becomes really interesting when making extensive use of tagging – 
see “Performing a Category search” on page 320 and “Tagging media 
files” on page 325. 
						

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The MediaBay
Once a search operation has been completed, the very 
first entry in the Viewer list is selected. When you now 
press [Tab] once, this selected entry will receive the focus 
and you can use the Up and Down arrow keys to browse 
the list of files.
Performing a Details search
The following section briefly describes how to perform a 
search for a particular file name in the file system.
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the root folder of your hard disk in the Browser 
section.
2.Select the Details search mode by clicking on the De-
tails tab at the top of the Filter section.
3.By default, the tag pop-up menu to the left is set to 
“Any Attribute”, and the condition pop-up menu in the 
middle is set to “contains”.
Leave these as they are.
4.Enter part of the name of the file that you wish to find 
in the text field to the right.
Note how the search is performed anew every time you enter a new let-
ter. Detail searches are not case sensitive.
A Details search for files whose names contain “e-piano”.
The Tag pop-up menu shows an alphabetical list of file 
tags you can choose from. At the top of the pop-up menu, 
the MediaBay maintains a smaller list of the last 5 tags se-
lected during previous searches.
Note that you can select more than one tag. This will create an OR con-
dition: the files found will match either one or the other tag. Click OK to 
set the tag(s) to search for. How to configure the tag list is described in 
the section “Managing the tag lists” on page 323.
To reset all search fields to their default settings, click 
the Reset button in the top right corner of the Filter section.
This will also reset the tag list settings.
The Reset button in the Filter section
The condition pop-up menu contains the following op-
tions:
Note that for all conditions except “range”, you can en-
ter more than one string in the text field (separate different 
search strings with a space).
These strings form an AND condition, i. e. the files found will match all 
strings entered in the field.
To open a new filter line, move the mouse pointer to the 
right end of the text field and click the “+” button that ap-
pears.
This way, you can set up up to five additional filter lines in which you can 
define new search conditions. Note that two or more filter lines form an 
AND condition, i. e. the files searched for must match the conditions de-
fined in all filter lines. Click the “-” button for a filter line to remove it.
Performing a Category search
The MediaBay allows you not only to view and edit some 
of the standard file attributes found in all computer files, 
but it also provides preconfigured tags, or “categories”, 
that you can use to organize your media files. 
The advantages of such categorization become obvious 
when having to find one specific file, e. g. a certain guitar 
sound, among large numbers of media files from various 
contexts, without knowing the name of that file.
Enter the file name here.
Option Description
contains The searched tag value must contain the text or number speci-
fied in the text field to the right.
omits The searched tag value must not contain the text or number 
specified in the text field to the right.
equals The searched tag value must match the text or number speci-
fied in the text field to the right, including any file extension. Note 
however, that detail searches for text are not case sensitive.
>= The searched tag value must be higher than, or equal to, the 
number specified in the field to the right.