Steinberg Nuendo 5 Manual

							251
Automation
To freeze your trim curve manually, select the correspond-
ing option on the Freeze Trim pop-up menu in the Automa-
tion Settings (see “Automation Preferences” on page 260). 
You have the following possibilities to freeze your trim data 
manually:
•On the automation track, click on the parameter name 
and select the “Freeze Trim” option from the pop-up menu 
to freeze a specific parameter of one track.
•Open the Functions pop-up menu on the Automation 
panel and select “Freeze All Trim Automation in Project” to 
freeze all tracks in the project.
•Open the Functions pop-up menu on the Automation 
panel and select “Freeze Trim Automation of Selected 
Tracks” to freeze all selected tracks.
The Functions pop-up menu
At the top right of the Automation panel, you will find the 
Functions pop-up menu, which contains a number of glo
-
bal automation commands.
The following functions are available:About the Global Snapshot options
It is possible to save Mixer settings for automatable mixer 
parameters. These can be reapplied later, e.
 g. if you have 
accidentally overwritten your parameters. 
The global snapshot options are a quick way to save a 
backup copy of your automatable Mixer parameters and to 
reapply them later. Snapshots can be used to store values 
only for parameters that have been changed. 
Snapshots are saved with the project.
You can only save one snapshot at a time. By storing a 
snapshot, a previously stored snapshot may be overwritten!
FunctionDescription
Delete All Automation 
in ProjectThis removes all automation data from your 
project. 
Delete Automation of 
Selected TracksThis removes all automation data for the selected 
track(s). 
Delete Automation in 
RangeThis deletes all automation data between the left 
and right locators on all tracks. 
Fill Gaps on Selected 
TracksThis option is used with virgin territories (see “Virgin territory vs. the initial value” on page 245). Select this option to fill any gaps in the automation curves 
of the selected tracks with a continuous value. The value of the last event (the end point) of a sec-tion is used to fill the gap. This value is written 
across the gap up to one millisecond before the first 
event of the next automated section. A new event is 
inserted here; the value will be ramped to the next 
automated section.
Fill Gaps with Current 
Value (Selected 
Tracks)This option is used with virgin territories (see “Vir-gin territory” on page 246). Select this option to fill any gaps in the automation curves of the selected 
tracks. The gaps will be filled with the current value 
of the corresponding control.
Create Initial  Parameter EventsThis function creates and stores the initial automa-tion values for each automatable parameter in the 
Mixer. For parameters that have not been auto-mated yet, automation events are created at the 
current parameter position, i. e. at value 0.As initial parameter events are created on all chan-nels, all channels will have automation data, even if 
you did not add automation to them. If this is not 
what you want, use the Global Snapshot function 
instead (see 
“About the Global Snapshot options” on page 251).
Freeze All Trim Auto-mation in ProjectThis freezes all trim automation for all tracks in the 
project, see “Freeze Trim” on page 250.
Freeze Trim Automa-tion of Selected 
TracksThis freezes all trim automation for the selected 
tracks, see “Freeze Trim” on page 250.
Global Snapshot: 
StoreUse this function to save all automatable Mixer pa-rameters as a snapshot.
Global Snapshot: 
ApplyUse this function to apply the stored snapshot.
Global Snapshot: 
RemoveUse this function to remove the stored snapshot.
Function Description 
						

							252
Automation
Working with Automation Passes
An automation pass begins with the first parameter that is 
written after activating Write automation and starting play
-
back. It ends when playback stops, either when you click 
the Stop button or when the position cursor jumps to an
-
other position (e. g. because Cycle or Arranger mode is 
activated). You can undo automation passes in the Auto
-
mation Pass history.
To work with automation passes, proceed as follows: 
1.Enable the “Activate Automation Passes” button at the 
top right of the Automation panel. 
The Passes button is enabled to the right. 
2.Click the Passes button to open the automation pass 
history.
When you open the history for the first time, it will be empty.
3.Activate write automation and perform some actions.
The “Activate Automation Passes” button turns red to indicate that an 
automation pass is running.
4.When you have written automation passes that you 
want to undo, drag the horizontal line upwards with the 
mouse or use the key command [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/
[Option]-[Z] for “Undo Pass”. 
The corresponding automation events on the automation track are re-
moved and the entries in the Automation pass history are grayed out. The 
State column displays “Undone” instead of “Executed”.
5.If you want to redo automation passes again, drag the 
horizontal line downwards with the mouse or use the key 
command [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Alt]/[Option]-[Shift]-[Z] for 
“Redo Pass”.
The corresponding automation events on the automation track will be in-
serted and the State column shows “Executed” again.
ÖAutomation passes are not created when you write au-
tomation manually. If you want to undo manually written 
automation events use the Edit History instead (see 
“The 
Edit History dialog” on page 79).
Using Undo Branches
If you activate the “Use Undo Branches” option in the Au-
tomation Settings or in the Preferences dialog (General 
page), the use of branches is enabled. Branches are use
-
ful if you want to experiment with different automation vari-
ations/settings.
!All automation that you performed manually as well 
as other edits and processes performed during or 
after the automation passes will also be undone.  
						

							253
Automation
A branch is a sequence of automation passes. In a branch 
each automation pass is represented by a rectangle with 
the number of the automation pass. Automation that you 
perform manually, as well as other edits and processes in 
between automation passes, are represented by smaller 
rectangles. These rectangles only serve as indicators, they 
cannot be used to undo the edits.
When you undo an automation pass and subsequently 
write new automation, a new branch is created and all fol
-
lowing automation passes are gathered in the new branch. 
If you have two or more branches, you can choose to undo 
the automation passes of the separate branches in the au
-
tomation pass history by activating and deactivating spe-
cific branches.
The automation pass history with two branches
To deactivate a specific branch, proceed as follows:
1.Click on a branch in the right section of the dialog to 
select it.
The actions of the selected branch are displayed in the left section of the 
dialog. 
2.Click the “Activate Selected” button to deactivate all 
subsequent branches.
The button turns gray and all automation passes from the subsequent 
branches are undone. The automation passes of the activated branch are 
redone until the branch ends, i.
 e. the first edit(s) of a following branch will 
be merged back into it. 
•If you want to activate a deactivated branch, select the 
desired branch and click the “Activate Selected” button. 
You can also double-click on a branch to select and acti
-
vate it at the same time.
•If you want to undo and delete a branch, click the “Re-
move Inactive” button.
All branches will be removed. The actions of the inactive branch will dis-
appear completely whereas the actions of the active branches will be 
merged
.
3.When you are done, click “Activate Automation 
Passes” to return to the regular Automation panel.
ÖThe automation pass history is not saved with the 
project, i.
 e. if you close your project, the history is deleted.
The Join options
When several editors work on the same project simulta-
neously, running automation passes often have to be in-
terrupted. The Join options help you to resume write 
automation on controls that were active at the point where 
the transport stopped by storing which parameters were 
punched in on stop. Nuendo allows you to resume inter
-
rupted automation passes.
Branches
Automation 
passManual automation 
or other edits
!The removing of inactive branches cannot be undone!
!The Join options are not available in Touch mode! 
						

							254
Automation
The following Join options are available:
Join Now
If you hit Stop and want to resume automation manually, 
proceed as follows: 
1.Start playback and watch the automation curve.
2.When the cursor reaches the desired position, click 
Join Now on the Automation panel.
All parameters from the last pass are punched in and the last value is 
written for the whole section. All previous automation events will be over-
written. 
Auto Join
If you hit Stop and want to resume automation automati-
cally, proceed as follows: 
1.Activate “Auto Join” on the Automation panel.
2.Start playback.
All parameters from the last pass are punched in automatically at the po-
sition where you hit stop. This position is indicated by the Join indicator 
(see below).
Join indicator
The Join indicator shows the timecode position where the 
last automation pass was stopped, i.
 e. the point where the 
Auto Join will automatically occur. When automation is re
-
sumed, this indicator is updated.
The Fill options
The Fill options define what happens in a specific section 
of your project when you punch out of a running automa
-
tion pass.
The Fill options write one particular value across a defined 
section of your automation track – any previously created 
data within this section is overwritten.
The following Fill options are available:
To Punch
Let’s say you are rolling, in realtime, over a scene cut and 
volume must be softer in the next scene – you do not yet 
know how much softer, but the change in volume from the 
first to the second scene must be abrupt.
1.Select “Touch” as automation mode and click the “To 
Punch” button once to activate it as Fill option.
The “To Punch” button is highlighted. 
2.Start rolling somewhere during the first scene and 
touch the fader at the moment of scene change.
The automation pass is punched in.
3.Move the fader until you have found the volume setting 
you need in the second scene and release the fader to 
punch out.
The volume curve is set from the point of punch out back to where you 
punched in. The values written while moving the fader to find the right 
value are deleted, and the volume jumps at exactly the right moment from 
the value set in the first scene to the value found for the second scene. 
						

							255
Automation
To Start
“To Start” is similar to the “To Punch” option, but with the 
following difference: When “To Start” is selected, punch
-
ing out of automation will fill the automation track from 
where you punched out to the start of the project.
To End
Imagine you are automating volume for the background 
tracks of a two-minute scene. Rather than holding the 
fader for two minutes, you can proceed as follows: 
1.Select “Touch” as automation mode and click the “To 
End” button once to activate it as Fill option.
The “To End” button is highlighted. 
2.Start rolling and touch the parameter control to punch 
in the automation pass.
3.Move the fader until you have found the setting you 
want and release the fader.
This will punch out the writing of automation data. As you let go of the 
fader, the automation curve will take the found value setting, from where 
you punched out to the end of the project.
Loop
To use the Loop option, you must first set up a loop range 
with the left and right locators. When you then select 
Loop, punching out will set the found value within the 
range defined by the left and right locator.
Gaps
This option is used only in combination with virgin territory. 
This is explained in detail in the section 
“Virgin territory” on 
page 246. When “Gaps” is selected, punching out of au-
tomation will fill any gaps between previously written auto-
mation events with the last value found during the last 
automation pass.
!When “Trim” is active, the Gaps option will have no 
effect. This is because Trim will only modify already 
existing data. 
						

							256
Automation
Fill combinations
You can also combine the various Fill options. 
•Combining “To Punch” and “To End” will fill the automa-
tion track from the punch in position to the end of the 
project.
•Combining “To Start” and “To End” will fill the automa-
tion track from the beginning to the end of the project.
•You can also combine the Fill options with the Preview 
options (see 
“The Preview options” on page 256), and 
when writing automation manually with the Pencil tool.
Editing automation events is explained in more detail in the section “Edit-
ing automation events” on page 242). This is a very fast and efficient way 
to move through your project.
Feel free to experiment!
One shot vs. continuous fill
The Fill options can be used in two different ways:
•When you click one of the Fill buttons, it is highlighted, 
and will be enabled during the next automation pass.
Afterwards, the option is disabled again.
•If you click a Fill button a second time, a lock symbol is 
displayed on the highlighted button, indicating that you 
are permanently in “Fill to X” mode and that the operation 
can be repeated as many times as you wish.
Clicking the button for a third time disables the corresponding Fill option.
Drawing curves with Fill enabled
You can use the Fill options on the Automation panel in 
combination with the Pencil tool. This provides you with an 
extremely powerful method for writing automation data 
manually:
1.Open an automation track and select the Pencil tool.
2.On the Automation panel in the Fill column select “To 
End”.
3.Click and draw to create an automation curve.
4.Release the mouse button.
At the moment of release, a final automation event is created. The auto-
mation curve is written from this last event through to the end of the 
project.
This procedure can be used with all the Fill options. 
The Preview options
The Preview options allow you to find new settings with-
out recording the steps needed to locate them.
This is useful if you want to audition changes on automa-
tion values without deleting any of the original automation 
data. When you have found the desired settings, you can 
punch the previewed value. 
						

							257
Automation
The Preview workflow
The Preview workflow has three different phases: touch-
collecting the required parameters, finding the required 
values, and performing the actual automation pass. Pro
-
ceed as follows:
1.In the Preview section click the Preview button.
The Preview button is highlighted. 
ÖYou can set the Preview mode permanently by clicking 
the Preview button two times. A lock symbol is displayed 
on the highlighted button. You can disable this by clicking 
the button for a third time.
2.Touch a parameter control.
Below the Preview button three other buttons (Suspend, Punch and 
Punch on Play) are displayed. You now have full manual control of the 
touch-collected parameter, suspending (but not deleting!) any previously 
recorded automation data. You may now touch-collect another parame
-ter, if you want to write data for several parameters during the same au-
tomation pass. 
•Note that each automation track has its own Preview 
button.
Clicking this button will enable Preview mode for this par-
ticular automation track. This is touch-collecting via auto-
mation tracks.
3.Play back the scene (you may want to loop it) and find 
the parameter setting(s) you want.
Touch the required parameter, start rolling, find the desired 
value and select Punch to start the new automation pass.
•If you want to compare the value found during preview 
with previously automated values, activate the Suspend 
option.
This plays back your audio material using the parameter values set before 
activating Preview. You can use the delta indicator in the automation track 
as an additional visual aid for comparing the values.
4.When you are happy with the values found, click the 
Punch button to start the new automation pass. 
The new value setting is recorded, from the point where you punched in 
to your punch out position (as defined by the automation mode setting). 
						

							258
Automation
Punch vs. Punch on Play
When using the Punch option as described above, start-
ing playback and punching in are two separate actions. If 
you want to punch in when starting playback, activate 
Punch on Play. 
•Use Punch on Play when you cannot punch in on the fly 
– i.
 e. in situations where you need to find the punch in po-
sition in Stop mode. Once you have found the exact posi-
tion, enable Punch on Play and start playback from there.
•Punch is the option to use if you need to listen to the 
section before your desired punch in point and if this sec
-
tion already contains automation data that you do not want 
to overwrite. Roll through this section and then punch in 
the automation pass.
•You can also use Punch in Stop mode. To create auto-
mation data in this way, Punch must be combined with 
one of the Fill modes (see 
“The Fill options” on page 254).
Auto Punch
As described in the section “Automation modes” on page 
248, when setting up a loop with the left and right loca-
tors, an automation pass will always punch out when 
reaching the right locator. 
When in Preview mode, you can also use the left and right 
locators to automatically punch in and out at defined posi
-
tions, using the Auto Punch command.
•Use Auto Punch when you want the automation pass to 
begin and end at defined positions.
You can also use Auto Punch without enabling Preview 
mode, to set up a “safe zone” for previously written auto
-
mation data: 
•Place the right locator at the beginning of an area you 
wish to protect and enable cycle mode. 
This will ensure that a running automation pass will always punch out be-
fore reaching this section of your project.
Touch Assist
When you use Preview mode, you may get into a situation 
where you change some parameters, but not others, al
-
though they belong to the same group of parameters (e. g. 
EQ settings). To prevent you from forgetting some para
-
meters while touch-collecting parameters for Preview (see 
also 
“The Preview workflow” on page 257), you can enable 
the Touch Assist option. You will find this option at the bot-
tom of the Preview column on the Automation panel.
When Touch Assist is enabled, the parameters of the fol-
lowing features are treated as groups:
• Channel EQ module (21 parameters total)
• Aux send on/off and send level
• Stereo panner
• Surround panner (Left-Right, Front-Rear, LFE)
• Insert plug-ins (only available for plug-ins with 32 or less 
parameters)
•Touch Assist ensures that touching one parameter in a 
group will “touch” all other parameters in that group as well.
•However, if you want to automate only one particular 
parameter, disable Touch Assist to prevent yourself from 
inadvertently overwriting any previously created automa
-
tion data.
Changing VST presets in Preview mode
When changing a preset of a VST plug-in while in Preview 
mode, the change in the parameter settings caused by the 
preset change is recorded automatically as automation. 
Note that the plug-in must have 32 or less parameters for 
this to work.
!Enabling Touch Assist may lead to the creation of a 
large amount of automation data, causing a higher 
CPU load. Only use Touch Assist if the performance is 
still acceptable. 
						

							259
Automation
The Punch Log section
This section of the Automation panel displays a list of re-
cent punch in operations performed in Preview mode.
By loading one of these log entries for the current track, 
you recall the corresponding touch-collected parameters 
and their values at the moment of punch in.
•To load the settings of a particular entry in the punch 
log, select it in the list and click Load.
The Preview button on the Automation panel and the “Preview mode” 
button on the corresponding automation track light up to indicate that 
this parameter is now in Preview mode. 
•You can rename any log entry by double-clicking it and 
entering a new name.
•To delete an entry, select it and click Delete.
•To specify how many log entries are displayed, use the 
“Max. Punch Logs” setting in the Automation Settings 
(Automation Settings section).
If this value is set to 10 entries, the eleventh punch event will overwrite 
the entry created for the first event, the twelfth will replace the second 
entry, etc. The maximum possible number of punch log entries is 100.
•You can prevent a particular entry from being overwrit-
ten by clicking in the right section for this entry, so that a 
checkmark is displayed.
•Punch log entries are saved with the current project.
Punch log data is always project-specific. There is no way to export log 
entries to another project.
Loading behavior
When loading a log entry, you add the corresponding pa-
rameter(s) to any other parameters that you have touch-
collected during the current Preview session. 
However, if you manually touch-collect a parameter, e. g. 
volume, and then add volume again by loading a punch 
log entry, the settings for volume from the punch log will 
be used, replacing any values set manually.
The Suspend options
The parameters or parameter groups selected here are 
excluded from the reading or writing of automation data – 
giving you full manual control of these parameters. 
ÖThe “Others” options refer to all parameters not cov-
ered by Volume, Pan, Mute, EQ, Sends, or Inserts.
Suspending Read
Imagine you have already automated several tracks. While 
working on the current track, you want one of the other 
tracks to be louder, to better identify a particular position 
in your audio material. By suspending Read for the Volume 
parameter, you regain full manual control and can set the 
volume to the required level.
•To suspend the reading of automation data for all para-
meters/parameter groups, click the All button at the bottom 
of the section.
When any of the options in the Suspend Read category are enabled, 
clicking All will disable these buttons.
Suspending Write
Imagine the following situation: To help you concentrate 
while working on a particular track, you mute several other 
tracks. However, because write automations are active on 
these tracks, this mute state is also automated during the 
next automation pass – a classic situation in mixing.
To avoid inadvertently excluding whole tracks from your 
mix in this way, you can exclude Mute from all automation 
writing. Simply click Mute in the Suspend Write category 
on the Automation panel. 
						

							260
Automation
•To suspend the writing of automation data for all para-
meters/parameter groups, click the All button at the bot-
tom of the Suspend Write category.
When any of the options in the Suspend Write category are enabled, 
clicking All will disable these buttons.
•When an automation pass is in progress for a particular 
parameter and you write-suspend this parameter, it will 
punch out of the automation pass.
The Show options
The Show options on the Automation panel always affect all 
tracks. Clicking these buttons opens the automation tracks 
for the corresponding parameters, e.
 g. Volume or Pan. This 
makes it easy to look at your EQ settings on several tracks, 
for example.
•When you click either Volume, Pan, EQ, Sends, or In-
serts, this will open the corresponding automation track(s) 
for all tracks.
The automation tracks will be opened even if no automation data was re-
corded on these tracks.
•For parameter groups (i. e. Pan, EQ, Sends, and Inserts) 
you can step through the individual parameter sets by re
-
peatedly clicking the respective button.
•When the Used Only button is enabled, clicking one of 
the options will show you only the corresponding automa
-
tion tracks for which automation data has already been 
written.
•When you click Show Used, all automation tracks that 
contain automation data will be displayed.
•Hide All will hide all open automation tracks.
Automation Preferences
If you click the button in the bottom left of the Automation 
panel, you open the Automation Preferences. These are 
divided into General and Automation Settings. 
The following options are available:
General 
Automation Settings
OptionDescription
Use Undo BranchesActivate this to gather automation passes in 
branches, see “Working with Automation Passes” on page 252.
OptionDescription
Show Data on TracksActivate this to show audio waveforms or MIDI 
events on automation tracks. The events are displayed only if the “Show wave-forms” option is enabled in the Preferences dialog 
(Event Display–Audio) and if “Part Data Mode” 
(Event Display–MIDI) is set to an option other than 
“No data”.
Use Virgin TerritoryActivate this if you want to use virgin territories, see “Virgin territory vs. the initial value” on page 245.
Continue WritingIf you activate this option, the recording of automa-tion will not be blocked when locating to a new po-sition. For example, this can be used to perform 
multiple automation passes in Cycle mode or if you 
are using the arranger functions.
 If this option is deactivated and you write automa-tion data and locate to another position in the 
project, the writing will be stopped until the mouse 
button is released or until a Stop command is re
-ceived. 
Return TimeThis determines how fast the automated parameter 
returns to any previously automated value when you 
release the mouse button. Set this to a value higher 
than 0 to prevent sudden jumps in your parameter 
settings (which may lead to crackles).
Reduction LevelWhen punching out, this function will remove all 
superfluous automation events so that the automa-tion curve contains only the events necessary to 
reproduce your actions.