Steinberg Nuendo 5 Manual

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Customizing
Background
The user can customize the appearance and functionality 
of Nuendo in various ways.
User configurable items described in this chapter are:
•Workspaces
By storing different window combinations as workspaces, you can 
quickly switch between different working modes – see 
“Workspaces” on 
page 571.
•Setup dialogs
Several parts of the user interface (toolbars, Transport panel, Inspector, 
info lines and Channel Settings windows) provide a Setup dialog, where 
you can configure which items of the respective window area or panel 
are to be shown or hidden and where they are located – see 
“Using the 
Setup options” on page 572.
•Track list
The controls shown in the track list can be set for each track type – see 
“Customizing track controls” on page 573.
•Configuration of main menu items
You can hide items not needed on the main menus – see “Configuring 
the main menu items” on page 575.
•Appearance
The general look of the program can be adjusted – see “Appearance” on 
page 576.
•Track and event colors
You can adjust which colors are used – see “Applying colors in the Project 
window” on page 577.
This chapter also contains a section describing where 
your preferences and settings are stored (see 
“Where are 
the settings stored?” on page 579), to help you transfer 
your customized settings to another computer.
Workspaces
A configuration of Nuendo windows is called a “work-
space”. A workspace stores the size, position and content 
of all windows, allowing you to quickly switch between dif
-
ferent working modes via the menu or by using key com-
mands. For example, you may want as large a Project 
window as possible when you are editing, whereas you 
may want the Mixer and effect windows open during mix
-
down. Workspaces are listed and managed on the Work-
spaces submenu of the Window menu.
Editing the active workspace
There is always one workspace active, even if you have 
not saved any. To make changes to the active workspace, 
you simply set up the windows as desired – including 
opening, closing, moving and sizing windows, and adjust
-
ing zoom and track height. The changes are automatically 
stored for the active workspace.
•To keep a workspace from being accidentally changed, 
select “Lock Active Workspace” from the Workspaces 
submenu.
A locked workspace will keep its original window settings. You may 
change the current window layout on the screen, but the next time you 
select the workspace again, the originally stored layout is recalled.
Creating a new workspace
1.Pull down the Window menu and open the Work-
spaces submenu.
2.Select “New Workspace”.
3.In the dialog that opens, enter a name for the work-
space.
4.Click OK.
The workspace is stored and will appear on the submenu. It is now the 
active workspace. 
						

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Customizing
5.Set up the windows you want to include in the new 
workspace.
This may include opening, moving and sizing windows, and adjusting 
zoom and track height.
Activating a workspace
1.Pull down the Window menu and open the Work-
spaces submenu.
2.Select a workspace from the list on the submenu.
The windows are closed, opened, moved and/or resized according to the 
stored workspace.
•You can also activate workspaces by using the corre-
sponding key commands (see “Key commands” on page 
580). 
Organizing workspaces and presets
If you select “Organize…” from the Workspaces submenu, 
the Organize Workspaces dialog opens.
The list to the left shows the workspaces in the active 
project, while the list to the right shows the workspace pre
-
sets. While workspaces are stored with each project, work-
space presets can be stored globally, allowing you to set 
up a number of workspaces for use in any project. Work
-
space presets store the position and size of the main win-
dows only – project-specific windows are not included.
•In the Workspaces list to the left, you can rename work-
spaces (by double-clicking and typing) and lock or unlock 
them.
•The arrow buttons between the two lists allow you to 
copy the selected workspace to a workspace preset, or 
vice versa.
•The buttons below each list let you add, remove, or ac-
tivate workspaces or presets.
You can also activate a workspace or a preset by double-clicking in its 
number column.
•Normally, when you use key commands to activate 
workspaces, they relate to the order in the workspace list, 
e.
 g. the key command for “Workspace 1” selects the first 
workspace on the list and so on. However, if you activate 
the Use IDs checkbox, you can enter a number (1–9) in 
the ID column for each workspace. 
This number will be used as reference when you are using key com-mands, so that the key command for “Workspace 1” recalls the work-
space with ID 1.
•Workspace presets are not only saved globally, but also 
included in the project. If you open a project on a different 
system, by default the global presets stored on this sys
-
tem are shown in the list to the right. To see the presets 
included in your project, activate the “Show Project Pre
-
sets” option.
•Activate the “Auto Instantiate Presets” option to convert 
all global workspace presets automatically into workspaces 
when you create a new project or open a project.
•To close the dialog, click the OK button.
Note that you can continue working in other windows with the Organize 
Workspaces dialog open.
Using the Setup options
You can customize the appearance of the following ele-
ments:
• Transport panel
• Info line
• Channel Settings window
• Toolbars 
• Inspector
The setup context menus
If you right-click the Transport panel, the toolbars, the info 
lines, or the Inspector, the respective setup context menu 
opens. For Channel Settings windows, these options are 
found in the dialog’s context menu, on the Customize 
View submenu. Here, you can activate/deactivate ele
-
ments as desired.
The following general options are available on the setup 
context menus:
•“Show All” makes all items visible.
•“Default” resets the interface to the default setting. 
						

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Customizing
•“Setup…” opens the Setup dialog (see below).
If presets are available, they can be selected on the lower 
half of the menu.
The info line setup context menu
The Setup dialogs
If you select “Setup…” from the setup context menus, the 
Setup dialog opens. This allows you to specify which ele
-
ments are visible/hidden and to set the order of the ele-
ments. You can also save and recall setup presets in this 
dialog.
The dialog is divided into two sections. The left section 
displays the currently visible items and the right section 
displays the currently hidden items.
•You can change the current show/hide status by select-
ing items in one section and then use the arrow buttons in 
the middle of the dialog to move them to the other section.
Changes are applied directly.
•By selecting items in the “Visible Items” list and using 
the Move Up and Move Down buttons, you can reorder 
the items list.
Changes are applied directly. To undo all changes and revert to the stan-
dard layout, select “Default” on the setup context menu.
•If you click the Save button (disk icon) in the Presets 
section, a dialog opens, allowing you to name the current 
configuration and save it as a preset.
•To remove a preset, select it on the presets pop-up 
menu and click the trash icon.
•Saved configurations are available for selection from the 
Presets pop-up menu in the Setup dialog or directly from 
the setup context menu.
Customizing track controls
For each track type you can configure which track con-
trols are shown in the track list. You can also specify the 
order of controls and group controls so that they are al
-
ways shown adjacent to each other. This is done using the 
Track Controls Settings dialog.
Opening the Track Controls Settings dialog
There are two ways to open the dialog:
•Right-click a track in the track list and select “Track 
Controls Settings…” from the context menu. 
						

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Customizing
•Click the arrow in the bottom right corner of the track 
list and select “Track Controls Settings…”.
Setting the track type
The settings made in the Track Controls Settings dialog 
apply to the selected track type, which is shown in the 
menu display in the top left corner of the dialog.
•To change the track type, click the arrow to the right in 
the menu display and select a track type from the pop-up 
menu.
All settings made in the dialog will apply to all tracks (current and subse-quent) of the selected type.
The Track Type pop-up menu in the Track Controls Settings dialog
ÖAlways make sure that you have selected the desired 
track type when editing the track controls!
Removing, adding, and moving track controls
The dialog is divided into two sections. The left section 
displays controls currently visible in the track list, and the 
right section displays the controls currently hidden.
•You can hide controls from the track list by selecting 
them in the list to the left and clicking the Remove button. 
To show hidden elements, select them in the list to the 
right and click the Add button.
Click OK to apply the changes.
ÖAll controls can be removed except the Mute and Solo 
buttons.
•By selecting controls in the “Visible Controls” list and 
using the Move Up and Move Down buttons, you can 
change the order of the list.
Click OK to apply the changes.
Grouping track controls
If you resize the track list, the position of the controls will 
change dynamically to accommodate as many controls as 
possible in the available space (given that Wrap Controls is 
activated – see below). By grouping several track controls 
you ensure that they are always positioned side by side in 
the track list. 
To group controls, proceed as follows:
1.Make sure that you have selected the correct track type.
2.In the “Visible Controls” section, select at least two 
controls.
You can only group controls that are adjacent to each other in the list. To 
group controls that are currently not adjacent in the list, use the Move 
Up/Down buttons first.
3.Click Group.
A number is displayed in the Group column for the grouped controls. The 
first group created has the number 1, the second 2, and so on.
4.Click OK.
The controls are now grouped.
•You can ungroup controls by using the Ungroup button. 
Please note that this will remove the selected element and 
the elements below it in the list from this group. To remove 
an entire group, select the first (topmost) element belong
-
ing to this group and click the Ungroup button. 
						

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Customizing
About Wrap Controls
This is activated by default. Wrap Controls allows the 
controls to be dynamically repositioned when resizing the 
track list. That is, as many controls as possible will be dis
-
played depending on the current size of the track list.
If you deactivate Wrap Controls, the positions of the con-
trols are fixed, regardless of the size of the track list. In this 
mode, you may have to resize the tracks vertically (by drag
-
ging the dividers between them) to display all the controls.
About the Length column
The Length column in the Visible Controls list allows you 
to set the maximum length for certain text fields, e.
 g. 
Name. To change the setting, click on the number in the 
Length column and type in a new value.
Resetting track list settings
You have two possibilities to reset the settings:
•Click Reset to restore all default track controls settings 
for the selected track type.
•Click Reset All to restore all default track controls set-
tings for all track types.
Saving presets
You can save track controls settings as presets for later 
recall:
1.Click on the Save button (the “+” sign) to the right of 
the Presets pop-up menu.
A dialog opens, asking you to type in a name for the preset.
2.Click OK to save the settings as a preset.
Saved presets are available for selection from the Presets pop-up menu 
and from the pop-up menu in the top left corner of the track list.
•To remove a preset, select it in the Track Controls Set-
tings dialog and click the Delete button (the “-” sign).
ÖNuendo comes with a number of Track Controls Set-
tings presets available.
Configuring the main menu items
You can configure what items are shown on the main 
menus and submenus, and even hide entire menus. By 
customizing the menus you can hide items relating to pro
-
gram functions you never use, to customize the program 
according to your needs. For example, if you never use the 
Networking features in Nuendo, you can hide the entire 
Network menu from view.
1.Open the Preferences dialog and select the Configu-
ration page.
The Configuration page contains two parent folders; “Main Menu”, which 
contains folders for all main menus, and “Command Categories” which 
contains folders for all Command categories. This section will only de
-
scribe how to configure Main Menu items, not Command Categories, 
see 
“Turning key commands off” on page 582.
2.Click on the “+” sign for a folder item, e. g. the File 
folder.
As you can see, all commands and submenus on the File menu are listed 
in the Name column.
!Configuring the main menus is a feature intended for 
experienced Nuendo users. Do not hide menus or 
menu items unless you are sure that you do not need 
them! 
						

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Customizing
•In the Menu column you can decide which File menu 
items to hide from view, by clicking in the column beside 
the corresponding menu item you wish to hide.
If you click the “On” item in the Menu column for an item, it changes to 
“Off” and vice versa. All menu items set to “Off” will be hidden when you 
click Apply or OK.
•Certain essential menu items on the File and Edit menus 
cannot be hidden, such as Save, Open, Close, Undo/Redo, 
etc.
For these items there is no entry in the Menu column.
•If you set a main menu folder (as opposed to a menu 
item) to Off in the Menu column, the entire menu will be 
hidden from view.
The exception to this is if the main menu folder contains non-removable 
menu items, in which case all hideable items on the menu will be set to 
Off, but the menu will still be visible.
•The Command column sets the key command On/Off 
status for the corresponding menu item.
If this is set to Off, any assigned key command for the item will be disabled 
(see 
“Turning key commands off” on page 582 for more information).
•You can save menu configurations as preference pre-
sets, either separately or together with other Preferences 
dialog settings.
•By using the above methods, you can customize all 
main menus to your liking.
To apply the changes without exiting the dialog click “Apply”. Click OK to 
apply the changes and exit the dialog.
•To restore all menu items to their default setting (which 
is visibility and key commands on for all menus and menu 
items), click the Defaults button.
Note that the Defaults button only restores the settings on the currently 
selected page (the Configuration page in this case) to their default set-
tings. If you have changed settings on another page of the Preferences 
dialog, these are not reset.
Appearance
In the Preferences dialog, you find a page called Appear-
ance. It contains the following subpages:
General 
The controls on the General page affect the appearance of 
the windows that surround the controls and workspaces in 
Nuendo. 
•Color Intensity determines how rich the background 
colors are, from gray to blue. 
•Color Lightness lightens or darkens the background.
•The Color Tone slider changes the background color.
•Button Brightness can be used to separately lighten or 
darken the buttons.
Meters
The coloring of meters in Nuendo can be controlled in so-
phisticated ways. Multiple colors can help to visually indi-
cate what levels are being reached, e. g. in a channel of 
the VST Mixer. To do this, the meter on the Appearances–
Meters page has color handles that allow you to define 
what color the meter will have at a given signal level.
The Appearances–Meters page in the Preferences dialog 
						

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Customizing
•The default setting has two color handles. Each color 
handle has a unique color that gradually shifts as the 
meter moves toward the next color handle.
You can click on any color handle and move its position on the meter 
scale. If you hold down [Shift] while moving the handle with the mouse, it 
will move ten times slower for more precise positioning. You may also 
nudge the color handle’s position with the Arrow Up/Down keys. Holding 
[Shift] while nudging will move the color handle ten times faster.
•You can add color handles by [Alt]/[Option]-clicking 
anywhere along the side of the meter scale. To remove a 
color handle, [Ctrl]/[Command]-click the handle.
By adding more color handles to the meter scale, you can define colors 
for more specific signal levels. Try adding two color handles very close to 
one another. You can make the meter color change more rapidly at a 
specific signal level this way.
•To change the color of a handle, select the handle by ei-
ther clicking on it or by jumping to it with the [Tab] key 
(hold down [Shift] and press the [Tab] key to jump back
-
wards). Then use the hue and brightness controls on the 
right side to alter the handle’s color.
The currently selected color handle is indicated by a black triangle on its 
left side.
Work Area 
The work areas in Nuendo are those places where the ac-
tual data are displayed such as the Project window event 
display. In these areas, there are items such as vertical 
and horizontal grid lines that can be altered in intensity by 
the controls found on this page.
Applying colors in the Project 
window
You can use color scheming for an easier overview of 
tracks and events in the Project window. Colors can be 
applied individually to tracks and events/parts. If you color 
a track, the corresponding events and parts are displayed 
in the same color. However, you can also color events and 
parts differently, “overriding” the applied track color.
In the following sections you will learn how to set up pref-
erences to color tracks automatically, how to color parts 
or events manually, how to determine whether you want to 
color the events themselves or their background, and how 
to customize the color palette for selecting colors.
Applying track colors automatically
In the Preferences dialog (Editing–Project & Mixer page), 
you can find the “Auto Track Color Mode” option.
This offers you several options for automatically assigning 
colors to tracks that are added to the project.
Coloring tracks, parts, or events manually
You can color each track, part, or event in the Project win-
dow individually by using the Select Colors pop-up menu 
on the toolbar. Parts and events can also be colored using 
the Color tool.
About the Select Colors pop-up menu
1.In the Project window, select the item you want to color.
You can select tracks, parts, or events.
2.On the toolbar, open the Select Colors pop-up menu 
and select a color.
The selected color is applied to all selected items. However, note that 
the selected tracks are ignored when you use the Select Colors pop-up 
menu to color the selected parts or events.
OptionEffect
Use Default 
Event ColorThe default color (gray) is assigned. 
Use Previous 
Track ColorAnalyzes the color of the selected track and uses the 
same color for the new track.
Use Previous 
Track Color 
+1Analyzes the color of the selected track and uses the color 
that comes next in the color palette for the new track.
Use Last 
Applied ColorUses the color that is selected in the Select Colors pop-
up menu.
Use Random 
Track ColorUses the color palette as a basis to assign track colors 
randomly. 
						

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Customizing
About the Color tool
1.Open the Select Colors pop-up menu and select a 
color. 
2.On the toolbar, select the Color tool.
3.Click on the desired parts and events to assign the 
color. 
The color is applied to the parts and events and overrides the default 
track color (if used).
•If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] and click on a part/event 
with the Color tool, a color palette is displayed allowing 
you to select a color for the event.
•If you press [Alt]/[Option], the Color tool cursor be-
comes a pipette, which can be used to select the current 
color of a part/event in order to apply it to another part/
event.
About the Similar Tracks options
You can use the selected color of one track to colorize 
other tracks of the same type (e.
 g. all audio tracks). 
Set up the desired color for a track of a certain track type 
and right-click this track in the track list to open a context 
menu. Depending on your settings and selections you can 
choose one of the following options:
•Use Color for Similar Tracks
When you select this, all tracks of the same type get the same color. 
•Use Color for Similar Selected Tracks
Use this to apply the same color to tracks within a selection. The color of 
the topmost track in the selection is then applied to other tracks of the 
same type within the selection.
Customizing the event background
On the Event Display page in the Preferences dialog, you 
find the “Colorize Event Background” option.
This option affects the display of events in the Project 
window.
•When this is activated, the events and parts in the event 
display will have the selected background color.
•When this is deactivated, the event “content” (e. g. MIDI 
events or audio waveforms) is displayed in the selected 
color and the event background is gray. 
The Project Colors dialog
In the Project Colors dialog you can select a different set of 
colors for items in the Project window. 
To open the Project Colors dialog, open the Select Colors 
pop-up menu on the toolbar and choose “Select Colors…”.
Adding and editing individual colors
In the Project Colors dialog, you can fully customize the 
color palette. To add new colors to the color palette, pro
-
ceed as follows:
1.Add a new color by clicking the Insert New Color 
button.
2.In the Project Colors section, click the newly created 
color field to activate the new color for editing.
Remove Selected 
Color Insert New 
Color 
						

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Customizing
3.Use the Standard Colors or Modify Color sections to 
specify a new color. 
To do this, pick a different color from the color palette, drag the cursor in 
the color circle, move the handle in the color meter, or enter new RGB 
values as well as values for hue, saturation, and luminosity manually.
4.Click the Apply button. 
The color setting is applied to the selected color field in the Project Colors 
section. 
ÖEvery color in the Project Colors section can be edited 
this way.
Setting intensity and brightness
To increase or decrease the intensity and the brightness 
of all colors, use the corresponding buttons in the Project 
Colors section.
Saving and resetting color settings 
•To return to your project colors, click the “Reset To Cur-
rent Project Defaults” button.
•To save the current set as default, click the “Save Cur-
rent Set as Program Defaults” button.
•To apply the default set, click the “Load Program De-
faults to Current Set” button.
•To return to Nuendo’s standard color palette, click the 
“Reset Current Set to Factory Settings” button.
Where are the settings stored?
As you have seen, there are a large number of ways in 
which you can customize Nuendo. While some of the set
-
tings you make are stored with each project, others are 
stored in separate preference files.
If you need to transfer your projects to another computer 
(e.
 g. in another studio), you can bring all your settings 
along by copying the desired preference files and install
-
ing them on the other computer.
ÖIt is a good idea to make a backup copy of your prefer-
ence files once you have set things up the way you want! 
This way, if another Nuendo user wants to use his or her 
personal settings when working on your computer, you 
can restore your own preferences afterwards.
•Under Windows XP, preference files are stored in the 
folder “\Documents and Settings\\Applica
-
tion Data\Steinberg\Nuendo 5\”.
If you run the 64 bit version of Nuendo, this folder is called “Nuendo 64 bit”. 
On the Start menu, you will find a shortcut to this folder for easy access.
•Under Windows Vista and Windows 7, preference files 
are stored in the following location: “\Users\
						

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Key commands