The mixer

The mixer offers a common environment for controlling levels, pan, solo/mute status etc. for both audio and MIDI channels.

• By clicking the Mixer button in the Devices panel.

You open the Devices panel by selecting Show Panel from the Devices menu.

Opening the mixer

The mixer can be opened in several ways:

•By selecting Mixer from the Devices menu.

•By clicking the Mixer icon on the toolbar

This always opens the first Mixer window (see below).

•By using a key command (by default [F3]).

About the multiple mixer windows

You may have noticed that there are in fact several separate mixer items selectable from the Devices menu. These are not separate mixers, but rather separate views of the same mixer.

• Each of the mixer windows can be configured to show any combination of channels, channel types, narrow and wide channel strips, etc. (how to do this is described later in this chapter).

You can for example configure one mixer window to show MIDI channel strips, another to show input and output channels or another to show all audio-related channels.

• You can also save channel configurations as View sets (see “Channel view sets” on page 129), which are then accessible from all mixer windows.

These features are very convenient when working with large projects. Considering the number of different channel types that can be shown in the mixer, they could even be described as necessary!

The use of multiple mixer windows combined with the ability to recall different mixer configurations enables you to focus on the task at hand and keep window scrolling down to a minimum.

Ö All options for configuring the mixer described in this chapter are identical for all mixer windows.

What channel types can be shown in the mixer?

The following track-based channel types are shown in the mixer:

•Audio

•MIDI

•Effect return channels (referred to as FX channels in the Project window)

•Instrument channels (VSTi Return)

•Group channels

•Instrument tracks

•ReWire channels

The order of audio, MIDI, instrument, group and effect return channel strips (from left to right) in the mixer corresponds to the Project window Track list (from the top down). If you reorder tracks of these types in the Track list, this will be mirrored in the mixer.

In addition to the above, the following channel types are also shown in the mixer:

•Activated ReWire channels (see the chapter “ReWire” on page 482).

•VST Instrument channels (see the chapter “VST Instruments and Instrument tracks” on page 189).

ReWire channels cannot be reordered and always appear to the right of other channels in the main mixer pane (see below). VST instrument (VSTi) channels can be reordered in the Track list which will in turn be mirrored in the mixer.

Folder, Marker, Video and Automation tracks are not shown in the mixer.

Input and output busses in the mixer

Input and output busses are represented by input and output channels in the mixer. They appear in separate “panes” separated by movable dividers and with their own horizontal scrollbars, see “The input and output channels” on page 132.

About multichannel audio

Nuendo has full support for surround sound. Each audio channel and bus in the mixer can carry up to 12 speaker channels. This means that if you have an audio track configured for 5.1 surround sound, for example, it will have a single channel strip in the mixer, just like mono or stereo tracks, but its level meter will have six meter bars, one for each speaker channel.

Another thing to note is that the look of a channel strip differs slightly depending on how it is routed – mono or stereo tracks routed to a surround output bus will have a surround panner control instead of a regular pan control, for example. For further information on multichannel audio, see the chapter “Surround sound” on page 202.