Resulting Length section

These settings are used if you want to stretch the audio to fit within a specific time span or tempo. The values will change automatically if you adjust the Time Stretch Ratio (see below).

Seconds Range section

These settings allow you to set the desired range for the time stretch.

Time Stretch Ratio section

The Time Stretch Ratio determines the amount of time stretch as a percentage of the original length. If you use the settings in the Resulting Length section to specify the amount of time stretch, this value will change automatically. The possible range depends on the “Effect” option:

•If the “Effect” checkbox is deactivated, the range is 75125%.

This is the preferred mode if you want to preserve the character of the sound.

•If the “Effect” checkbox is activated, you can specify values between 10 and 1000% (Realtime), or 50 and 200% (MPEX 3).

This mode is mainly useful for special effects, etc.

Algorithm section

Allows you to select a time stretch algorithm: MPEX 3 and Realtime mode.

• MPEX 3 mode

This mode is based on Prosoniq's proprietary MPEX (Minimum Perceived Loss Time Compression/Expansion) algorithm. This algorithm (which is also used in Prosoniq’s TimeFactory™ application) uses an artificial neural network for time series prediction in the scale space domain to achieve high end time and pitch scaling. This gives the best possible audio quality result. You can choose between 7 quality settings, see “Pitch Shift Mode” on page 245.

• Realtime mode

This is the algorithm used for the realtime time stretching features in Nuendo. Although this algorithm is optimized for time stretching in realtime, you can use it for offline processing as well. The Presets pop-up contains the same presets as found in the Algorithm pop-up in the Sample Editor, see “Determining the audio tempo automatically and time-stretch- ing your audio” on page 272.

Applying plug-ins

You can add plug-in effects in real-time during playback (see the chapter “Audio effects” on page 168). However, sometimes it’s useful to “permanently” apply effects to one or several selected events. This is done in the following way:

1.Make a selection in the Project window, the Pool or an editor.

Effects are applied according to the same rules as Processing (see “Common settings and features” on page 240).

2.Select “Plug-ins” from the Audio menu.

3.Select the desired effect from the submenu that appears.

The Process Plug-in dialog appears.

About stereo and mono

If you are applying an effect to mono audio material, only the left side of the effect’s stereo output will be applied.

The process plug-in dialog

The process plug-in dialog for the StudioChorus effect.

The upper section of the process plug-in dialog contains the actual effect parameters of the selected plug-in. For details on the parameters of the included plug-ins, see the separate manual “Nuendo Expansion Kit – Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4”.

The lower section of the dialog contains settings for the actual processing. These are common to all plug-ins.

• If the lower section is hidden, click the “More…” button to display it.

Clicking the button again (now labeled “Less…”) will hide the lower section.

The following settings and functions are available in the common, lower section of the dialog:

Wet mix/Dry mix

These two sliders allow you to specify the balance between wet (processed) and dry (original) signal in the resulting clip.

Normally the two sliders are “reverse-ganged”, so that raising the Wet mix slider lowers the Dry mix slider by the same amount. However, if you press [Alt]/[Option] and drag a slider, you can move it independently. This allows you to set e.g. 80% dry and 80% wet signal. Be careful to avoid distortion.

Tail

This parameter is useful if you are applying an effect that adds material after the end of original audio (such as reverb and delay effects). When the checkbox is activated, you can specify a tail length using the slider. The tail time is included when playing back with the Preview function, allowing you to find the appropriate tail length.

Pre/Post-CrossFade

These settings allow you to gradually mix the effect in or out. If you activate Pre-CrossFade and specify a value of e.g. 1000 ms, the effect will be applied gradually from the start of selection, reaching full effect 1000 ms after the start. Similarly, if you activate Post-CrossFade, the processing will gradually be removed starting at the specified interval before the end of the selection.

The sum of the Preand Post-CrossFade times cannot be larger than the length of the selection.

Preview button

Allows you to listen to the result of the processing with the current settings. Playback will continue repeatedly until you click the button again (the button is labeled “Stop” during Preview playback). You can change the effect settings during Preview playback if needed.

Process button

Applies the effect and closes the dialog.

Cancel button

Closes the dialog without applying the effect.

The Offline Process History dialog

Procedures

If you want to remove some or all processing from a clip, this can be done in the Offline Process History dialog. Processing that can be modified in the Offline Process History dialog includes the functions on the Process menu, any applied plug-in effects, and Sample Editor operations such as Cut, Paste, Delete and drawing with the Pencil tool.

Ö Due to the clip-file relationship (see “Background” on page 239), it is even possible to modify or remove some processing “in the middle” of the Process History, while keeping later processing! This feature depends on the type of processing performed (see “Restrictions” on page 251).

Proceed as follows:

1.Select the clip in the Pool or one of its events in the Project window.

You can see which clips have been processed by checking the Status column in the Pool – the waveform symbol indicates that processing or effects have been applied to the clip (see “About the Status column symbols” on page 299).

2.Select “Offline Process History…” from the Audio menu.

The Offline Process History dialog appears.

The left part of the dialog contains a list of all processing you have added to the clip, with the most recent operations at the bottom of the list. The “Start” and “Length” columns indicate which section of the clip was affected by each operation. The “Status” column indicates if the operation can be modified or undone.

3. Locate the operation you want to edit and select it by clicking on it in the list.

•To modify the settings of the selected processing, click the “Modify” button.

This opens the dialog for the processing function or applied effect, allowing you to change the settings. This works just as when you applied the processing or effect the first time.

•To replace the selected operation with another processing function or effect, select the desired function from the pop-up menu and click the “Replace By” button.

If the selected function has settings, a dialog will appear as usual. The original operation will then be removed and the new processing will be inserted in the Offline Process History.

•To remove the selected operation, click the “Remove” button.

The processing is removed from the clip.

•To undo the selected operation and remove the processing from the clip click the “Deactivate” button.

The processing is removed from the clip, but the operation remains in the list. To redo the operation and apply the processing again, click the button, now renamed to “Activate”, again.

•To save the list of processing operations as a Batch Process, click the “Save As Batch” button.

See “Batch Processing” on page 252.

4. Click “Close” to close the dialog.

Restrictions

•If there are no settings for the processing function, you cannot modify it.

•If you have applied processing that changes the length of the clip (such as Cut, Insert or Time Stretch), you can only remove this if it is the most recent processing in the Offline Process History (at the bottom of the list in the dialog). If an operation cannot be removed or modified, this is indicated by an icon in the “Status” column. Also, the corresponding buttons will be grayed out.

•The list must contain at least two processing operations in order to be saved as a Batch Process (see “Batch Processing” on page 252.

Batch Processing

Nuendo features a Batch Processing function that lets you apply a chain of audio processing to one or several events in one go – in either the Project window or the Pool. Batch Processing is based on operations in the Offline Process History dialog, described above. That is, the list of applied processes in this dialog is what can be made to constitute a batch process.

Batch Processing is therefore a convenient way to apply the same effects with the same settings to several audio events in a project.

It can also be used to “store” effect settings for future use. You may for example have performed a series of elaborate audio processing with a good result, and want to retain the particular combination and settings of effects you applied, so that you may quickly and easily apply them again to other events in the future.

To set up a batch process, proceed as follows:

1. Apply the desired processing to an audio event or selection range in the project.

Note that you must apply at least two audio processes to be able to set up a batch process.

From here, there are two ways to go:

2.Pull down the Audio menu, and from the Batch Processes submenu, select “Create from Process History…”.

3.In the dialog that appears, type in a name for the batch process, and click OK.

or…

4. Pull down the Audio menu and select “Offline Process History”.

The Offline Process History dialog opens. In this dialog you can modify settings or remove operations as desired (see “The Offline Process History dialog” on page 251).

5. In the Process History Dialog, click “Save As Batch”, and then type in a name for the batch process in the dialog that appears and click OK.

Regardless of which of the above two methods you use, the batch process is now saved and available for use:

6.In the Project window, select all the audio events you want to process.

You can also make a selection range that spans multiple tracks and batch process the selection for all the audio events.

7.Pull down the Audio menu and open the Batch Processes submenu.

At the top of the menu you can now find the name of the batch process you created. The menu will list the names of any batch processes you create, until you delete them (see below).

8. Select the batch process you want to apply from the menu.

All the selected events will now be processed accordingly.

Ö Note that even if you clear the Offline Process History dialog of all the operations that make up a batch process, this will not affect the saved batch process. It will still contain and perform the operations on which it was based when created.