Previewing track and instrument presets

MIDI In activity

The Scope section for a MIDI track preset.

Track presets for MIDI or Instrument tracks and VST plugin presets require MIDI notes for previewing. There are two ways these notes can be sent to the track template:

•Click the “MIDI Input” button and play MIDI notes on a MIDI keyboard connected to your system.

•Clicking “Choose MIDI File” will open a file dialog where you can navigate to a MIDI file. When you now click “Play”, the notes received from the MIDI file will be played with the settings of the track preset applied.

Track presets for audio tracks cannot be previewed in the MediaBay. You can do this in the Apply Track Template dialog (for further information, see “Previewing track or VST presets before applying” on page 336).

The Tag Editor

When a file is selected in the Viewer section, the Tag Editor shows a two-column list of tags and tag values for this file.

The Media Management System provides further tags, such as “Category” or “Character”.

You have access not only to the standard tags and the preconfigured tags provided by Nuendo, but you can also define your own tags and add these to your files.

The following sections describe how to set up the various tag lists, how to edit tags in the Tag Editor, and how to define user tags.

Managing the tag lists

Lists of tags and tag values are used in various places in the MediaBay window. You can configure these lists and define certain tag properties in the Manage Tags dialog.

Proceed as follows:

1.Open the Manage Tags dialog by clicking on the Manage Tags button in the lower right corner of the MediaBay window.

2.Click one of the filter buttons at the top of the Manage Tags dialog to select the file type for which you want to configure the tag lists.

The Manage Tags dialog shows a list of all tags available for the media files supported by the MediaBay, and three columns of checkboxes, one for the Filter section, one for the Viewer and one for the Tag Editor.

3.To display a certain tag in the Filter tag lists, the Viewer or the Tag Editor, activate the corresponding checkbox for this tag:

The “Category” tag is selected for display in the Filter tag lists, the Viewer and in the Tag Editor.

Tags for media files (also called “attributes”) are sets of metadata providing additional information on the file. The different types of media files have different tags: for example, for .wav audio files you will find standard tags like name, length, size, sample rate, etc., while for .mp3 files, additional tags such as “Artist” or “Genre” are available.

4. Close the Manage Tags dialog by clicking its close box.

Your settings will be applied.

• The Type column shows whether the value for a tag is a number, text or a Yes/No-type switch. The Precision column shows the number of decimals displayed after a point for number tags.

•Click and drag in the tag display to select several tags (click somewhere outside the selected area to deselect).

This way, you can activate/deactivate all selected check boxes in one go.

•To return to the default tag display settings for the Filter, Viewer and Tag Editor sections, click the “Reset to Default” button (above the tag display) in the Manage Tags dialog.

Displaying tags in the Tag Editor

You can switch the tag display in the Tag Editor:

•Click on “Managed” to show only the tags activated for display in the Manage Tags dialog.

Use this view to limit the tag display to only those tags that are of interest to you.

•Click on “All” to show all tags for the file selected in the Viewer for which values are available.

Use this display if you wish to see all tags, including standard file attributes such as Name, Size or Date Modified.

Displaying tags in the Viewer

Most of the time, tags displayed in the MediaBay are sorted alphabetically. Only in the Viewer can you change the tag display order:

• Move the mouse pointer to a column heading, click and drag that heading to a different position in the display.

Editing tags in the Tag Editor

You can use the Tag Editor to edit tag values of the various media files.

Ö Note that changing a tag value in the Tag Editor may permanently change the corresponding file.

When it comes to editing, you will notice that there are different types of tags:

• “Display only” tags cannot be edited. Their values are displayed in a slightly lighter color.

In this case, the file format probably doesn’t permit changing this value, or changing a particular value makes no sense (e.g. you cannot change the file size in the MediaBay, because you have no way of adding or removing media information).

• Most tag values can be edited by double-clicking in the Value column of the Tag Editor.

Tag values can be text, numbers or yes/no switches. Simply enter/change the text, number or Yes/No setting in the field displayed for a value.

Renaming a file in the Tag Editor

•When clicking in the Value column for “Category”, “Sub Category” or “Style”, a pop-up menu opens from which you can choose a value.

The tags “Category” and “Sub Category” are directly linked to each other. The “Category” pop-up allows you to set a category, the “Sub Category” pop-up allows you to set a category and a corresponding sub category. If you pick a sub category from a category that is different from the category set for the “Category” tag, this tag will be changed as well.

•Clicking in the Value column for the “Character” tag will open the Edit Character dialog.

Click a radio button on the left or the right side and then click OK to define values for the Character tag.

•Clicking in the Value column for the Rating tag allows you to rate the file on a scale from 1 – 5.

For example, use this to indicate the file’s sound quality or its suitability for a certain purpose.

Defining user tags

You can define your own tags and save these in the MediaBay. You can use such user tags for example to define your own filter categories, further refining the categorization of your media files.

To define a user tag, proceed as follows:

1.Open the Manage Tags dialog by clicking the Manage Tags button in the lower right corner of the MediaBay window.

2.Click on the Add Tag button.

The Add User Tag dialog opens.

3. Enter a name for the new tag and define its type.

Tags can be of type “Text”, “Number” or “Yes/No” switch.

• For tags of type “Number”, you can also specify how many decimals should be displayed after a decimal point.

Enter the corresponding value in the Precision field.

4. Click OK.

The new tag is added to the list of available tags and can be displayed in the Tag Editor and the Viewer.

• To remove a user tag, select it in the Tags list and click the Remove Tag button.

The tag will be removed from all tag lists in which it was previously displayed.

Media management

General handling

•You can use the [Tab] key on your computer keyboard to move the focus between the different sections of the MediaBay window. Use the arrow keys to navigate to different folders, files or tags.

•When assigning tag values, note that you can select several files and assign the same tag value to all files.

File management

You can use the MediaBay for various file management tasks, similar to what you can do in the Windows Explorer/ Mac OS Finder.

• When the option “Show file extensions” is activated in the Preferences dialog (MediaBay page), file name extensions (e.g. “.wav” or “.cpr”) will be displayed in the MediaBay. When this is deactivated, file extensions will not be shown.

Browser operations

The following tasks can be performed in the Browser section:

•To delete a folder, right-click on the folder icon and select “Delete from Disk” from the context menu.

A warning message is displayed, asking you to confirm that you really want to move this folder to the operating system’s trash folder.

•To rename a folder, select it in the list, click on its name and enter a new name.

•You can drag & drop a folder to a different location.

You will be asked if you wish to copy or move the folder to the new location.

Viewer operations

•You can move/copy a file from the Viewer section to a different location by clicking and dragging it to a different folder in the Browser section.

You will be asked if you wish to copy or move the file to the new location.

•To insert a file into the project, right-click the file and select one of the “Insert into project” options from the context menu.

This will import this file into your current project, either at the start of the project or at the current cursor position.

•To delete a file, right-click on it in the Viewer and select “Delete” from the context menu.

A warning message is displayed, asking you to confirm that you really want to move this file to the operating system’s trash folder.

•When the option “Allow Editing in Viewer” is activated in the Preferences dialog–MediaBay page, you can also edit tags in the Viewer.

Otherwise this is possible only in the Tag Editor.

Tagging media files

The search functions, especially the Category search mode, become a truly powerful media management tool when making extensive use of tagging.

Media files are usually organized in complex folder structures to provide a logical way of guiding the user to the desired files, with the folder and/or file names indicating the instrument, style, tempo etc.

To find a particular sound or loop in such a folder structure can be very time consuming – tagging is the answer! To assign a number of meaningful tags, e.g. to a library of loop files, proceed as follows:

1. Copy the loop files to your hard disk.

Tagging means editing the files, so you need them on your system.

2.Open the MediaBay and browse to where the new loops are located.

3.Navigate to a folder containing loops.

For example, you might have a folder containing Metal style drum loops, at 120bpm.

4. In the Viewer, select all files contained in this folder.

Make sure that the Deep Results button is deactivated, so that only files contained in this folder are displayed.