The Control Room Overview

You can access the Control Room Overview from the Devices menu. The Control Room Overview is designed to display the current configuration of the Control Room. The window shows all possible channels, with active channels highlighted once they have been created in the VST Connections window. Channels that are grayed out have not been defined in the VST Connections window.

The Control Room Overview allows you to see the signal flow through the Control Room Mixer. All the routing functions of the Control Room Mixer are duplicated in the Overview.

The Control Room Mixer

The Control Room Mixer is where you access all the features of the Control Room. The Control Room Mixer can be resized to accommodate more channels and to display more controls. When you open the window for the first time, it will show none of the extendable panels.

The Control Room Overview

Open the Control Room Mixer and the Control Room Overview windows side by side. As you operate the controls in the Mixer you will see the various pale green squares light up in the Overview, indicating changes in signal flow. You can also click the squares in the Overview and watch the controls in the Mixer reflect the changes in signal flow.

The Control Room Mixer

Configuring the Control Room Mixer

In order to display more controls in the Control Room Mixer, the small arrows at the lower left and right corners can be clicked to open or close the extended speaker controls on the right (“Right Strip”) and the External Input and Talkback controls on the left (“Left Strip”).

The arrow at the upper right corner of the Control Room Mixer extends the Mixer vertically to display meters and inserts (“Extended view”). A second arrow appears above the inserts and meter display. Extending the Mixer using this arrow exposes the Input Gain and Input Phase switch, channel configuration and name for each channel (“Routing view”).

The different Control Room Mixer panels are handled in the same way as the Project Mixer panels, see “Configuring the mixer” on page 126.

Each Control Room channel has a set of inserts configured as six pre-fader and two post-fader inserts. External inputs and Monitor channels only have the six pre-fader inserts.

You can also use the Window submenu on the Control Room Mixer context menu to show/hide the different panels, just as in the Project Mixer.

Control Room inserts and meters

When the Control Room Mixer displays the Extended View, the meters become visible. These meters look and function the same way as the ones in the Project Mixer.

Pressing the small meter icon at the center right side of the mixer will change the view to display inserts. Alternatively, these can also be displayed by deactivating the Show Meters option on the Window submenu of the Control Room Mixer context menu.

The Control Room Mixer’s Extended View displaying channel inserts

If you do not wish to see full sized meters but still want some indication of signal activity, activate the option “Signal Presence Indicators” in the Preferences (VST–Control Room page). They will be displayed next to the input selection buttons and will indicate signal presence for all inputs.

The Control Room Mixer with all Signal Presence indicators lit up.

Inserts for external inputs

Each external input has its own set of six inserts. Selecting each external input by clicking the button next to its name at the left of the Mixer window will display the inserts associated with that channel in the extended view.

Inserts for the Talkback channel

The Talkback channel has a separate set of eight inserts. In order to view and adjust them, the Talkback must be enabled via the TALK button located to the lower right of the Control Room Mixer. Click once on the Talkback to latch it on. The inserts for external inputs will now display the Talkback inserts. Once the Talkback is disabled, the view will revert back to external input inserts.

You can easily identify the inserts for the Talkback since they have six pre-fader and two post-fader inserts while the external inputs only have six pre-fader inserts. If the Control Room Mixer is fully expanded, the name displayed at the very top of the Mixer will reflect which channel is currently in the Extended View.

Monitor Inserts

Each Monitor channel has a set of six inserts. These inserts are all post Control Room fader level and are most useful for surround decoding or brickwall limiting to protect sensitive monitor speakers.

Each set of monitors has its own Input Phase and Input Gain settings available in the top section of the extended Control Room Mixer. In addition, there are speaker solo icons along with various soloing modes and speaker routing options in the Speaker Solo panel.

The Speaker Solo panel

Ö Use the speaker solos to test your multichannel speaker system and ensure that the proper channels are routed to each speaker.

Just below the configuration display, all settings for automatic downmixing of multichannel sources are shown. There are four down-mix presets. Some will automatically configure themselves for the sets of monitors you have defined. Each preset is adjustable by accessing the MixConvert plug-in by clicking the small arrow icon above the downmix presets section.

Click here to open the

MixConvert control panel.

The Down-Mix Presets section.

Automatic configuration of the downmix settings follows a logical path. For example, if you have defined one set of 5.1 monitors and another set of stereo monitors, Nuendo will create a 5.1 to stereo downmix preset and another downmix to mono. You can modify all the settings for each downmix preset using the MixConvert plug-in.

Control Room operations

In traditional analog studios, the control room section of the console contained the most used set of controls in the whole studio. Often, the studio monitor level had all the markings rubbed off from so much use.

The need to constantly be able to switch monitoring sources, adjust the volume of monitors and route various cue mixes and other sources to headphone systems is the norm in most sessions. Meeting the needs of several performers in the studio plus a producer and the engineer becomes a constant task that requires flexibility and ease of operation. Communication between everyone must be flawlessly clear without intruding on the creativity of performers.

With all this in mind, the Nuendo Control Room Mixer is designed to fill those needs with a simple yet highly flexible solution. The virtual mixing environment of VST is the ideal solution to the varied needs of a control room matrix. With a virtual mixer, a high degree of customization and precise settings are possible with the ability to completely recall these settings at any time.

1. Input Phase

Each external input and Monitor speaker output has an Input Phase reversal switch. When lit, all audio paths within the channel will have their phase reversed.

2. Input Gain

Each external input, Monitor speaker output and the Talkback input has an Input Gain control. When an external input or Monitor becomes active, the Gain settings will be recalled.

3. Channel Inserts

Each channel in the Control Room Mixer has inserts available. While most channels have six pre-fader and two post-fader inserts, the external inputs and Monitors only have six pre-fader inserts.

4. Channel Configuration

This displays the current configuration of audio paths in the channel, e.g. Stereo, 5.1, etc.

5. Channel Labels

This displays the name of the channel as defined in the VST Connections.

6. Expansion controls

There are several arrow buttons that open and close various panels of the Control Room Mixer. By default, all expandable panels are hidden.

7. Use Reference Level

When you click this button, the Control Room Level is set to the reference level set in the Preferences, e.g. a level for calibrated mixing environments such as film dubbing stages. Press [Alt]/[Option] and click on this button to set the Preferences reference level setting to the current Control Room level.

8. Control Room and Headphone Input Selectors

These buttons allow the selection of various input sources for the Control Room and Headphone channels. The choices are for External Input, Main Mix, or any one of the four Studio channels.

9. Show Meters/Inserts button

This allows you to switch between the display of Meters and Inserts for the extended Mixer view.

10. Listen Bus AFL/PFL

This button determines whether the source signals sent to the Listen bus are pre-fader (PFL) or post-fader (AFL).

11. Global Listen Defeat

When lit, this indicates that one or more channels in the Project Mixer are Listen enabled. Clicking on this button defeats Listen mode for all channels.

12. Listen DIM

This gain control adjusts the volume of the Main Mix when channels have been put in Listen mode. This allows you to keep Listen enabled channels in context with the Main Mix. If the Listen DIM is set to minus infinity, Listen enabled channels will be heard by themselves. Any other setting leaves the Main Mix on at a lower level.

13. DIM Enable

This turns the Control Room Level down by a preset amount (the default setting is -30dB). This allows a quick reduction in monitor volume without disturbing the current monitor level. Clicking on the DIM button again returns the monitor level to the previous setting.

14. Talkback Enable

Click the Talk button to turn on the Talkback system, allowing communication between the control room and performers in the studio. There are two modes of operation: momentary mode used by clicking and holding the Talk button, and latch mode where clicking once turns the Talkback on until you click it again to turn it off.

15. Talkback DIM Level

When the Talkback is enabled, this control allows you to determine how much the output of all the channels in the Control Room Mixer is reduced. This prevents unwanted feedback. If the Talkback DIM level is set to 0dB, no change will occur in the Control Room channels.

16. Cycle Down-Mix Preset Selection

The Control Room allows four different Speaker down-mix settings for auditioning with various speaker configurations. Clicking this button cycles through the four down-mix presets. Various icons appear to show which preset is active.

17. Cycle Monitor Selection

Pressing this button changes the Monitor selection to the next available set. As Monitors are changed, so are the down-mix presets, Monitor inserts, Input Gain and Input Phase controls associated with that Monitor set.

18. Listen Bus Enable

This turns on Listen bus functions for either the Control Room or Headphone outputs. If this is not enabled, the Listen bus will not be routed to that channel.

19. Listen Bus Gain

This level adjustment determines how loud Listen bus signals are when routed to the Control Room or Headphone outputs. Clicking on the number pops up a fader control for adjustment.

20. Studio Input Selectors

For Studio Channels, the input choices are External Input, Aux (from Studio Sends) or Main Mix.

22. Channel Labels

These labels reflect the names created in the VST Connections window.

23. Talkback Level

This pop-up fader controls the amount of Talkback signal fed to the output of each Studio.

24. Talkback Enable

In order for Talkback signals to be routed to a Studio, this button must be lit. Clicking on it turns it on or off. When Talkback Enable is deactivated, the Talkback DIM setting has no effect on this output.

25. Metronome Mix

These level and pan controls determine how the Metronome will be heard in each channel. These controls are independent for each channel.

26. Metronome Enable

This determines whether click signals are sent to each channel. When lit, click signals will be heard in that output.

27. Channel Level Control

This is the main volume for each Control Room output. These faders do not affect recording input levels or the Main Mix level for exporting mixdowns.

28. External input switching

There are six available external inputs. These buttons determine which external input is currently being used. The names for each external input are displayed here as they were created in the VST Connections.

29. Signal Presence Indicators

In the Preferences dialog, there is the option to display these Signal Presence Indicators as a substitute for the full size meters.

The Monitor controls in the Control Room Mixer

30. Individual Speaker Solos

Each speaker icon is a solo button for that channel. [Shift]-clicking a speaker will solo all the speakers in that row (front or rear). [Ctrl]/[Com- mand]-clicking on a speaker that is already soloed will mute that speaker and solo all other channels.

31. LFE Solo

The plus icon solos the LFE channel.

32.Solo Rear Channels

This solos all rear channels.

33.Listen to Rear Channels on Front Monitors

This button solos the rear channels and routes them to the front speakers.

34. Listen to Solo Channels on Center Monitor

When this button is enabled, all speakers that are soloed will be heard in the center channel if there is one in the configuration. If not (as with stereo) the soloed channel will be heard equally in both left and right speakers.

35. Edit Down-Mix

Clicking on this tab opens the MixConvert plug-in used to down-mix multichannel signals for monitoring.

36. Down-Mix Labels

This area displays the names of the four down-mix presets. You may click on a name to change it. A “?” appears when there is no preset defined for that down-mix.

37. Monitor Labels

This area displays the names of the four possible Monitors. The names are created in the VST Connections when you define a Monitor channel.

38. Monitor Selection

These buttons select the current Monitor set. Each Monitor has its own settings including down-mix preset, solo enables, inserts, Input Gain and Input Phase. These settings are automatically recalled when a Monitor is selected.

39. Down-Mix Preset Selection

These buttons select the down-mix preset for the current Monitor.

40. Speaker Solo Defeat

This button defeats all speaker solos, resetting them for normal playback.

41.Solo Front Channels

This button solos all front speakers.

42.Solo Left and Right Channels

This button solos the left and right channels.

The Main Mix and the Control Room channel

The channel configuration of the “Main Mix” (the default output) determines what the channel configuration of the Control Room channel will be. Switching between a project that has a stereo Main Mix to a project that has a 5.1 Main Mix will cause the Control Room channel in the Control Room Mixer to change from a stereo to a 5.1 configuration.

The Main Mix configuration also determines the layout of the Speaker Solo panel. If the Main Mix is stereo, there will only be a left and right speaker in the solo panel.

Any external input that has more channels than the Main Mix will not be heard correctly when routed to the Control Room channel. Only the channels available will be heard.

Ö If a 5.1 external input is routed to a stereo Control Room channel, only the left and right channels will be heard even if a 5.1 Monitor is selected. Only two channels can be routed through a stereo Control Room channel. You could use an instance of MixConvert on the external input’s inserts to down-mix the material to stereo in order to hear it.

•A brickwall limiter in the last insert of the Control Room channel can prevent accidental overloads and damage to speaker systems.

•Use the inserts for the Talkback channel to control the dynamics of the talkback microphone. This will help protect performers’ hearing and ensure that everyone can be heard over the talkback microphone.

•Use the Gain settings on the external inputs to level balance CD players and other sources to the Main Mix level for A/B comparisons.

•Use the Gain settings on each Monitor to level balance all your monitor systems. Switching between sets of speakers will result in the same playback volume.

•Use the calibrated Control Room level for film or DVD mixing. Set this level to the proper speaker volume as determined by the mixing standard you choose to follow.

Control Room preferences

There are several preferences for the Control Room Mixer. These are found in the Preferences (VST–Control Room page).

Suggested settings

With all the versatility that the Control Room provides there are also opportunities for confusion when first setting up the Control Room. The following list contains suggestions that could help to quickly set up the Control Room to get started for recording and mixing.

•If you do not have a master recording device and only use the Export Mixdown function to create finished mix files, set your Main Mix output to “Not Assigned”. This eliminates many confusing errors and unpredictable behavior since outputs and Control Room Monitors can share hardware outputs. The Main Mix is automatically routed to the Control Room channel and will not be affected.

•Create one stereo Monitor to familiarize yourself with the Control Room level controls, DIM settings, the Listen Bus and other monitoring features. Once you have become acquainted to some of these functions, create additional Monitors for every set of speakers you intend to use.

•Use the inserts on Monitor channels for surround decoding and bass management plug-ins among other things.

•Use the inserts on the Control Room channel for metering and spectral analysis plug-ins. All solos including the Listen Bus will come through the Control Room channel allowing analysis of individual sounds.

The Control Room Preferences

Most of these preferences deal with what options are visible in the Control Room Mixer. This allows you to customize the layout of the Mixer and only have the controls visible that you use the most without added clutter.