Freezing (rendering) insert effects for a track

Effect plug-ins can sometimes require a lot of processor power. If you are using a large number of insert effects for a track, you may eventually reach a point where the computer cannot play back the track properly (the CPU overload indicator in the VST Performance window lights up, you get crackling sounds, etc.).

To remedy this, you can freeze the track, by clicking the Freeze button in the Inspector.

Unfreezing

If you need to edit the events on a frozen track or make settings for the insert effects, you can unfreeze the track:

1.Click the Freeze button in the Inspector for the track.

You will be asked whether you really want to unfreeze the channel and if you wish to keep or delete the freeze files.

2.Click “Unfreeze” or “Keep Freeze files”.

This reactivates the frozen insert effects. Clicking “Keep Freeze Files” will unfreeze the channel but not delete the freeze files. After editing you can freeze the track again.

•The Freeze Channel Options dialog is opened, allowing you to set a “Tail” time in seconds.

This adds time at the end of the rendered file to allow reverb and delay tails to fully fade out.

•The program now renders the output of the track, including all pre-fader insert effects, to an audio file.

This file is placed in the “Freeze” folder within the Project folder (Windows). On the Mac, the Freeze folder is stored under “User/Documents”.

•The frozen audio track is locked for editing in the Project window.

The frozen insert effects cannot be edited or removed and you cannot add new insert effects for the track (except post-fader effects).

•On playback, the rendered audio file is played back. You can still adjust the level and panning in the Mixer, make EQ settings and adjust the effect sends.

In the Mixer, the channel strip for a frozen track is indicated by a “snow flake” symbol on the volume fader handle.

After freezing the Inserts for a track, you hear the track play back as before but the insert effects don’t have to be calculated in real time, easing the load on the computer processor. Typically, you would freeze a track when it’s finished and you don’t need to edit it anymore.

•You can only freeze audio tracks this way, not group channel tracks or FX channel tracks.

•The last two insert effects will not be frozen. This is because these are post-fader insert slots.

As their name implies, send effects are outside of an audio channel’s signal path, i.e. the audio data to be processed must be sent to the effect (as opposed to insert effects, which are inserted into the channel’s signal path).

To this end, Nuendo provides FX channel tracks. When you have created such a track, it is added to the track list and can be selected as a routing target in the Send slots of audio channels.

•When selecting an FX channel track in one of the send slots of an audio channel, the audio is sent to the FX channel and through any insert effects set up for it.

Each audio channel has eight sends, which can be routed to different FX channels, and thus different FX channel insert effect configurations. You control the amount of signal sent to the FX channel by adjusting the effect send level.

•If you have added several effects to the FX channel, the signal passes through the effects in series, from the top (the first slot) downward.

This allows for “custom” send effect configurations – e.g. a chorus followed by a reverb followed by an EQ and so on.

•The FX channel track has its own channel strip in the mixer, the effect return channel.

Here you can adjust the effect return level and balance, add EQ and route the effect return to any output bus.

•Each FX channel track can have any number of automation tracks, for automating various effect parameters.

See the chapter “Automation” on page 213 for more information.

Setting up send effects

Adding an FX channel track

1. Pull down the Project menu and select “FX Channel” from the “Add Track” submenu.

A dialog appears.

2.Select a channel configuration for the FX channel track.

Normally, stereo is a good choice since most effect plug-ins have stereo outputs.

3.Select an effect for the FX channel track.

This is not strictly necessary at this point – you can leave the plug-in pop-up menu set to “No Effect” and add effects to the FX channel later if you like.

4. Click OK.

An FX channel track is added to the track list, and the selected effect, if any, is loaded into the first insert effect slot for the FX channel (in that case, the lit Inserts tab for the FX channel track in the Inspector indicates that an effect has been assigned and automatically activated).

• All FX channel tracks you create will appear in a dedicated “folder” track in the Track list.

This makes it easy to manage and keep track of all your FX channel tracks, and also allows you to save screen space by folding in the FX Channel folder.

FX channel tracks are automatically named “FX 1”, “FX 2” etc., but you can rename them if you wish. Just double-click the name of an FX channel track in either the Track list or the Inspector and type in a new name.

Adding and setting up effects

As mentioned above, you can add a single insert effect when you create the FX channel track. To add and set up effects after the FX channel track is created, you can either use the Inspector for the track (click the Inserts tab) or the VST FX Channel Settings window:

1. Click the Edit (“e”) button for the FX channel track (in the Track list, mixer or Inspector).

The FX Channel Settings window appears, similar to a regular Channel Settings window.

To the left in the window is the Inserts section with eight effect slots.

2.Make sure the FX channel is routed to the correct output bus.

This is done with the output routing pop-up menu at the top of the fader section (also available in the mixer and Inspector).

3.To add an insert effect in an empty slot (or to replace the current effect in a slot), click in the slot and select an effect from the pop-up menu.

This works just like when selecting insert effects for a regular audio channel.

4.When you add an effect, its control panel will automatically appear. When you set up send effects, you would normally set the wet/dry Mix control to all “wet”.

This is because you control the balance between the wet and the dry signal with the effect sends. For more information, see “Making settings for the effects” on page 182.

• You can add up to eight effects for an FX channel.

The signal will pass through all the effects in series. It is not possible to adjust the effect send and return levels separately for the effects – this is done for the FX channel as a whole. If what you want is several separate send effects (where you can control the send and return levels independently), you should instead add more FX channel tracks – one for each effect.

•You can reorder the effects by clicking in the area above the name field and dragging the effect onto another slot.

•You can copy an effect into another effect slot (for the same channel or between channels) by holding down [Ctrl]/[Command] and dragging it onto another effect slot.

•To remove an insert effect from a slot, click in the slot and select “No Effect” from the pop-up menu.

You should do this for all effects that you don’t intend to use, to reduce the CPU load.

•You can bypass individual effects (or all effects) by clicking the corresponding Bypass button(s) for the FX channel track.

See “Routing an audio channel or bus through insert effects” on page 171.

•You can also adjust level, pan and EQ for the effect return in the FX Channel Settings window.

This can also be done in the mixer or in the Inspector.

Ö Remember that the more effect units you use, the higher the CPU load.

Setting up the sends

The next step is to set up a send for an audio channel and route it to the FX channel. This can be done in the mixer (in the extended panel), in the Channel Settings window or in the Inspector for the audio track. The example below shows the Channel Settings window, but the procedure is similar for all three sections:

1. Click the “e” button for an audio channel to bring up its Channel Settings window.

In the mixer you would select one of the Sends modes for the extended mixer panel; in the Inspector you would click the Sends tab.

In the Channel Settings window, the send section is located to the left of the channel strip by default. Each of the eight sends has the following controls:

•An On/Off button for activating/deactivating the effect

•A send level slider

•A pre/post-fader switch

•An “e” (edit) button

Note that the last three items are not shown until the send is activated and an effect has been loaded.

2. Pull down the routing pop-up menu for a send by clicking in the empty slot, and select the desired routing destination.

•If the first item on this menu (“No Bus”) is selected, the send isn’t routed anywhere.

•Items called “FX 1”, “FX 2” etc. correspond to existing FX tracks. If you renamed an FX track (see “Adding an FX channel track” on page 176) that name will appear on this menu instead of the default.

•The menu also allows for routing a send directly to output busses, separate output bus channels or Group channels.

3.Select an FX channel track from the pop-up menu.

Now the send is routed to the FX channel.

4.Click the power button for the effect send so that it lights up in blue.

This activates the send.

5.Click and drag the send level slider to a moderate value.

The send level determines how much of the signal from the audio channel is routed to the FX channel via the send.

Setting the Send level.

•You can also bypass individual sends in the channel overview.

See “Insert effects in the channel overview” on page 172.

•You can also bypass the send effects by clicking the “Bypass Inserts” button for the FX channel.

This bypasses the actual send effects which may be used by several different channels. Bypassing a send affects that send and that channel only. If you bypass the insert effect the original sound will be passed through. This may lead to unwanted side effects (higher volume). To deactivate all effects, use the mute button in the FX channel.

Setting pan for the sends

By default, the sends for an audio channel follow any pan settings – stereo or surround – you make for the channel itself. This means that if an audio channel is panned to the right, the signal from its effect sends will be panned the same way, making the stereo imaging as clear and true as possible.

However, you may want to have different pan settings for the sends. There are several uses for this:

•If you route a send from a mono channel to a stereo FX channel track, you can position the send signal at center pan in the stereo FX channel (or anywhere you like).

•If you route a send from a stereo channel to a mono FX channel track, the pan control works as a crossfader, determining the balance between the stereo sides when the stereo send signal is mixed to mono.

•If you route a send from a mono or stereo channel to a FX channel track in surround format, you can use the surround panner to position the send signal in the surround image.

•If you route a send from a surround channel to an FX channel in a format with less channels, you can set the panning with the Mixconvert plug-in.

You set up send panning in the following way:

1.Open the Channel Settings window for the audio channel.

2.Right-click somewhere in the Channel settings window (not the EQ display), to open the context menu and open the “Customize View” submenu.

3. From the submenu, select “Send Routing” and “Control Strip”.

In the Send Routing section of the Channel Settings window, each send is shown as a small routing diagram showing a pre/post selector to the right and a pan fader (where applicable). In the Control Strip section, you can activate the option “Link Send Routing Panners to Channel Panner as Default”. When this is activated, the send panners follow the pan for the channel. This item is also available in the Preferences dialog (VST page).

4. Click and drag the pan control for the desired send(s) in the display.

You can reset the pan control to the center position by [Ctrl]/[Command]- clicking on the pan control.

• If the FX channel is configured in a surround format, the pan control will be a miniature surround panner, similar to the one found in the mixer.

You can click and drag the “ball” in the miniature panner display to position the send in the surround field, or double-click in the display to bring up the surround panner. See the chapter “Surround sound” on page 202.

Ö If both the send (the audio channel) and the FX channel are in mono, the pan control is not available.

About sends for FX channels

The FX channels themselves have sends, too. However, these can only be routed to output busses, not to effects.

Setting effect levels

When you have set up the sends as described in the previous sections, you can do the following:

• You can use the send level slider in the Channel Settings window, the Inspector or the extended mixer panel to set the send level.