The Project window

Background

The Track list

The Track list displays all the tracks used in a project. It contains name fields and settings for the tracks. Different track types have different controls in the Track list. To see all the controls you may have to resize the track in the Track list (see “Resizing tracks in the Track list” on page 35).

• The Track list area for an audio track:

Bank Patch MIDI channel MIDI Output

• You can also use key commands to show different Inspector sections.

These are set up in the Key Commands dialog, see “Setting up key commands” on page 518.

Ö Hiding a section does not affect its functionality.

In other words, if you have set up a track parameter or activated an effect for example, your settings will still be active even if you hide the respective Inspector section.

Which sections are available in the Inspector depends on the selected track.

The Inspector

The area to the left of the Track list is called the Inspector. This shows additional controls and parameters for the track you have selected in the Track list. If several tracks are selected (see “Handling tracks” on page 38), the Inspector shows the setting for the first (topmost) selected track.

To hide or show the Inspector, click the Inspector icon in the toolbar.

Ö Please note that not all Inspector tabs are shown by default. You can show/hide Inspector sections by rightclicking on an Inspector tab and activating/deactivating the desired option(s).

Make sure you right-click on an inspector tab and not on the empty area below the Inspector, as this will open the Quick context menu instead.

Clicking the name for a hidden section brings it into view and hides the other sections. [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking the section name allows you to hide or show a section without affecting the other sections. Finally, [Alt]/[Option]-clicking a section name shows or hides all sections in the Inspector.

The Inspector Setup context menu.

Sections

The Inspector contains the controls that can be found on the Track list, plus some additional buttons and parameters. In the table below, these additional settings and the available sections are listed. Which sections are available for which track type is described in the following sections.

Channel section Shows a duplicate of the corresponding mixer channel strip. The channel overview strip to the left lets you activate and deactivate insert effects, EQs and sends.

Notepad section This is a standard text notepad, allowing you to jot down notes about the track.

If you have entered any notes about a track, the icon next to the “Notepad” heading will light up to indicate this. Moving the pointer over the icon will display the Notepad text in a tool tip.

Audio tracks

For audio tracks, all settings and sections listed above are available.

•User Panels for audio tracks can display panels for channel controls (such as input phase or the linked panner option) or for VST effects currently inserted in the channel.

•User Panels for audio tracks are accessed by clicking the Open Device Panels button (found in the topmost Inspector section, next to the Read/Write buttons).

This opens up a menu listing all the device panels available for the audio track. If panels have not been created yet, you will see “Setup” panels in the menu. Double-cicking on one of these will open the Device window for that audio track. Here you will be able to create user panels for any parameter of the audio track, including VST effects that have been inserted. For more information on how to create device and user panels, see the separate PDF document “MIDI Devices”.

The device panel browser.

Once panels have been created, they are available from the User Panel section of the Inspector. Click on the arrow button at the top right of the User Panel section to view the available panels.

The User Panel menu in the Inspector

The Inspector can only display inspector sized user panels. Panels of larger sizes will not be available in the Inspector.

MIDI tracks

When a MIDI track is selected, the Inspector contains a number of additional sections and parameters, affecting the MIDI events in real time (e.g. on playback). Which sections are available for MIDI tracks is described in the chapter “MIDI realtime parameters and effects” on page 342.

Marker tracks

When the marker track is selected, the Inspector shows the marker list. See “The Marker window” on page 110.

Video tracks

When a video track is selected, the Inspector contains a lock button for locking the track (see “Locking events” on page 50), a Mute button for interrupting video playback and two settings for how the video thumbnails are shown: Show Frame Numbers and Snap Thumbnails (see “Playing back a video file” on page 472).

Video tracks make use of the Notepad and Network Inspector tabs.

Folder tracks

When a folder track is selected, the Inspector shows the folder and its underlying tracks, much like a folder structure in the Windows Explorer or Mac OS X Finder.

Ö You can click one of the tracks shown under the folder in the Inspector to have the Inspector show the settings for that track.

This way, you don’t have to “open” a folder track to make settings for tracks within it.

Here, an audio track within the folder is selected.

FX channel tracks

When an FX channel track is selected, the following controls and sections are available:

•Edit button.

•Volume control.

•Pan control.

•Output routing pop-up menu.

•Inserts section.

•Equalizers section.

•Equalizer Curve section.

•Sends section.

•Studio Sends section.

•Surround Pan section.

•Channel section.

•Notepad section.

FX channel folder tracks

FX channel tracks are automatically placed in a special folder, for easier management. When this folder track is selected, the Inspector shows the folder and the FX channels it contains. You can click one of the FX channels

shown in the folder to have the Inspector show the settings for that FX channel – this way you don’t have to “open” a folder track to access the settings for the FX channels in it.

Group channel tracks

When a Group channel track is selected, the following controls and sections are available:

•Edit button.

•Volume control.

•Pan control.

•Output routing pop-up menu.

•Inserts section.

•Equalizers section.

•Equalizer Curve section.

•Sends section.

•Studio Sends section.

•Surround Pan section.

•Channel section.

•Notepad section.

Group channel folder tracks

Just like FX channel tracks, all Group channel tracks are placed in a separate folder – when this is selected, the Inspector shows the folder and the Group channels it contains. You can click one of the Group channels shown in the folder to have the Inspector show the settings for that Group channel – this way, you don’t have to “open” a folder track to access the settings for the Group channels in it.

Ruler tracks

For ruler tracks, the Inspector isn’t used.

Transpose track

When the transpose track is selected, the following controls and sections are available:

•Mute button.

•Keep Transpose in Octave range.

•Toggle Timebase button.

•Lock button.

•Notepad section.

•Network section.

The Transpose track controls are described in detail in the chapter “The Transpose functions” on page 114.

The toolbar

The toolbar contains tools and shortcuts for opening other windows and various project settings and functions:

Constrain delay compensation (see the chapter “VST

Instruments and Instrument tracks” on page 189).

Project window tools

Transport controls

(Previous/Next Marker, Cycle, Stop, Play, and Record)

Ö In addition to these, the toolbar can contain a number of other tools and shortcuts, not visible by default. How to set up the toolbar and specify which tools should be displayed or hidden is described in the section “The Setup dialogs” on page 506.

The info line

The info line shows information about the currently selected event or part in the Project window. You can edit almost all values on the info line using regular value editing. Length and position values are displayed in the format currently selected for the ruler (see “The ruler” on page 31).

• To hide or show the info line, click the Show Event Infoline button on the toolbar.

The following elements can be selected for display and editing on the info line:

•Audio events.

•Audio parts.

•MIDI parts.

•Video events.

•Markers.

•Automation curve points.

•Transpose events.

•Arranger events.

When several elements are selected

•If you have several elements selected, the info line will show information about the first item in the selection. The values will be shown in yellow to indicate that several elements are selected.

•If you edit a value on the info line, the value change is applied to all selected elements, relatively to the current values.

If you have two audio events selected and the first is one bar long and the other two bars long, the info line shows the length of the first event (one bar). If you now edit this value to 3 bars in the info line, the other event will be resized by the same amount – and will thus be 4 bars long.

•If you press [Ctrl]/[Command] and edit on the info line, the values will be absolute instead. In our example above, both events would be resized to 3 bars. Note that [Ctrl]/ [Command] is the default modifier key for this – you can change this in the Preferences (Editing–Tool Modifiers page, under the Info Line category).

Editing Transpose and Velocity for MIDI parts

When one or several MIDI parts are selected, the info line contains Transpose and Velocity fields.

•Adjusting the Transpose field transposes the selected parts in semitone steps.

Note that this transposition doesn’t change the actual notes in the part – it’s just a “play parameter”, affecting the notes on playback. The transposition you specify for a part on the info line is added to the transposition set for the whole track. For more information on transposing, see the chapter “The Transpose functions” on page 114.

•Adjusting the Velocity field shifts the velocity for the selected parts – the value you specify is added to the velocities of the notes in the parts.

Again, this velocity shift only affects the notes on playback, and again, the value you specify is added to the Vel.Shift. value set for the whole MIDI track in the Inspector.

Audio events can also be transposed – see “Realtime pitch-shifting of audio events” on page 288.

Getting on-the-fly info with the Arrow tool

If the option “Select Tool: Show Extra Info” is activated in the Preferences (Editing–Tools page), a tool tip will be shown for the Arrow tool, displaying information depending on where you point it. For example, in the Project window event display, the tool will show the current pointer position and the name of the track and event you’re pointing at.

The ruler

The ruler at the top of the event display shows the timeline. Initially, the Project window ruler uses the display format specified in the Project Setup dialog (see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 33), as do all other rulers and position displays in the project. However, you can select an independent display format for the ruler by clicking the arrow button to the right of it and selecting an option from the pop-up menu that appears (you can also bring up this pop-up menu by right-clicking anywhere in the ruler).

• The selection you make here affects the ruler, the info line and tool tip position values (which appear when you drag an event in the Project window).

You can also select independent formats for other rulers and position displays.

•To set the display format globally (for all windows), use the primary display format pop-up on the Transport panel, or hold down [Ctrl]/[Command] and select a display format in any ruler.

•If you use the “Timecode” or “User” options and the option “Show Timecode Subframes” is activated in the Preferences (Transport page), the frames will also display subframes.

There are 80 subframes per frame.

•For the “Feet+Frames” settings, there is an option in the Preferences (Transport page) called “Feet’n’Frames Count from Project Start”.

When this is activated, time displays and rulers in Feet+Frames format will always start with 0’00 at the beginning of the project – regardless of any Start offset settings in the Project Setup dialog.

Using multiple rulers – ruler tracks

As described above, the Nuendo Project window contains a main ruler at the top of the event display, displaying the timeline from left to right.

If needed, you can have several rulers in the Project window, by adding ruler tracks to the project. Each ruler track contains an additional ruler.

• To add a ruler track, select “Add Track” from the Project menu and from the submenu that appears, select “Ruler”.

A ruler track showing an additional ruler is added to the Track list.

A ruler track set to the display format “Seconds”.

You can add any number of ruler tracks to a project, and position them as needed by dragging them up or down in the list. Each of the rulers can show a separate display format:

• To select a display format for a ruler track, click on its name in the track list and select an option from the pop-up menu.

The different display formats are described above.

Note that ruler tracks are completely independent from the main event display ruler, as well as rulers and position displays in other windows. This means that:

•Ruler tracks can all have independent display formats.

•Ruler tracks are not affected by the display format setting in the Project Setup dialog (see “The Project Setup dialog” on page 33).

•Ruler tracks are not affected if you set the display format globally with the primary time display in the Transport panel.

Ö Ruler tracks are affected by the option “Show Timecode Subframes” in the Preferences (see above).