Audio Media, March 2012

digital audio
workstatio n
Steinberg
Nuendo 5.5
STEPHEN BENNETT thinks that
the incremental update to 5.5
is under-selling the range of
improvements in the latest
version of Steinberg’s Nuendo.
THE REVIEWER
STEPHEN BENNETT has been
involved in music production
for over 25 years. Now based in
Norwich he splits his time between
writing books and articles on
music technology, running his
own Chaos studios and working
in the Electroacoustic Studios
in the School of Music at the
University of East Anglia. He’s also
a filmmaker with several music
videos and short films to his credit.
www.stephenjamesbennett.co.uk
Steinberg has released an update to its flagship
Digital Audio Workstation software Nuendo – the
last major revision, version 5, was reviewed in
July 2010 ‘s Audio Media. This latest release has so
many new features in all areas of the program that make
its point five increment look modest in the extreme, and
I suspect that the improvement is going to make the
lives of those of us working in the audio and visual areas
easier. A lot of the new features revolve around time and
pitch manipulation, but there are also quite a few smaller
changes that will make long-term Nuendo users very happy.
Many of the improvements also bring Nuendo 5.5 in line
with the features found in its main competitors – so will it be
enough for those using competing software to move over
to the Steinberg fold
Nuts And Bolts
The first most obvious change in Nuendo 5.5 is the
comping feature. When recording in cycle mode, separate
lane tracks are created underneath each other. The audio
on each of these lanes can be split, dragged, and resized,
and the selected parts are added to the master comp
track. Each separate lane track can be soloed which
makes it really easy
to quickly audition
separate takes.
This is an extremely
simple and effective
way to audition
and create a comp
track quickly and
intuitively, and it’s
nice to see that
both audio and
MIDI data can be
‘laned.’ It’s similar in
concept to Logic
Pro’s take on Takes
and, in my opinion,
vastly superior to the way Pro Tools 10 handles comping.
Another striking new feature in version 5.5 is the multitrack
audio quantisation facility available when using
the Group-editing mode. Once grouped, tracks can be
made to conform to the tempo of a chosen track, all
without phase issues. You have control over which tracks
get priority, and it works extremely well – audio artefacts
are kept to a minimum. Other editing actions such as
resizing affect all grouped events, parts, or selection
ranges, making it easier to edit multi microphone parts
or even whole live multi-track recordings.
The tempo detection feature can be used on any
audio material with detectable beats and will generate a
tempo track map for material that hasn’t been recorded
to a click. Other audio can then be conformed to this map
using the audio quantisation feature, or it could just be
used as a kind of free played click track. It worked pretty
well on the bass and snare drum tracks I tried it on, but
there’s plenty of fine-tuning available if it misses a beat.
Nuendo 5.5 now has an audio replacement feature that
makes it pretty straightforward to replace or enhance
recorded audio – and it’s not just for drum replacement
either – I used it to locate and replace some dialogue and
(Fig 2). Pitch warping.
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AUDIO MEDIA MARCH 2012