Although Steinberg has designed this DAW to be an entire media production system, complete with mix-and-match hardware options, the basis of the Nuendo is the multitrack recording/editing software for Windows 98/NT/2000. It goes so far as to support not only ASIO 2.0 high-end multichannel audio cards, but standard Windows sound cards as well, so if you haven’t decided on which of the many audio I/O options available for your PC you want (and new ones seemingly pop up every day), or you just don’t have the bucks yet, you can start with a basic system and go modular in the future — these are the kinds of decisions your well-informed Sweetwater Sales Engineer can be more than helpful in making.

The people at Steinberg have really designed this system with the goal of flexibility, which includes compatibility with external control surfaces like the Yamaha 01v and the Roland MCR-8, complete MIDI/MTC implementation, including sample-accurate sync when using either the Nuendo hardware or an ASIO 2.0 compliant audio card. Also supported are record and playback of AIFF, AIFC, WAV and Broadcast Wave files, as well as the ability to mixdown to mp3, RealAudio, compressed WAV and Windows Media. Furthermore, Nuendo software will import Cubase song files and both import and export MIDI and OMF file formats.

The View from Here. One of the most attractive features of Nuendo is the powerful editing capabilities of the software, allowing you to see an unlimited history of your edits and add, remove or alter previous changes, no matter in what order they’ve been placed or how many edits you’ve done to the event you wish to modify. This means, for instance, that if you rendered an effect on a track that has since been further edited, you can just look at the track’s edit history, pick out that effect and adjust it, delete it, alter its parameters in whatever way you’d like, and the sequence of effects that have been added since won’t have to be reapplied — they remain on the track and merely adjust to the changes made to the edits that precede them, kind of like how it used to work when you did things the old way, back before computers entered the picture (if you’ve got images of razor blades in your head, you should mentally put them away before you hurt yourself). Imagine not having to go back and re-render all the edits after you’ve decided the very first one that you used didn’t quite work. Clearly, this could end up being a phenomenal time-saver!

See the Surroundings. Staying on the subject of attractive features, Steinberg’s approach to multichannel and surround mixing with the Nuendo has got to be called innovative, at the very least. So you’ve got a client (you know, that client — the one that’s always changing the job on the fly) who wants 5.1 today. Easy enough, just pull up the 5.1 surround mix plug-in and get to work. Maybe tomorrow he’ll call and decide 7.1’s the way to go . . . so you just drag a couple more speakers into the configuration window, and you’re set. But then this fickle being goes out to a retro bar and just loves how their quadraphonic system sounds, calls you the next day (“You had to be there, man!”) and decrees that the Quad Sound is what’s going to push this project over the top. Okay then, once again, just set up your configuration window with four speakers — although you know this client well enough to have saved all the previous mixes, right? Maybe tomorrow he’ll want you to invent 11.3 for the discerning audiophile with three subwoofers, hexaphonic surround and five satellites for the floor and ceiling.

Open-Air Hardware. Although the Nuendo will work with several different sound cards, Steinberg’s audio card designed for this system is the Nuendo 96 / 52 ($799 list), a two card tandem (one PCI and one expansion card that connects to the main card) that combined offer a full 52 channels — 26 in, 26 out — that can be used simultaneously, and with no CPU load because this card set has built-in ASIO 2.0 drivers. The set supports up to 24-bit, 96k recording and mixdown and has optical connectors which are selectable between ADAT, S/PDIF and AES/EBU input and output formats. Another useful feature for ADAT owners is the 9-pin Sync In connector for sample accurate transfers from your ADAT.

The expanded I/O platform for the Nuendo is the Nuendo 8-I/O ($1999 list), featuring full 24-bit analog and digital I/Os: eight Ins and eight Outs of the analog variety (balanced, 1/4” TRS), ADAT Optical I/O, TDIF-1 for compatibility with Tascam’s multitrack recorders, and a BNC connector which can connect to the 96/52 card (or any other clock source with BNC connectors) for sync purposes. Interestingly enough, this unit’s design is more like an extremely souped-up patch bay and A/D-D/A converter than the traditional “breakout box” as we’ve come to know it. The reason for this is that the 8-I/O offers multiple paths with which to bring the signals into your PC. In fact, this unit does not rely upon a fixed architecture by which it must function, and therefore could feasibly be integrated into most any setup where Optical ADAT or TDIF-1 Ins/Outs are utilized. It also features a 25 pin D-type connector as an alternate signal route from the D/A converter.

There is also a hardware synchronization unit for Nuendo called Timelock Pro ($999 list), capable of generating MIDI Time Code (MTC) from an LTC or VITC source. It’s also able to generate Word Clock or Digidesign Super Clock (FSx256) from a video sync or free-running LTC. It’s important to note that the lower the jitter the better, and this box keeps jitter to nearly infinitesimal levels. Since the purpose of the Nuendo system is audio for film, video and interactive media, having a reliable sync device is of the utmost importance for this kind of work. If you haven’t already looked into the different synchronization / time code generators being made today, give your Sweetwater Sales Engineer a call or visit "www.sweetwater.com” and get the details.

Somewhere Out There. Given that in the future this will probably be known to the audio production realm as the Dawn of the Digital Audio Workstation Age, the options not only for the software but also the hardware are numerous already. The challenge for manufacturers is to create DAWs that not only offer the basic capabilities audio and post-production professionals require, but also those little (and big!) extras that make the product worth a longer look. With the Nuendo system, Steinberg has taken the steps to ensure they will remain a large part of the DAW picture, today and into the future. To help determine your place in the pro audio domain, and for additional information and your special low pricing, give your Sales Engineer a call today!