Hello fellows,
I do a lot of location sound / dialogue editing, both with Nuendo and ProTools, depending on the re-recording mixer. In ProTools, there’s a function to convert volume automation to clip gain. That speeds up a bit my leveling workflow. So I’m looking for something similar in Nuendo.
Thanks in advance
Clip gain would be nice for the easier visual reference but couldn’t you achieve the same by automating the Pre-Gain in the mixer window?
+1 for the request, and the other way around: clip gain converted to automation.
I think part of this will have to do with AAF exchanges as well as mixing workflows. So hypothetically, depending on the tasks the editor has to accomplish, there could very well be a case where automating volume is the most expedient but once done clip gain is preferred when transferring to AAF and then on to Pro Tools. The reason being that the re-recording engineer is not going to want to work around existing automation and the way around that is converting to clip gain to “free up” automation.
At least that’s the way I think about it.
On that note the case for the reverse is that we sometimes receive AAFs with clips leveled by video editors who are more wrong than right, and it’s sometimes convenient to “flatten” those clip levels by transferring them to volume automation, and then one can keep that or nuke it… Again of course workflow dependent.
Ah, yeah that would be an issue.
Thanks. Automating pre gain is a nice idea. I just checked it and couldn’t find a way to set this parameter to my controller. So I tried to automate volume and cut/paste that curve to pre gain automation. The values seem to be relative, so 12dB in Volume now are 48 dB. So I can’t use that idea.
Delivering an automation clean project to the re-recording mixer is exactly the goal.
Another ‘rub’.
Clip gain, or rather the absence of professional clip gain of the Pro Tools kind (but Samplitude too, then Studio One and basically all other DAWs), is a major problem in Cubendo. I’ve been talking about it elsewhere (for years, in fact) and the feature request has been made, made and made again, without Steinberg listening so far. So far, we’ve only got a reduction gain clip, no volume increase, which makes no sense. It already blocks any possibility of transferring volume automation (which can increase) to a clip gain. I’ve done a lot of voice adjustments, where you need to be able to increase a syllable or a consonant in attack, but I have to use Pro Tool or Samplitude… And to think that Nuendo specializes in Postsynchro… it’s incredible.
Wouldn’t help with automation free workflow but just to help you be able to map it if you want, it’s done through quick controls:
Just a little different for Nuendo 12, instead of assigning it on the left panel you activate Track Quick Controls under Racks in the Mixer Window and, as example, assign Pre Gain to slot 1 for all tracks you want to automate. Input Filter → Pre Gain
Nice, but something went wrong. In the shown window, I turned my pan pots while learning and assigned pre gain to the first slot of quick controls. But the pan pots are still pan and now, when I turn them, the volume faders flip around. But even if it worked, my project wouldn’t be automation-free. So I think, as long as Steinberg won’t implement this function, I have to convert my edit tracks to a ProTools session and when I’m done with leveling, convert it back to Nuendo …
Honestly, you have some really good engineers working on production audio using Nuendo and creating a good product. I would probably advise to just learn how to do it (differently) in Nuendo rather than try to apply a PT workflow. If people are doing it then it can be done, and with fewer hoops to jump through.
In this case, it goes beyond mere comparison and habit. Nuendo is really handicapped by this shortcoming, and it handicaps its users in the process. If you eat with your hands, it’s not copying your neighbor to find a fork, or in this case it’s a good thing to copy. The evolution of DAWs, in any case, hasn’t taken place with everyone in their own stall with blinders on. On the contrary, everyone looks at each other, and the progress of one pushes the others forward.
There are a lot of complicated detours, and a lot of discussions, I find, when the only thing Steinberg can do is to make his clip gain positive and negative, not just negative. That’s no mean feat.
Having said that, I think we can all agree that Nuendo is, on the whole, an extraordinary tool. But again this morning, I had to increase the syllables of some of my narrator’s words, which were too weak, and I had to cut the speech into salami slices and therefore multiply the precautionary crossfades (which, by the way, take up memory unnecessarily).