Cubase vs. Nuendo for Audio drama

I just bought cubase 14 pro only to discover Nuendo. It seems like Nuendo caters to people working on sound design film and games. Audio drama falls in the catagory of film just without the screen. What is Nuendo’s advantage over Cubase, primarily when it comes to workflow and editing?

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Maybe take a look at this: Compare Nuendo and Cubase | Steinberg

Thank you for you the link. I was more looking for an opinion for when it comes to workflow.

Nuendo has everything you can ever need. We have done several RD.
May be this template can get you started with the 2 month trial.

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Brilliant, Ill take a look. I have already stretched my spending limit this year Buying cubase. But a crossgrade may have to happen next year. $1k is a spicy meatball of a purchase

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I would like to thank you so very much for making me wish I was a rich man. This video had me salivating over this. Cubase is awesome. But this is exactly what I need. Til next year

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There are occasionnal sales on crossgrades, I suggest you subscribe to the Steinberg’s newsletter. You’ll be notified when a sale begin.

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For audio drama, there is nothing you need in Nuendo that can’t be done in other apps, and there’s not much extra critical stuff you’ll get out of it over Cubase IMO. The caveat to that, to be clear, is that Nuendo is arguably the most powerful DAW on the market, so there are things unique to Nuendo that you might benefit from, but ultimately that comes down to specific workflow preferences that you have. So it might be great for you, or it might be better to allocate your resources on other plugins, apps, DAWs, etc., depending on your needs/preferences.

Having said all that, for some people, Nuendo is also missing critical features for audio drama that other DAWs/apps have. For example, a complete click-and-drag ripple editing mode is still missing from Nuendo (and Cubase), which you’ll find in Reaper, and ironically, in Steinberg’s own WaveLab of all things. In fact, it’s faster to pre-edit multi-actor dialog in WaveLab Pro montage mode than in Cubase/Nuendo IMO! I personally couldn’t live without click-and-drag ripple editing for multi-track + multi-actor dialog editing, and so I wouldn’t use either Cubase or Nuendo for that step. Hence why I (and many others!) have been asking for true click-and-drag ripple editing for many years, for many reasons. BTW Steinberg has confirmed it’s something they are looking at, and perhaps they’ve already started working on it for a future update. I’m hoping for Cubase/Nuendo 15 or 16!

There are other examples, but the point is that everyone’s workflows are different and your needs will be different than mine. I’m happy that @Rajiv_Mudgal is finding Nuendo to be a good solution for him, and he’s obviously a very smart and capable Nuendo user, so I’m not trying to criticize his opinion, of course. The workflows in Nuendo fit his needs just fine it seems, and I totally respect that. It’s a great DAW for sure.

However, I personally do not use Cubase and Nuendo at least for the initial editing stages of audio drama projects, since I can edit the multi-actor dialog about 2X (or faster!) in Reaper, for example. I could also edit it much faster in WaveLab, as I mentioned. However, when it comes to doing any kind of scoring or music production for audio drama, I would absolutely be using Cubase, which has numerous superior music workflows IMO. Nuendo’s features would be superfluous in that case. But Nuendo would also do the job for scoring and music production of course.

Nuendo is obviously a superset of Cubase, and is not really needed for any of my audio drama projects, although there are some cool features inside Nuendo that might be advantageous for you for sound design and some adjacent post production tasks. I’d suggest running through the link that @stingray posted to see if there’s something that intrigues you. Some of the additional plugins might come in very handy indeed if you don’t have something comparable already. Dialog tonal matching, voice separator, sound randomizer, etc., all come to mind. I have third party plugins to cover all that, but Nuendo includes things like that which could be very valuable to you. The price difference, on a cross-grade sale from Cubase, is more than worth the price just for those extra plugins if you don’t have equivalents.

Again, it boils down to the specific things you need/want to do, and your workflow preferences. But in this day and age, it’s past time that Cubase/Nuendo has true, comprehensive click-and-drag ripple editing, which would finally make it a one-stop-shop for projects of this nature, IMO. Until then, I personally continue to use whatever tools I need to use to get the job done faster, and as much as I appreciate Nuendo (and I eagerly await Nuendo 14 since I love Cubase 14), I do not think it’s currently an ideal platform for audio drama specifically.

Lastly, I’ll mention that if you were stuck on a desert island and could only have ONE DAW to do MOST tasks with, including complex audio drama, then Nuendo would be a perfectly good DAW to do it all in. Again, YMMV. Cheers!

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Never a truer word spoken! I put Nuendo/Cubase aside for an entire career of editing podcasts for this reason. It takes double the time without proper rippling. Unfortunately the workarounds ( Cut Time, the snapping edit mode etc) just don’t make up for it.

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Yep, that’s my experience too editing tons of complex dialog projects. And when you add more actors/voices/guests and more tracks, and then you need to tweak lots of small timing details like pauses, breaths, insert/delete/finesse many little bits here and there on a tight deadline, etc., then it goes from 2X to 4X faster with click-and-drag ripple editing. Proper (and by proper, I mean PROPER) ripple editing is essential. No amount of workarounds, macros, keyboard shortcuts, etc., will do it for complex multi-voice audio drama and podcast production.

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Yup. Do all my radio dramas in Reaper because of this. Once you use ripple editing, there is no going back. Hoping it comes in the next version. If not, I am ready to move on.

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Everyone eagerly awaits the arrival of the Ripple edit in Nuendo. As mentioned by @uarte, WaveLab and Reaper are excellent platforms for Ripple editing. In fact, WaveLab even offers a specialized version designed for podcasting.

My wife uses Reaper for audiobooks, and it seamlessly integrates with Nuendo. It’s fantastic to have Ripple Edit in Nuendo, and I’m confident it’ll be released soon. In the meantime, you can achieve incredible speed using keyboard commands, which are even faster than using the mouse in Reaper.

For instance, if you’re given six episodes and a week to deliver, Nuendo can get you there faster than any other DAW.

here is how you can achieve speed .

In 2025, Radio Drama will surpass the capabilities of Reaper and WaveLab. Nuendo, as a comprehensive tool, stands unparalleled. If Ripple Edit ever becomes available, it would be an incredible addition.

Best
RM

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Well, I can’t thank you enough for the very thorough breakdown of what I am looking at. Yes the Ripple editing is a big deal I see all your points. I am in the stages of knowing exactly what I want to create with novice level understanding of what I really need. Primarily when it comes to speed. I know WHAT to do, just HOW to do it with speed is still in the works. Thank you again. P.S. Any projects you’ve worked on I could give a listen to?

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@Rajiv_Mudgal Look at all those extra keypresses, it’s way too slow for me, especially if I am editing LOTS of tiny little breaths and pauses to get the perfect timing on individual phrases and sequences of dialog, or perfecting a complex section of fx/sound design (like using MIDI and libraries with Krotos, Kontakt, Falcon, etc.)! I used to edit like that, but it drove me insane. It works, but it is just too slow for me and my projects. But again, it’s doable.

I personally like to slip and slide dozens of tracks with lots of automation in real time with the timeline running or looping in a section, making lots and lots of tweaks getting timing just right. The “click and slide” approach to multi-track dialog ripple editing – click an event, slide everything behind it on all other tracks up or down the timeline (including automation perfectly), click a different event, slide everything behind it, click, slide, click, slide, super fast, looping with playhead running, no wait, no selecting, no keypresses, no macros, no making sure automation nodes aren’t screwed up, faster trimming, faster filling the gaps, faster aligning sound design to events/hits, faster creativity IMO, and all tracks and automation keep up, locked up and in sync, while I’m perfecting the timing of dozens of tracks really fast. Hundreds if not thousands of tiny edits in short period of time, no headaches, very fast. The existing Cubase/Nuendo approach is not fast enough for me, and is prone to error with automation (more below).

Keep in mind that if you already have a lot of automation, good luck with keeping your automation 100% intact. Cubase/Nuendo will NOT handle it perfectly at some point, depending on what you are doing, what selection you have (i.e. overlapping nodes in automation lanes compared to what events you have selected and are rippling), and especially with tempo issues/scaling in the rare cases you might need it. The way it handles complex editing/ripple with lots of automation is not good IMO. I’ve got too many horror stories over the years. Hence why I have been begging for true click-and-drag ripple editing for years.

Just make sure you thoroughly test “automation follows events” for your workflows, for example, and keep in mind that “automation follows events” does NOT work perfectly (or logically) in certain circumstances, it is unreliable when dealing with complex events + automation if you touch the tempo or need to use a tempo track for some reason, so get ready for automation hell when trying to ripple in those cases. All that can be avoided with very careful planning and attention of course. You just have to know what you can and can’t do without impacting the automation down the timeline and plan accordingly.

Anyway, I’m not saying complex audio drama and elaborate podcasts can’t be done in Cubase/Nuendo… obviously it CAN be done, I’ve done it, you are doing it, other people are doing it, but it depends on the complexity of the project and the number of rapid ripple edits you need to make, and what kinds of deadlines you’re facing. And again, to be clear, I’m not criticizing how you are doing it AT ALL, I totally respect your approach. I’ve been there, and I just personally hit the wall with it unfortunately. But that’s also the nature of my workflow and preferences. There are many ways to get to the same end goal with the same quality.

If you separate out the production phases into editing, sound design, mixing, etc., then there’s also a case to be made, as you can minimize automation during the period of editing/production when ripple editing is super helpful, and you add automation later during sound design and mixing, when it is less likely you need ripple editing as often. But if you do all these steps simultaneously (which I often do, plus composing) then it can be a real drag in Cubase/Nuendo.

Also, as you probably know, I have to mention that Cubase 14 added event-based volume envelopes/curves, which a lot of us have been asking for. Finally, it’s here! Yay! It’s a wonderful workflow improvement and it WOULD work well with your ripple workflow, reducing automation nightmares in some cases, since the volume curve is literally embedded in the event (as opposed to a lane) and it behaves MUCH better in certain ripple scenarios in my testing. It’s maybe the most important new feature in Cubase 14 IMO, other than the modulators and new score editor. So when Nuendo 14 comes out with the new volume envelopes feature too, I bet you will be happy. I can’t wait, hence why I’m checking the forum more often lately, waiting for news of Nuendo 14. I need that new volume envelope feature ASAP for all my Nuendo projects!

But in the end, again, it really boils down to personal preference and needs though, of course. Believe me, I’m a big fan of Cubase/Nuendo for MANY production tasks, and one day I do believe Steinberg will implement a good/fast/seamless/powerful ripple editing feature. After all, they already know what that looks like in Wavelab Pro montage mode!

Also in the end, the most important thing of all is the quality of the content, right? And all the features in the world won’t make up for bad content and lousy production. So I’m not trying to scare anyone away from Cubase/Nuendo for doing audio drama… it’s a great platform obviously. I feel like my comments might come off as overly negative in this thread, and I want to make sure people know there’s nothing limiting them ultimately from making world-class quality productions. Just speed in certain workflows that may or may not matter to someone.

Cheers, and best of luck in your productions! We live in an amazing time with such great tools. Our own creativity is the only true limit!

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I very much appreciate your response. However, I worked with these work arounds for a long time. I didn’t know what I was missing until I worked in Reaper for ripple edit. Once, in Nuendo, something happened where everything was out of sync. Not sure what it was but it took a long time to line everything up again. This never would have happened with proper ripple editing. Certainly I would miss a lot of Nuendo’s features (especially control room) but for the projects I am doing now, this is a necessity. I know it is in Wavelab but I stopped updating that years ago.

I haven’t encountered the specific problem you faced, and I admit it must have been quite a nightmare. The fact that it happened in past versions means it could happen again in the current one… maybe. I remember a long time ago when many people shifted from Avid to the Apple FCP-based ecosystem after Walter Murch claimed to have ditched Pro Tools in favor of Soundtrack Pro, which came packed with over 5,000 sound effects and Foley ready for production. However, despite the buzz, much of the industry didn’t follow that shift.

I also understand why Reaper’s workflow suits radio drama production. I currently run Reaper and Bitwig alongside Resolve on Linux. I think I’ve also previously posted about how you can replicate Nuendo’s timeline in Reaper with a slight twist. And I am seriously banking on 14 to further streamline my workflow.

However, the OP was looking for specific workflow details and insights into what he might be missing in Cubase that Nuendo brings to his setup. Cubase offers a solid platform for music production, but it lacks some of the advanced features that Nuendo provides for post-production and broadcast environments.

Nuendo’s deep integration with film and video workflows, including precise ADR tools, surround sound mixing capabilities, and the ability to handle complex project changes with ease, makes it a better choice for larger-scale radio drama projects.

Additionally, Nuendo includes dedicated features for spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos and Ambisonics, as well as a more comprehensive set of tools for loudness compliance, automated normalization, and metadata export, ensuring projects meet broadcast standards seamlessly.

If he’s looking for a streamlined workflow for drama production, particularly with features aimed at professional audio post, Nuendo is likely to be a more efficient solution than Cubase.

Personally, I feel that at some point, you’ll need to bring the project back into Nuendo from Reaper. While Reaper is powerful, it has some limitations when it comes to interoperability and project exchange. It’s not just about ripple editing—there are also the supplied libraries, such as those for game audio, Pro Audio, Foley, and atmospheric presets, as well as powerhouse plugins, DOP, and accurate mono-to-stereo and surround upmixing, along with automatic loudness normalization to various radio and broadcast standards at export.

Additionally, tools specifically designed for ADR and alignment are used frequently in drama work, which Cubase, Reaper, and others tend to lack. This also includes features like Dolby Pro Logic, advanced Ambisonic decoding and encoding, binaural support, as well as full Atmos compatibility. Moreover, Nuendo excels at managing project changes and reconfirming features seamlessly, all of which make it a more robust solution for complex audio post-production workflows including Radio.

We could go back and forth. Reaper has many features I wish Nuendo had (too long a list), but I have been using Nuendo for over 20 years so I work a lot faster in it. Regardless, the OP’s question has been answered. I honestly think you could do a radio drama in any daw. Nuendo is overkill (why the need for ADR in radio?). But while Nuendo has all the tools you need, it does not have all the tools you WANT. And that is ripple editing.

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Of course, ADR isn’t necessary for radio, but I have used it as a tool for all sorts of things, including Foley and sound design, keeping focused and organised in more complex project,

I was also highlighting Nuendo’s overall capabilities, as I’m not limited to just radio; I also work in broadcast and film. I’ve cut many shows in Hindenburg Pro for Sony, often to replace paper edits, and there have been several cases where I started in Hindenburg or Reaper for dialogue cutting, then brought it into Nuendo for serious treatment. I always edit the dialogue first, so I haven’t faced the issues you mentioned—maybe it’s more of a workflow issue, as I typically follow a process of dialogue, then Foley, sound design, and finally music. Nevertheless, all those DAWs are quite capable, but when it comes to handling more complex tasks and post-production features, Nuendo tends to be my go-to for finishing projects. Yes, ripple editing would be a great addition to make the workflow even smoother, especially for larger, more intricate edits.

The audio dramas I have been working on has been very indy with no budget other than what I have extra from my blue collar day job. But I have become passionate about it and I am still learning. I can’t thank you enough for your incites, and if I was better acquainted with the benefits of ripple editing, as you very well explained, I may have saved myself some money and just gotten reaper. And yes, the event based volume envelopes and direct offline processing was the reason I finally decided to pull the trigger on Cubase. Event based volume envelopes was a feature missing when I first tested out 12 and I wasn’t willing to pay for it then . The closest thing I have seen as a ripple edit in Cubase was select “select cursor to end” But I see how that is tedious. Alas, I may just have to drop some coin on Reaper and just have that warm feeling knowing I still own a copy of Cubase as perhaps a post production tool more than and editing tool. I also like (even if extremely limited, that cubase has a mobile variant Cubasis. Thank you again, and I too hope Cubase comes out with ripple editing. Now I know how work faster on editing even if I can’t in Cubase…sigh.

I may have found a workaround that may not be reaper ripple worthy but I thought I would share. This isn’t perfect for the express reason that “Select events under cursor” doesn’t seem to work at all and I can’t see what I’m doing wrong. However, I set up a macro command. Transport - Locate Selection End, Edit - Select from Start to Cursor End (Assigned Shift+A) AND Transport - Locate Selection Start, Edit - Select from End to Cursor End (Assigned Shift+S). This could also be done on a per track basis but I would be able to Select an event, hit Shift+A and it would select that event and all events after it that can be moved. But if any even is even one pixel past the cursor it will not be selected. Maybe this helps. Don’t be afraid to tell me I’m a genious…or an idiot.