[ISSUE] VCA - VARIOUS BUGS

So far I see the following issues…

Number 1:

  1. Create a VCA track
  2. Write automation on the VCA track at a point further down the timeline
  3. Create an audio track connected to the VCA
  4. Write automation on the audio track before the automation on the VCA track
  5. Punch out automation write on the audio track

The result here is that from the last automation node of the first pass on the audio track to the first automation node on the second automation pass created by the VCA track there is a linear increase.

Number 2:

  1. Create Audio Track.

  2. Set (global) automation to “Touch”, and write simple automation. Write from zero to say -20dBFS, hold a little, then release.

  3. Set automation to “Touch” AND “Trim”

  4. Create VCA track. Select the Audio track as source.

  5. Write automation > to the audio track > as in step #3.

The level JUMPS to maximum value even though you went from zero gain to minus infinity…


Number 3:

  1. Create outputs

  2. Create a VCA and connect an output to that VCA

  3. Save project and quit Nuendo

  4. Restart Nuendo and load that project

Connection to VCA gone!!!

This is yet another but that’s listed as solved in the release notes (B-10139) yet clearly doesn’t work.



At least The first one is a previous issue that Steinberg had three whole months to fix. The second is new to me. I’m incredibly disappointed.

Even a “we’re looking into it” would be nice…

Well? What’s the status?

  1. Can you confirm the bugs?

  2. Can you confirm when we can see an update that fixes them?

I guess not many people use VCAs…

I don’t, but I’d like to. I just don’t want the hassle of trying to use it before it actually works. Life’s too short to waste time on it.

And a brand new bug was found as well.I’ve updated the first post.

Here’s an update by Guillermo on Gearslutz:

the next update “will be released whenever it is ready after the usual maintenance cycle, 7.0.30 was just released so I wouldn’t expect it any time soon.”
I guess they’re in no rush to prioritize giving a usable implementation of the function they’re marketing towards PT users to get them to cross over… Talk about disingenuous. I’d say a better company would at this point push an update up the release schedule.

Nobody is going to cross over from PT to Nuendo if they use VCAs, at least not until the feature actually works. But maybe the VCA feature hyped up by SB is not that important - we’ve managed without it from the year dot.

I’m using the Trial version, but I do feel sorry for those who bought the N7 update because of the bigged-up VCA feature and then find that there is no rapid fix for the bugs they purchased.

And still no input from Steinberg…

It would be great to hear some acknowledgement of the issues with VCAs. Just to hear that Steinberg is looking into it would help.

Dean

Maybe this week…

Hi guys,

thank you all for reporting these issues with the VCAs, and please apologise the lack of communication from out side.

All I can tell you for now is that we are aware of theses issues, we are as annoyed by them as you are, we should have find them earlier but we didn’t, and now we are trying to fix them as soon as we can. However, I can not promise you that these issues will all be gone with the next maintenance update. There are many things that have to be done in order to fix this, some things will have to be re-programed and many things can go wrong while doing this, so we have to be very careful and systematic when working on this fix, which is why it is very possible that it won’t make it for the next update, but the one after that. I am very sorry about that.

In the meantime, I can only ask you for your understanding. I promise I will keep you posted on every update.

All the best

This is where we normally say “Great, thanks for the update. Take your time and make sure it works because I rather wait longer and you guys getting it right than rushing it out and it being broken still.”, right? Except we always say that. We said that while we waited for the initial release of Nuendo 7, which always is months later than the corresponding Cubase release. And then we said about the same thing when waiting for things to be fixed in the maintenance release. Take your time. Get it right.

I’ll tell you what: This shouldn’t just be a priority for Nuendo, this should be a priority for Steinberg as a company. Why would I bother saying that? Because what typically happens is that while we wait and wait and wait for a fix you keep releasing products that to us are somewhat unnecessary. I can get VSTi’s from any third-party developer, but I can’t get truly integrated VCAs. For that I need you guys to code the actual DAW to include it. Yet I fully predict that we’ll see a bunch of stuff released before this gets fixed. Because this isn’t your priority.

I and others have been asking for VCAs for years, literally, and you saw fit to advertise them in your marketing videos, your webpage and on forums etc… It seems entirely appropriate that this stops your workflow and reevaluates just how you will proceed with your product management in general. I really don’t think this is a minor issue, neither is the way you’ve responded to it. Both with silence and with misleading advertising persisting and with a version history document that even proclaims at least one of these issues is solved without it being so. Not to mention silencing those who call you out on this (is this professional language now or will it too be deleted?).

Yeah, you should have caught it - at the initial release - and then you should have caught it again - before the maintenance release - and now you should make this a priority.

No, quite frankly, you don’t have my “understanding”. I really don’t understand how it could slip through the cracks unnoticed not just once but twice. Heck, I’ll even go as far as saying that it probably was noticed, and you’re just playing the waiting game to see if the criticism goes away.

Yeah, fantastic app. Works for the most part. Reconform is great for those who need it. So is ADR etc. But it’s months after initial release and here we are. I’m flabbergasted as to how long this is taking. Absolutely amazed.

Will you make this up to all of us who bought this upgrade specifically because of the promised VCAs?

What will you do to make up for it? Anything at all?

Completely agree with Lydiot.

It’s a pity that Steinberg did not use ‘…very careful and systematic’ methods when developing the VCA features in the first place. We, and Steinberg, would then not be in this mess.

I hope they don’t come up with another bunch of un-necessary add-ons and still leave VCAs broken in the next ‘maintenance’ update.

Hi Luis, I see you’ve followed the polite advice about comms that was my post in this thread, but now for some reason deleted. I’m now wondering if being polite, inclusive and helpful also borders on non ‘professional language’ in this forum!!

On another note, though great to hear some news and no disrespect intended, but something like this should have come from someone more senior in the organisation.

I don’t quite understand how “as soon as we can” can be true if there will/might be another maintenance release before this is fixed. If something else is fixed in the next release - and of course that’s the case, otherwise there wouldn’t be a release - then it simply means that resources were put on those issues rather than this one. “As soon as we can” really means what it means. Can you drop everything else and prioritize fixing this? Yes, you can.

There really are two scenarios possible:

  • Steinberg has one full time programmer working on automation specifically, trying to fix VCAs, and adding more programmers from other areas won’t help.

  • Steinberg does not have a full time programmer on automation, because it isn’t a real priority.

It’d be interesting to hear just what the situation is, because given the lopsided ratio between Cubase/Other:Nuendo updates I really get the feeling that the latter is the case. I’d love to be wrong though. So I agree with fuzzydude that it would be nice to hear someone more senior comment on this. I even find it a bit disrespectful for none of them to think it’s worth their time to comment on this. And I also mean no disrespect to Luis when saying that.

There are other possible scenarios (and I’m not saying this is the case with Steinberg!) but software development these days is often based around the agile method.

Unfortunately I don’t think shouting any louder is going to make this fix happen any sooner. At this point we just have to forget VCAs exist and hope they work as advertised when the fixes arrive. Fingers crossed that in the process they are also able to add mute to VCAs.

I’ve had a strange dream…
SB, to save on budget hired some young and talented analysts and developers on “that other continent”
They are working on it, but first they need to learn what VCA actually does.
Just a dream, as I’ve said :unamused:

For now I have workarounds that take unnecessarily longer time, depending on the project I’m on.
Fix it please.