Hello Everyone…Conrad here from the great white north. I dont want to startle anyone here but I have purchased the full Nuendo 11 package quite recently and have absolutely no prior experience with working with DAWS. ( yes! Jumping directly into the deep end) Decided to go all in with the purchase and will be eating kraft dinner for awhile till my bank account heals. Im looking for a starting point ( yes I need my hand held big time)
I find all Nuendo tutorial videos to be focused on the pro studio people NOT a novice like myself. Im looking for direction on the studio setup tab for my Novation impulse 61 keyboard/ Akai MPD218 drum machine . This is all going through a Focusrite 4i4 interface. I can see a signal on the bottom right of my Nuendo 11 screen, but cannot get sounds to come through. Im hung up on getting my plugins connected etc. Hoping someone ( with patience) can help . Otherwise, Im expecting the other forum members to throw me out of here by the seat of my pants…. I have a dream of doing things with atmos that no one has done before. Its a giant step but I am dangling a carrot for whomever wants to jump in and help. I do have old school studio experience… but that was when the world was using 2” master tape. I’m hoping that puts some forum members at ease lol.
Thanks in advance….
Conrad
Good day @cwiggins69 , lets get started!
1 - Are you running a PC or Mac? If a PC, head over to this post of mine, and do everything in it that is relevant to your setup: Can Anybody Replicate This Problem? - #8 by ClendeningSound
2 - Make sure you are on the latest version of Nuendo (11.0.41)
3 - Will you be doing any live recording/tracking with other musicians or using VST Connect for remote work?
4 - What types of projects are you planning, and will they include Dolby Atmos? If Atmos, head over to this post and consider the workflow I laid out:
Surround reverb in Dolby Atmos - #8 by ClendeningSound
5 - Nuendo is mostly identical to Cubase 11 Pro, look around YouTube for videos on the basics for setting up a Focusrite A/D with Cubase for stereo out.
6 - Again, if PC - Mentioned somewhere in one of the two links above, is how I handle ASIO, its the audio driver that sits between Focusrite and PC/Nuendo. The short of it is, install/use the one from Focusrite. Do not install ASIO4ALL, it is recommended in many forum post and videos. I welcome any positive or negative comments from the greater forum, I’ll be happy to further educate them on why it should not be used.
7 - If PC - Make sure you are not using the same audio playback source on your PC as the ASIO/Focusrite source.
8 - If Mac, I will reply back with a specific list of of Mac tweaks and such
9 - No need to for a carrot, I have some 8-track reels propping up an old rig from the 80s somewhere in my basement!
Hi Conrad,
am kind of a late starter with similar intentions (Dolby Atmos). Or do you mean something diffferent with “atmos”? I mean just sound samples or so.
Took me roughly two years (just hobbyist) to get to some “self made dolby atmos stuff”.
Like ClendeningSound said, the best source for getting started is Youtube. There are plenty of tutorials on Cubase Pro (Nuendo is just its big brother), and also on Cubase LE (small sister). The use models are very similar. Nuendo has just some more gears in the engine.
About ASIO4All: I am using it. From what I know, it is the only driver, which allows aggregating multiple audio devices to get 12 audio outputs (7.1.4) for Dolby Atmos. Don’t know if audio interface aggregation works, if you got mutliple audio interfaces of the same vendor (same vendor driver).
LG, Juergi
PS: Did quite like your intro
@Juergi ,
This goes back to my comment above about ASIO4ALL being recommended in many post (lol). The short is, ASIO4ALL should only be used outside of a DAW for playback. At best, it’s a virtual mixer that supports busing channels in/out of a PC, and there is an infinitely better option in the market - Voicemeeter.
DAW audio processing operations requires a A/D that can support both record/playback in multiple sample rates and buffer sizes. Mixing in Dolby Atmos is very strict and requires a sample rate of 48khz/512 Buffer. ASIO4ALL/Voicemeeter and other virtual only mixers, will cause your Daw to behave unpredictably.
Thanks so much for your interaction! I am using a PC. My intent at the beginning will just be recording rock music ideas. Tracking guitar/ bass/ electronic drums ( pad) and vocals to start. Again, I have no idea of what Im doing for laying down tracks BUT will dig into your suggestions for sure. Im aspiring to get into movie soundtracks for local indie movie people . But my ultimate goal is to get into Atmos surround audio for movies but cant totally divulge my entire idea as of yet.
Now for my keyboard and drum pad…should I just use the “ built in” programs inside Nuendo for my sounds? I dont want to complicate anything by linking up outside software bundles.
Last question before I start digging into your links… has anyone on the forum used Teamviewer or equivalent to “ remote in” and lend a hand?
Thanks so much ClendeningSound for your help!
I really appreciate this.
Thanks so much Juergi for your response. Yes I am hopefully going to head into the dolby atmos surround for idie type movies waaaay down the road. Thanks for the tip on Cubase Pro. Will definitely dig into those videos. Again when I first looked up Nuendo tutorials, they basically went “ over my head and under my feet”. Lol. They are for the Pro people . Thanks again for reaching out. Im glad to be part of this community.
1 - Teamviewer is geared more towards the enterprise and may have a price to value ratio issue for many. However, GotoMyPc might be your best and most stable option. (I use it daily to support my team). It will actually back-haul the audio from the host PC to the client, that part should only be used for testing/troubleshooting though.
2 - Running outboard keyboard and drum pads, that provide midi input to midi tracks that route to VST instrument tracks in Nuendo, is the most common way to compose/produce behind the keyboard. Old school would be to run a DI to a pre and then out to and A/D (your Focusrite). There is no problem with that, if that’s the sound you are going for. It’s one of the reason I asked if you were going to do any live recordings, a small amount of latency, between playing and monitoring back from the mix, will be the only issue you will notice/encounter, if at all.
3 - Being that one of your goals in this effort is to work in Atmos for Music/Film - I would start with the music side of it first. You will quickly find the audio engineers working in Atmos for film are still figuring out how to adjust their thinking to the music world adopting spatial sound. In short, the end-to-end workflow is the wild west over in audio for film.
Ok …. Very valuable info. Thanks so much. Im going to start meddling with this information and hopefully chime back on this thread within a week. I hope the Nuendo stars align and shine down on me lol. Appreciate all your help.
Conrad
Since you said that you are a novice with DAWs, I’m going to start simple on this problem. You are getting an indication that Nuendo is seeing an input from your MIDI controller. That is good. Now, you haven’t really said what you are trying to do with it. Normally, one would load a VST instrument on a track. This instrument is triggered by the MIDI input device. In Nuendo, you will want to arm the record mode on the instrument track that you want the MIDI controller to trigger. I am assuming that you already went through the process of setting up the MIDI controller in the menu since you are receiving MIDI in Nuendo.
Hello Drgamble… yes, I am trying to get my novation keyboard/ Akai drum pad to make simple sounds through the Nuendo program. I am unsure of how to get my VST programs in order so that I can actually make sounds from my units. I have downloaded all VST programs that were made available through the Nuendo package install. Looking to record basic rock music first…I see that most programs are geared towards hip hop/ rap beats . I apologize for needing my hand held. Basically looking to set up a template for recording 2 guitars/ bass/ drums/ 2 vocal tracks/ keys. Then I hope to be off and running for a bit before I harass everyone again. Lol
It sounds like what I thought it sounds like. What you should try is make an instrument track. This is as simple as pressing T and selecting instrument track. It will give you the option to load an instrument (Halion, Groove Agent, etc). Create the track. Press the record arm button to arm the track for recording. You should here the instrument when you press a key on your controller. If this does not work, you can try to draw a MIDI event on the Instrument track to make sure that part is working, but more likely than not this will get you going.
Hello Everyone… just a small update. I did find my initial issue. My Focusrite was not mapped correctly. My Outputs were also not configured to my monitors. I’m a very happy camper! I now have sound coming through from my keyboard AND drum pad . Next is mapping these into the Halion VST.
Hang tight… I’ll be armed with more questions shortly lol. 