I have asked this question in the " Welcome to Steinberg" forum while I was using the trial version.
I have found no way save a mix and recall it within same project.
With the “advanced” automation features of Nuendo, I thought it would be possible to save automation versions within a project and recall them. It seems the only way to create a different mix is to “save as” on the project level, same as Cubase, a real pain with large projects.
Most of the work I do is mixes for broadcast where different versions of mixes are always being asked for.
If I have a mix and the client says, “that sounds great, but let’s hear it now with music a little louder here, and the SFX softer there”.
Currently, I have to do a project “save as” name it “mix version 1”, then do the mix changes. The client says " that sounds good, can I hear it both ways?" Well then I have to do another project “save as”, and call it “mix version2. Then RELOAD the entire project called " mix version 1” to compare. Very time consuming with large projects.
I know about the undo and redo, but that does not work with multiple passes and complicated mixes.
Activate automation passes.
This will save each pass and later on you can “commit” the chosen pass.
I agree that it would be easier to have something like playlists, but this is as close as you can get with what you want to do. I however would most certainly save new versions of the mix, just to keep track of all changes and keep the original at all times. It wouldn’t be the first time that a client asks to go back to a version from weeks ago…
Confirmed. Even I by myself tend to check back an older version fro time to time, and often I like an older version much more and then I can just open the project which I saved along with the pre-export file.
But that topic is a more deeper one IMHO.
Imagine:
A complex mix, lets say 200 Tracks… hundrets of plugins, fx-routing etc… then you start to fine-tune the stuff, using truckloads of automation… but tweaking plugins as well. Later you realize that the 3 days ago version is sounding way better settings-wise, but you would like to keep 80% of the automation work, even if that needs to be adjusted again, but automation-nodes are there and a lot of the creative automation is already implemented.
If you just go back to the old version you will loose just 3 days of work.
If you try to transfer old settings in the new project you have A LOT to do, saving zillions of presets, having to deal with the fact that you maybe have changed routing and stuff so loaded channels will not fit anymore…
Nuendo needs generally a better handling of mix-data. For example the possibility to extract settings from a closed project, closing the current one - to open the other, saving a preset, reopening the current one can use 20 min without a problem when the project is big enough. In addition you loose undo history and maybe after all you realize that you just forgot to export another track as well… That is really booring.
Not as booring as the fact that 5.5 is not usable because of those stripy-overlapping-look, lanes and events-on-top, but maybe one day this will be fixed (I pray!!) - and THEN maybe those mixing data things could be adressed, instead of wasting time for changing everything what we love again…
We experience the same problems in post.
In addition to that, there is always the fear that a big project, with hundreds of tracks, dozens of plugins and a gazillion automation passes would go corrupt ot something.
Therefore I have made the habit of doing the following: “select all tracks/export selected tracks” to a folder.
I do this at every “important” moment, and I name the saved track archive in a very clear way.
The saving is done in two seconds (use reference audio) and it allows you to import any track or project from any date.
Say you need to restor autiomation passes on one track, import that track, copy automation, paste in new project and done.
For us, it is a welcome safety. If for some reason (never happened though) a project would fail to open, we can always create a new one, simply by importing the track archive, without any loss if information.
Do we have bad weather in the south today? Not that I wouldn’t basically agree…
When I look at the crosshating while I am messing up everything with the new lanes the weather is always bad!!
Beside that - the weather is quite ok, somewhat wet on the ass when using my bike (without mudgards) - and currently somewhat slippery because of the combination of racing-slicks and muddy snow… But that is another theme )
Fredo, thanks for sharing that workflow concept! Great idea to do this with discipline. I have to say that I usually use the “import/export tracks” instead of “save-load selected channels” - but saving complete projects at a regular base is a great idea!!
Because when dealing with track-import you CAN choose which tracks you want to import… Maybe you just need a reverb-fxtrack… no problem.
Not in my case, because as said, one of the reasons I do this is to have an escape route when a project gets corrupt.
Granted, it never happened before, and since we can easily go to the 64bit version, the fear of running out of memory gone too. So, for me, th" “import tracks from project” is another, extra feature.
;o)
I really think an option to import individual tracks from any npr/cpr would be a great feature. We could even go further and have additional multiple checkboxes like
copy referenced audio files to pool
skip event references (greyed out if the first option is checked)
It depends on what you are doing. When I mix all songs of an album in one big gigantious project then I do not need that feature as well - at least not very much… It seems that working on a large post-project is quite similar, having one large 70 min project with 200 tracks and heavy automation and lots of routing and processing…
But when I mix 10 quite similar but “too different for one project” songs separately - then I hardly miss a feature like that. The setup can be done with a template of a “basic mix of the first song” or with track export-import… but… even that feels only like some kind of a workaround… Much more difficult it comes when you have all 10 songs mixed already and then some basic elements needs to be changed… For example you tweak the kickdrum, fix some issues with the bass, enhance the overall guitar sound another one… Then it becomes nasty…
Great idea, I use the track archive for “important” tracks, but never thought of using it as an entire project track archive before.That is a great secondary backup.
good stuff.
