I have trouble working with Spectralayers within Nuendo (Nuendo doesn’t seem to be really professionally ready for SpectraLayers yet).
Since everyone in my field is used to the Izotope RX workflow, it would be extremely helpful if there was a plugin in Nuendo that could send the audio (via offline processing) to the standalone version of SpectraLayers and back again.
This would be the perfect workaround and would also allow all Izotope users an easier transition to Spectralayers.
Greetings from Switzerland
What troubles do you have with the SpectraLayers ARA extension? It’s much more direct than the iZotope way. Or if you want to restrict yourself to what an offline plugin would do, just assign the SpectraLayers to your audio clip, do your edits, and bounce it when done.
Is the request simply to have a DOP-style workflow as an alternative to using ARA2?
SpectraLayers works for me in Cubase via ARA2, and it’s much more tightly integrated, so I think there should be no problem getting things to work in Nuendo. While Connect was working in RX9, RX10 Connect DOP does not work properly in Cubase, and there’s no sign that iZotope are willing or able to fix it.
Exactly. I edit a lot of film dialogue (on a Mac Studio M1). However, after a few event-based instances, SpectraLayers slows down Nuendo a lot and causes glitches. Sometimes events are selected in an instance that I have not clicked on. Sometimes SpectraLayers causes Nuendo to crash.
That’s why I often switch to Izotope RX, which also doesn’t work 100% reliably in Nuendo but is a bit safer because it is externally and compatible with DOP.
If SL also had the ability to send/receive via DOP, I would feel much safer. The standalone application of SL, on the other hand, is much more stable.
By the way, I’m not talking about a song or a commercial, but feature films and other very large projects. Here it is essential for me to be on the safe side and not to risk that an event glitches somewhere in the project or does not render properly.
Kind regards
That might be the difference – my Cubase/ARA2/SL use case rarely involves anything over a few tens of seconds in individual clip lengths, and anything longer that I would pre-process in the standalone SL.
@heliocentric I’m trying a way to communicate between Cubase/Nuendo and SpectraLayers standalone that could come with patch 2 :
- Drag and drop your audio clip from the timeline to SpectraLayers standalone
- Do your edit, then in SpectraLayers click File > Update Cubase/Nuendo file
- In Cubase/Nuendo click Audio > Bounce Selection to update the audio clip
Would that work for you ?
I think the idea is basically good.
However, it would be best if I were able to send the audio file to SL with a shortcut/macro (as with DOP) and not by drag and drop. This would save me a lot of time and I would not lag behind the workflow with RX.
The big advantage of DOP is that all actions are reversible even though they don’t put a load on the system. as soon as I have to bounce, I lose time again because I have to copy, mute and file an event beforehand for safety’s sake so that I don’t lose the handle.
My wish is that SpectraLayers becomes a real alternative to the RX suite, and not only for cubase and nuendo, but also for Pro Tools & co. If SL-Standalone can communicate with DAWs, many more pros will use it.
I hope my thoughts make sense to you
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@heliocentric I’m still not sure why you don’t just Bounce after editing in SL ARA, because this is that closest you would have for what you want :
-sending to SL is done in one click
-after editing in SL, you bounce your audio clip: the modification is saved and the SL extension is removed. And you keep the history, with the possibility to undo the modification if you want
This way you have exactly the same round-trip as DOP, and the same stability and speed as DOP (since the SL extension is removed after editing, converting back to plain wav data).
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Because (in my expirience) SL in ARA-Mode is glitchy in big projects. some key features are missing in ARA-mode (e.g. no volume-sliders in layers-list).
Too slow, i would need a Key command to keep up the speed
I need the option to come back hours later and revert my (event-based) actions. Bouncing replaces the event in the timeline. / Making the extension permanent does the same. The only way to keep the original is making a copy of the event before modification (which is too slow for my workflow).
Searching the undo-history takes a lot of time too after weeks of editing .
I just discovered the option to open SL in ARA-Mode and send the data via drop-down to standalone and back again. but since there is no way to assign key commands (in Nuendo) to extentions, it’s also not fast enough to keep uf with RX.
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The big advantage of DOP is that all actions are reversible even though they don’t put a load on the system. as soon as I have to bounce, I lose time again because I have to copy, mute and file an event beforehand for safety’s sake so that I don’t lose the handle.
There are actually volume sliders in the Layers list in SL in ARA mode; just click the three small lines to the right in the list to chose standard view.
I believe the functions in stand alone and in ARA mode are pretty identical.
As for the Key commands in Cubase/Nuendo; is it really not possible to create a macro för sending to ARA extensions?
I have anyway a Key command for ending an ARA extension and write the ARA edits into the edited Event, like if it was a DOP done. Afterwards I can go back via History, but that’s perhaps too unspecific?
Not to derail the thread’s intent but having the ability to use a key command within Cubase to open Spectralayers ARA2 for any selected event would go a long way to improving workflow.
thank you very much for the advice!
I have not found a way so far. suggestions are welcome
I have found these shortcuts as well. However, I have not found a way to activate the extension.
It seems the shortcuts are limited to both systems, that is: Nuendo has shortcuts for Nuendo and ARA-SL has shortcuts for ARA-SL. So I can’t program a single macro that includes both systems.
So if I could operate SL-Standalone via DOP, I would be able to work around this by working with Nuendo-shortcuts alone.
You are right, of course, there’s no way to create a Key command or a Macro to open an Extension which is a bit odd when you can make an extension permanent with a Key command.
That’s a shame, let’s hope for it in a near future patch!
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