In early versions of Nuendo the main surround panner was called “SurroundPan”. It was latter replaced joined, and eventually superceded by, the VST Multipanner. However, for many years, projects containing “SurroundPan” would import fine. Sometime since Nuendo 7 (and I cannot work out quite when) this changed.
Opening an old project now, which contains mixes using SurroundPan, is a mess. And I am going through a phase of having to do this a lot. SurroundPan is simply ignored, and everything is front and centre. Rebuilding an old mix is a pain.
I have discovered that if I open an old project in Nuendo 7, add automation for pans, then swap the SurrounPan for VST Multipanner it goes part way to sorting it. But it’s still a mess.
Is there a better way of importing old projects into Nuendo 12 maintaining panning?
Mark, I feel your pain. As my efforts are most always behind the curve. So please continue your question & make me aware should the powers that be, give a solution.
Semper Fidelity, Joe Blasingame
Having tried to open yet another old 5.1 surround project that needs reversioning, I’ve come across this again. So I have done some digging. Basically I have systems running Nuendo going right back to version 3. And projects going back to version 1. In this case, a project from version 5.
The original surround panner was called just that: Surround Panner (or SurroundPan for short). Somewhere around Nuendo 5 I think, this changed to Surround Panner v5. But it was fine, projects still opened. In Nuendo 7 the VST MultiPanner was introduced, enabling immersive mixing. But the old surround panner was still there.
Those old projects still open in Nuendo 10, even with the old Surround Panner. But you can no longer select that Surround Panner in V10; the code it still there so it will read, but the default is now the VST MultiPanner. Then with Nuendo 12 & 13 (I bypassed 11), those old projects don’t even open with the old panner. The code it gone. You get the VST multipanner and that’s it. All the old panning is lost.
The trick I have discovered is to open the old project in Nuendo 10, add left/right and front/back automation points to all the tracks with the old panner (even if they are static pans) then swap all the panners for the VST multipanner. Save, and open in Nuendo 13.
I say “kinda”. There are some major gotchas. For one, “Centre Level” in the Surround Panner is replaced with “Centre Distribution” in the VST MultiPanner, and the old is mapped to the new when you swap the panner. But - think about it - the effect is inverted. So sounds which were in the centre (maximum Centre Level) are now dispersed left and right (maximum Centre Distribution). Another one is front back range.
So I’ve spent today doing this with over 100 channels, and there is still repair work to do.
I keep on thinking that there must have been, somewhere, in one version or another, a function to “replace all old Surround Panners with VST MultiPanner and convert automation and panning”. But I cannot find one.
A wild idea: Panners in Nuendo are plug-ins that are tagged “spatial”. Chances are that the old panner is just another *.dll with the respective identification. Try to spot it on your old system (the 64-bit version, that is) and copy it over to your recent system. Then right-click the panner in Nuendo’s mixer and check if you can replace the new one with the legacy surround panner.
