Nuendo 4 comes with a completely redesigned automation engine that offers some creative performance based automation tools.
In this video example we’re going to take an EQ plug-in and fader level for a verse, adjust their settings for the chorus, save this as a 'Punch Preset', and then apply this to another chorus section.
Here’s how to do it:
If you look at the video you will notice that we have set some marker points for "Verse 1", "Chorus 1", "Verse 2", "Chorus 2", and "Bridge". These let us jump to the various points in the song as well as enabling us to quickly set locator/loop points around a chorus for example.
Start by opening the automation panel and making sure 'Suspend Write' is disabled for the parameters we wish to automate. In this example we have disabled 'Suspend Write' for all possible parameters although we are only going to be automating volume and an insert plug-in. Also, be sure to check that automation write mode is engaged on the channel (red "W" icon) as this is necessary to write automation data to the track.
We’ll start by getting some EQ and volume settings that work for our track as we play through it. When we are happy with this as a starting point then we can start by fine tuning specific sections.
I’m wanting to tweak the parameters of both the EQ and volume level for the chorus so I’ve set my locator/loop points around the chorus section, enabled cycle (to cycle around the chorus) and then pressed play.
At this point we want to activate 'Preview' mode on the automation panel. What this does is let us preview parameter changes without actually writing them as automation data. We are free to mould the sound and get it just right before committing any automation data to the track.
Pressing 'Suspend' will suspend our automation preview so we can A/B between the original parameter settings and what we’ve currently set them to - notice the EQ graph and fader level changing in the video as I turn 'Suspend' on and off. This is a great way to check whether the changes you’ve made are making things better and whether you’re heading in the right sonic direction.
When we are happy with our adjusted sound then we want to write this automation data across our chorus section. To do this we activate 'Loop' mode (this will write the automation between our left and right locator points) and then press 'Punch' to start writing the automation while making sure we are already playing. If you are not currently playing then you can activate 'Punch On Play' to start the automation punch as soon as you press play. You can press stop right after you have engaged 'Punch' and Nuendo will automatically write the automation data across the entire loop section because we had 'Loop' activated.
Upon punching you will notice that a new 'Punch Preset' has been created - in this example it is called "Punch 1". The "Punch 1" preset contains all the parameters that we adjusted (or "touched") when we were tweaking the sound across the chorus. If we want to use this punch preset at some other point in the song then we can name it appropriately for later use or we can just delete it. In this instance I have named it "Chorus EQ and Volume" because we are going to use the same settings over our second chorus section.
To write our punch preset across the second chorus simply set your left and right locator points around the second chorus section. Engage 'Preview' mode and then select the created punch preset ("Chorus EQ and Volume") and press load. This will load our punch preset into the preview memory. From here we activate 'Loop' and then press either 'Punch' or 'Punch On Play' (depending on whether the project is playing) to write the automation data between our loop points.
It’s that easy! As you can see it is very quick to get different sections of a song sounding great and then to write common automation data across them.
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