Nuendo 5 is Steinberg’s flagship software for advanced audio post-production editing and recording. This is a perfect solution for people involved in the media or film production industry; Myself, I am a sound editor and film composer for independent films. The entire workflow, compared to other audio editing programs that I’ve used, give an entire feel of common tools that used in the post production process.

Nuendo 5 Channel Editing

Powerful Nuendo 5 Workflow

Installation

Nuendo 5’s installation was completely pain free, as the software was ready to be used in less than an hour. Nuendo 5 supports ASIO drivers, so third party devices such as the Mbox 2 we used during the test, are ready to use without any driver conflicts.

Adding VST plugins from different folders and drives located on my test computer was very easy as well. The built-in plugin manager made adding new effects and instruments very organized and quick in adding the plug-ins. You have the option of adding the plug-ins immediately into the program, or can be added during the next start-up, which adds to the uninterrupted workflow.

Recording

Nuendo 5 has added a new ADR (Automated Dialogue Recording/Re-dubbing) feature, perfect for the post-production phase. In addition to multi-track recording, a common feature in audio editing programs, Nuendo as has a “Control Room Mixer” feature. This allows routing to different outputs you might have through your audio device. This allows different channel outputs for monitors, headphones, and for the vocalist/instrumentalist. This function was extremely useful in our ADR test; the routing gave the director, myself, and the actor their own mix during the recording.

Watch Your Disk Cache

A problem that I’ve faced with Nuendo in the past was the Disk Cache problems with video files, as well as cueing numerous audio files at the same time. During the Mac test we did not experience this problem, as the hard drives were SATA-compatible and were very quick in streaming. However, on my Windows computer, which uses IDE hard drives, experienced a lot of lag and freezes during playback. Although IDE hard drives are beginning to fizzle out as new computers now use SATA, people who haven’t made the switch yet will experience some performance issues.

Nuendo Test in the Orchard Lake Film Festival

To see a real-world example, I used the software for ADR and sound editing for the Orchard Lake Film Festival feature film at my school. The directors as well as editors are very pleased with the software’s ADR functions, as we were able to re-dub multiple scenes for a single character. The ADR screen also allowed the director and I to log scenes on the spot, and gave very accurate descriptions the start, end, and total length of the clips we needed to log. Finally, we were able to give actors exact times to their voice-over work, so there wouldn’t be any unnecessary fumbling for scripts or in and out points that might have been misplaced.

In addition, organization is a was for the film, as it currently over 120 scenes and 500 video and audio files. Nuendo’s MediaBay function removed the hassle and worry of losing and replacing ADR clips during mixing and editing. MediaBay allows users to specify file locations to their various resources such as loop & FX libraries or production audio. We are very excited to continue using Nuendo during the audio-post-production phase of the film.

Bottom Line

Nuendo’s new software has shown why Steinberg is continuing to dominate in the audio post-production and media industry. With new functionality comes a price however; the $1,800 price tag may be a stretch for a new sound editor’s budget, but will provide enough resources to get the project done efficiently without losing any creativity in the process.

**A VERY special thank you to Marc Ferris and Steinberg for allowing us to review their software.