I recently visited a rather prominent studio in LA, which had the most amazing mixing room I'd ever seen -- imagine a movie theater, but the front row is replaced with a 200 channel hardware mixer stretching from wall to wall. Anyway, they were talking about how they were pushing the studio to move towards Nuendo, despite having just spend $300k on this extreme Protools setup, and that the $2k Nuendo software could do what they had and more. Just an anecdote I thought would be interesting for you guys -- I'm stuck using Protools for most of my classes.
Studio move towards Nuendo
- Thread starter pootify
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MattC
Veteran
Nuendo rocks, dude. So does protools though, so don't feel like you're "stuck" - you're not - you're learning the industry standard. Although that standard is slowly changing a bit, a BIT...
I wrote about this before but digidesign (ProTools and AVID) started making their stuff before computers were powerful enough to handle audio and video natively. So Digi made hardware processors to run their software. Now that computers have become more powerful, you don't need that additional hardware as much anymore. Although that state of the art studio you saw sill spend big bucks on computer hardware, just not as much had they gone with digi.
The reason I like Nuendo (or Cubase SX - most folks here would have no real need for Nuendo) is that you can set up a relatively inexpensive post suite and have ALL of the capabilities (from a software editing perspective) as the big studio you visited. It still wont be the same, I mean your room probably wasn't professionally designed and your monitors and such probably aren't as good, and a whole host of other issues exist. But still you have a LOT of power at your disposal and if you are setting up a real mixing room on a budget, your dollars will go much further with a Nuendo based system.
Matt
I wrote about this before but digidesign (ProTools and AVID) started making their stuff before computers were powerful enough to handle audio and video natively. So Digi made hardware processors to run their software. Now that computers have become more powerful, you don't need that additional hardware as much anymore. Although that state of the art studio you saw sill spend big bucks on computer hardware, just not as much had they gone with digi.
The reason I like Nuendo (or Cubase SX - most folks here would have no real need for Nuendo) is that you can set up a relatively inexpensive post suite and have ALL of the capabilities (from a software editing perspective) as the big studio you visited. It still wont be the same, I mean your room probably wasn't professionally designed and your monitors and such probably aren't as good, and a whole host of other issues exist. But still you have a LOT of power at your disposal and if you are setting up a real mixing room on a budget, your dollars will go much further with a Nuendo based system.
Matt
soarprod
Veteran
Nuendo is the way to go. I have cut and mixed several projects on it and it is sooo much easier and faster to use than Pro Tools. Plus, you dont have to run specific hardware - you can run a laptop without the Mbox or a desktop with anything. Buy the student copy or something to upgrade to version 3.0 - cause the regular price is like $2,700 - the upgrade is $400 
Dave_Fisk
Well-known member
I've been hearing more and more good things about Nuendo. I have it on my PC at work, but my PC here at work can barely run Microsoft word, let alone a powerful DAW. I own pro tools at home, and I love it, but when I get my Pro Tools HD rig (very soon now), I will probably also throw Nuendo on it. Everyone that I have talked to that has used both really like both, and have a lot of positive things to say about Nuendo, cost being a big thing.
-Dave
-Dave
MattC
Veteran
The thing with Nuendo is that for a fraction of the cost of a Protools HD rig, you can essentially do all the same stuff. The up-side to ProToolsHD is, from my understanding, it NEVER goes down, ever. But native stuff keeps getting better and better. The other plus with Nuendo is you have a truly amazing midi sequencer and loop slicing machine. So instead of doing your composition in say Digital Performer and then mixing in ProTools, you can do it all in one App.
Cubase SX is also killer, and most folks will never need Nuendo (unless you're doing very sophisticated surround mixes or working with film - actual celluloid). ProTools LE is ok, but I'm not as impressed with it compared to the other options. ProTools HD? Well, it's the shizzle, but I cant afford that kind of scratch, especially when I can put together a comprable system (if not QUITE as good) for about a tenth of the price.
Matt
Cubase SX is also killer, and most folks will never need Nuendo (unless you're doing very sophisticated surround mixes or working with film - actual celluloid). ProTools LE is ok, but I'm not as impressed with it compared to the other options. ProTools HD? Well, it's the shizzle, but I cant afford that kind of scratch, especially when I can put together a comprable system (if not QUITE as good) for about a tenth of the price.
Matt
Dave_Fisk
Well-known member
I have LE right now, and it has been working great. I think part of the reason that Pro Tools TDM is so appealing to me is the fact that it does run on external hardware. I know that it is always going to work. If I run a program as powerful as Pro Tools native, I'd get worried that I'd have issues, but computers are getting faster and faster, so I think in the near future this will be a non-issue.
-Dave
-Dave
MattC
Veteran
Dave,
Exactly. That's why if you're charging big donuts to major clients you have to think twice before moving away from a TDM system. BUT, folks are starting to. I'll post a list when I find it again (I thought I already had, of music and films being mixed on Nuendo.
D_and_G,
I'm not sure what you mean by your first question. If you mean don't you need to telecine film to work in Nuendo, yes you do. But Nuendo has many features specifically for dealing with that type of footage. Think of it as cinema tools for audio. To be fair, I don't do that so your pushing the limits of my knowledge, but I can certainly point you in the right direction if that is of interest to you. Regarding Avid. I don't know, maybe so, but others don't seem to have a problem. I mean once the film is locked, all your doing is exporting a quicktime file with seperate audio and video - the audio being the dialog. After that, all your work is in Nuendo (or protools for that matter).
I've mixed shorts in Cuabse SX. Hans Zimmer used cubase to score with and do rough mixes but I think he uses Nuendo now. Honestly, compare the feature sets. Most folks here will not be using more than what Cubase has to offer. Now, a guy like Dave? Yes, he needs more than what Cubase can do.
Matt
Exactly. That's why if you're charging big donuts to major clients you have to think twice before moving away from a TDM system. BUT, folks are starting to. I'll post a list when I find it again (I thought I already had, of music and films being mixed on Nuendo.
D_and_G,
I'm not sure what you mean by your first question. If you mean don't you need to telecine film to work in Nuendo, yes you do. But Nuendo has many features specifically for dealing with that type of footage. Think of it as cinema tools for audio. To be fair, I don't do that so your pushing the limits of my knowledge, but I can certainly point you in the right direction if that is of interest to you. Regarding Avid. I don't know, maybe so, but others don't seem to have a problem. I mean once the film is locked, all your doing is exporting a quicktime file with seperate audio and video - the audio being the dialog. After that, all your work is in Nuendo (or protools for that matter).
I've mixed shorts in Cuabse SX. Hans Zimmer used cubase to score with and do rough mixes but I think he uses Nuendo now. Honestly, compare the feature sets. Most folks here will not be using more than what Cubase has to offer. Now, a guy like Dave? Yes, he needs more than what Cubase can do.
Matt
MattC - I asked my friend to clarify.
She said that her workflow is - She uses AV Transfer (to get the same functionality as digitranslator) to get the exported Avid OMF into nuendo. Import the converted OMF and a qt ref vid file and do multitrack editing. The she exports a mastered stereo wav file as she doesn't need to touch it back in an avid.
I usually leave this stuff up to a sound designer and composer, but it doesn't hurt to educate yourself. Who know? One day I might pull an Alejandro Amenabar and do it all myself.
Wink Wink.
She said that her workflow is - She uses AV Transfer (to get the same functionality as digitranslator) to get the exported Avid OMF into nuendo. Import the converted OMF and a qt ref vid file and do multitrack editing. The she exports a mastered stereo wav file as she doesn't need to touch it back in an avid.
I usually leave this stuff up to a sound designer and composer, but it doesn't hurt to educate yourself. Who know? One day I might pull an Alejandro Amenabar and do it all myself.
Wink Wink.
soarprod
Veteran
One thing that irks me abot PT is that you need to buy the video plugin upgrade for PT32 tracks if you want to edit to picture - nuendo has everything you need right at your fingertips.
BTW, I did a 80 track (with many simultaneous sounds occuring) 22min 5.1 mix with eq's, reverbs, vst's, and other insterts running throughout on a P4 2.8HT 1gb ram, 2 80GB 7200 RAID 0 drives and Nuendo never had a hiccup. Now, I run somethin a little faster (800 GB 4 drive RAID 5) but I was impressed that it worked so well for that project. Audio hardware is also a factor - you aren't going to get a lot out of a consumer audio interface - this is where PT is a great solution. EMU, MOTU, & LAYA are good options for Nuendo.
BTW, I did a 80 track (with many simultaneous sounds occuring) 22min 5.1 mix with eq's, reverbs, vst's, and other insterts running throughout on a P4 2.8HT 1gb ram, 2 80GB 7200 RAID 0 drives and Nuendo never had a hiccup. Now, I run somethin a little faster (800 GB 4 drive RAID 5) but I was impressed that it worked so well for that project. Audio hardware is also a factor - you aren't going to get a lot out of a consumer audio interface - this is where PT is a great solution. EMU, MOTU, & LAYA are good options for Nuendo.