Content area
Full Text
In the mid 1990s, Steinberg, a German music software company, teamed up with Silicon Graphics and released Nuendo, a digital audio workstation that took advantage of the power of the Unix platform that SGI was based upon. At that time, SGI was the only platform able to deliver realtime streaming audio on multiple processors over a network and floating-point technology. But throughout its developmental stage, developers wrote Nuendo as a portable Unix code, which meant that it could migrate to both Mac and PC in the future. With the release of OS X - which scraps the Mac's earlier code in favor of one based on Unix - and the even earlier appearance of Windows NT, Nuendo 2.0 is now fully functional on both platforms.
A review of Nuendo 2.0 must start off with a caveat. This product combines a highly developed MIDI sequencer, a digital recorder, and a mixer capable of executing surround mixes in multiple formats. Unlike many of the products that I have reviewed for Video Systems, Nuendo 2.0 is not intended for the videographer who dabbles in audio.
The Project window is the program's main work space. Like all areas of Nuendo, it defaults to a pleasing battleship gray that can be altered if desired. Running horizontally along the top area of the screen is a series of icons that let the user customize the Project window to taste. Below this, the Project window divides into three main areas: the Inspector, the Track list, and the Event list.
The Inspector, which the user can hide, is one of several areas where a track's functions - mute, solo, record, and write - can be engaged. Users can also make I/O assignments in the Inspector, along with Inserts and Sends. Use the drop-down menu in the Inspector to activate surround panning. The individual channel Mixer strip can also open similarly. Open the Inspector on a MIDI track, and all of Nuendo's extensive MIDI functionality is accessible. One of the most attractive aspects of Nuendo is the intelligence of its design. It presents a lot of information, and to free up screen space the software lets the user hide...