The Dragon Midi Controller features a touch screen panel and real hardware encoders on a LCD screen.

It’s a very interesting combination of software and tactile controls.

Let me know what you think of this! Is this the future of computer music?

via PauloEgidioSilva

Steinberg today announced a new version of its Nuendo audio production environment. Nuendo 4 offers a range of new features and technologies dedicated to mixers, engineers and editors in post production, studio recording and live recording.

“Because Nuendo 4 caters directly to audio post and studio production, Steinberg is now in the unique position of being able to offer dedicated products for four different target groups: Nuendo for the post and pro audio community, Cubase for musicians, composers and producers, WaveLab for audio editors and mastering engineers, and Sequel for entry-level music creation enthusiasts,” comments Steinberg’s General Manager Andreas Stelling.

Among the new functionality in Nuendo 4 is a state-of-the-art new automation system. Preview mode, Fill commands, Punch Logs, Virgin Territories and the unique new Touch Collect Assistant are only some of the new functions which unite the best functionality found on traditional hardware mixing consoles with the flexibility inherent in Nuendo 4 as a modern DAW environment.

The new MediaBay file management system for audio, video and other media files can replace many external FX database solutions. MediaBay browses, archives, retrieves and searches media files across any connected drive. Utilizing intelligent database technology, user-definable tags and other features MediaBay allows instant pulling up and filtering of search results, smart file management and more.

Nuendo 4 sees a vastly upgraded set of 38 new first-class surround- and sidechaining-capable VST3 audio effect plug-ins that cover dynamics, spatial FX and filtering for almost any situation. Standard on each channel is a brand new VST3 Channel EQ, with an audio quality that can replace many expensive additional 3rd party EQ plug-ins. Drag & drop and copy/paste for plug-ins make using plug-ins in Nuendo 4 even faster and more efficient.

Nuendo 4 offers a range of features designed specifically to accelerate and enhance workflows in audio post production. Advanced post pro editing commands allow even faster editing workflows, including many new options to move, place and trim audio faster and with outstanding precision to save valuable time. The flexible Post Filter is engineered specifically for audio post, and features special options to remove unwanted noises form audio material, for example from location recording.

Flexible new recording and routing options offer creative new ways to route and manipulate audio, with any track now able to record audio from any summing object such as groups or FX returns. Common recording configurations such as stems and print master recording are now extremely easy to setup, obviating the need to route audio outside the system for recording on external recorders.

Nuendo Expansion Kit: Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4

Together with the launch of Nuendo 4, Steinberg also introduces an additional product: Nuendo Expansion Kit: Cubase Music Tools for Nuendo 4 (NEK). This add-on module to Nuendo 4 contains optional music compositional functionality, including full Cubase scoring and notation, the Cubase MIDI Drum Editor, four integrated VST instruments as well as support for the MusicXML standard.

Nuendo 4 is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and both Intel and PPC-based Macintosh computers running Mac OS10.4.

Price and availability

Nuendo 4 is priced at $1799.99 MSRP, with the optional NEK module available at $299.99 MSRP and will be available in October, 2007.

Musikmesse: JazzMutant has introduced the first multitouch sensor control surface, dedicated to DAW control designed for Cubase, Sonar, Logic Pro, Nuendo, and Pyramix.

JazzMutant has partnered with leading software companies, such as Steinberg, Cakewalk and Apple, to redefine the interaction between Digital Audio Workstations and the user. This laptop-sized control surface has been designed with only one purpose in mind: making user experience more pleasant, playful and efficient. At the foundation of this design lies JazzMutant’s patented Multitouch display technology.

Here’s the info from JazzMutant’s description:

One glimpse suffices to get acquainted with Dexter’s workspace. Its design is crystal clear and immediately understandable. Dexter is fully self-documented: all functions are available through explicit icons. The main interface on Dexter accurately mimics the mixer of your DAW.

For greater visual comfort, each individual track is drawn with a specific color that represents its current state: shades of blue differentiate active tracks from muted ones, while red or yellow backgrounds make record enqbled or soloed tracks stand out from the rest. For smarter navigation a unique set of buttons allow you to rearrange Dexter’s mixer on the fly. These allow instant sorting of your channels based on your needs. For example, press the button to display only the soloed tracks on the screen. With Dexter, channels you don’t need never get in your way.

INSTANT NAVIGATION

Dexter has been designed to offer the most immediate access to any features of your Digital Audio Workstation. The era of dreadful navigation buttons to configure tracks and devices is foregone. Dexter introduces a novel way of browsing through your project. The Track Edit mode offers a clear overview on all the parameters of an individual channel, including graphical EQ display, effects editing, bus sends, and surround panning.

Dexter includes an arsenal of fancy widgets meant to make operation even more efficient and pleasant. The smart Overview widget displays a miniaturized picture of the whole mixer. Dragging a finger across it discloses the content and state of each bank of tracks.

SUPERB PLUGIN INTERFACE

The way common control surfaces has dealt so far with plugins is just dreadful. Dexter is the first controller ever to address this frustrating limitation. For that purpose, Dexter supplies just the right tools to master all your EQs, dynamics and effects. Dexter’s beautiful EQ controller will amaze you straight away. Exactly mirroring the filter curve of your sequencer’s EQ, this appealing interface particularly benefits from Multitouch technology in order to bring spontaneity and precision to the uppermost level. Forget about those unnatural key sequences to access a particular parameter of an insert on a track. Dexter lets you jump from the touch of a finger to a unified interface that shows every effect and parameter in a clear way.

For the first time, DAW controlling actually looks and feels natural.

UNIQUE SURROUND CONTROL

With its unique palette of tools dedicated to sound spatialization, Dexter is a dream come true for multichannel work. Its breakthrough surround panner provides live monitoring of up to eight channel positions in the surround space at one time. Sound sources can naturally be moved around using the tips of your fingers in the most intuitive manner. Dexter also introduces novel ways of reshaping the whole surround soundscape through simple finger gestures. Rotation of all your sources can be achieved by manipulating the panner just like a spinning vinyl! Drag two fingers apart to spray all sources away from the center.

UNPRECEDENTED PRECISION

JazzMutant introduces a whole new concept with Dexter : that of . You can now tweak in real time the resolution you want to acheive from one controller. on your faders when you need that extra bit of precision in a mix. when you’re looking for the widest range achievable. Dexter brings matchless precision to your mix that top-of-the-range physical faders just can’t compete with.

Nuendo 3.1 provides new features and capabilities aimed specifically at professionals working in post production for film and television. New Audio Pull Up/Down functions make Nuendo a leading tool for audio post production whenever a Telecine process was used to transfer film to NTSC or PAL/SECAM. The added support for HDTV Frame Rates allows Nuendo users access to this fast-growing format within their DAW software.

The Nuendo Network Collaboration features have already set standards in networking operability in DAW software. This update further extends those capabilities by adding support for Marker Tracks, while the Online Merge function facilitates quick and easy merging of networked projects with local ones.

Also announced with this update is the ability of Nuendo to interface with Euphonix hardware utilizing the EuCon protocol. This allows Nuendo to meld into studios and facilities operating the Euphonix MC and System 5-MC digital mixing and editing hardware. Engineered by Steinberg’s programmers and distributed worldwide solely by Euphonix, the EuCon component for Nuendo offers a new level of integration between world-class software and hardware.

“Nuendo 3.1 continues to provide sophisticated and specialized functionality for audio professionals,” says Senior Nuendo Product Manager Lars Baumann. “But while we’ve added important new features, we’ve also implemented improvements to existing functionality requested by pros from around the world working in audio post. And the ongoing partnership of Steinberg and Euphonix will provide the customer with exciting new possibilities and tremendous workflow improvements in recording, editing or mixing audio,” he continues.

Availability

The Nuendo 3.1 update will be available via download to current registered users at http://www.steinberg.net from July 2005.

“We’re extremely proud of Nuendo 3,” states Steinberg’s General Manager Andreas Stelling . “This product is our most advanced media production software to date, and has been engineered using the feedback and advice from many top audio and post production professionals,” Stelling continues.

Nuendo 3 sees the introduction of many innovative new features. Among the new functionality tailored to audio professionals in post production are “out-of-the-box” AAF support, X-Send integration, new Media Management tools and the innovative Warp To Picture feature. Version 3 also takes Nuendo to new strengths in mixing and surround, with full AFL/PFL facilities, the new MixConvert and External Effects plug-ins as well as the new Linked Panners mode. Nuendo 3 also offers a palette of new functions for recording facilities, with Steinberg’s Audio Warp tools, 10-minute audio prerecord utility and support of the new Studio Connections protocol developed by Steinberg and Yamaha.

Pricing and availability

Nuendo 3 is now available from authorized Steinberg pro audio dealers worldwide for $2,499.99. Steinberg has also announced a special limited upgrade offer for existing Nuendo customers which is valid until February 28th, 2005. Nuendo 2 customers can upgrade for only $299.99. From March 1st, the update prices for existing Nuendo 2 customers will be $499.99.

Steinberg, the audio division of Pinnacle Systems, has been providing technologically-advanced music and media production products for musicians and producers of music, video and film since 1984. Steinberg is today one of the world’s largest audio software houses with more than 1.5 million users worldwide.

Founded in 1984 by engineer Karl Steinberg and keyboard musician Manfred Rürup in Hamburg, Germany, the company released its first product, the Pro-16, 16-track MIDI sequencer for the Commodore C-64 platform in that year.

In 1996, Steinberg introduced the pioneering Virtual Studio Technology (VST) interface and the Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) architecture in its Cubase music production software. VST is an open standard that allows the integration of virtual effect processors and instruments into a digital audio environment. ASIO has advanced to a world standard adopted by audio interface manufacturers the world over. Steinberg innovations that followed include Linear Time Base (LTB), a communication protocol that offers sub-millisecond MIDI timing accuracy and VST System Link, which enables the transfer of synchronization, transport and audio data between two or more workstations equipped with compatible software and hardware.

Steinberg’s audio products remain at the forefront of audio technology today, with its Cubase, Nuendo and WaveLab software forming the backbone of professional studios and audio production facilities worldwide.

DTS is one of the world’s leading surround formats, with over 22,000 cinemas featuring DTS audio delivery worldwide. Millions of home theater systems also use the same DTS Coherent Acoustics compression algorithm to put high quality surround in homes around the globe. Incorporated within the Nuendo export dialog, Steinberg’s Nuendo DTS Encoder now puts this leading format within easy grasp of Nuendo users. In only a few mouse clicks, Nuendo users can export single files or an entire surround mix of up to 5.1 channels in the DTS format. And because the Nuendo DTS Encoder utilizes the Nuendo export dialog, exports to DTS format are processed faster than real-time.

Steinberg’s Nuendo DTS Encoder offers file handling of DTS audio. An integrated option to export as DTS WAV files allows the burning of encoded files to CD for playback of a DTS stream via the digital output of any CD player. The Nuendo DTS Encoder will also create additional discreet WAV files of the exported audio corresponding to the number of encoded and internally decoded channels and automatically place them on newly created tracks in the Nuendo project. As a result the Nuendo implementation of the DTS technology allows for monitoring the complete encoding-decoding process on a per channel basis.

Commenting on the release, Steinberg’s Senior Product Manager for Nuendo, Lars Baumann, said: “This product release is a major step for Nuendo, adding yet another important product to the Nuendo range of surround production tools by adding support for this increasingly important format. Moreover, the DTS encoding algorithm and the Nuendo audio engine have one thing in common, making the DTS Encoder a perfect match for any Nuendo system: they both sound excellent.”

“The DTS plug-in for Nuendo is sure to satisfy the growing demand for high quality surround sound encoding for DVD,” commented Brian Caldwell, Marketing Director at DTS. “Nuendo was already easy to use, and now we’re excited to see DTS as a part of this important platform.”

Additional information is available at the Steinberg site.

The added functionality includes improved support for hardware controllers. New in Cubase SL, Cubase SX and Nuendo 2.2 is support for the Mackie Control Universal Extender units, in addition to the current support for the main Mackie Control unit. Multiple Extender units can be added to a Mackie Control to offer direct access to channels in Cubase SX, Cubase SL and Nuendo.

The Generic Remote area of all three applications has also seen an overhaul, with control for a full set of functions now implemented in Cubase SX/SL and Nuendo, including Send effects levels, EQ settings and plug-in parameters.

“This 2.2 update brings some exciting new features to three of our most important products,” said Arnd Kaiser, Senior Product Manager for Music Technology. He continued: “The new, fantastic-sounding plug-ins add to the creative versatility of both Cubase SX and Nuendo.”

Lars Baumann, Senior Product Manager for Nuendo, added: “We’re pleased to introduce native support for a successful product such as the Mackie Control Universal Extender. The much-improved Generic Remote functionality is also an important step forward for both Nuendo and Cubase.”

The 2.2 versions of Cubase SX and Nuendo offer three new VST plug-ins comprising two new virtual synthesizers and one new VST filter effect.

• Monologue is a monophonic analog synthesizer based on physical modeling technology that offers a full, rich and colorful palette of sounds for bass, lead and sequenced sounds without straining the computer’s CPU.
• Embracer is a simple but powerful polyphonic surround-capable synthesizer designed for producing pads and accompaniment sounds in both stereo and surround environments.
• The last of the trio of new plug-ins is Tonic, a versatile and powerful analog modeling filter effect based on the filter design of the Monologue monophonic synthesizer. All three 2.2 versions also include a number of minor product enhancements.

Additional information is available at the Steinberg site.

Volume 1 includes almost 3 hours of video instruction on the Nuendo Mixer and related features. Narrated by Thomas Bolton, one of the first few individuals to alpha test Nuendo in the USA before Nuendo 1.0 was ever released, the Nuendo 2.0 VMT explains all aspects of the Nuendo Mixer as well as some other features of Nuendo 2.0 that incorporate the Nuendo Mixer.

The following topics are covered in Volume 1 of the Nuendo 2.0 VMT:

• VST Multitrack Setup – Learn how to properly setup an Audio Interface in Nuendo. Find out how you can use 2 different audio cards in Nuendo to increase the number of inputs and outputs available. Also included are detailed explanations of the different options in the VST Multitrack Setup.
• VST Connections – Learn how to configure the input and outputs of your Audio Interface within Nuendo 2.0 for multitrack recording and surround mixing. An in-depth explanation of the options in this section is also included.
• Mixer Overview – The Nuendo Mixer is quite complex, and a general Mixer Overview will help you to understand all of the features of the Nuendo Mixer. The Mixer Overview explains all parts of the Nuendo Mixer and the corresponding function of each part.
• Using Inserts, EQs, and Sends – Find out how to tweak your audio files in real-time using inserts, EQs, and sends, and learn how to save your favorite settings as a preset.
• Audio Recording, Routing, and Signal Flow – Follow the path of an input signal as it travels from an electric guitar into Nuendo 2.0 to be recorded. Discover how to simultaneously record the same input to multiple tracks and apply either real-time or permanent effects to the recorded signal. Learn about the quality differences between recording 16 bit, 24 bit, and 32 bit float files with audible examples.
• MIDI, VST Instruments, and ReWire – Learn how to record and playback MIDI while using VST Instruments and ReWire applications. An example of using MIDI inserts and sends is also included.
• Generic Remote Setup – Discover how to setup an external device to control the various aspects of the Nuendo Mixer. Learn how to control a VST Instrument from an external device as well.
• Surround Mixing – Realize the potential of your mixes by putting them in the surround field. Find out how to configure a surround setup in Nuendo and the various options you have when mixing in surround.

Nuendo 2.0 VMT Volume 1 is available throught the pcAudioLabs site.