Freeze is nice but I'd been doing my own "freeze" years before they added the feature. I simply solo'ed a midi track or an effected audio track and rendered it to an audio file. If I wanted to edit it later I'd just delete it and re-enable the original track.

When hard disks and busses were slower I'd do a stereo "pre-mix" of the music tracks to play while doing overdubs. Freeze is nice but not necessarily a requirement. Nuendo's ability to disable a track (stop the disk from reading it, not just mute it) without removing the file from the track window is a nice touch.

Now Nuendo does have a feature that is a "MUST", ADC (automatic delay compensation). How Digi can sell PT for so much money and never implement that feature is beyond me.

Lawrence

Because I can put together a $500,- PC system that can run more plug-ins than a Mix++ system.

Ok, just pulled up my session. The following plug-ins on my overclocked XP2500:

octoQ x 7
Q x 25
VST Dynamics: x 32
Amplitude x 3
Pristine space: x 4
PSP84 : x 2
Lexicon Pantheon x 1

CPU usage: 50%

Try the same in 96 kHz

Your forgetting one thing, the plugins with Nuendo are subpbar. You need to buy Powercore, UAD and Waves to get decent plugins. But of course by getting them, it's still a lot cheaper than getting PT

But they are still a lot better than Digidesign plugins (like incredibly bad D-Verb etc.)

Absolutely not true. This is another myth. People think that becasue PT's has dedicated DSP, that the plug-ins must be better.
The waves eq's are among the worst plug-ins, but cost a bundle.

Nuendo has some greta sounding plug-ins that are as good or better than anything available for DSP based cards.

I love D-Verb!

This is interesting.
Because I started around 10 years ago with the first waves bundle (q10 - L1 - S1 - C1) which was pretty good in that time. I was working with the first protools 4 track with tdm system.

But allready for years I have the feeling that waves is not as usable as that it was in that time. As a matter of fact I find most of the waves plugins unusable.
I quit updating (I mean, paying to much) the waves bundle. I never understand waves policy about selling software.

About the D-verb, that's a laugh.
I payed in that time around $500,- for this crap and a year later with every soft or hardware update from digidesign I get the D-verb for free.
Lot's of d-verb floppys with authorization codes here

They know what they give you for free.

I too payed a fortune for Waves bundles in my less experienced times and now I hardly find any use for them Plugins like Sony, Voxengo etc. outperform them for several leagues.
As for D-verb, I would dig myself deep in the soil if I release something like that in the public: I never heard any reverb sounding more disgusting...

Sorry I have to disagree with you on the plug in issue. The Nuendo plug ins are good project studio plug ins. Nothing more. The Reverb A is lower quality than the Lexicon 550, and for me the Reverb A is unuseable. The Logic Platinum reverb and their new convulusion reverb are a lot better than Nuendos. Same thing can be said with the fat eq on Logic, adn their improved eq that is on 6.0. They have more of an analog sound where they shape the signal, round out the highs, and smooth out the bass. The eq on Nuendo just lifts and decreases the freq's sounding very digital. The compressors on Nuendo have no personality. The UAD 1176, LA2 A and Fairchild blow it away.

The built in eq does the job but there is much better out there. It is low cpu usage eq for general tone shaping. I wouldn't use it for critical correction on a lead vocal but I do use them for hi-pass when removing low end from multiple tracks and taking the mud out of a mix.

I don't think there's a such thing as a typical daw where anyone raves about the eq or compression. It's pretty much understood that you can always buy better.

Reverb is another matter. The Steiny verb just doesn't cut it and I simply don't use it. I've got just about every non-convolution verb out there and the one I generally like the best is TC Native Reverb Plus. Coming back to a FX return channel where you can use (yes the built-in) eq to shape the return it sounds pretty good.

Compression? I like the Waves RenComps better than most although I hear the UAD-1 has the "very best digital compression" bar none, according to at least one review and many user opinions. I've been two seconds away from buying a UAD-1 a number of times. Just haven't done it yet. I'll get around to it one day. I've not heard anyone say they've heard better. I don't use the built in comps. Don't like 'em at all.

The SPL de-esser in Nuendo is great so is the stereo analog tape emulation thingy whose name I can't remember right now. The A1 synth has some very nice sounds. All in all it's a good value. Cubase SX is even a better value for the typical studio.

Anyway, nobody buys a $1200 program like Nuendo to exclusively use the built in dsp. Just like PT users, we go out and get the best plugs we can afford.

Lawrence

The fact Steinberg pushes its EQ so seriously all over around Nuendo(mixer etc.) is a bit annoying (no option to get rid of it). I wonder if anyone ever uses it. If I want to use a plugin EQ, I would get a good dedicated one (Sonalksis, Waves, Sony ..)

I love Nuendo/Cubase as well for exactly the reasons listed here - workflow and functionality.

There's also something to be said for basing a system on (more or less) open non-proprietary architecture (pc/pci/vst/dx) - that in the long run is hard to compete with. PC/Macs processing and IO capabilities will only get exponentially more extreme. Converters from a myriad of competing companies. If Steinberg wants to leverage the value they have - I believe they should invest in software stability and support. These are the areas I see as weakest ... relatively.

Add a vote here - the UI is exceptional - pure power and pleasure .

Yes you can get rid of it. In the mixer view you can simply not display it. Those upper views in the mixer take up too much screen space (for me anyway with a LCD monitor which won't go higher than 1024 x 768) so I keep them hidden. Speaking of hiding things the mixer has plenty options for hiding, displaying, narrowing etc. than I could ever use. Great. One of the things I didn't like about PTLE was how the mixer channels were kinda stuck. In Nuendo I can move tracks around freely in the main window and the mixer follows that order.

There is only one screen where you have to see the eq, the channel edit screen. Everywhere else you never have to display it if you don't want.

Again, just another example of the flexibility of the interface. See what you want, when you want, how you want.

Simply beautiful.

Lawrence

Check out Voxengo's Pristione spaces for impulse reverb moddelling, and the Blue tubes stuff for EQ's and compressors. Also the free classic plug-ins sound greta as well.

No doubt the freebie plug's that come with Nuendo are a bit lacking, but you get what you pay for (not very much). But even the best software eq's are pretty boring compared to the best analog ones, even George's. Like reverb, it still has a ways to go but things are (slowly) getting better.

Totally agree about Waves, their stuff just doesn't sound all that good. The only VST plug's I consistently like are the UAD 1176 and sometimes their Pultec, and the PSP Vintage Warmer has it's moments. George's eq sounds pretty good but not for VST, unfortunately.

Given that I don't use a whole lot of plug's, I don't need a whole lot of computer. HD throughput is the only limiting factor these days but if my project files start hitting 60-70 tracks I start having a heart to heart talk with my client!

Henchman :
Still wondering how you got the Lexicon Pantheon Reverb to work in Nuendo ?

I borrowed a lexicon omego from a friend. I was going to get one, but I really wanted something in the under $200,- range for home use, and got a Tascam instead.

The pantheon is whatever.