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Nuendo 4.0 is much more than a souped-up version of Cubase.

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Since its introduction in 2001, Nuendo has often been dismissed as just a more expensive version of Cubase, and there’s been confusion over what sets the applications apart. Steinberg is making things clear with Nuendo 4, though: unlike Cubase, it’s designed primarily for post-production and live recording work.

The first thing you'll notice in comparison to Nuendo 3 are the redesigned Project and Mixer windows. There are no radical changes, but N4 is definitely darker than its forebears, and arguably more 'professional' looking.

Underlying Nuendo 4 is the VST3 audio architecture, which facilitates dynamic input and output assignment (enabling plug-ins to process 5.1 and other bus configurations easily), bus deactivation for unused instrument outputs, new routing possibilities (including sidechaining) and performance improvements (including zero plug-in load during silence).

To make use of this, Nuendo 4 comes with 38 new plug-ins (bringing the total to 60). These cover countless bases and represent a significant improvement on those in Nuendo 3, both in terms of audio quality and functionality.

All insert plug-ins can now also be re-ordered, copied or moved between channels in the Mixer windows using drag-and-drop. But the highlight of the new plug-in functionality is the ability to use proper inter-channel sidechaining – as you might do in an analogue mixing environment – rather than the dodgy workarounds that have been the talk of Cubase and Nuendo forums for years. Thank you Steinberg!

With all this comes a much more flexible routing system that enables Track, Group and FX routing in any order and to any location - even back to an input. There's a feedback loop detection system to prevent unwanted configurations.

MediaBay

The MediaBay database environment made its debut in Cubase 4. It's a media file management system that's designed to incorporate audio, MIDI, track and project data into one accessible entity. There are facilities for tagging files with useful descriptive information and auditioning loops and sounds.

When MediaBay made its debut, criticisms of it centred on performance issues (which seem to have been improved with more focused scanning of existing files) and the fact that the only correctly tagged files are those that come with the software (tagging will always be a tiresome task). MediaBay could be a great time-saving tool in a busy broadcast or post-pro environment, but it remains to seen whether it’ll be adopted extensively by third-party developers.

To make use of MediaBay, Steinberg have introduced Instrument Tracks, which combine MIDI tracks and VST Instruments into one convenient unit (albeit without multiple outputs). There are also Track Presets, which are essentially snapshots of Audio, MIDI or Instrument channel strips (including EQ and Inserts). Recalling specific Insert settings for particular performers or settings is now straightforward.