Steinberg released the latest update to their premium DAW, Nuendo, with version 12. Having been using it since its release, I'm going to talk about some of the new features designed for editing and mixing dialogue.
The first new feature to mention is AI-powered Dialogue Detection in the Detect Silence window. Previously, this was done by analysing the waveform peaks, and edits would be made regardless of whether it was dialogue or not. Now, there's a new algorithm which detects dialogue, meaning you only keep the audio you want, and everything else is removed. Once you've chosen your settings, this process can easily be applied with a single keystroke, remembering the settings you've used before. This is particularly useful if you have recordings from a noisy location, or with long pauses between dialogue. There is also the option to add fades to the end of the newly created clips, which is a great timesaving option. In the past, I've used similar tools (which aren't AI-powered) with varying degrees of success. I've often found by the time I'd dialled in the correct settings, I could have manually made all the edits and saved a bit of time. With this new algorithm I consistently get results which are useable every time.
Another new feature is great for users of Auto-Align Post 2 from Sound Radix. Previously the ARA 2 implementation was done on a clip-by-clip basis, where you'd select a clip and add an ARA 2 extension to that clip, or multiple clips you had selected. You can still do it this way, or you can simply apply an ARA 2 extension to the entire track. This is particularly useful if you know you will want to align multiple recordings from multiple microphones, such as boom and lav mics, and having a quick way to align multiple sources across a scene is a great addition.
If you're not a user of Auto-Align Post 2, the internal Audio Alignment tool has now been improved. Much like Auto-Align 2 Post, this takes audio from several sources, such as multiple microphones recorded on set, and aligns the phase on them based on a reference track, for example, the boom. This doesn't work as an ARA 2 extension, but the workflow is very similar and can be done as a batch process. This is all done non-destructively and can be undone at any point if required.
For those who regularly work with ADR, there are a few new features for recording replacement dialogue as well as foreign versioning. ADR is something I do on occasion as well as recording English narration and dialogue for animated films where the original version is in another language. In the past, I've done this in various ways, from setting up cues and countdown pops in Pro Tools to using more advanced tools such as ADR Master when working at other facilities. However, it's not something I do frequently enough to justify buying dedicated tools. Having a comprehensive tool built-in to the DAW is perfect for a user like me. This enabled me to work quickly and effectively in an organised way, yet not have to purchase any additional software to get this level of functionality.
When recording new narration and voices for any film, having a good way to organise what has and hasn't been recorded and keeping track of it all is crucial. I found the new ADR Taker perfect for such a job, and easy to use, the fact that everything is all in one application made life easier too. I've not used EdiCue, but for those who do, Nuendo 12 now directly integrates with it, with the option to import and send cues between the two applications.
For those who do dubbing work for Netflix, now there is native support for the TTAL dialogue script format simplifying this workflow. Although this isn't something I have personally used, having the option to do so is no bad thing, and studios that regularly record foreign language versions of Netflix shows will benefit from this. Given the amount of work Netflix dubbing generates for some studios, it's a great addition.
Once ADR or the foreign dialogue is recorded, getting the sync as accurate as possible is hugely important. With ADR, maintaining the original performance is desirable, so tools such as VocAlign and ReVoice Pro are hugely beneficial. The ability to use this via ARA 2 is a real benefit to workflows. The films I've dubbed into English tend to take a different approach, where the director envisions the English version as quite different to the original version of the film. This means trying to replicate the original performance isn't important but trying to keep the lip-sync as tight as possible is, and tools to warp audio play a big part in doing this. Although Nuendo has had an audio warp option for a while, this was accessed through the waveform editor and was designed for music. Now, the audio can be warped freely, without a grid in the main project window. Having the ability to adjust audio in such fine detail to get perfect lip-sync is a great addition, and something I had missed in Nuendo 11 compared to DAWs such as Pro Tools.
One final feature that will also be useful to many dialogue editors who work on laptops and headphones is Headphones Match. This enables the frequency response of 387 models of headphones to be corrected right inside the DAW, enabling more accurate monitoring for hearing binaural content on headphones. If using an HRTF, headphones may negatively influence the HRTF through their own frequency response curves. This is eliminated using the profiles in Headphones Match. Also, to a certain extent, you can simulate different headphone models. This plug-in can be used as an insert on the monitor output of the Control Room section. This means that the frequency response correction is only applied when monitoring and not to any exported audio.
If you work with dialogue regularly and want to try out any of these features, you can download a 60-day trial from Steinberg's website.