Rather than requiring dedicated DSP hardware to run audio processing plug‑ins, moreover, it uses the host‑based VST standard, so the number of plug‑ins you can run simultaneously is limited not by how much cash you give Steinberg, but by how fast your Mac's CPU is. Although Steinberg clearly hope that many buyers will also pop a Nuendo‑badged audio interface into their shopping baskets, the software will run with any soundcard that has a Mac ASIO driver and while they'd love to sell you a matching grey Houston controller, you can manipulate Nuendo with any MIDI fader box. Nuendo, by contrast, uses the generic driver and plug‑in protocols designed by Steinberg for their popular Cubase MIDI + Audio sequencer. Digi don't charge for the program itself, but you do have to buy the hardware - and it's possible to spend an awful lot of money on ancillary software such as TDM plug‑ins, file translators, and the like. The basic Pro Tools editing software will only run on Digidesign hardware (although it can use the Mac's own I/O). Custom hardware is fundamental to all Digidesign systems: a typical Pro Tools setup will feature one or more of their interfaces along with the custom DSP cards used to run plug‑ins, and perhaps a dedicated hardware control surface.
There are, however, significant differences between the two companies' technical approaches and commercial strategies. Steinberg's decision to make Nuendo available on the Mac as well as the PC thus takes them into much more direct competition with Digidesign. Steinberg's intention was obviously to provide a PC‑based alternative to Digidesign's Pro Tools, and to capture some of the latter's impressive market share in fields such as post‑production, audio recording and sound for picture.Īlthough Digi have ported Pro Tools to the Windows NT platform, it is still widely regarded as a Mac‑based system, with the vast majority of buyers still opting for Apple machines. From the start, it was clear that this would be a package aimed at professional users: the software itself featured comprehensive recording, editing, mixing, sync and surround‑sound options, while it was accompanied by a complementary range of high‑quality, Nuendo‑badged hardware. It's a little over a year since Steinberg released their Nuendo multitrack recording and editing program for Windows platforms.
Can Steinberg's professional recording package make an impact in the Pro Tools‑dominated Macintosh market? Sam Inglis finds out.
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