Creating a virtual effect rack

The effect sends for an audio channel in Nuendo can either be routed to an FX channel track or to any activated group or output bus. This allows you to use a separate computer as a “virtual effect rack”.

1. On computer 2 (the machine you will use as effect rack), add a new stereo audio track.

   You cannot use an FX channel track in this case, since the track must have an audio input.

2. Add the desired effect as an insert effect for the track.

   Let’s say you add a high-quality reverb plug-in.

3. In the Inspector, select one of the VST System Link busses as input for the audio track.

   You want to use a separate VST System Link bus, which will only be used for this purpose.

4. Route the channel to the desired output bus.

   If you are using computer 1 as your main mixing computer, this would be one of the VST System Link output busses, connected to computer 1.

5. Activate monitoring for the track.
6. Go back to computer 1 and select a track to which you want to add some reverb.
7. Bring up the effect sends for the track in the Inspector or the MixConsole.
8. Open the Send Routing pop-up menu for one of the sends and select the VST System Link bus assigned to the reverb in step 3.
9. Use the Send slider to adjust the amount of effect as usual.

Result

The signal will be sent to the track on computer 2 and processed through its insert effect, without using any processor power on computer 1.

You can repeat the steps above to add more effects to the “virtual effect rack”. The number of effects available this way is only limited by the number of ports used in the VST System Link connection (and of course by the performance of computer 2, but given that it will not have to handle any recording or playback, you should be able to use quite a lot of effects).