Anyone tried Nebula?

[ThatOlBluesSound]

Originally Posted by Everlast

People should be aware that this software technology is rather new and still developing. It has a big potential IMHO, when it comes to emulating analog at least...

They also should be aware that it consumes CPU pretty hard which is the major point to understand how much of CPU power is needed if you really want to virtually represent and model analog counterparts in digital and still not being 100% there, very close but not fully...

It also shows how subtle differences analog has when you compare it to algo-driven digital plugs, but those subtleties accumulate over tracks into something that's a signature footprint of analog counterparts. It surely takes some time to learn and recognize how slightly and subtly overdriven(saturated) signal sounds like. And it's not just saturation - it's color and tone a.k.a phase shifts, frequency response, etc grabbed directly when sampled. Basically what you get is pretty big array of parameters taken into consideration you don't get with standard "analog-to-digital modeling". That's why I consider this soft as pretty advanced model in digital world therefore I respect guys at Acusticaudio

As everything - it can be improved and I hope it will be on mutual enjoyment

Great post!
And you ended it like a gentlemen. I see there's people who can discuss things without foul language.

[ThatOlBluesSound]

Originally Posted by The Spark

Wait a second... Doesnt Nebula cost 80 Euros?

Yep, true as zaphod already corrected me. I made a mistake there...

[JustinAiken]

Originally Posted by zaphod

if you google carefully you'll find easily tons of users with the same complains. Just read topics here and there, they will say the same things
1) gui
2) website
3) not impressed the first time

I actually like the GUI, and don't mind the website... never gotten to #3...

No no, my biggest complaint is the lack of a rock solid Mac version for Pro Tools and Logic...

*continues to watch thread for further developments

[Jantex]

Went into the Nebula camp yesterday as a new Nebula 3 Pro Customer. For 120 EUR altogether I had to try it and see if it lives up to the hype.

All I can say is wooow. Soundwise it beats all the competition and VST plugins.

After serching Acusticaudio forum I have been able in aprox. 8 hours to understand the concept and do some tweaks, arrange programs, changing categories, reducing latencies.

It definitely is soundind analog. It makes you want ot buy all the 3rd party programs and arrange it for your own use.

I have found out that besides a one good compressor, one good limiter, one surgical Eq and normal tools (deeser, stereo imager, restoration...) you doesn't need another tools if you have Nebula. It is the most colorful and true sounding software and by far. It has the only software EQs that you can boost frequencies without any digital harshness and it can give you al kinds of warmth.

Right now my only complaint goes to Steinberg for not fixing their multiprocessing bug in the last 4 years, because not using all cores in a CPU is a real problem if you want to use Nebula for many instances. I have I7 920 and with Cubase 5 I am very limited.

I tried Reaper and it works like a charm there, but I am simply to accustomed to Cubendo's workflow to much to change a DAW.

[zaphod]

if you use the "reverb" version (I suggest it for everything, and you could lower latency) and ENABLE ghost mode in the MAST page (push SAVE) you'll use all the cores in cubase.

[Jantex]

How much should I lower the dspbuffer in the nebula reverb? So if I lover the buffer to 128 I suppose I'll have then problems with running reverbs?

Thanks for your answer in forward.

[zaphod]

Originally Posted by Jantex

How much should I lower the dspbuffer in the nebula reverb? So if I lover the buffer to 128 I suppose I'll have then problems with running reverbs?

Thanks for your answer in forward.

no, you are just increasing the CPU usage.
Lower suggested bound is 512, or 2048 if you are running cuda.

[Jantex]

Thank you very much for your answer and for the great product!!!

[studioleorec]

hi zaphod,
I tried twice to get registration on acusticaudio.net but didn't receive any e-mail to activate my account. Can you help with this issue? My login name was LeanidKruk.
BTW, will you accept viza?

Thanks. Received in PM.

[OMU]

Better late then never, but I finally got nebularized too...

This thing has 2 big qualities (in no particular order):

1- it's cheap;
2- it sounds so good.

It's more of an engineer's tool (because of the one knob per plugin etc), but what a satisfaction when the sound comes thru it! Certainly deserves the hassle of multiple instances, the ratio between effort and reward being really good. I happen to like the compressors, don't really got why people say they're a weak point, it doesn't sound like that to me from the boeing preset.

Also a question:

the AlexB console programs include the eqs or just the input sections of the channels?

[miro]

Originally Posted by OMU

Better late then never, but I finally got nebularized too...

This thing has 2 big qualities (in no particular order):

1- it's cheap;
2- it sounds so good.

It's more of an engineer's tool (because of the one knob per plugin etc), but what a satisfaction when the sound comes thru it! Certainly deserves the hassle of multiple instances, the ratio between effort and reward being really good. I happen to like the compressors, don't really got why people say they're a weak point, it doesn't sound like that to me from the boeing preset.

Also a question:

the AlexB console programs include the eqs or just the input sections of the channels?

i agree. it's so worth it! best itb sound for sure.
alex b consoles are only the selected inputs. you'll have to get eq's seperately.

[SergioS]

Come on, MAC version please...

[miro]

Originally Posted by SergioS

Come on, MAC version please...

hellooooooooooooo...
it's there for mac!!!!!! since months already. go through this or another thread and you can read it. until now it's still sold as beta (even a free version available, but i suggest to buy the full version!) so it's still not that easy to find, since it's not officially offered yet.
i use the mac version since months without problems...works very fine!

go to their forum (also called the "maze") and you'll find mac threads! i personally suggest, if you want to buy it, write them an email!
once you bought it, you'll have alot free programs with that - more than enough for a start..

[OMU]

Originally Posted by miro

alex b consoles are only the selected inputs. you'll have to get eq's seperately.

And they are 1GB(!) for the inputs only. I'm curious why...

[miro]

Originally Posted by OMU

And they are 1GB(!) for the inputs only. I'm curious why...

because it's nebula: very accurate and detailed sampling and not static snapshots. not to mention he works in 96kHz.

[OMU]

That's interesting.

[bigbongo]

Originally Posted by SergioS

Come on, MAC version please...

yep definitely works for me in Logic 8 inside FXExpansions VST to AU wrapper, never crashed.

there's plenty subtle stuff but when the right EQ is applied to the right material it's a revelation not in the slightest bit subtle just beautiful, love the reverbs too.

[OMU]

But there are only the included reverb, isn't it? No 3rd party yet.
Kurzweil, PCM70 and what else?

[zaphod]

Originally Posted by OMU

But there are only the included reverb, isn't it? No 3rd party yet.
Kurzweil, PCM70 and what else?

there are good 3rd party libraries, for example a demetri collection, some tonemask demo (other high end gear), and something available on nebula-programs (a lot of different devices).

[OMU]

Great, thanks!

[bigbongo]

Originally Posted by zaphod

there are good 3rd party libraries, for example a demetri collection, some tonemask demo (other high end gear), and something available on nebula-programs (a lot of different devices).

is there any easy way to get these 3rd party libraries to work on mac? I know some do ZIP files [ alexb does ] but loads are still only .exe which is [ as far as I know ] no good for us mac users.

[zaphod]

yes, I suggested a standard way to distribute packages to all developers. The standard is the one used of "generic5 library".

[redroom]

Originally Posted by bigbongo

is there any easy way to get these 3rd party libraries to work on mac? I know some do ZIP files [ alexb does ] but loads are still only .exe which is [ as far as I know ] no good for us mac users.

I use crossover and install it with that and then copy the drives from the corssover C:Drive Nebula folders to my mac nebula folders.

[OMU]

Too bad the batch processor doesn't work with crossover.

[Finnish]

Shit, my i7-PC will be here within 2 days...

I've always been a poor boy with CPU-power (also with €..) and I've always thought Nebula is for me in the future... Faaaar away in the future...

Goddamit, gotta check my wallet and processing power in a week! I'm afraid I'm going to be nebulized...!?

[sevansounds]

Just checkin in to see whats the update with Mac/PT LE compatibility.

Any updates???

[cooker]

Originally Posted by sevansounds

Just checkin in to see whats the update with Mac/PT LE compatibility.

Any updates???

I finally got the black magic eq

[Cadde]

Originally Posted by Arksun

I upgrade to Nebula 3 Pro version, which halved the amount of cpu usage!!.

That combined with core i7 and you're laughing. CPU is no longer an issue (but memory might still be if you use a lot of memory hungry programs).

Especially loving the freely downloadable skins too. These 2 are my current favourites

http://www.arksun-sound.com/images/nebula3pro.jpg

really ?

i´m on an 8 core 64 bit windows xeon server cubase 5, 88,2 khz sampling rate and i can run only two nebula reverbs ... after that the machine gets hiccups ...
strange ...
nebula 3 pro works more economic ? yes ?
than i have to upgrade ...

cadde

[Paul Russell]

Originally Posted by Cadde

really ?

i´m on an 8 core 64 bit windows xeon server cubase 5, 88,2 khz sampling rate and i can run only two nebula reverbs ... after that the machine gets hiccups ...
strange ...
nebula 3 pro works more economic ? yes ?
than i have to upgrade ...

cadde

you have to mess about with the parameters on the MAST page, or better still the XML file. Try setting the harmonic generation to only 8 levels instead of the default 10. And change the ratecnv setting to something ridiculously high like 3000

Here are some useful parameters that will enable you to run plenty of nebula reverb occurences on your machine (assuming you're running W7 x64)

<WORKBUFFER> 131072 </WORKBUFFER>
<DSPBUFFER> 8192 </DSPBUFFER>
<OTIMED> 5 </OTIMED>
<OFREQD> 11 </OFREQD>
<PROGRAMRATE> 2000 </PROGRAMRATE>
<HDIM> 8 </HDIM> - this is the one that sets the kernels
<AHEADLENGTH> 1859 </AHEADLENGTH>
<RATECONVERSION> 3559701 </RATECONVERSION>

your latency will get high but it will be very stable

[Arksun]

Originally Posted by Cadde

really ?

i´m on an 8 core 64 bit windows xeon server cubase 5, 88,2 khz sampling rate and i can run only two nebula reverbs ... after that the machine gets hiccups ...
strange ...
nebula 3 pro works more economic ? yes ?
than i have to upgrade ...

cadde

Hmmm, I know you're running at 88K which will double the cpu usage of all plugins but, you should definitely be able to run more than a couple of Nebula reverbs with a machine of that spec!.

By Nebula Reverb do you mean the 'Nebula Reverb' version of Nebula, or that you're running reverb programs in Nebula?.

You should definitely upgrade to the Pro version, like I say halved cpu usage on mine.

I dont actually use Nebula for reverb programs at the moment but, I've had about 8 instances of Nebula 3 Pro (Reverb Version) running in a project , using mix of AlexB console programs, couple eq's, panner and fatfunk compressor. My CPU usage on core i7 is at 16% (that includes the soft-synths and other stuff going on). That's in a 48K sample rate project though, not 88K like yours.

Being a Cubase user also, you'll know that Cubase isn't as streamlined as it could be for 4 or more core processors yet. Especially for 8-core owners. The forthcoming 5.5 update is supposed to address that