Nebula - Acustica's sampling engine for hardware, generally the best ITB Consoles, EQ, Comp, Tones, Mod, Reverb & Delay.

Beginner's References

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Master List - https://justpaste.it/nebulabible

Beginner's Guide - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiF040PTnGhF3xxirlQfaopz05Afhq8Kt

FAQs TimP - https://www.timpetherick.co.uk/faq/

Creating a Setup -

Assigning a Skin -

Installing Guide

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In Progress

Recommended

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This is not a comprehensive list, just to dip one's toes:

Console - AlexB White / Rupert 88 | XL9K
EQ - AlexB Massive Passive, Logic (9K), Flagship (88RS) | TimP - Surge (GML8200) | 4KeQ Black Ultimate AI
Comp - TimP - SSL L-Bus (TimP & Cupwise's Comps are generally recommended)
Reverb - VNXT - EMT240 GOLD | BX20E
Tones - AlexB Preamp Colors and Saturation | Cuptones
Tape / Vinyl - AlexB - Modern White Tape (Neve 5042) | Vinylizer | CDSoundMaster - Studer, Apex & Essentials | TimP 37J | CupReels Ax102

Demos

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Modulation

Reverb

Troubleshooting

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https://www.timpetherick.co.uk/n4-loading-programs-troubleshooting/

https://www.patreon.com/posts/nebula-settings-38323370

Community Tips

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1. Use VSTs and not VST3 when creating setups.

2. These are samples rather than plug-ins. Treat them as hardware, gain stage as if you're using a hardware. Just like hardware which really separates itself from ordinary plugins; the magic happens when it's stacked. Using it on Pre-Amps then Busses / Summing and in a session when it's stacked 20-30 times it shows the goodness surpassing most ordinary plugins.

3. Effect Rack Presets that are just "drop and render" are recommended. Just like studios that have hardware units that are rarely tinkered with and are just for passing the signal through. These are heavy on CPU and committing them to track is what's expected.

Will Post helpful posts here as highlights

Known Issues

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1. The Header is Invisible on macos R2R Nebula 4.5 v2.5.0

This is not a alternative solution to Aquas, which are absolutely fabulous. The Aero amp, Lemon delay, Jam for saturation and all the great consoles. I recommend to use Nebula stuff with all the Aquas and other plugins that gets the job done. Tests with other plugins, sampled or algo are absolutely welcome.

#Added Tips.
#Work in Progress, thought to just get this started like Stevie's AA Megathread

Please refrain from Bumps or General posts. Let's keep this clean.

 

Last edited: Sep 28, 2024

Thanks for this thread. This is going to be invaluable to those of us who love Nebula. Just curious on VST vs VST3 tip. Do you know what the differences are. I've set most of mine up as VST3 (not knowing this tip). Just wondering if I have to redo them all now as VST. Is there something significant about the difference? Thanks in advance

 

Someone recommended me to use VSTs when creating Setups as the VST3 is just wrapper for VSTs in case of Acustica.

 

Thank you very much for the thread! I'm just getting familiar with Nebula

 

Damn nebula is such a pain in the ass, not even worth it I feel like. We have all acoustically stuff anyway

 

Not really, only takes a minute to manually install stuff and create a setup once you get the hang of it, then most libraries today open like a VST.

I like that AA /Nebula keeps your project tidy, and teach u good habits like setting and maintaining gain, and listening more carefully for changes. Can't peak the meters and delude yourself into thinking shit's better just cause it's louder, instead you get punished and quickly learn how to properly A/B.

 

In terms of how good nebulas and especially third party nebulas, how do they hold up to uad or acoustically native stuff

 

the good ones are miles above UAD, or Acustica's own plugins.

 

Add to the recommended, pretty much ALL of Tim p's stuff. Especially his pultec with clipper and saturation, his DBX library is insane, his latest, the Tube tech (opto 1b), Tim P spaces, His Tape ones (incredible saturation) honestly all of them. Affordable, insane quality libraries.

Alex B - his latest "AI" black and brown EQ (SSL), and his AI SSL console 4k

 

interesting, im going to experiment. I have all VST3 setup. Going to try VST and see if it helps with CPU

 

When you say miles above, how is that possible? I'm not being sarcastic I'm genuinely curious. We all know analog gear sounds better. But since nebulas ARE digital by design, I don't see how they can be miles above uad. Or acoustics native stuff like lemon etc.

Miles above is quite A lot

 

I think it's hard to answer.

AA kills Nebula when it comes to delay/amp and pedal sims (at the cost of killing your CPU) AA also have some really fantastic pluggies like Jam and Taupe, but Nebula also has fantastic tape and saturation libraries, and in many ways come out ahead both in performance, sonics, and unit selection.

But when it comes to pre/console/EQ/filters/comp/sat/distortion/mics/speakers/verbs this is where Nebula third party libraries really pull ahead of most AA offerings in both performance and the capturing of sonics from the original hardware. Delay kind of sucks, I believe it's a limitation of Nebula's technology.

Cupwise is also capturing and creating some really cool stuff that you won't find elsewhere. TimP has a few unique offerings too.

 

thanks dude, ill give them a try

 

Are there any lost and forgotten vinyl player libraries out there?

 

yeah so i tried them, they suck ass bro. the n3 libraries dont work with n4. they work but with no skins, it sucks major ass. also the libraries that do work in n4, the browser is major ass and shit poo. why is my equalizer divided into parts like 50hz-300hz, then if i want to go 300-600hz i have to load another preset.

probably cus its from sister site and not the proper version it wont let you just have one full normal plugin?> or maybe because its third party they have to make it that way. either way the actual plugins themselves are okay, nothing to write home about.

resource heavy, sound is okay i guess. massively shit balls of an interface, have to seperate plugins into parts. all the 41k files and 48k files and 96khz files are absolute useless bags of crap. just give me the option to load one single plugin and pick what bitrate i want to use with it.

all in all, acusticas other stuff (not nebula) is loads better, and even that is just alright.

nebula isnt worth the hassle, rather buy hardware or stick with uad or waves or softube or fabfilter or soundtoys. pretty much any one who makes a decent plugin.

also the reverb from cupwise was just okay. it didnt sound any better than lexicon or liquid sonics, it sounded like a pile of dog shit.

half the plugins didn't work, the interface doesnt work.

i wouldn't use these plugins if we went back to the stone age and they were the last ones left. I'd rather bang on a bongo drum deer skin in the forest with the tribes.

No hate though i know some people love them. just think they suck major donkey ass,

 

You have to take the time to set up Nebula properly, in order to get the most out of it. Setting up the various setups you need, in whatever sample rates etc. Its a bit confusing at first, but once you get it, its quite easy, and well worth figuring out. Some of the eq's in nebula land are the best of the best. Most of the comp's are not that good, but the ones that are are really good. Same with the verbs. Some of the verbs are just insane.

 

I though of creating a similar thread times ago, but this kind of thing stopped from doing that:

I will ask moderation to be zero tolerance to offtopic and nonsense comparations. I don't think this kind of thread is the place to say x software is better than Nebula. Lets make this an informative place for Nebula users, not a place to spell your frustration on the software you don't like. Everyone knows 'waves', 'fabfilter' and 'soundtoys', stop trolling around.

And kudos to @ryu_shiro_878 for starting the discussion. I hope it can be useful for all the users of this 'cursed' technology.

 

I just want a Moderator to get rid of such dumb messages and we can continue our thread (including this and other comments replying to it). I bet even a EQ is shit if one doesn't who how to use it and using it on stuff that sucks ain't gonna make it the best thing all of a sudden.

Being a sister-site to Audioz at times really attracts some fancy folks.

 

In the case where there is no skin or things are separated, what would be the best way to splice together all bands or components?
Use something like BC PatchWork, DDMF Metaplugin, or FL Patcher?
I think guy made some valid points. Nebula kind of sucks without skins. I tried Nebula 3 first and most stuff for that is skinless.
It is not so fun to use, and the workflow and filesystem can easily get messy once libraries accumulate and you are not organized.
I just want to make some music man. I prefer packaged solutions. Fully trying out and experimenting with these libraries or any other plugins takes a lot of time. Though it is not a terribly difficult plugin to use. Most important thing to learn would be how to configure setups, and get yourself familiar with alternativedatapath.

Edit: Truthfully I have only messed with Henry Olonga's stuff. I have lightly played with Tim P, Alex B, Cupwise, VNXT, analoginthebox, etc. but I really do not remember what I tried or how I felt using them. When working on a project I rarely think to open Nebula.
If you are going in blind, you will waste a lot of time. You have to learn your Nebula flavors and palette and know what to grab before you even pull it up. To this day some prefer Nebula over Acquas, so that should say something. You have to check it out and decide for yourself.
There are a million EQs, a bunch of compressors, preamps, reverbs, saturation, tape sat & fx.
A whole lot of stuff.

 

Last edited: Sep 28, 2024

I use more tone stuff on Nebula (like consoles, tapes, preamps, etc) and if you know the analog counterpart of the library you can compare to your favorite algo plugin of the same hardware knowing what to expect and do some tests to hear if it really worths the HD and CPU hit. For me it's not really time spending because if don't like the lib, i just delete it and follow my life. If you want to keep a lot of libraries, the 'Favorites' toolbar can save you from the headache of scroll down that list with strange names and folders.

For eq's, i only pick a Nebula one if i'm going to use one or two bands that i know it's going to give me what i want (like the shelves on AlexB MMeQ aka Manley Massive Passive). If i need more bands, it's very likely i won't use Nebula for that task.