You actually don't need this in the most recent plugins. Azzimov skins for instance use Setup files. They have everything pre-configured.

The -18 ddfs applies to all nebula stuff, I personally use a simple Kilohertz gain plugin for this just before a Nebula instance.

 

That's the million dollar question that everybody evades to answer everytime it's made. You will never get that answered by a hater because there aren't algo plugins with superior sound quality. They just don't exist. And to prove it, i can A/B any mentioned plugin with a Nebula lib counterpart. See: i'm willing to upload files to prove that. Lets see if someone accepts the challenge

I'm not saying that sound quality is everything and Nebula is superior for that reason. Nebula is far from being a workhorse plugin like Fabfilter or UAD (or even AO!). But it excels on what they are made for: emulating hardware sound. If you're not into that, if you think it's irrelevant for your audience (it is), just skip it. You're not wrong for not using it, your priorities are other; maybe a more eficient person like @Djord Emer will never miss it, nor his audience.

I use because i love how it sounds and i love how it fits with my workflow and my way of staying creative without thinking about which algo plugin i will use to emulate certain behaviour. I have my go-to algo emulations as well, but i only go for them when CPU is an issue and i can't freeze/bounce (a bus, for example).

Yeah, when HW profiling became a thing i was on the first wave and now it's fun to watch the tech evolve. I met some crappy profiling out there BTW. I generally use it with caution, because oversampling can mess everything up and it aliases a lot.

 

This proposed test does not isolate the variable being debated. You’re no longer testing the engine inside Nebula. You’re testing engineering under different constraints. Nobody does an "all nebula mix". Probably not even an All Acustica mix.

If one group is limited to Nebula-only and another group can use anything, stock plugins, Universal Audio, FabFilter, clipper chains, dynamic EQ, etc. then the result tells you nothing about Nebula’s underlying approach. It just tells you how flexible one workflow is versus another. Everyone already knows the answer to that part.

 

Anyone got a Mac setup guide?

 

Smart

 

In fact most Nebula users are combining it with great digital workhorses. It's just pointless and ressource hungry to work 100% Nebula.

 

Plus it depends on the skill of the engineer! A 20 year veteran could probably mix an all Nebula mix better than a 2 year newb using all algo.
It would make more sense for a person to do both mixes, and compare themselves or share with the forum. I actually did that a couple times when I first started using Nebula. I used some stems from https://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms3/mtk/ and tried to make the exact same mix twice. Making sure levels were the same, and same eq moves etc. Used 30 or so plugin instances. The end result were pretty close, but in my blind A/B i choose Nebula every time, and after enough back and forth the extra detail, depth, mohjo whatever became more and more apparent.

Exactly. Nebula is the vibe king, but cannot do what DMG multiplicity does, or fab filter etc. Its great we have so many tools and can do a hybrid approach. Most of my songs ill have half and half nebula / algo, a couple AnalogX, as well as a handful of analog patched in. fun stuff!

 

Amen to that...

 

I just got to say that I've been using Nebula libraries as a front end for sounds going into my samplers and have not been happier. Highly underrated in that regard to get the best sounds out of all those modern and vintage sample engines.

 

Is there any library available of the Thermionic Culture The Culture Vulture? If yes can you post the link

 

I think there is. I know Acustica has some flavors of it in their saturation plugins, but i feel like there is something to do with it in Nebula land as well. I'll have a look and see if i can find it for you. I could be misremembering...

 

It needs redoing using modern techniques, and if any of the big 3 independent developers do it they will sell boat loads.

 

That is a given. With something as crazy CPU intensive like Nebula, you'll probably be waiting another week just to get the files from that group.

Any "all Nebula" mix is going to turn out something like letting someone inexperienced use a full studio full of great analog gear. With no digital tools, it will be a mess with some great analog saturation. I finally can use the word Slop and mean it.

Take these tools away and see how anyone's "nebula only mix" stands up:

transparent dynamic control. limiting w/lookahead, ceiling based
de-essing
expansion
gating
ducking
transparent compression, single and multiband.
linear phase EQ
high resolution parametric surgical EQ, frequency specific controls to reduce masking.
clipping, hard and soft, with peak and headroom control.
time-based effects creative tempo-synced delays, modulation
frequency specific dynamic processing, multiband compression and limiting
sidechain compression and enveloping
noise and artifact correction

 

There are a lot of Thermionic gear sampling but i don't know any Culture Vulture sampling. This is curious, because it's a famous piece of gear.

One of my favorite combos ever are DMG Equilibrium + Henry Olonga. I can sound pretty much boutique when i use the GML 8200 curves with an Avalon amplification. The same i do for compression but with Pro-C. Or go buck wild and use Unisum with a 670 Mojo. That's what i say about getting me creative. Save the chains as presets and i got my custom compressor ready to go.

100%. Nebula usage is especific as anything else but for color. for all the remaining you will need:

 

transparent dynamic control. limiting w/lookahead, ceiling based - A couple of Tim P's programs.
de-essing - Im not aware of any Nebula de-esser, but there could be a workaround with daw tricks and SC nebula comp
expansion - exists in Nebula.
gating - exists in Nebula
ducking - exists in Nebula and is actually great. Sometimes my preferred method
transparent compression, single and multiband. - Plenty of options, except for the MB part lol.
linear phase EQ - I dont see the need for this. If an all Nebula mix is being done, not having linear phase is part of the sound.
high resolution parametric surgical EQ, frequency specific controls to reduce masking - Alex B's SPL comes to mind, theres def some more too.
clipping, hard and soft, with peak and headroom control - Tim P's clippers are awesome.
time-based effects creative tempo-synced delays, modulation - some really fun, great sounding delays and modulation FX, even LFO's.
frequency specific dynamic processing, multiband compression and limiting - yah i cant think of an option here. Daw tricks would have to do.
sidechain compression and enveloping - plenty of options.
noise and artifact correction - hey, im doing an all nebula mix. they didnt have this shit back in the day


Of course, I agree with you. But if someone realllly wanted to do an all Nebula mix, there are options for the most part. When I did my Nebula VS algo mixes, I purposefully dumbed down the mixes. I didnt do a full approach like i normally would, just basic EQing and compression.

It also can come down to what you want out of the song, and what the genre is etc. If you are trying to mix a 2020's modern pop, edm, trap mix, yah, good luck, thats when you need everything above. If you are mixing something early 90s and earlier, theres really no reason you cant use all nebula. I get a lot of briefs for authentic sounding "x" genre for sync work. They want close to the real deal as possible. For something like that Im often using 90% nebula. For most songs I work on tho, id say its 10-20% Nebula, some songs none.

 

Instructions.txt in latest release on sister site, then every azzimov skin have instructions how to make those work, just follow every step in guides, if you get stuck, drop me PM.

 

It must be annoying for 3rd party devs that the Nebula player doesn't work with their libraries, it very much limits the potential clients since the main Nebula plug-in is so expensive. Probably deliberate move from Acusticas part, they don't want too much competition.

 

I have at least one instance of Nebula on all my busses, which is the place i do most of my heavy lifting using Michael Brauer's method. If i use it on single tracks i'm freezing all the time. It's very unlikely i'm stacking Nebula on my channels, except for bass and vocal tracks.

 

ANALOGX has this hardware...

https://analogx.co.uk/products/Vulture-Culture-Saturation-Emulations-GENESIS-p575742026
https://analogx.co.uk/products/Super-Culture-15-Tube-Saturation-Emulations-GENESIS-p777437587

 

I stopped using it years ago but from time to time I tried new acqua programs and I didn't feel I missed anything quality wise in my setup. As I said I don't think it sounds bad, I wouldn't have spent hundreds of euros in that technology if I didn't think it sounded good but other technologies did advance, since years, to the point that I simply think it doesn't have sense to use Nebula/Acqua plugins. I'm very happy with the results I have with the tools I use but as I said to each his own. I completely recreated Nebula/Acqua EQ/reverb programs in the past where in blind tests and with phase/freq/ir plots I couldn't tell them apart and from that time I stopped using Acustica audio products. For saturation/distortion and compression I
use other brands that I will mention later. Same thing here: I don't miss AA products for these tasks.

For strictly EQ I think Equilibrium by DMG gives me all I want from an equalizer. For the saturation/compression/tapes part I'll leave it to other processors from brands such as Vertigo/Tone Projects/Relab/UAD/Kazrog/Tbtech/PSP/D16/Toneboosters/Goodhertz and others.

It's useful to do comparisons and blind tests: plugin doctor is your friend, ears are the ultimate judge though, as always.

Sometimes a simple allpass filter is all you need to get that magic on a kick drum for example. Sometimes a generous dose of hysteresis from Reelbus 4 can work wonders for an hi hat. Or use gates to shape drum tops groove.

EQ though is the most important sound shaping tool in my arsenal: all others come later usually. In regard to techniques I just use the well known techniques used in pro studio in the past 50 years: EQ, compression if I need it, saturation/distortion if I need it, modulation and reverbs when I need it etc...they work really well once you master them.