A libp2p DHT crawler that also monitors the liveness and availability of peers. The crawler runs every 30 minutes by connecting to the standard DHT bootstrap nodes and then recursively following all entries in the k-buckets until all peers have been visited. Would anyone be willing to do a Nebula 3 video. I could not find any good ones on Youtube or Vimeo. Thanks for the help, this program seems to have to great a following for me not to figure out and tap it's resources. C btw, I just found Henry Olonga's website for Q Clone presets, his free bundle is about a couple of thousand and are great!
AlexB (www.alessandroboschi.eu) also offers a huge range of programs, some of which (his latest 4KD and MWD compressors, for instance) push the boundaries of what's currently capable with Nebula. For me, the sumptuous Preamp Color Suite quickly became a favourite, offering emulations of 39 different highly regarded solid‑state and tube preamps. Alexb Nebula Programs Like Limewire - eaglenest. AlexB has become synonomous with hi-quality Nebula presets that represent their luxurious counterparts. He ensures that only top notch modern and vintage gear, precisely sampled with high end converters and cables, with particular care at the connections, levels and impedance matching, find their.
I love Nebula. It has changed everything about my recordings by giving me access to tools that I would in all likelihood never have otherwise. It also required me to get a whole new computer, changed my workflow in a way that might not be considered beneficial, and caused hours of aggravation learning its ins and outs… and I’m still pretty new at it.
I’m not going to explain what it is or why it rules cause you can do that very easily yourself. Go to http://www.acustica-audio.com and read. The purpose of this post is to help those who are new to Nebula get started as quickly as possible. The installation procedure is kind of weird, registration is weird, tweaking is weird, usage is weird. But the results make everything worth it.
So first, some basics.
You should make sure to understand all of these before moving on.
Nebula is the platform in which your libraries are loaded. By itself, it doesn’t do anything. Think of it as a container and the libraries go inside of it to make it do something.
The default location is c:nebulatemprepository on Windows. I believe that Mac creates a folder of that same name either right in the Applications folder or in your home directory. Someone will have to check on that for me.
The free version of Nebula 3 is not as powerful as Nebula 3 Pro. Just buy Pro in the beginning and save yourself some trouble.
Some libraries will not work with the free version. Buy Pro in the beginning and save yourself some trouble.
ALWAYS USE THE REVERB VERSION unless you want to track with effects and latency is an issue. Really. Always. For everything. Stupid misnomer.
Installation
Download the version that matches your DAW software. 32-bit Cubase, 32-bit Nebula. If you’re running 32-bit software in a 64-bit operating system, invest in a VST Bridge (I use jBridge) so you can leverage more than 4GB of RAM.
Install Nebula. Accept all defaults.
Insert the Reverb version of Nebula on a track. The big difference between the standard and reverb versions is that reverb allows for longer tails and has greater latency. The standard version uses a shockingly higher amount of CPU. Use reverb. Always.
After you run it for the first time, it creates a .SER file in your nebulatemprepository file. Get this and email it to Giancarlo to register your copy. Do yourself another favor here and immediately post to the message board or PM him to give him a heads up that a registration is waiting in queue. This will probably speed up the process.
He will email you an EXE file. Run this and it inserts a few files into your folder that tell the application that you registered.
First Run
Once again, always start by using the Reverb version of the plugin.
Start by clicking on the word “Init” to bring up the libraries menu. Pick an EQ. The word “Init” changes to whatever patch you selected. Directly below that is a description if one exists. Directly below that it says something like this:
FRT: 96000 Hz -> 48000 Hz
The first number is the frequency at which the patch was sampled, the second number should be the frequency at which you are operating. The arrow in the middle should be solid, not flashing. If this is all the case, than all is well. In all likelihood, the two numbers will be the same and the arrow will be flashing, which means that it is not changing the sample rate correctly and will therefore not sound right. Click the MAST button at the bottom of the pseudo-LCD and change the RATE CNV to something like 7000. Hit the SAVE button (top right on MAST) then go back to PROG (your program controls) and then RELOAD (top right again.) The two numbers should be the same. Make sure to check this, very important!
Next, actually using it. The key to getting the most out of Nebula is gain staging. We kind of get spoiled in the digital world because clipping doesn’t occur within our DAW, so a single channel can hit +7 or greater and it really doesn’t matter as long as your output channel doesn’t clip. Because Nebula libraries are essentially clones of hardware devices, they do clip, so you need to ensure that you never go above 0db. Not ever. With some libraries, clipping will result in a really BRUTAL digital beep that can hurt your speakers and ears.
From the PROG page, you can tell the input level by looking at the INPUT L value. The magic number is -18 DB. Try to keep an average gain around there with peaks between -12 and -6. If it’s too low, use the INPUT nob. Too loud, use OUTPUT. I use the Sonalksis FreeG plugin if I want better gain staging control, one before and one after Nebula.
Something to watch out for is the confusing NORMAL vs ECONO thing. On the PROG page is a button that says ECONO when everything is working normally. If you click it, it changes to NORMAL and has a flashing dot. If you see this, you are operating in ECONO mode, meaning you are not operating the way the patch was intended. Some libraries mistakenly have ECONO mode enabled by default (cough 165a cough) and you might not notice. The effects of this differ from program to program but run in NORMAL mode by making sure it always says ECONO.
With that all said, the rest is rather self-explanatory. EQs are typically one band per instance of the plugin. This is because of the greater resources that are needed for multiple bands within a single patch. Need another band? Add another instance of Nebula. There are some libraries with multi-band EQ — Fate EQ and Mammoth EQ both have some. Fate’s Kick EQ in particular is killer! I’d say that in terms of worth, Nebula’s biggest assets for me are consoles and then EQ. The consoles alone are worth the entry price.
Don’t expect to use a lot of these plugins while tracking or editing. Get in the habit of applying settings, bouncing files, and importing with the effect burned to the track. Specifically console inputs on your channels and tape saturation.
My Favorite Libraries and Some Notes
Buy these.
COMPRESSORS: Fate Compressor and Snap Compressor (this one ESPECIALLY! SSL buss comp, sound better than Waves and The Glue) from Analog in the Box, Rhythm in Mind’s 165a.
EQ: AlexB’s CLeQ and MLeQ are my go-to, Analog in the Box’s Fate and Mammoth EQ are both fantastic as well.
CONSOLE: AlexB’s CLC, MLC, MWC, and MBC are all amazing, find one that works for you. CLC is a good place to start, especially if you’re doing rock.
TAPE: CDsoundmaster.com’s R2R and Tape Booster+ are absolutely essential. I also suggest their VTM-M2 VST plugin, which is probably my choice for favorite plugin ever.
REVERB and DELAY: I’ve never been a big reverb guy though this is an area that’s supposedly one of Nebula’s greatest strengths. I use one that has a name I just never remember… It’s a Plate Reverb. VXNT-something-or-other. I also just a minute ago discovered this, which is likely to get a TON of use by me. You’ll see one particularly enthused comment on that page… 😉
That will set you back a couple hundred bucks and arm you with practically everything you could ask for. I find myself using a few other compressors cause Nebula can be a little weird with fast transients but everything else is unreal.
The recommended usage of consoles and tape saturation looks like this:
CONSOLE MIC INPUT
R2R (depends on the source for me – almost always for drums, usually for guitars, sometimes for bass)
Alexb Nebula Programs That Help People
TB+ (again, depends on the source)
VTM-M2 (always)
CONSOLE LINE INPUT
I’ll very often just do VTM-M2 and then console mic input.
Buss groups have the appropriate buss group console program. Master always has a console master buss program. While some of these might be subtle by themselves, they make a huge difference when put together.
That’s it for now. If you see mistakes, please correct me. This will hopefully get you going.
What Is Nebula?
Nebula is a VST plug-in that uses a unique sampling and playback method to achieve very high quality emulations of many types of analog hardware. There are several versions of the plug-in available, I am reviewing the Nebula 3 Pro version.
The technology used is called Vectorial Volterra Kernels, current types of hardware that can be sampled, with varying degrees of accuracy, include:
- EQ’s
- Preamps
- Tubes
- Tapes
- Compressors
You can download a basic free fixed library version of the program to check out from the companies website
All the best sampled hardware programs are supplied by 3rd party developers and are usually very inexpensive. Here are some of the most well known ones:
Hardware by all the big names like Neve, API and SSL have been sampled. Often they are refereed to by cryptic names to avoid copyright problems, but its very easy to work out what is being emulated with the Nebula Universal Program Explorer!
How Does It Work?
The most similar technology you may have experienced is convolution reverb. Programs like Altiverb work by sampling a snapshot of a real acoustic space, they use an impulse sound like a popping balloon. This impulse response is then loaded into your player software and you can use it to emulate the room you sampled.
Nebula is not limited to reverbs, and it is far more advanced. Instead it takes multiple snapshots using its own test tones from its sampling software N.A.T.
The major technical advance in Nebula is that it takes many snapshots at different volumes, and can also sample and re-create distortion. This creates a dynamic model of the hardware including its distortion characteristics. The results are the closest software emulation of the original hardware available on the market today.
How Is It Different To Other Plugins?
- Nebula uses a ‘brute force’ approach to emulation, so takes a lot of CPU power to run. It samples hardware rather than attempting to emulate it using algorithms.
Alexb Nebula Programs That Help Us
- Nebula ships with its own sampling tool, N.A.T., so you can have a go at sampling your own hardware and share it with the community.
- The fact that it is sample based means that the sampled controls (if there are any) are limited. For example, for an EQ, each band must be sampled separately. In practical use this means you must run a separate instance of Nebula for each band.
Nebula can emulate reverbs very well, and works best on analog reverbs like plates and springs. The EMT140 program plate is worth the price of the whole Nebula plug-in! Best plate emulation ever, makes others sound like a joke in comparison.
There are some problems with the reverb emulations, in that certain bass heavy and transient rich sounds can create unwanted artefacts. You must be wary to listen carefully to your results. This is not mentioned in the sales literature, and it’s things like this that bring me onto…
What’s The Catch?
Before we get to what is great about Nebula, lets talk about a few things that might put you off.
- High CPU use. This is due to the technology used, so it won’t be going down until you get a new computer.
- The GUI is outdated and cumbersome.
- At this point in its development, it can only emulate subtle saturation, so full on distortion effects are not yet possible.
- Compression emulation is in its infancy, not recommended for now.
Other than the plug-in itself, Acustica Audio the company creates some controversy in the way it operates.
On initial use of the software and browsing their web forum, it would appear that the entire experience is designed to be confusing, annoying and counter productive. Its more like dealing with a group of cool underground hackers than a business. Developers are friendly and dedicated, but their focus is on the software, not on customer service.
There is no official documentation for half the features, no automatic email notifications of updates, it just seems a gigantic mess. It has been like this for years, and judging from the developers replies to forum posts, there seems no desire to change.
Alexb Nebula Programs That Help You
On the plus side to the lack of official information, there is a very active, helpful and enthusiastic membership of the forum that are always keen to help you out.
Why Use Nebula?
However frustrating and seemingly pointless all the hassle of setting up and using the plug-in is, the main thing that makes it all worth while is the AMAZING SOUND QUALITY.
There is nothing else that sounds this good anywhere. It’s emulations of EQ’s and Preamps are fantastic and amazing value for money. They can add a three dimensional quality that makes it sound like its been processed by high end hardware costing a fortune!
How Can Nebula Owners Learn To Master Nebula?
After spending so much time discovering the hidden depths of this plugin, and getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of clear and easy to understand information, I decided to create my own full length course!
If you own this plugin, or are even thinking about buying it, please check the Nebula Explained product page. It has everything you need to know about the course and tells you how to get a 50% discount!
Conclusion
If you can live with all it’s limitations, and are willing to climb the steep and often frustrating forum based learning curve, you will be rewarded by a level of sound quality that is truly amazing.