

The other version is intended for presets requiring longer kernels, such as reverbs, but should always be used if you can cope with its higher latency, since it offers potentially better audio quality with a smoother frequency response, and lower CPU overheads. The standard version is optimised for low latency and, with the new default settings, offers a very snappy 5.9ms latency when used in 44.1kHz projects and just 2.7ms at 96kHz. Two versions of the plug‑in are supplied: Nebula 3 and Nebula 3 Reverb. Until very recently, Nebula was shipped with very conservative default settings to suit those with older and slower computers, which meant very high latency and sluggish level meters - not a recipe to win over new users owning more typical machines! However, I'm pleased to report that during the course of this review I finally managed to persuade the developers to change the few settings that mattered, so you no longer have to perform arcane tweaks to bring it up to speed. This only currently benefits reverbs and some EQs and, like DSP hardware, hikes up the total audio latency, but there's already plenty of potential here for the future.
#Acustica nebula 3 manual pro
More radically, Acustica Audio now offer the entire Nebula 3 Pro engine running in CUDA format on most recent nVIDIA graphics cards, for those who want to offload some of the Engine's processing overheads. This is ideal if you want to run 50 instances of a console EQ across all the tracks of a complex mix, for instance.įor the casual user, there's also the Acqua interface, which allows third‑party developers to to create stand‑alone plug‑ins running the Nebula 3 Pro engine hidden beneath their own GUI design. A Server version lets the user spread its CPU/RAM load between multiple networked computers, while there's also a Local Server version: both extend the RAM ceiling beyond 1.2GB per Nebula 3 plug‑in and offer a low RAM usage mode, so that all instances of the same preset use the same RAM.

The engine is also expanding in other directions.

Smaller but nevertheless welcome improvements include various new metering options to help you get your input signals to the most appropriate level, and a Trim control option for libraries that allows input and output levels to be automatically changed in opposite directions, so you can more easily hear how Nebula effects change your audio as you drive them harder. Written in assembly language, it now offers faster processing, greater efficiency, twice as many kernels (to capture yet finer nuances from the original hardware), side‑chain input options for all its compressors, and nested selection menus with extensive sub‑categories, for much easier navigation through the hundreds of programs on offer.
#Acustica nebula 3 manual Pc
Nebula 3 Pro features an entirely rewritten CORE II Engine, and it's now available in 64‑bit and 32‑bit versions for both PC and Mac. (In the boxes at the end of this review, I've looked at five of my favourites.) New Features Fortunately, a lot has changed during the last three years (including a much easier‑to‑navigate web site!), so as Nebula Pro reaches version 3.5, it's time to bring ourselves up to date.Īcustica Audio have continued to concentrate on what they do best - enhancing their unique Volterra Kernel engine in a host of different ways and extending the options so that yet more diverse gear can be ever more accurately captured - but they now rely almost exclusively on talented third‑party developers to release libraries of retro analogue gear, vintage tubes and equalisers, classic consoles, tape machines and other mouth‑watering goodies. Many of the sounds in its 6GB bundled library were of very high quality (particularly the preamps and reverbs), but I was less impressed by the confusing interface, the tape/compression effects, the high CPU overheads, and the very confusing web site. This 'hardware capture' plug‑in was said to accurately reproduce the dynamics, saturation and signature sounds of real‑world hardware ranging from EQs, preamps, mics, tape machines and reverbs, through to dynamic effects such as compression and tremolo, and even 'time‑variant' treatments such as chorus, flanging and phasing. When I last looked at Acustica Audio's Nebula 3 Pro, in SOS February 2008 ( /sos/feb08/articles/nebula3.htm), I found myself impressed by its potential. Have Acustica succeeded in giving this advanced technology a friendly face? CDSoundMaster's Otari MTR10 running Ampex 499 tape at 15ips exemplifies the extra warmth and added high‑end sheen you can gain from a well-calibrated tape machine.ĭynamic convolution can be used to 'sample' any piece of audio gear.
