# Acustica Audio/Nebula for eq or comp? Any users?



## givemenoughrope (Dec 3, 2014)

Just saw this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwW9Jz2c8k8

It seems like this company has a dedicated user base and they're also gearing up for a lot of releases. Some people are swearing by their eqs and tape/console emulations. 

Any users here? Where do these tool fit in for you along with algorithmic plugins or even hardware? Nebula's main drawback seems to be the interface and workflow. Any thoughts?


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## Hannes_F (Dec 3, 2014)

Hi there,

the quality of Nebula EQs has always been extraordinary, however they lacked big time in terms of GUI, usability and they consumed smoking amounts of CPU. With constant improvement of the engine over the years and the introduction of the ACQUA engine (which means it sounds like Nebula but finally looks and feels like normal plugins with different EQ bands in one glance) I feel it is finally ready for prime time.

Currently I have in my setup 5 Trinity EQs (one for each instrument bus) and alternatively 1 Magenta / 1 Amber in the master bus. Magenta would be the equivalent to a Massive Passive, Amber the equivalent to an Avalon EQ. Below you can see the CPU load on my i7 920 @ 2.8 kHz. Also, Nebula/Acqua plugins always introduce latency, so they are not suited for live mixing.

Every of those EQs has a character and for one track the Magenta might be the bill, for the other one the Amber. For me the Amber is the one I would recommend to try first on orchestral music. I actually felt I did myself a favour in buying especially this one.

The other forte of Nebula/Acqua is saturation: Tape, preamps, consoles. I reach to the cdsoundmaster products first. Their site is a bit cluttered but the tape emulations are a labor of love. I have Waves consoles and tapes too, and several other consoles like Slate and Satson, however Nebula has a clear advantage still over them. However for consoles I mostly use Alessandro Boschi (AlexB) libraries for Nebula Pro. (But I have to say that when the EQ and tape thing is right I don't feel always the need for more console or preamp flavor, so I would care about EQ and tape first).

With compressors: We need to review that in a few weeks again. Up to now Nebula was able to give the sound of hardware units but not exactly their behaviour. We'll see whether this has changed once Titanium comes out.

It is important to have a good algo fallback for everything if CPU runs low. For example my EQ fallback is AirEQ which uses virtually no CPU and works in surround. Excellent - however the Acqua EQs are still something else (for me).

There are lots of algo EQs that try to emulate hardware saturation, however many of those somehow sound fake to my ears. Maybe interesting at first but tiring after a while. The nebula process (which is _not_ simple convolution but samples also the dynamical behaviour of units) delivers much more to the table. However in former times you had to be a bit crazy in order to use such CPU hogs (much much better now).

Hope this helps, Hannes


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## Hannes_F (Dec 3, 2014)

PS: Some Acqua plugin reviews that I found:

Trinity EQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfOfcj4ey4o#t=14

Tape emulation comparision
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOIK4r5rtEU


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## givemenoughrope (Dec 3, 2014)

Hannes, 

Very helpful! thank you!

I snooped a bit on GS forum and it looks like Nebula 4 will be out any time now. So, while the demos of their tape emulations sound interesting I think I'll wait until they release 4 and iron things out. 

As far as the Acustica plugins, do they work in VE Pro? It doesn't look like they require iLok...it'd be great to offload them onto slaves for several stems if so. 

thanks again


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## Hannes_F (Dec 3, 2014)

You're welcome.



givemenoughrope @ Thu Dec 04 said:


> As far as the Acustica plugins, do they work in VE Pro? It doesn't look like they require iLok...it'd be great to offload them onto slaves for several stems if so.



That is a great question but I can't answer it. But it would be interesting to know - you could try with the freeware N-Ten-AT EQ yourself:
http://cdsoundmaster.com/site/cds-softw ... demos.html


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## ceemusic (Dec 3, 2014)

givemenoughrope @ Wed Dec 03 said:


> Hannes,
> 
> As far as the Acustica plugins, do they work in VE Pro? It doesn't look like they require iLok...it'd be great to offload them onto slaves for several stems if so.
> 
> thanks again



I've use both Neb & Acqua plugins in VEP. They're resource hogs & can sometimes cause freezing or crashes ( Cubase 7.5/ Win7 x64)

Comps are not their strong point but they're getting much better. Their eq's, tape & console emus are the best out there IMO. 

I mainly use them for mastering or stem mixing.


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## KEnK (Dec 4, 2014)

Hannes-

Do you ever try running the audio at 96 kHz?
Seems like people that discuss it on various forums are total audiophiles.
That's what a lot of them recommend.
I've read a lot about Nebula, tried some experiments,
but haven't really integrated it into my way of working.

Because of reading up on it, I learned I was ignoring gain staging.
Changed the way I work.

Ever try those "Mojo" sets made by Henry Olonga?
He says simply putting one after any emulation of the given
hardware will improve the fidelity.

Curious about that.

k


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## Hannes_F (Dec 4, 2014)

KEnK,



KEnK said:


> Hannes-
> 
> Do you ever try running the audio at 96 kHz?



Usually not because I often run projects with 150+ audio voices. Also I don't hear much of a difference compared to other factors. Might be my ears, I don't know. I found I need very much care and balance for everything between 1 and 5 kHz but don't care much from 15 k on.



> Because of reading up on it, I learned I was ignoring gain staging.
> Changed the way I work.



Same here, a very welcome side effect for general studio education. 



> Ever try those "Mojo" sets made by Henry Olonga?
> He says simply putting one after any emulation of the given
> hardware will improve the fidelity.



Yes, they are very good. The idea is this: Even if all knobs on a hardware box are set to neutral they are still giving a color and harmonics. So some engineers working with hardware will put a Thermionic compressor or a certain EQ or whatever of their choice into their chain even it if it officially does nothing, just for the 'mojo'. 

Now Henry Olonga has sampled a boatload of the legendary hardware, however often just their 'footprint', and quite good (usually 4 kernels which means way more detailed in terms of harmonics and dynamic behaviour than standard convolution). You can put that into your chain either just to taste - or you can for example have the technical compression work done by an algo compressor and add the sonical 'mojo' of a vintage legend to it. Quite clever and dirt cheap, I think I bought the complete bundle in 44.1 kHz for GBP 20.


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## KEnK (Dec 4, 2014)

Thanks for the info Hannes!

Especially about the Mojo series.
My sys is fairly limited- 
so for me at this time I can only use Neb on group buses.
I did get some great results on acoustic guitar,
played it for a couple of guitarist friends- but they could barely hear the difference!
I was surprised- but then they are players, not into the engineer thing.

As to the 96 kHz thing- I do think the people that swear by that are nuts-
(but isn't that what Sample Modelling recommends?)
Personally, I can hear the diff between 24bit and 16,
but most people I A/B it for can't


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## mcremolini (Feb 27, 2015)

HI,
I suggest you try the plugin AQUA that using engine Nebula and have a GUI very usefull.
I love Titatium and Magenta always present in my (easy) mastering chain.


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