#84

Its possible, sure, but I want to be able to span the gamut between a straight loop and fully fucked up sounds. Its almost there on the straight loop front, fully there on the granular side. Might as well make it better in IMO, esp since this module is made to modified.

#85

I use circular recording all the time and I guess it’s important to note, that the loop length is defined by what ever is already in the buffer and stays fixed until you clear the buffer.

So here’s what I normally do at the beginning of a new patch:

  • hold SOURCE and press RECORD: enabling circular recording
  • hold FILE and press RESET: clearing the buffer (now this is important, because otherwise what is in the buffer defines the loop length!)
  • press RECORD: starting the recording
  • press RECORD again: stopping the recording and thereby defining the loop length
  • press RECORD a 3rd time: starting (circular) recording – now I leave it running for hours :slight_smile:

p.s.: Hello everyone – my first post here in this lovely community.

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#86

Yeah weird, I always clear the buffer and do exactly that. Maybe something is messed up with mine. Do you get any clicks in the recording?

#87

last night was the first time i took the usb drive out in hopes of loading my own stuff on there. I noticed there were loads of subfolders with sample sets in them.

I am a little unclear as to how one browses file structures within nebulae. From the documentation I can see how to navigate through the root samples, but if there is a way to navigate folders, it is not obvious and the docs arent too helpful. what am i missing?

1 Like
#88

Actually I would love to know if this is possible too.

So this is what I understand about it-

  • Nebulae loads the first 75MB of audio files into its memory for use in the granular looper. You do not have access to the other files immediately using the FILE button. After the entire flash drive is initially loaded, you no longer access it in a meaningful way/can’t navigate its file structure…

  • Files are automatically loaded and sorted at boot up, but can also be reloaded at anytime by holding file, and pressing source from any instrument’s primary control page. (pg. 27)

  • The .instr selector can be entered when the module is running by pressing and holding the speed encoder. After two seconds, the pitch and speed LEDs will illuminate green, and one of the five button LEDs will illuminate as well. A fully illuminated button LED indicates the selected instruments. A dimly illuminated button LED indicates that there is an instrument present in that position. A unilluminated button LED indicates that there is no file present. Clicking the Speed encoder from this menu will load the selected instrument, and check for a USB drive/reload files (pg. 17)

To me this seems to indicate that you can use the instrument selector to load files in a subdirectory, maybe you just need to make sure the correct .instr file is in the subdirectory? Unfortunately, my Nebulae v2 came with a bad flash drive so I do not have any of the files to test this theory or even look at the original file structure… also I am not going to be back in front of my case until Sunday night…

But it def seems possible in one way or another.

It seems really important that this capability exists, since using high-quality stereo audio files eats up 75MB very very quickly. This is one thing Morphagene definitely has over Neb (loading new files from the SD card), at least until we figure this out!

Edit: Shot Andrew over at Qubit an email, hopefully he gets back to me soon!

1 Like
#89

Unrelated, but for those who are looking to do more typical granular synthesis techniques where you have a fixed location for grain generation (similar to “slide” for morphagene), press FREEZE while BLEND is fully CW towards granular. Now START will determine where grains come from! Also interacts with SIZE a bit…

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#90

nice. im pretty sure all the samples on that stick are available for DL on the qu bit site. If not, id be happy to share a mirror of mine.

#91

I’m trawling through the 40+pg MW thread, surely someone else has tried to solve this… will report back here if I find an answer…

#92

I made it through about 10 pages in there before giving up. Your efforts are appreciated :wink:

1 Like
#93

Ha, it took about 8 minutes to load but I’m just on “all” for the thread, ctrl+f “load” and going through abt 530 results…

#94

Ended up just skimming through most of the thread anyways…

So, other people have asked, doesn’t seem possible to reload new files into RAM for granularization without hotswapping USB drives. Not the worst thing in the world, and in some ways, perhaps easier than using the module’s onboard UI… just label each usb drive as a bank of files, that way you can immediately plug it in, press FILE+SOURCE(tap) when you are ready to load a new bank…

The extra audio files loaded onto the SD card are accessible via PD patches (but not Csound instruments) so if you want to access more, you should write (or find) a PD granulator which has a UI for loading files. You could probably also do this with SuperCollider, but I haven’t seen much discussion of suing SC on Neb, but I do think it was mentioned originally as a possibility.

Another alternative would be to keep e.g. a Radio Music or a W/ or a Disting (or your other favorite sample player) next to Neb, and just feed it new live audio when you feel like it!

This is somewhat orthogonal to the “load new files into memory which are different than the original 75MB” question, but also somewhat related… can’t separate it out into a second post though since I already have two consecutive posts…

I’ve already found myself really wishing you could use CV to directly select different samples (or “splices” a la Morphagene’s organize) without needing to put them into a single audio file chain and use very challenging START sequencing (which would interact with SIZE anyways).

Fortunately, someone has developed an alt firmware which allows you to select different audio files (of those that are already loaded into memory, i.e. the first 75MB) using the BLEND knob/cv. WINDOW control is now performed by the FILE knob (stepping through 14 different window shapes).

More info here: https://neb2.sndwave.com/index.php

There is also an alt instrument which decouples size and start point!! Fantastic stuff…

3 Likes
#95

I get occasional clicks and pops/artefacts.
However, the biggest issue I encounter during circular recording is, that often the loop is not completely replaced with new material – even when the blend knob is fully CCW. It remains a very noticeable “leftover” from the initial recording at the very beginning of the loop. Even when I overdub with complete silence, this little fragment remains. Haven’t figured out the reason for that behaviour …

1 Like
#96

does anyone feel like there is a real lack of Nebulae content on youtube - especially when compared to Morphagene? Its kinda odd that none of the Divkids of the net have done anything on it, and while I have no desire to be one of those guys, I do like recording sounds and sharing them. So hopefully this will help anyone trying to decide if they want one.

4 Likes
#97

Confirmed with Andrew that there is currently no means of loading additional files beyond the original 75MB) for csound .instr files.

PD patches can load more.

Hot swapping flash drives is the way to go if you want to load different files with the granular looper!

He did say it was something they would keep in my mind as a possibility for a future update though!

#98

guess i should buy one of those ten packs of usb drives off of amazon then. Thanks!

#100

i think your observations are 150% spot on.

When i was debating buying one recently, I was a little daunted by some of the conversation in the MW thread, but then I reminded myself that Id be entirely happy with the core functionality alone, and everything else is just bonus. Im also pretty comfortable with bleeding edge and open source platforms so i dont mind a little instability and risk.

I still am a little surprised that there isnt more user generated content for it though, but i think that speaks to the points youve made and that its just not as ubiquitous as the morphagene. Ive decided to at least do a small part in contributing.

I have a prism as well. It was my first Qu Bit module and i loved it right out the gate (no pun intended). The quality of that module was one reason why I bought the Neb. Ive also noticed how many ppl have gushed over the Chord, so yeah - im super excited for them and look forward to watching them grow.

#102

Out of curiosity was it one of the ones by DanishChairs? Those are the ones I’m particularly keen on trying out when I get back to my case…

I also agree re instructional media for the Neb. I’m hoping to put together some tutorial videos this week!

#103

you cannot ‘brick’ a nebulae by loading a patch …

the issue is the latest firmware that was announced, had a bug where if a user instrument was the last instrument loaded then the nebulae would fail to start the next time around.
this was rectified on a release that was put up on a GitHub, but for some reason has not been officially released. possibly because its one small bug, and not many people using alternative instruments?

if this happens you should still be able to reinstall the latest firmware to get it working again.

honestly, I found the MW thread a bit off-putting… basically its because its a mixed use thread.
some there to get help, some trying to figure out issues, and some trying to create new instruments or firmware … its not a perfect situation, and frankly some users are making it worst.
I think in that environment, its hard to build a decent community, or move things forward - at least for me.

this should improve when QuBit put up their promised forum, as then there can be multiple posts which can target different users and use cases.

2 Likes
#104

I think lack of demos may be due to Nebulae seemingly more suited for sample mangling and morphagene for live recording and manipulation (I know each can do both, but that was my initial thought after researching and trying both, and still is having both of them).
And live mangling might be more popular use case, and also the case easier to relate to by thinking “I need that module in my rack”:slight_smile:

#105

The alternative firmware and instruments that I (danishchairs on MW) created are not the ones that nutritionalzero is warning about.

There were a number of instruments originally written for the Neb v.1 which were supposedly ported to the Neb v.2. These instruments do not work (or work well) on the Neb2. Qu-Bit put them up on their GitHub repository. I believe these are the instruments that nutritionalzero is warning about.

————

The firmware and instruments that I’ve written seem to be pretty robust. I’m continuing to work on new instruments and improved versions. I hope you (and others) will try them!

————
A gentle disclaimer: I think my software described in this post works well, but recognize that software is like speech - sometimes we express things that are not exactly what we meant or intended. Please use these instruments on your module at your own risk. (It is recommended that you keep a copy of the official firmware file from Qu-Bit, in case you need to reinstall an official version to your module.)

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