Ok, so I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but have some specific questions.

We start with a tape emulation, following by a console emu with EQ and compression etc. coming later in the chain (with buss/groups/master fader also having console emu, and the master also having a tape emu). That's fine, very straight forward.

And one thing I will say, before I go into my questions, is it's become abundantly obvious to me, even though I've only had Nebula a few days, and as yet am working through demo's of libraries in an effort to determine which ones to buy, that the REAL beauty/power of Nebula is as a tone shaping tool pre mix. You can get things to sound maybe 80% of the way there BEFORE you do any mixing! This is a revelation for me.

Anyhow, so in terms of the thread title -

This is my dilemma - where do preamps fit into this chain? Tape boosters (for saturation)? Vintage tubes? Under 'normal' (analogue) circumstances, certainly in relation to the preamps etc. wouldn't all that have been done at the tracking stage? Therefore, to TRULY mimic an analogue signal chain (and all the 'nuances' etc.) wouldn't it be a case of firstly mimicking the tracking stage -

Preamp (including gain staging at this point via the preamp)/console/tape then freeze/render...

...then console emu as your first plug when it comes to mixing? Or is that over thinking it?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Hi russianpolecat!

There are no rules as such – it's always the end result that counts

However, you're right to consider the analogue equivalent as a good starting point for Nebula chains, and of course the tracking stage can be extremely important.

Many synths/drums/guitars/basses/vocals may have been recorded extremely cleanly during the tracking phase, so you can add some extra 'character' to taste in the form of preamps/vintage tubes etc. at the mixing stage, as well as any console and tape emulations that you fancy.

Remember that many Nebula presets can be subtle, particularly the consoles, and only really come into their own once they have been added to each channel as they would be in the analogue world.

Personally I'd prefer the flexibility of adding such character to the mix rather than committing to it at the tracking phase, but unless you've got a massively powerful computer you may well have to add all this Nebula finesse as a rendering process rather than hearing it in real time.

Hope this helps!


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Hi Martin, yes that helps indeed.

Thanks

My pleasure


Martin

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YewTreeMagic