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Aurora Over Iceland - first track with Nanostudio 2
Just trying to get familiar with NS2, so I decided to complete the whole process with just NS2 rather than doing the final mix in Auria as I normally would. Without audio tracks or track freeze this really pushed my Air 2 to its absolute limit: with live MIDI tracks and a few AU instruments and effects (as well as Slate and Obsidian instruments) the CPU was pretty close to 100% when I was on the final mixing stage (with latency set to maximum).
Once audio tracks and track freeze are there it will be much easier, but for now you really have to ration the external instruments and effects unless you have a really powerful device.
Some thoughts:
- The built in EQ and compressor are pretty nice
- The Limiter puzzled me, I set it on the Master Bus but at mixdown time I still got a warning about peaks going above clipping
- The Mixer is very flexible, and the UI works well
- The Spectral Sampling is really cool, especially when set to loop over a small region
- The arranger/track view and piano roll are probably the best on iOS right now
Comments
nice track congrats
Nice groove!
@richardyot
Nice track
Here is what the dev said about a reported clipping warning in a thread on the NS2 forums. It may not be exactly the same as you are using a limiter, but it may help you.
“I wouldn't worry too much if you feel it's not clipping. If the mixdown sees more than about 4 samples in a row going over the clip threshold then you'll get this just to let you know it's there, but if you can't hear it then it's probably fine.
If you want to 'mute' that warning, put a limiter on the MAIN MIX track with a short latency and set its threshold to maximum. It'll not do much lookahead limiting, but it will control those transients”
Thanks for posting that - I think I figured out the issue: the clipping happens on the very first transient (literally the first thing you hear on the track). I'm wondering if that's because the lookahead isn't able to do it's thing before the track actually plays.
That most likely is the case, I would have thought
@richardyot very nice !
next time try make track just with Obsidians ;-) At iPad AIR2 you should be able to run probably 30+ instances ;-) and lot of FX on tracks ...
Try also increase "look ahead" time - it will add latency to project but in mixing / mastering stage this is no issue. If will allow to limiter "see" more forward in time to upcoming audio stream and to be prepared for peaks
btw. in case of any questions you're welcome at NS forums: https://www.blipinteractive.co.uk/community
I like this! At 1:04, I though Thomas Dolby was in the building
edit: what is that lead, actually? lovely warm analogue sound.
Thanks! The lead is Zeeon (the Future Singer preset through Kleverb, I abuse that all the time). Obsidian is nice enough, but for "hero" sounds I think a synth with a bit more meat is needed
The limiter must be working fine but the clipping is due to the mixdown. It's explained by Dan Worral in his video for L2 if I remember correctly. There is a way to correct this in professional effects.
If I recall correctly in that video he was talking about True Peak Limiting, which accounts for intersample peaks. Probably beyond the scope of the limiter in NS2, but my hunch is that isn't the issue anyway, I think it's just that the Lookahead didn't catch the first transient.
We need to check with other examples and where in the song it happens. I will probably do some mixdown next week. I will update my findings.
I get something even more concerning on my end: some clips while playing the song but the UI doesn't show there was a peak at all. Could it be the stereo clipping not being caught properly ? But I won't draw any conclusion on this just yet as apple still has to push the core audio update to be sure it's not only the 3rd gen ipad being dodgy.
Nice going
FYI it is possible to save CPU and use many Zeeons per project if you render parts as you go. Mixdown by soloed instrument/looped section is easy peasy, as is loading a rendered loop or stem into a sampler oscillator (or a Slate pad for that matter, although there are more processing options with the sampler).
Not ideal to work this way of course, but it is fairly straightforward. You can get audio from anywhere into NS2 this way, and keep in time with Link.
Yes I did that with the Model D patch I used in the intro - mixdown and then import to a Slate pad, but I didn't really fancy doing that for the Zeeon parts because it becomes a little tedious
And TBH while this is a workaround of sorts, it's not without problems: for example if you mixdown and then just map one long sample to cover the whole track, the sample will only trigger if you play from the beginning of the song. Of course you can chop the mixdown up and then trigger the slices at the relevant times but then it really becomes a lot of work. So IMO this is far from being a proper substitute for audio tracks.
Fair point! I’ve only done it to get loops in. I think it’s safe to say that a lot of us are looking forward to proper audio tracks.
the synth and the reverb blend nicely, really add color to the track
Very fun, groovy track! The synth parts are great, but so is the drumming! (What are you doing for the drums?)
I’m with you on not having found a way to fully replace cpu hungry oversampling analogue modeling synths with obsidian for everything just yet. One thing I’ve been wondering about: am I wrong to suspect that the area where obsidian stands to gain the most by adding some oversampling option for (special occasions) is the filter section?
Thanks! The drums are loops from Funk Drummer mapped to Slate pads, and then run through Audio Damage Replicant 2. There's also a separate Slate kick just for emphasis.
As for oversampling the filter - maybe. I'm not technical enough to know exactly what it is that gives Zeeon or Model D that sonic edge over Obsidian, but I do know it's there. When you play a note through Zeeon there is something very satisfying in the sound, which just isn't there in Obsidian in the same way - but I don't know if that's because of oversampling or some other factor.
A clear indication for oversampling is a high resonance filtersweap that runs without screetching artifacts. Probably all of the 'good' IOS synth have this feature.
Nice! Cool track.
Easy answer for clipping- turn it down. Just pull your main fader down a little and things shouldnt clip, no reason to aim for 0dbfs on anything.
Yeah I know that - I don't tend to master loud anyway. I was just surprised that the limiter let some peaks through, because that's exactly what a limiter is supposed to prevent.
TBH it was more of an experiment to see if I could run the whole process in NS2. And yes, I could, just about, but it really stretched my hardware. Next time I'll send the stems to Auria for a proper mix, and I'll master the final to -14LUFS in Pro L2. If the limiter in NS2 is letting some transient peaks through, then it's not really a limiter IMO, and the metering is just so much better in Auria: you can more easily achieve a desired (and reasonable) target loudness, either in Pro L 1 using the K system or Pro L2 using LUFS.
Nice track! Love the ghost notes in the snare. Adds some nice realism.
I think you also love A Minor.
@richardyot
Can I ask, when you make the stems for Auria, do you send them as already mixed in the current DAW, reset the faders for the stems or Normalise them for the export?
Haha - guilty as charged. Just laziness really, I should break out into another key now and again.
I leave faders and FX as they are, and bring in to Auria like that. Then I can tweak level and add additional FX, but the mix translates easily.
No need to play black keys
Like Irving Berlin in reverse (he never played the white keys).
If the limiter in NS2 is letting some transient peaks through, then it's not really a limiter IMO,
I did ask you on the Nanostudio 2 forum, but I wonder if you had set a ceiling for the Limiter?
Yes I set it to -0.5db
That is odd, as it never happened to me when making the Demo tracks. Maybe if you bump the original thread over at the blip forum, it will hopefully be got to the bottom of.
Cheers
@richardyot
would be nice to discuss this issue at NS forum in thread you created... it may be bug, or just fine tuned setting are needed, hard to say.. matt is now a bit busy but i'll try to write him to pit some attentiom to this issue... anyway he is active (in case he is active) just in NS forums so please expect reaction there ...
we will found what is issue, in my experience NS limiter works in most cases pretty well even if under higher pressure, unsing it a lot in my tracks..