Part 2 of "The ultimate IR, NEBULA, REAL DEAL test"

Skaldir

Skaldir

formerly known as Unicorn
Nov 3, 2001
3,555
15
38
Germany
www.kalthallen.de
Hi,

some of you will remember this thread.
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/689523-ultimate-ir-nebula-real-deal-test.html

In the last months, with the help of Ermz (thanks a ton) I developed the Nebula cab impulse farther and now its working as it should.
We spend a lot of time making the most out of the little dynamics a distorted guitar signal has to offer. To break the staticness the Nebula program now plays back various of the captured steps according to the input signal volume spread over all frequencies. Thats why in the end we calibrated the programs to an incoming signal of around -18 dBfs. But that should not matter for you at this point.

Anyway, Ermz and the band In Malice's Wake https://www.facebook.com/inmaliceswake
have been so kind to offer a backing track for a shootout. So thanks for that!

The pre-amp outs of the guitars have been run through a Cab and have also been used with a static impulse and a nebula impulse.
The tracks are all alligned, so you should import them in your DAW and switch around between them to figure the differences.
Only guitar processing was a high- and lowcut on all of the tracks.
In the middle the guitars are solo'ed for a while.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7784617/IMW-Shootout.rar

Now comes your part in finding out what is what.


edit:
Part 1
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/689523-ultimate-ir-nebula-real-deal-test.html

Part 3
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/745042-part-3-ultimate-ir-nebula-real-deal-test.html
 
First impression is that c sits unnaturally forward in the upper midrange, thinking that's the impulse. I want to say A = real amp, B = Nebula, C = impulse, but C is the only one that isn't sounding 'right' to me.
 
I'm with Jeff on this one. I feel like that order is likely, but quite honestly A and B are almost interchangeable to me. They do subtly sound different, but as far as which is more real, saying 'A' is only a guess at heart. 'C' feels the most out on this test. Overall I'm quite happy with how similar they're all sounding.

For the record, I asked Unicorn not to tell me the results until after I guessed, so I'm as blind in this test as everyone else is.

EDIT: The reason you see the edit on the bottom of this post is because I changed my mind about my preference about 3 times while typing this :lol:

Also I want to apologize briefly about the mix being a little wonky. It was mixed into a mastering chain, as usual, and was never intended to be heard at a level this low, so the track volumes sound a little bit disproportionate. If you want to get a good feel for it, just slam the mix into Ozone 4 when you're comparing within your DAWs.
 
Listened to the intro over and over since it's the only part where I can hear clearly. When everything else is going the difference is not even mentionable.

Well I think it's like this:
A: Nebula
B: Amp
C: Impulse

EDIT: saw now that you thought the same ermin and I agree. the one that stands out is C for being a bit flat sounding.
 
I'm hearing some very horrible low-end scratchiness. Can't quite explain it, but A+B both have this really uncool rustling sound in the lows - almost like bitcrushing. Did not like this tone at all really.

A - Impulse
B - Real Amp
C - Nebula
 
A=Neb
B=Real
c=Impulse

Though I can't really put my finger on why. Just something. All in all....VERY impressive. I'm not a fan of the tone, but not being able to tell them apart....impressive (said in a Darth Vader voice). :lol:
 
Go figure nobody likes the tone :lol:. I actually have no problem with it. Beside the junk in the lows and high-mids inherent to the pickup and playing style, it'd be fairly workable for me. I regularly deal with much, much, much more difficult ones.

Curious to see what the result of this shoot out is anyway. Seems there's a definite pattern to how most of us are picking, so it'd be interesting to see whether it's reflected accurately.
 
^Ermz, I didn't mean to say it's a bad tone...not at all! It works for this. I just mean it's not one I would choose for my own stuff. And the two of you have rekindled my interest in Nebula.....again. One of the biggest problems I've always had with nebula was...most of the cab programs being made were being made by people that also made static impulses I didn't care for. So it was always really hard for me to judge it.
 
For what it's worth, the impulses and nebula programs that Unicorn has made during our testing process have been the best I've ever heard and used. I no longer use any others. When he does decide to release a commercial pack, I dare say it will definitely be one of the most competitive on the market.
 
Ermz said:
For what it's worth, the impulses and nebula programs that Unicorn has made during our testing process have been the best I've ever heard and used. I no longer use any others. When he does decide to release a commercial pack, I dare say it will definitely be one of the most competitive on the market.
Click to expand...

In that case, guess I'll have to install Nebula again. ;)
 
Ermz said:
For what it's worth, the impulses and nebula programs that Unicorn has made during our testing process have been the best I've ever heard and used. I no longer use any others. When he does decide to release a commercial pack, I dare say it will definitely be one of the most competitive on the market.
Click to expand...

Yes release a commercial pack!
 
Listened and wrote this before reading the other comments, to make sure my judgement wasn't colored:
A - Real amp
B - Nebula
C - IR

A and B were VERY similar! In the end I chose for A as the real amp because I thought I picked up a hint more dynamic lowend on that one...but that's only because I HAD to find something to base my choice on. If either of those is the Nebula IR, thumbs up gentlemen! You have my interest.
C definitely sounded a lot more static than the other 2 to me though, so I would be quite amazed if that wasn't the impulse. There's a certain high-mid fizz in there that seems to be constantly present, while on A and B, it comes and goes with the dynamics of the signal.
 
A - Nebula
B - Impulse
C - Amp

EDIT: Eh I am not so confident anymore, these tests really fuck with your head the more you listen!
 
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