Circular recording issues

Our Modules Nebulae
1

@shensley

I am on 2.1.1

my setup:

  • Audio in (from Plaits)
  • Circular mode off
  • Blend knob at Noon
  • Overlap at 2 o’clock
  • Window at Noon
  • Start at 0
  • Size at Max
  • Density at Noon
  • Trigger Record On/Off with a square wave from Pamela (every 8 bars @ 84 bpm)
  • Enable Circular mode
  • Trigger Record On/Off with a square wave from Pamela (every 8 bars @ 84 bpm)

On my side, something is still wrong, since I noticed the following:

  • In record mode (both direct and circular)I often get some sort of loud transient recorded at the end of the loop - it seems that by fiddling with both Blend and Overlap might make the transient disappear, but I have no idea of what might be causing that, or what I am actually doing when I fiddle with those knobs.
  • In circular mode, at times the audio starts to build up, the volume gets louder and louder, and starts distorting. What am I doing wrong to get to that behavior?
  • The position of the Blend knob seems to make a whole world of difference when recording. I need to keep it in the middle in order to record anything at all.

Does anyone have any idea of what I am doing wrong?

1 Like
2

Though I’m not @shensley, I’d be happy to take a stab at your questions!

  • In record mode (both direct and circular)I often get some sort of loud transient recorded at the end of the loop - it seems that by fiddling with both Blend and Overlap might make the transient disappear, but I have no idea of what might be causing that, or what I am actually doing when I fiddle with those knobs.

Your best bet for masking any transients at the beginning/ending of a recorded loop would be to use the overlap and window knobs will using the granular engine (Blend knob CW from noon).

  • In circular mode, at times the audio starts to build up, the volume gets louder and louder, and starts distorting. What am I doing wrong to get to that behavior?

This can happen when you are recording while mixing in the granular engine with a significant amount of overlap on the grains happening. Nebulae will record the Mix into the looper, allowing for the grains to stack and amplify the loop.

Just be mindful of this when recording and your audio should stay at the same level between overdubs.

  • The position of the Blend knob seems to make a whole world of difference when recording. I need to keep it in the middle in order to record anything at all.

You can think of the Blend knob as the Input Level control for your dry signal. The closer the Blend knob is to noon, the more prevalent your Dry signal will be in you’re recording.

This also plays into your previous question. If the overlapping grains are getting too loud in your recording, you can bring Blend back to noon to remove them from the looper.

Also, since Blend acts as an input level adjuster, and Nebulae records both the loop and dry signal into the overdub, you can set Blend to 10 o’clock and create a Frippertronics style delay!

2 Likes
3

:smile: Thanks for coming to the rescue!
Thank you for your thorough explanation and the tips :+1: I’ll give it a try.