Compression impression

Although we actually find ourselves spending most of our time with its EQs, filters and reverbs, the big story with Nebula 4’s preset library is the all-new line-up of compressors.

Unlike the rest of the presets, when you load an N4 compressor, for the most part you actually get a complete device with the full array of controls in place (Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release and Make-up), rather than a rangelimited ‘snapshot’. The meat of the list comprises seven emulations of models by Yamaha, SSL, Fairchild and others, all with the standard UI, but you also get a couple of tasty extras. Violet is an Acqua (Acustica’s self-contained engine) plugin running within N4, going beyond the limits of a standard N4 preset by emulating compressor and preamp separately. Yellow Royale, meanwhile, is a set of 24 very pretty skinned setups, working like a regular N4 preset in that each one is set to a fixed ratio, knee, etc.

Sweetening the dynamics deal even further, you also get Rose, an opto/FET duo that comes as a pair of N4 presets, and regular and zero-latency Acqua plugins for use away from Nebula 4.