Some questions about NanoStudio

rad3d

NanoStudio was actually one of the first apps I purchased for my live rig upon early recommendations, though I moved away as it seemed to be lacking some of the MIDI support (primarily midi clock in) I thought I'd need. As I eventually found a few other ways to pull off some of what I needed, I've come back to NS because the app, and especially Eden synth is so efficient.

BTW - Great tips, here. Looks like I need to play a bit more tonight...

Will

Just had a Nanostudio lunch break. I took a 10 second long single note sample of an evolving sort of synth sound from SunrizerXS and used a slow LFO to modulate sample start (with a tiny tiny bit of attack like 0.03 on the amp to mask any glitches). It made for a sort of variable sound for each note in the sequence (a bit like iSem's Voice Matrix). Very cool stuff!

Another tip... maybe everyone knows this but I didn't for the first couple of years using the app: you can tap and slide anywhere you see + and - buttons together to scroll the value as if it were an actual slider. On the Eden mod matrix page or the LFO type box for instance. Pretty great little feature because you can slide quickly (benefit of sliders) or dial in very exact values (downside of sliders) by tapping the + or - key.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

Thanks guys. I need to play with sample start and sample length more.

For now I've mostly been exploring the synthesis. There are some great patches out there and you can make some great sounds. Plus the modulation/automation is pretty easy to get your head around and set up. I feel like I can control most aspects of the synth now, unlike something like Thor, and I can start to work out why different patches sound like they do.

I wish you could automate changes to LFO type but it doesn't seem like you can. I guess a workaround would be to create a new pattern with a different patch but I think each pattern has to be at least a bar in length doesn't it?

Anyway. Loving the sound it makes.

However, not managing to get much luck with the effects modules. They seem to just muddy or degrade everything... Maybe I need to get more into how they work. Are they considered any good, compared to say, Cubasis' effects?

Will

You can automate LFO amount. So you could have two LFOs (say one square, one ramp up) pointing at the same synth parameter and basically cross-fade them by adjusting the amount of each.

It would probably be a pain to set up but I think you could even automate the cross fading by having the last two LFOs set up to adjust the first two LFO amounts. Set the second two to square waves, set the amounts and speed exactly the same (maybe tempo sync = 1 measure would be easiest to illustrate it). Point them both at the 'amount' for LFO 1 and 2, respectively. If you set the value of LFO3 to +100 and the value of LFO4 to -100 I think you'll get LFO 1 and 2 swapping.

NS effects are what they are: efficient. You can potentially have 180 of them if all 15 tracks were TRGs + 12 on the sends/master. So yeah, effecient. The reverb... it really can't compete with the stand alone effects apps out there but it's really great if you like cheap spring reverbs. The other effects sound pretty good to my ears though the waveshaper effect seems to go from off to too much pretty much instantly. I don't have cubasis so I can't offer a comparison but I think they sound better than BeatMaker2's effects. Certainly ain't Auria though.

If you're using sends and things are getting muddy, try putting an EQ as the first effect in the send chain and rolling off the lows pretty heavily.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

Brilliant. Thanks again @syrupcore. Using 'amount' is a great solution. That's exactly what I need and I could flick between up to 4 different waveshapes that way.

I'll keep persevering with the FX!

dubathonic

@otem_rellik said:

just came across this. really cool trg kit maker.
http://luktown.org/random/trg/

Is this working for you guys? Just tried it, goes fine until i try to export, then when it finishes/reaches 100% a popup reads "something has gone terribly wrong" which i admit i found funny the first few times. Would like it to work at some point though ... the files aren't big and they are all .wavs.

Will

@dubathonic which browser/version are you using?

dubathonic

@syrupcore said:

@dubathonic which browser/version are you using?

aha, an old one. time to upgrade. i'll do that and see if it helps ... thanks!

Will

Code might be just as old at this point—I haven't touched it in a few years. It was mostly a weekend hack and a lot of the HTML5 APIs I used are already deprecated.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

Actually the full export didn't work for me either (Chrome on a Mac) - but I just chosen to use the package file text instead (for copy and paste) which worked fine.

Not sure why you'd need to export all the audio files anyway since you already have them.

Will

Good to know Matt, thanks. I'll look into it eventually.

The zip functionality was added in case your source files were strewn across folders or were a set of 16 files within a folder of 50+ samples. PITA to do it by hand in those cases but doable.

SpookyZoo

I'd love to see an @syrupcore .nsp utilising all those cool tricks, to be viewed as a learning template. Wouldn't need to be a full blown track, just enough to see it all work. How about it Will?

Will

That sounds kinda fun actually.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

+1 from me for this .

Although I'm thankful for all the help so far from @syrupcore anyway. Really useful.

Crizzy

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

I guess a workaround would be to create a new pattern with a different patch but I think each pattern has to be at least a bar in length doesn't it?

>

You can get very small bars by setting the time signature to 1/4 for example, creating the part, and then switching back.

Will

Forgot about that one! Classic.

SpookyZoo

@syrupcore said:

That sounds kinda fun actually.

So...you're in? Cool!
Hope it's fun and not chore-like.