HOW TO USE NEBULA3 VST WITH MANY DIFFERENT SKINS AT THE SAME TIME

Imagine you have one of my 'named series skins' for Nebula3 and want to use each of the named GUI's for a different preset in the Nebula library.

Here, for example is a the list of the possible skins for the MIDNITE named series:

So, let's say you want to have unique VST plugins, so that each one loads with a different skin, for example, one for COMPRESSORS and one for TUBES, etc., etc.

The method explained here will of course work for any skins you have, ...it does not have to be oneof the 'named series'.

OK, Let's Begin

First, go to your VST folder where the Nebula VST's are located. You might see two sub-foldersif you have both the 32 bit and the 64 bit versions installed. For this example I will show the 64 bit versions I use but the method is exactly the same for the 32 bit versions.

In that folder you will find something like this:

Now I'm going to explain the safest way to do this, so you don't have a chance of messing up your VST folder, but you can do whatever you like once you understand it.

1 Make a New Folder on your desktop and keep it open.2 Copy both those files into that New Folder.3 Rename both files to have the same name before the suffix. The names for both files MUST be exactly identical!

So, for example you might do it like this:

NEB MIDNITE COMPRESSORS.dll

and

NEB MIDNITE COMPRESSORS.xml

4 Open the .xml file in an editor. NOTE: Not all text editors will work well with .xml files, I highly suggest you get both

these free editors:

http://www.firstobject.com/dn_editor.htm

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

5 In that .xml file find this line:

OverwriteMe.N2S

6 Change it to use the skin you want, for example like so:

MIDNITE-BLANK.N2S

7 Save that .xml file.8 Now copy and paste those two files back into your Nebula VST folder.

Now when your DAW rescans the VST's it will show up as a new VST with the name you have used.

You can now go back to the New Folder and repeat steps 3 through 8 for as many instances of skins as you wish.

ADDITIONAL TIPS FOR REAPER USERS

Reaper DAW lets you save single or multiple loaded FX as FX Chains. They are saved into a folder that Reaper creates called FX Chains. You can edit that folder as you would any normal folder, so you can make as many sub-folders in it as you wish.

For example, you can have a sub-folder in it called NEBULAS and then inside that other sub-folders such as NEB-COMPRESSORS, NEB-REVERBS, etc.

So let's imagine you have done the 1 through 8 above steps and now have a new Nebula VSTthat shows up as NEB-MIDNITE-COMPRESSORS.dll.

And you have loaded that onto a track in Reaper. In the FX window you will see this:

Then:

Then:

So as an example of what can be done with FX Chains in Reaper, here are shown three instances of the MIDNITE skin for COMPRESSORS, each with a different Compressor Preset loaded and with the tweaks for that preset.

In this way you can create zillions of ready to load Nebula VST's, each with it's own skin and each with its own exact preset and tweaks for that preset! You can of course use and\or edit the names you see in the FX Chain folder to your heart's content.

OTHER THOUGHTS FOR REAPER USERS

Of course, once you have made the various named Nebula VST's, you can simply create a new folder in the normal FX Browser called NEBULAS and put copies of all those into that folder.This will give you the names on each GUI but you will still have to load whatever preset into each instance of Nebula. Still, at least you have the names on the GUI which can be very helpful when you have several instances of Nebula VST loaded.

Example on last page below

Here is the MIDNITE COMPRESSORS skin with the Green Squeeze preset and tweaks--- what you see is what you can get ---

You gotta love those Meters and Over Load Lights, eh?

Nebula Setups Program

By now you know this all can be done by this manual method and it's not that hard but it can take a lot of time. On the other hand, there is a wonderful program that can do all we have mentioned and more very automatically. It is Nebula Setups by Zabukowsk Software and I highly recommend it. I find it worth every penny! With it you can not only use specific skins but also limit the Init: to selected, specific presets, such as only the compressor presets to load with the COMPRESSORS skin.

Go have a look.

http://zabukowski.com/software/?page_id=337

You can download the full set of the MIDNITE named skins from here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zj5t17fqmbldxx5/HOPI%20-%20MIDNITE%20NAMED%20N2S%20SKINS.rar

Amen