I just got Nectar 2 production suite on sale for a great price a few days ago.

Since you've been using it a while, I'm hoping that you would now have some tips and advice - any best practices with it you've learned from your experience that you would share with me.

Thank you!

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Hi Josie!

I am using Nectar 2 for almost a year but honestly all I have done so far is mostly use its presets. I have experimented a little with the harmony stuff. I purchased the Groove 3 tutorial videos and those are pretty good. Soory...cannot be of more help!

-John

In an earlier thread Janice and Bud recommended to me to start with the natural and soulful preset and work from there.

I know that the last thing you probably need Josie is another paid for plugin, but I really like this one, does vocals guitar the lot,

https://www.toontrack.com/product/ezmix-2/

I find some great presets on there that you can try and to a certain extent do more or less of the effect.
Its a whole range of effects bundled into one, easy enough to use as well.

there is a demo on that site.

musiclover

Nectar 2 is my go too vocal enhancement - and I need a lot of vocal enhancement. Trick is not to use too much. The pre-sets are very good to start then tweaking can take you the sweet spot.

Hi Josie,

I've been using Nectar for some time. I started with version 1. I find the presets terrific and I always start with one that, to my mind, seems to suit the arrangement I'm trying to put together. From there, I may or may not make adjustments.

For my recent song, "I Can See Tomorrow", here's how the settings ended up. First off, I began with the "Clear Country" preset. The asterisk beside the name says that I've modified it.



1) In case you're not aware, it's possible to drag the various Nectar plugins around and to change their order. Below is the order used in "Tomorrow". (I'd imagine this order was set with the "Clear Country" preset as I rarely change the order I'm given.)



2) The EQ ended up as...



3) Here are my Saturation settings (I tend to favour 'Tube' and 'Warm' when I use it)...



4) With the compressor settings, I follow iZotope's advice where they say that peak detection is useful when trying to even out sudden peaks in your music and that RMS detection is useful when trying to increase the overall volume level without changing the character of the sound....



5) DeEsser settings... (2500 Hz seems to be a good fall-back frequency - I'm not sure if the ess sound is male/female dependent - it probably isn't seeing that it's an unvoiced hissing sound)



6) I don't always use delay so I suspect that this came about as a consequence of "Clear Country". I did fiddle with it a bit for "Tomorrow". Here is the final result. I always prefer to synch it to the host tempo. Mostly I use the 1/16th note option.



7) Lastly, below are my Reverb settings. I always do a spot of math and give myself a delay that's time-wise appropriate for the tempo I'm using. This is something I picked up from a seminar with Prof. Stephen Webber (Berklee College) a few years ago.

"Tomorrow" is 95 bpm. This means that there are 95 beats in 60 seconds. Since 1 second contains 1,000 milliseconds then 95 bpm means 95 beats in 60,000 milliseconds.

This gives the number of milliseconds for each 1/4 note beat in 4/4 time as 60,000 divided by 95.

• i.e. 60,000/95 = 631.6 milliseconds = 1/4 note

Using this I can deduce that...

• 1/8th note's time = 631.6/2 = 315.8 ms
• 1/16th note's time = 315.8/2 = 157.9 ms
• 1/32 note's time = 157.9/2 = 78.95 ms (I rounded this to 80 ms delay)

... in other words, I simply divide the tempo into 60,000 and then keep halving the result until I end up with numbers between 0 and 200. I then try those values as reverb delay and choose the one I like the sound of best.

The end outcome is a delay to the reverb that is in synch with the timing of the music. This delay helps add clarity to the words within the vocals.



Hope this offers some insight.

Also... Please take the above with the proverbial 'grain of salt'. You've heard my vocals and know that I'm yet to reach expert status

All the best,
Noel

P.S. As with all things mixing related, periodically it pays to take a couple of day's break when you think that you have everything working to perfection. I often find that what I thought was great at the time sounds unsatisfactory after my ears have had a chance to reset! (It's amazing how easily the brain adjusts to specific sounds and gets used to them.)

• latest song, I Can See Tomorrow

...carrying on from above...

The last thing I do when I get settings that seem to be working is to save them as a preset. This means I can always go back if the additional changes I make are not good.

To save the preset in Reaper I...

...click on the "+" sign shown and then select "Save preset..."



The presets are then accessed by clicking on the dropdown arrow I've marked as **. I've often used saved presets of mine as a starting place for a song or remix.

All the best,
Noel

• previous song: Walk With Me

Noel pretty much covered it. I will add that nectar 2's reverb is an EMT 140 Plate emulation that is great for many uses. The original analogue 140 was used for years by many big time groups - often as their principal studio reverb. I use just the reverb and eq module for almost all our tracks - acoustic, electric and drums.

I've never used the harmony generator or the pitch corrector but I always use the breath controller standalone that comes with the package.

For Janice I typically start with the soulful and natural preset and work from there based on the mix. For our rare rock ventures I start with the rock bite preset.

I think it's a great plug in. FWIW

Bud

Hey everybody, Great info. You guys are all so terrific. Noel that was really super of you to do in such detail. And I'm so glad you also mentioned that division, I was trying to remember where I wrote that down last night. It is so much more musical that way to me too.

I have Nectar Elements which I've rarely used and I was really on the fence over getting this because I'm pretty happy with my vocal chain now. (I also have Melodyne Essential when I need it, I like to sing harmonies live more often than not plus I have the TCH or BIAB if I want to use those and since my transition to Reaper I've amassed other plugins I like using.)

So I really yinged and yanged and almost didn't buy this but then I thought given the great deal and reading all the rave reviews N2PS might make it easier and faster to try different sounds. I also love that reverb.

Running the performance meter in Reaper, it does seem to be a bit of a cpu hit when I have two instances - one on the vox track and one on the bgv buss. I'm hoping there'll be no issues in a mix with a lot of instruments effects and other busses all on.

Musiclover - No more new plugins unless they're great and free....can't resist great and free because I've got some favs that way......no buying another one any time soon though no matter how tempting.

Bud - I was hoping you'd chime in. You're one of the main reasons I decided to go with it - love that reverb and figured whether I ended up using everything else or not I'd still get that. I haven't tried the breath module yet.

I'm glad to hear that no one has mentioned any issues with it. So I'm gonna have fun trying out all the flavors in the candy store. LOL! And I'm feeling glad I bought it.

Thank you all.

Josie,

In relation to processor usage in Reaper...

When you have a track and its FX settled, it's possible to save the track as a new take with all FX included. The FX for that track can then be switched off. This will lighten the CPU load.

To do the above, double-left click where I have #1 on the image below (this will select the entire track, even if it consists of split regions). Now right-click on the track (#2) and select #3 from the menu that pops up.



Regards,
Noel

• a recent song: Just A Little After Midnight

Josie,

I don't have the Production Suite, just the Nectar 2 standard which I upgraded from Elements.

I typically only use the Harmony module w/the Reverb or maybe the Delay. I set the Key and experiment with the Harmony Voices to find what I like.

Sonar is my DAW, and what I've done lately is use a Send from the lead vocal track to a bus where Nectar is instantiated. I Solo the Harmony Voices in Nectar so as not to have Nectar doubling the lead vocal.

I automate the Send so that Nectar is only keyed on those lyrics from the lead vocal that I want harmonized.

With the Nectar controls and the gain and fader knobs on the lead and harmony tracks, I blend the vocals to taste.

The other way I used it was to clone the lead vocal, edit the clips or automate the volume on the cloned track and then use Nectar on that clone, as I described above.

It's a great plugin for quick and decent harmonies.

I just bought Nectar 2 and I can't find in Help how to make the harmonised part appear on a separate track in Sonar. Has anyone any quick tips on how I can do that?
Thanks!

John

I think what I have done is duplicate my main vocal track and then add Nectar 2 harmonies to that track with the main vocals muted in Nectar. I'll fire up my DAW in a few minutes and see if I can be of further assistance...

Yep, here is how I do it...

1) duplicate main vocal track

2) add Nectar 2 to that track

3) select the Harmony screen of Nectar 2

4) set up your harmonies however you want them

5) click the box that says "Solo Voices" and it should turn bright blue

Now only the Nectar 2 harmonies will be on this track. If you wanted the harmonies separated further you could do this several times, once for each harmony voice!

Thanks JJJ.
Just checking my understanding, is step (5) the important part, i.e. that track will then only have the harmony on? Do you have to leave it like that, for song mixdown etc. or can that created harmony be bounced to its own track and then Nectar2 closed?

Thanks,
John

I use the presets mainly, the soul type vocals work best for me, maybe with a little tweaking but not much.

I'm not sure about bouncing the harmony, I just leave the Solo Voices ON and export the project.

If you see my earlier post, I used to copy the lead vocal to another track, but then I discovered I could just automate the Send to the Nectar 2 track. Either way works.

I loaded the Nectar demo version on one of my DAWs to give it a test run. I'm sure the demo is still there.

Frankly, I wasn't very impressed with it. Mainly, I think, because I already had Ozone and really didn't see a huge difference between the two programs from the same company.

I do know people who have both and love them. Personally, I could not see the rational for spending the money on two very similar programs.

Ozone is easily tweeked to fit vocal tracks and I will occasionally use it on a vocal track or buss.

If you are a first time user of the iZotope family line of products, then yes, if it's gotten at a good price, heck, even if you paid full retail, that's a good deal and you will love it.

Yes, #5 is the one that mutes the main vocal and gives you the harmonies. Sorry I don't know anything further about options like bouncing to its own track. I guess if you wanted you could render that track and then bring it back in and delete the harmony track with Nectar on it. My preference is to keep things so I can easily change config later on if I want so I'd just leave it with Nectar.