Nerve Drum Machine

[ramangill]

I saw a training Video where a guy was using Nerve. Seemed pretty good. Then I started to look further into it and it seems like a great tool. I understand you can build your drums and send it to its each own channel in Live.

What are people's thoughts on Nerve? Are there better alternatives? I mean for $199 it seems like a great option.

[Khazul]

From your breif description it sounds remarkably like a drum rack

[ramangill]

From your breif description it sounds remarkably like a drum rack

Oh crap!
That is what I meant. A drum rack. I believe its a VST Plug in

[Mister36]

Just had a quick look. I heard about it a while back but never paid much attention. It looks quite interesting. Though the demo is crippled ridiculously, it seems. Only 20 minutes, no saving, and "minimal content". How can you decide whether to buy something (and something that is a significant number of pennies) with such limitations? Seems silly to me.

[ramangill]

Just had a quick look. I heard about it a while back but never paid much attention. It looks quite interesting. Though the demo is crippled ridiculously, it seems. Only 20 minutes, no saving, and "minimal content". How can you decide whether to buy something (and something that is a significant number of pennies) with such limitations? Seems silly to me.

I wish they had it so that you can use it fully. I mean make it a full blown demo. I don't mind the 20 min max time and no save feature, but the rest should be as is...that way we can test it. I mean a few 20 min sessions with it we can see if it truly has potential or not.

I did see some vids on youtube and some artists using it from the CM mag and it seems like a great tool to help with workflow. I am thinking of getting it. I see other drum racks for much more $$$ than this one.

What do you currently use?

[Mister36]

As I'm sure you already gathered from my first comment, I agree that the demo should be somewhat fuller. Accurate and fair evaluation is pretty much impossible with such demos and it's not like a t-shirt that you can take back if it doesn't fit. I don't think many plugin/software companies have money-back policies. Not sure though.

Anyway, I digress.

I just use drum racks to be honest. I think the scope with just using a restricted selection of samples (covering all necessary bases) and the sound manipulation capabilities of even just Simpler and effects etc. is more than enough really. I would doubt you could do anything with a number of plugins that you couldn't do just within Live itself (with a bit of effort of course). Everyone had different needs and wants though.

[Khazul]

Im trying to ween myself offfr drum racks in favour of using Kore + Battery just to make it more portable between DAWs.

Trouble is - using drum rack is just so flexible for grouping, sends, audio routing etc

[Mister36]

See, that's what I mean. Different strokes and all that. The different DAWs dilemma is not an issue with me currently. Though I do like some of the drum sounds in Kore. Though I usually end up sampling them and using them in a Drum Rack (or sometimes even Impulse) instead.

[milfhuntr]

It has almost nothing you can't do in Live already.

[[email protected]]

As I'm nearing the formal release of 1.01, I'd be very happy to hear everyones thoughts on what you think is a more appropriate demo restriction.

The 20 minute expiration is something which I felt was much less annoying than periodic noise which many demos provide. To be clear it's 20 minutes *at a time*- then you just need to re-insert the plugin. There is nothing stopping you from using the demo all day and forever, just in 20 minute intervals.

I'll be updating the sound content for the 1.01 and I will include a larger and new sound selection. I really wanted to keep the download size to something small, but I will include more. From my perspective (being behind the coding labor) Nerve is more a tool than a sound library - I thus may have underestimated the importance of showing off the sounds in the demo.

It has almost nothing you can't do in Live already.

I wouldn't want to disagree with that, in this forum or anywhere It might be a cliche but I certainly believe different tools lead to different results.

A large amount of Nerve users are using Live (and I did the majority of development in Live). There are a handful of features in Nerve you can't do with Live - a couple I use frequently in Nerve are loading random sounds from folders (you can do this for all pads at once, and it will randomly load from the respective folders) and the repeater-bar which sends MIDI (its a sequencer clock reposition, not a buffer-based effect). I use Nerve in my Live sets with a monome256 (which I provide to registered users, along with a build which communicates directly with PadKontrol and a third build which duplicates the bulk of Nerve's GUI on a Lemur via OSC). The precalc params frequently get mentioned as something that many Nerve users find invaluable (the Snap param which is a quasi-transient shaper and the re-synthesis ones seems to get the most love). I've added several items to precalc in the 1.01 (most notably, parametric EQ with GUI and a plate reverb).

-Steve
http://www.xferrecords.com

[remute99]

As I'm nearing the formal release of 1.01, I'd be very happy to hear everyones thoughts on what you think is a more appropriate demo restriction.

The 20 minute expiration is something which I felt was much less annoying than periodic noise which many demos provide. To be clear it's 20 minutes *at a time*- then you just need to re-insert the plugin. There is nothing stopping you from using the demo all day and forever, just in 20 minute intervals.

Part of my problem with the 20mins limit was the mild sense of panic it induced - by the time I'd built my own kits to try out in the context of a song, the demo timed out.
I'd much prefer periodic noise/disabled save vs timeout.

[starving student]

firm believer in when greatness speaks one should listen,see the above of the above. I wonder what it would be like to use nerve from with-in maschines new vst controller goodness..... oops I've said too much

[Mister36]

I'm obviously no authority on what the best demo restrictions should be but it was just my feeling when I did browse the site and see the current restrictions that it was like it was the full combo of restrictions.

Nerve is more a tool than a sound library

Fair enough and I didn't gather this in my very brief perusal. Minimal content is perhaps not so much of an issue then. Though it would still depend how minimal the minimal content is. I'd say that it would still have to be comprehensive enough to show off what the thing can do. But I'm sure I didn't need to tell you that. Just sharing my thoughts.

I think I'd just suggest perhaps (and I am in no way a coder/programmer so do not know what would be easily implemented and what not) enabled saving, 20 minute intervals, but it has a use by date. I agree that intermittent noises are annoying in demos, as is their purpose, but I think they can be more dissuasive. Ideally, if possible, a fully functioning demo with a time restriction (a week?) could work too.Or even one with minimal content to keep the download size down but as long as it has all the features to try, as you never know which could be the winner for different people. The full, uncrippled demo seems to have worked for Ableton and Reaper. The especially cheap out there can even use Reaper for free forever if they wanted but I'm sure most don't.

Anyway, just my opinions and I'm sure there are holes in them from different perspectives.

[mp3]

Nerve is more a tool than a sound library - I thus may have underestimated the importance of showing off the sounds in the demo.

Well I'd say that if you consider it a sound design tool, then 20 minutes certainly isn't enough time. In this case I'd say periodic noise is the more preferable approach.

Personally, I wouldn't sweat the content aspect of the demo (unless you're using it to demonstrate the sound design capabilities of the plugin - in which case, more is better). Its pretty much a given that anybody who has been making music on computers for more than a year is up to their neck in drum samples. In fact, if I was to demo Nerve, the very first thing I would do is load up my own samples and tweak out.

[beats me]

I think when developers come out with new drum plug-ins the bulk of their business comes from production noobs who got a DAW and then want to start adding third party plug-ins so they might as well get the latest and greatest. Fast forward a few years later and you find yourself no longer wanting or needing yet another drum plug-in.