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Nuance has an average user rating of 4.33 from 3 reviews

Rate & Review Nuance

User Reviews by KVR Members for Nuance

Nuance

Reviewed By tommyzai [all]
December 12th, 2019
Version reviewed: 2.1 on Mac

Disclaimer: I wanted to give this software a 4.5 rating. I do believe future revisions will push it up to 5.0. However, 4.5 is not an option. I had to choose between 4 and 5, so I went with 5.

INTRO
Nuance v2 by New Sonic Arts is an inspiring compact creative sampler with a fast, intuitive workflow. There's no bloat. It's light on CPU and heavy on performance. It more than lives up to its joyous promise of being quick, capable and fun.

INTIAL IMPRESSION
Upon the first launch, seasoned sampler users might find themselves a little unsure about how to navigate around the interface. Luckily, there are helpful hints that pop up and the GUI soon after becomes intuitive and extremely inviting. It's minimalist, but it does all the right things and does them well. It can also consolidate, simplify and streamline a user's setup by assuming virtual drum machine duties. It's got the pads and kit features, including multiple layers per pad, round robins, choke, etc. The Pad View enables users to load and/or construct kits. The Piano mode returns the user back to a standard sampler with standard keyboard assignment and mapping.

IN ACTION
If it's what's inside that counts, Nuance definitely has a lot going on under the hood as evidenced by its performance. If looks do matter, well. .. this is a fine looking piece of software. Check out the website. It's elegant and ultra-modern, just like their software's GUI. Side note of little importance. .. I like their logo. The tilted N encapsulated in a ring is cool and catchy. .. easy to see in the dock.

WORKFLOW
I've come to realize that there is no one way to flow that work. Users can keep it simple by dragging in single samples (simple instruments) or drums into the padview. In this way, the file browser and My Samples database becomes workflow central. Or, more advanced users can get a bit more complex by building their own multi-instruments and relying more on the map editor and detailed editing functions. That flow might look more like this:

1. Drag sample(s) onto the interface
2. Loop and key assign/map zones via pulling edges around
3. Switch to the Mapping View to set key, velocity range layering, multi-sampling, adjust start/end points, fades and looping in the wave editor.
4. Layer as/if desired
5. Globally edit Pitch, Pan, Volume, FX and modulation in groups or layers. Note: Modulation can be manipulated and then dropped in.
6. Assign to Cycle Groups for sequential round robin triggering.
7. Save.

Nuance fosters a super fast basic workflow; yet, the advanced features and power is as needed.

FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT IT
• Neat (compact), user-friendly interface with a truly "effortless workflow"
• Small footprint and CPU friendly
• Loads all the common audio files, and saves patches in its own format with an option to embed referenced samples
• Drag-n-drop in and out
• Inspiring and Musical
• Sounds great
• Simple, yet powerful layering, Amp Env, Pitch, Modulation, and FX
• Modulation is flexible and assignable via a drag-n-drop features into the Modulation Matrix or onto target parameters. For many, this might be a game changer.
• Step/Table Sequencer provides rhythmic, tempo-synced modulation and the XY Pad connects between the Assignment Manager and the Modulation Matrix.
• Round robins for more realism
• Built-in Choke feature for hats and other choke-able instruments.
• Batch edit
• Batch tag samples and filter for lightning browse/selection. The database neatly organizes a sample library within Nuance, which speeds up usage.
• Quick loading of sampler patches
• Helpful speech bubble hints = shallow learning curve
• Stand-alone and plugin versions
• Responsive developer
• Priced right.

REQUESTS*
• Pitch detection
• Advanced time compression/expansion
• Crossfading between Zones
• Key-Mapping by filename
• Random round-robin
• Transport and/or audition button for stand-alone version
• Name or color option for pads
• Detailed video tutorials.

HEARTFELT THOUGHTS
If you love the feeling of falling in love as much as I do, you'll dig Nuance. It's like the best chocolate imaginable. .. a few simple ingredients. .. smooth, tasty, and not too sweet. So far, I see many positives and endless potential. Hopefully, this honeymoon stage is everlasting.;-) Nuance is a piece of software that I've been searching for. .. inspiring, fun to use, and not an overly complex mess. I don't foresee myself outgrowing this fine software. Like any good relationship, I hope we grow together. Nice job, New Sonic Arts. You won my heart; hopefully, that leads to some beats.;-).

SUMMARY
Will it do everything the mega samplers like Kontakt, HALion, and MachFive does? NO! Will it do a better, faster job at the most important thing. .. help users make music? YES, I believe so! The full feature set of Nuance will not be as deep as the mega samplers, but it will blow away standard samplers. Nuance combines simplicity to enable users to work fast, but does not have the limitations of some simple samplers. The power is there if/when needed. This baby is streamlined and will sample circles around the big bloated beasts!! Nuance is cleaner, less confusing, and enables musicians, producers, DJs, etc. to focus on what matters instead of wasting time being frustrated. Without hesitation, I give Nuance two pulsating thumbs up. Check out the free demo.

Note #1: I'd also like to check out their other offerings, i.e. Granite (granular texture generator), Vice (loop slicer), and Freestyle (stage and studio).

Note #2: If you cannot live without pitch detection and advanced time compression/expansion, I suggest complimenting Nuance with Serato Sample. They make a great team.

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Comments & Discussion for New Sonic Arts Nuance

Discussion
Discussion: Active
Gamma-UT
Gamma-UT
29 January 2020 at 5:22pm

Review: the finale

There are various other niggles that make Nuance an often frustrating experience, like the LFOs will always retrigger on each note unless they are locked to the DAW's tempo - making it tricky to do things like get shakers move back and forth with a filter if you don't want that locked to a fixed beat count.

I wrote this review after trying to spend some quality time with a product that I bought some time ago. I found I'd try to start using it only to decide to knock it on the head because it simply took too long compared to other tools to get a job done. It was only after going through this exercise I realised why. For every worthwhile feature there is an inexplicable omission or odd behaviour that just makes building sample maps a lot more painful than it needs to be. Most samplers are under performers in the UI department. And like most things, there are clunky workarounds for most of the problems. But when a vendor is selling a product on the basis that it's lightweight and fast to use (and with something that barely has a factory library at all), the deficiencies in Nuance become startlingly clear really quickly. I've avoided writing about the lack of timestretch and other common sampler features in Nuance.

Overall, Nuance is reliable. I don't recall it crashing. And it does the job of sample playback but it can be irritating to use if you're trying to do something a bit more complicated than combining a few samples on a pad for triggering and messing with their effects. The effects themselves are rudimentary but you get a decent collection of outputs for assigning to individual tracks in a DAW, so that's not a big issue. The remarkable thing about it is that to make Nuance a lot more usable the changes it needs as far as I can tell aren't big. But the various quirks it displays makes me wonder if the dev ever tried to build their own instruments in it.

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