Nexus 3 just came out and the best new feature is something that isn't even
available yet. Its coming out in a few weeks. I'll get to that in a second. Nexus
is one of my favorite plugins ever - up there with Omnisphere! today I'm gonna go
through the new features in Nexus 3 and we'll listen to some sounds. and I also
want to cover some issues. if you're new around here I'm Sanjay C. you'll find lots
of useful videos on my channel. music production tips, tutorials, and gear
reviews, consider subscribing if you haven't already, I always like to get
straight to the point and give you the best guidance on music production and
the latest gear, first, let's go over the notable new features in Nexus 3. first
and most importantly, no more dongle! Nexus 2, the previous version, required a USB
elicenser to work, meaning you had to have this physical thing connected to
your computer to make a plug-in work, no more, Nexus 3 uses a program called reFX
cloud which authorizes your Nexus 3 plug-in and expansion packs. so much
better. and you can install your license of Nexus 3 on up to 2 computers. it
doesn't look like you can buy the expansions through reFX cloud. you still
have to do that on the website. might be a nice feature to add in the future. next
the interface has been completely redesigned and it's improved in a lot of
ways. first its resizable which is really nice. now I thought the text was a little
small but you can change that too. the three column view is excellent. the
previous version had two. the categories in the middle are really useful. so now
it's easier than in the previous version to find your pads, for example, across the
whole collection.
you can also create your own folders and just drag presets into it. and you now
have these colored filters as well. and you can filter the sounds, the presets, by
character. click them once to apply the filter. and twice, when they're red, the
lists will exclude that character. the modifiers, effects, and other controls are
laid out kind of like the previous version. if you're new to Nexus, you'll
notice that the preset browser takes up the most space in this plugin. and that's
one of the characteristics of Nexus. it's more about the presets than sound design.
this approach won't suit everyone but might be right for you. the presets load
much faster than ever which is really nice. you have four macro controls at the
bottom left that are assignable through the modulation matrix page. macro one for
example can control multiple things. let's use it on filter cutoff and
resonance.
the old mixer page is now called features and here's where you can adjust
the mix of layers in the preset you've chosen. the arpeggiator has been
increased to 256 steps and they added a sequencer mode under the arpeggiator as
well. now here's my favorite feature. Nexus will be NKS compatible soon. I'm
really looking forward to this for two reasons. for those of you who don't know
what NKS is - plugins that are NKS compatible are able to load from within
the Komplete Kontrol software and you can find and filter and search for
sounds across multiple plugins - anything that's NK is compatible - right from
Komplete Kontrol. I really like this for two reasons.
first I want to preview sounds from Nexus 3 without having to load them
first. I'd like to just scroll down a list and hear the samples of different
sound.s you can do that with any NKS plugin. also I'd like to be able to
explore the sounds alongside other NKS compatible plugin presets. and
that's the best feature, really. I mean, if I'm looking for a pad I can just search
for it in Komplete Kontrol and it'll find all the pads from all different
plugins from different manufacturers. the effects section in Nexus 3is also great.
I've always liked how the effects in Nexus sound. and now there so much
more visual. you modify something and you can see it visually change the sound
right on the page.
if you're new to Nexus I want to talk a little bit about why I believe it's so
popular. it's the presets. the presets are just instantly usable. now they're
primarily geared towards EDM and some hip-hop and trap, but with creativity you
can use it for anything. when you play something you can almost
always hear a song emerging around it. it's inspiring. now, many other
software synths out there give you some basic sounds which require a little
delay or reverb to make them sound interesting, and modern - worthy of a song.
but you don't need to add anything to the presets in Nexus. they're excellent
right away. Nexus sounds are so readily usable that
many people do just that - use them as they come. you may hear a song on the
radio and actually recognize the Nexus preset in it. this happens with
Omnisphere as well. if you get the Trance sound collection for example and then
just insert one of those presets into your trance song, chances are a hundred
other people have done the same thing, so you need to get creative, use that trance
preset in a pop song or a hip-hop song or make some unique modifications, so
definitely a lot of good things with Nexus 3 and I've loved Nexus 2 for a long
time, and love the sounds. but is there anything I don't like? yes, but it's
nothing new. the expansions have excellent presets and I've loved using
them in many of my beats. but they include some sequence presets that I
don't really like. the sequence presets usually contain a rhythmic melody and
maybe multiple sounds in them.
I wouldn't use them for a fear that others use them and we end up creating
the same beat. and I would prefer that they just leave those out and include
more sounds in these expansion packs instead. also Nexus isn't cheap. for $250
you get the starter sound kit, the plug-in and it includes 2,750
presets. the expansions are great. they each cost
fifty dollars. you can get some of the legacy wants for 20, but it all adds up.
hmm is it worth it? well it depends on your budget right? I love the sound so
it's worth it for me. it's quick to find a preset that adds that missing sound to
my song or my beat. now I'll be featuring Nexus 3 more on my channel in the future.
and if you want to see how I use Nexus 2 in my Spotify release, watch my video up
here. for now let's just play with some of the presets. that is the most fun part
about Nexus 3. if you like this video hit the like button and subscribe if you
haven't already. keep making the music you love and I'll see you guys later!