Nebula surround
Usage
The Nebula | Surround scope displays a representation of how a surround signal’s various components are distributed in a surround environment. The inner region displays the location of the signal frequency components in the selected surround configuration, while the outer ring shows the phase-correlation between channels.
Phase correlation between adjacent channels is shown as white section with a length proportional to the correlation. Additionally, L-R phase correlation is displayed on the top portion of the ring, and L-C and C-R inter-channel phase correlations are displayed just above the top of the ring.
Physical locations of the speakers for the selected configuration are marked on the ring itself for reference.
Speaker layout
- Music: this is the typical surround speaker arrangement for musical reproduction.
- Equidistant: this mode employs equidistant speakers arranged as an equilateral polygon.
- Square: this arrangement employs speakers arranged on a square.
- Theater: this is the typical arrangement employed in movie theaters, with redundant rear channels.
Display
Nebula | Surround scope setup options
Mode
Speaker mode
Selects between various commonly employed surround speaker arrangements.
Phases
Toggles phase-correlation display on and off.
Scale
Auto-scale
This parameter controls whether the intensity of the particles are modulated by the overall audio level variations. In essence, when enabled, the color nuances will vary according to the relative amplitude of a frequency, allowing to monitor the relative amplitude spectrum variations. When disabled, the color will reflect the absolute audio level. You can also think of this as a kind of auto-gain setting.
Auto-scale release
This controls whether color variations should be smoothed in time or not. When engaged, color variations is slowed down a bit, which makes overall level transitions more obvious.
You should enable this setting when you want to visualize quick level variations such as those that frequently occur in movie soundtracks.
Linear blend range
Adds a constant blend amount to the particle. This ensures some particles are always blended into the image even if its original magnitude is low.
A low value for this setting has the effect of stabilizing the appearance of particles. With large values more of the spectrum dynamics are taken into account, and only peaks mostly come through.
Log blending
Toggles between linear and logarithmic blending of the current particle with old particles.
The default is off, i.e. linear blending, which tends to favor the display of peaks.
Logarithmic blending on the other hand preserves more of the full dynamic range of the data, and also gives some visibility to lower levels.
Color mode
Fading
Controls display persistence, i.e. the “fade to black” amount for a frame. Lowering this value retains past particles longer, whereas increasing this make them disappear faster.
Size factor
Controls the size of individual particles with respect to screen size.
Blur kernel size
Controls the radius of the blur effect applied to past particles. Particles are “smeared” more and more as they become older, depending on this setting. Naturally, a bigger value increases the smearing, at the expense of processing power.
Choosing the value for this setting is really matter of taste, although please keep in mind values that above 5 will require a sufficiently powerful graphics card in order to maintain a responsive display.
Particle factor count
Determines the amount of particles to display, relative to the default number used for the current screen size.
Particle scaling
Toggles automatic adjustment of particle size with screen size. When enabled, the overall aspect of the display will remain similar even if the view size changes.
Color mode
This defines how the particle color is determined: * Power grading: color is modulated by overall signal RMS power. * Dynamic grading: color is modulated by signal dynamics. * Pw+Dyn grading: mix of the two previous modes. * Freq. grading: color is modulated by frequency.
Power color grading
Determines the start and end colors used with “Power grading” color mode selected.