Moving songs between DAWs

To work with someone on another DAW, or to take a song to a notation app, Nebula reads and writes the open formats: DAWproject, AAF, MusicXML and MIDI files. It can also bring tracks in from another Nebula song, and audio files from anywhere.

Export a DAWproject

DAWproject is the open song format Studio One, Cubase, Bitwig and other DAWs read.

  1. Choose File ▸ Export ▸ DAWproject….
  2. Name the file and press Export.

What is written: tracks, buses and the Stereo Out with their levels, pans, mutes, solos and sends; regions with their loops and fades; notes and controller envelopes; the tempo and meter; markers; volume, pan and plug-in automation; every audio file; and each Audio Unit's settings, as you hear them now.

Claude can do this for you: ask it to export the song for a friend on Cubase, say, and it tells you what came out differently.

What a DAWproject does not carry

When the export is done, a bar at the top of the arrangement says what was carried differently. Click Details… for each item, and OK to close it. Among the things it may list:

  • Track alternatives: only the one playing is written; the others are not carried.
  • Take folders: only what plays is written, and a comp as one region a part.
  • Nebula's own processors (Nebula Chorus, Nebula Compressor and the rest) are listed by name, but another DAW cannot play them. Bounce in Place first to keep their sound.
  • The key, key changes and the chord track: DAWproject has no place for them.
  • Arrangement sections become markers at each section's start.
  • Track stacks, mixer groups and side chains are not carried; a frozen track is written as its render.
  • Polarity, trim, width and track delay are not carried; nor are Stereo Out mono and pan law.
  • Flex Pitch is not carried (Bounce in Place first); Flex Time is written as warp markers; a reversed region plays forwards elsewhere; fade shapes are written straight.
  • A region's transpose and region quantize are written into its notes; curved automation is written as straight pieces a sixteenth apart.

Import a DAWproject

  1. Choose File ▸ Import DAWproject….
  2. Choose the file and press Import.

The project opens as a new, unsaved song. If the song you have open has unsaved changes, Nebula asks about them first. Save the new song to copy its audio into its own Media folder. Importing clears Undo.

The same bar says what could not be brought in. Plug-ins come in like this:

  • An Audio Unit you have is loaded with its settings.
  • An Audio Unit you do not have is kept with its settings, and loads once it is installed.
  • A VST2, VST3 or CLAP plug-in, or another DAW's own device, is kept as a placeholder named "Missing: …", because Nebula plays Audio Units.
  • Nebula's own processors in a DAWproject Nebula wrote come back with their settings.

Also in the report: DAWproject has no key, so the song is set to C Major (set it in the inspector); a folder track becomes a bus its tracks play through; clip launcher scenes are not read; per-note expressions are not read.

Claude can open a DAWproject for you, too.

Export an AAF

AAF is what Pro Tools, Media Composer and post houses exchange an edit in; Logic, Cubase and Studio One read it too. Use it to send a dialogue, music or effects edit to a mix stage.

  1. Choose File ▸ Export ▸ AAF….
  2. Under Audio, choose Embedded in the AAF file for one file to send, or Referenced, in a folder beside it for WAVE files in a folder named after the AAF, which it points at. Send that folder with the AAF.
  3. Name the file and press Export.

What is written: each audio track, with its regions as they play — a region covered by another is cut where it is covered, a loop becomes one region a repetition, and a comp one region a part — their fades, their clip gain and gain rides, each track's volume and pan — as set, or their automation, every breakpoint on its own sample — and the audio as 24-bit WAVE at its own rate. A muted track is written silent (a gain of 0), as AAF has no track mute. Regions that overlap in a crossfade go on a second track of the same name, as AAF has no overlaps on one track.

What is not: AAF counts in time, so the tempo, meter, markers and key stay behind. So does the rest of the mix: plug-ins, sends, buses, and automation other than volume and pan. MIDI tracks are not written; Bounce in Place first to send them. A muted region is left out; a reversed region plays forwards; Flex Time, Flex Pitch and a stretch to the song's tempo are not carried (Bounce in Place first); fade shapes are written straight. The bar at the top of the arrangement lists each of these for your song.

Claude can export an AAF for you: ask it to send the edit to the mix stage.

Import an AAF

  1. Choose File ▸ Import AAF….
  2. Choose the file and press Import.

The edit opens as a new, unsaved song, after Nebula asks about any unsaved changes in the one you have open. Each sound track becomes an audio track, with its regions, fades and clip gain, and its volume and pan, or their automation lanes; a track written silent comes in muted. A crossfade becomes the two regions' fades. AAF has no tempo, so the song is at 120 BPM and its regions keep their place in time, with Follow Tempo off. Audio inside the AAF is written out as WAVE files and copied into the song's Media folder when you save it. Referenced audio is found where the AAF says, or beside the AAF, or in a folder beside it. Picture tracks and effects other than gain are not read; the bar says what was left out. Importing clears Undo.

Export MusicXML for notation

MusicXML is what Sibelius, Dorico, MuseScore and Finale read.

  1. Choose what to write: show a full score or a score set in the score view, or select MIDI regions, or tracks. With none of these, every track with MIDI is written.
  2. Choose File ▸ Export ▸ MusicXML….
  3. Choose the Grid (1/4, 1/8, 1/16 or 1/32). Every note's start and end are moved to it, as Quantize does. Parts says what will be written.
  4. Press Export.

Each track is one part; a full score or a score set writes a part for each of its instruments, in its order. Chords sit on one staff, notes held over a bar line are tied, and drums go on a percussion staff. The key, meter and tempo are written along the song.

Everything the score writes on the notes goes too: articulations (staccato, staccatissimo, tenuto, accent, marcato, fermata), dynamics, slurs, crescendo and diminuendo hairpins, and lyrics, a syllable a note. A part written for a transposing instrument — a clarinet in B♭, a horn in F, an alto sax — is written as its player reads it, with the transposition a notation app needs to play it at concert pitch; the instrument is named so the app sets the part up. A part the score view writes on a grand staff is written on two staves. Velocity and chord symbols are not written; the dynamics are.

Claude can export notation for you: ask it for the lead line as sheet music, or for a score set's parts.

Import MusicXML

Bring in a score from an arranger, a teacher or a notation app — Sibelius, Dorico, MuseScore, Finale, or another DAW.

  1. Choose File ▸ Import MusicXML….
  2. Choose the file — .musicxml, .xml, or a compressed .mxl — and press Import.

The score opens as a new, unsaved song, after Nebula asks about any unsaved changes in the one you have open. Importing clears Undo.

  • Each part with notes becomes an instrument track (drum parts a drum track) holding one MIDI region from bar 1 to the score's end, its notes at concert pitch.
  • Articulations, dynamics, slurs, hairpins and the first verse's lyrics come in as the score's marks, so they show in the score view and play as they do there.
  • A transposing part keeps its transposition, and the instrument is chosen for it when Nebula has it; it plays that instrument's General MIDI sound until you choose one. A part on two staves is shown on a grand staff.
  • The song takes the score's tempo and tempo changes, its time signatures and its key.
  • A pickup bar becomes the end of a full first bar.

The bar at the top of the arrangement says what could not be brought in: chord symbols, grace notes, ornaments, repeats (each passage plays once), verses after the first, and marks Nebula has no place for. Claude can open a score for you, too.

MIDI files

File ▸ Export ▸ MIDI File… (⇧⌘E) saves the notes of every track as they play, with the tempo, time signatures and key, the controller, pitch bend and pressure lanes, and articulation switches.

File ▸ Import MIDI… puts each part of a MIDI file on a new instrument track at bar 1, in one undo step. If the file has its own tempo, time signatures or key and the song already has regions, Nebula asks: Use the File's or Keep the Song's. Audio already in the song keeps its place on the beats.

Import Tracks from another song

File ▸ Import Tracks… brings tracks, buses and folders from another Nebula song.

  1. Choose File ▸ Import Tracks… and choose the song.
  2. Tick the tracks, buses and folders you want, or use Select All. Ticking a folder ticks its tracks.
  3. For each, choose what comes with it: Regions, Plug-ins (with their settings), Sends, Automation and Takes (take folders and alternatives).
  4. Under Sends go to, choose This song's bus of the same name or New buses. With the first, a send to a bus this song does not have makes a copy of the other song's bus.
  5. Press Import.

The new tracks go below the selected track. Their audio is copied into this song, and the other song is not changed. The top of the sheet compares the two tempos: everything keeps its place in beats, so bar 5 there is bar 5 here. A name this song already has gets a number. A track that was frozen there comes in playing live. Undo takes the whole import back in one step, and the bar at the top of the arrangement says what came differently.

You can also drag tracks from a song in the Library's Songs list onto the arrangement. Claude can do this for you: ask it to take the bass from your other song.

Audio files

  • File ▸ Import Audio… (⇧⌘I) adds audio files at the playhead. With several files, choose Create a new track for each file or Place all on one track, then press Add.
  • File ▸ Audio Files… lists every audio file the song uses and which are missing. Relink… points one at its file again; Remove Unused takes files nothing plays off the list (nothing is deleted from the disk).
  • File ▸ Find Missing Files… asks for a folder and relinks every missing file it finds in it or its subfolders.