Is 2C's Aether REALLY worth it? (the answer is: yes, certainly)

[Andrew Souter]

Thanks for the feedback regarding manuals. It's very useful.

I just wanted to drop in and say that I have had a chance to demo Aether and I think that it is a great product. It is, however, largely esoteric. I am not sure what each parameter actually does. For instance, the ER Size parameter. Is that in feet, units, time, some kind of percentage, etc? I suppose a more detailed manual would help people dial things in.

You can get any reverb sound you want from this plugin. I just am finding myself lost a bit. I am spending a lot of time trying to dial in a certain sound I have in my head. See, I think in real world terms. In my mind I picture a cavernous 50 feet by 80 feet scoring stage with a 30 foot ceiling height. Wood paneled, all the trimmings etc. If I only knew how to translate that into the parameters you guys use in the program I could quickly build this acoustic space in virtual space. Would that be size 80, width 50? I know I want a 2.6 second reverb tail on the ER...

I suppose what I am trying to say here is that if you made it more accessible to people who aren't programmers or technicians, it could be a lot better for us artistic, visual types.

-RR
ZeroNeuro Studios

P.S.: My first post. Hope I made sense.

Thanks for the great feedback. Indeed we do improve these things in the upcoming 1.5... Specifically:

1) Doubling clicking on a knob opens the text entry edit window. In 1.5, this view will also show the units for the given parameter. (In a later version we may like to implement "tool tips" that show units on "mouse over", but this will come later...)

2) We have Freq Profiles--like the Space Type profiles, but for the Frequency related controls. This allows you to change up to 15 knobs with a single control and try different Frequency profiles for the given Space/Time controls.

3) The manual will be much improved.

more later...

[ariston]

Soooooo.... I don't mean to seem impatient or nosy, not to mention ungrateful... but.... how's that update coming? You've been teasing us with that "1.5 coming soon" ad, and the anticipation is killing me!

...although I'd much rather wait longer and have a well-tested, bug-free piece of software than pluck it before it's ripe. So, take your time, but... HURRY!

[ZINO]

Soooooo.... I don't mean to seem impatient or nosy, not to mention ungrateful... but.... how's that update coming? You've been teasing us with that "1.5 coming soon" ad, and the anticipation is killing me!

...although I'd much rather wait longer and have a well-tested, bug-free piece of software than pluck it before it's ripe. So, take your time, but... HURRY!

+1

[rectus_dominus]

Though not really discussed here, but there were some topics about the new Lexicon PCM bundle vs Aether. I just thought I write my short opinion about it, here.
I feel that the Lexicon and Aether together will cover every areas in terms of reverbs.
As I heard from the demos; Lexicon excels in stable, realistic 'place' simulations while Aether shines more on the creative side. I still don't know why do people want to compare them like two products aimed at identical purposes...

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

As I heard from the demos; Lexicon excels in stable, realistic 'place' simulations while Aether shines more on the creative side.

Lexicon does realistic "place" verbs well? What places are you hanging out in?

Lexicon's sound great, but they're not realistic sounding. They're very much creative verbs, just like Aether. It's a good thing IMO.

[elxsound]

As I heard from the demos; Lexicon excels in stable, realistic 'place' simulations while Aether shines more on the creative side.

Lexicon does realistic "place" verbs well? What places are you hanging out in?

Lexicon's sound great, but they're not realistic sounding. They're very much creative verbs, just like Aether. It's a good thing IMO.

Neither of you guys think Aether excels at realistic sounding places? Really?

Andrew I hope you're taking note. I think like you mentioned before, some more "standard" presets might be a welcome thing.

I've always found Aether to be great at simulating real spaces. I can't say that I was ever sold on the presets found in the "default" section, but a simple turn on either the wet or time knob helped those presets become more believable to my ears.

Also I don't believe I'm alone on this as one of the many comments that I remember being made before I purchased was that many people thought this to be the most natural sounding reverb. Sorry I can't point to a specific place KVR forum posting history, but it was just one of the comments that perked my interest.

[4damind]

One of the rarely available top native reverbs. Can hold the candle with Lexicon (I think Lexicon is a bit overhyped, the new plug-ins are great but the big thing is more the brand behind this).

But... This 3d painted interface is horrible. Too much extended settings on the front (this should be placed to a second layer "extended" or "edit"). Other reverbs like AAR, CSR, Lexicon can give some ideas how a interface should be.
Also nobody needs a 3d interface which looks like an idea for a new animation movie Remember the 3 'e'.... Easy, easy, easy
Yes, the sound of the Aether reverb is very, very good.. But the interface! Hmmm...

[Andrew Souter]

Thanks for the feedback. We are offering a new GUI in the new version as mentioned previously.

Regarding fx vs "real" use of aether, we do certainly do not think of aether as only an fx product. We simply allow an extreme parameter ranges in it that makes some things possible that are not in other products. But we think aether excells at more classic/real/conservative settings as well. We make some efforts to make this more clear in the new version as well.

More later.... Writing from my iPhone.

[BertilAlving]

But... This 3d painted interface is horrible. Too much extended settings on the front (this should be placed to a second layer "extended" or "edit"). Other reverbs like AAR, CSR, Lexicon can give some ideas how a interface should be.
Also nobody needs a 3d interface which looks like an idea for a new animation movie Remember the 3 'e'.... Easy, easy, easy
Yes, the sound of the Aether reverb is very, very good.. But the interface! Hmmm...

I simply don't agree. It's great to see all important variables in one and the same overview. Very efficient to have all the parameters at your fingertips, instead of navigating through a lot of subpages!

[heavensdaw]

But... This 3d painted interface is horrible. Too much extended settings on the front (this should be placed to a second layer "extended" or "edit"). Other reverbs like AAR, CSR, Lexicon can give some ideas how a interface should be.
Also nobody needs a 3d interface which looks like an idea for a new animation movie Remember the 3 'e'.... Easy, easy, easy
Yes, the sound of the Aether reverb is very, very good.. But the interface! Hmmm...

I simply don't agree. It's great to see all important variables in one and the same overview. Very efficient to have all the parameters at your fingertips, instead of navigating through a lot of subpages!

yup +1

and the new gui looks to be much much improved!

can't wait for the update!

Hd

[elxsound]

But... This 3d painted interface is horrible. Too much extended settings on the front (this should be placed to a second layer "extended" or "edit"). Other reverbs like AAR, CSR, Lexicon can give some ideas how a interface should be.
Also nobody needs a 3d interface which looks like an idea for a new animation movie Remember the 3 'e'.... Easy, easy, easy
Yes, the sound of the Aether reverb is very, very good.. But the interface! Hmmm...

I simply don't agree. It's great to see all important variables in one and the same overview. Very efficient to have all the parameters at your fingertips, instead of navigating through a lot of subpages!

yup +1

and the new gui looks to be much much improved!

can't wait for the update!

Hd

And another +1

I couldn't disagree more that CSR would be considered "how an interface should be." Really?

Anyway, I always liked the original, and I love the new interface just as much (possibly more).

Looks aside, hate it or love it, the controls are logically placed and the thing sounds great. Yes it might not be what you or someone is used to (as in it did not replicate a hardware-like-interface) but that too is among the reasons I like it. Its software.... not hardware.

[Nokenoku]

But... This 3d painted interface is horrible. Too much extended settings on the front (this should be placed to a second layer "extended" or "edit"). Other reverbs like AAR, CSR, Lexicon can give some ideas how a interface should be.

Are you kidding me?
The CSR interface is really horrible! And the Lexicon interface is ok, but not very good.

I however agree, that the Aether interface isn't really good as well. I agree about the fancy 3D-look (but this might be a matter of taste), but much more important is the general layout and the cut off (hope that's the right word) between the different knob-sections.
But all the knobs should definetly stay on ONE page ... tabs/layers make absolutely no sense here and would only make it more complicated!

I've just beginned demoing it and find it not very intuitive. The presets are not exactly great as well.
It would make sense to cathegorize them in a way like "Small Rooms/Chambers", "Medium Rooms/Chambers", "Scoring Stages", "Halls", etc.

[Breeze]

It would make sense to cathegorize them in a way like "Small Rooms/Chambers", "Medium Rooms/Chambers", "Scoring Stages", "Halls", etc.

Actually, the browser is one place where I'd like to see some improvement. I'd like to see a category selection that would narrow down the presets I see on the other columns, rather than have a simple concatenation of all the presets on several pages as it is now. An "All" option would cover the way it is. IMO, this would be faster than the drop down menu which you have to explore to find a preset and it's faster to compare presets in the same category. To save space maybe categories could be a drop down at the very top line of the browser, with options for user categories, and random word searches.

[Doug B]

and the new gui looks to be much much improved!

Do you have a link to a picture of the new gui?

Thanks.

[Andrew Souter]

This was an early version:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... aether+gui

It's evolved some since then, but the general look/feel is the same...