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

[airon]

I still have the problem that Reaper will not verify the full version of Aether 1.5 32-bit Windows.

My system is Win7 x64 German, Reaper 3.63pre10 x86 (same for all previous versions since Aether 1.5 was released).

Now here's the funny part.

The demo version I downloaded and hand-extracted/installed worked. Reaper scanned it without incident and it worked, but of course I could not enter my serial in to it.

The full version, which I redownloaded the same day through that funny shop system, had the same problem. Reaper scans the plugin, and says the plugin performed an illegal operation, and thus the plugin cannot be used.

The installer makes mistakes. It does not ask for admin priviledges. I have to unpack the plugin by hand, which is no big deal for me, but since so many folks get this right, this may be an area a product priced in this range should improve in.

I've sent my report, the new development being that the demo works fine, but the full product continues not to with Reaper x86, to Denis, if I got that right. Andrew, while you were off for a few weeks he was the only person that could help me.

I hope the fact that the demo works can help in this riddle. I'd love to use the 1.5 features after all.

[aMUSEd]

It works fine for me in Reaper 3.63 on Win 7 x64 - if the problem is entering the authorisation code why not just authorise it in another host? (just pick a free one like Cantabile lite)

[Andrew Souter]

Just bought the preset bundle but how do I find the new presets - annoyingly they are all mixed up with the old ones - I can't be expected to remember which was which

+1
Bought the bundles same day they went out. still dont know which is which and if it was worth buying them.

Hi,

We hope to improve this in the next update and allow presets to be separated in "packs". There was simply not enough time to do it in 1.5. We expect it for 1.6.

Meanwhile, you can look the preset lists for these expansions here:

http://www.2caudio.com/products/aether/ ... ansion.pdf
http://www.2caudio.com/products/aether/ ... ansion.pdf

[airon]

It works fine for me in Reaper 3.63 on Win 7 x64 - if the problem is entering the authorisation code why not just authorise it in another host? (just pick a free one like Cantabile lite)

Actually the plugin scan fails for the full version, but is ok for the demo. It unfortunately has nothing to do with the authorization as far as I can tell. The plugin works fine in Live.

[aMUSEd]

It works fine for me in Reaper 3.63 on Win 7 x64 - if the problem is entering the authorisation code why not just authorise it in another host? (just pick a free one like Cantabile lite)

Actually the plugin scan fails for the full version, but is ok for the demo. It unfortunately has nothing to do with the authorization as far as I can tell. The plugin works fine in Live.

Oh I see - I thought you meant you couldn't authorise it (by verify). Still strange though - I get no such failure to scan on I think a similar system (I'm using both versions x86 and x64 in the corresponding versions of Reaper)

[airon]

Amused, what version fo Windows are you using ?

[NewSc2]

Just bought the preset bundle but how do I find the new presets - annoyingly they are all mixed up with the old ones - I can't be expected to remember which was which

+1
Bought the bundles same day they went out. still dont know which is which and if it was worth buying them.

I placed the presets in new folders created under the User Presets, so I can figure out which was which.

[Oceanviewstudio]

I got a demo today, and 2 hours later I bought it. I am seriously shocked how good aether sounds. Must be a super team of programmers.

I hope they will manage the 64bit Mac Version soon.

Get's 4.5 out of 5 ears from me.

Would be nice if the GUI would be scalable like those logic instruments.

Thanks Folks, this is a superb sounding plugin, and very creative! (Cascade)

[Andrew Souter]

I got a demo today, and 2 hours later I bought it. I am seriously shocked how good aether sounds. Must be a super team of programmers.

Thanks. We are a two person team believe it or not.

I hope they will manage the 64bit Mac Version soon.

So do we. Currently finishing RTAS for the Pro Tools community...

Get's 4.5 out of 5 ears from me.

Spend some more time with it and see if you don't decide it is closer to 5.0!

Would be nice if the GUI would be scalable like those logic instruments.

Yes, a cool idea. We did have 2 sizes in the first GUI. We may make a larger size option again in the future at some point.

Thanks Folks, this is a superb sounding plugin, and very creative! (Cascade)

Glad you like it!

[Andrew Souter]

I still have the problem that Reaper will not verify the full version of Aether 1.5 32-bit Windows.

My system is Win7 x64 German, Reaper 3.63pre10 x86 (same for all previous versions since Aether 1.5 was released).

Now here's the funny part.

The demo version I downloaded and hand-extracted/installed worked. Reaper scanned it without incident and it worked, but of course I could not enter my serial in to it.

The full version, which I redownloaded the same day through that funny shop system, had the same problem. Reaper scans the plugin, and says the plugin performed an illegal operation, and thus the plugin cannot be used.

The installer makes mistakes. It does not ask for admin priviledges. I have to unpack the plugin by hand, which is no big deal for me, but since so many folks get this right, this may be an area a product priced in this range should improve in.

I've sent my report, the new development being that the demo works fine, but the full product continues not to with Reaper x86, to Denis, if I got that right. Andrew, while you were off for a few weeks he was the only person that could help me.

I hope the fact that the demo works can help in this riddle. I'd love to use the 1.5 features after all.

This sounds like an installer error or misconfiguration. Things get a little tricky with all the various hosts and 63/32 os/host combinations.

I suggest we try a manual install. To do so please try the following:

1) In the /pkg/ folder of the installer folder you will find a "2C-Aether" folder. This folder supplies all related resource files needed by Aether. Please move/copy this folder to your shared VST plug-ins folder for your host where you store other 3rd party plug-ins.

32bitOS/32bitHost: c://Program Files/.../VSTplugins/2C-Aether/ or similar.
64bitOS/64bitHost: c://Program Files/.../VSTplugins/2C-Aether/ or similar.
64bitOS/32bitHost: c://Program Files(x86)/.../VSTplugins/2C-Aether/ or similar.


2) Go back to the downloaded installer folder and you will find a "VSTDLL" folder. Inside this folder are the both the 64bit and the 32bit versions of the plugin. x64 is 64bit. x86 is 32bit.

If you are using a 32bit host open the x86 folder and copy "2c-aether.dll" into the new folder you created above in step 1.

If you are using a 64bit host open the x64 folder and copy "2c-aether.dll" into the new folder you created above in step 1.

3) Launch your host and rescan plug-ins if necessary.

Please let us know how it goes. Please back-up any user-presets you may have created before you try this if you have created any.

[Oceanviewstudio]

I got a demo today, and 2 hours later I bought it. I am seriously shocked how good aether sounds. Must be a super team of programmers.

Thanks. We are a two person team believe it or not.

Yeah, I assumed that reading your website.

Get's 4.5 out of 5 ears from me.

Spend some more time with it and see if you don't decide it is closer to 5.0!

The deduction of 0.5 is not sound quality related, just for missing 64 bit OSX Version!

I wish to add something here for newcomers to the Aether Reverb. Andrew and Denis spend quite some time on a support request with me today and I hope by explaining that here future Aether Users do not run into the same problem.

Here ya go....

USING A POWER WORKSTATION AND WHAT NOT TO DO WITH AETHER!

I am using a 8x core Nehalem 2.93 Ghz Mac Pro with 32 gig Ram and multiple Raid-0 setups. I guess you could call it a Flagship Mac Pro, hence I was misguided to believe I could easily use some specific settings, I explain later, when I record from Kontakt or Spectrasonics plugins in logic.

What happened was that after loading only a second instance of aether on an AUX send in Logic, sound got distorted and unusable. I was quite taken by surprise by that.

The trick is in the INFO pane of aether. What I did was to set the REALTIME settings to 4x oversampling and 2 Ultrasmooth, which corresponds to what galbanum call EXTREME settings. It works fine with one Aether instance, although already heavily CPU taxing without playing a single note. Just a second instance with extreme settings is too much for my piss poor Mac pro.

The trick is to set everything to LOW, hence 1x oversampling, Modulation to balanced and Interpolation can not be changed anyways in Realtime so stays on 1 excellence as well.

I was trapped to believe that my Mac would easily handle extreme settings.... well, I was wrong!

One reason for that trap was that I used these settings on the demo version last night without any problems. But the demo Version prohibits multiple instances of Aether, so I could not test that. Se, when I got my serial number and installed the full version, first thing I did was whacking every thing to the macs... ahem, max. I mean. That caused the head scratching in the first place.

That's it, I hope you find that info useful and it may spare some folks who are new to Aether who have a powerhouse computer at their disposal the same error of judgement, and of course, it also may save Galbanaum some support emails

Also, do leave the offline settings for bouncing to AUTO, only in rare cases this needs to be changed to my understanding.

P.S.
THE MONOLITH IS ALIVE

[Andrew Souter]

>From the manual:

http://www.2caudio.com/products/aether/ ... Manual.pdf

The perennial "Performance vs. Quality" trade-off has now become obsolete! Aether 1.5 allows two independent sets of Quality Settings: one for Realtime use, and one for Offline bounces. As such users can set Realtime settings to a level appropriately matched to their project needs and available hardware power, while at the same time automatically invoking extreme quality standards during Offline bounces. Most modern host applications will communicate the processing state to plug-ins automatically and Aether is able to intelligently switch between the two Quality Settings sets without additional input from the user.

There can be a tendency to "turn it to 11" with Aether's Quality Settings, and admittedly the extreme settings can be interesting to explore since there is nothing else similar in the market at this time as far as we are aware. We should reiterate one last time however, that the lowest possible quality settings are already at an award winning level and are more than competitive with other products in the market. The most extreme settings really are just that, and we have designed them a little ahead of the current state of average available CPU power. In other words, we designed the extreme settings intentionally with some room to grow into them. The most extreme settings are simply too heavy for Realtime use for the average CPU in 2010, but things change rapidly in technology and this may not be true in 12 to 18 months. The Realtime and Offline quality settings literally range from excellence to perfection; we allow you to choose what is most appropriate for your work.

For your convenience we have prepared four different recommended Quality Settings guidelines based on available CPU power. Our current recommendation for an average 2010 computer is to use the Medium set of settings as shown below. If your available CPU power is limited, it is certainly not the end of the world to use the base quality settings. If it is higher, and you are as obsessive as we all, by all means please feel free to "turn-it-to-11" if you like. The beauty of these options is that they put the power directly in your hands and allow you to decide which settings are best for your needs. The following is provided as a guideline to help you make these decisions.

[See manual]

http://www.2caudio.com/products/aether/ ... Manual.pdf

[Andrew Souter]

4x oversampling, should generally be reserved for Off-line use. The only reason we allow it for real-time is to allow musicians who would like to use a single instance to compose/perform directly into for inspiration. Some have claimed this can be "an emotional experience" (earlier in this thread I believe.) For multiple instance, large project mixing we recommend using a maximum of 2x for realtime oversampling. The difference between 2x and 4x is fairly subtle...

[jbraner]

I'm finding that since the 1.5 update that CPU usage is a lot higher. I'm using the lowest settings (1x oversampling) for run time - but I get about 18% CPU usage on my Q6600 2.4GHz quad core. That's 18% of the entire 4 cores (averaged) not just 1 core. I'm using the Alexandria Hall preset.
(this is a rough test with just 1 audio file and only aether loaded. Without measuring any more accurately, CPU usage is definitely higher than with 1.01 though)

Is there a way to add a latency setting to maybe set a higher latency for aether, to get lower CPU utilisation?

I used to be able to use 2 or 3 instances of aether in a SONAR project - but now I'd think twice about adding a second instance.

Or do I just have to save up and get a faster CPU?

[Andrew Souter]

Hi...

That number does not seem quite right. Please send us an email to support [a t] 2caudio.com please so we can troubleshoot.

Also a single instance of Aether can not use more than one core. The host will allocate multiple plug-ins across multiple cores, but typically a single plug will only be on one core unless it is multi-threaded which is pretty rare and not always safe to do for some hosts.

CPU usage is about 10-15% higher in 1.5 (base settings) than 1.0 due to some behind the scenes changes that improve audio quality. This should generally barely be noticeable under normal circumstances.

Something seems odd. Is modulation set to "Ultra Smooth"?

Also Alexandria Hall is a Stereo-Stereo preset. Is is possible you were comparing to performance of a Mono-Stereo preset previously?