2CAudio B2: Full Body. Maximum Attitude.

[Sampleconstruct]

The new features in the update bring so many new possibilities to the space table, the air filters are great when using the now even huger room sizes for discarding the early reflections, and also the Q knobs are brilliant for shaping the filters.

Here is a granulated vibra sample in a dual engine preset:

http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/g ... in-b2-huge

[Andrew Souter]

Pffft, this is nothing, you gave up on the 50 shades of pink & purple by 1.0 release already

come on now, let's not live in the past.

Photoshop told me it was "magenta". And there was "Cyan" too... Basically I was several years ahead of Apple's iOS 7 color scheme...

Truth of the matter was that we were using RGB all through development, and just rotated hues to C, M, at the last min and thought it looked cool/fresh b/c we were bored of the other colors. Oh well, lesson learned.


We reserver the right to use Magenta again in the future, though.

[Andrew Souter]

Yes I do remember, there was a bunch or people complaining loudly that drowned out the few of us that liked the skin (and said so, including myself) - I understand how it must have seemed like you made a mistake but this is a very beautiful skin and it would have been nice if you'd listened to us too instead of just reacting to the noise. Sometimes people that complain seem like the majority when in fact they are just more vocal, the fact is there was already an option for the smaller skin size anyway so there was no need to take out the larger one. 960px wide was a perfect size.

I don't care that 4K monitors may become available soon - they will not be affordable for many years. In the meantime I'm left with a gui that I don't find comfortable to use, I waited patiently for you to bring back the large gui, which is what I thought you were doing, but was surprised that you made it so large - it seems like you have gone from one extreme to another in a reactive way rather than actually listening to your customers.

Actually all it needs is for the graphics to be the same size as they are on B2 rather than so tiny and cramped.

Why are we talking about Aether in the B2 thread?

We have lots of skins now for all products. They are all mirco-manageed at the pixel level--i.e. they take a lot of time to make. The xml files that define layout are several thousand lines long. Making it all work perfectly is not a simple task. It is more simple when the ratios between size are integers, 2:1, 3:1 etc... Making a 960px Aether skin would require a lot of time. And 2X of that is too tall for a HD skin.

The last time there was a 960px Aether skin was 2009. A bit late in the game to having this conversation now... sorry...

[Andrew Souter]

Thanks for the compliments regarding like the original skin btw... I thought it had some cool features too. God knows I spent a lot of time figuring out how to semi-fake "glass lenses" over the knobs...

Reality is the majority of people did not like it, and it was interfering with what was most important which is the sound and functionality of the product...

anyway, as I said, we are going back 4 or 5 years now though... we have moved on in terms of GUIs.

and now that we are finally hovering over the finish line for this gigantic system code update that has been ongoing for the past year, we are really excited to go back to the new product that we began work on in 2011, before B2 even...

We will think about Aether GUI again for 2.0...

[Andrew Souter]

Very nice Simon!

This one features a ton of B2 using all the new features...


https://soundcloud.com/andrew_souter/wa ... cient-ones

A hypnotic and meditative ambient composition composed/produced on 08/01/2013 employing:

* Custom sound-design based around mirco-tonality, spectral constructs, and image-based compositions.

* Granular synthesis

* Analog synths

* Minimal acoustic piano

* Lots of reverb/spatialization from 2CAudio B2 and Aether.

Wayfarer is a project name I use for the deepest of deep ambient space music. This is music that is meant to invoke a sense of traveling without moving to remote and unknowable reaches of outer and inner space. Wayfarer projects are more of sound environments than music in the traditional sense. They are intended to invoke a sense of ineffable awe at the magnificence of the universe, and give a fleeting sense of connection to some form of universal non-human intelligence. Despite, or rather perhaps because of, its humble abstract nature, this is meditative music that implicitly asks big questions, and hopefully inspires big ideas.

[Sampleconstruct]

Very nice Simon!

This one features a ton of B2 using all the new features...

https://soundcloud.com/andrew_souter/wa ... cient-ones

Thank you - you've created some deep, deep wayfarer space there!

[Breeze]

Any news on my B2 Nuendo 5.5.6 crash? While it's certainly nice to see you guys pat each other on the back, I can't even open a project I was previously using B2 on without my host crashing... should I reinstall the previous beta?

Sorry for the bristles...

[Andrew Souter]

Any news on my B2 Nuendo 5.5.6 crash? While it's certainly nice to see you guys pat each other on the back, I can't even open a project I was previously using B2 on without my host crashing... should I reinstall the previous beta?

Sorry for the bristles...

Did you try the special version builds? Did either work?

Denis is investigating these issues. As mentioned, we believe it has to do with detecting what CPU we are working with and using the appropriate instruction set. These changes were made to offer increased performance/optimization on modern CPUs.

[Breeze]

Did you try the special version builds? Did either work?

No AVX

No FMA

That's on a 2687W. I guess it's ready for the scrap heap already.

But aren't the folders inverted? The 2687 does AVX but doesn't do FMA.

And thanks, BTW. I thought this was a Live-specific test. And apologies for the snark. I really like what you and Simon so freely share with us all. Just stuck in a black hole for a bit...

[Andrew Souter]

Did you try the special version builds? Did either work?

No AVX

And when running this version, what does the version number say exactly?

No FMA

That's on a 2687W. I guess it's ready for the scrap heap already.

But aren't the folders inverted? The 2687 does AVX but doesn't do FMA.

"No_AVX" means it is running SSE. "No_FMA" means it is running AVX. Regular version should switch between SSE, AVX, AVX2 (which offers FMA i.e. Haswell processors).

So it seems we have some issue with AVX code execution on *some* CPUs with *some* hosts... These kind of "sometimes" problems are usually PITAs.

Anyway, if you are using SSE without issues, you are using what you were already using in 1.1.0, and 1.0.0... So no love lost. You're just not getting the theoretical max of what your CPU should be capable of using the latest and greatest instruction sets.

Still exploring...

2687W is a great CPU btw! You have a dual? Custom built?

And thanks, BTW. I thought this was a Live-specific test. And apologies for the snark. I really like what you and Simon so freely share with us all. Just stuck in a black hole for a bit...

sure. I get cranky when I don't have my B2 too!

[Breeze]

No AVX

And when running this version, what does the version number say exactly?

B2 1.2.0 [B228] x64 AVX

2687W is a great CPU btw! You have a dual? Custom built?

ADK Custom, 32GB, Dual board, single CPU for now. I figured I'd get a second processor and more memory by the time the one runs out of steam. Still hasn't. But the biggest issue is that a lot of processing still favors clock speed over parallelism. So, looking forward to the AVX enhancements! Strange that "no FMA" doesn't work though... Maybe you need a "NO AVX2" test dll.[/b]

[Untamed Spirit]

I have had to go back to the previous build. This latest version randomly crashes in every host I have.
I thought it was just Reaper, but Cubase and Studio One become very unstable. As soon as I revert, everything is fine. Windows 8 64bit. I haven't tried 32 bit because I am happy to use the current 64 bit version until this is sorted.

[Andrew Souter]

I have had to go back to the previous build. This latest version randomly crashes in every host I have.
I thought it was just Reaper, but Cubase and Studio One become very unstable. As soon as I revert, everything is fine. Windows 8 64bit. I haven't tried 32 bit because I am happy to use the current 64 bit version until this is sorted.

CPU?

Did you try the test builds?

[Breeze]

I have had to go back to the previous build. This latest version randomly crashes in every host I have.

Have you tried the alternate "audplg64.dll"'s available in the latest version of the beta ? They replace the one in the install folder. The one in the "No AVX" folder got rid of the crashes in Nuendo64. It was even crashing previous projects as they loaded and instantiated B2. They're seem fine now.

@Andrew: maybe you should add a text file in the new build explaining what to do or just keep re-posting the instructions here.

[Andrew Souter]

No AVX

And when running this version, what does the version number say exactly?

B2 1.2.0 [B228] x64 AVX

2687W is a great CPU btw! You have a dual? Custom built?

ADK Custom, 32GB, Dual board, single CPU for now. I figured I'd get a second processor and more memory by the time the one runs out of steam. Still hasn't. But the biggest issue is that a lot of processing still favors clock speed over parallelism. So, looking forward to the AVX enhancements! Strange that "no FMA" doesn't work though... Maybe you need a "NO AVX2" test dll.[/b]

Nice! Monster of a machine...

It should be ready for the imminent 12 core Xeons also... so you could have a 24 core beast...

Jealous! I've got to update my win system to this by the end of the year...



Edit: Holly Molly, they are not going to be cheap:


http://www.anandtech.com/show/7214/xeon ... y-bridgeep