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Aether 1.5 User Manual

1. 9 AUAO 1 5 USER MANUAL Getting Started Achieving Send Mode Behavior Using Locks Reverb plug ins are generally used in one of two ways in modern music production as an insert directly on an audio or instrument track where the plug in mix setting will be variable and is used to control the mix of the dry input signal and the wet reverb output or on a separate send bus where the mix setting is always set to 100 wet and the relative wet dry mix levels are set by adjusting the send level on the audio or instrument track that is feeding into the send bus Both uses are desirable for different needs All Aether presets are saved for use as inserts on audio tracks and the mix setting is an important part of the desired sound of the preset This can be a source of great inspiration for musicians who are playing and composing directly into Aether as each preset is designed to elicit a different feeling or emotional environment Professional mix engineers on the other hand generally like to use reverb on a send bus and generally want the Mix setting always to stay at 100 wet Aether offers the best of both worlds presets are saved for insert use on disk but Send Mode behavior is also achievable To achieve Send Mode behavior simply set the IN Mix setting to 100 and engage the Lock button connected to this control It is now possible to browse all presets in Send Mode and the mix setting will never change We consider this t
2. does not successfully launch the installer The reason for this is generally that the installer has been downloaded to a network drive a shared local drive or is saved deep in the folder hierarchy of the users systems In such cases Windows may block the launch of our installer for security reasons If this occurs simply temporally move the installer folder to either your Desktop or to your Program Files folder and run the installer from this location This will solve the issue Upon successful installation you may move or delete the installer from this temporary location as desired Windows Installation BOTH 32bit AND 64bit It is possible to install both the 32 bit and the 64 bit versions of plug in on the same system however there are two restrictions 1 You must have the plug in installed into different VST folders 2 Your 32 bit and 64 bit hosts must point to those different VST folders respectively i e your host must not scan both VST folders The 64 bit host should scan a VST folder that contains only 64 bit plug ins while the 32 bit host should scan VST folder that contains only 32 bit plug ins During installation please verify that both plug in paths are correct for your particular system 9 AUAO 1 5 USER MANUAL Mac OSX Installation 32bit To install the plug in double click on Install 2C Aether mpkg A standard OSX Installer will launch Follow the installer instructions By default both VST and Au
3. ER Lock This control locks both the ER Gain and the ER Bypass state When in the locked state the associated controls will not respond to changes made by preset changes automation or user input until first unlocked To lock the Bypass state first click on the Bypass button and then click on the Lock To unlock do the reserve e The primary function of this feature is that is allows you scan factory presets as only ER presets or only LR presets by locking one engine in Bypass mode and locking the other with a gain of OdB 28 ER Stereo Mode 1 5 USER MANUAL The ER Stereo Mode control has a large effect on the way the input channels are handled and how spatialization is applied to them in the ER Engine Previous versions of Aether offered one Stereo Mode for ERs and two for LRs Aether 1 5 now offers the choice of four independent Stereo Modes for both ERs and LRs These modes are described below Note Aether s ER Cross and ER Width controls can have different behaviors for each ER Stereo Mode e L R Mono A CPU saving Mono summed to Stereo process o ER Cross controls the Left Right input balance of the ER Engine Cross 0 means the input signal is coming only from the Left channel of the stereo input Cross 100 means the input signal is coming from both the Left and Right channels equally and the input is the mixed to mono equal sum of both channels Cross 200 means the input signal is coming only from the Right cha
4. Can be useful on vocals and instruments with slow attacks and few transients Can be used to create to create granular and multi tap delay like Special FX when LR Size is large Can be useful to achieve low density tails popularized to some degree by classic hardware devices Can increase resonance at extremely low values 00000O e High values o Produce more density and more complex echo patterns o Can be useful on percussive instruments with fast attack transients such as drums percussions piano keys and guitar o Are generally best for modeling realistic concert halls and musical performance spaces o Can be used to emulate Plate Reverbs Tip lower than normal LR Diffuse settings are sometimes desirable when using Cascade The reason for this is because using Cascade has the effect of increasing the reverb tail density and therefore reducing the LR Diffuse setting can counteract this increase in density and retain the perceived density that is most suited to the current musical application LR Modulation Unlike convolution reverbs Aether is not a static process and no two instances of Aether are ever exactly the same The same is true in real world acoustical spaces as well a building s acoustical character may vary slightly depending on several factors such as its current occupancy and even more subtle things such as the current temperature and humidity Thus acoustic space itself is alive in the real world and is constantly shifting mor
5. amp HF Absorber 61 1 5 USER MANUAL Urban Street Default Size 25m XYZ Ratios 20 100 100 Materials Concrete amp Concrete Urban Bridge Default Size 25m XYZ Ratios 100 100 Materials Brick amp LF Absorber 1 5 USER MANUAL Understanding Cross and Width INPUT EXAMPLES In order to thoroughly understand Aether s Cross and Width Controls it is helpful to consider a phase meter as shown in the diagrams below A phase meter will show both gain and phase differences between channels The left and right channels of a stereo signal are represented on 45 degree diagonal axes These are shown as the red and green lines below The signal is shown in yellow If the input is a mono signal coming only out of the right channel it is represented by a straight line at 45 degrees as shown in example 1 below If the same mono signal were coming only from the left channel it would be represented by a straight line at 45 degrees If the signal was panned dead center and there were no differences at all between channels the signal would be represented by a vertical line The important thing to realize is that Gain based panning information is represented by the slope or the rotation of the line Thus in the last example a signal that is panned 50 Right is shown as a straight line at 22 5 degrees Slope or Rotation equals panning A A TA TA CROSS EXAMPLES Note Aether s two Cross parameters can have different mea
6. Aether Aether is an award winning ultimate quality self modulating algorithmic reverb We believe it is one of the best sounding reverbs on the market at any price point Aether offers several industry leading and unique features including e 2x amp 4x Oversampling e Double Precision 64bit DSP e 64bit Host OS Support e Band limited Interpolation e Variable Quality Modes e Extreme Off line Render Modes e Proprietary Spectral Modulation e Attack amp Sustain Envelope e Variable Q Damping Decay Curve e Mid Side modes e Cascade Control e Complex Stereo Modes e 0 Sample Latency e Frequency Profiles e Immediate Parameter Accessibility e Macro Controls e Comprehensive Preset Browser e Instant algorithm browsing e Flexible EQ Filter Routing e Huge Usable Parameter Value Ranges e Discrete Early Reflections engine e Comprehensive FX Presets e Complex amp Clustered IRs e Diffuse Late Reflections Coloration 2 audio 1 5 USER MANUAL System requirements Minimum Hardware Requirements 1 core CPU with SSE2 support running at least at 800Mhz 512MB of RAM Recommended Hardware 4 core CPU with SSE2 support running at least at 2 0GHz 2GB of RAM The Aether algorithm benefits greatly from faster RAM and larger CPU cache size Performance is in fact bound by these factors more than raw CPU clock speed especially when running at the higher quality settings Intel i7 Intel Xeon equivalent AMD processors and more recent processors with large ca
7. For our purposes we can consider Q to mean the filter slope o Q 5 0 707107 The steepest slope that does not produce overshoot or ripple This is the default value and is very similar to a common 2 pole filter with 12dB Octave roll off Q Y 0 50 The so called Critically Damped setting in physics and a good moderate setting to try Q 0 353553 The gentlest slope that does not produce any inflection points in the curve This is very similar to a common 1 pole filter with 6dB Octave roll off and is a very useful setting o Q gt 7 gt 0 707107 steep slopes which tend to produce some ringing resonance and overshoot o Q lt lt 0 353553 gentle slopes which begin to behave like two separate 1 pole filters with different cutoffs and lead to the creation of irregular and inflecting reversing curves Q settings of less than 0 35 can thus produce fairly counter intuitive results and offered mostly for advanced users and for FX use e High EQ Q specifies high EQ filter slope or resonance o Qrange is from 0 05 to 1 00 o Q stands for Quality Factory and is defined in physics as a dimensionless parameter that describes how under damped an oscillator or resonator is or equivalently characterizes a resonator s bandwidth relative to its center frequency For our purposes we can consider Q to mean the filter slope o Q 5 0 707107 The steepest slope that does not produce overshoot or ripple This is the default value
8. It is easiest to think of this control as part of an amplitude envelope on the LR Engine response As such this control is rare to find in algorithmic reverbs as typically reverb tails simply start at full gain and decay exponentially The LR Attack control allows the amplitude envelope to be customized and morph from the traditional exponential decay behavior to a much slower attack where the Amplitude of the LR Engine starts at silence and fades in to peak amplitude following a proprietary curve designed for maximum musicality 34 1 5 USER MANUAL Note It is important to note that the direction of this control is reversed from what you may expect Low values produce a fast attack and high values produce a slow attack This design decision was chosen because as the knob moves away from the minimum value it diverges away from the natural exponential envelope that is traditionally available in competitive products e Low Values o Begin at peak without any rise time in the case of the 0 setting o Have very fast rise times which reach peak value almost instantly o Are good choices to use for small spaces with simple geometry o Are good choices to use to emulate Plate Reverbs e High Values o Have slow rise times which reach peak value gradually and gently o Are good choices to use for larger spaces with complex geometry such as concert halls o Can be used instead of additional LR Pre Delay to find the optimal balance in the transition betwe
9. The associated ER parameters do not change o LR Time LR Size LR Pre Delay LR Shape LR Attack LR Spread LR Sustain LR Diffusion and LR HF Soft change to their associated default values for the given Space Type o The ER Space Type model changes o ER Size ER Position ER Shape ER Absorption ER Color and ER HF Soft also change to their associated default values for the given Space Type o LR Time LR Size LR Pre Delay LR Shape LR Attack LR Spread LR Sustain LR Diffusion and LR HF Soft change to their associated default values for the given Space Type When using the Both mode the most of the important parameters on the interface change along with the ER Space Type model This set of parameters will give a very good starting point for new preset creation and cover all size geometry material filter and timing related settings Note however that these parameters do not represent the entire acoustic space as they don t include the complete frequency characteristics of acoustic space such as the master EQ and LR Decay curve These controls are reserved for the Freq Profile system described later on in this document For you convenience we have also created a set of complete presets based on these Space Type defaults Since they are complete presets they also include all other settings on the GUI including the frequency related settings modulation mix settings and the rest You can find these under the OO Defaults folder in the F
10. admin password e Change ALL three user groups to Read amp Write Access f Click on the gear wheel icon drop down menu on the bottom of the page and select Apply to Enclosed Items Select Yes g Open your host load Aether and authorize it one last time This should solve the problem 2 audio i gt oo NEAL File Management Windows File Management All Aether related files are saved in a folder named 2C Aether that is created by our installer This folder is found in your shared VST Plugins folder on Windows which can be found various locations depending on your host application and OS i e C Program Files Steinberg VstPlugIns 2C Aether User Presets are stored in 2C Aether Presets User User Frequency Profiles are stored in 2C Aether Frequency Profiles User This information is really only needed when changing operating systems or upgrading to a new computer if you have created customer presets OSX File Management The Aether Audio Unit plug in is installed here Library Audio Plug Ins Components The Aether VST plug in is installed here Library Audio Plug Ins VST All supporting files presets and resources are installed here Library Application Support 2C Audio Aether User Presets are stored in Application Support 2C Audio Aether Presets User User Frequency Profiles are stored in Application Support 2C Audio Aether Frequency Profiles User
11. always the case when Aether is used on an Aux Bus Send FX channel LR Cross will affect the degree to which the spatial characteristics of the input affect the spatial characteristics of the output of the LR Engine The specific behavior for each Stereo Mode is summarized below L R Mono LR Cross controls the Left Right input balance L R Stereo LR Cross controls the relative input position of the source by cross mixing the left channel into the right channel and vice versa by varying degrees M S Normal LR Cross controls the Mid Side input balance M S Relative LR Cross controls the relative Width of the reverb signal J For more information please see the Understanding Stereo Modes Cross and Width section of the Getting Deeper section of this manual 43 1 5 USER MANUAL LR Width LR Width is measured in percent and has a range of 0 to 200 The exact meaning of the LR Width control is dependent upon the active LR Stereo Mode as described above and summarized below L R Mono LR Width controls internal width of the algorithm and left right correlation of the LR Engine output L R Stereo LR Width controls internal width of the algorithm and left right correlation of the LR Engine output Note that this is relative to the existing stereo width of the input signal M S Normal LR Width controls internal width of the algorithm and left right correlation of the LR Engine output M S Relative LR Width acts as an
12. and is very similar to a common 2 pole filter with 12dB Octave roll off Q 0 50 The so called Critically Damped setting in physics and a good moderate setting to try Q 0 353553 The gentlest slope that does not produce any inflection points in the curve This is T very similar to a common 1 pole filter with 6dB Octave roll off and is a very useful setting o Q gt Z gt 0 707107 steep slopes which tend to produce some ringing resonance and overshoot o Q lt lt 0 353553 gentle slopes which begin to behave like two separate 1 pole filters and lead to the creation of irregular and inflecting reversing curves Q settings of less than 0 35 can thus produce fairly counter intuitive results and offered mostly for advanced users and for FX use Filter Routing Button Aether 1 5 0 allows filter routing to be reversed In the previous 1 0 version the Master EQ was always an input EQ and the HF Soft filters were always on the output Aether 1 5 offers a button to reverse this behavior and put the HF Soft filters on the input and the Master EQ on the output This is a subtle difference in most cases but it can be useful for high pass and narrow band needs especially when more extreme modulation settings are used The reason for this is that Aether s modulation can expand the bandwidth of the signal and smear the signal out in the frequency domain therefore filtering before or after heavy modulation can give different resu
13. another Creative represents our commitment to innovation independent thought and invention We learn from the past but we do not wish to limit ourselves to mere emulation and duplication We seek not to emulate the great minds that have come before us but rather to understand the questions they struggled with and explore new solutions ideas and discoveries using the latest tools of our generation Moreover our products are designed to encourage these ideals in our users and our largest reward is hearing of enhanced creativity that was inspired by our products Precision represents our obsessive commitment to rigorous scientific standards of technical and numerical accuracy The words Good Enough are simply not in our vocabulary and we strive for perfection in all areas of our endeavors 2CAudio is passionate about both art and science and we consider them both invaluable leaves on the tree of knowledge 2CAudio prides itself on active engagement with our customers and the market as a whole and we are always open to your feedback Our corporate vision is not immutable and we attempt to mold and form our products to the needs of our customers We value your input and thank you for providing it to us We are always listening at info 2caudio com Technical support is provided via email at support 2caudio com To learn more about 2CAudio please visit our website at www 2caudio com Welcome to Aether Congratulations on your purchase of
14. in percent and is a complex parameter that adds some additional irregularity and variation to the geometry of the acoustic space The larger the value the more the reflection pattern becomes complex and chaotic This is a result of more complex three dimensional geometry You may think of it as increasing the number of reflective surfaces in the acoustic space or increasing the fractal tessellation of a three dimensional cube if you prefer to be really brainy 25 1 5 USER MANUAL el O e Low Values o Represent simple room geometries with few reflecting surfaces o Can conceptually be thought of as an empty cube at the minimum though this is not completely accurate e High Values o Represent complex room geometries with many reflecting surfaces and irregularities o Examples concert halls with audience seating natural spaces small rooms that contain a lot of furniture buildings with irregular architecture It is a good idea to take note of the default values of various Space Types and use these as starting points for exploration of new values for a given preset When in doubt simply use your ears to find a reflection pattern that works with your source material ER Pre Delay ER Pre Delay is measured in milliseconds ms and has a range of Oms to 1000ms 1 0sec It should be noted that even when this control is set to Oms the ER Engine still may contain some degree of natural Pre delay which is a function of the current ER
15. knob value To do so click on the knob you want to control using the left mouse button and then simply use mouse wheel e Holding down the Shift key on the keyboard while using the mouse wheel will change the values at a slow fine tune rate Keyboard Shortcuts In some hosts you can use keyboard keys to change knob values and switch presets in the Preset Browser To activate keyboard control first click somewhere in the Preset Browser window or on the knob you wish to control The keyboard shortcuts as follows e Preset Browser Keyboard Shortcuts o Left Right Up Down Arrow Keys moves preset selection one step in the respective direction o Page Up Page Down shifts the column display one step left or right o Home Selects the first preset o End Selects the last preset e Knob Keyboard Shortcuts o Up Down Arrow Keys changes value by 2 o Left Right Arrow Keys changes value by 0 1 fine tune o Page Up Page Down changes value by 10 Text Entry Double clicking on a knob opens the Text Entry mode for the control Floating point values may be entered with any desired decimal precision The initial precision displayed in the text entry mode when first opening it is formatted to fit within the given text entry field Full precision is stored in preset files and used in the DSP calculations Parameter units i e Seconds Hertz Decibels etc are displayed below the text entry field SOY AA VOVO TEXT ENTRY MODE 13
16. noise floor level and can conceptually be thought of as an analog process within its band limited frequency range Numerically this translates to noise and alias suppression of significantly greater than 144dB and a perfectly flat frequency response to 21Khz at a 44 1K sample rate and 36Khz at a 96K and higher sample rates In raw technical audio specifications we believe Aether 1 5 0 is unrivaled in today s market The three new variable Quality Settings allow new extreme levels of audio quality both for Realtime use and Offline bounces The lowest quality settings represent the same award winning quality found in Aether 1 0 are already literally excellent and competitive with the best in the market In fact even these settings are improved over the previous generation due to the switch to double precision DSP and additional enhancements in Aether 1 5 Amazingly when using these quality settings CPU usage is almost exactly the same as the previous version while latency has also been reduced to O Samples All additional quality settings represent further advancements and improvements going beyond even this highly acclaimed level and can be enabled for Offline bounces and Realtime use as available hardware power allows We believe our flexible implementation of these features can be considered as a best of scenario for the past preset and future This is the bleeding edge and we are happy to give you a sneak peak of tomorrow today Quality Sett
17. offset gain that is lost due the action of the ER HF Soft control e Positive range values can also be useful in conjunction with the Cascade control for advanced preset design where one would like to more specifically control the balance between the dry signal the direct ER signal the direct LR signal and the Cascaded signal in the master output LR Bypass The LR Bypass button allows you to completely disable the LR Engine When LR Bypass is on the LR Engine output is muted and the processing requirements of the LR Engine are removed from your CPU While LR Bypass is active all LR parameters are displayed in a special disabled GUI state To re enable the LR Engine and return to the normal state of behavior simply click on the LR Bypass button again The LR Bypass function has several purposes e A large variety of presets can be designed using only the ER Engine including short ambiences and delay FX and these type of presets are easy to indentify quickly when the LR section is bypassed e It allows a CPU usage saving e It facilitates the method of using one LR instance on a send aux bus FX track while using several ER instances as inserts on audio tracks LR Lock This control locks both the LR Gain and the LR Bypass state When in the locked state the associated controls will not respond to changes made by preset changes automation or user input until first unlocked To lock the Bypass state first click on the Bypass button and t
18. presets to choose from and management and organization of these presets becomes important to maintain maximum ease of use In order to achieve that goal Aether presets are organized into the following folders e 01 Defaults Default presets for each of the 33 various ER Space Types which represent good starting points for developing custom presets e 02 Halls Concert hall presets of various sizes and character e 03 Musical Musical performance spaces such as Theaters excluding concert halls and spiritual buildings e 04 Spiritual Churches Cathedrals Temples Mosques and other places of worship e 05 Plates Emulations of Plate Reverb behavior e 06 Drums Presets that have been designed specifically for drums and percussion e 07 Instruments Presets that have been designed for specific instruments as noted in the preset name e 08 Vocals Presets that have been designed for use on lead vocals e 09 Ambience Short and unobtrusive presets which are designed to be very subtle and barely noticeable e 10 Small Small room presets of several varieties of Space Types e 11 Narrow Spaces where one physical room size dimension is much longer than the other two such as hallways corridors stairwells tunnels etc e 12 Nature Natural outdoor spaces such forests and canyons e 13 Urban Outdoor urban environments such as streets city squares and similar spaces e 14 Thematic Larger and longer than life presets which are designed become an active par
19. saves the current Frequency Profile settings to the User Bank folder and adds it to the preset list Save Frequency Profile to Folder saves the current Frequency Profile settings to a different folder location other than the User Bank By default the file dialog points to the folder of the currently active host project file if this information is available This is useful for archiving favorite settings together with projects and for sharing a given preset with peers on either local or global networks Load Frequency Profile loads a single preset file into the current plug in state This is useful for loading presets that were saved and or shared with the Save Frequency Profile to Folder action J 2 audio N 1 5 USER MANUAL The Main Page Three Sections Aether s GUI is divided into three pages the Main page the Browser page and the Info page The Main page displays approximately 60 controls and GUI elements In effort to make this complexity manageable for the user and make things as clear and easy as possible the Aether GUI makes use of several organizational themes The Aether GUI makes intelligent use of Spatial Position Color and Size organizational ideas to make things as intuitive as possible Aether s Main Page is conceptually separated into three sections Early Reflections ER Late Reflections LR and Input amp Master Controls IN The GUI separates these three sections as shown below using both color coding
20. stereo width of the wet output signal will be exactly inversely proportional to the input signal i e an in phase mono input will result in an output that is exactly 180 degrees out of phase between the left and right channels o ER Width behaves like an output panner for the output of the ER Engine in this mode Low values shift the output signal left and high values shift it right o Usage examples Feed Aether a mono signal and receive a mono output Feed it a wide stereo signal and receive the same output Or reverse the behavior Excellent on omni directional sounds such as synth pads and ambiences or dense mixes which already contain complex spatial information Excellent for special FX use especially when used in conjunction with Cascade 7 For more information please see the Understanding Stereo Modes Cross and Width section of the Getting Deeper section of this manual ER Stereo Mode Lock The ER Stereo Mode Lock locks the ER Stereo mode When in the locked state the ER Stereo Mode control will not respond to changes made by preset changes automation or user input until first unlocked This can be useful while scanning presets in the following circumstances e CPU usage needs to be conserved and therefore may it be desirable to use only the L R Mono Stereo Mode which requires less power than the other Stereo Modes e Aether is being used on a stereo bus in a send mode configuration and therefore it may be d
21. the source Thus the same process applied to different input sources will still result in different outputs Therefore if a purely mono output signal is desired LR Cross must be set to 100 to collapse the input signal to mono and then LR Width should be set to 0 to keep the process identical for both channels For more information please see the Understanding Stereo Modes Cross and Width section of the Getting Deeper section of this manual 44 audio 3 1 5 USER MANUAL Browser Page Parameters amp GUI Details The Preset Browser The preset browser page displays up to 120 world class professionally designed factory presets which are only a single click away and load instantly When we say instantly we really mean it there is no waiting for an impulse response to load from your hard drive or carpal tunnel inducing repetitive scanning through nested sub folders like as is common in competitive products A quick scan through these presets will allow you to quickly find exactly the right sound you need for your application and using the browser page instead of the main page will keep you protected from becoming a Space Time Freq like the rest of us here at 2CAudio Aether 1 5 ships with over 300 factory presets The optional Aether Integrity Expansion and Aether Creativity Expansion add over 300 additional presets More preset expansions may become available in future as well As such Aether offers a huge number of factory
22. this is objectionable for the given musical need it is recommended to raise the LR Shape value to at least 25 or more 0000 e Medium to High Values o Represent complex room geometries with many reflecting surfaces and irregularities o Examples concert halls with audience seating natural spaces small rooms that contain a lot of furniture buildings with irregular architecture o Will produce the weakest emphasis on LR Size differences and will contain less natural Pre Delay o Will produce the smoothest amplitude envelope in the tails o Can exhibit some minor coloration at extreme values approaching 100 LR Size and LR Shape work together to create the illusion of physical dimensionality in the LR Engine LR Size determines the longest distance between any two exterior walls of the theoretical space and LR Shape determines the 33 1 5 USER MANUAL smaller finer architectural details of the interior of this space Together LR Size and LR Shape can affect the overall timbre of the reverberation It is a good idea to take note of the default values of various Space Types and use these as starting points for exploration of new values for a given preset When in doubt simply use these guidelines and your ears to find a reflection pattern that works with your source material Tip If LR Size and LR Shape are both set to high values it is possible to achieve lower density and slower build up in the reverb tails without the obvious psychoacousti
23. 1 5 USER MANUAL 2 audio DENIS MALYGIN ANDREW SOUTER 2 audio s 1 5 USER MANUAL Nature Forest a COLOR HF SOFT CASCADE DEPTH PERIOD MODULATION ER CROSS ER WIDTH a nn M S Normal va GAIN 1 GAIN Credits e Research Concept Functionality and Feature Development Denis Malygin and Andrew Souter e DSP amp System Coding Implementation and Optimization Denis Malygin e GUI Concept amp Implementation Andrew Souter with special thanks to Manuel Colom for stylistic guidance e Presets Andrew Souter Denis Malygin Deneb Pinjo and Wolfram Dettki e Manual Andrew Souter Thanks Many thanks to our beta team for helping us release bug free software Additional thanks to all of the great minds who have come before us as well as our contemporary peers who continue to help advance the art and science of digital audio signal processing And finally special thanks to our friends and families who are kind and forgiving enough to tolerate the level of obsessiveness necessary to make a product such as Aether audio 1 5 ao MANUAL nn Table of Contents 1 Introduction a Welcome to 2CAudio Welcome to Aether System requirements Installation amp Authorization File Management Uninstalling GUI The Navigation Bar The Main Page The Browser Page The Info Page e Mouse and Keyboard Interface Gestures 3 Getting Started a Achieving Send Mode Behavior Using Locks b Using the Easy Mode Controls on
24. 107 The steepest slope that does not produce overshoot or ripple This is the default value and is very similar to a common 2 pole filter with 12dB Octave roll off e Q 0 50 The so called Critically Damped setting in physics and a good moderate setting to try e Q 5 0 353553 The gentlest slope that does not produce any inflection points in the curve This is very similar to a common 1 pole filter with 6dB Octave roll off and is a very useful setting e Q gt 5 gt 0 707107 steep slopes which tend to produce some ringing resonance and overshoot e Q lt lt 0 353553 gentle slopes which begin to behave like two separate 1 pole filters with different cutoffs and lead to the creation of irregular and inflecting reversing curves Q settings of less than 0 35 can thus produce fairly counter intuitive results and offered mostly for advanced users and for FX use LR Low LR Mid amp LR High The LR Low LR Mid and LR High parameters are measured in percent and set the reverb decay time multiplier values for the Low Mid and High bands respectively The actual reverb time RT60 for a specific band is calculated as the product of LR Time and the given multiplier value For example if LR Time is set to 10 0sec and LR Low is 0 75 LR Mid is 1 0 and LR High is 0 25 then the actual RT60 decay times for the bands will be 7 5sec 10sec and 2 5sec respectively and various Q settings will cause various smooth transitional a
25. AETHER S TIME ENVELOPE CONTROLS ATTACK EXAMPLES Reverb energy in nature decays exponentially In musical applications however often it is desirable for the reverb to remain higher in volume for a little longer as to augment the sense of space around a particular instrument Aether offers three controls Attack Spread and Sustain to accomplish this without muddying the mix and still allowing a natural decay down to negative infinity These controls apply to the Late Reflection LR engine in Aether and do not affect the Early Reflections Aether s Attack control does what the name implies it adjusts the attack characteristics of the build up of the LR energy When Attack is at the minimum setting of 0 it is off and the LR energy starts immediately at full scale and falls away to inf following and exponential decay This state is shown below in the first example shown in red The second example shows the opposite extreme at a maximum setting of 100 the Attack control causes the LR energy to fade in from inf and then fade back out to inf The last two examples show the middle ground ATTACK 000 SPREAD MIN OFF ATTACK 100 SPREAD MIN OFF ATTACK 050 SPREAD MIN OFF ATTACK 025 SPREAD MIN OFF SUSTAIN 000 SUSTAIN 000 SUSTAIN 000 SUSTAIN 000 sp SUSTAIN EXAMPLES Aether s sustain control has the effect of shifting the decay curve to keep the energy level of the reverb tail higher for a larger percentage of the decay ti
26. Envelope Latency Diffusion Modal Density Discrete Early Reflections engine User Modulation Range Complex amp Clustered IR amp envelope responses Diffuse Late Reflections Coloration Stereo Modes Stereo Mode Control Mid Side modes Complex Stereo Modes EQ Flexible EQ Filter Routing LR Damping Curves FX Usage Maximum Size Macro Controls Total Presets Parameter Accessibility Instant algorithm browsing Preset Browser Copy Protection Price Aether 1 5 2x amp 4x Critical Processes Yes for Windows VST Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 0 samples Low to approaching maximally diffuse with one control Low to approaching maximally dense depending on settings Yes extensive Can function on its own Extreme Depth and Period Rate Extensive via Cascade mode Perfectly flat or extensive Coloration via Cascade mode 4 independent modes for ERs and LRs hybrid modes via cascade Input Balance Input Cross Process Width Output Rotation Yes Normal and Relative Independent for ERs and LRs and Cascade offers a third hybrid 2 band master EQ plus 2 single band HF shelving filters Yes Master EQ and filters can be pre of post Alg 3 Band flexible Q and 12 Octave freq range Extreme Parameter Range allows extensive FX presets 250 Meters Space Type and Freq Profiles with advanced Link modes Over 600 and growing plus thousands or Macro combinations Single Page Main GUI Easy controls on Brower page Yes Yes Instantly aud
27. Knob Motion preference determines how to interoperate mouse input gestures when using the mouse to change a parameter knob on the GUI Changes to this preference take place instantly This preference has three options 48 9 AUAO rn 1 5 USER MANUAL e Linear Parameter values increase when mouse click drag movement is up or to the right in a straight line Parameter values decrease when mouse click drag movement is down or to the left in a straight line e Circular Parameter values increase when mouse click drag movement is in a clockwise circular arc around the knob Parameter values decrease when mouse click drag movement is in a counter clockwise circular arc around the knob This motion emulates the physical action of turning a real hardware knob though it is not exactly the same experience and most users prefer to use the Linear motion e Follow Host This mode attempts to determine the standard knob motion preference of the host application and use the same setting for Aether Tail Reporting The Tail Reporting preference determines whether or not Aether attempts to communicate the actual realized reverb time length i e The Tail to the host application Some hosts feature CPU saving techniques where processing is suspended when there is no active audio region passing sound into the plug in inserts in the mixer This can potentially create issues for plug ins such as reverbs and delays that continue to produce output long after the input
28. Meter and six of Aether s most important parameters We call this area the Easy Mode Controls These controls are designed to allow the beginner to use the Browser page as an easy mode where he may quickly scan through and audition presets and make small edits to the most important settings without having to face the complexity of the Main page This can be a good option to use while becoming familiar with the plug in for the first time e ER Gain Controls the output gain of the Early Reflections Engine e ER Gain Bypass Bypasses the output gain of the Early Reflections Engine and removes the processing requirements from the CPU e ER Size Controls the Early Reflections Size parameter e ER Size Link Forces LR Size to have the same value as ER Size and therefore makes the ER Size knob control the Size of both engines e IN Gain Controls the Master Input Gain of the plug in e IN Mix Controls the Master Wet Dry Mix of the plug in e LR Time Controls the Late Reflections Time RT60 parameter e LR Gain Controls the output gain of the Late Reflections Engine e LR Gain Bypass Bypasses the output gain of the Late Reflections Engine and removes the processing requirements from the CPU The controls on this page duplicate the functionality of the controls of the same name on the Main page of the GUI For full details on the behavior of these parameters please refer to the Main Page Parameters amp GUI Details section of this documen
29. Size ER Position and ER Shape settings and can be considered to be the time it takes for the sound source to reach a virtual microphone in the ER Space Type model ER Pre Delay should thus be considered as an additional pre delay that is added to this pre existing natural amount This feature can be useful to e Create slap back presets where the dry signal is kept clear clean and uncluttered by Early Reflections in the first few milliseconds of the resulting impulse response e Model large outdoor spaces which have distinct echoes late in the tails e Achieve complex irregular and clustered composite amplitude envelopes through the use Cascade e Achieve complex three dimensional spatial behavior through the use of Cascade and inverted Cross settings ER Color 2C Aether implements a complex multi stage filtering technique that simulates the frequency dependent acoustic absorption of different surface materials Each Space Type model has two different materials associated with it These include materials such as brick glass marble wood etc The ER Color parameter is measured in percent and allows the effects of these filters to be emphasized or deemphasized An ER Color value of 0 corresponds to the most natural settings for the given materials Negative Values e Emphasize the effects of the material filters and generally result in a thinner or lighter sound e Can be useful to emulate classic hardware devices that do not have stron
30. This information is really only needed when changing operating systems or upgrading to a new computer if you have created customer presets Uninstalling 2CAudio installers do not create hidden files or modify anything on your system To uninstall you simply have to delete the plug in files and the associated resource files The location of these files is described in the previous section If you intend to reinstall Aether again at any point in the future and if you have created your own User Presets be sure to back these up before deleting your installation 2 audio 14 1 5 USER MANUAL The GUI The Navigation Bar The Aether GUI is segmented in three main pages the Main Page the Browser Page and the Info Page At the top of all three of these pages is found a common area called the Navigation Bar This area has two functions to allow navigation to the various GUI pages and to handle global preset and file needs The navigation bar is shown below ACTIVE PRESET COPY STATE INFO PAGE PRESET DECREMENT ACTIVE STATE BROWSER PAGE MAIN PAGE FILE MENU PRESET INCREMENT Page Navigation On the left side of the Navigation Bar is found the Page Navigation area To switch the Main Page click on Main To switch to the Browser Page click on Browser To switch on the Info Page click on Info Any questions No We didn t think so Preset and File Actions Area On the right side of the Navigation Bar is found the Preset and File Act
31. X LR High Q LR Low LR Mid LR High change o INEQLowF IN EQ Low Q IN EQ Low Gain IN EQ High F IN EQ High Q and IN EQ High Gain change o The associated HF Soft parameters do not change e All o LR Low X LR Low Q LR High X LR High Q LR Low LR Mid LR High change IN EQ Low F IN EQ Low Q IN EQ Low Gain IN EQ High F IN EQ High Q and IN EQ High Gain change o ER HF Soft and LR HF Soft change O LR Decay Curve Parameters Aether employs an industry first advanced frequency dependent decay time scaling process that allows users to specifically sculpt and carve custom reverb damping curves with unprecedented flexibility Aether divides the audio frequency range into three frequency ranges and allows each frequency range to have its own time scaling factor To add further flexibility the Q or filter slope of both filter cut off points is adjustable from 0 05 to 1 00 to allow extreme variance 37 1 5 USER MANUAL from gentle sloping curves to extremely steep ones This allows the users to keep the mix clean in critical bands while allowing more space in others and it allows preset designers to achieve both ultimate realism and intentional supernatural effects LR Low X amp LR High X The LR Low X control sets the Low Mid band split frequency The LR High X control sets the Mid High band split frequency Both controls are measured in Hertz Hz and can be set anywhere within the full frequency range from 8hz to 32 768hz Infrason
32. actory presets We have included a second set of these with version 1 5 0 which have been designed specifically to take advantage of some of the new 1 5 0 features These can be good starting points for further exploration and customization ER Size The ER Size control sets the general size of the ER Space Type model Each Space Type model actually is comprised of X Y and Z size dimensions internally The actual default values for these are provided in the ER Space Type Details section of the Getting Deeper chapter of this document The ER Size control always represents the largest dimension of the selected Space Type For example for Corridor it corresponds to the corridor s depth and for Church to its height The ER Size control is measured in Meters and has a range of 1 to 250 Meters This is a rather huge range and it should be noted that the more you diverge from the Space Type s default value the less the result will remain identifiable with the given Space Type The results for all Space Types generally become abstract at the extreme ranges of the ER Size control A 250 meter Telephone Booth would be quite odd indeed 1 5 USER MANUAL e Extremely small sizes o Produce strong coloration comb filtering and resonance o Can be used intentionally with the Cascade control to produce highly colored composite impulse responses e Extremely large size o Produce effects similar to multi tap delay effect o Assist
33. ally that is to say that it decreases rapidly after the sound source has stopped emitting sound This is probably a good thing in nature as we would not want to hear a thunder boom continue on for weeks after the lightning strike In musical applications however often we would like the reverb to remain higher in volume for a little longer as to augment the sense of space around a particular instrument When using traditional exponentially decaying reverb designs producers and engineers often resort to raising the gain of the reverb to achieve this goal They soon realize however that the rest of mix gets muddy very quickly and so they reach for their gates to compensate for this problem This of course results in its own set of complications Aether offers two controls Spread and Sustain to keep the energy in the reverb tail higher a little longer than normal without muddying the mix and still allowing a natural decay down to negative infinity Aether also offers the Attack control to shape the reverb tail s attack envelope to allow for slower build up as is found in larger buildings These combine to provide the ultimate control over the time envelope of the Late Reflections For more information please see the Understanding Aether s Time Envelope Controls section of the Getting Deeper section of this manual LR Attack LR Attack is measured in percent and controls the slope curve and speed of the LR Engine reverb tail build up
34. and positional information to keep them distinct ER controls are found on the left of the GUI and are green LR controls are found on the right and top center of the GUI and are blue IN controls are found in the bottom center of the GUI and are orange ALL G amp D FREQ from preset Y l Po aso POSITION SHAPE PREDELAY CASCADE DEPTH PERIOD MODULATION ER CROSS ER WIDTH LR WIDTH LR CROSS L R Stereo INPUT MASTER SECTION IN LATE REFLECTIONS LR 2 audio 1 5 USER MANUAL Space Time Freq In addition to organization by ER LR and IN sections the Aether Main Page GUI also follows a secondary organizational structure This method segments the GUI into five areas Space Time Freq Mix and Navigation The Space area controls are found in the upper left of the GUI and are concerned with things that define the type of acoustic space used in the current preset The Time area controls are found in the upper center of the GUI and are responsible for controlling both the overall reverb tail decay time called RT60 in DSP industry jargon as well contour and character of the decay curve The Freq area controls are found in the upper right of the GUI and are responsible for the overall frequency characteristics of the wet signal The Mix area controls are found on the lower half of the GUI and are responsible for things which are related to integrating Aether s output signal into working mix environment in a host application T
35. audio region has stopped playing Most hosts are able to correctly handle these situations without additional effort on our behalf and it is not necessary to use the Report Tail setting Some hosts are not quite as advanced however and for these hosts we offer the Report Tail setting to keep the tails from being muted when no audio regions are active Changes to this preference take place instantly This preference has two options e Do Not Report Tail This mode does not attempt to report the tail length to the host and is the default e Report Tail This mode attempts to report the tail length to the host to accommodate rare situations where the host does not do this automatically Quality Settings The Aether 1 5 offers a large list of industry first innovations in the area of audio quality The features described below are designed to work synergistically to achieve a full frequency perfectly band limited artifact free system To our knowledge this is an industry first for algorithmic reverbs Algorithmic reverbs in the past employed modulation to hide moderate to severe artifacts in their processes but these compromises in turn created their own side effects such as increased noise floor unwanted high frequency decay and the creation of aliasing In comparison to previous competitive products Aether 1 0 had very few artifacts At the highest offline quality settings Aether 1 5 effectively has none all the way down to our dither
36. by clicking on this button When in the locked state the control will not respond to changes made by preset changes automation or user input e Setting Gain to 0dB and engaging its Lock will prevent the setting from changing when auditioning presets Together with the Mix Lock this allows Aether to function in Send Mode as it is commonly referred to by third party companies e For additional flexibility we suggest you consider locking the Input Gain to 6dB or 12dB when using Aether on Send busses and adjusting your send levels accordingly This allows a greater range in the relative wet dry mix that is achieved when using Send Busses In other words you can achieve more front to back depth in your 18 1 5 USER MANUAL mixes by having a larger range in the respective wet dry balances on the various components in your mix Adjust your send levels accordingly on your audio and instrument tracks Master EQ Section Aether s Master EQ section offers two filters in series Low EQ and High EQ These filers can either be Shelf or Cut filters depending on the settings All frequency control settings for the Master Input EQ and the LR Decay curves can be set at full frequency range from 8 0hz to 32 768 0hz In other words Aether 1 5 0 offers a twelve octave frequency response range Infrasonic lt 20hz and ultrasonic gt 20kHz frequency cutoffs can be useful to achieve gentle roll offs of extreme frequencies within the hearing range Furtherm
37. c characteristics of a large space such as an excessively large Pre Delay or time between reflections in the initial build up To some degree high LR Shape values can reduce the perceived size of the acoustic space and the control works in opposition to the LR Size control Using higher than normal values on both controls can be useful to emulate behavior of some classic hardware devices LR Pre Delay LR Pre Delay is measured in milliseconds ms and has a range of Oms to 1000ms 1 0sec It should be noted that even when this control is set to Oms the LR Engine still may contain some degree of natural Pre delay which is a function of the current LR Size and LR Shape settings This can be considered to be the time it takes for the sound source to cross the shortest distance between reflecting surfaces present in the acoustic space LR Pre Delay should thus be considered as an additional pre delay that is added to this pre existing natural amount This feature can be useful to e Create slap back presets e Increase clarity and intelligibility by keeping some silence between the ERs and the start of LRs e Achieve complex three dimensional spatial behavior through the use of Cascade and inverted Cross settings LR Time Envelope Controls Aether s LR Time Envelop Controls consist of LR Attack LR Sustain and LR Spread and provide incredible flexibility and control of the amplitude envelope of the LR Engine Reverb energy in nature decays exponenti
38. ch can model these types of processes with the ultimate flexibility and precision It is responsible for providing the Tail of the reverb LR parameters control the overall statistical characteristics of this complex and diffuse Tail LR Time LR Time is measured in seconds and has a range of 0 10 sec to 120 sec LR Time represents the amount of time it takes for the reverb energy to decrease by 60 dB For this reason it is also called RT60 by other companies In Aether LR Time sets the master reference decay time for all frequencies the actual realized decay time for various frequencies is the product of the LR Time reference and the three LR Decay Ratio settings found in the Freq Display section of the GUI In order to achieve decay times that exactly match the LR Time setting for all frequencies all three LR Decay Ratios settings should be set to 100 as explained later in this chapter Note LR Time value represents the maximum possible decay time for any frequency range This design is slightly different than competitive products that sometimes specify the time setting to represent the average decay time for all frequencies Do to this fact LR Time settings in Aether may need to be slightly longer than competitive products to achieve similar sonic results If the LR Time control is set to more than 120 sec or the knob is moved to the maximum position Aether will enter a special Infinite Time mode In this mode there is theor
39. ches are ideal though certainly not required Note 2CAudio does not support PPC An Intel Mac is required on OS X Supported Windows Operating Systems XP 32 XP 64 Vista 32 Vista 64 Win 7 32 Win 7 64 Supported Mac OS X Operating Systems X 4 Tiger X 5 n Leopard X 6 n Snow Leopard Supported Hosts Aether is compatible with most known VST and AU hosts so long as they conform to the plug in format standard and work with the hardware and operating systems above Please refer to 2c aether Tested Hosts txt for a specific list of tested hosts If your desired host is not on this list please try the demo to verify compatibility with your system and feel free to email us for additional information Support for Digidesign Avid Pro Tools RTAS format is coming soon Installation Authorization Windows Installation 32bit OR 64bit To install the plug in simply launch setup exe and follow the instructions If you are running under a 64 bit OS you will be asked to choose which version of the plug in either 32 bit or 64 bit or both to install Note that in order to load the 64 bit version of the plug in you must use a 64 bit audio host lf you have a 64 bit host we recommend installing the 64 bit version Installation of the plug in is subject to accepting the End User License Agreement which you can read during installation Note In rare cases some users have reported that clicking on the installer application setup exe
40. d Musical Hall 1 Default Size 20m XYZ Ratios 100 80 65 Materials Gypsum amp Seats Unoccupied Musical Hall 2 Default Size 30m XYZ Ratios 100 70 85 Materials Brick amp Seats Occupied gt tai Ss E A 1 5 USER MANUAL Musical Hall 3 Default Size 50m XYZ Ratios 70 100 65 Materials Floor Concrete amp Seats Occupied Musical Stadium Default Size 80m XYZ Ratios 100 60 100 Materials Glass Large Pane amp Seats Unoccupied Musical Stage Default Size 20m XYZ Ratios 70 100 70 Materials Brick amp Seats Unoccupied Musical Studio Default Size 10m XYZ Ratios 80 100 30 Materials HF Absorber amp LF Absorber 1 5 USER MANUAL Musical Theatre Default Size 20m XYZ Ratios 90 100 75 Materials Seats Occupied amp Gypsum Narrow Corridor Default Size 15m XYZ Ratios 20 100 20 Materials Glass Large Pane amp Brick Narrow Hallway Default Size 25m XYZ Ratios 100 Open65 Materials Glass Large Pane amp Brick Narrow Shaft Default Size 5m XYZ Ratios 100 100 Materials Brick amp Brick 1 5 USER MANUAL Narrow Tunnel Default Size 5m XYZ Ratios Open70 50 Materials Concrete amp Concrete Natural Canyon Default Size 80m XYZ Ratios 10 100 Open Materials Concrete amp Concrete Natural Cave Default Size 20m XYZ Ratios 70 100 60 Materials Floor Concrete amp Glass Large Pane Natural Fo
41. d what you are looking for For example if you are inserting Aether on a send bus in a classical music project you may like to limit preset browsing to the 02 Halls 03 Musical and 04 Spiritual folders so that you are not wasting time auditioning presets which are not designed for your particular application File List The Preset Browser File list displays the contents of the currently selected folders in the Folder List Selected folder names are also included in the display area as well and are clearly delineated from Preset names to achieve maximum organizational clarity This makes it clear at a glance which folder a given preset belongs to The active preset selection is highlighted by a black background File List Column Increment amp Decrement At the bottom of the Preset Browser is found a scroll bar interface element On the right side of this is the File List Column Increment button On the left side of this is the File List Column Decrement button The five columns of the Preset Browser display 120 presets If the current File List that is generated by the active Folder List selection is longer than 120 items these buttons allow the display selection to be shifted earlier or later in the list to display the other members of the list This should be fairly clear upon use and is generally very user friendly The Easy Mode Control Area Easy Mode Controls In addition to the Preset Brower itself the Browser page also displays the VU
42. dio Unit versions are installed If you would like to install only one particular version please follow the installer instructions on the readme page Installation of the plug in is subject to accepting the End User License Agreement which you can read during installation Authorization Upon loading the plug in in your host application for the first time the plug in will automatically display the Info page where you can authorize the product To authorize the product you need to enter the serial number that you were provided when you purchased the product The serial has the following form XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXX You should enter the serial segment by segment either by manually typing it or by cutting and pasting it into the five fields that are initially filled with the X character To do so double click on serial field An edit box will appear where you can type or paste the corresponding segment of the serial After entering a each of the SN segments press the Enter key on your keyboard Once you have entered all five segments of the serial click on the large orange Enter button If you have correctly entered a valid SN the product should become authorized and the status text will change from Enter Serial to Authorized If the SN is not accepted the status text will not change and the Enter button will remain on the GUI If this happens please check your SN and try to enter it again As long as the plug in remains unau
43. e 100 factory options by rapidly clicking on either of these areas Alternatively a desired Frequency Profile may be directly selected by accessing the Frequency Profile Menu and making a selection in the drop down menu Freq Profile Link As mentioned previously Freq Profiles consist of all Master EQ LR Decay Curve and HF Soft filter settings This is fifteen parameters in total and all of these parameters are always saved into the Freq Profile files on disk In use however it can be desirable to recall only a subset of these parameters For example if you have set the Master EQ to your liking but you would like to quickly audition different LR Decay Curves you may use the Freq Profile Link button to achieve this goal The Freq Profile Link button functions in a manner very similar to the ER Space Type Link button in that it allows you to customize the recall behavior when auditioning Freq Profiles It has four states which determine whether or not the associated parameters change when auditioning Freq Profiles The behaviors are as follows o LR Low X LR Low Q LR High X LR High Q LR Low LR Mid LR High change o The associated LR Decay parameters do not change o The associated HF Soft parameters do not change o The associated LR Decay parameters do not change o INEQLowF IN EQ Low Q IN EQ Low Gain IN EQ High F IN EQ High Q and IN EQ High Gain change o The associated HF Soft parameters do not change o LR Low X LR Low Q LR High
44. e Type may be changed by clicking directly on the ER Space Type Display picture or the ER Space Type Name text field Left mouse clicks will increment the currently active selection and right mouse clicks will decrement it This makes it very fast to cycle through the 33 options by rapidly clicking on either of these areas Alternatively a desired Space Type may be directly selected by accessing the ER Space Type Menu and making a selection in the drop down menu For additional information on the ER Space Type models please refer to the ER Space Type Details section of the Getting Deeper chapter of this document ER Space Type Link The internal parameters that comprise the ER Space Type model are not a combination of the other ER Engine GUI controls such as ER Size ER Position ER Shape ER Absorption ER Color and ER HF Soft The characteristics of the ER Space Type model are independent of and in addition to the other ER controls on the GUI However each ER Space Type model has a set of associated default parameter values for these other controls For the reasons explained in the next paragraph these default settings are provided both for the additional ER parameters as well as for some of the LR parameters In a real acoustic space there is no real distinction between Early and Late Reflections and the entire composite response of a real acoustic space consists of ERs LRs and frequency characteristics of the given environment Th
45. e 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 51 2 audio Nor 1 5 USER MANUAL 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
46. e response corresponds to extra width that is beyond what is natural It should be noted that if the input signal is already a complex stereo signal as it would be normally an ER Width setting of 0 will NOT collapse the stereo image to mono ER Width only affects left right differences in the process itself not the source Thus the same process applied to different input sources will still result in different outputs Therefore if a purely mono output signal is desired ER Cross must be set to 100 to collapse the input signal to mono and then ER Width should be set to 0 to keep the process identical for both channels For more information please see the Understanding Stereo Modes Cross and Width section of the Getting Deeper section of this manual 31 1 5 USER MANUAL Late Reflections Parameters As explained previously Impulse Reponses of real acoustic spaces generally show that delay tap density and complexity increases over time Once the delay tap distribution becomes so complex and dense that it is difficult or impossible to distinguish individual delays the Early Reflections phase of the Impulse Response is over and the Late Reflections phase has begun The Late Reflections phase is characterized by a very dense and spatially diffuse distribution of delays and is best described by statistical and stochastic methods instead of specific delay taps The Aether LR Engine is a highly configurable and flexible construct whi
47. e settings e Medium Values 20ms 250ms o Are usually the best choice for concert halls and normal use musical performance spaces e High Values gt 250ms o Can result in discrete echoes within the hold area and should normally only be used with large LR Size and LR Attack settings unless special FX are the goal 35 1 5 USER MANUAL In addition to the hold behavior created by Spread the parameter also introduces some variations in reflection patterns within the LR Engine These variations are designed to be highly sensitive to changes in LR Spread value and in this aspect the control is almost chaotic in the mathematical sense Very small changes to the settings can result in completely different reflection patterns For example LR Spread values of 200ms and 201ms will both have roughly the same hold times but the characteristics of the reflections within the hold time region can vary greatly This is an intentional design decision to allow LR Spread to function as a way to quickly achieve multiple variations of a given preset This can be especially noticeable at large LR Size settings Freq Display In the upper right corner of the main page GUI is found the Freq Display area This area displays a graphical representation of all frequency related parameters in Aether The X axis of the Freq Display represents frequency and the display shows a twelve octave range from 8hz to 32 768hz The Y axis of this Freq Display r
48. ectly per se Instead Aether uses a range of useful parameters and allows you to morph around inside this 3D parameter space with a single control And we have chosen parameter bounds for you that make sense for the given space type The general idea is simply to try different ER Position values while listening to your source material and find one that compliments it well and sits well in the mix To achieve more specific instrument placement in the stereo sound field a combination of pre panning the sources before Aether and utilizing Aether s Cross Width and Stereo Modes controls is recommended as discussed elsewhere in this manual TIP One powerful thing to do with Aether is to turn OFF the LR engine and insert an instance on each audio track you are working with Then insert a final instance on a Send Aux Bus and only use the LR engine This will not use a lot of CPU power because bypassed sections do not process on the CPU and the ER engine itself is not particularly heavy on the CPU If you do things this way you can select a desired space type maybe one of the Halls for symphonic material and use the same ER settings for all audio tracks EXCEPT change Position for each Since all tracks share identical physical ER model settings and the same diffuse LR Engine all tracks feel like they are in the same room but with each coming from a slightly different location within this room This can be quite stunning ER Shape ER Shape is measured
49. en the ER Engine and LR Engine LR Sustain LR Sustain is measured in percent and controls the overall slope curve and speed of the LR Engine reverb tail decay Increasing LR Sustain puts more energy into reverb and causes it to decay slower than exponentially following the initial attack phase buildup It should be noted that there is some interplay between LR Attack and LR Sustain and they should be adjusted together as a pair to find the optimal settings e Low Values o Follow a purely exponential decay at the 0 setting o Decay at natural rates for small spaces with simple geometry o Are good choices to use to emulate Plate reverbs e Medium to High Values o Decay significantly slower than exponentially but generally retain the same RT60 value o Are good choices to use for larger spaces with complex geometry such as concert halls o Can be used to augment the sense of spaciousness and lushness of the LR Engine without resorting to increasing LR Time or LR Gain settings LR Spread LR Spread is a complex parameter that involves some proprietary designs which can only be described vaguely LR Spread is measured in Milliseconds ms and has a range of 2ms to 1000ms 1sec LR Spread functions in some ways like a hold area between the attack and sustain segments of the envelope Physically you may think of this parameter as acoustic space depth e Low Values lt 20ms o Area good choice to use with small LR Size and short LR Tim
50. epresents magnitude of the various parameter curves and it is measured in percent from 0 at the bottom to 100 at the top of the display The Freq Display has the ability to show the following curves e Master IN EQ Curve represented by a thick orange line with a fill o Y axis represents gain in the percentage equivalent of the dB settings made in the Master EQ e LR Decay Curve represented by a thick light blue line with a fill o Y axis represents time as a percentage of the LR Time parameter setting e ER HF Soft represented by a thin green line without a fill o Y axis represents gain in percent of the range of this specialized filter e LR HF Soft represented by a thin dark blue line without a fill o Y axis represents gain in percent of the range of this specialized filter Freq Profiles Aether 1 5 implements a Frequency Profile system This feature functions in a similar way to the pre existing ER Space Type system used in the ER Engine It is effectively a macro control that allows the Master EQ LR Decay Curve and both High Frequency Softening filters to be saved and recalled as a set in different fashions Frequency Profiles consist of a total of 15 different parameters on the GUI which can all be changed as a unified whole with a single click on the display of selection from the menu system Frequency Profiles offer a fast and efficient method to try different variations of existing presets Aether 1 5 includes 100 Frequency Profile
51. er Preset e Preset Menu accesses the preset list menu drop down and allows a single preset to be selected from anywhere within the hierarchical preset list 9 AUAlO 1 5 USER MANUAL e Active State 2CAudio plug ins store two independent sets of parameter settings A and B Clicking on the Active State button switches between them and allows them to be compared This feature has several uses O Saving potential preset matches while browsing presets if for example you are trying different presets in the Browser Page and you find a good candidate but you would like to try some others you can quickly copy the candidate to the inactive State and continue browsing When you find another one that you like you can compare it to the previous candidate to decide which is better Comparing changes made to presets with the original preset you may use the same technique to check changes you are making to a preset by first copying the preset to the inactive State and then performing your edits and finally switching States again to compare the results Blind listening tests oftentimes engineers succumb to the weakness of using their eyes or minds more than their ears and particular numerical values or aesthetic GUI settings are chosen over simple listening preference Blind listening tests can cure this problem This can be accomplished by saving two different presets in State A and State B closing your eyes and clicking an unknown number of times
52. ereo to stereo process Add reverb to only the left channel from a stereo input or the right channel or a mix of the two Create asymmetrical presets where ERs and LRs maybe be intentionally stronger on left or right inputs e L R Stereo A Stereo to Stereo process o LR Cross controls the relative input position of the source by cross mixing the left channel into the right channel and vice versa by varying degrees Cross 0 means there is no channel mixing and dual mono behavior results Cross 100 means that both channels contain equal amounts of signal from each input channel there is no source separation between channels and a mono to stereo process results Cross 200 means that the input channels are reversed and fully separated and dual mono behavior with reserved channels results o LR Width controls the Width of internal LR Engine process o Usage examples Dual mono and Dual mono with reversed panning Partial mixing of channels to give variable degrees of source separation Complex dimensionality when used with Cascade e M S Normal A traditional Mid Side process o LR Cross controls the Mid Side input balance Cross 0 means the input signal is coming only from the mid signal component of the input Cross 100 means the input signal is coming from both the Mid and Side signal component equally Cross 200 means the input signal is coming only from the Side signal component of the stereo input o LR Width c
53. es of Aether in hosts that require the use of Force Offline you must manually switch settings for each instance of the plug in 52 1 5 USER MANUAL Karma Boost The Karma Boost area of the Info Page addresses product authorization We call it Karma Boost because our motto here is Do unto others as you would have done to yourself We do not employ authoritarian copy protection schemes or hardware dongles We prefer to treat our customers as our friends and make product authorization easy non invasive and burden free Our language choice in this area is designed to remind you that this sort of system is only possible with your support and reciprocation of our trust We hope you will appreciate our decision and work with us to limit the distribution of pirated software All we ask of you is this simple rule Do unto others as you would have done to yourself Serial Number Fields The Serial Number Fields are used to authorize the product as described in the Installation amp Authorization section of the Introduction chapter of this document Enter Button The Enter Button is used to enter the Serial Number into the system to check its validity during the installation process which is described in the Installation amp Authorization section of the Introduction chapter of this document Once the product is properly authorized the Enter Button will no longer be displayed Version Number Display The Versio
54. esirable to use only L R Stereo Mode as to preserve existing spatial relationships between tracks ER Cross The ER Cross parameter is measured in percent and has a range of 0 to 200 ER Cross is an important control to understand It has a large effect on the spatialization of ER Engine and deals directly with the topic of respecting the source in a spatial sense The exact meaning of the ER Cross control is dependent on the active ER Stereo Mode as described above and summarized below Generally speaking in all Stereo Modes the ER Cross parameter controls the relative mixing of input channels somewhere within the algorithm or at input The ER Cross control therefore can be considered to control the amount of separation between channels in the ER Engine For example when in L R Stereo Mode ER Cross controls how much of the Left channel input shows up in the Right channel output When ER Cross is at one of its extreme values 0 or 200 channel separation is maximum When at 0 the channels are fully separated and retain their original position when at 200 channel separation is also maximum but channels are now reversed For example when in L R Stereo Mode the Left channel input will only show up in the Right channel output and no part of it will be found in the Left output When ER Cross is at 100 channel separation is at the minimum and there is in fact no channel separation at all In this case spatial characteristics of the input si
55. etically no decay in reverberation volume over time In practice there is some very minor decay but it is extremely slow and RT60 easily extends over several minutes This mode is useful to create evolving auto pad sounds where just about any input signal can instantly be transformed into an ambient sound field LR Size The LR Size control sets the general reference delay length and thus the perceived size of the LR Engine The LR Size control is measured in Meters and has a range of 1 to 250 Meters This is a rather huge range and is roughly ten times as large as was available in previous versions of Aether and over four times as large as most competitive products For natural sounding presets the LR Size parameter should be set in conjunction with LR Time parameter and these controls should remain roughly proportional to one another Additionally the LR Size control should usually have a similar value to the ER Size control to maintain natural sounding presets There are many exceptions to both of these rules however e Extremely small sizes lt 5 Meters o Produce almost instantaneous density buildup o Produce strong coloration comb filtering resonance and metallic sound in some extreme cases o Can be used intentionally with heavy modulation and Cascade to achieve very dense plate like presets e Small sizes 5 15 Meters o Produce very fast density buildup o May have some Small Room coloration but can generally avoid st
56. formed before metering o The input level is shown in the top hemisphere Input level is measured before the gain control and represents the true input level coming into the plug in The output level is shown in the lower hemisphere o Mid signals are displayed in the left quadrants Side channels are displayed in the right quadrants o This mode is useful to get an idea of how much width is being added to the input signal e Off This mode disabled the VU completely It is offered at the request of some users who experienced excessive CPU usage when using the meter on network host systems such as FX Teleport tm There is no need to disable the meter under normal circumstances 21 o L 2 audio y 1 5 USER MANUAL Early Reflections Engine Parameters The Early Reflections Engine provides discrete delay patterns which provide perceptual cues that identify the nature of the given acoustic space and provide the brain with spatial information such as the position of the sound source Early Reflections generally occur in the first couple hundred milliseconds and can be heard or at least seen in a waveform editor as distinct delay taps or initial reflections off of surfaces in the acoustic space Most acoustic spaces will result in an increasing density and complexity of echoes as time passes in the Impulse Reponses of the given space Once the echo tap distribution becomes so complex and dense that it is difficult or impossible to disting
57. g Early Reflections e Can be useful on vocals to give vocals a sense of ambience without adding the small room sound Positive Values e Deemphasize the effects of the material filters and generally result in a thicker sound e Can be useful for exaggerating the Early Reflections e Can be used with Cascade to achieve exaggerated coloration in the reverb tails ER HF Soft The ER HF Soft control is measured in percent and is a specialized high frequency shelving filter that can be used to quickly attenuate high frequencies in the Early Reflections At the minimum value of 0 the filter is completely off and has 26 1 5 USER MANUAL no effect At the maximum value of 100 the filter behaves similarly to a so called pinking filter which makes the general amplitude response for a given frequency the reciprocal of the frequency 1 F In other words if a white noise signal was fed into the filter the filter would loosely convert it to pink noise within a certain bandwidth The ER HF Soft filter is useful for quickly adjusting the high frequency response of the ER Engine based on the needs of the source material Cascade As mentioned elsewhere Aether is comprised of two separate and distinct stereo engines The Early Reflections Engine and the Late Reflections Engine It can also be helpful to think of these engines as the Discrete Engine and the Diffuse Engine when using Cascade In earlier versions of Aether these two engines al
58. gnal such as panning and or existing stereo width will effectively be ignored the input signal will collapsed to mono and the ER Engine will spatialize the signal in its own independent manner that is not influenced by the spatial characterizes of the input 30 1 5 USER MANUAL In summary when working with stereo inputs as is almost always the case when Aether is used on an Aux Bus Send FX channel ER Cross will affect the degree to which the spatial characteristics of the input affect the spatial characteristics of the output of the ER Engine The specific behavior for each Stereo Mode is summarized below L R Mono ER Cross controls the Left Right input balance L R Stereo ER Cross controls the relative input position of the source by cross mixing the left channel into the right channel and vice versa by varying degrees M S Normal ER Cross controls the Mid Side input balance e M S Relative ER Cross controls the relative Width of the reverb signal For more information please see the Understanding Stereo Modes Cross and Width section of the Getting Deeper section of this manual ER Width ER Width is measured in percent and has a range of 0 to 200 The exact meaning of the ER Width control is dependent upon the active ER Stereo Mode as described above and summarized below L R Mono ER Width controls internal width of the algorithm and left right correlation of the ER Engine output L R Stereo ER Width contr
59. h quality and does not add any artifacts or appreciable latency of its own which we should note is no easy task to achieve The audible difference between 2x and 4x Oversampling is subtle for all project sample rates and will mostly manifest itself as a slightly lower noise floor and improved clarity in the high frequencies The difference between 2x and 4x is quite minor and results are already incredible at 2x Oversampling In terms of high frequency response and related mix decisions there should be no appreciable difference between 2x and 4x and thus if you use 2x for Realtime and 4x for Offline the results should translate perfectly without any need to adjust settings This is generally our recommendation when the necessary CPU power is available The difference between 1x and 2x on the other hand is more noticeable at least when working at project sample rates of 44 1 or 48k The 1x setting Off or no oversampling contains additional high frequency roll off and faster decay and is not as perfectly flat as the oversampled settings Therefore switching from 1x to 2x Oversampling will result both in louder high frequency amplitudes and longer high frequency decays Depending upon preset settings this can be a very subtle to a fairly moderate difference that may suggest adjustments to the LR HF Soft and LR High decay ratio parameters Therefore when working at 44 1 or 48k if there is available CPU power it is recommended to use 2x Oversampling fo
60. he Stereo Mode is set to M S Relative Aether s Cross control affects the degree to which the output width of the signal is proportional to the input width of the signal The diagrams below should make this clear The dry input signal is shown in yellow and the wet output signal is shown in blue The first example shows a mono input fed into Aether with a Cross value of 0 The output remains a mono signal The second example shows a mono input again fed into Aether but this time with a Cross value of 100 In this case the output becomes a perfectly diffuse omni directional and non left right correlated stereo signal The output result would be same regardless of the input signal in this case The third example shows a wide stereo input signal fed into Aether with a Cross setting of 200 The output in this case is inversely proportional to the input and becomes a narrow stereo signal The final example shows a very narrow stereo signal fed into Aether with a Cross setting of 50 The output becomes roughly twice as wide in this case In summary when working in M S Relative mode Cross controls the relative width of the output as compared to the input When the Stereo Mode is L R Mono Cross simply controls the balance of the mix between the Left and Right input channels that is found in Aether s input signal When the Stereo Mode is M S Normal Cross simply controls the balance of the mix between the Mid and Side input signal components that is fo
61. he best of both worlds Welcome to the ultimate in flexibility Tip you may also want to lock the IN Gain parameter as well when using Aether in Send Mode To do so set the input gain to 0dB or potentially 6dB or 12dB to offer a wider range of possible relative wet dry settings and lock both of these controls Adjust your send levels to taste on the audio and instrument tracks ABSORB COLOR HF SOFT SEND MODE BEHAVIOR Using the Easy Mode Controls on the Browser Aether s Browser page has been designed to allow it to function as Easy Mode page as well where you can quickly scan presets and make adjustments to the six most important parameters all from one simple page IN Mix IN Gain ER Gain LR Gain ER Size All controls can be independently locked from this page for exploring new presets in different ways too Additionally ER Size can be linked to LR Size so that this knob controls both Size values Thus the Browser page has effectively become a complete Easy Mode page where users can quickly scan presets and adjust Mix setting Gains Size and Time RT60 all from one simple page For example the user could lock Time to 6sec and size to 50meters and browse all presets this way to find experimental combinations and permutations that add up quite quickly to an almost infinite number of possibilities Using the Preset Browser together with the Easy Mode controls is an excellent first step in getting to know Aether We recom
62. hen click on the Lock To unlock do the reserve e The primary function of this feature is that is allows you scan factory presets as only ER presets or only LR presets by locking one engine in Bypass mode and locking the other with a gain of OdB LR Stereo Mode The LR Stereo Mode control has a large effect on the way the input channels are handled and how spatialization is applied to them Previous versions of Aether offered one stereo mode for ERs and two for LRs Aether 1 5 now offers the choice of four independent stereo modes for both ERs and LRs These modes are described below Note that the LR Cross and LR Width controls can have different behaviors for the each LR Stereo Mode e L R Mono A CPU saving Mono summed to Stereo process o LR Cross controls the Left Right input balance of the LR Engine 41 9 AUAlO 1 5 USER MANUAL Cross 0 means the input signal is coming only from the Left channel of the stereo input Cross 100 means the input signal is coming from both the Left and Right channels equally and the input is the mixed to mono equal sum of both channels Cross 200 means the input signal is coming only from the Right channel of the stereo input o LR Width controls the Width of internal LR Engine process o Usage examples Save CPU usage when using sources that are mostly mono or very narrow stereo by collapsing the stereo input to mono and running the LR engine as a mono to stereo process instead of a st
63. hifting resonances in the spectrum of the diffuse Late Reflections The characterizes of this variety of modulation are generally more drastic than Aether s proprietary spectral modulation and this second form of modulation is more similar to the type of modulation schemes found in classic hardware devices and modern competitive products This user modulation results in micro pitch bends and shifts in the LR Engine and it is adjustable by taste via using two controls Depth and Period Note LR Modulation can be a CPU intensive process When user modulation is turned off the processing requirements are removed from the CPU If user modulation is not needed for a particular preset turning it off can result in substantial savings in CPU usage LR Modulation Depth The LR Modulation Depth parameter is measured in percent and controls the degree to which various aspects of the LR Engine change over time e Small values lt 15 o Generally produce fairly natural results o Retain a good amount of clarity in the LR Engine tails e Medium value 15 to 50 o Can result in a subtle musically pleasing chorus like sound which adds lushness o Area good choice to use for emulation of classic hardware when used with medium Modulation Periods e Large values gt 50 o Can result in extreme chorus like effects and obvious pitch bend artifacts o Are usually best reserved for special FX use LR Modulation Period The LR Modulation Period pa
64. his includes things like gain controls and similar Admittedly this category is a little less well defined than the others and the master EQ Freq controls are placed in the middle of it for aesthetic purposes and to meet the needs of primary organization method ER LR IN Finally at the top of the interface we find the Navigation Bar as described previously Size Does Matter Aether makes use of one final organizational principal size The most important controls are generally the biggest ones on the interface In taking a quick glance at the Aether GUI the items which immediately stick out are the Space Type Display the Time Knob the Freq Display and the three Gain knobs This is intentional as just this information alone will give a very good sense of what a particular preset will do Some controls like Space Type Display and Freq Display can function like a Parent or Macro control The related or supporting Child controls are generally smaller and offer a finer level of detail or control over the given functionality The beginner is encouraged to focus on the larger controls first when first learning Aether and once he or she understands their functionality he or she may move on to the smaller controls 10 1 5 USER MANUAL The Browser Page The Browser Page is compromised of two main areas the Preset Browser and the Easy Mode Controls The Preset Browser is comprised of the Preset Folder List on the left and the P
65. iated layout resources for the plug in Changing the Skin preference allows you select from a list of pre defined Skin options and offers the potential to complete change the visual appearance of the plug in Skin changes are effective only after reloading the plug in or host project file Aether 1 5 ships with two Skin options e 2C2D Berlin The default skin as described previously in this document e 2C2D Indigo A narrow hue blue toned color variation of the default skin that may be more aesthetically pleasing once you are more familiar with the plug in and its three organizational sections Additional Aether skins may become available in the future Display Values The Display Values preference allows you to control how and when the numerical values of each knob are displayed Changes to this preference take place immediately This preference has three options e Always Numerical values are displayed on all knobs at all times the default behavior e Never Numerical values are never displayed on any knob unless the knob is in Text Entry mode This mode is designed to force users to use their ears when adjusting parameters instead of relying on using their eyes mind and numerical affinity e While Tracking Numerical values are displayed only on the knob which is actively being changed by the user This mode provides a minimalist GUI aesthetic while still communicating the relevant numerical feedback when it is needed Knob Motion The
66. ic lt 20hz and ultrasonic gt 20kHz frequency cutoffs can be useful to achieve gentle roll offs of extreme frequencies within the hearing range Furthermore all filters have phase characteristics which are generally most severe at their cutoff points so moving the cutoff outside the traditional range of human hearing can be desirable for those obsessive enough to care about such things Generally speaking the larger unconstrained frequency range simply allows more flexibility to the user Note Aether does not allow LR Low X and LR High X to have exactly the same value Additionally LR Low X can never be higher than LR High X Aether forces a minimum difference between the two controls of about 5 and will adjust the controls automatically to retain these rules if you attempt to enter illegal settings LR Low Q LR High Q The LR Low Q and LR High Q parameters control the slope of transition curve between the Low Mid and Mid High bands Q stands for Quality Factory and is defined in physics as a dimensionless parameter that describes how under damped an oscillator or resonator is or equivalently characterizes a resonator s bandwidth relative to its center frequency For our purposes we can consider Q to mean the filter slope This is a unique feature not found in other reverbs Adjusting these parameters allows you to achieve both natural authenticity as well as bizarre artificial curves e Q range is from 0 05 to 1 00 e Q 0 707
67. in the creation of granular like presets o Can be used with Cascade to intentionally achieve irregular impulse response envelopes ER Absorption The ER Absorption is measured in percent and controls the amount of energy absorbed when sound bounces off various surfaces in the acoustic space model e High values Force energy to be absorbed quickly on each reflection Produce more damping in the ERs Result in the gain of each delay tap decreasing quickly Are a good choice to use when emulation of classic equipment is desired Are a good choice to try when additional clarity in dense mixes is needed 00000O e Low values o Allow energy to be absorbed more slowly on each reflection Produce less damping in the ERs Result in the gain of each delay tap decreasing slowly or remaining constant Are a good choice to use when emulation of real acoustic spaces is desired Are a good choice to try when additional detail and dimensionality in sparse mixes is needed 0000 e Intermediate values o In balance find truth your ears are your guide o Maximize Yin and Yang o You get the idea ER Position The ER Position control is measured in percent and can set different positions of virtual sound source and recording points in an acoustic space This is equivalent to changing the location of the performer and or the listener in a given performance space It allows you to adjust early reflection patterns without changing the ph
68. ings may be changed either by directly clicking on the text field button that displays the current setting or by using the associated drop down menu to directly select the desired option When using a single instance of Aether changes to Quality Settings take place immediately 49 9 AUAlO y 1 5 USER MANUAL When using multiple instances of Aether in a host project changes to Quality settings are global for all instances of Aether however the host project file must be closed and reopened before all instances of Aether will use the new Quality Settings In other words changing Quality Settings in a single instance of Aether will change the settings for all instances in the project but the project file must be closed and reloaded to switch the Quality Settings of all of the other instances used in the project Oversampling Aether 1 5 allows 1X 2X and 4X oversampling options Oversampling allows Aether to internally run at a higher sample rate than the host sample rate Oversampling increases filter quality improves high frequency response and reduces self noise of the algorithm Oversampling can also significantly increase the clarity in the high frequency range of the Late Reflections and help transient response in both the ERs and LRs Furthermore oversampling allows extremely flexible decay filter and EQ settings to be used which would otherwise not be possible at normal base sample rates Aether s oversampling method is extremely hig
69. ions Area This area allows you to change load and save presets The controls have the following functions e Preset Decrement changes the preset to the previous available preset sorted in alphabetical order in the active preset folder or the previous available folder when at the beginning of the list e Preset Increment changes the preset to the next available preset sorted in alphabetical order in the active preset folder or the next available folder when at the end of the list e Active Preset displays the name of the currently active preset More accurately it displays the name of the last loaded preset from existing factory or user presets If you make changes to the preset settings the preset name will not change automatically and there will be some differences between the settings stored in the Active Preset name and the actual current settings Note that host applications save all current settings exactly as they are so your edits will be preserved However if you return to a project at a later date you may see the Active Preset name displayed as one of the factory presets and you may try to load this preset into another project to achieve the same sound without realizing that you have made substantial changes to the preset at an earlier date Therefore if you edit the preset substantially and you think you may like to use these settings at a later date in another project it is a good idea to save the settings as your own custom Us
70. ios multiplied by the current Size setting determine XYZ dimensions in meters 3 The Position control affects two spatial aspects of the ER model Source position and virtual Mic position For both of these there is a Min and Max location for two channels L and R for each These locations are chosen based on study of models of acoustic spaces and microphone techniques used in real recordings etc This provides an array of coordinates that have been carefully chosen to make sense for the given Space Type Source Position Min L defined by XYZ coordinates Source Position Max L defined by XYZ coordinates Source Position Min R defined by XYZ coordinates Source Position Max R defined by XYZ coordinates Microphone Position Min L defined by XYZ coordinates Microphone Position Max L defined by XYZ coordinates Microphone Position Min R defined by XYZ coordinates Microphone Position Max R defined by XYZ coordinates TO FPS 4 The Position Control creates a path between all these points in three dimensional space When the Position control on the GUI is at the Min or Max settings you end up with the one of the points defined in the profile for the given Space Type If it is somewhere in the middle all of these point positions are interpolated to give a smooth path from the possible extremes Thus the positioning scheme is quite well thought out and designed but this control does not allow you to place a Cello stage left and a Flute stage right dir
71. ir absorption in real physical spaces o Is competitive with or superior to all known competitive products on the market e 2 Perfection o Is available for Offline use only and requires substantial CPU power o Will result in slower bounce speeds and long render times o Results in almost no unwanted high frequency decay within the bandwidth o Suppresses all aliasing and noise to around 120dB e 3 Obsession o Is available for Offline use only and requires extreme CPU power Will result in VERY SLOW bounce speeds and render times Results in effectively no unwanted high frequency decay within the bandwidth for any and all possible permutations of Aether parameter settings including intentionally extreme ones Suppresses all aliasing and noise to less than 144dB even when using the most extreme preset settings Is effectively mathematically perfect within the stated bandwidth and dynamic range Is complete overkill for 95 of all musical needs Is close to indistinguishable from the Perfection mode for 95 of real world release media and playback environments o Is offered mostly as proof of concept for experimental use or extreme audiophile projects at this time it is simply too heavy in CPU usage to be practical for daily use in most production environments at this time O O 000 0 Realtime Offline Settings The perennial Performance vs Quality trade off has now become obsolete Aether 1 5 allows two independent sets of Quality Settings on
72. ition hundreds of presets Serial Number and Karma 249 95 1 5 USER MANUAL What makes Aether unique in the competitive marketplace Example One A Legendary Algorithmic Competitor No Not historically currently unknown but unlikely No No No No No No Limited 32 samples Medium to Medium High depending on Alg Relatively Low to Medium High depending on Alg Very limited control depending on Alg Limited range Limited Limited Depends on Alg but generally 1 Mode Output Width No No 1 single band ER Output filter 1 single band LR Output Filter No filters always on output 2 Band fixed Q 10 Octave range Positive slopes not possible Very Limited Around 80 meters Easy edit parameters but no macro behavior About 900 including multiple variations of the same theme Nested Tabbed GUI with limited parameter access No Separate plug ins require reloading None Single preset select via menu Comparatively very slow Ilok TM Up to 1899 71 Feature Oversampling amp Band limiting Double Precision 64bit DSP 64bit Host OS Support Band limited Interpolation Variable Quality Modes Extreme Off line Render Modes Proprietary Spectral Modulation Variable Q Damping Decay Curve Attack amp Sustain Envelope Latency Diffusion Modal Density Discrete Early Reflections engine User Modulation Range Complex amp Clustered IR amp envelope responses Diffuse Late Reflections Colo
73. lding some irregularities into the system but it is easy to overdue things Use Cascade conservatively until you are familiar with its effects unless special FX presets are the goal For additional information and advanced topics related to the Cascade control please see the Advanced Cascade Techniques and Related Topics topic in the Getting Deeper chapter of this document 27 1 5 USER MANUAL G O Cascade Direction Switch The Cascade Direction Switch allows the user to change the direction of the signal flow by choosing which Engine is first in the signal chain This Engine can thus be thought of as the Sending Engine whereas the other Engine could therefore be thought of as the Receiving Engine For normal musical applications it is generally more common to Cascade the ERs into the LRs Both directions have their uses however and the results of each direction while similar are generally not exactly the same thing due to the modulation in the LR engine and the separate Stereo mode controls for each Engine ER Gain The ER Gain control adjusts the output level of the Early Reflections engine This parameter is measured in Decibels dB and has a range of negative infinity inf which is equivalent to being muted or off to positive twelve Decibels 12dB ER Gain and LR gain are independent controls and their primarily feature is to set the relative balance between ERs and LRs e Generally it is a good idea t
74. left and high values shift it right i 42 1 5 USER MANUAL o Usage examples Feed Aether a mono signal and receive a mono output Feed it a wide stereo signal and receive the same output Or reverse the behavior Excellent on omni directional sounds such as synth pads and ambiences or dense mixes which already contain complex spatial information Excellent for special FX use especially when used in conjunction with Cascade For more information please see the Understanding Stereo Modes Cross and Width section of the Getting Deeper section of this manual LR Stereo Mode Lock The LR Stereo Mode Lock locks the LR Stereo mode When in the locked state the LR Stereo Mode control will not respond to changes made by preset changes automation or user input until first unlocked This can be useful while scanning presets in the following circumstances e CPU usage needs to be conserved and therefore may it be desirable to use only the L R Mono Stereo Mode which requires less power than the other Stereo Modes e Aether is being used on a stereo bus in a send mode configuration and therefore it may be desirable to use only L R Stereo Mode as to preserve existing spatial relationships between tracks LR Cross The LR Cross parameter is measured in percent and has a range of 0 to 200 LR Cross is an important control to understand It has a large effect on the spatialization of LR Engine and deals directly with the t
75. lts VU Meter Aether s VU meter displays Input and Output levels in the plug in The full radius of the circular VU meter represents full scale OdB The smaller concentric ring markings represent a decrease in signal strength by 12dB 0 12 24 36 dB If any level exceeds OdB a clipping light occurs in the given quadrant for a few seconds Note Aether is a floating point processor and it is effectively impossible to clip internally Thus exceeding OdB on input or output does not adversely affect audio quality in any way so long as the signal gain is reduced somewhere else downstream before the master output of the host application or input the D A converter It is generally a wise policy to maintain reasonable gain structures while mixing as a matter of convention but it is nice to know that it is not really necessary to watch Aether s VU Meter like a hawk Occasional clipping of the VU meter is not a problem 20 audio 1 5 USER MANUAL gt e VU Meter Mode Aether s VU meter currently has three modes of operation e L R Left Right Input Output o The input level is shown in the top hemisphere Input level is measured before the gain control and represents the true input level coming into the plug in The output level is shown in the lower hemisphere o Left channels are displayed in the left quadrants Right channels are displayed in the right quadrants e M S Mid Side Input Output o AMid Side conversion is per
76. me It CNO widens the peak of the curve and decreases the slope of the decay to 66 1 5 USER MANUAL be less than the natural exponential curve It is important to note that this does not change the total length of the time of the reverb tail The reverb tail length is set by the main Time knob Attack and Sustain only control the curve shape and geometry in proportion to the time set by the Time control The graphs below demonstrate this clearly The Attack setting is kept constant at 100 in these examples to keep things simple The first example in red shows the curve with Sustain turned off The second example in green shows sustain at 1 3 of the maximum value Notice that the curve peak is now wider and the decay slope is more gradual The third example shows a 2 3 setting and the last example shows Sustain at its maximum value One powerful use of the Sustain control is to increase it instead of increasing the total reverb time This will increase the space around the source sound without adding excessively long tails to the mix and can be used as a more sophisticated and effective replacement for more traditional gating techniques ATTACK 100 SPREAD MIN OFF ATTACK 100 SPREAD MIN OFF ATTACK 100 SPREAD MIN OFF ATTACK 100 SPREAD MIN OFF SUSTAIN 000 SUSTAIN 033 SUSTAIN 067 SUSTAIN 100 ST Aether s Spread control offers a third method to customize the decay curve of the LR reverb tail Spread adds ripple like iterations t
77. mend starting here if you are initially overwhelmed by the complexity of the Main page 14 2 audio 19 A 1 5 USER MANUAL Using Space Type and Frequency Profiles amp Links Once you have mastered the Easy Mode controls on the Browser page the next step in the journey from auto pilot to full manual control of Aether is to explore the ER Space Type and Frequency Profile macro systems and their associated Link controls To begin we suggest you set the ER Space Type Link state to Both and the Frequency Profile Link state to All Next simply click on the two display areas to cycle through the available options e Notice when you click on the ER Space Type Display many of the other ER parameters and all of the time related LR parameters change as well e Notice when you click on the Freq Display all 15 of the frequency related controls on the GUI change in unison to the new Frequency Profile setting Aether offers 33 different Space Types and 100 different Frequency Profiles This means you may explore 100 different variations of each Space Type and gives 3 300 possible combinations All of this is possible simply by clicking on the two displays without even moving a single knob You may consider trying different LR Time settings with these combinations as well for even more possibilities This is an excellent way to start to get a feel for how various parameter combinations will affect the sound Take note of the various default settings fo
78. 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 Realtime Offline CPU Power Oversampling Modulation Interpolation Oversampling Modulation Interpolation Low Balanced 1 Excellence Medium Balanced 1 Excellence 4x Ultra Smooth 1 Excellence High Ultra Smooth 1 Excellence B Extreme Ultra Smooth 1 Excellence Force Offline Most hosts automatically communicate the current Realtime or Offline state to plug ins In these cases the user does not need to do anything and Aether will switch modes automatically and use the Offline settings during mix downs and bounces Some hosts do not offer this functionality and or do not have any distinction between Realtime and Offline states The Force Offline switch is offered to address this issue The Force Offline switch will force Aether to
79. n Number Display communicates the version of Aether that is installed on your computer Authorization Status The Authorization Status text field communicates exactly that It can display several text strings e Enter Serial This is displayed before the product has been authorized e Authorized This is displayed when the product has been properly authorized and the plug in is functioning correctly Additional text stings are possible but only occur when something is wrong If encountered please contact tech support Authorization Details This area displays our friendly reminder regarding our philosophy on copy protection and provides our blessing and appreciation for everyone who honors it Additional text stings are possible but only occur when something is wrong If encountered please contact tech support 53 Qaudio 3 e 1 5 USER MANUAL Getting Deeper ER Space Type Details Musical Amphitheatre Default Size 36m XYZ Ratios 100 90 Open Materials Brick amp Seats Unoccupied Musical Cathedral Default Size 43m XYZ Ratios 30 50 100 Materials Concrete amp Glass Large Pane Musical Chamber Default Size 10m XYZ Ratios 100 100 40 Materials Floor Concrete amp Gypsum 54 1 5 USER MANUAL Musical Church Default Size 15m XYZ Ratios 30 30 100 Materials Concrete amp Concrete Musical Club Default Size 20m XYZ Ratios 60 100 50 Materials Concrete amp Seats Occupie
80. n be useful to match the average RMS level of the mix output to the dry input e All factory presets have been calibrated to have consistent gain by matching output levels to a test signal Master Mix IN Mix The Master Mix control adjusts the relative balance between the wet and dry signals in the output of the plug in It is measured in percent e All Aether presets are saved for use as inserts on audio tracks and the mix setting is an important part of the desired sound of the preset This can be a source of great inspiration for musicians who are playing and composing directly into Aether as each preset is designed to elicit a different feeling or emotional environment e Professional mix engineers on the other hand generally like to use reverb on busses For Send Aux Bus use simply set the mix setting to 100 and lock this control as described below It is now possible to browse all presets in Send Mode We consider this the best of both worlds Master Mix Lock The Master Mix control can be locked by clicking on this button When in the locked state the control will not respond to changes made by preset changes automation or user input e Setting the master Mix setting to 100 and engaging its Lock will prevent the mix setting from changing when auditioning presets This allows Aether to behave in Send Mode as it is commonly referred to by third party companies Input Gain Lock The Input Gain control can be locked
81. ne Cross 0 means the input signal is coming only from the mid signal component of the input Cross 100 means the input signal is coming from both the Mid and Side signal component equally Cross 200 means the input signal is coming only from the Side signal component of the stereo input o ER Width controls the Width of internal ER Engine process o Usage examples Add reverb to only the side signal from a stereo input or the mid signal or some mix of the two Keep centered mono instruments dry while adding extra reverb or ambience to the supporting instrumentation Excellent for mastering needs e M S Relative An advanced Mid Side process that enables many interesting non standard spatial effects for FX use This mode is unique to Aether and offers many novel possibilities 29 9 AUAO 1 5 USER MANUAL o ER Cross controls the relative width of the output of the ER Engine as compared to the width of input signal Cross 0 means there is no change to stereo width of the input signal and resulting stereo width of the wet signal is equal to the input signal i e an in phase mono input will result in an output that is also exactly mono Cross 100 means that is no correlation between input width and output width and the resulting width of the wet signal will be spatially diffuse omni directional and statistically uncorrelated between right and left output channels regardless of input signal Cross 200 means the
82. ne active engine When an engine is bypassed Aether displays a special bypassed state for all associated parameters as shown below ER ENGINE BYPASSED 16 1 5 USER MANUAL Main Page Parameters amp GUI Details Overview As mentioned Aether s Main page displays approximately 60 controls and GUI elements and is organized into Early Reflections Late Reflections and Input Master Controls sections Details are shown below IN FILTE 17 1 5 USER MANUAL Input amp Master Controls The Input amp Master Controls section contains parameters which are global to the entire plug in and affect both the Early Reflections Engine and the Late Reflections Engine This section includes the Input Gain Master Mix and the Master EQ parameters Note In previous versions of Aether these controls were all technically input controls and therefore the parameter names all have the IN prefix In Aether 1 5 the EQ section can be either an input or an output EQ depending on the Filter Routing switch but we maintain the IN EQ naming convention for backwards compatibility with host automation data Input Gain IN Gain The Input Gain control adjusts the level of the signal before it is fed into the Early and Late Reflections Engines This parameter is measured in Decibels dB and has a range of negative infinity inf which is equivalent to being muted or off to positive twelve Decibels 12dB e Positive range values ca
83. nings depending on their current Stereo Mode When the Stereo Mode is set to L R Stereo Aether s Cross control is essentially a method to change the input signal s panning information before sending it into the reverb algorithm It works almost like an actual pan control except for the fact that the changes are relative to the input signal and it works by cross feeding the left channel into the right and vice versa Aether s Cross range is from 0 to 200 The diagrams below should make this clear The input signal is again shown in yellow The effect that Cross has on it is shown in blue The first example shows a Cross value of 0 and in this state there is no change at all to the input signal i e Left is still Left Right is still Right and there is no cross feeding between them The second example shows Cross at 100 In this case Left is mixed with Right and vice versa and everything is collapsed to center This equals a mono summed input The third example shows the middle ground with cross at 50 and demonstrates how this will narrow the stereo field of the input proportionally The final example shows the maximum extreme When cross is greater than 100 the panning of the input signal begins to be reversed At the maximum settings of 200 the stereo panning of the input is exactly reversed 63 1 5 USER MANUAL MONO INPUT INPUT PAN 100 MONO INPUT INPUT PAN 100 MONO INPUT INPUT PAN 100 MONO INPUT INPUT PAN 000 When t
84. nnel of the stereo input o ER Width controls the Width of internal ER Engine process o Usage examples Save CPU usage when using sources that are mostly mono or very narrow stereo by collapsing the stereo input to mono and running the ER engine as a mono to stereo process instead of a stereo to stereo process Add reverb to only the left channel from a stereo input or the right channel or a mix of the two Create asymmetrical presets where ERs and LRs maybe be intentionally stronger on left or right inputs e L R Stereo A Stereo to Stereo process o ER Cross controls the relative input position of the source in the ER Engine by cross mixing the left channel into the right channel and vice versa by varying degrees Cross 0 means there is no channel mixing and dual mono behavior results Cross 100 means that both channels contain equal amounts of signal from each input channel there is no source separation between channels and a mono to stereo process results Cross 200 means that the input channels are reversed and fully separated and dual mono behavior with reserved channels results o ER Width controls the Width of internal ER Engine process o Usage examples Dual mono and Dual mono with reversed panning Partial mixing of channels to give variable degrees of source separation Complex dimensionality when used with Cascade e M S Normal A traditional Mid Side process o ER Cross controls the Mid Side input balance of the ER Engi
85. o keep either the ER or the LR Gain at 0dB and then adjust the other one to taste This assumes there is no severe filter action that strongly attenuates Gain in either engine e f aggressive filter settings are used positive range values can be useful to offset gain that is lost due the action of the ER HF Soft control e Positive range values can also be useful in conjunction with the Cascade control for advanced preset design where one would like to more specifically control the balance between the dry signal the direct ER signal the direct LR signal and the Cascaded signal in the master output ER Bypass The ER Bypass button allows you to completely disable the ER Engine When ER Bypass is on the ER Engine output is muted and the processing requirements of the ER Engine are removed from your CPU While ER Bypass is active all ER parameters are displayed in a special disabled GUI state To re enable the ER Engine and return to the normal state of behavior simply click on the ER Bypass button again The ER Bypass function has several purposes e A large variety of presets can be designed using only the LR Engine including short ambiences and huge omni directional diffuse preset and these types of presets are easy to indentify quickly when the ER section is bypassed e It allows a CPU usage saving e It facilitates the method of using one LR instance on a send aux bus FX track while using several ER instances as inserts on audio tracks
86. o the tail that can accurately emulate acoustical phenomenon found in various types of buildings In some ways spread can be thought of as a hold area of the envelope where the energy levels jump around in semi random amounts and the average level of these variations does not decrease as rapidly as normal It may be thought of as a chaotic peak level area of the envelope Spread is defined in absolute milliseconds and in contrast to Attack and Sustain it is not proportional to reverb time Thus it s effects can vary widely depending on Aether s Time Attack and Sustain settings Compare the graphs below to get a rough idea of how spread behaves Ultimately spread is an advanced and complex control and is best adjusted by ear once other settings are moved to the desired range ATTACK 100 SPREAD MINIOFF ATTACK 100 SPREAD MAX 700 ATTACK 100 SPREAD SHORT ee A SAA a SPREAD EXAMPLES eva MORE CONTROL Aether also offers Pre Delay Size and Shape controls in the Time area of the GUI The Size control adjusts complex parameters of the algorithm to give psychoacoustic cues to concerning the size of the acoustic environment Size also introduces a pre delay to the Late Reflections which is timed to the physical dimensions of the environment Example two 67 audio 1 5 USER MANUAL below indicates how this affects the decay curve Aether offers an additional Pre Delay control Pre Delay times added by this control are mea
87. ols internal width of the algorithm and left right correlation of the ER Engine output Note that this is relative to the existing stereo width of the input signal M S Normal ER Width controls internal width of the algorithm and left right correlation of the ER Engine output M S Relative ER Width acts as an output panner for the ER Engine output This is a special use mode and is an exception to normal ER Width behavior Normally ER Width should be kept set as 100 when using this Stereo Mode Generally speaking in most Stereo Modes the ER Width parameter controls the amount of width that is added to the input signal by the ER Engine In contrast to the ER Cross control which generally works via pre processing or post processing the signal before or after the actual processing block the ER Width control actually changes the behavior of algorithm inside the processing block If an identical single sample impulse was fed into both the left and right input channels of the ER Engine the ER Width control would be responsible for controlling how similar the left and right channel outputs would be e 0 The resulting impulse response is effectively mono and both Left and Right channels are identical e lt 100 The resulting impulse response corresponds to decreased width that is less than what is natural e 100 The resulting impulse response corresponds to natural stereo width as would occur normally in nature e gt 100 The resulting impuls
88. on the Active State button such that you no longer know if you are using State A or State B At this point keep your eyes closed and listen critically while you slowly cycle back and forth between settings while comparing the results with your ears only Once you have chosen the State that sounds the best open your eyes and look at your selection Repeat this process for confirmation if desired This is a powerful technique e Copy State Copies the settings of the Active State to the inactive state For example is State A is active the settings are copied to State B This allows easy comparisons between states to be made as described above e File Menu Accesses the file list menu drop down and gives access to the following file operations Save Preset to User Bank saves the current plug in state to the User Bank folder and adds it to the preset list Save Preset to Folder saves the current plug in state to a different folder location other than the User Bank By default the file dialog points to the folder of the currently active host project file if this information is available This is useful for archiving favorite presets together with host projects and for sharing a given preset with peers on either local or global networks Load Preset loads a single preset file into the current plug in state This is useful for loading presets that were saved and or shared with the Save Preset to Folder action Save Frequency Profile to User Bank
89. ontrols the Width of internal LR Engine process o Usage examples Add reverb to only the side signal from a stereo input or the mid signal or some mix of the two Keep centered mono instruments dry while adding extra reverb or ambience to the supporting instrumentation Excellent for mastering needs e M S Relative An advanced Mid Side process that enables many interesting non standard spatial effects for FX use This mode is unique to Aether and offers many novel possibilities o LR Cross controls the relative width of the output of the LR Engine as compared to the width of input signal Cross 0 means there is no change to stereo width of the input signal and resulting stereo width of the wet signal is equal to the input signal i e an in phase mono input will result in an output that is also exactly mono Cross 100 means that is no correlation between input width and output width and the resulting width of the wet signal will be spatially diffuse omni directional and statistically uncorrelated between right and left output channels regardless of input signal Cross 200 means the stereo width of the wet output signal will be exactly inversely proportional to the input signal i e an in phase mono input will result in an output that is exactly 180 degrees out of phase between the left and right channels o LR Width behaves like an output panner for the output of the LR Engine in this mode Low values shift the output signal
90. opic of respecting the source in a spatial sense The exact meaning of the LR Cross control is dependent on the active LR Stereo Mode as described above and summarized below Generally speaking in all Stereo Modes the LR Cross parameter controls the relative mixing of input channels somewhere within the algorithm or at input The LR Cross control therefore can be considered to control the amount of separation between channels in the LR Engine For example when in the L R Stereo Mode LR Cross controls how much of the Left channel input shows up in the Right channel output When LR Cross is at one of its extreme values 0 or 200 channel separation is maximum When at 0 the channels are fully separated and retain their original position when at 200 channel separation is also maximum but channels are now reversed For example when in L R Stereo Mode the Left channel input will only show up in the Right channel output and no part of it will be found in the Left output When LR Cross is at 100 channel separation is at the minimum and there is in fact no channel separation at all In this case spatial characteristics of the input signal such as panning and or existing stereo width will effectively be ignored the input signal will be collapsed to mono and the LR Engine will spatialize the signal in its own independent manner that is not influenced by the spatial characterizes of the input In summary when working with stereo inputs as is almost
91. ore all filters have phase characteristics which are generally most severe at their cutoff points so moving the cutoff outside the traditional range of human hearing can be desirable for those obsessive enough to care about such things Generally speaking the larger unconstrained frequency range and extreme Q range for all controls simply allows more flexibility to the user The Master EQ Section offers the following Parameters e Low EQ Frequency specifies low EQ filter cut off mid point frequency o Frequency range is 8 0hz to 32 768hz o Note Upper Frequency range is limited to the Nyquist Frequency or one half the sampling rate when the project sample rate is 44 1 or 48K and Oversampling is turned off This occurs behind the scenes is not reflected on the GUI e High EQ Frequency Specifies high EQ filter cut off mid point frequency o Frequency range is 8 0hz to 32 768hz o Note Upper Frequency range is limited to the Nyquist Frequency or one half the sampling rate when the project sample rate is 44 1 or 48K and Oversampling is turned off This occurs behind the scenes is not reflected on the GUI e Low EQ Gain specifies the shelf of low shelving filter o Gain Range is 48dB to 18dB o If gain is set to minimum value lt 48dB the filter type will change from a Shelf to a Low Cut High Pass filter o If Gain is set to OdB which is the default value the filter will enter an off state and be bypassed o The Frequency response cu
92. output panner for the LR Engine output This is a special use mode and is an exception to normal LR Width behavior Normally LR Width should be kept set as 100 when using this Stereo Mode Generally speaking in most Stereo Modes the LR Width parameter controls the amount of width that is added to the input signal by the LR Engine In contrast to the LR Cross control which generally works via pre processing or post processing the signal before or after the actual processing block the LR Width control actually changes the behavior of algorithm inside the processing block If an identical single sample delta pulse was fed into both the left and right input channels of the LR Engine the LR Width control would be responsible for controlling how similar the left and right channel outputs would be e 0 The resulting impulse response is effectively mono and both Left and Right channels are identical e lt 100 The resulting impulse response corresponds to decreased width that is less than what is natural e 100 The resulting impulse response corresponds to natural stereo width as would occur normally in nature e gt 100 The resulting impulse response corresponds to extra width that is beyond what is natural It should be noted that if the input signal is already a complex stereo signal as it would be normally a LR Width setting of 0 will NOT collapse the stereo image to mono LR Width only affects left right differences in the process itself not
93. phing and evolving to produce a complex array of potential impulse responses A sampled impulse response of a real acoustic space can be quite accurate for that particular moment but it tells only part of the story It is like a picture of a lake versus the lake itself A lake in the real world is unlikely to spontaneously develop waves the size of those found in the ocean but it is never quite as still as a picture either Aether s approach does not simply sample one static picture in time but rather captures the complete subtly of the dynamic chaotic processes found in life and it retains all the detail and organic feel of these processes The dynamic nature of the Aether algorithm is accomplished in two ways First Aether uses a proprietary spectral modulation technique in the LR Engine This special form of modulation does not produce any noticeable pitch effects and represents one of 2CAudio s trade secrets This feature has no user controllable parameters on the GUI it is always on regardless of the current preset settings 39 1 5 USER MANUAL Second in addition to the intrinsic variance found at the very heart of the Aether algorithm Aether also offers even more modulation possibilities to keep the LR Engine from sounding dead and static Two simple modulation controls are offered to invoke additional random LFO modulations in the LR Engine The Modulation Rate and Period controls create a second type of musically pleasing randomly s
94. presets organized into different categories for maximum ease of use These include e Classic contains settings which emulate behavior and limitations found in classic hardware devices such as limited frequency response and filter selection e Natural contains settings which are designed to model behavior of real acoustic spaces as accurately as possible using all tools available and without artificially limiting frequency response e Modern contains settings which have full to exaggerated frequency responses are designed with the needs of modern musical styles in mind and are not limited to emulation of real acoustic spaces e Special FX contains settings which are intentionally extreme bizarre and wrong to achieve odd special FX and explore experimental sound design territory e User contains user defined settings 36 el O 1 5 USER MANUAL The Frequency Profile system works together with the ER Space Type system to create a very simple way for new users to try over 3 000 possible preset permutations simply by clicking on two controls Furthermore it allows over 60 000 preset combinations when used together with the new preset expansions The current Frequency Profile may be changed by clicking directly on the Freq Profile Display area or the Freq Profile Name text field Left mouse clicks will increment the currently active selection and right mouse clicks will decrement it This makes is very fast to cycle through th
95. r Realtime whenever possible as this will ensure there are no aesthetic differences between the Realtime and Offline bounce results This is not an issue if the project sample rate is already 88 2 or 96k or higher Modulation Aether 1 5 offers two modulation choices Balanced and Ultra Smooth Balanced is effectively the same quality as 1 0 and represents a reasonable balance between quality and CPU performance Ultra Smooth provides ultimately lush reverb tails by ensuring that every single internal parameter in the entire Late Reflections engine is constantly dynamic and on the move e Balanced o Provides the best compromise between CPU usage and sound quality e Ultra Smooth o Requires roughly 30 extra CPU usage as compared to Balanced Provides additional lushness to the reverb tail Provides the flattest frequency response and spectral density within the realized bandwidth Is recommended when using the Cascade control Can be used for Off line only to save CPU usage if needed without resulting in the need for making adjustments to preset settings 0000 50 9 AUAO p 1 5 USER MANUAL Interpolation Interpolation is a high level signal processing technique that is used extensively in Aether s Modulation methods and allows non integer sample delays in the ER engine It is an extremely complex and mathematically intensive topic which is largely esoteric to everyone except advanced DSP engineers It is a subject that is largely respon
96. r these two macro controls and consider using them for starting points for your own preset development One of the most important advantages of algorithmic reverb over convolution is the ability to quickly customize the reverb behavior to the needs of the source material Sometimes this process includes a large amount of experimentation and trial and error searching to find what works The speed at which this is achievable by using the ER Space Type and Frequency Profile macros is simply phenomenal It is easily possible to audition 10 different settings in the same amount of time required to load a single Impulse Response from a hard drive Once you have explored these macro controls and gained some additional insight into the how Aether s various parameters interact you are ready to explore the details of Main page parameters Even once you have mastered the complexities and subtleties of the rest of the parameters on Aether s Main page it is still quite useful to utilize Aether s macro controls potentially with the more advanced Link states described later in this manual in the pure pursuit of raw speed and efficiency PRE DELAY 15 1 5 USER MANUAL Bypassing the ER Engine or the LR Engine It is possible to bypass either the ER Engine or the LR Engine in Aether by clicking on its associated bypass button Doing so removes the processing burden of the given engine from your CPU Many useful presets can be designed by using only o
97. rameter is measured in seconds sec and has a range of 0 01 seconds to 500 0 seconds Period in Seconds is the reciprocal of Rate in Hertz Thus a smaller Period means a faster Rate Aether 1 0 had a minimum Period of 0 25 sec 4 Hertz and a maximum Period of 500 sec 0 002 Hertz and at that time we choose to specify this parameter as Period instead of the more common Rate due to the extremely large range of the parameter and bias towards longer Periods Allowing a Modulation Period length of over eight minutes allows for imperceptibly slow shifts in the resonance of the reverb tail that guarantee the reverb sound will never be exactly the same over the course of an entire song This can completely eliminate the metallic sound which plagues many inferior reverb designs on the market while at the same time maintaining maximum clarity when desired In Aether 1 5 minimum modulation period length has been reduced and thus Rate has been increased by a factor of 25 It is now 0 01sec and this means Aether 1 5 allows modulation rates of up to 100 Hertz This actually moves the modulation signal into the audio range and the Low Frequency Oscillators become not so Low anymore Indeed the modulation behavior becomes something more like chaotic FM modulation This can be quite bizarre and is certainly not natural particularly at high mod depths but it can be useful for special effects and is useful in moderation for extremely small size settings or in conjunc
98. ration Stereo Modes Stereo Mode Control Mid Side modes Complex Stereo Modes EQ Flexible EQ Filter Routing LR Damping Curves FX Usage Maximum Size Macro Controls Total Presets Parameter Accessibility Instant algorithm browsing Preset Browser Copy Protection Price Aether 1 5 2x amp 4x Critical Processes Yes for Windows VST Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 0 samples Low to approaching maximally diffuse with one control Low to approaching maximally dense depending on settings Yes extensive Can function on its own Extreme Depth and Period Rate Extensive via Cascade mode Perfectly flat or extensive Coloration via Cascade mode 4 independent modes for ERs and LRs hybrid modes via cascade Input Balance Input Cross Process Width Output Rotation Yes Normal and Relative Independent for ERs and LRs and Cascade offers a third hybrid 2 band master EQ plus 2 single band HF shelving filters Yes Master EQ and filters can be pre of post Alg 3 Band flexible Q and 12 Octave freq range Extreme Parameter Range allows extensive FX presets 250 Meters Space Type and Freq Profiles with advanced Link modes Over 600 and growing plus thousands or Macro combinations Single Page Main GUI Easy controls on Brower page Yes Yes Instantly audition hundreds of presets Serial Number and Karma 249 95 1 5 USER MANUAL What makes Aether unique in the competitive marketplace Example Two Convolution Plugs Rare depend
99. reas between these bands Decay time in Aether is thus frequency dependant and highly flexible 38 1 5 USER MANUAL LR HF Soft The LR HF Soft control is measured in percent and is a specialized high frequency shelving filter that can be used to quickly attenuate high frequencies in the Late Reflections At the minimum value of 0 the filter is completely off and has no effect At the maximum value of 100 the filter behaves similarly to a so called pinking filter which makes the general amplitude response for a given frequency the reciprocal of the frequency 1 F In other words if a white noise signal was fed into the filter the filter would loosely convert it to pink noise within a certain bandwidth The LR HF Soft filter is useful for quickly adjusting the high frequency response of the LR Engine based on the needs of the source material It can also be helpful to compensate for differences in high frequency response between Aether s various oversampling modes LR Diffuse LR Diffuse is measured in percent and models the effect of irregular wall surface materials in a room by changing echo density Very low values produce sharp discrete reflections Higher values produce groups of reflections that are smoother but less articulated Generally speaking with the exception of Special FX use it is recommended that this control be set to a medium to high value e Low values Produce less density and less complex echo patterns
100. reset File List on the right 01 DEFAULTS 01 DEFAULTS 02 HALLS 03 MUSICAL 04 SPIRITUAL 05 PLATES 06 DRUMS 07 INSTRUMENTS 08 VOCALS 09 AMBIENCE 10 SMALL 11 NARROW 12 NATURE 13 URBAN 14 THEMATIC 15 MYSTICAL 16 FILTERED FX 17 GRANULAR FX 18 MODULATION FX 02 HALLS 19 RESONANT FX ej EASY MODE CONTROLS PRESET FILE LIST 1 5 USER MANUAL The Info Page The Info Page contains three main functional areas the Preferences Area the Quality Settings Area and the Karma Boost Area Preferences deal with general behavior of the plug in and GUI Quality Settings adjust the Realtime and Offline balance between CPU performance and audio quality precession The Karma Boost area is used to authorize the product and to display version number information and other important messages Skin Display Values Knob Motion Tail Reporting KARMA BOOST QUALITY SETTINGS 1 5 USER MANUAL Mouse and Keyboard Interface Gestures Mouse Click Behaviors e Click Drag selects a knob and changes its value at normal rate e Shift Click Drag selects a knob and changes its value at a slow fine tune rate e Control Click Win sets the knob value to the default value for the parameter e Command Click OSX sets the knob value to the default value for the parameter e Double Click opens the text entry edit box for the selected knob or value box Mouse Wheel Behaviors e On OSX it is possible to use the mouse wheel to change a
101. rest Default Size 25m XYZ Ratios 50 50 Open Materials LF Absorber amp HF Absorber 58 TE G Wis Pa CI a rA ik lt n 1 5 USER MANUAL Small Bathroom Default Size 3m XYZ Ratios 70 100 100 Materials Brick amp Concrete Small Hard Room Default Size 8m XYZ Ratios 100 60 30 Materials Concrete amp Concrete Small Living Room Default Size 7m XYZ Ratios 100 70 35 Materials Carpet amp Floor Wood Parquet Small Phone Booth Default Size 2 2m XYZ Ratios 50 50 100 Materials Glass Window amp Floor Wood 1 5 USER MANUAL Small Soft Room Default Size 10m XYZ Ratios 100 70 40 Materials Gypsum amp Floor Wood Small Space Station Default Size 10m XYZ Ratios 15 100 15 Materials Seats Unoccupied amp LF Absorber Small Spiral Default Size 6m XYZ Ratios 100 100 1000 Materials Floor Concrete amp Brick Small Stairwell Default Size 7m XYZ Ratios 40 60 100 Materials Floor Wood amp Concrete 1 5 USER MANUAL Special Close Default Size 6m XYZ Ratios 100 100 50 Materials Brick amp Brick Special Reverse Default Size 45m XYZ Ratios 100 100 100 Materials Brick amp Brick Urban Parking Garage Default Size 30m XYZ Ratios 100 100 10 Materials Brick amp Brick gt gt YE way gt Urban Square Default Size 50m XYZ Ratios 100 100 Open Materials LF Absorber
102. result in an illegal value in the other control Aether makes the necessary adjustment to the other control automatically LR Size Link The LR Size Link button forces both ER Size and LR Size to have the same value When LR Size Link is engaged changes to either control will affect both controls This can be convenient to assist expedient design of natural sounding presets LR Shape LR Shape is measured in percent and is a complex parameter that adds some additional irregularity and variation to the delay lengths of the LR Engine and therefore increases the perceived complexity of the geometry of the acoustic space Larger values produce greater variation in delay length and thus more complex three dimensional geometry You may think of it as increasing the number of reflective surfaces in the acoustic space or increasing the fractal tessellation of a three dimensional cube if you prefer to be really brainy e Low Values Represent simple room geometries with few reflecting surfaces Can conceptually be thought of as an empty cube at the minimum though this is not completely accurate Will produce the strongest emphasis on LR Size differences and will contain more natural Pre Delay Can at very low values produce noticeable ripples or clusters of delays in the beginning of the reverb tails which will smooth out over the decay of the tail This can be especially noticeable at large LR Size settings or on sources with fast transients and if
103. rong comb filtering and resonance e Medium to Large sizes 15 75 meters o Produce moderate to slow density buildup 32 1 5 USER MANUAL Are generally ideal for most Hall and musical performance space presets Are large enough to avoid any unwanted coloration Are a good choice to use to emulate some classic hardware devices Can be used with Cascade to approach and emulate constant density reverb devices 0000 e Extremely large size gt 75 meters o Produce effects similar to multi tap delay effect with very slow density buildup o Assist in the creation of granular like presets and clustering effects o Can be used with Cascade to intentionally achieve irregular amplitude response envelopes From these general guidelines it can be seen that large sizes not only produce longer delays but also lower density tails and slower density buildup Because of these facts it can sometimes be desirable to use an exaggerated LR Size setting when additional clarity sparsity or mix space needs to be achieved in a dense musical project It can be particularly useful to use larger setting with Cascade to achieve these goals Note Due to the nature of the Aether algorithm there is a minimum allowable LR Time value for a given LR Size value LR Time must always be at least 1 of the LR Size For example when LR Size is 250 meters the minimum LR Time is 2 5 seconds If either the LR Time or LR Size control is changed to a setting that would
104. rve is always limited to have a maximum value of OdB at any point in the curve Thus using positive Gain values do not actually push the total output gain up at all but rather cut inversely proportionally in the pass band The Gains should thus be considered relative and the user should be most concerned with the geometry and shape of the curve and not the actual numerical values High EQ Gain specifies the shelf of high shelving filter o Gain Range is 48dB to 18dB o If gain is set to minimum value lt 48dB the filter type will change from a Shelf to a High Cut Low Pass filter o If Gain is set to OdB which is the default value the filter will enter an off state and be bypassed o The Frequency response curve is always limited to have a maximum value of OdB at any point in the curve Thus using positive Gain values do not actually push the total output gain up at all but rather cut inversely proportionally in the pass band The Gains should thus be considered relative and the user should be most concerned with the geometry and shape of the curve and not the actual numerical values e Low EQ Q specifies low EQ filter slope or resonance o Qrange is from 0 05 to 1 00 19 1 5 USER MANUAL o Q stands for Quality Factory and is defined in physics as a dimensionless parameter that describes how under damped an oscillator or resonator is or equivalently characterizes a resonator s bandwidth relative to its center frequency
105. s can useful for special FX Note When using the M S Relative Stereo Mode the normal behavior of the Width controls is suspended and instead it functions as an output panner for the wet signal MORE EXAMPLES Now that we have developed an easy way to think about and visualize Aether s Cross and Width controls let us look at how they interact when using the L R Stereo Mode and take things one step further The first example below a Width value of 50 and a cross value of 200 and as you expect we find a reversal of the panning image and a widening of the image centered around this new position The second example uses a cross setting of 100 so this pulls the input image to center and collapses it to mono and then the width setting expands it slightly over a normal amount to achieve any extra wide omni directional sound field In the third example things start to get interesting All previous examples 9 AUAO 1 5 USER MANUAL used a mono input signal to keep things conceptually clear Aether is a stereo in stereo out processor though so the input signal in real use is likely to already be a complex signal with its own spatial information especially when used on a Send bus The principles described above hold true though Notice the cross setting of 150 reverses the panning and collapse the input image to 50 of its initial value and the width expands it from there The last example we leave to you Consider it homework UNDERSTANDING
106. s on IR SR Some Some n a No No No No Some Variable Depends on IR High but Static No None Depends on IR Depends on IR Generally 1 or 2 Limited Very rare No Usually basic Rare Generally not editable depends on IR Not standard but possible with FX Iris Variable but large long spaces are CPU heavy No Varies depending on product Typically not many parameters to begin with Reasonably fast to change IR s Some IR s are slow to load Variable 0 built in hosts to 995 72
107. sible for the technical sound quality in products such as Aether but it is also one that involves many trade secrets As such we will provide only a high level overview of this topic Aether 1 5 offers three interpolation quality settings Excellence Perfection and Obsession The Excellence mode is the same as was found in Aether 1 0 and offers the best compromise between quality and performance The Perfection and Obsession modes employ highly advanced mathematical techniques to achieve completely artifact free band limited interpolation which both is free from unwanted high frequency damping and perfectly suppresses aliasing at the same time Both of these modes are extremely heavy on the CPU and only available during offline bounces The Perfection mode represents just that for 95 of all musical needs The Obsession mode goes beyond all reasonable performance bounds for users who are willing to wait for the ultimate fidelity for high resolution audio production and mastering needs Be forewarned it s not a fast process by any means and is complete overkill for most needs We offer the Obsession mode anyway as proof of concept and for those of you out there who may be as obsessive and patient as we are e 1 Excellence o Provides the best compromise between CPU usage and sound quality o Results in some additional uncontrollable high frequency decay though this can be considered to be natural for the most part and could be thought of as a
108. sured in milliseconds and added together with the natural pre delay amounts build into the Size control Example 3 Demonstrates this The final example shown makes use of all of the discussed controls in order to achieve a complex custom decay curve Finally Aether s Shape control effects timing information and characteristics inside the decay contour created by the other controls It does not directly affect the actual decay contour itself ATTACK 100 SPREAD MIN OFF ATTACK 100 SPREAD MINIOPF ATTACK 100 SPREAD MINIOFF 100 SPREAD MIN OFF ATTACK 100 SPREAD SHORT 100 PRN ACEN 68 2 audio AS USER MANUAL Appendix Parameter Appendix PARAMETER UNITS MIN VALUE MAX VALUE DEFAULT ER Bypass Off On 0 0 ER Cross 0 200 100 ER HF Soft 0 Off 100 Max 0 Off ER Shape 0 Min 100 Max 50 ER Space Type 0 32 5 Hall 2 ER Width 0 200 100 ER Stereo Mode L R Mono M S Relative L R Stereo IN EQ Filter Gain Low 48 Cut 18 6 IN EQ Filter Q Slope Low 0 05 1 IN EQ Frequency Low Hz 8 32768 200 IN Mix o 100 Wet 50 LR Bypass o Q 1 On 0 0 LR Decay Crossover Low Hz 32768 500 LR Decay Q Low Q 0 05 1 0 707 LR Decay Ratio Low 5 100 100 LR Diffuse 100 Max LR HF Soft 0 0 100 0 0 LR Mod Period Seconds 0 01 100Hz 500 0 002Hz 2 LR Reverb Time Seconds 0 1 120 15 LR Size 100 Ma
109. t 46 2 audio i 9 oo MANUAL Easy Mode Parameter Locks Parameter Locks are provided for all six Easy Mode Controls ER Gain LR Gain IN Gain and IN Mix Locks share the same behavior as the on the Main page of the GUI For full details on the behavior of these parameter lock please refer to the Main Page Parameters amp GUI Details section of this document Parameter Locks are also provided for the ER Size and LR Time controls These are unique to the Browser page and are not duplicated on the Main page When in the locked state the associated control will not respond to changes made by preset changes automation or user input Note that this is true on the Main page of the GUI as well and therefore if Locks are enabled on the Browser page they must be disabled first before any changes are possible on either the Browser or Main page of the GUI The purpose of these two additional locks is to facilitate experimental preset browsing by forcing a given ER Size and LR Time to remain consistent while browsing presets For example by using these locks it would be possible to set ER Size to 40 meters and LR Time to 3 seconds and audition all factory presets with these settings This simply offers beginners another way of quickly trying different settings It can also theoretically be useful to force appropriate Size and Time settings to the needs of the musical source while quickly auditioning various presets For example if you know
110. t of the composition for ambient and film score work where the reverb signal becomes an important part of the orchestration e 15 Mystical Huge and ridiculously long presets which are designed to transform most any input into an diffuse ambient synth pad for ambient backgrounds and special FX use e 16 Filtered FX Special FX presets which make use of extreme EQ and decay filter settings e 17 Granular FX Special FX presets which have discrete echoes and clusters in their impulse response e 18 Modulation FX Special FX presets which make use of extreme modulation to achieve bizarre FX e 19 Resonant FX Special FX presets which are intentionally highly resonant metallic sounding and colored Folder List The Preset Browser Folder List is found in the left column of the Preset Browser The Preset Browser has the ability to display the contents of any of the selected folders in the Folder List By default all folders are selected The following actions are possible in the Folder List e Select All This action makes all folders selected and displays their contents in the File List 45 1 5 USER MANUAL e Deselect All This action makes all folders deselected and removes their contents from the File List display This is useful as a first step to quickly browse single folders e Select Individual folders This action will toggle the selected deselected state for individual folders The general idea of the folder list is to make it easier to fin
111. tes Slow Rates Not Smoothly Not Smoothly Not Smoothly Slow Rates Not Smoothly Not Smoothly Not Smoothly Fast Rates Not Smoothly Slow Rates Not Smoothly Fast Rates LONG NAME ER Absorption ER Bypass ER Color ER StereoXOver ER Gain ER HighFreqSoften ER Position ER Shape ER Size ER Type ER LinkMode ER StereoWidth ER Predelay ER StereoMode IN EQ HighGain IN EQ LowGain IN EQ HighQ IN EQ LowQ IN EQ HighFreq IN EQ LowFreq IN Gain IN WetDryMix LR EnvAttack LR Bypass LR DecayMidHighFreq LR DecayLowMidFreq LR DecayHighQ LR DecayLowQ LR DecayHighRatio LR DecayLowRatio LR DecayMidRatio LR Diffuse LR Gain LR HighFreqSoften LR ModDepth LR ModPeriod LR Predelay LR ReverbTime LR Shape LR Size LR EnvSpread LR StereoXOver LR StereoMode LR EnvSustain LR StereoWidth Cascade SHORT NAME ERabs ERbyps ERclr ERcrss ERgain ERhfs ERpos ERshp ERsize ERtype ERlink ERwdth LRpdly ERstmd INeqHG INeqLG INeqHQ INeqLQ INeqHF INeqLF INgain INmix LRattk LRbyps LRdHix LRdLoX LRdHiQ LRdLoQ LRdHiR LRdLoR LRdMdR LRdiff LRgain LRhfs LRmodD LRmodP LRpdly LRtime LRshp LRsize LRsprd LRerss LRstmd LRsust LRwdth Cascad 70 Feature Oversampling amp Band Limiting Double Precision 64bit DSP 64bit Host OS Support Band limited Interpolation Variable Quality Modes Extreme Off line Render Modes Proprietary Spectral Modulation Variable Q Damping Decay Curve Attack amp Sustain
112. the Browser c Using Space Type and Frequency Profiles amp Links d Bypassing the ER or LR Engine 4 Main Page Parameters amp GUI Details a Parameter Overview b Input Master Section Parameters c Early Reflections Engine Parameters d Late Reflection Engine Parameters 5 Browser Page Parameters amp GUI Details a Parameter Overview b The Preset Browser c The Easy Mode Control Area 6 Info Page Details a Parameter Overview b Preferences c Quality Settings d Karma Boost Area 7 Getting Deeper a ER Space Type Details b Understanding Cross and Width c Understanding Attack Sustain and Spread 8 Appendix a Parameter Appendix b Special Modes and Automation Appendix c What makes Aether unique in the competitive market environment hoap 2 Th ao om 1 5 USER MANUAL Introduction Welcome to 2CAudio First we would like to thank for your purchase and welcome you to the 2CAudio family 2CAudio develops industry leading audio plug ins in VST AU and RTAS formats Its primary focus is on spatial processing advanced creative effects and other future forward ideas The 2CAudio corporate motto is Convergent Creative Precision Convergent represents our understanding of the universal trend in knowledge and discovery that tells us that over time disparate segments of art science technology and thought merge and become one and therefore wisdom and progress in one discipline can often be successfully applied to
113. thorized it will not perform any audio processing Once it has been successfully authorized processing will begin and you may navigate to the Main or Browser Page to begin using the plug in Note The last segment of the serial number has only four characters and care should be taken not to accidentally copy paste a space character at the end of this last segment Common Authorization Problems Occasionally users run into a situation where the product does not retain its authorized status once it has been authorized and the user has to reauthorize the plug in multiple times This is generally an indication that the user s Disk Permissions and or User Rights are not set correctly This is a simple problem to solve If you encounter this issue please try the following WIN a Please go here C Program Files Steinberg VstPlugIns 2C Aether Resources or go to your Shared VST plug in folder however you have set it up if it is not this default location i e VstPlugIns b Select the AuthData spt file Right click on it and select Properties from the pop up menu c Uncheck Attributes Read Only d Open your host load Aether and authorize it one last time This should solve the problem a Please go here Your System Disk Library Application Support b Select the 2C Audio folder c Press Apple I on the keyboard to Get Info d Click on the Lock icon at the bottom of this window to make changes and enter your
114. tion with the new Cascade control e Small values lt 0 25 sec o Can act like chaotic frequency modulation at the extreme settings o Expand the frequency bandwidth of the reverb tails quickly o Are usually best reserved for Special FX presets though they can be useful on non pitched source sounds such as drums and percussion as well e Medium value 0 25 to 8 0 sec o Can result in a subtle musically pleasing chorus like sound which adds lushness 40 1 5 USER MANUAL o Area good choice to use for emulation of classic hardware when used with low Modulation Depths e Large values gt 8 sec o Can reduce noticeable pitch bend artifacts and increase clarity in the reverb tails o Area good choice to use to find a balance between artificial sweetening and more true to life responses LR Gain The LR Gain control adjusts the output level of the Late Reflections engine This parameter is measured in Decibels dB and has a range of negative infinity inf which is equivalent to being muted or off to positive twelve Decibels 12dB ER Gain and LR Gain are independent controls and their primarily purpose is to set the relative balance between ERs and LRs e Generally it is a good idea to keep either the ER or the LR Gain at 0dB and then adjust the other one to taste This assumes there is no severe filter action that strongly attenuates Gain in either engine e f aggressive filter settings are used positive range values can be useful to
115. uish individual echoes the ER phase of the Impulse Response is over and the Late Reflections phase has begun The ER phase normally only lasts a couple hundred milliseconds at most in real world acoustic spaces but Aether allows things to be exaggerated by offering a huge ER Size range in which ER taps may last up to a few seconds ER Space Type Aether mathematically calculates and subtly randomizes these ER delay patterns in pure floating point precision based on an incredibly complex algorithm that is designed to accurately mimic physical reality This part of the algorithm consists of over 75 internal parameters which control the characteristics of the resulting ER patterns These internal parameters include things such as room geometry material models with associated absorption coefficients energy dissipation diffusion scattering occlusion and others In effort to maximize usability and user friendliness this complexity is hidden from the user and is instead wrapped into a single visual macro called ER Space Type Thus the user does not have to deal with complex esoteric DSP parameters that only a physicist would understand and instead he simply chooses visually the type of environment he would like to use and Aether makes the appropriate changes to the algorithm behind the scenes 33 different default Space Types ship with Aether 1 5 0 Every Space Type is represented as an aesthetically pleasing picture in the display The current ER Spac
116. und in Aether s input signal 64 1 5 USER MANUAL WIDTH EXAMPLES Reverb is a process that has the effect of spreading out or smearing incoming signals in terms of Space Time and Frequency Aether s Width control affects the spatial aspect of this process It basically controls how far away from the input position the output signal will deviate A helpful conceptual metaphor for this process is that of a blur effect in a graphics program Just as blur in a graphics application takes an incoming pixel and spreads it around its surrounding area so too does a reverb function Aether s width control essentially acts like the radius control in a graphical blur effect In the first example below the input signal is mono panned center and width is set to 25 In this case we get a relatively narrow centered image The second example shows a wider setting applied to a signal that is already panned Notice here that the panning is still retained in the output and that the added width is centered around the pan position of the input The third setting shows a setting of 100 for width This setting corresponds to a perfectly averaged spatial dispersion in all directions The phase information in this case is statically balanced between in phase and out of phase The final example shows exaggerated width settings When width is greater than 100 there is more out of phase energy than in phase energy in comparing the left and right channels Thi
117. us in order to truly represent a given space accurately all three of these things should align to meet the characteristics of the acoustic environment Aether offers an intuitive solution to this issue by providing a Link button that allows various parameters to be linked to the Space Type macro control The additional ER controls the LR controls Both set of controls or None of the controls can be linked to Space Type This way when a user selects the Telephone Booth Space Type for example an appropriate size and reverb time can optionally be set automatically as well Of course the linked parameters can then 22 9 AUAO 1 5 USER MANUAL be adjusted by the user as desired and hybrid presets can also be developed by quickly combining the characteristics of two or more different Space Types The end result is a balance of maximum ease of use and ultimate flexibility The ER Space Type Link button has four states which determine whether or not the other associated parameters change along with the Space Type model The behaviors are as follows e None o Only the ER Space Type model changes o The associated ER parameters do not change o The associated LR parameters do not change o The ER Space Type model changes o ER Size ER Position ER Shape ER Absorption ER Color and ER HF Soft also change to their associated default values for the given Space Type o The associated LR parameters do not change o The ER Space Type model changes o
118. use the current Offline settings for all uses of the plug in This means it will use the Offline settings for Realtime use as well Generally speaking doing so will immediately spike CPU usage and result in CPU overs if the Offline settings especially the Interpolation setting are set to high values This is OK The idea here is NOT to work in this condition as it is basically impossible on even the fastest CPU available today the idea is to manually switch to the Force Offline setting immediately before initiating a mix down or bounce to disk and then switch back to Automatic immediately following completion of the bounce This way the Offline settings are still accessible to all users even in hosts that do not support automatic switching In summary the purpose of the Force Offline switch is to allow users of hosts that do not allow Aether to automatically invoke its Offline settings to use Aether s Offline settings anyway by manually performing the switch themselves Think of it as a manual versus an automatic transmission in an automobile In cases where we cannot shift for you automatically we allow you to do the shifting yourself if you would like to use this feature It is not ideal but at least you still have the ability to do so if you would like to Note Force Offline should ONLY ever be turned on temporarily for use during bounces as described above in these cases It should NOT be left on for normal use When using multiple instanc
119. ways operated in parallel In other words the input signal was split into two copies one was sent to the ER Engine one was sent to the LR Engine and these two separate engines were only ever mixed together at the final output stage Aether 1 5 introduces the Cascade control The Cascade control allows Aether to run in Serial modes where the output of ER Engine is fed into the LR Engine or vice versa The Cascade control does not simply force the user to choose between parallel or serial operation however Instead it allows the user to seamlessly morph between these two modes and create hybrid states where some of the output signal of the given Engine is fed into the other Engine and some is fed directly into the master output This allows for tremendously flexible signal routing that is all accessible from a single control The Cascade control is measured in percent and the value effectively represents the percentage of the signal routing in the serial signal path When the Cascade value is 0 Aether is operating in a fully Parallel mode When the Cascade value is 100 Aether is operating in a fully Serial mode Hybrid modes are possible with any of the intermediate values With careful use of theses settings the user can allow Aether to function almost like a three engine device where it can provide a third ghost output signal component which is a sophisticated hybrid between the two existing engines Cascade has several uses e Perceptuall
120. x LR Stereo CrossOver 0 200 100 LR Sustain 0 Off 100 Max 20 Cascade 0 100 0 69 Special Modes and Automation Appendix PARAMETER SPECIAL AUTOMATION AUTOMATION 1 5 USER MANUAL AUTOMATION ER Absorption ER Bypass ER Color ER Cross ER Gain ER HF Soft ER Position ER Shape ER Size ER Space Type ER Space Type Link ER Width ER Pre Delay ER Stereo Mode IN EQ filter gain High IN EQ filter gain Low IN EQ filter Q Slope High IN EQ filter Q Slope Low IN EQ Frequency High IN EQ Frequency Low IN Gain IN Mix LR Attack LR Bypass LR Decay Crossover High LR Decay Crossover Low LR Decay Q High LR Decay Q Low LR Decay Ratio High LR Decay Ratio Low LR Decay Ratio Mid LR Diffuse LR Gain LR HF Soft LR Mod Depth LR Mod Period LR Pre Delay LR Reverb Time LR Shape LR Size LR Spread LR Stereo CrossOver LR Stereo Mode LR Sustain LR Width Cascade MODES Bypassed Locked Cut Mode Cut Mode Off Off Locked Locked Bypassed Infinite Time Locked SUPPORTED Yes Fast Rates Fast Rates Fast Rates Fast Rates Slow Rates Not Smoothly Not Smoothly Not Smoothly Not Smoothly Not Smoothly Fast Rates Fast Rates Not Smoothly Slow Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Fast Rates Fast Rates Fast Rates Fast Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Slow Rates Fast Rates Fast Ra
121. y recess the ERs back into the depth of the stereo field to deepen the sound stage perception e Glue the ERs and LRs together to some degree to function as a synergistic whole e Aid in the creation of 3D sound fields via careful use of Stereo modes and Cross e Add additional density to the resulting composite system impulse response e Impart the coloration and characteristically uneven frequency response of the ER Engine into the LR Engine to various degrees to roughly model room modes in acoustical environments e Assist in creating very dense composite impulse responses which are useful for Non Linear Plate and Ambiance type of presets e Model large irregular and asymmetric acoustic spaces where there is a sense of semi discrete clustering grain like or chunky behavior later on in the tails e Emulate Physical Modeling like behavior of highly chaotic small systems which exhibit strong comb filtering effects and resonances e Special FX creation Note Please don t feel compelled to use the Cascade control simply because it is a new feature Using a setting of 0 represents purely parallel operation and this was all that was available in previous versions of Aether and all other products on the market to this date that we know of A setting of 0 will keep the LR engine as neutral and uncolored as possible This is not a bad thing Using Cascade sparingly in natural presets can add a sublime extra touch of organic feeling via bui
122. you need a short and small hall you can enter appropriate settings for ER Size and LR Time lock these controls and then quickly audition all factory Hall settings under these conditions 47 1 5 USER MANUAL el O Info Page Details Preferences The Preferences area of the Info Page contains options which control the general look and input response of the GUI as well as other miscellaneous preferences Preferences may be changed either by directly clicking on the text field button that displays the current preference setting or by using the associated drop down menu to directly select the desired option Some changes to preferences take place immediately others require the plug in to be reloaded to take effect as described for each preference below When using multiple instances of Aether in a host project changes to Preferences are global for all instances of Aether however the host project file must be closed and reopened before all instances of Aether will use the new Preferences In other words changing Preferences in a single instance of Aether will change the settings for all instances in the project but the project file must be closed and reloaded to automatically switch the Preferences of all of the other instances used in the project Skin The Skin preference allows you to change the GUI Skin of the plug in GUI Skins are sometimes called Themes by other software developers and represent all graphic files and assoc
123. ysical properties of the acoustic space Studies have shown that impulse responses of real acoustic spaces vary drastically even chaotically in some of their characteristics in response to small changes in source and listener position Most impulse response based approaches are limited to capturing a single location of an acoustic space and do not capture the dynamic potential of the full environment Consider a classical engineer who carefully sets up microphone placement for the given performance performs a few listening tests via headphones and then readjusts the microphone placement to find the optimum sweet spot for the given combination of musical material and room This is effectively what Aether s Position control allows We recommend establishing the physical ER parameters such as Size and Shape first and then adjusting the Position control until you find a reflection pattern that is best suited for the context of your current musical need 24 2 audio 1 5 USER MANUAL From a technical standpoint the position control is similar in concept to the Space Type control in that it is effectively a macro control that controls several behind the scenes parts of ER model with a single control Technically the Position control works in the following manner 1 Each Space Type has relative XYZ dimension ratios These vary depending on the Space Type and are listed in the description of the Space Types elsewhere in this manual 2 These rat

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