Support - FAQ
The only silly question is the one you don’t ask. Having said that, oftentimes users will have the same question given the commonalities of host applications, operating systems, and general product usage. Thus we maintain this list of Frequently Asked Questions. It is designed to quickly and efficiently provide you with the information you need to solve any issue you may be facing. If you are experiencing any kind of issue with our products or any other part of the 2CAudio experience, this should be the first place you look for answers. Please read this FAQ before emailing us support questions. We are happy to help of course, and are always available to meet your support needs personally; however, if we can minimize duplicate question and answer sessions, it allows us to maximize the time spent on developing the products you love and have come to depend on. We deeply appreciate your help with this.
Where can I find my installer download and serial number?
When you first purchase the product and go through checkout, you should see the download link on the final page of checkout after your payment has been verified. Upon completion of the order, you will receive an email receipt that confirms your purchase. This email will also contain your personal serial number. If at a later date you need to re-download your product or re-enter your serial number, you may find both the download link and your serial number in the order details page for the given order. You will find this in your order history in the Galbanum web store.
Why does your installer fail or give error messages?
On rare occasions we have had reports of 3rd-Party Unzip/Unarchive tools corrupting our installers. If you have an issue please be sure to unzip the download using Mac OSX's or Windows' built-in unzip tools, NOT 3rd party unzip tools.
Why does your plug-in fail to load in my host?
99% of the time when one of our plug-ins fails to load in a host, it is caused by a problem with installation. The most common issue is that the disk permissions and nebulous operating system security features have blocked our installer from writing all of the files we need to write to your machine.
If you are using Windows we suggest that you try running the installer again in a special manner: find the "setup.exe" file in our installer, right click on it, and select "Run as admin...". This should solve the issue.
If you are running Mac OSX, please try the following:
1) Please go here: /Your System Disk/Library/Application Support/
2) Select the "2C-Audio/" folder
3) Press Apple-I on the keyboard to "Get Info"
4) Click on the Lock icon at the bottom of this window to make changes, and enter your admin password
5) Change ALL three user groups to Read & Write Access
6) Click on the "gear wheel icon" drop down menu on the bottom of the page, and select "Apply to Enclosed Items". Select Yes.
7) Run the installer again
8) Re-launch your host application
9) If you host has disabled our plug, please manually renable it and then instantiate it.
Why can't I enter my Serial Number?
You first need to double-click on the Serrial Number fields one at a time. This opens a text-entry field. You may then manually type or cut/paste the SN provided to you into the SN fields on our product GUI one field at a time. Serial Numbers must be entered in ALL CAPS. Serial Numbers must NOT contain any spaces. The first four fields have 5 characters. The last has 4. Be careful not to cut/paste a space at the end of the last field, or anywhere else. Once the SN is entered correctly, you can press the Enter button and it should disappear. The authorization status text should change to "Authorized".
Why do I have to authorize the plug-in every time I open it?
You should not have to do this. This is not normal behavior. This is generally caused by a disk permissions issue. We believe this to be a legacy issue at this point, and it should no longer occur in B2. We will add these changes to the next update of Aether and Breeze as well.
Ya, but what if you are wrong, and I still need to re-enter my serial number every time I want to use the friggin thing!?
Occasionally (hopefully only with past versions at this point) users ran/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:
WINDOWS:
You can try the same technique as noted above on your host application. Locate you host application's executable (*.exe) within your Program Files folder, right click on it, and select “Run as Admin”. Authorize the plug-in in this state, and then quit the host and re-launch your host in the normal manner. Authorization should now be retained if it was not previously.
If this does not work, please try the following:
1) Locate the product folder (for Aether/Breeze) by default is should be: C:\Program Files\2C-Audio\Aether or C:\Program Files\2C-Audio\Breeze
2) Go to the \Res subfolder and right-mouse click on the auth.prop file and select Properties
3) In the dialog uncheck the read-only check-box. Press apply.
4) Press the security tab. On the security page check if the file is allowed for
writing. If not modify permissions accordingly. Press apply.
OSX:
1) Please go here: /Your System Disk/Library/Application Support/
2) Select the "2C-Audio/" folder
3) Press Apple-I on the keyboard to "Get Info"
4) Click on the Lock icon at the bottom of this window to make changes, and enter your admin password
5) Change ALL three user groups to Read & Write Access
6) Click on the "gear wheel icon" drop down menu on the bottom of the page, and select "Apply to Enclosed Items". Select Yes.
7) Open your host, load the plug-in, and authorize it one last time. This should solve the problem.
How do I upgrade from Perfect Storm 2.5 to Perfect Storm 3.0?
If you are a Perfect Storm 2.5 customer or equivalent (meaning you have an order history that in one way or another ends up with you having Aether, B2, Breeze 1, and all the preset expansions for these), there is a Upgrade deal for you. The upgrade price is $74.95.
To upgrade from PS 2.5 to PS 3.0 please order this: Breeze Pack
Apply this voucher at checkout: Upgrade_PerfectStorm3
You need to cut/paste this into the voucher field and then click the “OK” button. This will update the price to $74.95. This will give you everything in Perfect Storm 3.0 that you do not already have, effectively upgrading you to 3.0. Let us know if you have questions or issues.
Ya, but why do I order only the Breeze 2.0 Pack to upgrade to Perfect Storm 3.0?
Perfect Storm is simply a bundle of products of plus all associated preset expansions, with favorable pricing for the said bundle and potential discount rights to future products. In the new web store we call these bundles "Packs". When you order the new Perfect Storm 3.0 Pack for example, the store just gives you all the products that make up the Pack, The products show up individually in My Downloads. Packs don't have Serial Numbers. Products do. The web store assigns one Serial Number to each product that requires one. Legacy versions for each product are accessible as well.
If alternatively we were to give people a voucher to order the Perfect Storm 3.0 pack at a discounted upgrade price, you would end up with duplicate Serial Numbers and duplicate listings of all the older products in My Downloads That'd be a problem.
Also with having everything isolated, it is VERY simple for us to make fast updates to products like we did with Breeze 2.0, where we had 2.0.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2. 2.0.3 all within 45 days or so. To keep current in that flurry of activity all users had to do was to download a single 10mb or so file each time and install it. This kind of thing takes less than 60sec in most cases. If it was the full Perfect Storm bundle each time the download would be much bigger and it'd be a hassle for you, and it'd be a challenging for us to have to rebuild the full Perfect Storm bundle each time. It would waste your time and create more opportunities for us to make an error of some kind.
So we have people with Perfect Storm 2.5 just purchase what is missing when going to 3.0, which is namely Breeze 2 plus the Breeze 2 expansions, and we adjust the price accordingly. If there is another free update to Breeze 2, you only have to re-download Breeze 2 and nothing else. This is efficient for you. If we update only a preset expansion, you only have to download the new expansion. New download files are displayed in RED in My Downloads. So it is easy to identify what is new.
Regarding future benefits, if you have everything that is in Perfect Storm 3.0, you are considered to be a Perfect Storm 3.0 customer, and will get whatever future benefits become available as being a Perfect Storm customer. This is already true for Perfect Storm 2.5 for example, since most Perfect Storm customers first had Aether, then later added Breeze, then later added B2 etc.
The old store handled this differently because we did not have a centralized My Downloads section. In the old store we had to force people to make a new order every time there was a minor maintenance update. This was a hassle for you, so we improved it. Some update orders from the old store may have transferred differently than how we handle it now as explained above, and this may be somewhat confusing, and once we have all products updated so that the current version of all products is certain to have been handled from the new store, then perhaps we will look into cleaning up older orders. Additionally perhaps we will look into trying to organize My Downloads to display things that are part of Perfect Storm as somehow in some kind of visual group. This would just be a cosmetic change.
Basically in summary, the new method is superior, and best for new customers, but transitioning orders done from the old store to the new one could be slightly confusing for Perfect Storm customers who were used to the old mothed. We understand and hope this helps clarify.
Why does the discount voucher code you gave me fail to provide discounts?
In most cases to use a voucher code you must meet certain qualifications based on your order history. If you meet these qualifications please be sure that you are ordering from the proper web store listing as provided to you together with the voucher code. Oftentimes there will be a special order page when vouchers are involved so you need to pay attention to the order instructions. Finally, when you enter the voucher code please be careful not to add any additional characters such as spaces at the beginning or the end of the voucher code.
Why can't I download the product I just purchased? What if I use all of my allowed download attempts?
Are you using any form of Download Manager or Download Accelerator application or web browser plug-in? Our store is generally NOT compatible with such things. Please disable these type of products before attempting to download products from our web store. If either via accidental use of a download manger or via several failed manual attempts to download the product you have just purchased, you have used up all of your allowed downloads, please contact use via email explaining the situation and we can reset your download count. It is not a problem to reset download counts as needed in these cases.
General
Your presets are all saved with various Wet/Dry Mix settings. How do I use the plugin on an effects bus and keep the Mix setting at 100% wet?
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/B2/Breeze 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/B2/Breeze, 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/B2/Breeze 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 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 the best of both worlds. Welcome to the ultimate in flexibility. Note you may lock values other than 100% as well if you like.
Your products such as Aether and B2 sometimes use a lot of CPU power. Why is that?
Aether and B2 have variable quality options that are set on the Info page of their GUIs. The oversampling option may require significant CPU resources when running in 2X or 4X oversampling modes. To our knowledge we remain the only company in the market to offer oversampling in algorithmic reverb. We believe the extreme quality it can provide to be worth its CPU usage cost. Offline render modes are also available to balance between performance and quality needs. B2 also allows oversampling to be set per-preset and thus per-instance so that oversampling may be engaged only when necessary. CPU usage for both plug-ins is very reasonable when oversampling is off.
Why are my render/bounce times taking so long with your plug-ins?
We offer some VERY extreme off-line quality options. The Interpolation option in particular is extremely heavy on the CPU when using the two highest offline options. Our plug-ins are highly optimized in assembly language to achieve maximum performance. The nature of the mathematics to achieve perfection is simply VERY complex computationally. We are the only company in the industry to allow such things as far as we are aware. We provide these options for those who want the ultimate result and are willing to wait to achieve it. These extreme options should be off by default, and our base quality settings are already award winning and competitive with or superior to the majority of our competitors. If render times are exceptionally long, check that you have not engaged our extreme offline options.
Company X has cheaper prices on its products. Why are you so damn expensive? Wouldn't you sell more units if you charged less?
We are NOT interested in trying to be the cheapest or the lightest on the CPU at the expense of sacrificing audio quality. The "bargain-basement" $0.99-app sector of the industry is already crowded enough and we have no interest in participating in it. No offense to anyone else, but if other developers think their products are only worth $20 or $50, who are we to argue with them? We simply have no interest in racing to the bottom of the market.
We are interested in achieving the ultimate sound-quality and finding engineering solutions to make this viable for as many people as possible. We make premium products that are used on the largest projects in our industry, and we charge VERY reasonable prices for the level of quality that we deliver. We are nowhere near the top of the market in terms of pricing, and at yet we are at the top of the market in terms of quality. Our prices represent an incredible value for the level of quality we deliver. We are able to do this because we are a small team of passionate people who fulfill all of the roles usually handled by a much larger organization with much higher operating costs.
We are interested in developing system-level tools that have been made with countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears and only reach release status once obsessive levels of creative and technical excellence have been achieved. This requires tremendous work and sacrifice.
We are interested in developing personal relationships with customers who become both long term friends and well as clients. We enjoy helping educate passionate new users and novices who want to start by accepting nothing but the best. We are humbled to be able to co-create with VIP industry veterans and help them with the needs of projects that reach hundreds of millions of people.
We value independent thought and creativity. We are not inspired by emulation. We are inspired by new ideas, or application and expansion of older universal ideas using new technologies.
Joining our family may require a small premium compared to "bargain-basement" options, but we feel the premium is more than justified and we are happy to have the support of many others who fully agree. We do what we can to make our work as accessible to everyone as possible, as evidenced by the various cross-grade offers and promotions we occasionally have. And rest assured once you are in our family, we always take care of you. You are our most valuable asset.
Having said all of that, of course ideally we would love to sell "the most". We DO want that. We simply won't compromise our values to get there... That is what makes us who we are. We think in the long run you will come to appreciate it. Thanks for listening...
Company Y charges a gazillion dollars and yet you seem to be better. Why are you so damn cheap?
God bless you for seeing the truth. LOL. The simple answer is we "pack light and travel far". We are able to offer the pricing we do because we are a small team of passionate people who fulfill all of the roles usually handled by a much larger organization with much higher operating costs. 2CAudio formally consists of only two people since its inception in late 2008 right up to the preset in 2012: Andrew Souter and Denis Malygin. Additionally we are blessed to have amazing contributions from our impeccable beta team, world-class contractors and consultants, and the audio community at large. Finally we are a bit of obsessive-control-freak workaholics and we don't always have the best work-life balance. It is this passion however, that generally results in the level of quality you have come to expect from us.
Do you offer educational pricing?
Yes we do offer educational discounts. Educational pricing is 50% off of the full retail price of the product(s) you are interested in. To qualify you must be a student, teacher, or faculty member of an accredited educational institution and you must provide us with some form of tangible evidence of this affiliation via email.
What is your license transfer policy?
License transfers are handled in the following manner:
1) The original customer communicates the desire to Transfer his SN via sending an email to us using the email address originally used to place the order, which includes his original order number, his SN, and the name and email of the new customer he wishes to transfer to.
2) The original customer surrenders his existing Retail SN, agrees not to use the product any more, and agrees to destroy all copies of the product he has.
3) The Retail SN of the original customer is made invalid by 2CAudio in future updates of the product.
4) The original customer does not retain any special rights to repurchase The Product at any discount in the future. The Product must be repurchased at normal retail price at a later date if desired.
5) There is a fee of 20% of MSRP of The Product which is paid by the new customer.
6) The new customer is given a special web-page to order a new copy of The Product for this license transfer fee.
7) The new customer receives a special SN which is a License Transfer Class SN.
8) This new License Transfer Class SN is NOT transferable at any point in the future to another 3rd party. Licenses acquired via transfer are effectively NFR: Not For Resale.
9) This new License Transfer Class SN is eligible for both free and paid updates as well as cross-grade offers in the future life of the product.
10) The new Licensee is entitled to full support of the product, just as is provided to regular Retail customers.
11) License transfers initiated by the original customer are only honored by 2CAudio once all of the above steps have been completed..
I have two machines such as a desktop and a laptop. Can I install your software on all of my machines with a single license or do I need to purchase multiple copies? What if one is an OSX machine and the other is Windows?
We offer a "Single User License". If you as a Single User have multiple machines it is not a problem for us for you to install our software on all of your machines so long as they all belong to you and you are the only user of these machines. This is even true cross-platform. If you have both an OSX machine as well as a Windows machine, you may install our software on both machines so long as both belong to you and you are the only user.
