2CAudio B2 opinions?

Just wonder what fellow forum member think about 2CAudio B2?
I really like the recordings on the web site and it's on sale at the moment for $174.95
Unfortunately don't have much time at the moment to really evaluate the demo.

B2 has a different role than most reverb plug-ins.  For most reverb applications, it you notice it, it's being applied too heavily.  B2 is intended to be in your face and of use where the effect is intended to be very obvious.  It's applicable for situations where you really want spacey, weird, otherworldly, etc. ambiance.  So, it depends the type of music/sound you produce.  For straight-up popular music, it's of little worth.  For sound-track/scape work, it could be one of your favorite effects.
 
As to quality, it's from 2CAudio, so that should say enough right there.

backwoods
B2 can do the tradional spaces if needs be. Aether is the best reverb I have ever used BTW (totally smokes Valhalla) so spring for that first.

+1. Demo Valhalla for many days 2013 and choose Breeze. Demo one more time in dec 2014 and I still could not bring myself to like it dispite it's fame. Aether rules.

I upgraded to perfect storm already owning b2 and breeze. So the upgrade got me Aether and the preset bundles at a big discount. I've never bought a preset pack before but it has been money well spent. Hundreds upon hundreds of brilliant options.... might even be in the thousands. The aether browser in particular is dynamite. Very fast and easy to pursue ideas. I just put it on a buss, lock the wet/dry to 100 and explore the possibilities. 
 
 
 
 

In aether Browser page, select the preset that you like, lock all 6 micros, and select other presets again. This is great for Aether beginner like me. Sounds awesome on vocal, better than Breeze by 1000 miles. 

Chiming in late, here.   Doing the B2 and Aether trials.  Comparing with Valhalla, which I own.  Solo piano material only, and I'm going for the typical med Hall verb that you'll find in a lot of solo piano albums, from classical to jazz and rock.   I'm guessing that the top pro mixes use a Bricasti Harware verb, which obviously hasn't been equaled in software YET.
 
I haven't spent much time with Aether, but B2 "scoring stage mid 1" I think it's called is very, very close to Bricasti levels, where "obsession" is the final mix. 
 
I'm now running a comparison with Aether's "piano concert" setting, also mixed at the "obsession" level.  
 
Valhalla Vintage is great, and certainly way good enough for the average listener, but good monitors or phones will show B2 to be much cleaner and more realistic, as far as I can tell, that is.
 
Does anyone know if there's a substantive algorithmic difference between Aether and B2?   B2, for example, has a "2 engine" mode, and "cascade", as well, which looks like more subtle processing capability than Aether...???
 
 

dmbaer

johnlewisgrant
 
Does anyone know if there's a substantive algorithmic difference between Aether and B2?   B2, for example, has a "2 engine" mode, and "cascade", as well, which looks like more subtle processing capability than Aether...??? 

B2 doesn't just have a 2-engine mode, it *is* a 2-engine verb.  You can, of course, turn one of the engines off.  Aether came first, so it's reasonable to assume there were things learned while implementing Aether that were applied to B2.  But just look at the controls in Aether compared to B2.  Aether remains the deeper of the two, and I would say that depth gives it a greater capability for subtlety.
 
By the way, the developer of Aether is a pianist, so it should be no surprise that his verbs do very well on piano tracks.

Hmmm a pianist?   That's encouraging.  I'm just getting into Aether now, with solo Bach stuff I'm doing.  Checking out as systematically as I can all the presets that I can. 

Andrew Souter is the developer of B2 and Aether.    And as mentioned above, he is a piano player.  There is a thread on V.I Control forum where he himelf talks about his paino albums and how he used his own products to make the sound.
 
http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42826&highlight=ballad
 
 
PS : Oh, and I have Aether, and its a fantastic product.  If you want to keep things simple with a quality reverb as a send for all your tracks, you have hundreds to choose from as presets, which can easily be fine-tuned.  If you want special effects on any specific tracks, there are some amzing sounds you can get.  And if you want to go deep, and edit even the most fine details of almost any reverb parameter you can think of, and even ones you didn't even know about, you can.   
 
 

I am looking at this with interest too. I have been making solo piano music with pianoteq, ivory 2 and my reverb is aether and breeze.

Here's a second attempt at the E Major (#9) prelude and fugue, using Valhalla Vintage "large chamber" but with the following changes: Mix 34.7%, Predelay 55.5ms, Decay 1.93 %, Color "Now", Mod Rate 0%, all other settings as in the factory settings for "large chamber":
 
https://www.youtube.com/w...;feature=youtube_gdata
 
(I've now replaced the old prelude/fugue #9 combo inside the "24" playlist with this newer version of the prelude, using the above settings on Valhalla Vintage.)