"This is Denis from 2CAudio. I'm the Initiator, Co-Founder, Lead Developer and
a major contributor to 2CAudio.

I'm emailing you from my personal email because Mr. Andrew Souter (andrew at 2caudio.com),
another Co-Founder and major contributor to 2CAudio decided on his own to block me
from accessing 2CAudio email server as of late February 2022.

This means that I effectively cannot any longer provide a technical support to
you and all 2CAudio users via official company channels.

Since november 2021 I have received no profit share from 2CAudio sales.
Andrew puts all the profit into his own pockets.

All these winter (2021-2022) months, until the email ban, I've been providing tech support
to customers and have been working on ARM/M1 plug-in support even having received
no money from sales at all. People who contacted support could confirm that.

This is not the first time Andrew behaves this way. It happened also in 2017
and in dec'2020-mar'2021 though the money were then eventually paid.

I could not stand that anymore. I have absolutely no desire to have any kind of
joint business with this man.

I feel an obligation to all users to support them and do updates, but I cannot do that
having no income from sales and my business partner treating my property as his own.

I started the thread about Andrew's actions at kvr forum.
see [Effects :: 2CAudio Breeze | 2.5 | Simple. Light. Pristine. Intelligently Adaptive. page 112]
the thread got soon locked by Ben (the moderator).

I did more posts recently at kvr with more proofs and details. These posts were removed
by Ben along with kvr user's posts!

I also made posts in vi-control and gearspace forums.
Soon my posts were deleted by admins in these two forums above.
These people thus violated your right to know about the company status.

In his reply on KVR forum Andrew claims himself a sole owner of all joint intellectual
property that we developed over past 14 years and my property which I developed prior to
2CAudio start in 2008.

He calls me a *contractor*. If so then he must explain why I then have accounting
data of users which includes full name, country, date of purchase, email, amount spent, etc.

After that post Andrew threatened me with a Defamation lawsuit.
He definitely does not want me to spread the truth about his actions to users and the audio community.
He violates your right to be informed about the status of a company which products you invested your money into.
There is absolutely no information posted on company web site regarding this.

I treat Andrew's actions as a hostile takeover of my property, complete disrespect to
my contribution (especially on startup) and letting down customers who put their trust
and invested their hard-earned money into 2CAudio products whereby supporting it.

On May 9 2022 my attorney sent to Andrew a Cease&Desist letter in which we demanded to
stop infringement of my intellectual property rights and immediately cease online sales
and distribution of products developed by me and pay to me all the money due.
So far we received no response and Andrew continues to sell online.

---

I have researched and developed SpaceVerb (which then became Aether) and all the dsp/plug-in
code infrastructure in 2005-2008, i.e. prior to 2CAudio launch in late 2008.
I came up with the '2CAudio' brand name and I invited Andrew to have a join business together.
90% of the 2CAudio codebase is developed by me.

For the first 5-7 years I've been almost the sole contributor to the company code and dsp/math.
Later years Andrew caught up and by 2022 it's fair to say both parties contributed equally
to the company.

I do not want to take your time by filling my email with a long and detailed explanation
about the history of 2CAudio and the origins of the conflict, but in case you would like
to find out more I can provide you with such information.

I do not have access to emails of all users because sales went through Andrew's controlled
company. So I'm emailing only to those whose emails I can collect from communication via info/support.
If you enjoyed the software products that I've made I'd appreciate if you drop me a line or two
and let me know what you think about this and/or post this information in relevant online forums
or share it with another 2CAudio customers you may know.

Note that Andrew, by his own, does not have enough skills to develop and update 2CAudio products.
He needs to hire a proper system/dsp programmer to do that. So if you receive an update from him
please be aware that most probably this update was funded with my personal money which he decided to put in his pockets.

And if you have an email correspondence with Andrew on this topic ask him for a proof of what he claims.

Thanks for your time!

Regards,
Denis"

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2022

wow, that's sad.

 

crazy shit...

 

Good luck and strength Denis!

 

Jesus... wtf... high drama.
Let's wait and see

 

looks like Dennis got ELON'd

 

Here's Andrew's side of the story:

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2022

Considering that millions of people who are addicted to the "Yepp it's a Turd" trial, it seems personal dramas are more important than things that actually matter.

 

I get the impression that Andrew strung along Denis for cheap labour for years until things came to a head and Denis had several meltdowns. I suppose that legally Andrew might be in the right, since he never made Denis an employee, but his business practices sound at least morally reprehensible, if not downright sleazy.

 

He said, he said.

 

Well, I think this a very important problem. The thing is, as unfortunately happens lately, one part has decided to make major accusations on quite a few social networks/forums like this one itself.
Instead of privately using the law mechanisms.
Now, no matter who's right or wrong, or how much, on the several issues, someone will end unfairly publicly blamed. Perhaps even both.

Well, time will tell. But now we can't help thinking about it after the shit has publicly hit the fan big time. I'll try not to. Sad.

 

that sad.. rlly sad... I love aether and b2 also breeze is amazing.... thank you Denis for these plugs and I hope that you will countine the work one day

 

Fuck it. Start new company. Full control.

 

So basically, Denis says "i'm the DSP coder".
And Andrew says "i'm the DSP coder".

Read both versions :
"For the first 5-7 years I've been almost the sole contributor to the company code and dsp/math"

"I was product lead, product/concept designer, core algorithm/DSP developer, algorithm/DSP tuner, GUI designer, coder of all procedural GUI drawing routines, and primary preset/content designer. I also invented B2. I was product lead, product designer, core algorithm/DSP co-developer, exclusive algorithm/DSP tuner, GUI designer, and primary preset designer. I am directly responsible for the look, sound and functionality of all of these products."

One of them is of course a pure liar.
And the best way to know is ending the company : the one with a new job will be the REAL DSP coder.
Because reverb is all about DSP.

Take some popcorn ... and watch them both searching a new job.

 

I don't care about, know about and use about zero 2c Audio products. Just going literally by the text ^^^. But I know that the efficiency of their plugins is what they're renowned for, amongst fans.

Denis seems to be clear, straightforward and believable. He gives credit and seems quite objective; also about himself.

Only strange point is him working for nothing; capitalism isn't a charity!

Andrew seems disingenuous ("'threatening' to perform work on updates by himself" dafug) contradictory ("the development that are historically his domain" vs "vast majority of 2CAudio products", "contractor"), slippery ("that go against the contract" - rather than are true/false) and a dick ("I am the one who put the love and passion into them" ffs bullshit try saying that in court; also "Juce"* garbage), tbh. His text has loads of contradictions ("not willing" vs "work on updates") and he seems to tacitly admit (GUI!!! mAnUaLZz!! sQuAreSpAcE!!1 teh most important PArT oF DsP!!1) he hasn't done much; project leader (?) GUI designer (?); very untrustworthy. It's Andrew doing the freelanced / contract work, afaic.

I think it's pretty clear that Denis carried 2c Audio; doing the graft, and hysteriAndrew changed the locks and threw out Denis' clothes when he decided to cut costs; after being figuratively (and maybe literally? =) carried through college.

Spoiler

* As well as being hella stupid, it seems like a real admission of guilt: "if only Juce (projucer) had been available in 2004 I wouldn't have had to pay Denis anything!"

 

Last edited: May 24, 2022

Their Aether convolution reverb is very good as a side-note.

 

We're kinda uber spoilt by reverb my dude; too much verb, not enough time - possibly enough space? =)

 

And the winner is: The Lawyers!

 

So, the concensus in this thread is that Andrew is the Amber Herd of the 2CAudio relationship.