Tone2 Audio has released Icarus, a 3D wavetable synthesizer for Windows and Mac that they describe as their synth ‘masterpiece’.
Here’s the official Icarus intro video:
Here’s what they have to say about Icarus and ‘3D wavetable synthesis’:
Icarus is a ‘3D wavetable synth’, because we extended the popular traditional wavetable synthesis, which is capable of cross-blending waveforms, with an additional dimension for morphing. Together with many other innovations, this is one of the secrets, why Icarus can create sounds with lots of dynamic expression and movement. Many ‘Icarus sounds’ can not be created by other synthesizers. Get instantly inspired by a massive amount of fresh sounds and create tracks with an unique character!
Icarus offers the power of hardware and the flexibility of software. It offers a huge sonic range and is extremely versatile, but still remains very easy to use. The exceptionally powerful audio engine is able to reproduce all important synthesizer sounds. As a result you can replace a very expensive collection of hard- and software with a single synthesizer. Furthermore you do not longer have to deal with a large number of different and complicated user interfaces.
This synthesizer can do: All classic synthesis methods, 3D wavetables, morphing, resynthesis of samples and speech, vocoder … It has: 53 effects, 3×10 stereo oscillators with hypersaw, dual stereo filters with 62 filter types, a powerful wavetable editor…
Features:
- 3D wavetable synthesizer: Wavetables can be morphed in several dimensions
- Powerful and flexible sound engine with true stereo architecture
- High-end sound quality with low CPU requirement
- Easy to use interface with direct visual feedback
- Huge sonic range
- Many exclusive sounds, which are not possible with other synthesizers
- Perfect for modern, as well as all other music styles
- Over 1000 sounds by professional designers
- Patch browser and flexible preset management
- New resynthesis method, which is easy to use and gives good results
- Modular effect section with 53 effects
- High quality vocoder with 1024 bands
- 3 oscillator blocks, each offering up to 10 stereo oscillators, which can play hypersaws, unison, stacks or chords
- 54 different morph modes (FM, PWM, formant, phase distort, sync, …)
- All morph modes can be combined with any kind of wavetable or hypersaw
- Wavetable editor with many features
- A wavetable generator can create completely new wavetables
- Waveforms can be painted using the mouse
- Additive spectrum editor
- Import and export of wavetables/waveforms from other synthesizers
- Dual multi-mode filter section with 62 filter types and 8 distortion types
- Arpeggiator with advanced features like chords, glides, swing & shuffle
- Fast and punchy envelopes
- LFOs with audio-rate modulation speed and BPM sync
- Flexible mod matrix
- Midi learn support
- Dynamic microtuning to enhance chords
- Customizable user interface with 40 colors schemes
- Expandability
- Detailed manual in English and German
Pricing and Availability
Icarus is available now, for Mac & Windows (VST/AU), for 149 EUR/ $199 USD.
Why the massive difference in EUR vs USD?
spreadsheets stuck in 2014? Maybe they’re being bullish on the Euro, but that’s pretty impressive – you can save about $25 paying in euros, even with a 5% conversion fee.
The feature list looks great. The sounds are pretty wild. Having a 1024 band vocoder is nothing to sneeze at either.
Audio level LFOs and fast envelopes are intriguing. Makes me want to download the demo and check it out.
Checking it out, it is pretty nice. Not sure if I need another wavetable synth but there’s plenty here to explore.
Hows it compare to UVI falcon – anyone used both yet?
I have waited for this new tone2 plugin …. Often good sale prices here, but the sounds of tone2 and also the expansions never touched me. Sad, because it seems to be a nice team with great service. For me, it’s not important, if FM or whatever, it has to touch me or at least usefully complement my plugin folder. Compared to u-he, omnisphere, linplug, uvi or nexus it sounds thin and old styled for me …. Also the new sound examples don’t touch me, it sounds like enigma from 1994. The rest is maybe only not my style of music, but there is other new stuff from output or heavyocity that sounds much fetter and more modern for me at least.
On the webpage, there is a downloads tab where you can find the demo. I downloaded and played around with it. There are two preset fields, the top one is the synth preset, and the bottom one is the arpeggiator preset. It’s helpful to choose the arp one first so you are having to listen to the same arp while you are trying to audition the tones..
My first impression is very positive. It ran without any glitches, the filters sound very good. The interface is self-explanatory. Well worth checking out!!