Tone2 will release Icarus - 3D WaveTable Synthesizer

[Cinebient]

Hi,

I have a feeling that Icarus vs Serum is going to be a big/popular topic on this, and other forums.

I have neither, waiting for Icarus to be officially released. I will then try to decide which one is more to my taste.

Cheers,
Muziksculp

For sure...
Maybe i should get both and trade in Falcon....

[exmatproton]

Hi,

I have a feeling that Icarus vs Serum is going to be a big/popular topic on this, and other forums.

I have neither, waiting for Icarus to be officially released. I will then try to decide which one is more to my taste.

Cheers,
Muziksculp

For sure...
Maybe i should get both and trade in Falcon....

[upsydown]

Did the first beta have this? In either case please email support[at ]tone2[do t]com with your specs and host. You probably aren't the only one experiencing this so it deserves support.

Ok solved..

After spending hours researching and updating graphics drivers/ NET Frameworks and pulling my hair out, I accidentally got the GUI working properly by clicking on the open the wavetable editor button (invisible in my current GUI) however you can still see the text if you move the mouse cursor over the area ( see pic below )

After exiting from the wavetable editor screen the main GUI was normal and visible!!!

Strange indeed, but stoked as now I can get on with turning knobs hahaha happy days

[Mystic]

The low end in this blows Serum out of the water. These patches are very polished and sonically is really going to compete well with core patches. It will be interesting to see where this goes at launch.

[Cinebient]

The low end in this blows Serum out of the water. These patches are very polished and sonically is really going to compete well with core patches. It will be interesting to see where this goes at launch.

Low end is not all Even the little Moog app blows them both out of the water in this area.
Serum has a cleaner sound but at the same time it sounds a lot more digital to me.
Both synths offers great morph features. Icarus has more and i find them better too.
I thought Icarus has not enough LFO´s compared to Serum (whih seems to have 8 now) but Icarus has tons of LFO´s in the matrix which you can use on top of the other ones. Also it seems that Serum has no polyphonic LFO´s? I´m a huge friend of polyphonic modulators.
Edit: Serum does have polyphonic LFO´s....uups
Then the reverb in Icarus sounds fantastic (for an included reverb inside a synth).
Serums reverb is really crap (sorry). I think in the newest version is a better one but i can´t test it.
But then Steve is for sure one of the most amazing developers and there was so many updates to Serum and it seems some major things will come in near future too (i watched the pluginguru you-tube video).
I think i will take Icarus and later maybe Serum. But i think they work well together and offer both some things you find in no other synths. I was not impressed with both at the beginning but after playing with them it´s a joy.
A giant plus to Serum is of course drop and drag, the general workflow and that there is a better visual feedback for all the modulations.

[kokotte]

serum have poly lfo

[exmatproton]

It is awesome to have them both. They both do stuff different and they sound different enough (to me) to use both of them. I think the morphing is more fun with Icarus, but the high end lacks detail. In Serum the high is really nice (considering the 4x oversample possibilty), but tweaking the wavetables is less "fun". To me at least.

They really complement eachother.

[Cinebient]

serum have poly lfo

Thank´s. I know now....edited!
Another plus for Serum is that Icarus seems not offer any folders for the wavetables. The only way i could import wavetables is to put them all in one folder together with the default in the main folder.
Serum let me use at least one sub-folder in the main wavetable folder to seperate my imported tables.

[exmatproton]

serum have poly lfo

Thank´s. I know now....edited!
Another plus for Serum is that Icarus seems not offer any folders for the wavetables. The only way i could import wavetables is to put them all in one folder together with the default in the main folder.
Serum let me use at least one sub-folder in the main wavetable folder to seperate my imported tables.

Furthermore, when you use loads of wavetables, the display isn't big enough to show them all.....

[aMUSEd]

I wonder how much of the sonic differences are due to the much better fx in Icarus though? If Tone2 had an uptodate multi fx unit with the same fx in it would be interesting to hook it up to Serum feeding in the dry signal.

[exmatproton]

I wonder how much of the sonic differences are due to the much better fx in Icarus though? If Tone2 had an uptodate multi fx unit with the same fx in it would be interesting to hook it up to Serum feeding in the dry signal.

Hmm, i don't find the FX in Icarus that much better, to be honest.
I really love the filters in Serum. Also the flanger, (new) reverb and multiband compressor are very musical. I love them. I really dislike the compressor and limiter in Icarus. Also the delay units don't have a handy lay out IMHO.

The Icarus FX units are nice (soundwise) as well, but only 3 slots?? And no re-ordering?

[Cinebient]

I´m now sure i need (want) both since they offer different ways to achieve similar results.
Both has pro and contra and offers some things the other don´t can do.
Icarus is a bit cheaper (at least for me in Germany).
Serum has an FX version on top which i don´t think i need or use (like Zebrify) but it´s nice to have.
The most important part for me might be the wavetable editor and all the morphing godness.
Serum has that nice spectral morph feature that Icarus doesn´t seem to have. But then it doesn´t need it when combined with the morph options and the editor is just more firendly to use including free hand (mouse/trackpad) drawing of waveforms.
I saw that Serum lets you import samples into the noise OSC which is great to add some organic textures to some patches. Sadly i can´t test this too since it´s not possible in the current demo.
A synth like Sculpture is great to create organic sounds and noises which works great also as pichted single shot samples. Would be a nice option for Icarus too.
Then there is the vocoder and the resynthesis in Icarus which i seems to get no pleasing results from....might be a user fault
So i think now i take one Icarus to go and save up for a bit Serum in near future when it gots the next major update (including a new demo to test).
I wish Serum and Icarus would make a child....add then some Virsyn filters on top (i love the ones in Tera and Poseidon).

[Cinebient]

I wonder how much of the sonic differences are due to the much better fx in Icarus though? If Tone2 had an uptodate multi fx unit with the same fx in it would be interesting to hook it up to Serum feeding in the dry signal.

Hmm, i don't find the FX in Icarus that much better, to be honest.
I really love the filters in Serum. Also the flanger, (new) reverb and multiband compressor are very musical. I love them. I really dislike the compressor and limiter in Icarus. Also the delay units don't have a handy lay out IMHO.

The Icarus FX units are nice (soundwise) as well, but only 3 slots?? And no re-ordering?

I compared similar patches and bypassed the FX and used my favourite externs.
It´s hard to say which one is better.
The unison in Serum can sound pretty wide and fat and has some extra options but i think Icarus sound a bit more brighter and has richer harmonics in general. Anyway, Dune 2 is still king in unison land.
But since the included FX which you can modulate are important for creating patches i don´t care much how they sound dry. While i think i def. would need extern reverb and delay for Serum (which might be not the case in the latest version) i´m fine with the Icarus intern FX.

[exmatproton]

I wonder how much of the sonic differences are due to the much better fx in Icarus though? If Tone2 had an uptodate multi fx unit with the same fx in it would be interesting to hook it up to Serum feeding in the dry signal.

Hmm, i don't find the FX in Icarus that much better, to be honest.
I really love the filters in Serum. Also the flanger, (new) reverb and multiband compressor are very musical. I love them. I really dislike the compressor and limiter in Icarus. Also the delay units don't have a handy lay out IMHO.

The Icarus FX units are nice (soundwise) as well, but only 3 slots?? And no re-ordering?

I compared similar patches and bypassed the FX and used my favourite externs.
It´s hard to say which one is better.
The unison in Serum can sound pretty wide and fat and has some extra options but i think Icarus sound a bit more brighter and has richer harmonics in general. Anyway, Dune 2 is still king in unison land.
But since the included FX which you can modulate are important for creating patches i don´t care much how they sound dry. While i think i def. would need extern reverb and delay for Serum (which might be not the case in the latest version) i´m fine with the Icarus intern FX.

It is all very subjective ofcourse. But i am sure both synths can be used to complement eachother. They are both awesome synths.

[Cinebient]

I wonder how much of the sonic differences are due to the much better fx in Icarus though? If Tone2 had an uptodate multi fx unit with the same fx in it would be interesting to hook it up to Serum feeding in the dry signal.

Hmm, i don't find the FX in Icarus that much better, to be honest.
I really love the filters in Serum. Also the flanger, (new) reverb and multiband compressor are very musical. I love them. I really dislike the compressor and limiter in Icarus. Also the delay units don't have a handy lay out IMHO.

The Icarus FX units are nice (soundwise) as well, but only 3 slots?? And no re-ordering?

I compared similar patches and bypassed the FX and used my favourite externs.
It´s hard to say which one is better.
The unison in Serum can sound pretty wide and fat and has some extra options but i think Icarus sound a bit more brighter and has richer harmonics in general. Anyway, Dune 2 is still king in unison land.
But since the included FX which you can modulate are important for creating patches i don´t care much how they sound dry. While i think i def. would need extern reverb and delay for Serum (which might be not the case in the latest version) i´m fine with the Icarus intern FX.

It is all very subjective ofcourse. But i am sure both synths can be used to complement eachother. They are both awesome synths.

Yes now i find both are awesome as hell.....even when i don´t liked them at the first contact.
A thing i really miss in Icarus is to change the slope of the attack f.e. (like in Serum).
These things and it would be insta buy.....but it´s a version 1 (it´s even a beta yet) so i hope they will add a few things. And of course folders and sub folders are a must when the content will grow.
However, what stands out in Icarus is really the morphing. Also it´s a bit of visual hypnotic to watch that waveforms and filters morphing in real-time
At the end Icarus wins for me slightly because it seems to be better for large ambient, pads and atmospheric sounds etc. which is my focus while Serum is more the edgy, harder, cleaner one.
That depends of course of the sound designer but the design and content of synths inspire sometimes to go in different directions...even if i don´t want it