Tone2 Firebird+ is freeware (download available now)

[Halma]

What's iqm?

Thx, that was the term I was looking for... harmonic auto correction ... lol

The only thing I know is that it's on the back of Firebird+, has some settings like none, light, heavy and pure iirc. Found some spare information about some intelligent pitch correction while playing chords or something like that ... I don't know.

That's why some indepth information would be cool.

Regards
Sebastian

[fluffy_little_something]

Found the term IQMicrotune on their site. Seems to be something different, though.
The other things is HCM, which stands for harmonic content morphing and is explained here:
http://www.tone2.com/html/firebird_vsti ... zer_1.html

[Ingonator]

Saying that for technical reasons there will not be a 64-bit version is odd, though. Like saying the Ecuadorian president's plane had to land in Vienna for technical reasons

I had already posted the link for the corresponding thread:
http://www.tone2.org/forum/index.php?topic=781.0

We have tried to build a 64 bit version, but unfortunately we had to notice that FireBird can't be compiled to 64 bit. The libraries from Steinberg's VST SDK v2.3 and the VSTGUI 2.x are 32bit only. Porting FireBird to 64 bit would mean a complete redesign of the synthesizer.

Porting Gladiator 2 and ElectraX to Mac 64-bit last year made a complete rewrite of the graphics engine necessary, also for the Windows version (as i already mentioned...). There were some quite long beta tests for those updates.

The point is that porting a plugin to 64-bit is NOT as simple as some people maybe think. For Mac 64-bit it seems to be even worse.


Ingo

[Ingonator]

What's iqm?

iqm = intelligent micro tuning


Possible settings in Firebird are: off, heavy, light, pure


a description of ICM in Gladiator (for Firebird it's the same):

What is intelligent micro tuning?

IQM (intelligent micro tuning) is a feature of Gladiator which automatically tunes the notes that you play so they play in a different scale and sounds more "fat". For example when you play C2 and C3 on your keyboard, Gladiator will detune both notes slightly which results in a fatter or thicker sounds. IQM also allows chords to be processed to make them sounds more clean. For example a major chord has the frequency relationship of
Note 1 : Note 2 : Note 3 = 1 : 1.2599 : 1.498
But after being processed by Gladiator, after each note has been detuned slightly, the new frequency relationship would be
Note 1 : Note 2 : Note 3 = 1 : 1.25 : 1.5

Ingo

[fluffy_little_something]

Saying that for technical reasons there will not be a 64-bit version is odd, though. Like saying the Ecuadorian president's plane had to land in Vienna for technical reasons

I had already posted the link for the corresponding thread:
http://www.tone2.org/forum/index.php?topic=781.0

We have tried to build a 64 bit version, but unfortunately we had to notice that FireBird can't be compiled to 64 bit. The libraries from Steinberg's VST SDK v2.3 and the VSTGUI 2.x are 32bit only. Porting FireBird to 64 bit would mean a complete redesign of the synthesizer.

Porting Gladiator 2 and ElectraX to Mac 64-bit last year made a complete rewrite of the graphics engine necessary, also for the Windows version (as i already mentioned...). There were some quite long beta tests for those updates.

The point is that porting a plugin to 64-bit is NOT as simple as some people maybe think. For Mac 64-bit it seems to be even worse.


Ingo

Funny, not Synthedit, yet a similar problem
Is that synth older or newer than Tone2's other synths?

[Ingonator]

Funny, not Synthedit, yet a similar problem
Is that synth older or newer than Tone2's other synths?

Firebird was the first one of Tone2 and is 7 years old.

All other Tone2 synths (Gladiator 2, ElectraX, Saurus, Rayblaster) are 64-bit for both PC and Mac now (as i already mentioned too...).


Ingo

[fluffy_little_something]

Ah ok, that explains things And it makes sense to kind of phase it out and offer it for free.
I had thought it was the latest as it looks more modern than Saurus etc.

[Ingonator]

Ah ok, that explains things And it makes sense to kind of phase it out and offer it for free.
I had thought it was the latest as it looks more modern than Saurus etc.

Both Saurus and Rayblaster were released last year.


Ingo

[Halma]

... Firebird was the first one of Tone2 and is 7 years old. ...

And for that age it sounds pretty good. It won't sound like DIVA for sure but I renew my statement from earlier: when this one becomes freeware it will be one of the best sounding freeware synths on this planet.

I found the same explanation in the Gladiator manual when I did some research about this IQM thingy but I really dont hear that much difference whether it's on or off. Does it only functions properly in Fat or/and Analog mode?

Btw that's TONE2s only weak point I have found so far: their sometimes wiered manuals. To be fair: they are good. But after so many updates (I have Warmverb too and it's the same) the manual still misses some stuff. IQM for example. Perhaps a little bit more in depth about the usefulness of that kind of detuning.

Regards
Sebastia

[chk071]

Some details about the updated version of Firebird (no native 64-bit support as already discussed here):

New features and enhancements:

- Enhanced sound: Less aggressive treble, more smooth
- Ultra quality is selected by default
- Lower CPU because of SSE2 support
- Faster loading and saving of songs
- Smart installer which automatically detects the correct location
- Enhanced host compatibility
- Accidently visiting the website by clicking on the logos is not longer possible
- Reworked some graphics
- First patch was clipping in some hosts

Changes:
- The product is now freeware
- Keyfile is not longer required
- Iqm is switched to off by default

Further notes:
- is downward compatible with previous versions
- CPU can reduced by selecting a lower quality in 'setup'
- For technical reasons there will be no 64 bit or Mac version

Ingo

Wow, sounds pretty cool. I'm amazed that they put so much work in it, when they're about to release it as freeware. One thing i didn't quite like about its sound was the exaggerated "bang" of the sound. Dunno how to describe it really... it's something you can also hear on other Tone2 synths, but not as much as on Firebird. Sorta like they boosted the attack artificially. You can hear that well in every preset on the audio demo on the Tone2 website. Maybe they evened that out a bit when they say they made it sound more "smooth".

[BBFG#]

Something I just noticed on their pricing.
They're having one of their 'sales' right now.
ElectraX is a whopping $10. off or 40 Euros off ($51.50)
Gladiator is likewise $10. off. No sale on Rayblaster this month.
Why do I get the feeling they don't like American currency there?
But if they took $50. off Galdiator2 and Rayblaster I would jump on that offer.

Firbird is one of the demos I uninstalled, but for free I might put it back on.

[chk071]

Why do I get the feeling they don't like American currency there?

I guess it's because of the VAT thing?

[Ingonator]

Tone2 also offers the "complete bundle" with all their products. The price for that bundle seems to correspond to the prices of the synths and effects and you more or less get all the soundsets "for free" which is a quite big discount if you sum up the prices of all soundsets.

There also seem to be smaller bundles with e.g. a synth and all soundsets for that one.


Ingo

[BBFG#]

VAT is for physical products in shipping. Doesn't apply to downloads. The other Euro companies I've dealt with all have a unilateral pricing schedule and the only change in pricing is in the conversion from Euros to Dollars.
And while you get a discounted price in their bundles, by no means do you get anything free.

I have done the math though and really, the deeper discount in Euros reflects a more equitable price to the dollar. Which means before the sale, it's their own people they take to the cleaners.

ADD: I should ask you all for your indulgence in these matters, I worked quite a few music stores over a fifteen year period and know the inner workings of ordering, flooring, and such. And that owner/manager skepticism never seems to go away.

[fluffy_little_something]

I am not so sure it only applies to physical products. Most European companies seem to charge VAT, for instance U-he. I can't imagine they are all doing it illegally to rip people off.

Maybe the Euro discount reflects the EU economic crisis

Either way, I think a fair company should offer their stuff at final prices (i.e. incl. VAT and currency conversion) that are exactly the same in the US and in Europe.