Tone2 will release Icarus - 3D WaveTable Synthesizer

[db3]

Marketing copy reminds me of the movie idiocracy. Finding a better marketing person would not be difficult and would do wonders for sales. The current copy is really insulting the intelligence of the buyer.

True. While I really like Tone2 products, their current marketing probably does more harm than good. They should relaunch themselves with a new professional look and feel.

[recursive one]

lmao are we really into "does it sound like a virus" now?

Why not? Things come into and out of fashion in a random manner, but Virus still sounds as good as it did few years ago.

[Mac of BIOnighT]

if you really think people aren't going to consider something called "synth name-teaser-1" a demo for a synth, well then you should do some soul searching young man.

Ah ah, OK, let me explain this better: This is not a demo for the instrument; had that been my intention, I would have used the factory bank, as a large number of people have worked on it and I would have shown off the huge variety of sounds Icarus can generate. It is a demo of my own album and my own soundbank, which means it only shows the sounds I like to get out of this instrument, which are not necessarily what others will and most definitely not the only ones Icarus can generate.
It's called Icarus teaser simply because the album didn't yet have a name when I uploaded the file, and the soundbank still hasn't, so it's simply "Icarus teaser" for now

[Jorgeelalto]

The web page: https://tone2.com/html/icarus.html

[Ingonator]

The web page: https://tone2.com/html/icarus.html

Icarus is also announced at KVR now:
http://www.kvraudio.com/news/tone2-anno ... izer-33299

[wagtunes]

The web page: https://tone2.com/html/icarus.html

Icarus is also announced at KVR now:
http://www.kvraudio.com/news/tone2-anno ... izer-33299

$199? I think I'll pass. Always felt their synths were overpriced. I only bought the two I have because they were on sale.

Think about it. $199 is the same price as Zebra 2.

[recursive one]

The price is on the same level as Spire or Serum - it seems to be set right considering that on paper Icarus should to be at least as versatile as these two.

The sound, the sound and the sound again, this is the most important factor.

[wagtunes]

The price is on the same level as Spire or Serum - it seems to be set right considering that on paper Icarus should to be at least as versatile as these two.

The sound, the sound and the sound again, this is the most important factor.

Well, Spire I always felt was overpriced and haven't gotten that either. Serum, I got when it was still in beta for $129. No way would I pay $199 for Serum.

Zebra 2 spoiled me as far as prices go. For me to spend $200 on a synth, it better at least give me everything Zebra 2 gives me. Falcon I got for $229 when it was on sale at the very beginning. Otherwise, I would not spend the $300 plus that it is now.

[AnX]

$199? I think I'll pass. Always felt their synths were overpriced.

Yeah, its def not worth that. Not even close.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[wagtunes]

The web page: https://tone2.com/html/icarus.html

Icarus is also announced at KVR now:
http://www.kvraudio.com/news/tone2-anno ... izer-33299

$199? I think I'll pass. Always felt their synths were overpriced. I only bought the two I have because they were on sale.

Think about it. $199 is the same price as Zebra 2.

every year without fail best service do a 2 for 1 tone 2 sale. If you love the synth you can get 2 for the price of one with a bit of patience later this year. For 99 each they definitely become worth it!

His stuff sound amazing and barely blips the cpu.. if i had just a computer/laptop and no outboard, i would exclusively use tone 2 stuff and refx nexus, especially if on the road. They just work and low cpu. Funny how those two programmers used to work together.

Plus, his stuff is built properly from first release. I can't remember another brand so vividly whose plugins i never had a single crash with.

And if 199 is the same as zebra 2, who is to say you won't prefer Icarus?

Two things.

1) There is no other Tone 2 synth that I want. I have Electra 2 and Rayblaster. Nothing else but Icarus interests me, so the 2 for 1 sale isn't an option for me.

2) Zebra 2 is in a whole other class. It's semi modular. Sound wise, it's so versatile, I created a library of 350 sounds and still didn't even scratch the surface. In fact, Zebra 2 was one of my best selling libraries.

I get the feeling, both from the marketing hype and the prices, that Tone 2 thinks their synths are like gold, in a league by themselves. They're not. Yes, they have that unmistakable Tone 2 sound, but quality wise (and yes, this is my opinion) they do not sound as good as U-he synths. Electra 2 and Rayblaster, IMO, were the exceptions, which is why I waited for the sale and got them both together. But I don't hear $200 worth of synth in what little I've heard of Icarus. Sorry, I just don't.

[Ingonator]

Think about it. $199 is the same price as Zebra 2.

Prices at Tone2 should already include 19% VAT while the 199$ for Zebra 2 is without VAT so here in Germany for Zebra 2 you could add 19% to that price. Here in Germany the price for Icarus is 149 € including VAT. The price for Zebra 2 is around 210 € here in Germany including 19% VAT.

Besides that why should the pricing of Icarus not be comparable to Zebra2?
FWIW the full price for GForce Oddity 2 (which i got too but with a discount at JRRShop) at the official website is 199$ incl. VAT so similar to Icarus and that while Icarus has tons more features than Oddity 2 (i know that of course those are not directly comparable...).

At the end such pricing discussions are mostly quite pointless anyway and opposing to what some people at KVR do believe Tone2 Audio seems to sell their products quite well. Some members here still seem to believe that their negative opinions about Tone2 represent the opinion of the majority of others out there which is not always the case even if this is hard to believe sometimes...

Like e.g. U-He Tone2 is also one of the companies that do not have their products permanently on sale. Sales are mostly done by distributors like e.g. Best Service but not directly at Tone2.
While it is nice to buy products on sale having too many of them sometimes devalues certain products so much that those who bought it for the full price could only earn a fraction of the price when tried to sell it second hand. Last year i sold quite a lot of plugins including some that i bought for the full prices so i know what i am talking about there...

[Ingonator]

2) Zebra 2 is in a whole other class. It's semi modular. Sound wise, it's so versatile, I created a library of 350 sounds and still didn't even scratch the surface. In fact, Zebra 2 was one of my best selling libraries.

Not 350 but i have created 70 patches for Icarus so far and have barely scratched the surface of what is possible...

I also plan to work on my own Icarus soundset with 200 patches very soon (which wil include some of those 70 i alraedy had created and a part of those is in the factory content). Could happen that i end up with a lot more than 200 and have to select the best then.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[wagtunes]

Think about it. $199 is the same price as Zebra 2.

Prices at Tone2 should already include 19% VAT while the 199$ for Zebra 2 is without VAT so here in Germany for Zebra 2 you could add 19% to that price. Here in Germany the price for Icarus is 149 € including VAT. The price for Zebra 2 is around 210 € here in Germany including 19% VAT.

Besides that why should the pricing of Icarus not be comparable to Zebra2?
FWIW the full price for GForce Oddity 2 (which i got too but with a discount at JRRShop) at the official website is 199$ incl. VAT so similar to Icarus and that while Icarus has tons more features than Oddity 2 (i know that of course those are not directly comparable...).

At the end such pricing discussions are mostly quite pointless anyway and opposing to what some people at KVR do believe Tone2 Audio seems to sell their products quite well. Some members here still seem to believe that their negative opinions about Tone2 represent the opinion of the majority of others out there which is not always the case even if this is hard to believe sometimes...

Like e.g. U-He Tone2 is also one of the companies that do not have their products permanently on sale. Sales are mostly done by distributors like e.g. Best Service but not directly at Tone2.
While it is nice to buy products on sale having too many of them sometimes devalues certain products so much that those who bought it for the full price could only earn a fraction of the price when tried to sell it second hand. Last year i sold quite a lot of plugins including some that i bought for the full prices so i know what i am talking about there...

No, I don't feel Imposcar 2 is worth $200. That's why I waited until it was on sale for $150.

Since I don't pay VAT, my Zebra 2 cost me $199.

I'm not a Tone 2 basher. Again, I own two of their synths and just released a library for Electra 2. But when I compare prices of synths (and the only way I can do this is feature to feature because sound is subjective) Tone 2 seems overpriced to me.

Here is just some of the stuff I got in 2015 and what I paid

OP-X Pro 101
Mpowersynth 88
Waves Element 76
Image-Line Harmor 60
Bazille 129
Z3ta+2 50
Dune 2 149
Syn'X 2 133
Wavemapper 2 113
Diva 179
Falcon 229

And the only reason I paid full price for Diva was because I knew it would be a hot selling library. Everything else you will notice I paid relatively very little for.

Icarus may turn out to be a very hot synth. Business wise, it may ultimately turn out to be a smart business decision to get it. But damn, it still stings paying $200 for a wavetable synth when every WT synth I own to date I never paid more than $129 for. For $200, Icarus better be incredibly special and while I am hearing a nice sounding synth, I am not hearing that kind of incredibly special.

At least not yet.