Tone2 will release Icarus - 3D WaveTable Synthesizer

[4damind]

I have not touched the waveform/wavetable editor but there are maximum 36(?) wavetable slots and every slot can be edited as expected.

Icarus could have up to 256 wavetable slots. The maximum amount of the Wave selection knob is also adjusted to the maximum amount of waveforms in a table (means if you got e.g. 200 waves the maximum value of the Wave knob is 200 too).

Ah, Ok.
Btw. this "3d" means more this animated spectrum/waveform view?

[Pure-fire]

The other Tone2 synthesizers on 90 percent available for blind users, Icarus has many options, but they do not read screenreaders!
It is bad!

[Ingonator]

I have not touched the waveform/wavetable editor but there are maximum 36(?) wavetable slots and every slot can be edited as expected.

Icarus could have up to 256 wavetable slots. The maximum amount of the Wave selection knob is also adjusted to the maximum amount of waveforms in a table (means if you got e.g. 200 waves the maximum value of the Wave knob is 200 too).

Ah, Ok.
Btw. this "3d" means more this animated spectrum/waveform view?

The "3D wavetable" is meant if you use wavetable scanning (mmodulation of the "Wave" knob/parameter) and modulation of the "Morph" knob/parameter at the same time. The "Morph" knob is related to a parameter of the many "Osc Morph modes" that are available from a drop-dowm menu. Morph modes also inclöude e.g. FM, Sync, phase distortion, formant and the "granulizer" besides many others. With FM teh Morph knob represents the FM amount and with modulation of the Sync mode Morph knob you could create those "typical" Sync like sounds.

As mentioned earlier in this thread you could render the current setting of the Morph knob to a new wavetable and the new wavetable will have taht current Moprh mode setting applied to all waveforms. After that you coudl add another Morph mode to the new wavetable and so on...


general note:
Icarus could be a quite complex and very deep synth so judgements after a short first look like some already tried here are a bit early IMO. I used the synth for some MONTHS now and still did not explore everything that is possible.

[4damind]

Btw. the resynthesis/vocoder stuff is very interesting and can create very nice results without much aliasing.
The phrase is the preset "Virtual Reality"

Frank Arnold - Icarus Vocoder

[recursive one]

Some of the unison settings show heavy aliasing (init patch, apply Hypersaw9 to the first oscillator and play C5 or above). Is it by design (like in JP8x80)? Is there oversampling hidden somewhere?

Btw, if played in non-aliasing registers, Hypersaw9 applied to default oscillator with a bit of default LFO1 assignment dialed in sounds almost identical to Virus hypersaw. Doing filter sweeps over it (Tone2 lp 24, disabled saturation) sounds almost identical to the same thing done in Virus with default filter/no saturation. So far it it seems to replicate the hypersaw/default filter combo of Virus closer than Spire.

Not sure about the envelopes, they seem to sound a bit unnatural, should look into it further. Also the filter saturation seems to be a bit too dirty/overt (tried various modes).

[lnikj]

It is much better in my explorations thus far than its ghastly (IMHO!) presets. A lot of depth behind a simple interface.

It has got the tone2 sound of course

[recursive one]

Hell, it really needs oversampling, where it is? On some settings already A4 is almost unplayable. The manual only tells about undersampling

[woodsdenis]

It is much better in my explorations thus far than its ghastly (IMHO!) presets. A lot of depth behind a simple interface.

It has got the tone2 sound of course

The presets are very average, it is capable of a lot more. When releasing a new synth use the UHE trick of having an assortment of the best ones there as you open it. You really need a "how the f*** did they do that"preset in there at the start. As always YMMV. Why is the arp so small ?

[recursive one]

Well, I have to admit that these pimped up presets caught my attention at first. At some basic custom patches it also behaved good, aside from this aliasing issue. But then I loaded Spire, and it sounded so more real, detailed and pleasing ...

[aMUSEd]

You really need a "how the f*** did they do that"preset in there at the start.

I just hope they don't have another of those awful "Welcome to ..." speaking presets like on Nemesis and Firebird (and maybe the others?). First thing I overwrote when I got Nemesis.

[zerocrossing]

It is much better in my explorations thus far than its ghastly (IMHO!) presets. A lot of depth behind a simple interface.

It has got the tone2 sound of course

It's so funny at this point. They always seem to say, "We've got something totally new and cool!" and then find a way to make their sound designers make it sound identical to every other synth they make. Some pretty good presets though if you ignore the trance stuff. If I never hear another "riser" or "gate" sound ever in my life it'll be too soon.

It is cool though. I like it. Tone2 for sure has a "sound" but I happen to like that kind of hyper-digital-sheen (even when dirty) sound... maybe precise is the word I'm looking for, but I think at this point we all know what we're talking about. If you don't like it, this will be another for you not to like. Will I buy it? I don't feel overly compelled to. The extra "D" does kind of seem like a feature that should have been added to Electra 2. My wallet seems more excited about being emptied into Sugar Bytes for Factory. Oh, who am I kidding? I'll buy both eventually. It's my sickness!

BUG REPORT:

#1) Preset display section is gigantic. Expected: Preset display should not be gigantic.
#2) Preset type is under preset name. On this planet we have a convention where the category goes on top.
#3) In every other synth I've ever used in my entire life, the cutoff control is to the left or above the resonance control. Expected: Cutoff should be to the left of resonance.
#4) As usual, things that look like displays are buttons... except when they're not. Are you skeumorophic or not? Yes or no? Expected: Some sort of visual cue added to things that can be clicked on.
#5) Blue is nice. Expected: Each section could have its own hue.
#6) If synth is making sound at end of demo an annoying tone is produced. Expected: No annoying tone should sound.

[chk071]

The Big Tone presets are very good, as usual. I agree though that the rest is a bit average, at least the one i browsed.

I wonder a bit about the aliasing thing. Either i don't hear it, or i still have no idea how aliasing sounds like. What i do realize is that the sine wave becomes quite steppy in the higher registers. But that also happens in other synths, so i don't know.

#6) If synth is making sound at end of demo an annoying tone is produced. Expected: No annoying tone should sound.

Hehe, yeah, freaked me out a few times here too...

[recursive one]

I wonder a bit about the aliasing thing. Either i don't hear it, or i still have no idea how aliasing sounds like. What i do realize is that the sine wave becomes quite steppy in the higher registers. But that also happens in other synths, so i don't know.
.

Maybe it's me who has no idea how alisaing sounds like My technical knowledge leaves something to be desired.

Try this: Init preset, apply Hypersaw9 unison to the first osc, about 50%-60% detune, hold a note (or a chord) above C5, you'll hear some not very pelasant, apparently inharmonic, artefacts. For the record, Spire and Dune2 do the same thing in similar scenario, but less noticeable. I noticed this in Icarus when playing some melodies, not that I specially tried to spot it.

Re: the presets. I agree that they are mostly like "I've heard this before (and it sounded better)". But I guess a selection of popular sounds should sell a synth to average people better than something unusual and experimental.

It's only me who constantly reaches for the resonance knob when actually trying to adjust the cutoff?

[Urs]

The "3D wavetable" is meant if you use wavetable scanning (mmodulation of the "Wave" knob/parameter) and modulation of the "Morph" knob/parameter at the same time.

So it's 2D then

(not such an important detail, but when someone says he invented something "unique", there should always be room for some debate. But how are we supposed to discuss such things when the developer refuses to communicate on his communication platforms? Nevermind. I'll check Icarus out when it's ready. I liked Rayblaster - is that its name? - a lot and some inspiration towards wavetable synthesis is always welcome)

[4damind]

My first ideas was that this 3D meant something like a control pad found also with other synth to control different parameters at the same time. Hmm... yes, it would be helpful if Markus could explain this a bit so people get a better idea about such features.