Tone2 Icarus is the most underrated synth in Existence.

[Stefken]

Arturia Pigments made it after one week ?

It will be interesting to see if they are higher in 2020 as more buy. They have done the rarity of entering an oversaturated market late yet still placing themselves right in the competition. Marketing of course but that workflow man, one of the best Workflows i've ever seen.

I think the heavily discounted introductory pricing also helped. V-Collection owners got it for just €69 which is less than the upgrade from Dune 2 to 3 cost, for example. They also had a 90-day unlimited demo IIRC. This almost certainly helped it to gain initial market share very quickly.

Yeah, I won't buy for 200, but for 69 this was a nice deal. It's a good trick to gain initial market share and a good way to reward existing customers.

[chk071]

My point being is how did such a new synth get so many votes so soon ? Not a very scientific poll to say the least.

It's not a poll at all. It's all a matter of how good the article writers rated the specific synth.

[] Peter:H []

Sorry, but this is nonsense. Icarus has a FM-like, basic Waveshaper with one parameter. It has not FM-synthesis, no real ringmod or PM, like Synthmaster2. It has good filters though, a good selection of unison modes and a nicely streamlined interface, but this also comes with limitations. Synthmaster2 is not streamlined at all, it can do real FM, PM, RM, its LFOs, modmatrix and ENVs are way more sophisticated and so on.

I am not saying that Synthmaster is the best, but I think it is deserved to be rated better than Icarus.

Are you serious!? My Latest Version of Icarus has FM/AM/Ringmod sourced by Oscillators!? Please grab a current copy of it and reevaluate.

[Hanz Meyzer]

You are right, I missed those updates.

[W23]

I think Icarus is great (I own it), and got a lot of love when it was first released. I don’t think Tone2 markets their products quite as heavily after initial release is all. To their credit, Kv331 market (and discount) the crap out of those two synths. Of course, the ranking is a popularity contest, and that should totally be taken into account. I’m using Diva and the Repros more than anything right now.

As far as either Synthmasters go (and I own the both of them), I would most likely reach for Serum, Spire or Hive, or (maybe) Icarus. It’s all subjective. Honestly, I can move way faster in Serum, or the U-he synths than anything else. Call it familiarity. I think you can’t beat the Synthmasters for the price (I think I paid $35 each) but, I prefer the sound and workflow of any of the other synths I mentioned above. I also paid A LOT more money for them. More power to Kv331, though. I think Icarus is definitely a better synth but, Tone2 is just a developer with a different (some would say “eccentric”) way of doing business, and marketing plan. They clearly aren’t out to win any popularity contests

[SoundPorn]

Icarus is good but it's not even Tone2's best synth, Electra is clearly better and they're flagship synth, and Gladiator is 2nd.

[W23]

Icarus is good but it's not even Tone2's best synth, Electra is clearly better and they're flagship synth, and Gladiator is 2nd.

I prefer to think of them as “different” as opposed to one being better than the others. But, you make a good point

[JunSev]

Icarus is good but it's not even Tone2's best synth, Electra is clearly better and they're flagship synth, and Gladiator is 2nd.

I would consider Electra like a bread and butter sort of synth, is maybe the most popular of all tone2 synth, but I do think Icarus is way more versatile, more capable and more powerful, the nice thing about electra is that it has layers, but the same I could do with Icarus playing multiple instances in my daw.

[djrevise5]

I agree Icarus is underrated and I'm glad for it, I don't want everyone using my favorite synth!

[db3]

Poll is meaningless. It's popularity of a small sample size, Music Radar readers and companies who care enough to pimp their synths to their customers by asking for votes.

+1

+1 Might as well be a random list.

[Examigan]

Timbre Wolf is the most
underrated.

[Teksonik]

My point being is how did such a new synth get so many votes so soon ? Not a very scientific poll to say the least.

It's not a poll at all. It's all a matter of how good the article writers rated the specific synth.

"this round-up is based on your votes: we put together a list of what we consider to be the best VST/AU plugin synths right now, and asked you to choose your favourite".

No different than a Poll here with a predetermined number of possible responses.

[Guenon]

"this round-up is based on your votes: we put together a list of what we consider to be the best VST/AU plugin synths right now, and asked you to choose your favourite".

If the voting was literally like that (picking your own favorite out of a list of instruments), I think I'm most surprised by something as niche and relatively limited scope as Chipspeech coming in at number 6

[Teksonik]

Yes I was surprised to see Chipspeech on the list as well. Kind of came out of left field. Must be one of the Editor's favorites.

[BONES]

Icarus has multiple synthesis, is not only a wavetable synth, also has additive, sample, FM and way more synthesis than many (if not all) of the competition, huge possibilities with morph modes, perhaps the biggest collection of filters in a synth, and more

You have to realise that not everyone wants the same stuff from a synth. From what you've described here, I doubt that I'd like Icarus at all. I don't want one synth that can do everything, so I'd be far more likely to go for something like RePro-1, which is simple yet sounds amazing.

All you've done is list features, you've not said a single word about how it sounds. That's like reviewing a TV and not talking about the picture quality - it's the first thing anyone wants to know. My priorities are sound first, usability a very close second and features a distant third.

All my favorites are not even in the top 15.
I´m so not mainststream

Care to share, then? I'm about 50:50 - they got Hive, RePro-1 and DUNE but missed Thorn, Equator (not surprising), TRK-01 Bass and, strangely, RePro-5. Mind you, they also had some things in there that I think are pretty ordinary (Massive, Sylenth 1). The rest of it is stuff I wouldn't consider on price. (All the ones I've listed that I own I got cheap or as part of a bundle.)