Available now: Tone2 Icarus2.5 - Wavetable Workstation

[rezoneight]

We devs are not happy that Apple continously breaks the downward compatibility with their devices/OS releases. It's a very frustrating experience for customers as well developers. This situation is inacceptable if you're working in a professional environment. It's also bad for the environment and sustainability. That's why I do not longer recommend Apple devices for professional music-production.

Somehow professionals like Hans Zimmer carry on, probably by not updating all the time like most people. For ANY computing device its always been standard advice to not upgrade right away if you’re relying on something as a professional.

But bad for the environment and sustainability? Dude stick with software. This argument makes absolutely NO sense and would count for any manufacturer.

[Markus Krause]

You're not a developer and you don't know what's going on behind the scenes technically.
It is a known fact that Apple frequently breaks compatibility with older soft- and hardware. Everyone knows that their devices can't be repaired easily and can not be upgraded (e.g. RAM/SSD). Apart from this Apple refuses to sell spare-parts to independed repair-shops.
When people need to buy new devices it is bad for the environment, the developers and for the customer's bank account.
I experienced this planed-obsolescence for myself: After the 'free OS upgrade' my IPad was so slow that it was not longer useable for me. I had to buy a new device.
Within the last 10 years I needed to buy 4(!) different Mac Minis to be able to continuosly to adopt our software to the recent MacOS release - while beeing forced by Apple's runtime-libraies to drop support for older 'deprecated' MacOS versions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/360029
https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-ana ... 07131.html
https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/01/apple-la ... olescence/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42615378
https://www.idropnews.com/news/spanish- ... es/163612/

I will not further discuss this topic here, since it is off-topic.

[rezoneight]

You're not a developer and you don't know what's going on behind the scenes technically.

That's an interesting assumption to make. What are you basing that statement on exactly?

It is a known fact that Apple frequently breaks compatibility with older soft- and hardware.

That's odd because I have one Intel Mac I update in step with releases and aside from 32-bit only software I've only had one thing break, Roland drivers for the System-8, and that happened with Catalina two releases ago. That issue was addressed and the driver works fine under Monterey without an update. My M1 Mac Mini also gets updates regularly but that is a general use machine that's not had anything break at all.

I mean yeah stuff breaks, applications have bugs sometimes because of bugs in the OS, but somehow Apple continues to keep setting Mac and iOS sales records, including with musicians. And guys like you keep making money off of us customers. And just to note, I bought Icarus simply to support you, an indy dev, when you were going thru a particularly rough spot a year or two ago. I bought Saurus just recently because it kicks ass and sounds great. So let us customers decide what is and isn't good for our pocketbooks.

Everyone knows that their devices can't be repaired easily and can not be upgraded (e.g. RAM/SSD).

Depends on the machine. M1-based machines certainly can't be updated with RAM or SSD because everything is on the same chip. Fortunately they provided USB-C and Thunderbolt. My Intel iMac RAM was easily upgradable.

Apart from this Apple refuses to sell spare-parts to independed repair-shops.

Yep. Not a practice I'm happy about. They still also have shitty rules around the app store when it comes to developers.

When people need to buy new devices it is bad for the environment, the developers and for the customer's bank account.

People don't need to buy new devices. My wife is still using an iPhone 8. Still works fine. I have a 2013 MacBook Pro that still works just fine. And honestly buying plugins is as bad or worse for the customer's bank account yet somehow we manage to keep you in business right?

I experienced this planed-obsolescence for myself: After the 'free OS upgrade' my IPad was so slow that it was not longer useable for me. I had to buy a new device.

Yeah and I'm betting that thing was really old. I have a 9.7" iPad Pro from 2015 that's still humming along with all OS updates. For those that can't do the math that's a 6-yr old device.

See the funny thing is you keep saying this stuff including things like having problems with "older libraries". When I hear a developer say "older library" it means they've been lazy with keeping up with stuff and now are facing the consequences of not keeping up

Within the last 10 years I needed to buy 4(!) different Mac Minis to be able to continuosly to adopt our software to the recent MacOS release - while beeing forced by Apple's runtime-libraies to drop support for older 'deprecated' MacOS versions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/360029
https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-ana ... 07131.html
https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/01/apple-la ... olescence/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42615378
https://www.idropnews.com/news/spanish- ... es/163612/

I will not further discuss this topic here, since it is off-topic.

Yet you carry one because it must be financially worthwhile.

So on average you have updated a Mac Mini every 2.5 years as a business expense (tax write-off here in the US, not sure about Germany). Looking at OS compatibility 4 updates probably wasn't necessary depending on what machines you bought and when. And oddly u-He manages to still support back to OSX 10.9. You yourself support back to 10.7 so this is an interesting statement:

while beeing forced by Apple's runtime-libraies to drop support for older 'deprecated' MacOS versions

Did you actually read that idropnews iphone 12 story? The lawsuit is just f**king stupid and the article doesn't come to the conclusion you think it does after a quick Google search for articles that fit your agends Oh and that 9to5 mac article is hilarious. A lawsuit over a 6-7 year old phone one of which as received OS updates up thru ios 15! But yeah Apple made a really stupid move when they silently decided to start throttling OS performance to save life on batteries past their prime without giving the user the choice. That was dealt with long ago.

Money quote from the idropnews article:

Despite all of these investigations, payouts, and fines, it’s important to note that in no case was Apple found guilty of planned obsolescence. The fines and settlements were expressly a result of Apple’s failure to communicate what it was doing.

But yeah, the whinging is off-topic.

[Echoes in the Attic]

So to sum up.. Apple is maybe bad, but maybe they are good. Ok cool, back to Icarus!

Audio input would be cool for live vocoder use!

[Markus Krause]

The Vocoder of Icarus isn't suitable for live performance. It preprocesses a .wav file with a kind of resynthesis and then plays back the wavetable through formant-synthesis. That's why you are able to loop, time-stretch and pitch-shift the speech.

[Echoes in the Attic]

The Vocoder of Icarus isn't suitable for live performance. It preprocesses a .wav file with a kind of resynthesis and then plays back the wavetable through formant-synthesis. That's why you are able to loop, time-stretch and pitch-shift the speech.

Fair enough, thanks.

[Markus Krause]

We invite you to join the public beta of Icarus v2.0.6.

Icarus website:
https://www.tone2.com/icarus.html

Download link:
https://www.tone2.com/update/Tone2_Icarus2_PC_64bit.zip

Icarus 2.0.6 PC (free update)

The update to v2.0.6 is available for free. It adds a VST3 version and some enhancements.
Icarus 2.0.6 is downward compatible with all previous versions. All existing song projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary.

New features:

- Added a VST3 version.
- You can select from 3 different installation types: Minimal (VST2 only), Default (VST2 + Standalone) and Full (VST2 + VST3 + Standalone).

Enhancements:

- More smart detection of VST2 path.
- Faster closing of projects.
- Minor enhancements for the standalone version.

Changes:

- Microsoft dropped support for 32bit operating systems. That's why we will focus on 64bit only. If you still use 32bit you can install v2.0.

Fixes:

- The VST3 version of v2.0.5 did not react to the mousewheel
- Recording Audomation did not work in the VST3 version of v2.0.5

[DocShay]

We invite you to join the public beta of Icarus v2.0.6.

Icarus website:
https://www.tone2.com/icarus.html

Download link:
https://www.tone2.com/update/Tone2_Icarus2_PC_64bit.zip

Icarus 2.0.6 PC (free update)

The update to v2.0.6 is available for free. It adds a VST3 version and some enhancements.
Icarus 2.0.6 is downward compatible with all previous versions. All existing song projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary.

New features:

- Added a VST3 version.
- You can select from 3 different installation types: Minimal (VST2 only), Default (VST2 + Standalone) and Full (VST2 + VST3 + Standalone).

Enhancements:

- More smart detection of VST2 path.
- Faster closing of projects.
- Minor enhancements for the standalone version.

Changes:

- Microsoft dropped support for 32bit operating systems. That's why we will focus on 64bit only. If you still use 32bit you can install v2.0.

Fixes:

- The VST3 version of v2.0.5 did not react to the mousewheel
- Recording Audomation did not work in the VST3 version of v2.0.5

Hey, so the vst3 version of the plugin doesn't respond to patch changes via the arrow keys like the vst2 version. The vst3 version also doesn't respond to midi program changes.

[Markus Krause]

Thanks for the feedback.
1) Confirmed. Arrow keys are currently not supported in the VST3 version. I'll check out if I can find a way to do it.
2) Not sure if support for this is possible. VST3 does not offer proper Midi support. I'll check it out

[DocShay]

Thanks for the feedback.
1) Confirmed. Arrow keys are currently not supported in the VST3 version. I'll check out if I can find a way to do it.
2) Not sure if support for this is possible. VST3 does not offer proper Midi support. I'll check it out

Thank you for looking into it.

[mgiambro]

We invite you to join the public beta of Icarus v2.0.6.

Icarus website:
https://www.tone2.com/icarus.html

Download link:
https://www.tone2.com/update/Tone2_Icarus2_PC_64bit.zip

Icarus 2.0.6 PC (free update)

The update to v2.0.6 is available for free. It adds a VST3 version and some enhancements.
Icarus 2.0.6 is downward compatible with all previous versions. All existing song projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary.

New features:

- Added a VST3 version.
- You can select from 3 different installation types: Minimal (VST2 only), Default (VST2 + Standalone) and Full (VST2 + VST3 + Standalone).

Enhancements:

- More smart detection of VST2 path.
- Faster closing of projects.
- Minor enhancements for the standalone version.

Changes:

- Microsoft dropped support for 32bit operating systems. That's why we will focus on 64bit only. If you still use 32bit you can install v2.0.

Fixes:

- The VST3 version of v2.0.5 did not react to the mousewheel
- Recording Audomation did not work in the VST3 version of v2.0.5

Not exactly a show-stopper, but I've updated to v2.0.6 and the version number under Help > Show version info still shows as v2.0.0.

[Markus Krause]

Thanks for pointing it out. It is just cosmetical. You can ignore it as it has not effect on the fuctionality. I just forgot to update the string.

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

Hey Marcus sorry if it is topic you don't want to comment,but it's interesting i guess for all users and gonna ask again - why you don't make a song competition for all Tone2 synths?
It's nice idea and if there is let's say Christmas Tone2 list with song competitors people will enjoy it
Just saying
I hope everything is ok with you and continue to do your magic with Tone2 synths:)
Cheers:)

[Markus Krause]

There is currently a competition for Nemesis running:
https://www.tone2.com/competition.html

The problem with doing a competition for all synths is that I can't present the tracks on the website with the according synthesizer.

On Monday I got a meeting at the court, because of my divorce. Luckily everything is peaceful so far and me and Anne are still friends. I hope we will be also after Monday.

I wish you a Merry Christmas!
Markus

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

Head up Markus!
I read somewhere that the two biggest stress factors in modern life are separation/divorce and phones.
Positive words and feelings are very important when man is under stress so nerve system to overcome it.
Not that ever soon men will understand women
Thanks for your amazing synths and good luck in the cort,you've got many fans and support here