Available now: Tone2 Icarus2.5 - Wavetable Workstation

[Markus Krause]

I still didn't do an installer for the Mac version for 2.0.9 beta. So you need to replace the .vst file manually.

---

This is a beta for testing that still can contain bugs. If you experience problems please send us a bug report.

This a vst plugin for Mac. It is an Universial Binary that contains Intel x64 as well as native ARM M1 code.

Requirements to run Icarus in M1 native mode:

- The CPU in your Mac must be a M1 chipset
- The DAW must support Vst plugins with native M1 (Ableton 11, Reaper, Blue Cat's PatchWork, Bitwig, DP11, ...)

Installation:

1) Download and Install Icarus2 from here: https://www.tone2.com/download.html

2) Go to Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST and replace Icarus.vst with the one from this zip file:
https://www.tone2.com/update/Tone2_Icar ... 1_beta.zip

[teilo]

Need to dequarantine the M1 beta VST before it will load.

From terminal:

Code: Select all

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Icarus.vst

[Caine123]

hey Markus, i know this is offtopic, but do you have news of the vanguard plugin from tone2 version? i am saving and checking very old projects and see i used vanguard a lot! but yeah 32 bit + no support im worried... i hope this project gets realized some day .

[Markus Krause]

I licensed my audio engine code for Vanguard to RefX. This is the company responsible for the Vanguard development. You must refer to them.

This year I am still busy with porting my plugins to VST3 and Mac M1. Unlike what Apple and Steinberg claim it is not an easy task at all. It will eat up all the complete development time - so there is no time left for new products.
The updates will be available for free.

[rezoneight]

Unlike what Apple claims it is not easy at all to port complex software to native M1. As a result, a massive number of older software-products will never get ported to M1.
Apple has been continously breaking downward compatibility for software (PowerPC, Intel 32bit, Intel 64 Bit, ARM) and we expect that they will continue to do this also in the future. If Apple should decide to drop support for OpenGL or Rosetta2 in an upcoming macOS release a massive number of plugins will stop to work. You can't say that you haven't been warned
The good news for you is that our plugins do not rely on OpenGL and we are able to port all our synthesizers to M1 native.

Markus Apple never claimed that complex software is easy to port to M1. Never. And to be honest, developers wouldn't fall for that sort of marketing anyhow had they said it. Too many things involved to make that claim. Yet somehow plugin dev after plugin dev seems to be managing just fine.

[JonSolo]

Markus Apple never claimed that complex software is easy to port to M1. Never. And to be honest, developers wouldn't fall for that sort of marketing anyhow had they said it. Too many things involved to make that claim. Yet somehow plugin dev after plugin dev seems to be managing just fine.

If you look at Apple's dev site, it sure does seem like they are implying that it should be easy. And many dev's are struggling to keep up with these changes. Marcus doesn't keep his head in the sand. Comments like these imply that Marcus is incapable or lazy...and we know both of those to be untrue.

He says it's challenging...who are we to disagree?

[rezoneight]

Markus Apple never claimed that complex software is easy to port to M1. Never. And to be honest, developers wouldn't fall for that sort of marketing anyhow had they said it. Too many things involved to make that claim. Yet somehow plugin dev after plugin dev seems to be managing just fine.

If you look at Apple's dev site, it sure does seem like they are implying that it should be easy. And many dev's are struggling to keep up with these changes. Marcus doesn't keep his head in the sand. Comments like these imply that Marcus is incapable or lazy...and we know both of those to be untrue.

He says it's challenging...who are we to disagree?

No that wasn't implied at all. Thats your extremely odd take on it. He clearly is capable and if he were lazy he wouldn't be bothering. That said Markus loves to complain a lot about it. He's said the same thing multiple times in like the last 2 pages of this thread. I have no doubt its not easy. Yet both Markus and other developers seem to be getting it done.

I participate every year in WWDC. Nobody ever said porting a complex thing with custom code like a software synth was going to be easy. Simpler apps that dont do a lot of custom stuff like audio? Yes they're FAR easier to port.

Hell dude here is what they say right on the page about porting to Apple Silicon:

Build apps, libraries, frameworks, plug-ins, and other executable code that run natively on Apple silicon. When you build executables on top of Apple frameworks and technologies, the only significant step you might need to take is to recompile your code for the arm64 architecture. If you rely on hardware-specific details or make assumptions about low-level features, modify your code as needed to support Apple silicon.

Getting the best performance on Apple silicon sometimes requires making adjustments to the way you use hardware resources. Minimize your dependence on the hardware by using higher-level technologies whenever possible. For example, use Grand Central Dispatch instead of creating and managing threads yourself. Test your changes on Apple silicon to verify that your code behaves optimally.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple-silicon

Certainly doesn't sound like they're saying transitioning complex apps is easy to me...

[Markus Krause]

@rezoneight:

In their marketing Apple suggest to towards their end-users that nearly all their software will be available natively for the M1, because the transition is easy.
The result of this marketing is very annoying for developers. You can validate it for yourself. Just take a look at the threads in this forum here. People are aggressively requesting native M1 versions, as they falsely assume that it is not a big deal. Many of the end-customers seem to think that the 'lazy developer' only has to hit a button to 'recompile for M1'.
This isn't true at all for plugins unless you use perfectly working abstraction layer like JUCE. If you use the VST SDK for example there are libraries that you rely on and there are interfaces that you need to deal with and there are adapters that need to be rewritten. Most of the stuff has a poor/no documentation. It's a lot of try & error. Then everything needs to be tested.
In my case migrating the older products (VSTSDK + VSTGUI) to M1 and VST3 needed a complete year of work. This time is missing and could have been used for adding new features or developing new products.
And this isn't the first time we step through this with Apple. We also had to rewrite our software and deal with Motorola->Intel32bit (little endian/big endian), then Carbon->Cocoa, then Intel32bit to Intel64bit, then Notarisation, then Intel64bit to M1 and OpenGl->Metal.
On PC we only had Intel32bit to Intel64bit and old 32bit software still works like a charm.
And yes. I dare to complain about this as a senior developer in the public.

[AnX]

Devs should charge for mac dependent updates.

[Trancer]

Hello Markus,

First of all thank you for the excellence of your products.

I have Saurus and Warlock and I plan to buy Icarus 2.

The concern of the modern world, people do not realize the work that this kind of migration entails and also it is a lack of respect overall and for certain developers as well.

Apple has always led a form of dictate, I'm not anti Apple quite the contrary, I even plan to buy a mac mini max.

But given the incompatibility and the fact that some developers haven't yet upgraded to native use for the M1, I'm sticking to my pc for now, as everything works great.

Thank you again Markus for all the work you do to make us products of immense quality.

[Kalamata Kid]

Is Icarus2 multi-touch capable?
What is the lowest sale price in the last 12 months or so?

[rezoneight]

Hello Markus,

First of all thank you for the excellence of your products.

I have Saurus and Warlock and I plan to buy Icarus 2.

The concern of the modern world, people do not realize the work that this kind of migration entails and also it is a lack of respect overall and for certain developers as well.

Apple has always led a form of dictate, I'm not anti Apple quite the contrary, I even plan to buy a mac mini max.

But given the incompatibility and the fact that some developers haven't yet upgraded to native use for the M1, I'm sticking to my pc for now, as everything works great.

Thank you again Markus for all the work you do to make us products of immense quality.

tone2 products work just fine on Rosetta2 for the ones that haven't transitioned over to Apple Silicon-native code.

[fmr]

Devs should charge for mac dependent updates.

^^^ THIS ^^^

[Echoes in the Attic]

Is Icarus2 multi-touch capable?
What is the lowest sale price in the last 12 months or so?

No not multi-touch.

[kNarf_]

What is the lowest sale price in the last 12 months or so?

I paid a little less than € 80 last November at the KVR marketplace deals