Tone2 Electra3 - Synthesizer Workstation

[Markus Krause]

In Electra3 I measure a 4% maximum playing a chord with 3 keys on a patch with 4 synth layers on a Ryzen 3900X. The 4% was only on a single Core as a maximum. The remaining CPU core were at 1% with a short spike after loading a new patch. GPU is an older Geforce GTX. Soundcard is a SoundBlaster AE5, ASIO buffer size is 256. I was able to run over 40 instances without problems. I did not test more as this does not make sense from the musical side at all. In theory over 100 instances should be possible on a modern CPU if you got enough RAM.

I did also compare it to several competing products and all of them needed more or even a lot more CPU then Electra. The only exception was Vanguard, but it also has a much lower sound quality and not much graphical animations.

Please note:
Most DAWs seem to display the CPU demand of a single CPU core or the ASIO buffer status. This must not be related to the overall CPU demand and is not a reliable value that can give you a hint how many plugin instances you can run. Especially if a plugin has multicore CPU support (in fact only very few plugins support this). CPU cache and soundcard drivers complicate measurements even more.

For a correct CPU measurement you must at least do the following:
To see the true CPU demand press strg-alt-del then open the task mananger. Then open the 'resource manager' and open the CPU tab. Here you can see the true CPU demand of each CPU core (with energy saving enabled higher demands than the true ones can be shown, because the CPU clock is dynamically lowered when there is no need to run at full speed).

[Korg Supporter]

I just did a test on my Intel laptop. I use two DAWs, which are Renoise and Studio One 5 Artist. With DirectSound, Studio One has better performance (Up to 17% for Sakamoto Bells - Icarus compared to 22-24 % in Renoise, Up to 12% Sparking Bells (single layer) - Electra compared to nearly 20% in Renoise). However, according to the task manager, the CPU usage from the DAW is generally half as low as the DAW reading and overall CPU reading. I won't be able to try my gaming PC until after winter break. However, the CPU usage is quite lower than both DAWs themselves if I use a MOTU M4 audio interface at 41 kHz 1024 buffer.

Edit: I found out that by using my MOTU M4 at 44.1 kHZ 1024, Studio One could handle up to 19 instances of Icarus 2.5 (Sakamoto Bells, 6 voice polyphony) at 120 BPM.

[Alex_Longard]

Hmmm, on my tablet Dell 5179 this results:
Demo Icarus v2.5 - 5 instances, Electra v2.8 14 instances with all four layers.
Dell 5179 config:
4 gb DDR3, Intel m5 6y57, Intel graphics 500...

[Korg Supporter]

Hmmm, on my tablet Dell 5179 this results:
Demo Icarus v2.5 - 5 instances, Electra v2.8 14 instances with all four layers.
Dell 5179 config:
4 gb DDR3, Intel m5 6y57, Intel graphics 500...

The # of instances for each synth your tablet can handle before it craps out? One solution is too use the Bliss or Renoise sampler. It can sample plugins!

[Alex_Longard]

Korg Supporter
I wrote how many copies of the synthesizers work stably. If add one more, the sound begins to crack and very slow down tablet.
I use Windows 10 x64 and Reaper v6.69.
And not have samplers ((

[OrionAlpha101]

[syntonica]

Great news, Markus! It sounds like a ton of work...

One little suggestion, though. Put the widget to change the GUI size in the UPPER right corner? If the user opens the plug-in and it's too big for the window, there's no way to reach the bottom to smallify it.

[starflakeprj]

Korg Supporter
I wrote how many copies of the synthesizers work stably. If add one more, the sound begins to crack and very slow down tablet.
I use Windows 10 x64 and Reaper v6.69.
And not have samplers ((

Can't Reaper freeze tracks?

[Markus Krause]

Great news, Markus! It sounds like a ton of work...

One little suggestion, though. Put the widget to change the GUI size in the UPPER right corner? If the user opens the plug-in and it's too big for the window, there's no way to reach the bottom to smallify it.

I've already taken care of this.
The plugin is smart and warns you if you should choose a size that is larger than your screen.
You will be able to resize it with the lower right corner or by clicking on the SIZE menu in the upper center.

[Alex_Longard]

Starflakeprj
Reaper can freeze, only I was interested in testing how many plugins would withstand the toy tablet for live playback.

[Korg Supporter]

I don't want to go too off-topic, but I found the culprit for Icarus 2. Using the more sophisticated filter types significantly increases CPU usage. Adding oscillators of FX does not do that much compared to using good-sounding filters.

[PieBerger]

I caved and bought Electra! I picked up Saurus and Icarus in the sales this BF so I didn't really need it, but I've been having a blast with the demo and decided to treat myself (some more ). The one page workflow is great and I love the filters/distortion

[Markus Krause]

Status update:

Electra3 development is finished and we're on-track with our schedule.

[Chipi]

Electra3 will be available in Spring 2023.
The update to v3.0 is a major update that is downward compatible with all previous versions. All existing song-projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary.
The upgrade will be free for anyone who bought Electra2 after December the 12th 2022 directly from tone2.com. All others will be able to upgrade to v3.x with a big discount.

Price: TBA

(coming soon: video with the new the features)

New features - interface:

• GUI with 16 different sizes (with and without editor / effects).
• Native support for WQHD, 4K, 5K and 8K UHD displays.
• GUI can be scaled from 50% up to 300% by clicking in the lower right corner.
• Smoother animations and more responisve controls.
• Support for hardware-acceleration.
• Ultrasharp graphics with enhanced HiDpi and Retina Display support.
• The SYNTH button flashes when a layer plays a note.This makes it easier to work with several arpeggiators.
• Automatic detection of the ideal GUI size.
• A check-mark shows the last loaded custom-waveform.
• Online help with tutorial videos.

New features - synthesis:

• 114 additional patches that make use of the new features.
• The 8Bit noise oscillator can create lo-fi fx sounds from the past.The sound can be changed with PW and the key.
• Major and minor chords are available as additional key modes for the arpeggiator.
• The new 'Transient shaper' adds punch and presence to the sounds. It can be accessed in the 'sound mode' selector.
• The new 'Transient + Bass' mode adds presence and dynamic bass pressure to the sounds.It can be accessed in the 'sound mode' selector.
• New analog pulse oscillator types : Pulse 1/2, Pulse 2/5, Pulse 1/3, Pulse 1/4, Pulse 1/5, Pulse 1/6, Pulse 1/8.
• New analog oscillator types with inverted phase : Saw invert, Pulse invert.
• New analog oscillator types : Impulse, Sine Flip, Comb 2, Comb 3.
• New reverb-types : Cold, Theater and Hangar.
• New bipolar modulation source : "Step LFO/Envelope +-".
• Monophonic LFOs that re-trigger only with the first pressed key (set the LFO mode to 'Mono').
• Monophonic STEP LFOs (set the trigger mode to 'Mono loop').

Enhancements - synthesis:

• The audio-engine now uses 64-bit precision instead of 32-bit, which results in a higher sound-quality.
• CPU useage has been lowered.
• Maximum Delay-time has been extended.
• Enhanced sound of the automatic micro-tuning : A wide range of chords are detected.
• Replaced 'Reverb Hall' with a better sounding algorithm.
• Slightly enhanced sound of the Reverb types 'Cathedral', 'Room', 'Infinity', 'Big', 'Glass', 'Plate'.
• The arpeggiator's Stack-mode has been enhanced and can handle polyphonic input and duplicate notes.
• Enhanced sound of 'Unison'.
• Unused matrix slots are cleaned-up automatically after saving patches.

New Multistep-Envelope / LFO (available for each one of the 4 synth-layers):

• The STEP LFO has been completely rewritten.
• It can be used as a Multistep Envelope by changing trigger-mode to Envelope.
• The modulation capabilities of the synth have been extended drastically.
• Editing and sound-design is more intuitive.
• A realtime-display visualizes the current shape.
• The current play-position is shown.
• Unused parts of the LFO are faded-out.
• The STEP LFO shape and values are not longer only updated after NoteOn.
• It offers higher precision timing.
• It is able to interpolate and sounds a lot smoother.

New Multistep-Envelope / LFO waveforms:

• Linear to left : Interpoles smoothly to the step located to the left.
• Cubic to left : Interpolates with a cubic spline.
• Analog slow : Analog envelope smoothing with low cutoff.
• Analog medium : Analog envelope smoothing with medium cutoff.
• Analog fast : Analog envelope smoothing with high cutoff.
• Analog reverse : Inverted analog envelope.
• Saw down : The step ramp downwards.
• Saw up : The step ramps upwards.
• Triangle : The step ramps upwards and downwards.
• Triangle 25 % : Sloped triangle.
• Triangle 75 % : Sloped triangle.
• Pulse 0 % : The second part of the step is 0.
• Pulse 50 % : The first part of the step is 0.
• Decay 1 : Slow analog decay envelope.
• Decay 2 : Fast analog decay envelope.
• Attack 1 : Slow analog attack envelope.
• Attack 2 : Fast analog attack envelope.
• Sine / 2 : Sine with half frequency.
• Cosine / 2 : Cosing with half frequency.
• Sine + -: Bipolar sine.
• FM Sine : The FM modulated sine is useful for wobbles.
• FM Square : FM modulated square-wave.
• FM Saw down : The FM modulated saw is useful for wobbles.
• FM Saw up : The FM modulated saw is useful for wobbles.
• Noise : A step with noise.
• Diffusion : Noisy diffusion between steps.

Enhancements - interface:

• Completely rewritten GUI code.
• More beautiful graphics for the LCD displays.
• The animations of the filter, LFO, waveform and envelope-displays are drastically faster and smoother.
• More contrast for the knob-handles.
• Reworked many graphics.
• LFO waveform display is bigger.
• Keyboard in patch browser is hidden when editor or effects are hidden.
• Fine-tuned many coordinates in the interface.
• Fine-tuned some colors.
• More immediate control of filter cutoff and parameters.
• More tooltips with better descriptions.
• Layers are initialized with a smoothed gate shape.
• Patch browser can now also be opened by clicking on 'BROWSER' or the display on the upper left.
• A finger is shown when hovering over 'BROWSER' to indicate that the control is click - able.
• The interface gets a blue shading when drag & drop modulation is used.
• When a patch uses the STEP Lfo it is show automatically after loading.
• The user is warned if he / she selects a GUI size that is too large for the screen.

Enhancements - synthesis:

• Enhanced sound quality.
• More precise pitch calculation.
• Higher precision timing of the LFOs.
• Enhanced sound of white noise.
• Enhanced sound of pink noise.
• Analog oscillators are more in-tune and have more beautiful noise.
• Step LFO shape and values are not longer updated only on NoteOn.
• Step LFO is able to interpolate and sounds smoother.

Other enhancements:

• Enhanced DAW compatibility and stability.
• Performance optimizations.
• Smarter detection of the installation path on PC to avoid duplicate installations.
• All links are now https.
• A huge number of small enhancements.

" GUI can be scaled from 50% up to 300% by clicking in the lower right corner."
• MARKUS please! It has to be 'located' at the top right, because if you maximize it by mistake there is no way to move it up to press the option again within any DAW !!!!

[AxlMaldini]

And Icarus 3?

There are currently no plans for Icarus3. However we recently released a huge and free major update (v2.5):
https://www.tone2.com/icarus-update.html

Thank you, though I would like to see some CPU optimization or multicore support. Factory patches take 12-27% of my Intel i7 6560u (16 GB RAM), even when I lower the polyphony.

" Factory patches take 12-27% of my Intel i7 ???

What Preset gives you that? I've been using Electra 2 for years and it's the best VST synthesizer my DAW handles, 10 instances doesn't go up more than 11% (my i7 8559U CPU @ 2.70GHz )...the problem is somewhere else, it's NOT Electra, I assure you that 100%.