Revisiting Tone 2 Synths (Poll)

[IvyBirds]

So I recently had to upgrade my Cubase 11 because it simply stopped working properly with all my OS updates. Various plugins just stopped working. So I upgraded to Cubase 14. Well, when I did that, a lot of old vst 2 synths would not be recognized

Open Cubase 14 / Nuendo 14

In the menu, go to "Studio".

Click "VST Plug-in Manager"

Click the "VST 2" button at the bottom of the window.

Cubase 14 / Nuendo 14 then immediately scans for VST 2 plug-ins, making them available for use

That should solve your issue. I have a ton of old VST2 plugins that happily work in Cubase 14

Except it didn't (first thing I tried) All it did was freeze Cubase.

And yet it works on all 4 of my computers with Cubase 14, and in those of many other people

Outside of that you can use something like Voltage Modular which can be used as a VST3 but host VST2 inside of it, that also works the other way if you have old software that only runs VST2 but want to use it with VST3

[tumface]

I love the uniqueness of the Tone2 synths. Keep computer music weird.

(They're also plenty practical, if you want. The wavetable resynthesis stuff in Icarus blows away the wavetable import in other synths.)

[sunthief01]

Agreed with all of the Icarus love. I've been choosing it over just about any other wavetabke synth since learning Icarus last year.

You can always turn off the EQ to reduce the amount of psycho acoustic processing and get the sound a bit cleaner that way.

Very very curious about Gladiator - have been trying the demo and getting some enjoyably weird results but not crazy about the UI. Just need to get used to it. Rayblaster and Nemesis also sound great but haven't gone deep with the demos yet.

[impsamri]

i had tried dune 3, serum 2, hive2, sylenth, pigment, Spire, massive x, and icarus 3. I love the sound and patching on icarus 3 the most so i buy it. At the beginning i did not really like how it sounded actually, but now, i dont know when, why and how, after some days playing with it, i fell in love to how it sounding. Making patches is enjoyable after i am used to it. I wish effect, filters have prev next buttons so they can be auditioned easier.

[tumface]

I wish effect, filters have prev next buttons so they can be auditioned easier.

If you hover over the filter or morph mode selectors with your mouse, you can scroll the mousewheel to step through the options one at a time.

[AdvancedFollower]

I like them, but I definitely feel they all have a similar sound in spite of wildly different synthesis techniques and features. They have that slightly plasticy Tone2 brightness/hifi sheen which I can't quite place my finger on. I don't dislike it, but buying more Tone2 synths feels redundant when they sound so similar.

[] Peter:H []

Icarus is really sick.
The Unisono Modes are exceptional. The FX are deep. The glitch is synth porn ... and then I forgot to talk about the resynth modes.

[El°HYM]

Very good synths & Developer without a doubt.

[JoeCat]

I just picked up Rayblaster on the sale - it's not very intuitive just because it's an uncommon architecture, but there are so many sound possibilities. I think it sounds great, but it's certainly not like loading up a sawtooth and lp filter and hitting sweet spots with every tweak.

With a lot of their synths, I think it comes down to whether you're looking for a specific sound or are willing to just see where the road goes with sound design. Imma pickup Gladiator finally next 'cause it also looks crazy fun.