Icarus or Hive?

[SLiC]

Whilst you are waiting have a go with Rapid (just had a nice update top 1.7) and Avenger (just about top be updated to 1.5) as well, both relay capable with WT but also add a lot more. Both will probably be on sale soon (Black Friday!) so now is a good time to try stuff!

I have Rapid, one of my to-go synths. 1.7 update was very cool.

I don't find Avenger any appealing. Not mad about the sound, nor about the features - in this case, too much of everything. I like synths that offer deep editing possibilities but tend to avoid synths that try to do everything imaginable.

If you have Rapid I cant think of much Hive would add for you. 1 layer of Rapid can pretty much do Hive. Icarus has a 'different' sound, more complexity and way more options (which may be more useful to add to what you have, assuming you like the sound!)

[recursive one]

If you have Rapid I cant think of much Hive would add for you. 1 layer of Rapid can pretty much do Hive.

That's what I also think, actually. I may spend a couple of hours every now and then programming stuff for Hive and it's fun because it's very straighforward but then i think "i could have done all the same things in Rapid". Actually it seems that most of the Hive2 appeal comes from the wavetables it has, I didn't like it much when it was only VA.

If Icarus is that cheeseburger that you wish you didn't eat a half hour later, then don't eat it. It's really that simple.

I may still have a cheeseburger every now and then (don't we all?) . Probably a couple of these "special Tone2 flavour" sounds here and there could spicy up a mix. And the example posted by Tatsy was more like a proper steak than a cheeseburger.

That's another thing btw, it's a bit hard to find proper sounds examples of Icarus, most of those I've found were made by Tone2 themselves and they sounded a bit, well... excentric

you can also have FM without hearing the modulating OSC

Cool, that's actually important.

[fisherKing]

it would be great if, the words 'in my opinion' were automatically inserted before every post; so tiresome, people posting their opinions as if they were 'facts'.

in my opinion

Thats a fact

[SLiC]

it would be great if, the words 'in my opinion' were automatically inserted before every post; so tiresome, people posting their opinions as if they were 'facts'.

in my opinion

Thats a fact

Its simpler to just assume all facts are actually opinions- there are no facts, there is no truth- its a been proven in philosophical debates (and thats a fact )

[tasty tatsyn]

Icarus cons:
- Very restricted unison, it seems to have only few preset unison modes with no adjustable detune or stereo spread

Detune knob?

Modes:
Stereo
Mono Hypersaw 3,5,7,9, Supersaw
Stereo Hypersaw 4,6,8,10
Unison 2x 4x , 4x Stereo

yes, detune knob is for voice pan, fine knob does the dettuning
*one thing about Icarus is somethings have diferent functions according to modes/filters/etc selected

Yep forgot about that.

Also that the mod matrix has a load of hidden targets & xtra modulators

i too am wrong!
i could be x2 wrong but i believe in a previous interaction of Icarus Detune worked as the spread and phase or detune the detune of the unison/hypersaws

anyway, detune on Unison/Hypersaws/hyperstereo/etc now does the spread/detuning and fine the default finetunning of the OSC

[Urs]

... programming stuff for Hive and it's fun because it's very straighforward but then...

We're considering the slogan "The Spirit of Modular disguised as a Candy Bar".

[recursive one]

... programming stuff for Hive and it's fun because it's very straighforward but then...

We're considering the slogan "The Spirit of Modular disguised as a Candy Bar".

I know there must be some modular-inspired things in the Hive's modulation system. But I never was into any kind of modular, hardware or software (except for Bazille which I still use mostly like that "lets plug this cable into that hole... wow, sounds cool, no idea what I just did"), so I probably don't even understand where to look and what to expect. Maybe there is some video explaining this side of Hive2?

Btw, if I'm not mistaken i think you once said that Hive might get some sort of FM any time soon. Any updates on that?

[vitocorleone123]

... programming stuff for Hive and it's fun because it's very straighforward but then...

We're considering the slogan "The Spirit of Modular disguised as a Candy Bar".

Ha! Nice.
Hive 2 is a great VA/wavetable synth that makes modulation as easy as drag and drop. Since the main controls are thougtfully available and intentionally limited (quantity not quality), it really is a delightful synth wrapped around a chewy, modulated center.

[Urs]

Maybe there is some video explaining this side of Hive2?

We'll do some more... but really, it's more, like, when there's a situation when you'd commonly say "I wished I could just..." and there's indeed a simple way to do it. We recently put Hive to a test for a film scoring project, and everyone was quite surprised how easily we could do "Zebra things" with it.

As simple as Hive is, it's like there's a compact set of neurons tied together by a very large array of synapses.

Btw, if I'm not mistaken i think you once said that Hive might get some sort of FM any time soon. Any updates on that?

FM is a strong option for a future update, but we haven't made the final decision on it yet. We did other improvements for aforementioned project, mostly in the filter department. This needs a bit of polishing, so it will come to Hive 2.1 or so after we're done with the transition to Catalina (Hive 2.0.1, next month) and after the big Uhbik update (~January).

[tasty tatsyn]

from what i've seen, as i refered earlier, there's some own tricks to hive 2, i can't comment much because i haven't gone deep in it.... the reason i haven't dived into hive are....

1 - i get distrated by so many amazing plugins out there
2 - always had second toughts like; do i prefer to wait for zebra 3? whenever i think about hive
* offline question, is zebra 3 going to have wavetables?


But i retained that idea from hive new features mainly from a video i've seen a while back with presets from a japanese sound designer (hope i'm not wrong) making use of all those new modulators, so there are a lot of possibilities there too

and wavetables , love them.
..... Not the end all and do all but i do .... like wavetables
+1 to the diferent engines that give it diferent flavours

after saying this.... tought about zebra 3 again

[metaside]

Might be a bit off-topic, but iZotope Iris 2 is quite awesome and the library is pretty big, too. May not be as advanced as the synths we are talking here, but it's easy to use and has great modulation options.

Def easy to use and an awesome concept, but great modulation options? As far as I can see, it especially has a lot of macros, but mostly basic options such as LFOs with a few fixed patterns (ok, it's really cool that it has a shape parameter for these!), no MESGs, no MPE, no step sequencers, no random functions or similar. There is absolutely no way to paint your own modulation curves. And what is really great about Iris IMHO is the spectral filter, but you can't really modulate it in any way.

@OP: What I like most about Icarus are the resynthesis and wavetable generation options, and the waveshaping and morphing options for OSCs and partly also for the filters. It's not a dedicated FM synth, but the OSCs support basic cross-OSC FM-, AM-, and Waveshaping interaction. In combination with the wavetable handling and flexible MSEGs, lots of possibilities for generating new sounds.

[SLiC]

a

Might be a bit off-topic, but iZotope Iris 2 is quite awesome and the library is pretty big, too. May not be as advanced as the synths we are talking here, but it's easy to use and has great modulation options.

Def easy to use and an awesome concept, but great modulation options? As far as I can see, it especially has a lot of macros, but mostly basic options such as LFOs with a few fixed patterns (ok, it's really cool that it has a shape parameter for these!), no MESGs, no MPE, no step sequencers, no random functions or similar. There is absolutely no way to paint your own modulation curves. And what is really great about Iris IMHO is the spectral filter, but you can't really modulate it in any way.

@OP: What I like most about Icarus are the resynthesis and wavetable generation options, and the waveshaping and morphing options for OSCs and partly also for the filters. It's not a dedicated FM synth, but the OSCs support basic cross-OSC FM-, AM-, and Waveshaping interaction. In combination with the wavetable handling and flexible MSEGs, lots of possibilities for generating new sounds.

Iris 2 was free with any purchase from Pluginboutique until very recently - hate to think how much I paid for it- I even paid for the V2 update...shame it so quickly became abandonware...

[metaside]

Iris 2 was free with any purchase from Pluginboutique until very recently - hate to think how much I paid for it- I even paid for the V2 update...shame it so quickly became abandonware...

I think I got it in one of the creative bundles or sth like that but yeah, I totally get that feeling...
I really hope iZo get back into the creative stuff, I replaced most mixing/mastering plugins apart from RX but I cant find anything with a similar spectral filter as Iris, drum-machine microediting like BreakTweaker or stuttering like StutterEdit ^^

[SLiC]

Yeh, I know it 'still works' but when you look at the development of (to stay on topic) Hive and Icarus since they were released, Iris could have been great....Its why people keep buying U-HE and Tone2 stuff, they both have a great history of free updates (or fair process for major updates) and continuous developments/improvements. You can't go wrong with anything from either of these Dev's ion my opinion.

iZotope make some good stuff, but they drop things pretty fast and if change a font and they launch it as a paid update!

[metaside]

Yeh, I know it 'still works' but when you look at the development of (to stay on topic) Hive and Icarus since they were released, Iris could have been great....Its why people keep buying U-HE and Tone2 stuff, they both have a great history of free updates (or fair process for major updates) and continuous developments/improvements. You can't go wrong with anything from either of these Dev's ion my opinion.

iZotope make some good stuff, but they drop things pretty fast and if change a font and they launch it as a paid update!

Yeah, I completely agree. Also, with regard to the OP, I think Iris does not come close to being a real alternative to a workhorse synth, it's more like a one-trick specialist for spectral filtering.