Ultraspace - Tone2

If there's one thing that Tone2 really excells at it's reverb. For ambient space design this is brilliant with lots of innovative space modelling.  Nice to see a ducking feature too which most reverb units rarely have.A definite go to reverb and probably the only one you will ever need!

Tone2 releases UltraSpace, a new compact plugin as an all-in-one solution for everything related to ambient simulation.

Available as VST (Windows) or AU (MAC) plugin formats, UltraSpace is the complete ambience-modeling solution. It can simulate nearly any kind of room, echo or acoustic environment with high-end sound quality.

UltraSpace is far more than just another reverb – it’s a complete compilation of different effect units covering all important aspects of space simulation. By combining these units, completely new and unique effects can be created.

Highlights:
One compact plugin as an all-in-one solution for everything related to ambient simulation.
Replacement for a large number of very expensive hardware units.
Modules can be combined to create new and unique effects, not possible with competing products.
Make your tracks stand out in the crowd!
Huge sonic range, and usable for a large number of applications.
Higher sound quality than competing products. Effect algorithms designed by DSP experts with 20 years of programming experience.
Excellent value for money.
150 inspiring patches created by professionals give you instant access to the right sound to quickly enhance your mixes.
Visual real-time displays and tooltips make it very easy to use.

Gladiator 3 - Tone 2

Often quoted as 'the only synth you will ever need' and quite justifiably so. With it's now resizable interface and a plethora of added content 'Gladiator' is now better than ever. Based around it's own concept of Advanced Harmonic Content Morphing (HCM) Synthesis.Tone2's Gladiator is real workhorse of a synth if ever there was one!

The award-winning Gladiator is a popular synthesizer, which is used for a large number of professional productions. It offers a groundbreaking approach to sound generation. It's exclusive HCM-synthesis covers a new and unique aural territory.

The update to v3.0 is a major update, which is available for free for all Gladiator2 users. It includes a larger and resizable GUI, a patch browser, enhanced sound quality, a bigger sonic range, a more user-friendly interface and many new features. Gladiator3 is downward compatible. Existing song-projects and patches can be loaded without any further steps necessary. They will benefit from the enhanced sound quality.

New features:

Created a new interface, which is nearly twice as large
By clicking on 'EDITOR SIZE' you can select from four different interface sizes
Added a comfortable, new patch browser
New sound-quality mode 'high-end'
18 additional unison modes with a diverse selection of chords
Added context sensitive tooltips with detailed descriptions for all controls
The patches can be ranked by clicking on the stars in the patch browser
The patch rankings are stored within the file "Ranking.rnk"
6 additional lfo waveforms: "Stair 4 up","Stair 8 up","Stair 4 down","Stair 8 down","Stair 4 up/down","Stair 8 up/down"
Added manuals in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian to the new help menu
New loop mode "Noise", which jumps to a random section
New loop mode "/50%", which ping-pong-loops 50% of the spectrum
New loop mode "/25%", which ping-pong-loops 25% of the spectrum
3 additional phase-modifiers "Zzzap", which sound like a laser
3 additional phase-modifiers "Boing", which sound like a reverse laser
2 additional phase-modifiers "Odd noise" and "Even noise", which noisify the spectrum
2 additional phase-modifiers "Odd 90" and "Even 90", which sound like a sub-oscillator
Information tags about the patches are shown in the patch browser
Extended halftone-range for the arpeggiator from -23 to +23
Added cross-product-compatibility: Save->'Export...' exports the sound of osc1 as an Icarus compatible wavetable in wav format
Video tutorials can be shown from the help menu
Updates and additional sounds can be accessed directly from the help menu
176 additional patches

Enhancements in sound:

More linear frequency response for oscillators playing below 100Hz
More precise timing for all sample-rates
Replaced all micro-tuning algorithms with a better ones. The new ones are more subtle and sounds less 'detuned'.
The late-reverb-tail of 'Reverb small' sounds less detuned
The late-reverb-tail of 'Reverb large' sounds less detuned
The late-reverb-tail of 'Reverb ultra' sounds less detuned
All effects do come with default settings now and are more useable
Reworked factory patches

Enhancements for the interface:

Re-rendered the old GUI with sharper texts
The envelope's attack, decay, and release time is displayed in seconds
Registration screen is now also available in German
Renaming a preset is more straightforward
The version number now can be also shown from within help menu
The updated credits can be shown by clicking on help menu
The parameter info display is able to show longer texts now
Mousewheel support for knobs and list selectors
Double-clicking a knob or slider resets it to the default value
More detailed spectrum display
Manuals on the Mac now can be opened from within the plugin
Better init patch
Enhanced graphics
After loading patch names are derived from the fxp file name
Program name and file name are synced after saving a patch
Added messages boxes with info for some possible errors
Step speed is set to 1/1 BPM after initializing a patch
English manual has been updated
Many smaller enhancements
Patches are now in alphabetical order

Changes:

Loading and saving banks can now be accessed with a new menu called 'load' and 'save'
Renamed some parameters to be more consistent with the industry standards
The envelope's fade parameter now works as expected with long attack times
Manuals in PDF format and Gladiatorskin.txt have been moved to Gladiator3_data
On the Mac support files are now stored in /Library/Application Support/Tone2/Gladiator3_data

Updated some texts
Enhanced hardware compatibility for midi program changes
Some sound categories have been renamed

Fixes:

The timing in 44Khz and 48Khz could have been out-of-sync if large block-sizes were used
Fixed some typos
Fixed a couple of wrong pixels
Fixed a possible bug with 'static' loop mode
Compatibility fix for the 'm' key
Fixed a possible crash when the splash-screen was opened during closing

Tone2 - Electra2

One of the most underrated companys, Tone2 have always created exceptionally great sounding and innovative plugins. Electra2 is another fine example and with the recent updates, it's now even better. One of the stand out features of Electra2 is the layering of oscillators , of which contains in essence 4 synths with three independent layers within themselves. This makes for massive sound design mixing, even more so, with the ability to import your own samples which can be edited in various interesting ways. Oh! and i should mention Electra2 each has its own arpeggiator section, per synth, (that's 4 arps going at the same time) which sadly even Synapses Dune2 does not have, although that one has 8 layers but that's another story.

 As in Icarus, and especially so here, check out the semireal presets which has some brilliantly sounding authentic acoustic guitars and flutes etc. 


Electra2 - the only synth you need to create a hit!

Many people say that Electra2 is the most powerful synthesizer on the market. This is a bold claim, but why is it true? Electra2 breathes new life into the term "synthesizer workstation". With its powerful and sonically versatile approach to audio production, it provides you with truly outstanding new sounds.

The instrument is equipped with a high-end quality sound engine with multi-layer support and a wide range of music production features. It's friendly, easy to use interface allows first-timers to easily create sounds and enables experts to delve into sound-design as deeply as they want to. With Tone2's high-end technology at its core, you're not only working with the best sound quality possible, but also a lower CPU usage and larger palette for creating original sounds than with any other type of workstation.
Electra2 comes with an astounding collection of over 1300 production-ready sounds by professional sound designers. A smart patch browser gives you an instant overview of all the available categories and sounds. Just pick the sound you want - it's that easy.

Changes in Electra v2.6:

New synthesis mode: Analog oscillators (Saw, Square, Triangle, Sine, Half Sine, Comb, Pulse 25%).
New synthesis mode: Soft sync (is active if the target oscillator is analog; works well with triangle).
New synthesis mode: Analog pulsewidth modulation (select Analog->’Pulse PW’; PW knob controls the pulsewidth).
New effect: ‘Gated Reverb’ which syncs to the BPM rate.
New effect: ‘Gated Reverb Echo’ is Gated Reverb with a delay which syncs to BPM.
New effect: ‘Reverse Reverb’ which syncs to the BPM rate.
New effect: ‘Stereo Width’ allows to spread the panorama from mono to surround.
New effect: ‘Laser Punch’ adds additional punch. Use it with a sawtooth to gereate a zzapping ‘Rubber Bass’ sound.
New effect: ‘Stereo flanger’.
New effect: ‘Surround pan’ with dolby prologic compatible surround encoding.
New filter: ‘LP Butter’ is an analog modeled butterworth filter with 24dB. The analog knob controls the noisyness.
New filter: ‘LP Tone2’ is an analog modeled leapfrog filter with 24dB. The analog knob controls non-linearity.
New filter: ‘LP Elliptic’ is a digital filter with 40dB slope.
The patch browser shows a scrollbar if more than 26 categories exist.
Doubleclick on a knob resets it to the default value.
Custom Wave->’Load wave’ now shows a popup menu with all available waveforms in ElectraX_wavetables.
Custom waveforms can quickly be selected with the mouswheel.
Custom Wave->’Random wave’ generates a random waveform.
‘Save Wave’ exports a wav file with the oscillator’s waveform.
New Sample effect: ‘Phase shifter’ creates a very similar sounding sample. It can be used for ‘sample clearing’, since it is difficult to proove the origin of the sample.
New halftone mode for the arpeggiator: 3/4 selects a minor or major third which depends on the root key .
‘Natural scrolling’ support for the mousewheel on Mac.
List selectors now have checkmarks.
40 additional patches.
Enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Hall’, especially for for small sizes.
Enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Room’ for small sizes.
Enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Cathedral’.
Slightly enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Big’ with reduced low frequency rumble.
Slightly enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Infinity’ with reduced low frequency rumble.
A hand symbol is shown for text-style parameters which can be altered with the mouse.
More detailed description for some tooltips.
If tooltips are hidden the info boxes for the knobs are also hidden.
Better default settings for Chorus.
Better default settings for Ensemble.
Mousewheel on PC has a more aggressive focus.
No more clipping in the waveform displays.
More clean sound of PWM modulation on ‘custom wave’.
Filter frequency response display is more precise.
Higher precision of triangle, square and saw LFO at high frequencies.
More linear frequency response of ‘Dynamic loud’, ‘Bright’ and ‘Loudness’.
Init->’Reset All’ sets Pitchwheel to +-12.
Cleaned up some tooltips.
Several small enhancements.
More smooth looking waveform displays.
Reworked some ‘init patch’ templates.
Fixed: The timing in 44kHz and 48 kHz samplerate was incorrect .
Fixed: One some PC hosts the mouse cursor showed a wait circle when a knob was moved.
Fixed: LFO ‘Fade’ did not work with some waveforms.
Fixed: The checkmark ‘Multilayer edit’ was not shown after closing and opening the GUI.
Fixed: Fixed a denormal in the Reverb effect.
Fixed: Fixed a click that could be audible when volume envelope sustain was set to 0.
Fixed: Monophonic arpeggiators sometimes did not play if keys were hit while loading a patch.
Fixed: ‘Hold’ time in the envelope section was displayed incorrectly.
Fixed: LFO speed text did display a mouse up/down arrow on mouseover.
Fixed: STEP Lfo speed display was incorrect.
Fixed: Modulation depth of knobs could have been incorrect if matrix target was switched.
Text-style parameters do not longer display a “*”.

Warmverb Multi FX - Tone2

Tons of reverb and FX plugins out there but Warmverb combines the best of both worlds beaautifully. Most definitely one of the very best and probably one that i personally will often use.. Going much further sonically wise than others Warmverb has a plethora of excellent and original presets. A touch CPU heavy but being much more than just your usual reverb with Multi FX, i can live with this!!

Tone2 Warmverb is definitely the best multieffect unit on the markt. Point.
There are 35 different effect modules which can be combined to create new effect sounds. Load warmwerb with 'freeware-sawtooth-only-crappy-synth' and get blown away.

Sound:
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Reverb:
There are 3 different algorithmic Reverb modules. Two of them are known from their excellent Gladiator synthesizer. The third one called 'Reverb ulta' is an even more pimped version. I know that tastes are different, but for my ears this reverb is the best sounding one on the market. It's clean, diffuse, warm and does not muddy the mix.
Other modules

Vocoder:
There are 2 different vocoder algorithms. One uses left-right as modulatior and carrier and a second one which does generate the carrier wave autmotically and is very easy to setup. It sound better than most vocoders on the martket.

Dolby Prologic II encoding:
Allows you to encode your tracks in surround!

Delay, Pingpong, Filter pingpong:
All delays automatically sync to the BPM rate.

Chorus, Ensemble, Flanger:
Warm sound, real stereo.

Superstrings:
Some kind of new effect. Sounds like 'trancy stereo mega chorus'.

Phaser:
Some kind of 8 stage phaser. Reminds me of the Oxygen recordings from Jean Michel Jarre.

Talkbox:
AIEOUAIEAUAUA

Distortions:
Warm sound, no digital crap, no aliasing.

Further modules:
Bitcrush, waveshape, stereo enhance, autpanning, rotary, EQ, stereoizer, ringmod, pitch shifter, feedback, tremolo, some filters


User interface:
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The interface is very easy to use and self explaining. The design looks very professional and hardware-like. The knobs and their ranges are easy to adjust. The random button works well. The interface reacts quickly.

Fetures:
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35 different outstanding effect modules in one plugin. Any questions?

Docs:
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Are availabe in several languages. The modules are well explained, but i did not like the layout design and the colors.

Presets:
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150 well sorted presets which show the power quite well. The random button work fine for creating own sounds.

Customer support:
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Tone2 support answered my email within 8 hours.

Value for money:
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I would have bought this plugin even if it would cost $200. I hope that they won't rise the price in the future.

Stability:
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Never had a problem with it.

Conclusion:
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Sell your VST effect collection and buy warmverb!
This plugin is an absolute must-have. It's cheap, innovative, inspiring and offers outstanding sound. Review from KVR

Icarus - Tone2

Probably my new favourite synth from Tone2. A truly powerhouse synth with exceptional sound quality. Check out the excellent pads. The resynthesis and vocoder sections are particularly nice with endless sonic possibilities at hand.. Only slight reservations is the by now dated modmatrix section and an unusual lack of stacking FX chains.

Said to be exceptionally powerful, this is boosted by what the company is calling '3D wavetable synthesis'.
The '3D' prefix has been added because, as well as being able to cross-blend waveforms, Icarus also offers an additional morphing 'dimension'. The result, says Tone2, is a synth that has a signature sound that's very hard or impossible to create in other instruments.
In fact, the company reckons that Icarus is so good and can produce such a wide variety of sounds that it will be able to replace the majority of your existing hardware and software synths. It promises an easy-to-use interface and an inspiring collection of factory presets.

Why a musician should know about Icarus

Icarus is an exceptionally powerful, new synthesizer with '3D wavetable synthesis'. It offers a fresh signature sound, which quickly catches your audiences' attention. The innovative resynthesis can rebuild any sound with a mouse-click. An easy to use interface and a massive amount of inspiring factory sounds allow you to create professional tracks rapidly and with very low effort.
The sound quality surpasses conventional synths, however you don't need to own a NASA computer to be able to use Icarus, since it offers the best possible sound quality and low CPU requirement.

What's new with '3D wavetable synthesis'?

Icarus is a '3D wavetable synth', because we extended the popular traditional wavetable synthesis, which is capable of cross-blending waveforms, with an additional dimension for morphing. Together with many other innovations, this is one of the secrets, why Icarus can create sounds with lots of dynamic expression and movement. Many ‘Icarus sounds’ can not be created by other synthesizers. Get instantly inspired by a massive amount of fresh sounds and create tracks with an unique character!

Is Icarus the most powerful synthesizer?
(iMPRESSiVE Edit): NO
It has: 53 effects, 3x10 stereo oscillators with hypersaw, dual stereo filters with 62 filter types, a powerful wavetable editor.

Create great songs quickly and with low effort

If you want to save time you need audio products which are reliable and efficient to work with. Furthermore you need instant access to a great and inspiring library. Discover over 1000 production-ready sounds with Icarus' comfortable patch browser. Each sound has been carefully built by a professional sound designer and has been crafted with lot's of love and great attention to detail. The patches are very easy to mix, because they've been carefully EQed, pre-mastered and are running in perfect sync to the tempo of your track.
The powerful arpeggiator instantly creates inspiring and wonderful melodies. Smart playing aids like autochord speed up the production process and assist you whenever you wish this. All patches can be morphed with the modwheel. This makes it easy for you to add exciting movement to your tracks.
A customizable interface allows you to select your favorite color. With several instances of Icarus loaded at the same time, it's even possible to show single instances with different colors. This helps you to keep the orientation, when you're working on a complex project with many tracks.

Why you need vocals to create a chart hit

If you listen to successful chart hits, you'll quickly notice that nearly all of them use lots of vocalic sounds. We humans instinctively love them, because they are close to our speech. But adding unique vocals to your tracks is difficult and requires lots of work: You need lots of time, a singer, a microphone, a recording studio, you need to cut samples and finally process the "not so" talented singer with autotune...
With Icarus you can avoid this hassle, because it can sing hymns for you! All you need to do is to pick one of the vocoder patches and play a melody on the keyboard. But these sounds are not just a bunch of 'vocal samples' – this is real speech synthesis. That's one of the secrets why these vocal chants are never out-of-tune. Like magic they are correctly time-stretched for the 'right groove' and synchronize to your song automatically!
With the built-in vocoder module you can easily create your own phrases and make yourself sound like a robot.
It has never been so easy to create professional tracks with vocalic sounds!

Entertainment with effects

Icarus comes with a mighty and flexible effects section. 53 different effects can be combined in modular slots to build new and exciting effects. Save them to your harddisc, use them to tweak existing patches or simply get entertained by your own creations!

Discover the wonderful world of synthesis!

Don't miss the experience of creating your own sounds! With Icarus and a little patience anyone can become a great sound designer, since tweaking the intuitive user interface is fun and very easy to learn. Many animated displays give you visual feedback and make tweaking accessible to anyone, regardless of the skill level. With Icarus you can always instantly see and hear what you're doing.
The innovative resynthesis function in Icarus allows you to rebuild nearly any sound with a single mouse-click: Simply click on the resynthesis button and select a wav file. Like magic, Icarus will automatically assemble a patch, which sounds very close to the original sound. Our new algorithm gives better results and is easier to use than traditional methods.
You can shape your sounds with many exciting morph modes, rich oscillators, a massive amount of wonderful filters and a modular effect section.
A mighty wavetable editor is available for experts. It includes a massive amount of professional tools to tweak wavetables, like an additive spectrum editor or the possibility to paint waveforms with the mouse.
If you design your own sounds, they are automatically stored within your tracks. There will be no broken songs because there are files missing on your hardisc. This means that your musical creations will be always safe. Also, your own patches, waveforms and wavetables can be saved to fxp or wav format. This makes it easy for you to manage your own creations. Exchange your sounds with friends, export them to 3rd party software or create your own sets.

Spice up your tracks with exciting movement

Modulation is where the true power of the synth emerges. Do you want to use the LFO to wobble your filter? Simply turn a knob and you're on your way.
Modulation can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. By using the modulation matrix, Icarus allows you to connect dozens of modulation sources to all important sound parameters. Modulate almost any parameter, well into audio-rate speed, from internal modulation sources like LFOs, punchy envelopes, gates, step sequencers, and a wide variety of MIDI signals. We've also included midi-learn, so assigning CC's is as simple as a right-click.

Is Icarus ready for the future?

Icarus comes with free personal support as well as frequent, free updates and improvements. It will be extended with new features and additional sounds regularly. This synthesizer has been designed in a way that it can be expanded easily. The open structure allows you, us and 3rd party developers to extend it with our own content.

Features & technical details

3D wavetable synthesizer: Wavetables can be morphed in several dimensions
Powerful and flexible sound engine with true stereo architecture
High-end sound quality with low CPU requirement
Easy to use interface with direct visual feedback
Huge sonic range
Many exclusive sounds, which are not possible with other synthesizers
Perfect for modern, as well as all other music styles
Over 1000 sounds by professional designers
Patch browser and flexible preset management
New resynthesis method, which is easy to use and gives good results
Modular effect section with 53 effects
High quality vocoder with 1024 bands
3 oscillator blocks, each offering up to 10 stereo oscillators, which can play hypersaws, unison, stacks or chords
54 different morph modes (FM, PWM, formant, phase distort, sync, ...)
All morph modes can be combined with any kind of wavetable or hypersaw
Wavetable editor with many features
A wavetable generator can create completely new wavetables
Waveforms can be painted using the mouse
Additive spectrum editor
Import and export of wavetables/waveforms from other synthesizers
Dual multi-mode filter section with 62 filter types and 8 distortion types
Arpeggiator with advanced features like chords, glides, swing & shuffle
Fast and punchy envelopes
LFOs with audio-rate modulation speed and BPM sync
Flexible mod matrix
Midi learn support
Dynamic microtuning to enhance chords
Customizable user interface with 40 colors schemes
Expandability