Tone2 has announced its upcoming RayBlaster virtual synthesizer for Windows and Mac.
Impulse Modeling Synthesis (IMS) is not just a marketing buzzword – but a radically new and different approach to synthetic sound generation, based on the latest research in psychoacoustics.
Tone2 RayBlaster unveils a completely new & unique dimension of sounds, exclusive to Rayblaster and not possible with other synthesizers.
Through the use of impulses, RayBlaster is not only capable of modelling the sound of existing filters – it’s now also possible to create completely new artificial ‘fantasy’ filters exclusive to Rayblaster, making its filter capabilities virtually unlimited.
RayBlaster features
Revolutionary new synthesis method.
Access completely new sonic territory.
High-end sound quality.
Create professional sounds with character and impossible with any other synthesizer.
Lets your music stand out from the crowd!.
Professional sound quality that is never muddy and fits well into the mix.
Sounds more detailed, pleasant, fat and louder than conventional synths.
Independent control over pitch, timing and timbre.
Filter import: Mimic filters of other synthesizers or create your own fantasy filters..
Resynthesis allows easy import & manipulation of your own sounds.
Huge sonic range and very flexible.
Easy to use & fun to play.
Over 500 ready-to-use sounds by professional designers.
Psychoacoustic processing.
Expandability.
Low CPU.
Fair price.
RayBlaster will be available early December, 2012.
Tone2 has announced the release of Dark Toxic, a soundset for the Saurus virtual analog synthesizer plug-in for Windows and Mac.
In a world filled with sounds it is sometimes hard to find something new, something from the depths of darkness that rips through the norm and sets your track apart.
Dark Toxic is that something! Using Saurus’ powerful oscillators, squelchy filters and a wealth of modulation options, our sound designers set out to create the dirtiest of the dirty.
140 original sounds programmed from scratch to showcase the dark side of Saurus, with a clear focus on the harder edged sounds for genres such as Drum and Bass, Complextro, Dubstep, Grindcore and Electronica. Dark Toxic covers the entire dirt range, from cone trashing basses to club smashing leads and pads, all to bring you the best in raw dark synth power.
The Dark Toxic features
Hand-picked selection of 140 presets created by a large number of professional sound designers: Ed Ten Eyck, Aiyn Zahev, George Zondagh, Massimo Bosco, Jamie Docwra, Marco Scherer, Bigtone, Rob Fabrie, Reinhard Reschner, Jeff Rhodes, Bryan Lee, SupremeJa, The Unshushable Coktor, Grzegorz Bartoszek, Sean Charles and Bastiaan van Noord (Tone2).
Supports modwheel, velocity and aftertouch.
Volume of all sounds has been carefully normalized.
The soundset is available to purchase for $39 USD / 29 EUR incl. VAT.
Tone2 has announced the release of Top of the Clubs, a soundset for the Saurus software synthesizer for Windows and Mac.
“Raise your hands, Feel the energy, Feel the rush, are you ready to go crazy?”, words often spoken by MC’s all over the world during the sets of some of the top DJ’s. But it’s the music that gives the crowd that adrenaline shot in the arm and the feeling of total euphoria, and no more so than in a Trance club.
Now you can get the massive sounds of Trance with the Top of the Clubs soundset for Saurus. Bringing you the best in huge leads, spaced out arps, immense bass lines and ambient pads, the Top of the Clubs set covers all the bases for creating modern trance music. It doesn’t end there, these incredible sounds lend themselves to many other genres, such as Dance, DnB, Electro and RnB to name a few.
With over 200 ready to go sounds, Top of the Clubs is a bank that shows the true power of analogue synthesis in the virtual world. You too, can make your own dance floor slammers that will ignite any party.
Tone2 has released Vocaloid Soundset, a new soundset for the ElectraX software synthesizer instrument for Windows and Mac.
Ever wanted to hear your synth growl like a wild animal or sing like a choir of angels? Look no further, Vocaloid offer the best selection of presets with a clear focus on vocal and formant sounds.
Packed full of vocal pads, vocoders, rhythmical sections, human beatboxes and sound effects, Vocaloid shows the versatility of ElectraX’s powerful wavetable synthesis and sampler features.
Over 240 individual presets with new wavetables and samples, each created by professional sound designers to inspire and fill your vocal effect section with new ideas, from an ambient choir to a nasty growl, the Vocaloid soundset unleashes the true power of ElectraX.
Vocaloid Soundset features
240 presets, contains both synthesized and resynthesized material incorporating 200 MB of new sample content, due to its multi-layer and complex patch setup the complete soundset features a total of 400+ sounds.
All voices are properly tuned and many sounds automatically sync to the BPM rate for a comfortable and fast production.
Hand-picked selection of sounds created by a large number of professional sounddesigners: Ed Ten Eyck, Marco Scherer, Massimo Bosco, Aiyn Zahev, Jay Levzi, Stephen Krajewski, Markus Feil (Tone2), Bastiaan van Noord (Tone2).
Vocal sample credits: Scott Yahney, Ed ten Eyck (EDT), Marjorie van Noord (BN).
The soundset for ElectraX is available to purchase for 49 EUR inc. VAT.
In many ways there is a world of difference between hardware and software. Feel, size & weight, smell(?!), price… But as far as sound quality goes, virtual analog synthesizer plug-ins are increasingly becoming more like their hardware counterparts. I am not sure how developers got the sound of vintage synths in early emulations and “inspired by” synth plug-ins, but today it is all about modeling the originals down to the smallest parts.
Hot on the heels of FXpansion and u-he comes Tone2 with its Saurus virtual analog circuit-modeled synthesizer.
We carefully measured and modeled the circuits of many classic performance synthesizers, even including single capacitors and resistors to provide an extremely accurate analog model, faithfully capturing the spirit and character of these old machines.
Saurus aims to deliver that analog flavor with its “True Analog Modeling Technology”, which according to Tone2 gives the oscillators the warm characteristic sound of analog hardware.
Saurus comes with a vintage look and a straightforward workflow.
The synth features two oscillators with 8 selectable waveforms each, including all the classic ones you would expect, plus some additional ones similar to Roland’s Alpha Juno (PWM Sawtooth & Comb) and an organ stack inspired by Farsivar analog organs. The PW control allows you to extend range of sounds even more by morphing osc waveforms into more shapes. Both oscillators are paired with sub oscillators, also with 8 selectable waveforms each.
Controls are available for mixing oscillators and subs, tone, frequency and amplitude modulation noise, ring modulation, sync of both oscs, tune & detune, a phase adjust, and of course drift to get some of that vintage unstable sound.
The filter section sports 6 filter types, including three Chamberlin modeled filters (12dB LP, HP, and BP), a 24dB LP Butterworth filter, a notch and a formant filter. The 12dB LP is said to have the character similar to Korg’s MS-20. I don’t know too much about filter topologies or how Chamberlin and Sallen-Key relate, but the filter sure does some nice screaming. Not quite as aggressive as its reference but it sounds great nonetheless, especially when dialing in some extra drive.
Saurus comes with 2 LFO’s, which only have 4 waveforms – I guess due to limited space on the interface – but you can select more waveforms from within the modulation matrix. The modulation system is kind of… vintage. No smart features here, just three pages of 5 modulation slots to assign sources and targets.
Interestingly enough, there are some parameters in the mod matrix that you can’t access anywhere else, e.g. white and pink noise modulation sources. The mod matrix is also the only place where you can make use of the ADSR envelope of the AUX section.
To increase control over the modulation, Tone2 has also implemented some modifiers which basically sit in between the mod source and destination.
Switching the Mod Matrix screen to the first tab opens up the arpeggiator/gate, which also serves as a modulation source. The arpeggiator includes some interesting features like chord and release steps, step velocity and swing.
Unlike previous Tone2 synthesizers, the effect section is quite limited. The chorus, reverb, and delay units have just 3 knobs each, and a one-knob tube effect adds some analog tube warmth to your sound.
The general section has controls for note glide, voice mode, unison (2-4x) with spread, a “psycho-acoustic boost”, ADSR envelope and pan & volume.
Saurus comes with no less than 563 presets by 20+ sound designers. The presets can be selected from the patch browser in the top left, where they are categorized by sound type.
Tone2 recently held a contest in which people were asked to create some tracks with a vintage character. Check out the top 3 winning tunes below to get an idea of what Saurus can sound like.
Tone2 has posted a comprehensive introduction video for Saurus, so check it out below if you’d like some more details about this plugin.
So what do I think?
Product: Saurus by Tone2 Format: VST/AU plug-in Price: 99 EUR / $119 USD Like: Simple design, easy to program, versatile Don’t like: Some features are mod matrix only Verdict: 8/10
There has been a lot of talk about Saurus, especially on forums like KVR where everything gets compared to bits.
The obvious challenge for Tone2 was to take on u-he’s Diva, but to be honest, in terms of sound quality Diva is just miles ahead of the competition. And that’s alright, because both are actually quite different. Whereas Diva’s semi-modular design excels in sound quality, Saurus is more like a simple vintage synthesizer in a modern outfit. Easy to program, relatively easy on the CPU, and surprisingly versatile.
Tone2 – or its marketing copy – was perhaps focusing a little too much on trying to highlight Saurus’ “True Analog” features, while Saurus in fact is a great all-round synth. Sure it does some lovely Alpha Juno type detuned saw sounds, but I really enjoyed browsing its presets and finding way more variety than I would expect from the average virtual analog.
In short, Saurus is a capable synthesizer in the area of both analog and digital type sounds. It is easy and fun to work with, and it has a fair price tag. Check out the demo and see what you think.
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