Tone2 Audio releases Electra 2.7 synthesizer plugin update

Tone2 Audio has announced an update to its Electra 2 synthesizer workstation for Windows and Mac.

Version 2.7 is a major update, including new synthesis modes, many additional effects, enhanced sound, improved performance and lots of new features.

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.

Changes in Electra 2.7

New features:
- New effect ‘Hyper Unison’ which stacks 3,5,7 or 9 voices.
- New effect ‘Haas Effect’ which creates the impression of positioning a sound source.
- New triangular waveshaper ‘ShapTri’ for the distortion section.
- New asymmetric waveshaper ‘ShapAsy’ for the distortion section.
- New pulsed waveshaper ‘ShapPul’ for the distortion section.
- New warping waveshaper ‘ShapWar’ for the distortion section.
- New asymmetric waveshaper ‘ShapHal’ for the distortion section.
- New zapping waveshaper ‘ShapZap’ for the distortion section.
- New symmetric waveshaper ‘ShapSym’ for the distortion section.
- New distortion type ‘Selfsync’ which creates a sub-harmonic sound.
- New distortion type ‘Degrade’ which adds mirror-frequencies to the signal.
- New distortion type ‘Noise’ which mixes white noise with the signal.
- New distortion type ‘NoiseRM’ which ring-modulates the signal with noise.
- New distortion type ‘Scream’ with fractal feedback.
- Added support for *.sfz files. They can be imported with the FILE menu.
- New sample-oscillator-effect: ‘Rectify’ distorts a sample.
- New sample-oscillator-effect: ‘Noisify 2’ destroys a sample.
- New sample-oscillator-effect: ‘Invert’ changes the phase of a sample by 180 degrees.
- New sample-oscillator-effect: ‘Fold’ flips the negative amplitude of a sample.
- Multi-line tooltips for better readability and more detailed descriptions.
- New microtuning-modes ‘432Hz -32cent’,’424Hz -66cent’,’449Hz +33cent’ and ‘457Hz +66cent’.
- When multilayer-editing is active the knobs show a red line.
- Added drag&drop support for multilayer-editing.
- ‘Quick import sample’ does generate a new program name automatically.
- ‘Quick import sample’ maps the mod-wheel to vibrato automatically.
- ‘Quick import sample’ automatically generates a soft velocity mapping to volume.
Enhancements:
- Patches are loading up to 10x faster.
- Songs are loading faster.
- Drastically reduced CPU-load after switching through the patches.
- Enhanced sound of the ‘Shape’ waveshaper (20x oversampling & removed a click).
- Enhanced sound of ‘Tube’ distortion (10x oversampling).
- Enhanced sound of ‘Soft’ distortion (10x oversampling).
- Enhanced sound of ‘Crush’ distortion (10x oversampling).
- Enhanced sound of ‘Chorus’ and ‘Ensemble’. They sound smoother and less detuned.
- Enhanced sound of ‘Delay’,’Delay Band’,’PingPong’,’Multitap’,’Delay Diffuse’ and ‘Delay Dual’. The echo sounds less detuned.
- Better default values for some effects.
- Enhanced sound of ‘Reverb Hall’, ‘Reverb Cathedral’, ‘Reverb Big’, ‘Reverb Plate’, ‘Reverb Infinity’, ‘Reverb Glass’. It has a more natural sound with less detuning and the low-end has a more linear frequency response.
- Plugin editor can be minimized permanently by clicking the EDIT button.
- More linear frequency response above 14 Khz for ‘Loudness’ and ‘Bright’ mode.
- Enhanced sound, frequency response and phase response of EQ low.
- PC version is smarter with selecting directories for saving and loading.
- Useless scroll-bars are not longer shown in the standalone version on PC.
- Drastically enhanced performance if excessive key-splitting for the oscillators is used.
- More detailed descriptions for many tooltips.
- The patch browser does react to midi-program-changes.
- Parallel and serial filter-routing is easier to set-up.
- Fine-tuned the coordinates of some controls and texts.
Changes:
- ElectraXmidi.cfg is now stored within the ElectraX_data directory.
- ElectraMouse.cfg is now stored within the ElectraX_data directory.
- ElectraTooltips.cfg is now stored within the ElectraX_data directory.
- Electra2.pdf is now stored within the ElectraX_data directory.
- ‘Smart Unison’ has been renamed to ‘Chorus White’
- ‘Chorus 2’ has been renamed to ‘Chorus Standard’.
- Sample effect ‘Square’ has been renamed to ‘Quadrature’.
- The sinoid-waveshaper ‘Shaper’ has been renamed to ‘ShapSin’.
- The effect-parameters do not longer contain a ‘*’.
Fixes:
- Fixed a compatibility problem with recording automation in some hosts.
- Fixed a bug with list-selectors on Mac 64bit.
- The grid of the step-lfo was displayed incorrectly.
- Workaround for a Cubase-bug which sets the window-size incorrectly after ‘save a default preset’.
- A double-click to the matrix-send-level did not update the modulation-depth-sectors for the knobs properly.
- Fixed a possible crash which could happen when the plugin is closed while a tooltip is shown.
- Fixed a bug in the fast-sine-approximation on PC.
- The check-mark for the patch selector was missing in some hosts after closing and opening the GUI.
- Key-range for note-filtering was displayed incorrectly.
- Fixed some typos in the tooltips.
- Initializing a new patch did not always update the program name correctly.
- Fixed a rarely appearing crash that could happen when the patches were switched while a track was playing.
- Fixed a crash that could happen if samples are played back with extremely high pitch.
- Workaround for a bug of FL Studio on the Mac. A crash could happen if GUI was closed while the browser was open.
- Fixed a rarely appearing crash on the Mac that could happen when the plugin was deleted while a tooltip was shown.
- Fixed an unlikely crash on the Mac which happened if the plugin was closed immideately after opening the browser.
- The ESC key did not work in some hosts.
- Fixed some GUI glitches in the browser which could appear if very long names are used.