Tone2 Audio has announced the release of Icarus, a 3D wavetable synthesizer for Windows and Mac.

Tone2 Icarus
Tone2 Icarus Colors

Icarus is a powerful, new synthesizer with ‘3D wavetable synthesis’. It offers a fresh sound, which quickly catches the audiences’ attention. The innovative resynthesis can rebuild nearly any sound with a mouse-click. The easy to use interface and a massive amount of inspiring factory sounds allow a rapid creation of professional tracks.

What is 3D wavetable synthesis?

Icarus is a ‘3D wavetable synthesizer’, because the popular traditional wavetable synthesis, which is capable of cross-blending waveforms, has been extended with an additional dimension for morphing. Wavetables can be manipulated with 54 different morph modes in real-time. As a result Icarus can create sounds with lots of dynamic expression and movement. Many of these sounds can not be created by other synthesizers.

Icarus features

  • Audio engine: The audio engine offers a huge sonic range and is very versatile. It is able to reproduce all important synthesizer sounds. Additional to this it can create lots of exclusive sounds which are not possible with other synthesizers. It offers the highest possible sound quality with low CPU requirement. It can do: All classic synthesis methods, 3D wavetables, morphing, resynthesis, vocoder, 53 effects, 3×10 stereo oscillators, hypersaw, supersaw, unison, additive synthesis, dual stereo filters with 62 filter types…
  • Vocoder and speech synthesis: Icarus is able to ‘sing’. The included vocal patches are not just simple ‘vocal samples’ which are played back – it is real speech synthesis. As a result these vocal chants are never out-of-tune. They are correctly time-stretched for the ‘right groove’ and synchronize to the song’s BPM rate automatically. The built-in vocoder module allows the creation of custom phrases with a mouse-click.
  • Resynthesis: The innovative resynthesis function in Icarus allows it, to rebuild nearly any sound with a mouse-click. The new algorithm gives better results and is easier to use than traditional methods.
  • Interface: Many animated displays give visual feedback instantly and make tweaking accessible to anyone, regardless of the skill level. A customizable interface allows to pick the favorite colors. With several instances of Icarus loaded at the same time, it’s possible to show single instances with different color schemes. This helps to keep the orientation within complex projects with many tracks.
  • Wavetable editor: The wavetable editor includes a massive amount of advanced tools to tweak and create wavetables, like an additive spectrum editor or the possibility to paint waveforms with the mouse.
  • Effects: Icarus comes with a flexible, modular effects section. 53 different effects can be combined to build new and exciting effects. It’s possible to store the new creations to the harddisc or to import them.
  • Modulation: Icarus allows to connect dozens of modulation sources to all important sound parameters. Almost any parameter can be modulated well into audio-rate speed.

Icarus for Windows and Mac (VST/AU) is available for purchase for 149 EUR/ $199 USD.

More information: Tone2 Audio / Icarus