Tone2 Audio has released version 2.6 of Electra 2, a synthesizer workstation for Windows and Mac.

This major update includes an improved user interface, new synthesis modes, enhanced sound and a large number of new features.

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 multilayer support and a wide range of music production features.

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 “*”.

Electra 2.6 is downward compatible with all previous versions. The update is a free download for Electra 2 users.

More information: Tone2 Audiosoftware