Tone2 Electra 3, the Bavarian multi-engine Synthesizer got a major upgrade

Tone2 released Electra 3, a major upgrade for its multi-layer multi-engine Synthesizer plugin with new oscillators, effects, modulations, and more.

Germany is a big country. One that also has many Synthesizer companies. Among others Waldorf Music, U-he, Nonlinear Labs, and others. Deep in Bavaria, where white sausage and beer are at home, Tone2 has its headquarters.

Besides the somewhat exotic synth Rayblaster, they also sell Electra 2, a multi-engine Synthesizer with a very round “finished” sound mainly popular in EDM productions. Good news: Electra 3 is now ready, a further development with many new features and improvements.

Tone2 Electra 3

Electra 3 continues the concept and instrument where v2 left off. It’s a major update that is fully downward compatible with all previous versions. So you can load all existing projects without problems and benefit from the new features and enhanced sound quality.

In the interface as well as on the synthesis side, the plugin has been significantly expanded. Let’s start with the interface updates.

Interface

Electra 3 features a completely rewritten GUI code giving you 16 different sizes, GUI scaling up to 300%, hardware acceleration, and native support for WQHD, 4K, 5K, and 8K UHD displays. It also has smoother animations, more responsive controls, and ultrasharp graphics, says Tone2.

Nice, the SYNTH button flashes when a layer plays a note. This makes it easier to work with several arpeggiators. Many small improvements give the synth a better, more modern overall look. Also new is an improved patch browser that can be opened by clicking on “browser” or the display on the upper left.

Synthesis

Electra 3 also includes a wide range of new synthesis features that make the plugin more extensive and versatile. The audio engine now uses 64-bit precision instead of 32-bit, which results in higher sound quality while it consumes less CPU.

It ships with new oscillator types, including an 8-bit noise generator, 40 new waves for the custom oscillator, and fresh analog-style oscillators (pulse, saw invert, pulse invert, impulse, sine flip, comb…).

There are also new effects. First, you get two new transient-focused effects: a transient shaper that adds punch and presence and a transient+bass mode adding presence and dynamic bass presence. Secondly, you can benefit from new reverb types (cold, theater, and hangar). Tone2 also says that they replaced the hall reverb with a better-sounding algorithm and tweaked the other algos to enhance the sound quality.

Then the modulation engine got a significant makeover. For each of the 4 synth layers, you can now work with a rewritten multistep envelope/LFO with a wide range of waveforms (linear and cubic to left, analog style, sine, cosine, FM, and more.

The built-in arpeggiator also benefits from new major and minor chords as additional key modes, and the stack mode can now handle polyphonic input and duplicate notes. And much more. That was a little summary of what the Electra 3 upgrade includes. The complete list can be found on the developer’s website.

Alongside the new features, Electra 3 ships with 118 additional patches that use the new features. This increase the number of presets to 1439.

A solid upgrade for the Electra synth with a good set of new features. Everyone has to decide for themselves whether the upgrade price is worth it or not.

Tone2 Electra 3 is available now for 149€/$169 USD. Electra 2 and Electra X v1.x owners can upgrade for 79€/$89 USD. The upgrade is free for anyone who bought Electra 2 after December 12th, 2022, directly from the official website.

More information: Tone2 

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