TONE2 Icarus 2

For a while from the late 1980s onwards, the manufacturers of new digital synthesisers were embroiled in a sonic skirmish redolent of mastering’s loudness wars. If one maker produced an instrument with a massive-sounding first preset, its rivals had to go bigger and bolder. Eventually, the workstation era of synths allowed you to hold down one key to trigger layered sequences, basslines, rhythms and textures all at once.

Impressive? Sure. Musically worthwhile? Not so much. To get something musically useful out of these instruments – and to build something you could truly call your own – you had to find out how to turn 90 per cent of their features off.

We had a brief flashback to those days when we fired up Icarus 2 for the