Gladiator 2 ? Any good apart from Trance?

[Sequent]

Precisely!

but I think Gladiator (or ElectraX) are also viable.

Of course, any synth could be used, as long as there are enough editing possibilities to change the non-suited presets [/quote]

[Ingonator]

For ambient and drone I would also add Wavestation... I'm pretty sure that it's been used for ambient/drone... as have the others I've mentioned.

+1000

I got a Wavestation EX (since around 2004/2005) as one of my two hardware controllers/masterkeyboards (other one is a Motif ES7). Also got the Wavesatation plugin and had both the Wavesataion SR and A/D racks in the past. The plugin could also import the Sysex files of the hardware and there are tons of free and commercial ones in the web.


Ingo

[Infiltrator]

I used the hardware Wavestation A/D for years and years and it's nice but I became tired of that sound to be honest. I always found the programming horrible, at least in the rack version. Never used the keyboard version, so I can't say....

aaaaanyway, back to the Gladiator...

appreciate your input, guys, helps me a lot...

[Sequent]

One more slight detour... do you have a decent reverb and processor? If not think about that as well because that will add the dimension that you hear in a lot of ambient/drone music. If you're on a budget your could grab Room and Ubermod from Valhalla for not very much. But I would make sure to leave some room in your budget for those items.

Arguably... I would say that a solid reverb is probably more important than even the sound source that you feed into it. Consider someone like Alio Die a lot of whose sound sources were based on field recordings.

The Wavestation was definitely limited by the display... but hey, the original hw is twenty+ year old technology!

Back on topic... as far as synths are concerned Gladiator2 certainly seems like a good way to go! I've been considering the same thing, though as mentioned, leaning more towards ElectraX atm.

[Infiltrator]

yes, I have Ubermod and Room aswell, plus some Lexicon hardware efx, so I'm equipped in that department....
Alio Die is great...

Anybody able to compare Gladiator to Absynth maybe?

[Krakatau]

Anybody able to compare Gladiator to Absynth maybe

-different synthesis technique but in term of features, absynth is likely more to way more versatile than gladiator, (you can for instance, load your own samples)

It has also a typical colour induced by some unique intermediate effect stages that you won't find anywhere else AFAIK (like dedicated grain effects,etc...perhaps Zebra might allows similar treatment chains but i can't tell cos i don't own it)

Very effective for the creation of evolving pads and soundscape, even more than Gladiator (BUT to be fair, it doesn't have THAT particular colour that Gladiator has)

[rj0]

-different synthesis technique but in term of features, absynth is likely more to way more versatile than gladiator, (you can for instance, load your own samples)

...

I believe Gladiator comes with a utility to import your own samples (but the format/length is rather restrictive), if I remember correctly.

[LeVzi]

-different synthesis technique but in term of features, absynth is likely more to way more versatile than gladiator, (you can for instance, load your own samples)

...

I believe Gladiator comes with a utility to import your own samples (but the format/length is rather restrictive), if I remember correctly.

AFAIK ElectraX has sample import, and Wavetable import, I haven't owned it long but don't think Gladiator has, but I maybe wrong...

[zvenx]

its as rj0 said.....you can't do it within Gladiator, but tone2 offered a software that could do some import.

see: http://www.tone2.org/forum/index.php?to ... 03#msg1203

rsp

[z_old_account]

ADVERTISING

Gladiator 2 has been used in some famous movie scores. Walt Disney studios used it in these movie soundtracks: Tron2, Pirates of the Caribian

A very large number of Eurodance, Pop and Chart tracks have been done with Gladiator.

In general it's more suited for modern and futuristic sound. It can mimic also real instruments, but it's not Gladoator's strength.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I am no longer a gladiator user, but I once owned it. It was excellent at soundscapes and pads I thought, and weird sound fx and ambiences. Especially useful was the randomizer which came up with all kinds of useful starting points.

[Frantz]

The early RCM stage in itself can be tremendeously effective for the creation of moving/evolving texture especially when combining various, slow scans of all kind as soundsources

+1

Gladiator is deep with many possibilities. The modifiers for the oscillators are like DSP toolkits that you can spend hours experimenting with. You can get interesting sounds from just the oscillators and modifiers without even using the filter, LFOs, mod matrix, or effects (which are also quite powerful).

The downside is that it is not quick or intuitive. You need to be put in time to understand how the oscillators work.

I think it is worth demoing. It is certainly unique.

[osiris]

I love both ElectraX and Gladiator. Of the 2, I think Gladiator has a stronger sound to it. The sample import in EX can be awfully fun and great for vocals. The only thing I think I don't like about Gladiator is the filter config. It's like DUNE where you have pre-set combos of filters and can't choose x for filter 1 and Y for filter 2, which drives me nuts.
(but you can't always get what you want)

[GeorgeZ]

The modifiers for the oscillators are like DSP toolkits that you can spend hours experimenting with. You can get interesting sounds from just the oscillators and modifiers without even using the filter....

Man, you can say that again, I often get lost in that little bit for hours Good fun!

[Lotuzia]

Fwiw, some ausio demos of our Smooth Operators soundbanks for Gladiator 1 and 2

Lisa Funk

Chat Mi Zen

Jazz This Gladiator

Electronicaphonics

I use mainly Gladiator for these kind of hybrid/semireal instruments, so I guess it can definitely make something else than Tarnce. Replace all reverbs with a decent VST one, and there you are.

LtZ