Albino vs Gladiator vs Surge vs Zebra

[Arksun]

Thankfully all the synths in the poll (correct me if I'm wrong?) have demo versions, so spending time with demos of all should answer which one feels most comfortable to you.

I'd rate all of them. Not going to add to all the interesting comments already made about Zebra, Gladiator and Surge, but just wanted to comment on Albino.

Albino's one of few soft-synths that's held an important place in my productions over many years. If it had internal oversampling to curb the heavy aliasing when using some of the saturation modes in higher notes it would take it to the next level, but I always end up using Albino in tracks. It's still my go-to synth for certain lead sounds.

Albino still has its place in the top synths imho

[CypherOne]

Albino's one of few soft-synths that's held an important place in my productions over many years. I always end up using Albino in tracks.

same here.

[Miroslav H]

If I were you i'd discount Gladiator as I 'believe' the developer to have a bad attitude, rip off upgrade paths and Gladiator 2 alledgedly has some of the paramaters greyed out as they're 'optional extras'!?!?! FFS! I cannot stand their attitude.

Agree with you about Gladiator2!

The product has serious deficiencies in its ergonomic of feature's management, which is cumbersome and poorly organized (the endless lists of elements are unacceptable).

Its preset's management is absolutely unacceptable (endless lists, impossible to make a classification by sub-folders). The developer promises since version 1.0 the microtonality's function, but there was not touched! And we can not make our own edition!

OK, the system of sound generation is interesting, but the rest of the sonic chain production is poor and totally subservient to only one type of music - trance. Envelopes on a so poor like in 15 years old synthesizers, too much of effects (why? we have tons of plugins in our DAW), rythmical sequencer and arpeggiator.

But what's worse, this is the developer's policy: 149 EUR for the purchase of version 2, but for the upgrade you must pay 69 EUR more! For those who have supported the company through their purchases to 129 EUR, the penalty is 50 EUR! This is 40% more!!!!!!! Incredible for an update! Because this is not an upgrade, where all core is rewrited...

I fear that Gladiator will not win his next fight, and that it will eventually be killed by the pride and bad policy of its developer, who thinks he can milk its customers with impunity...

I bought Gladiator1, I can't buy Gladiator2, and I do not recommend anyone to get screwed by the publisher.

MiroslavH
Prague, CZ

[Miroslav H]

You forget some other great virtual synths - TERA - CIRCLE - ABSYNTH - ALCHEMY - CUBE - in your classification!!!! Why???

[kuniklo]

Apparently Claes (author of Surge) is no longer working for Ableton and has some new project in the works. It will be interesting to see what this means for Surge. I've been worried that he'd be too busy at Ableton to maintain Surge.

[ozmoz2008]

I bought Gladiator1, I can't buy Gladiator2, and I do not recommend anyone to get screwed by the publisher.

MiroslavH
Prague, CZ

As someone else said...leave the guy and give him a break...I think they are going on the right path and they do have some really good sounding VSTs. Mark also said that they won't be charging for upgrades after Gladiator2....I just hope he keeps his word...

Personally I decide that it was not worth to boycott them totally...so I've bought Firebird+ lately...nice little VST

But if you have to buy only one...Zebra is the wisest choice for now...and URS already have a very good customer service

And Albino is also a great VST....from RobPapen did you tried Predator or Blue...they are also awesome!

[xx JPRacer xx]

You forget some other great virtual synths - TERA - CIRCLE - ABSYNTH - ALCHEMY - CUBE - in your classification!!!! Why???

I already have Alchemy and I don't like Absynth. I don't know the others, I'll check them out. Thanks for your suggestion.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I think it's hilarious how many people have suggested Alchemy when you said in your first post that you already have it!

I strongly disagree with the above post that gladiator is only good for trance. In fact I think it's strongest at experimental sounds and beautiful, ambient pads and soundscapes. And it's very easy to program since it has a simple signal flow and a lot of the sound is created at the oscillator level rather than complex routings and filtering. I had version 1, but did not upgrade to version 2 because I found it it quite pricey for an "update". I also thought that the resynthesis capabilities should have been part of the upgrade, not a paid extra. Especially because of the price and especially because it came out only a year later. Also the fact that it still cannot do mono legato like every other synth on the planet made me not keep it around. Even though there is an arpeggiator, it has no swing, so there is literally no way whatsoever to have sequences with slides at the same time as having any groove at all. This doesn't affect it when using it for pads and poly synths though, but for just that purpose I found that I had a fair bit of overlap with other synths like alchemy and absynth. I still think Gladiator has it's strengths though, and is very cpu efficient. So definitely not just for trance. In the end it was one of those that I may have kept around, but since I felt uncomfortable posting anything in their forum, for fear of being talked down to or argued with, I let it go. I always though that if it sorted out my personal issues with it, that I might pick it up again.

For you JPRacer, I think because you already have alchemy, there is more overlap between it and gladiator than your other options.

I don't know what kind of music you make, but you might as well try to cover as many different types of synthesis as possible.

I don't think you can really go wrong with your other options, because they'd all compliment alchemy nicely. I have to one thing about Zebra. It's one of my favorite synths. But people always talk about it like it's got this warm analog sound, which I disagree with. I think it's got a pretty digital sound. Colder, thinner - but not in a bad way at all! Zebra has this amazing ability to cut through any mix, while not stealing all the attention. I think I remember Urs once saying that he designed zebra to be not so in-your-face like his virus. And I think that's the beauty. It always sits nicely with other elements. And it's got a variety of synthesis options. Additive/VA wavetables that morph, FM oscillators, and most interesting of all I think is it's comb module. It's really great for physical modeling sounds. All those synthetic strings, mallets etc. And zebra does it very well.

Albino is equally as beautiful sounding as zebra, and sometimes even more so, because of it's amazinfgly smooth filters, but it's not quite as versatile. It would however, also be a great compliment to Alchemy. I've not heard filters as smooth as Albino in anything else.

I don't know as much about surge, but I know it's structure a bit. It seems like it is also quite versatile, and can do much more gnarly sounds that albino. If your into harder, edgier sounds, surge may be the better way to go. If your into the soft, prettier sound, maybe albino. If you want the most flexibility, maybe zebra. I don't think there's a wrong choice.

[zvenx]

Great post.imho very balanced...
rsp

[Jay-Producer]

I suppose if your not particularly making trance music then Zebra is a good bet, but I remember last week I compared Zebra to another similar synth that was way cheaper, and it was better than Zebra.

Albino I don't rate at all. Over-hyped.

could you please tell us which cheaper synth you compared zebra to?

I tested it against the Virsynth Tera which I felt the Zebra was slightly better in quality but not by much. I then tested it against one which cost around £35 but I haven't got it in my vst folder any more as I re-installed Logic fresh and can't bloody remember. There wasn't much difference and from what I can recall but you were limited in what tweaks you could make compared to the Zebra. The Zebra was far more transparent and tweakable but sound wise not as good.

Having said that sound quality the Zebra isn't that great I personally feel.

Personal preference I suppose. Sorry I can't remember the synth name.

[Jay-Producer]

How come Gladiator is in this comparison list?? Should never consider to buy Gladiator BEFORE Zebra, Albino, Surge and a lot of other soft synths. It's simply a way to poor. It's like "A" team players against the "G" team, "G" have no chanse at all. DO NOT BUY GLADIATOR!

I disagree. I felt that Galdiator is a brilliant synth for trance style music. It blew me away. And that Albino is way overrated. Surge isn't that great IMO. And for Zebra, I wasn't impressed and I felt the sounds were very diverse from it which didn't reflect any one particular style of music.

[sinkmusic]

I strongly disagree with the above post that gladiator is only good for trance.

Agreed.
It is good for a lot more.
I think it is very trance orientated, not because of the synth design, but because of the developper's tastes (i think he likes tehcno and trance very much, and did not included many other genres in the preset bank, so the preset bank is more a mirror of the synth creator's tastes than the synth's abilities)

Gladiator > I had version 1, but did not upgrade to version 2 because I found it it quite pricey for an "update".

Agreed #2

Also agreeing about Z2 sounding "thin in a good way".

And still bumping for Helix as no one mentions it.

[Howard]

Also agreeing about Z2 sounding "thin in a good way".

The presets are light on dance-trance sounds because 1) that's the genre I despise the most and 2) they're too easy to make.

[zvenx]

lol..speaking of which, how is the new library coming along Howard?
rsp

[Howard]

lol..speaking of which, how is the new library coming along Howard?

Great! I've been forced to improve my Zebra skills a lot this last year