Gladiator 2 ? Any good apart from Trance?
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- KVRAF
- 2813 posts since 14 Feb, 2001 from What do you care? :)
BTW, I thought I might mention that both ElectraX and Gladiator are part of the Soundsonline 30% off Spring Promotion that is currently running. They are both branded as Best Service products, so look under the "Developers" tab and then under "Best Service." They are both boxed products and Gladiator2 also includes the Electronic Expansion. Looks like including shipping it's still a little cheaper than via the Tone2 shop. ElectraX shows $132.30 and Gladiator2 with the Electronic Expansion is $167.30. Shipping to the U.S. looks like it will add about $12. Just thought I would mention this in case anyone is looking to pick one of these up!
Available on iTunes, Amazon, etc.
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- KVRAF
- 2813 posts since 14 Feb, 2001 from What do you care? :)
That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying. However... they are charging for shipping. 
On the Best Service site the entry for ElectraX mentions: "This boxed version includes an exclusive sample/wavetable pack produced by Best Service." And the only option that pops up is shipping, whereas for other non-Tone2 items you get an option of boxed or download... so maybe they do indeed have boxed versions?
Anyway, personally I certainly don't need a box(!)... just mentioning the Soundsonline sale as a possibly cheaper purchasing option.
On the Best Service site the entry for ElectraX mentions: "This boxed version includes an exclusive sample/wavetable pack produced by Best Service." And the only option that pops up is shipping, whereas for other non-Tone2 items you get an option of boxed or download... so maybe they do indeed have boxed versions?
Anyway, personally I certainly don't need a box(!)... just mentioning the Soundsonline sale as a possibly cheaper purchasing option.
LeVzi wrote:They aren't boxed IIRC just downloads from the Tone2 site.
Available on iTunes, Amazon, etc.
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- KVRist
- 363 posts since 4 Jul, 2007
I think Gladiator can also be used to make techier stuff - sometimes just a case of turning off the overpowering reverb on some of the patches! If you mess around with the sounds and do some detuning etc it can get pretty messed up which is a good thing...
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- KVRAF
- 2813 posts since 14 Feb, 2001 from What do you care? :)
You're probably right.
LeVzi wrote:I'd not heard of it until you mentioned it, so I assume it is just their boxed version of the additional stuff you get.
Available on iTunes, Amazon, etc.
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- KVRAF
- 2813 posts since 14 Feb, 2001 from What do you care? :)
I'm trying out the Gladiator demo and this is great!!! The modifiers are so cool! Wow, I can see a lot of possibilities with this.
FrantzM wrote:+1Krakatau wrote: 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
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.
Available on iTunes, Amazon, etc.
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- KVRAF
- 5223 posts since 20 Jul, 2010
Gladiator 2 was my first 'big money' VST purchases. It can be a bit hit and miss for hard hitting basses and leads (which is a shame, because I love those filters), but for anything else that you want to go to town on and do crazy spectral stuff, it's really powerful! It's not just a trance machine by a long shot.
Some of my highlights: The filters, the 'spirit' effects, the phase modulation effects, the ways you can combine, ringmodulate and interleaf spectrums, the GUI.
Downsides: Hard attacks can seem a bit flakey in my experience (in the spectral oscillator section), so I don't use it for hard attack sounds, or if I need hard attacks, I'll layer it with a VA synth for putting the attacks in.
Some of my highlights: The filters, the 'spirit' effects, the phase modulation effects, the ways you can combine, ringmodulate and interleaf spectrums, the GUI.
Downsides: Hard attacks can seem a bit flakey in my experience (in the spectral oscillator section), so I don't use it for hard attack sounds, or if I need hard attacks, I'll layer it with a VA synth for putting the attacks in.
http://sendy.bandcamp.com/releases < My new album at Bandcamp! Now pay what you like!
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- KVRAF
- 11395 posts since 3 Feb, 2003 from Finland, Espoo
Most of the sounds in this little demo clip is Gladiator version 1.0. They are my own sounds but still.. Gladiator 2 is an excellent synth pad/drone/fx synth. In general it's an extremely versatile synth. I do like pairing it up with something like FabFilter Volcano 2 or similar filter to remove some of the sometimes harsh top end.
clip from a "space opera/voyage"
Only the very deep bass pad/thing is Alchemy and the melody+slow arp riff is FXpansion Amber, everything else is Gladiator 1.
Cheers!
bManic
clip from a "space opera/voyage"
Only the very deep bass pad/thing is Alchemy and the melody+slow arp riff is FXpansion Amber, everything else is Gladiator 1.
Cheers!
bManic
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot
"They don't ban hate speech; they ban speech they hate." -an oracle
"They don't ban hate speech; they ban speech they hate." -an oracle
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- KVRist
- 176 posts since 17 Dec, 2010
Lot's more than trance possible. A lot of the sound design in the factory patches, if you toggle through them, you'll notice the majority of them use either WV Saw or WV Saw Peak as the morph-table source, or resemble ROMpler patches bassed off of their morph-table source drowned in reverb, blah...
It takes nothing short of time and use to get familiar with all the morph-tables and MOD options.. it's pretty overwhelming to learn them to a point beyond just stabbing in the dark. It's no wonder most people love that "random" button. After awhile you get used to what all the morph-tables sound like and what mods to reach for to accomplish what your hearing in your head.
After producing a TON of tracks with DIVA over the winter, I've actually been using Gladiator a lot the last few weeks coincidentally.. been craving different, more digital sounds and tricks.
The mod matrix could use a lot more destinations IMO, but there's some neat ones there that aren't in any other synth like wet/dry and parameters for the individual effects. You could do a lot of sequencer type stuff with the step LFO, pitch mods, morph-table scanning, and the arp working in tandem to get some really crazy things going on.
It's not a swiss army knife, it does it's own thing really well, and definitely has it's place among classic digital synths.
-B
PS..
I case Markus is lurking this thread still, PLEASE release the extra filters and add-ons that came with the expansions as a separate purchase. I'm sure it goes with out saying at this point there are a lot of Gladiator owners who want them without adding 600+ supersaw sounds we'll never use.
It takes nothing short of time and use to get familiar with all the morph-tables and MOD options.. it's pretty overwhelming to learn them to a point beyond just stabbing in the dark. It's no wonder most people love that "random" button. After awhile you get used to what all the morph-tables sound like and what mods to reach for to accomplish what your hearing in your head.
After producing a TON of tracks with DIVA over the winter, I've actually been using Gladiator a lot the last few weeks coincidentally.. been craving different, more digital sounds and tricks.
The mod matrix could use a lot more destinations IMO, but there's some neat ones there that aren't in any other synth like wet/dry and parameters for the individual effects. You could do a lot of sequencer type stuff with the step LFO, pitch mods, morph-table scanning, and the arp working in tandem to get some really crazy things going on.
It's not a swiss army knife, it does it's own thing really well, and definitely has it's place among classic digital synths.
-B
PS..
I case Markus is lurking this thread still, PLEASE release the extra filters and add-ons that came with the expansions as a separate purchase. I'm sure it goes with out saying at this point there are a lot of Gladiator owners who want them without adding 600+ supersaw sounds we'll never use.
"music is the best"
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- KVRAF
- 14304 posts since 20 Nov, 2003 from Lost and Spaced
Plus 1 for extra filters. A couple more master fx slots would also be cool
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- KVRAF
- 4585 posts since 2 Nov, 2006
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- KVRAF
- 5223 posts since 20 Jul, 2010
BTW, I just noticed, you can fix the 'attack smearing' I mentioned earlier by going into Linear quality mode. Now I'm wondering if delaying the bass frequencies is part of the psychoacoustic processing they put into Gladiator.
http://sendy.bandcamp.com/releases < My new album at Bandcamp! Now pay what you like!