Product Reviews by KVR Members

As dated as Gladiator my seem to some, this little warrior can still hold his own in the arena. I like synths with their own character, and this one des that well. I have and have tried many of them out there believe me. Firstly, the ocillators, mods, and how one moves through them are unique to this synth alone. The filters sound fab. Albeit the mod matrix and effects sections aren't as robust as other Tone 2 products, there is enough there to take you to uncharted territory. Sure, there are plenty of what some may argue are more modern, feature ladened, and even free ones out there in this day and age. But to me...Gladiator just has a certain character all it's own that stands out, compared to all other synths that basically to me all do the same thing. I love Waldorf Largo for the same reason, those old PPG and Waldorf Q wavetables just have a certain sound that seemed very well thought out and give it a unique sound. I will take simplicity and character over a million features any old day. Not to mention I can run many instances of these older gem plugins without hardly any strain on 15 yr old PC. I Also have Icarus, Electra and Saurus. All of which are not the CPU hogs like the more modern synths of today, but all VERY capable of holding their own weight all these years later. The new Icarus 3 is a beast by the way. But that is just my opinion. You do you!!.

Still a VERY capable and inspirational synth in 2025. I also own Icarus, Saurus, and Gladiator. Tone2 fanboy? Maybe. But the incredibly low CPU usage, GREAT sound, straight forward architecture, and knowing you are supporting a small company that can rival the big boys makes it all worth it IMHO. Only gripe is I wish it had individual outputs for each layer like Waldorf Largo. Of which i also own. That and the one effect per layer is why i only give it a 4...yet a very strong 4 nonetheless. 4.8.2 perhaps.

Can't believe there is no review for this old thing. As a percussionist i have been looking for something like this for years. One can come up with some rather useful and even at times realistic sounds that react to velocity that emulates a real drum membrane. It has become one of my secret weapons in my already huge aresenal of drum and percussion vsts. Sort of a cross between a NORD drum and a Wavedrum when played with a decent trigger or velocity sensitive pads.