Tone2 Gladiator 2

Gladiator has the perfect opening preset. It's that sound test at movies, the slowly rising sound that ends on a perfect, harmonized pitch. You see it at the start of the previews in movie theaters. (Now it's more like at the start of the COMMERCIALS, am I right?)

In any case, this is a truly killer sounding synth. It's got a very signature sound, very airy, as if recorded in a giant hall. The installation was simple and fast, and getting started writing songs was even faster. I also use Nexus 2, as I stated in an earlier review. This is a comparable synth, as far as strengths go. Arps and gates are the name of the game. In fact, the arps along can spark creativity and inspire you to write a song in no time at all. When I first started using Gladiator 2 the presets alone had me coming up with ideas I never would have without using the synth.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

This software works great with my DAW. Pretty much, keeping my laptop clean of any dust and OS optimized for peak performance capabilities has ALL of my software running smoothly. But Gladiator 2 never seemed to be too resource heavy. Nexus and East West Orchestra software BOTH seem far more straining on the speed. Gladiator seems comparatively light-weight - you can have multiple instances of this running, like 10 different arps and gates all playing together, and it doesn't seem to have a difference on speed at all.

My only big gripe with the software is a lack of editing capability, similar to Nexus. Perhaps I should research both VSTs more thoroughly, but it just seems to lack the diversity some synths (even freeware VST Synth1) have more of. Gladiator is GREAT....for very specific genres. A talented musician can use this software for any genre they choose, but most people are going to e buying it for trance, house, and other popular EDM-centric electronic music. Incidentally, Gladiator 2 and Nexus 2 are by far the two best for capturing this sound, so it's a mixed bag really.

OVERALL OPINION

The thing I like most is the way all the arps meld together and interact. But having said that, the interface is rather clunky and difficult to traverse. There's a LOT of options when you open the synth up, but with barely legible text you'd wish they chose a better way to offer all these features. The interface is beautifully designed from an aesthetic standpoint, but the functionality could be increased exponentially with more intuitive arranging.

The precision of the sound is very high quality - crispy and professional, this synth sounds truly unique. Similar in a fashion to Nexus 2 in it's strengths, I've noticed the two compliment each other rather splendidly, having such different sounds but the same strengths.

Gladiator is a pretty cool plug in that comes with a lot of sounds and presets that you an use and manipulate to sound different each time that you use them. Setting it up was really easy and takes no effort at all the use or to really understand. But if you want to really change how some of the presets sound it will take some time for you to really understand the full functions of the plug in.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Works great, I havent had a issue with it and it hasn’t froze or crashed. I have run it on a vista 32 bit and a windows xp computer. My friend runs it on a windows 7 and he doesn’t have issues with it either. Its pretty universal .


OVERALL OPINION

The sounds are good, depending on what type of music you make and what kind of sounds you are looking for. Don’t expect to get some good strings and brass with Gladiator though. Or any authentic sounds for that matter, all of the sounds are really spacey and synthy and eerie . Most of the sounds are too clean either, most of them have a lot of distortion or are really ambient and need to have some of the frequencies pushed back or removed with can all be done by using some EQ and removing what ever you don’t like.

I was very happy when I first purchased Gladiator but now I just hardly ever used it because I have used most of the good sounds that I like and I get tired of using EQ on all of the sounds to get some of the fuzzes and muddy frequencies out, even in the leads there are a lot of synths that have really high frequencies that will almost hurt your ears if you don’t cut them out

I have had no compatibility issues with this plugin. I run it on a Macbook with Presonus interfaces and it seems to work great. I have not needed to reference the manual as it is very similar to most other virtual synths. The general configuration is fairly simple. There are a lot of options on this synth but they are almost all right in front of you and easily accessed.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I run this synth in both Logic 9 and Ableton 8 and it works great. It doesn't hog much CPU power and sounds rich and full. So far the plugin has never crashed or lost any presets, very stable. The plugin functions well in my host programs and responds well to all midi messages and controls so I give it a 10 out of 10 for performance.
I have been using this synth for about 3 months.

OVERALL OPINION

What I like most about this synth is actually the thing I dislike most about it. This is primarily a synth for techno/dance musicians in my opinion. With that said, I love it when I am in the mood to write that kind of music. It is capable of making some extremely rich pads and crazy arpeggios as well as some good bass lines. When I am not writing dance music, I almost never touch this synth. The sounds lean so much to that genre that I sometimes wish I didn't get it (I write so little in that style). I paid $200 for this plugin. Its worth every penny if you primarily write in the techno/dance style. If you don't, they are far more versatile synths out there and I would suggest passing this one up. I have used many synths over the years and this is a great synth if you need a specific sound. I would not buy this again only because I don't use it that much.

No particular problem during installation and authorization. Everything is done very easily.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

No problem running on Mac Pro / Digital Performer. CPU consumption side, I would say that Gladiator 2 is below the average VSTis.

OVERALL OPINION

I own this synth for several years. I have not done the last updates that do not seem essential and are not free. Gladiator provides over 1100 factory presets. To listen to them we can say we still dealing with an instrument oriented dance-techno-trance. However, it can go well beyond that.
The possibilities of this synth is insane. Five oscillators. Some are coupled and can be combined in various ways (including AM and FM). More than 130 waveforms. Multiple instances, each offering a choice of 91 "modifiers" playing on the spectrum, can radically change the sound and are described in the manual. A "phase change" with 17 possibilities. And of course the "Harmonic Content Morphing" which allows to change the harmonic content of sounds in time. Most all the classic functions: filter, envelopes, LFOs, step-LFO, arpeggiator, distortion and effects of all kinds.
A good point: The interface is very well presented and organized. But it must still have the soul of a hacker to take advantage of the unfathomable possibilities offered by "modifiers" from scratch. And in fact, it takes some practice to anticipate their effects. Still, it's worth it and Gladiator is, no doubt, a beautiful machine that does not cease to surprise me.
Note, however, for those who love the randomness it is also possible to "randomize" everything. Finally, fans of dance-techno-trance will also always from existing presets.
In total, this is not the synth software I use the most, but it has happened to me more than once to be glad ..