Tone2

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.

Tone 2 Gladiator was giving me a lot of problems, and I couldn’t figure out whey it was. Every time I was use Tone 2 Gladiator there was like a glitch every time that I would press play to play back the sequence that I just recorded. It could be having some issues with another plug in in Cubase, but I am not sure. So I started using it in Fl Studio and didn’t have a single problem wit it there. Tone 2 Gladiator is amazing and there are so many options that you have to manipulated the sounds. The interface of Tone 2 Gladiator is amazing, it might be one of my favorite out of any VST that I have purchased. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Tone 2 Gladiator was very easy to install, and out side of the problem I was having with it in Cubase I have not had another problem yet. I have used Tone 2 Gladiator in so many of my projects, it could be the most used VST that I have owned. Probably cant open up a session without seeing an instance of Tone 2 gladiator running, I have been using it for 1 year, I am not sure when it came out though. OVERALL OPINION My favorite thing about Tone 2 Gladiator are the sounds, the quality of the presets are really good. But its like a catch 22 because the sounds have so many effects already put on them. Each preset has so many effects on them there is no wonder why it can slow down a system and eat all the CPU. But you will need for these effects to be there in order for the sound to be good, if you take off the effects you will be left with a boring synth. It is easy to get the sound you want, all you have to do is start messing with the knobs, it will provide some neat stuff. But most of it really isn’t in real time, there is a slight delay. I have probably used every singe preset that it has to offer and was able to go online and download some new preset packs from other Tone 2 Gladiator users. There might not be another VST that can put out sounds like the Tone 2 Gladiator.

The Tone 2 Firebird worked great with my windows 7 pc running with a dual core processor and 320RAM. I have never experienced any difficulties with this VST and it has always opened right up and worked like it was suppose to. I have never seen a manual for it, but there are some tutorials online in case you need some help getting started. There are also tutorials online on how you can really get into the creation process of creating your own sounds with Tone 2 Firebird. All of the basic functions of Firebird are easily accessible and pretty much right in front of you. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Tone 2 FireBird worked just like it was suppose to work, flawlessly. I have been using Tone 2 products for years so I knew for a fact that Firebird was going to be good, I have since been using it for about a year now, but I use it a lot. Almost all of my pop music uses multiple presets from FireBird. This software is very stable and I have not experienced a single crash or glitch in it. OVERALL OPINION One thing I like most about it is the filters and all of the effects. There are all types of effects like high pass and low pass, band pass. You will have all of the control over any sound you choose to work with, the arpeggiator is one of the best arps that I have seen in the VST world. It is very easy to get your arps how your want them, and you can arp any preset or sound that you want to arp. You have full control over the timing on the arps too. The quality of the presets are very high, you can use them right away without doing any tweaking if you wanted to. They will sound great untouched, if you have a little knowledge of how to tweak things then you can get more in depth of how FireBird works and really do some cool stuff with it. You must try this VST.

I've only had Tone 2 Warm Verb for about 8 months now but in that time I feel I have been able to make my recordings sound significantly better using this plug-in. No longer do I worry that my mixes won't be loud enough as I just throw this on my master fader and I can use it's compression, EQ, and reverb along with its other features. I haven't used any other mastering programs, I was referred to this by someone and I haven't looked back. The best part about this plug-in is the price. Its really amazing that such a great sounding plug-in can be so cheap these days. Tone 2 also makes other programs like Gladiator that has some great sounding synths. I am really happy with Tone2’s efforts in creating products for today's computer musicians. They have helped me a lot. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE I am running it with Pro Tools LE 7.4 and a Macbook Pro (2.2 Ghz, 2 GB Ram) along with a Digidesign 002R and iZotope Ozone works great with it. It runs so smooth and I feel I can use it on multiple tracks with no issues. If you have any issues you can always go to the website and make sure you have all the drivers installed the way they need to be or email the support team and they will walk you through the process with no problem. They are really helpful. OVERALL OPINION Tone 2 Warm Verb couldn't have been easier to install, I had no issues setting it up and have continued to have no problems with it. I didn't look at the manual at all because it was easy enough for me to set up. I will definitely purchase from Tone2 again with more innovated products that they have coming out in the near future. Plus if you sub to the mailing list they give you more discounts! I love it.