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Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Korg Gadgets: Gladstone & Madrid. Worthwhile?
So, I'm updating my wishlist(s) and doing some general budget planning.
I don't have iWavestation and Odyssei, but I don't feel particularly attracted to them at this point in time.
Gladstone and Madrid though I don't have either, and I feel strangely attracted to them. Are they worthwhile? Sound good? (I've only heard the demos, but all demos always sound good). Usable and easy to work with? Worth the money?
Comments
BOth are worth it. Madrid even if just for the standup basses is worth it. And gladstone i don't use that much ( been on the synth drum kick for a bit) but even if just for hats and toms).
@hellquist Madrid gets an 86 rating on my scorecard of 1 to a 100 in terms of value for money where 50 is par.
Gladstone has an aggressive compressor built right in, so you can crank the gain and compression for some absolutely massive drum sounds. The compress knob reduces distortion so you can balance the grit without losing any force. It does "normal sounding" acoustic drums pretty well, too.
I use both in nearly every gadget tune I do. I have even put some samples from Gladstone onto my circuit
I was very hesitant to buy Madrid, but I've been very happy with it.
Edit: oh, good. I've used 'very' twice in one sentence.
Kind of have to have them all don't you?
Isn't that the point?
No, there are many of us who have never bought Kamata for precisely this reason, allows us to believe in free will etc.
No Kamata here either and decided against the triton refill given I have a Triton and an M50 on the premises already. Now with Gadget receiving audio tracks I can input both Korg synths and the MiniNova directly into It. Well in 19 days or so anyway.
Madrid is awesome. A. It sounds great, like a real bass if you have it legato mono. B. Velocity sensitive with onscreen keys and C. Expandable on screen keys. D. Why the hell don't the other gadgets have these keys? KOOOORGGGGG!
Madrid and Gladstone brought me back to Gadget. Was really bored with all this synth stuff. Madrid is really awesome for bass sounds.
I'm a little disappointed by Gladstone. Sounds are ok but no velocity layers is pretty weak.
No, I wasn't tempted - even less now it's fifteen quid.
I've got Gladstone and Madrid though. Good sounds from both. Never use them, or Gadget, but I like to know they're there.
At some point (not sure when) I think I reached the tipping point of 'not actually really needing any more Gadgets'.
Honestly I really only use:
Phoenix
Dublin
Kiev
IWAVESTATION
Lexington
London, Tokyo, Bilbao
Helsinki
Chiangmai
The Module piano one
On a regular basis...
Madrid is cool though. I just need to spend more time with it.
Thanks for great feedback and comments everyone. I'm getting them. Question now is: should I play it cool and see if there is a discount happening with the launch of 3.0?
If you aren't already hopelessly addicted, sure, why not?
By the way, I think Gladstone and Madrid are great and definitely worth getting. And Kamata too- it's fun fun fun.
Yes.
I haven't bought Madrid as I've been sending my midi to iFretless bass! But would really like to be able to record midi out from Gadget that would be over the top!
I can't convince myself to get Madrid but will sooner or later when it goes on special. I haven't really been recording real audio into my iOS setup but which of the new gadgets would you guys recommend the most?
If you can resist then I'd say wait.....but that urge once you have decided can be a hard one to resist.
Two weeks! Very good chance everything is half off, no? Don't we expect a huge COME TO KORG! sale?
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if there were a sale, they have had them when releasing new gadgets etc...
Haha, yeah. I've actually slowed down purchasing apps over the last 6 months. Currently only spending, on average, $0-20/month during the last couple of months. I had to slow it down. My finance director (who I happen to be married to) gave me the breakdown of the previous 24 months prior to that, where I averaged between $200-300/month constantly (admittedly not only iOS, some was for my desktop too, but the majority was iOS).
It's been quite liberating to stop purchasing and instead start using stuff. That is however also one of the reasons I didn't get the "new" gadgets (or the new Korg apps) immediately on release, apart from the fact I have pretty much every base covered for any/all sounds when it comes to apps outside of Gadget, which I at the time was quite luke-warm to in any case.
Now I've warmed up to Gadget, and I really like the piano roll as well as the limitations the built-in synths give me, which triggers me to be quite creative (whereas my desktop setup has "everything", which leads me to doing "nothing"). In that scenario I miss "natural" sounds though, and I'm thinking Gladstone/Madrid could add interesting flavours to the mainly electronic music I'm doing in Gadget right now.
Yes.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zizurnqg3qac4w/whatever.m4a
(Ran out of time to finish this proper/adjust the one strings loop. I f-cking hate running out of time. Bonus points if you guess the melody.)
No idea about the melody, but that sounds great!
Thanks mate.
The trick is either play the notes with a keyboard controller, or use clever programming techniques such as multiselecting random notes for velocity adjustment, turning off the grid for imperfect timing, etc, all for humanizing the score. And you can even do this humanizing with kickdrums when they're acoustic.
I think when Korg introduced Gladstone/Madrid to Korg Gadget they opened up Gadget for more traditional music styles...
I love this two Gadgets (and many many others)!
Madrid is useful not only for basses, but it can do a pretty good lead guitar in higher registers too. And Gladstone is my go-to drums in Gadget, but I really prefer acoustic sounding drums. Horses for courses and all that, but i have no regrets! This track features both, and Madrid was used for the bass and lead guitar sounds.
(Turns out the riff I had in my head was in 13/8, so it had to be a Prog track, right?!)