One Synth Challenge #104 - Zebralette by u-he (Photonic Wins!)

[eraze the borders]

Here is my humble piece of something...

You should change your name to TrojakHZ after this (Hans Zimmer)

Great piece of something!

[kokotte]

TrojakEW,
your Violin and cello are really nice, the piano too,
have you got some tips to share about this nice sound design?
Best.

[TrojakEW]

Well there is no secret. Since it is wavetable synth you need to get correct table for it. You can check real instruments samples and find/filter "base" cycle. Kind of fundamental single cycle that makes character of instrument. Finding it is harderst part. Then you try to mimic dynamic/timbre change with modulation - I didn't use multible tables for this. Cello and viollins are easier to make. Piano is tricky and I didnt find a way to tune it to my wish. Especially simulating hammer on higher notes. This is reason my track is not piano only .

Well it is nice freebie but somthing is missing. With option to modulate envelope time and additional mod slot for every parameters this will be trully epic free synth that can do almost everything.

[kokotte]

Thanks

[generaldiomedes]

Well it is nice freebie but somthing is missing. With option to modulate envelope time and additional mod slot for every parameters this will be trully epic free synth that can do almost everything.

Zebra2 sales might suffer a little bit

[TheNeverScene]

I've always struggled with this synth...ugh. Here's my go.

Zebralette x 37 (all from initialized patch)
DAW vst: ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaVerbate
Other vst: MIDI Polysher, PTEq-X, GClip, PanCake 2, OTT, Ozone Imager, Quadracom, Unlimited

https://soundcloud.com/the-never-scene/ ... zebralette

[Taron]

That's way cool, NeverScene! I dig it a lot!

[TheNeverScene]

Thank you Taron! It was a tough one to get going for sure.

[Taron]

I so know what you're saying. It turns me somewhat schizophrenic, like I love and hate it, though, I know why I love it, I can't 100% say where the hate comes from, but 80% because of the waveform nature of it that so easily sounds like plastic goofiness. The remaining 12% come from the limitation for the modulation, which makes sense as a "demo version" and is totally understandable, but still... it hurts! The remaining 8% may be split between Sync after FXs, which makes almost every FX choice more or less useless. If only Sync came before FX... ah well.
Other than that, it can absolutely amaze. And you did an amazing track with it, too! Really well done!

[TheNeverScene]

Yeah, Taron. The fx don't make much sense to me. Other than "filter", the options just seem to be variations of waveshaping that mostly sounded the same, so I had no idea how to correctly use them as intended. The chorus and delay are pretty nice and became my crutch haha. I don't have Zebra, but I know it's a beast of a synth... This thing's just weird

[Darksynth FX]

My submission. Went for a happier vibe than usual.

https://soundcloud.com/darksynth-fx/dar ... -care-less

18x Zebralette
21x Ableton EQ8
4x Voxengo Stereo Touch
2x Xfer OTT
1x Ableton Compressor
1x Ableton Simple Delay
1x Ableton Glue Compressor
1x Voxengo Tube Amp
1x Ableton Limiter
1x Tal-Reverb-2 (Send)
1x Ableton Simple Delay (Send)

[H-man]

Sync after FXs, which makes almost every FX choice more or less useless. If only Sync came before FX... ah well.

Yes ...THIS!

The fx don't make much sense to me. Other than "filter", the options just seem to be variations of waveshaping that mostly sounded the same, so I had no idea how to correctly use them as intended.

It seems that often it's best just to feed the FX sine or double sine waves. Wave forms with more harmonic content into the fx is kinda like mush + mush = mush ....not better mush, just more mush

[TrojakEW]

It seems that often it's best just to feed the FX sine or double sine waves. Wave forms with more harmonic content into the fx is kinda like mush + mush = mush ....not better mush, just more mush

I don't think so. This way you will use fx section to shape character of sound and you will loose abilitty to adjust timbre/dynamics at the same time using those effects. If you feed harmonic rich wave that is close to original sound character you can just use fx section to manipulate for even more realistic behavior (velocity respond, dynamics changes over time and so on). This synth have limited range of modulations slots so using them for shaping basic sound is a waste.

[H-man]

It seems that often it's best just to feed the FX sine or double sine waves. Wave forms with more harmonic content into the fx is kinda like mush + mush = mush ....not better mush, just more mush

I don't think so. This way you will use fx section to shape character of sound and you will loose abilitty to adjust timbre/dynamics at the same time using those effects. If you feed harmonic rich wave that is close to original sound character you can just use fx section to manipulate for even more realistic behavior (velocity respond, dynamics changes over time and so on). This synth have limited range of modulations slots so using them for shaping basic sound is a waste.

Maybe I just find that taking a hand drawn wave form (blend) and feeding it into one of the Spectral FX(s) like scatter etc. rarely gives interesting sounds. Simpler wave forms sometimes combine better with the spectral FX, especially with mods applied.

YMMV

TBH the sound design on this thing is not really intuitive. Feels more like a "lottery system"

[ckoe]

Great new tracks here