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All Reviews by vic_france


By vic_france
On 27th June 2004
Version: 1.5

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u-he Zebra

Zebra is one of the reasons I love making music on computers! It is a pleasure to use...while looking kinda familiar to "classic" synths in some ways, it also has its unique way of luring you into unsuspected territories..all of them interesting.
Interface: The only reason stopping me from giving a 10 here is that there are a couple of areas (notably the matrix) which are a bit hard to grasp without the manual ( but this is such a novel concept anyways, I don't see any way of making it graphically more immediate). Also minus one, possibly, because although there is a choice of "skins" available, I find they all slightly lack a bit of definition/contrast in the choice of colours. At least a real zebra is black 'n' white, not beige 'n' darker beige! :-)
Sound: O.K let's just borrow the available 10th position from the Interface rating, just so that I can give Sound an eleven! It may be a zebra, but it ate a Maserati for breakfast! For versatility, this is pretty close to the Virsyn Tera (and that is a compliment!).
Features: surprise after surprise after surprise! The matrix, the X-Y controllers, the multistage modulations..etc, etc.
Documentation: dropped one point for being late to the party with the doc for v1.5 ( if I get the chance to do so, I will update this when the 1.5 doc arrives:-)
Presets: Do these inspire you to go on and make more of your own, or is there no need to do so?
Customer support: Urs = President of the Universe!
VFM: Can't say all that about Zebra, then complain about having to get my wallet out! I've seen (and have bought!) instruments at twice the price, which offer far less.
Stability: Rock solid, of course. But more than that, because we are lucky enough to have Urs frequently in this, and other, forums, we can see the extent to which this guy really knows his stuff!
I'm also using the ZebraShell VST beta in Cubase SX without problems so far.
I'm looking forward to reading PC users' comments in the (hopefully) near future:-)
 
    
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