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All Reviews by Howard


By Howard
On 14th January 2007
Version: 2

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u-he Zebra

There are very few virtual synths I can get excited about, but Zebra2 is certainly one of them. The sound quality, attention to detail and programmability are second to none. Zebra2 is more addictive than the obvious competition (Absynth, Tera, Massive), its more of a fun environment to work in. U-he got something very right here - a well-deserved 10 points for the interface.

Sound: This was the biggest surprise to me. I was not expecting to be able to copy a patch I did on a Voyager, but I reckon I nailed it 100% (BTW I'm a pro sound designer). Apart from all the clean/digital sounds, Zebra is one of the very few virtual synths capable of "pushing some serious analog air" (you can easily e.g. boost an oscillator's fundamental). 10 points. Also 10 points for features - read the spec at u-he dot com :-)

8 points for documentation, which needs to be completed and turned into a PDF at least. I could have given as low as 6 or 7 here, but u-he is a one-man-show (I guess Urs Heckmann has more pressing work right now) and the online manual as it stands is quite helpful.

6 points for presets, although there are one or two eye-openers. Once the user base grows, we should be seeing some truly fantastic sounds coming out of this beast! It has the potential.

10 for customer support - Urs always seems willing to help (as his posts on e.g. K-v-R prove). Zebra2 sells at a lower price than the competition, although IMO it's a better product - 10 points for good value.

Very stable. Never crashed on my Windows PC.
 
Last edited : 14th January 2007     
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