The "Zebra2 plays Virus" challenge

[pdxindy]

Thinking about it on the ride to work...

There's one other, purely psychological, thing that steers me away from synths like Z2 and Massive. When I'm presented with a complex tool I feel obliged to use it in complex ways. When I dial up a patch I like in Z2 that uses only two or three modules I feel a strange compulsion to embellish it, even if the sound fits perfectly. Twin gives a sort of implicit permission to do something simple and even simple things tend to sound good in Twin, to my ears at least. This might just be my own compulsion but these kinds of psychological factors can be at least as important as the technical issues we tend to discuss.

The Virus falls somewhere in between Z2 and Twin in this respect.

When I first purchased Zebra, I had this at work. Then I realized that I like simple sounds the best anyway and all my presets got simpler and simpler. I agree that these sorts of factors can be involved but if you know what you want, then they are less so.

Twin and Imposcar are excellent synths. Love the sound of both of those. The filter in Twin is fab!

[pdxindy]

Here is the original Virus Example

The infamous virus arp: virus1.mp3

Thanks for posting this...

The Virus version is having what I am now starting to understand is its typical boosted low/mid. It is also sounding even volume wise whereas the examples from other synths are sounding louder (more dynamic) as the filter opens up so sounds like the Virus version has some compression on it.

One thing I have noticed with Zebra when I compared it to Twin. When you do a filter sweep in Twin, it is smoother. The volume and frequencies seem to change smoothly. In Zebra it is a bit incremental and maybe a certain frequency will suddenly be slightly louder. (hard to analyze/describe what I heard). I think the Virus is like Twin in that it is smoother in the sweep.

[shogger]

Here is the original Virus Example

The infamous virus arp: virus1.mp3

I made this one with Sylenth1, no external effects:
http://www.speedyshare.com/217959616.html

Sorry, speedyshare doesn't work here.

Shogger

[thespecialist]

Here is the original Virus Example

The infamous virus arp: virus1.mp3

I made this one with Sylenth1, no external effects:
http://www.speedyshare.com/217959616.html

Sorry, speedyshare doesn't work here.

Shogger

Hopefully this works better then ? =>

http://rapidshare.com/files/46771598/sylus.mp3.html

[hifiboom]

so here is mine.

the original virus sound has a phazor or flanger on it which I don't like too much, so mine comes without.


http://home.arcor.de/rd50info_site/soun ... rus1_l.mp3
first completely dry then a bit delay and later reverb for the typical modern cheesy trance sound that I hate soo much.

[Tronam]

I hate to say it, and I'm not much of a Tarnce fan... but for this kind of sound, the original Virus example sounds best to me. It sounds tighter, punchier and with a smoother filter response that doesn't attenuate the low/mid bass frequencies as erratically. The filter has a consistency in that way which works extremely well for this genre of music.

[shogger]

... for the typical modern cheesy trance sound that I hate soo much.

Well,

that seems to be the reason why it sounds so poor. Sorry, but that is way off the original sound file. Doesn't have those desired characteristics.

Shogger

[shogger]

Hopefully this works better then ? =>

http://rapidshare.com/files/46771598/sylus.mp3.html

Yes, thanx.

This is pretty close. The eqing is quite different which does a lot to the perception. I think that the Virus has some preset EQing on the outputs.

Shogger

[Sami]

Yeah, sorry, the hifiboom's example isn't close. The virus one has much more brighter sound for starters while the hifiboom's example sounds somewhat hollow for the lack of a better term. And the bite isn't just there.

[mkastrup]

One more from me which is more moderate. 2 things bothers me in the original: 1 the volume is constant, 2 the sweep mostly affect high registers and leave low and mids alone.

Anyways, i think this example is somewhat true to the genre:

http://www.michaelkastrup.com/synthdemo ... nge_03.mp3

EDIT: oops perhaps i should add, this sound is ment to be inspired by the Virus example not emulation because then i would have to do serious research on the filter settings. This version is more what i would prefer coming from Zebra.

To me the Virus example sounds more like a flatliner buzz and not that dynamic in sound. Well at least i'm not blown away by the original, thats for sure. Maybe because that sound have been played to death.

/Michael

[Sami]

Still I think the original is better. The filter sounds more wet and lush when sweeping... And the general sound is brigher again when your example is muddier and lacking high end sparkle. Well to my ears anyway Still pretty good job... I don't know if you can get closer than that with that synth.

[hifiboom]

actually the original sound isn't that impressive.

what you love seems to come from the access fx and not the raw basic sound.

[aquar]

actually the original sound isn't that impressive.

what you all love seem to come from the access fx and not the raw basic sound.

I was under the impression that the original virus example wasn't using any onboard effects but even if it was I still think that's acceptable as the end result sounds pretty damn good to me.
mkastrup z2 example also ranks up there with the best attempts, still prefer the virus though

D-Fusion, thx for posting the midi its appreciated.

[Tronam]

actually the original sound isn't that impressive.

what you all love seem to come from the access fx and not the raw basic sound.

Nahh, the built-in effects aren't all that special, believe me. The only effect that I think really stands out on the Virus is their phaser. It is one of the best digital phasers I've ever heard. They do have a few distortion models that are kind of nice though too. Everything else is pretty below standard of what we've come to expect in the virtual effect realm. I used to own a Virus and the raw basic sound is pretty solid, though it all comes down to personal taste in the end. HERE is a small example I made a while back when comparing various filter behavior between different synths. It is just a simple pattern on the Virus B, raw with no effects (the Virus B has no built-in EQ or compression either) where I'm simply closing and opening the filter. Notice how phasey it is initially, but as the filter closes it gels together in an interesting way. There might be some kind of hardwired equalization curve going on inside, for all I know, to get it to sound that way.

[oredon]

michael,

two spectra analyses from the two files show quite different high-ends; in particular the virus maintains energy up to 16kHz throughout (these two snapshots are only from the first 7 seconds of the sample).

also note the frequency energy around 125 Hz-its width and strength.

what type of filter sweep is it?

Z2 CHALLENGE 03 MP3



VIRUS EXAMPLE VIRUS.MP3