How is Zebra's FM and Wavetable blending?

[psychematic]

Hi there. I've tinkered with the Zebra demo a bit and have just started to wrap my head around the interface. Loving it so far.

Question: how is Zebra's FM and wavetable synthesis compared to dedicated apps like FM8 or Massive?

Would love to drop coin on Zebra instead of having to get specialized synths, or be flooded with NI's presets, which I'll never use.

Thanks for any input.

[kodama]

Short answer, try the demo!


Longer answer:

Massive I think is kind of an all around synth like Zebra and not dedicated to wavetable.

FM8 is a dedicated FM synth with 6 operators and:

- Can import old yamaha presets

- Has a full FM routing matrix

- Can morph presets

Zebra's FM is wonderful, and you can do tricks like put filtration between operators, but it is more freeform and a different philosophy from FM 8.

[MitchK1989]

I'd say zebra is not only capable of doing "classic" fm synthesis, but can also do tons of hybrids involving filters and overdrive and such in the mod path, etc. etc. etc.

Zebra vs Massive for wavetabling? Massive has larger wavetables, but they're all pre-set. Zebra lets you design your own waveforms and morph through them.

I suggest spending more time with the demo. I know I am at the moment... I'll probably be purchasing zebra this summer.


[edit: left out a word]

[psychematic]

Thanks guys. I'm pretty familiar with FM8 and Massive as I've used the demos a lot and read their manuals. Was about to buy both until I stumbled across Zebra2. I knew Zebra could do both FM and wavetable morphing, but the UI and manual doesn't exactly make it patently obvious like the NI synths. The NI synths are good, but it seems like you're mostly paying for tons of presets and slick packaging/marketing whereas Zebra has a nice underdog quality about it and it sounds incredible... it's just that the UI is kinda hard at first to grasp all the functionality.

[tylenol]

I'd say zebra is not capable of doing "classic" fm synthesis, but can also do tons of hybrids involving filters and overdrive and such in the mod path, etc. etc. etc.

You must mean "not only capable" instead of "not capable"? It certainly is capable of doing classic fm synthesis. Perhaps not everything you can do in e.g. Ableton Operator can be easily ported over (I've had trouble trying to match envelope behavior), but that's true if you pick any two more traditional FM synths actually. There are even people who complain about differences between FM7/8 vs. a DX7.

[MitchK1989]

I'd say zebra is not capable of doing "classic" fm synthesis, but can also do tons of hybrids involving filters and overdrive and such in the mod path, etc. etc. etc.

You must mean "not only capable" instead of "not capable"? It certainly is capable of doing classic fm synthesis. Perhaps not everything you can do in e.g. Ableton Operator can be easily ported over (I've had trouble trying to match envelope behavior), but that's true if you pick any two more traditional FM synths actually. There are even people who complain about differences between FM7/8 vs. a DX7.

actually, you're right. It's interesting that leaving out one word can turn praise into a "it can't, but it can" scenario, haha.

It does only have 4 FMOs, but I think the other modules in zebra make up for that.

I edited my earlier post.

[Urs]

It does only have 4 FMOs, but I think the other modules in zebra make up for that.

Certainly, as you can use oscillators, comb filters or what not as modulators.

One must alo not forget that Zebra's signal path is fully stereo. Hence you can do stereo FM with i.e. modulators panning around. You don't get that out of emulations because the 80ies hardware fm synths hadn't had that feature. You're not limited to ordinary "unison detune" here...

Urs