u-he

1-2-Many · Post by **1-2-Many** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:17 pm

Urs wrote:Regarding ergonomics in general, it's nice to have something that helps you - if it's something you don't need often. Such as ticket vending machines in a foreign town. On something you need often you will want to avoid any sort of distraction from the ways you got used to use it. Things that try to show you how to use them even after using it for a thousand times I call over-ergonomically ruined. Good for learning, not good for professional use. Did I mention that my background is industrial design?

Agreed, I guess the best of both worlds would be allowing for that 'special helper' function to be turned off.

BTW to OP - Generally not good etiquette to bring up for discussion 'competitor' products in a company forum; wether for praising, trashing, or comparison... Especially placing the name in the topic title

Sleepwalker · Post by **Sleepwalker** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:19 pm

1-2-Many wrote: BTW to OP - Generally not good etiquette to bring up for discussion 'competitor' products in a company forum; wether for praising, trashing, or comparison... Especially placing the name in the topic title

I wanted to PM him here, but didnt find a way to do it! Sorry.

edit: oh dang its on the left side! Ive been to other forums for to long!! haha

I usually hang out at the ableton forum, where we talk about everything, and nothing is modurated. I guess thats why im so used to freely talk, compare and request. Again, sorry if I stepped on some toes!!

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:01 pm

Sleepwalker wrote:Again, sorry if I stepped on some toes!!

Nah, I could've moderated it but didn't find it necessary. I usually fire from all guns though when competitors accidentally (or intentionally) go astray in my forum...

kodama · Post by **kodama** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:04 pm

Tried it, didn't like it (looks/interface/sound/flexibility/ergonomics).

$200???

Pfffft...

kuniklo · Post by **kuniklo** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:43 pm

I think it's a great thing that people are starting to get a little more adventurous with plugin UIs. I'm not sold on Circle but I'm happy to see people like FAW and UI start to use the tools the computer gives us to much greater advantage.

Sleepwalker · Post by **Sleepwalker** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:55 pm

kodama wrote:Tried it, didn't like it (looks/interface/sound/flexibility/ergonomics).

$200???

Pfffft...

Agree on sound and price, and flexibility is not exactly huge! But its interface in this smaller synth category is great to me, and ive tried a lot! Reminds me of Ableton, u-he, and a couple others of my favorites.

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:44 pm

Sleepwalker wrote: The large and clear yet simple interface of Circle is perhaps one of the most inviting looks for a soft synth I have seen so far. I can say the same about the sound of Zebra!

Circle's GUI is butt ugly and makes me not even want to try the demo which I haven't.

Sleepwalker · Post by **Sleepwalker** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:08 pm

Teksonik wrote:
Sleepwalker wrote: The large and clear yet simple interface of Circle is perhaps one of the most inviting looks for a soft synth I have seen so far. I can say the same about the sound of Zebra!
Circle's GUI is butt ugly and makes me not even want to try the demo which I haven't.

Care to elaborate why you think that? I think it has similare design concepts as u-he products, which I think is among the better stuf out there.

If you compare it to the gui of Arturia CS-80 or Moog Modular, and you prefer that style, then we have totally different individual taste, which is fine by me!

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 5:33 am

Sleepwalker wrote:
MitchK1989 wrote:However, the dragging circles thing would be a nice alternative to graphical patch cables on that "berlin modular" you were talking about awhile back.

I've been playing with the demos of both circle and zebra... Zebra blows it out of the water, and I find its interface no harder to use than Circle's...
Well I think you cant compare a modular synth interface to a simple synth like Circle. While Zebra is probably the fastest to program of the modular vsts, its still much slower then a synth like Circle. Speed is what im talking about. And thats what cuts it for me when I produce music.

The envelopes visibility, and the dot that runs the line so you can see whats happening is great! The patching circles that you mentioned is also great.
95% of the sounds I need can be made by 3 oscilators, 2 lfos, 2 envelopes, good filters and effects.

I think Urs eazily could do better then Circle, and that would blow my mind!

Would love to see something similare, cut down to basics, with a large interface! I say go steal some of that interface ideas Urs.

Get Zebra CM - It is free with the magazine!

Or, you can fit 3osc's, 1 filter, 2 LFO's, 2 env's and effects all on the single Zebra page. Just save that as the basic template and don't change modules. Then it is quite fast to edit. Fast enough that the only real difference is of interest to the stopwatch

tengotiempo · Post by **tengotiempo** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 7:23 am

Sleepwalker wrote:Hey Urs, I wish you would make a synth like Circle with your engine!

That would kill me.

The large and clear yet simple interface of Circle is perhaps one of the most inviting looks for a soft synth I have seen so far. I can say the same about the sound of Zebra!

The synths I use the most, and I program my own presets, are the simple ones.
I dig modular synths, but when it comes down to work I always grab the quickest and simplest interface, with the best sound! I have lots of friends with the same work routine.
Circle eats cpu, and the sound engine is not close to your stuf.

I think theres a marked for you here.

create some basic patches which are different from each other , kind of your own synth and save them with the DAW's format... i call them synths then and use them like that..helps often and u can get quite quick a good result of what you were searching... also it saves the midi setting of your controller
there are some good ways to emulate one or the other synth.. i have a ms-20 kind patch which is not ms 20 but quite close and good starting point fpr basses

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 7:34 am

Yeah templates is the way to go. Don't think of Zebra as just one synth - it can be many synths (like Reaktor in that sense) and you can create templates based on models of "real" synths or on your own fantasy synths - as many as you like - and use those as a basis for sound design then. You can also start with a Zebralette or CM patch and import it into Zebra as a building block.

Sleepwalker · Post by **Sleepwalker** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:35 pm

Some great ideas here, thanks!

mattmitch · Post by **mattmitch** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:45 pm

Honestly, demo-ing Circle made me try out NI's Massive again, and actully prompted by to buy Massive. The two are basically the same, actually Massive is better in every facet, save the blobby Circle UI. I didn't mind Circle, actually, but the CPU requirements were absurd, even compared to the highest sound quality in Massive, which my machine handles OK.

Zebra is still the best, and my go-to, though!

-mm

u-he

KVR Audio

Circle of thoughts