The interface of Zebra 2 does not do its sound justice.

[pdxindy]

Ok, as I feared would happen. I imagine those who have grown accustomed to zebra's interface love it and those who are probably newer dont' have that attachment to it.

I didn't get accustomed to it. I found the GUI to be one of Zebras strengths right from the start.

[pdxindy]

My next point of complaint is definitely the arp.....dont' even know where to begin with what I dont' like about it .

I am curious what you don't like about the arp? What would you change?

[Happy Frog]

Because my level of learning sound design is non existent, I look to synths that have a "fair" amount of presets to tweak. Until I get Zebra I fill my time with ZebraCM and Triple Cheese both have very powerful and expressive sounds. I don't mind, I actually really like the way the knobs work they clicked with me instantly. However, when a synth like Zebra receives new features, I have read on forums about its new features, I cant help but think preset tweakers miss out a little bit, when new presets aren't included with updates. A major reason to have a synth like Zebra is because it takes on various sound deigning capabilities, subtractive, additive, wavetable…I get that there probably is only so much a developer should do to constantly please its fans, customers. It's just with a synth like this I think the more in the way of presets the less likely some might allow the overwhelming nature of a synth like this to discourage them working with, I hope that doesn't sound strange. There are a lot of presets on KVR on a fantastic thread to use, yet if a person were to find these "organized" on the u-he site it might impress visitors. I guess one way to look at this thread or at least the way I see it, is to try maybe to encourage new customers who as I said might seem overwhelmed at first glance to understand as Zebra gets new features their not stuck with their presets that don't reflect this, of course I know they can buy preset packs that I think are priced great. Anyway just my opinion, I almost don't think I should express it because I don't really know anything about sound design, it's just when looking for synths I hope new sound come with new features, thanks for reading.

[Echo Voodoo]

Ok, as I feared would happen. I imagine those who have grown accustomed to zebra's interface love it and those who are probably newer dont' have that attachment to it.

I didn't get accustomed to it. I found the GUI to be one of Zebras strengths right from the start.

+1

At first glance, I thought Zebra might be too confusing for me to understand, but a short session of playing around with it and looking at a few presets, and it made sense.

[Urs]

You mean something like this?



Urs

Alter,

was eine Stimme ej. Hab mir die ganz anders vorgestellt

Huh? Wie denn?

[zvenx]

My next point of complaint is definitely the arp.....dont' even know where to begin with what I dont' like about it .

I am curious what you don't like about the arp? What would you change?

spend 30seconds with the arp in omnisphere..nuff said..if that can't convince you I gave up.
rsp

[ATS]

I always liked Zebra's interface a lot. Better than most for me anyhow.

[Guenon]

Count me in as one who thinks the Zebra user interface is both aesthetically and functionally in the A-class.

[pdxindy]

My next point of complaint is definitely the arp.....dont' even know where to begin with what I dont' like about it .

I am curious what you don't like about the arp? What would you change?

spend 30seconds with the arp in omnisphere..nuff said..if that can't convince you I gave up.
rsp

Since I don't have Omnisphere, and there is no demo, I cannot try the arp in Omni. Perhaps you can outline what you like.

The groove lock is the thing that looks interesting to me. Alchemy also has that. Besides the groove lock, the Omni arp seems kinda vanilla ordinary in the video demo. What else is interesting about it? I think it is only monophonic right?

I like the Zebra arp because it is polyphonic and fairly flexible to create a variety of rhythms and it is playable. Here is an example of a Zebra arp. Can the Omni arp do this sorta thing?

http://draigathar.org/sounds/kuitar.mp3

[zvenx]

Maybe another time when I am less tired I can try to say what I like about omnisphere arp, but first to clarify that is not necessarily the functionality that I like about it, but it is the gui.
By the way, I like that arp you did with zebra 2. Is that something of yours?
This may say it better than I ever can:
http://www.spectrasonics.net/omnisphere ... index.html (omnisphere is about 1/3 of the way in)
rsp

[pdxindy]

Maybe another time when I am less tired I can try to say what I like about omnisphere arp, but first to clarify that is not necessarily the functionality that I like about it, but it is the gui.
By the way, I like that arp you did with zebra 2. Is that something of yours?
This may say it better than I ever can:
http://www.spectrasonics.net/omnisphere ... index.html (omnisphere is about 1/3 of the way in)
rsp

Maybe another time then... Yeah, I did that arp in Zebra.

cheers

[fas1piano]

zebra2 GUI is the best software synth UI i know of. i wish all my other software instrument were as clear and functional.

curious to know what other vsti's you use?
rsp

- tassman4 (ugh!)

- string studio (too much hidden stuff/clicking around for each single parameter)

- kontakt3 (hard to read; hard to get to places; it's a beast, i admit)

- symptohm (funky skin - funky, but functional? classic skin shows less routing information)

- sylenth (cheesy hardware GUI and simple synth with tabbed interface (?!) - got it in group buy frenzy, not sure if i even need it at all, having zebra...)

- overloud th1 amp sim (too much gear photos, too much clicking, GUI made to impress guitarists)

i am more ok with UI of
- vb3, ultra analog, lounge lizard 3 (all fairly simple)

zebrafy them all, i'd say

[CJDJ]

You mean something like this?



Urs

Alter,

was eine Stimme ej. Hab mir die ganz anders vorgestellt

Huh? Wie denn?

Ja nicht ganz so voluminös und tief. Eher etwas höher und feiner.
Aber so ist auch gut. Hauptsache Zebra rockt die Hütte

[hakey]

Re the merits of Zebra vs Twin's UI's this is an interesting post.

[fese]

...I love Zebra 2 and I know it has a lot going on but I don't find the interface as intuitive as with some other synths.

Anyone else feel the same or is it just me?

Well, I haven't bought zebra until now, and that's because of the GUI. I really like the sound but I heartily disliked the GUI from the first look. Granted, it looks good somehow, but a little bit more of "form follows function" would've been neat.

My main turn-offs:
- it's hard to see which module is selected, even if it changes hue a little bit. Why not some red line around the selected module?
- it's not very easy to see which knob text belongs to which knob, especially in the FX section. There is not enough space between UI elements and they don't seem to follow a grid.
- in my opinion, all these knob circles with their different colors and thickness are uneasy on the eye.
- the translucent zebra stripes are irritating, too (better in the "Dark Horse"-Skin

Nevertheless, I'm sure I'm gonna buy it... and hoping for a clean and functional UI in one of the the next releases. But then, there are a lot of other synths that are horrible to use and don't even sound that good...

fese