KVR Audio

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:15 am

lol
yes I played that part back at least three times.... I thought initially I had heard wrong.lol
rsp

casiosk1 · Post by **casiosk1** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:28 am

zvenx wrote:lol
yes I played that part back at least three times.... I thought initially I had heard wrong.lol
rsp

I did one better and did an audio grab of it. You can bet your last euro I'll use Zebra in a track featuring that sample.

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:40 am

lol
rsp

xx JPRacer xx · Post by **xx JPRacer xx** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:17 am

I've just had one very exciting momment with Zebra. There's was like a "click" in my head, like I just woke up and realised how the interface really work.

I think Urs should put the link of the video on the main page of the Zebra web site. I'm sure this would help a lot of people.

Anyway, it's pretty certain now that Zebra is the one I'll get.

terriandralph · Post by **terriandralph** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:18 am

The way I define the quality of a synth is by how close I can get to the sound I'm imagining. From this perspective, quality isn't just about the sound but how easily I can get there and how the controls respond vs. how I expect them to.

Definitely a lesson to be learned. After many years of buying synths based on their popularity, I am finally beginning to understand why I wasn't using these synths long after I purchased them. The sounds of these synths just didn't connect with me.

Don't buy the synth that wins your poll simply because it got the most votes -buy it because it is the best synth for you. Remember a lot of those votes are based on popularity. It doesn't matter if someone thinks a synth is "over-hyped" or "sucks". Let the sounds of the synth tell you which one you should buy.

Might be a good idea to make some little soundclips with the four synths of the same part and then after listening decide wich one makes it better for you. It will be more easy than to judge on subjective criterias like the color of the Gui. (Once in a mix of your songs, who will worry about the color of the gui who made it

I would add to this that if you continually keep pulling up the same demo to create music, this is telling you something.

Echo Voodoo · Post by **Echo Voodoo** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:18 am

Nokenoku wrote:I bet most people here only rave about Zebra because the dev is a nice guy.

Only because he's a nice guy? Ridiculous. There's also the high quality of the product and the excellent customer service.

Nokenoku wrote:I can't believe, that so many people are actually able to program that beast.

It's really not that hard. For myself, I'm far from an accomplished sound designer; the sounds I make from scratch consist of fairly simple configurations. What I like a lot, though, is that it's very easy to modify someone else's presets to fit what I need in any given song. I also like that it's easy to experiment - sometimes by just tossing together some elements arbitrarily, I have found interesting stuff.

Nokenoku wrote:I find that most of the presets are boring and the interface is so confusing to me, that I can't do good ones on my own.

Howard's factory bank is extremely useful for me; many of his presets make it into my songs. The Zebra Oldskool set by mkastrup is absolutely incredible; I turn to it frequently for both usable sounds and inspiration. You may find them boring, but they fit.

lococarlos · Post by **lococarlos** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:09 am

xx JPRacer xx wrote:I've just had one very exciting momment with Zebra. There's was like a "click" in my head, like I just woke up and realised how the interface really work.

I think Urs should put the link of the video on the main page of the Zebra web site. I'm sure this would help a lot of people.

Anyway, it's pretty certain now that Zebra is the one I'll get.

haha that video is great isn't it! i had the same 'aha' moment

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 5:20 am

xx JPRacer xx wrote:I think Urs should put the link of the video on the main page of the Zebra web site. I'm sure this would help a lot of people.

I think it has to be done again before posting officially. The audio from the synth is too loud, and some of the constant tones are a bit boring at times where nothing really happens...

primeloops · Post by **primeloops** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:38 am

Albino all the way!

Albino +1!!!

Miroslav H · Post by **Miroslav H** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:25 am

Echoes in the Attic wrote:I strongly disagree with the above post that gladiator is only good for trance. In fact I think it's strongest at experimental sounds and beautiful, ambient pads and soundscapes. And it's very easy to program since it has a simple signal flow and a lot of the sound is created at the oscillator level rather than complex routings and filtering. I had version 1, but did not upgrade to version 2 because I found it it quite pricey for an "update".

The problem with the contemporary experimental music I make, that I need a very complex modulation (envelopes, LFOs) to make my sound complexe and unusual in the time. For this, TERA (this is 16 times: 4LFO, 4 multisegment's envelops, 4 classical DADSR, different types of sub-synthesis) and Zebra2 are right.

For sure, Gladiator is very rich in his spectral generation, but it is important to manage different part of the sonic spectre later in the sonic chain production by different modulators and intermodulators. I work on the compositions for a complexe spatialised system loudspeakers, called acousmonium (from 24 to 40 arranged in 360°). Here, we are not really interessted about nice ambient pads, or other classical sound structures usual in the classical musical structures. For our needs, Gladiator is a little bit poor and clearly oriented for one sort of music: rythm, melody, harmony, and here make a strong and "fat" sound, i.e. techno-dance-trance-ambient (I like them, but I don't do them).

I was delighted with the abilities of Gladiator's spectral generator (I work too with METASYNTH - the best sonic beast in the Earth and maybe in the Sun system, which its incredible abilities of sonic creation - here you litterally pict the sound. Alchemy is making juste its first steps in this direction, while Metasynth made a marathon from 2001), but when i saw its infinite menus the poor two ADSR envelops, and limited matrice, I've lost my enthousiasm. I made some 120 sounds on Gladiator, it was very hard - essentialy because you have to manage those incredibly long parameter's lists! And with the demo of GLD2, the installing process erased all!

When GLD will have the same modulation abilities like all Urs's products (dont forget the super MFM2 and all 3 Filterscapes), or like Virsyn's TERA, OK, it will become a great synth. Maybe one of the best. And other condition: the developper have to change his policy (it seems, he has not been very successful with his customers during his last "upgrade").

MiroslavH

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:54 pm

I think the amazing deal with Zebra is that I could actually do a rather complexed and complete soundscape-ish song with using just one OSC, one or two envelopes, one LFO and maybe a little delay. Yeah, no filters, no MSEG or arpeggio madness, no nothing. The OSC FX can really take you quite far already and once you modulate them a bit there's already quite some fascinating sounds possible. And dealing with Zebra that way, it all of a sudden becomes a pretty easy to understand (or deal with) synth - with nothing getting in your way GUI-wise. And once you want complexity, it's all there, too.

- Sascha

Igro · Post by **Igro** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:26 pm

levap wrote:How come Gladiator is in this comparison list?? Should never consider to buy Gladiator BEFORE Zebra, Albino, Surge and a lot of other soft synths. It's simply a way to poor. It's like "A" team players against the "G" team, "G" have no chanse at all. DO NOT BUY GLADIATOR!

What a bull..it you talking about, i really amazed. From those four synths exactly GLADIATOR is the most unique sounding synth with all those modifiers. Who are really sick of those common-similar "saw-triangle-square basses" and leads on other synths, should definitely buy Gladiator. Gladiator can sound as Zebra and Surge, but not vise versa. Best synth for all kinds of electronic music.(why some mentioned only trance? Just because they are trance-hate-paranoids? And their hands are growing from the a... so they cant program different sounds)
Gladiator was created for synthesizing NEW sounds for ALL electronic styles of music.

er-4 · Post by **er-4** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:01 pm

I voted for Gladiator, I don't know Zebra

casiosk1 · Post by **casiosk1** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:17 pm

Sascha Franck wrote:I think the amazing deal with Zebra is that I could actually do a rather complexed and complete soundscape-ish song with using just one OSC, one or two envelopes, one LFO and maybe a little delay. Yeah, no filters, no MSEG or arpeggio madness, no nothing. The OSC FX can really take you quite far already and once you modulate them a bit there's already quite some fascinating sounds possible. And dealing with Zebra that way, it all of a sudden becomes a pretty easy to understand (or deal with) synth - with nothing getting in your way GUI-wise. And once you want complexity, it's all there, too.

- Sascha

Yehh boyyyyy

spaceman · Post by **spaceman** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:22 pm

I think Zebra tops them but I votes Surge as I believe it deserves to be higher on the list. A problem with Surge is that the presets are mostly shit. Most of them sound as if someone hit a randomise button a few times. 'sa cliché but it's true, it's only when you start programming yourself that you start to realise how good it can be. Great controls in the oscillators and I love the lfos with the envelopes.

KVR Audio

Albino vs Gladiator vs Surge vs Zebra

For my last synth purchase I should get