Albino vs Gladiator vs Surge vs Zebra

[Urs]

Am I allowed a Runciter or two?

Be my Guest!

I added one, which can make a huge difference. But I hadn't had the nerves to come up with that Mopho-thing. I'd love to see its patch though. Wonder if it's two Mophos, or if the noise is part of the bass sound...

http://www.u-he.com/music/GrittyZ.mp3

(it's a bit too massively compressed though, but maybe this belongs to grit music)

Urs

[david.beholder]

The funny thing is that despite all the confidence that people show in the discussion ("Analogue oscillators do...", "Synth XY has more analogue sounding oscillators", "Zebra has a signature sound"), this confidence gets lost immediately when it comes to just listening. Which renders many opinions void (later on also about analogishness and phatness of bass sounds).

Well, frankly, single osc modeling doesn't look like a big deal, regardless on stability. No big math involved in it. Bigger deal is filter or chorus. Even biggeer deal is how it does sound altogether. The real life starts on simple patch with one saw oscilator, sharp envelope and 1/3 of resonance on filter. That's what i'm doing for a start with all synts -- i think it's fair way to compare.

Another story is the idea of recreating patches. Flakey mp3s are neither really suited for cloning nor are they suited for listening. It's also not very helpful to unveil the names of the synths used before any A/B listening.

Disagree on mp3s -- if difference between synths doesn't go thru mp3 encoder -- it means there's no difference.

[SWAN808]

Ok see if anyone can guess as to what synth this is - or whether it is analogue or digital:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/562524649ae2b78c/


http://www.unease.se/mp3/Unease_Juno-106_sweep.mp3

Sylenth1
http://www.box.net/shared/6fklzl7gxf#

Zebra
http://www.box.net/shared/36zm5027x5

[penguinfromdeep]

Ok see if anyone can guess as to what synth this is - or whether it is analogue or digital:

http://www.box.net/shared/ckh2zxpo0l

I think it's Togu Audio Line Tal-Uno... Has similar character to me. A bit digital .. Does a good job emulating juno-60 but still not quite there.

[spaceman]

Ok see if anyone can guess as to what synth this is - or whether it is analogue or digital:

http://www.box.net/shared/ckh2zxpo0l

http://www.unease.se/mp3/Unease_Juno-106_sweep.mp3

Sylenth1
http://www.box.net/shared/6fklzl7gxf#

Zebra
http://www.box.net/shared/36zm5027x5

don't know which one and I don't give a rat's ass either.. but I think the Sylenth1 sample sounds the best, although I prefer the bass on the 2nd sample

[SWAN808]

couldnt get box.net to give me a play button so I put it up on zshare so no need to DL

http://www.zshare.net/audio/562524649ae2b78c/

[Locus M]

http://www.u-he.com/music/GrittyZ.mp3

Bass is great! It is still very clean and a tiny bit "thin" compared to the thick metallic roughness of mopho, but it is a very convincing "analog" bass emulation (apart from the missing noise) and I would make no bets for a is-this-analog-or-digital-bass blindtest at MP3 quality. I think I'll take none until I heard them "live" in a studio.

Zebra has a signature sound
Urs

That was mine and you should not over interpret that. I started my post by saying Howard's juno 106 example was convincing. I am talking about your demos at your site in which there is an "add up" effect, like in many other demos made from one synth only. Now, I have not claimed that I can recognize a single Zebra patch and would certainly not take any blind test bets in MP3 quality anyway, but in my ears those demos end up with a "sound". Words for me might be "lightly metallic", "clean" ,"thinny", "bright", "clear", "transparant", "hard", "sharp" , "cutting" in contrast to "dark", "murky", "dull" or "soft", "sheen", "silky" smoothy". That is the best I can do. The lightly metallic thing is that which makes it remind me of hardware to a greater extent than for instance CS80V, which reminds me of plastic when added up.

Now loading the Zebra demo or my Zebra CM for that matter and listening to it live, this character becomes apparent. It is sure not an "average" of all my other synths, but has a sound of it's own. You can probably program some "neutrality" into to it like Howard says but with my skills, I think I will work faster just switching synths. If I heard a demo tune unknowingly, I would maybe not know if it was Zebra, but that does not exclude recognition of a certain quality to the sound.

The overall problem with your tests is that you (maybe unwillingly) will have to presume that any discussion about analog in contrast to digital has something to do with recognition of simple waveforms, patches or a finished product in MP3 quality. That is fair due to the conditions for providing "evidence" in an internet forum.
However it can be misleading, since the whole thing could be related to the production phase, in which you sit in your own studio with the right monitors and every nuance of the sound becomes apparent and inspiring or uninspiring.

In addition, we all can be misled by the fact that love for analog synths might inspire people to make good music even though it is completely irrational. In that case, our discussions are really hopeless, so my hope is that we are in a spot somewhere between objectivity and subjectivity that will not make us stumble into either poles as pitfalls.

Congrats on the emulation and thank you very much for taking me so seriously as to provide me a tune. I both versions and will keep this one as a my most personal gain from KVR.

All the Best

[penguinfromdeep]

What about this one?

One is real analog and one is emulation of that analog.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/56253183b779f566/

[SWAN808]

What about this one?

One is real analog and one is emulation of that analog.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/56253183b779f566/

Thats interesting the first sample is clearly much duller/less treble than the second. I cannot think if a digital synth that would sound like that as a raw Osc. I would guess 1 is analogue 2 is digital although it does depend on the synths - you could have found some particular emulation that sounds that was and a brighter analogue synth...tbh - the noise at the end of the second sample makes me wonder if that is the analogue sample as its unlikely there would be so much noise from a bounced plugin...but maybe its hardware VA!!! who knows! Not sure what this test is supposed to indicate apart from 1 synth, analogue or VA, will sound different from another...

[penguinfromdeep]

The second one is analogue, it's true that the analog noise gives it away. It is actually Korg ms-10 and the emulation is some old synthedit thingie... Not accurate at all but claims to be ms-10 emulation!

[SWAN808]

The second one is analogue, it's true that the analog noise gives it away. It is actually Korg ms-10 and the emulation is some old synthedit thingie... Not accurate at all but claims to be ms-10 emulation!

ah cool - they obviously made the Osc quite dull in the emulation to sound 'vintage'...

[zerocrossing]

I mean you could make situation when z oscs would be noticable more analogue than moogs. Could it be considered as cheat... it depends on situation.

Yeah, this is so true. I was over Urs' house for breakfast the other day and he served me margarine and the way he spread it I swore it was butter! You can't take your eye off that man for a second. Rumor around KVR is he's got false teeth and a wooden leg too.

[david.beholder]

Rumor around KVR is he's got false teeth and a wooden leg too.

Parrot? You forgot about parrot, Norway one. Let's think why... probably, you never meet him in person. Otherwise you'll mention, that he has 3 wooden legs, or even, may be four.

It's so suspicious.

[spaceman]

Rumor around KVR is he's got false teeth and a wooden leg too.

Parrot? You forgot about parrot, Norway one.

beautiful plumage

[SWAN808]

Ok see if anyone can guess as to what synth this is - or whether it is analogue or digital:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/562524649ae2b78c/


http://www.unease.se/mp3/Unease_Juno-106_sweep.mp3

Sylenth1
http://www.box.net/shared/6fklzl7gxf#

Zebra
http://www.box.net/shared/36zm5027x5

well if anyone was wondering - my top example was WOW timewARP 2600

IMO it has one of the most realistic models of vintage analogue Oscillators. In my completely biased opinion I think it sounded by far the closest to the Juno. On listening closely to Zebra, although softened by the chorus - I found the Osc sound to be quite 'hard'. The filter on Sylenth is great but I find the Osc to be quite thin in comparison to the carefully modelled analogue Osc in timewARP. You can hear the differences fairly easily in the examples IMO...

Anyways no one gives a toss