I had a go on Zebra 2

[Selfik]

For the first time in my life i'm starting to doubt myself.

i've been through this with zebra over and over again, must be at least 5 times now i've tried to like it.

but i always end up with the same reaction you described, it feels like it has no 'soul' and i dont get inspired at all.

when people post the demo songs (like the gritty one, or Arksun's patch demos), they do absolutely zero for me. Even the gritty stuff sounds too nice.

then i'll read another thread where 99% of people are giving it the 'zebra is just so amazing, it does everything', and i think, maybe this time it'll be different. but it never is. its just one of those things.

Its particularly frustrating because i like everything about it except the sound.

My feelings as well.

-1

[elxsound]

And yes, I can't believe the response to a small comment either!

Not to detract from the conversation, since I think this is an extremely civil one for KVR, but please tell me you're joking?

I thought you were just being a troll with your original post and the idea of course was to incite some heated debate. I'm glad I was very wrong, but seriously, you can't be that surprised, can you?

Anyways, as for the synth discussion, there's really not much more for me to add since so much has been said by individuals with more experience on synths than me. I do however share their surprise at your take on it (I'm referring to your expanded experience, not the original post) since the versatility of zebra is IMO amazing.

I also am not a fan of Sylenth1, at least I won't be until they allow for more modulation options. The sound of it is great for what it can do, but I still think the price is set too high at its current amount of modulation possibilities. This of course is just my opinion and I've spent hours/days trying to like it, but until they add more modulation options I'm just not interested. Anyways, I'm only adding this because as all have said... synth choices are a personal thing, so I can't knock you for not liking zebra, but I still find it hard to believe you wouldn't like it as it really should be a great compliment to Sylenth1... not to take its place, but really those two should compliment each other well.

[Arglebargle]

+2, Zebra doesn't do anything for me either. But lots of people love it so it must be doing something right.

[Urs]

I'm slowly getting to the conclusion that Zebra is good for people who get pain with frequencies beyond 12 kHz or so. And vice versa.

Fortunately, everyone who tries to like Zebra will ultimately get to that point, somewhen between the age of 27 and 41 (or way earlier, on behalf of extensive clubbing)

[thespecialist]

Fortunately, everyone who tries to like Zebra will ultimately get to that point, somewhen between the age of 27 and 41 (or way earlier, on behalf of extensive clubbing)

Hehe. Done some extensive clubbing myself and turning 34 this year so I was very happy when I recently tested my ears and found I still could hear up to 19khz And yeah, I love Zebra for what it is, so that can't be it, Urs

[rob_lee]

errr 38 here

[sophtrazor]

Im 26 and i keep going back to Zebra just to see if i missed something

[griels]

Yes, and yes I also checked out that preset demo. As for synths I think the closest thing that is is going to replace the KLC AE is either the FXpansion Synth Squad or AQ Poly-Ana. Not sure about a replacement for the digital edition yet.

This sounds AMAZING: http://www.admiralquality.com/products/ ... _dance.mp3

That bass and chords are just insane!

i just wanted to say it: it's the clever playing ... the sound can actually be made in mostly every decent substractive synth, and they're a piece of cake for zebra ...

I'd be interested to hear it... I have to say the stuff I've heard from Zebra 2 so far seems pretty cold, unlike PolyAna. Then again, I'm no tweaker. Strange, because Podolski (a cut down Zebra 1 I think?) had some lovely warm sounding presets. Maybe that's all it was though - the presets?

[bmrzycki]

[make a preset bank] In demo mode? hehe

Actually, the Z2 demo is incredibly friendly. You can save presets and have all the tools available to you as a registered owner. The only gotcha is the notes start to wander* about 10 minutes after opening. There's no bursts of noise or annoying pop-ups. If you want to reset it you can just close the vst and re-open.

---
* The notes will start to play the pattern C - E - B - (r) - A where (r) is a random note of the chromatic scale.

[rob_lee]

[make a preset bank] In demo mode? hehe

Actually, the Z2 demo is incredibly friendly. You can save presets and have all the tools available to you as a registered owner. The only gotcha is the notes start to wander* about 10 minutes after opening. There's no bursts of noise or annoying pop-ups. If you want to reset it you can just close the vst and re-open.

---
* The notes will start to play the pattern C - E - B - (r) - A where (r) is a random note of the chromatic scale.

#

Hi to all, i can say i really really really like Zebra but i'll have to wait till more of my other banks sell to buy as i just can't afford it at the minute...2 kids and all that hehe.
When i do eventually buy it though i'll explore every avenue and i'll definatley do a soundbank for it..but for now it has my vote for sure..It's got something i like just like Sylenth has..When i played the demo i could picture exactly the sound i wanted to make and for me thta was a big plus in Zebra getting my vote..
rob lee

[Urs]

Fortunately, everyone who tries to like Zebra will ultimately get to that point, somewhen between the age of 27 and 41 (or way earlier, on behalf of extensive clubbing)

Hehe. Done some extensive clubbing myself and turning 34 this year so I was very happy when I recently tested my ears and found I still could hear up to 19khz And yeah, I love Zebra for what it is, so that can't be it, Urs

Lucky you! I'm down to less than 15kHz @ the age of 39 - we did a test recently and I could hear higher frequencies at certain levels, but all dogs in Berlin had a barking contest

It's not really a problem for me when some people don't like Zebra today (about 98% of KVR are not yet zebrified, in contrast to what the public observation may be). Who knows, maybe I *do* add an oversampling option of the oscillators at some point, making them go all the way up to 20+kHz, and then all out of the sudden the number of people who successfully try to like it doubles over night?

We'll see...

Urs

[mkastrup]

Fortunately, everyone who tries to like Zebra will ultimately get to that point, somewhen between the age of 27 and 41 (or way earlier, on behalf of extensive clubbing)

Hehe. Done some extensive clubbing myself and turning 34 this year so I was very happy when I recently tested my ears and found I still could hear up to 19khz And yeah, I love Zebra for what it is, so that can't be it, Urs

Lucky you! I'm down to less than 15kHz @ the age of 39 - we did a test recently and I could hear higher frequencies at certain levels, but all dogs in Berlin had a barking contest

It's not really a problem for me when some people don't like Zebra today (about 98% of KVR are not yet zebrified, in contrast to what the public observation may be). Who knows, maybe I *do* add an oversampling option of the oscillators at some point, making them go all the way up to 20+kHz, and then all out of the sudden the number of people who successfully try to like it doubles over night?

We'll see...

Urs

Wrong way Urs.. we need to go DOWN, not UP ... downsample it

/Michael

[Lotuzia]

I'm slowly getting to the conclusion that Zebra is good for people who get pain with frequencies beyond 12 kHz or so. And vice versa.

Fortunately, everyone who tries to like Zebra will ultimately get to that point, somewhen between the age of 27 and 41 (or way earlier, on behalf of extensive clubbing)

Zebra 2 first grey business synth for third age deaf people ????

Seriously you can still hear far beyond 12khz after 27 or 41 or even 60/70. Higher freqs might be -more or less - attenuated ( by some Db), but you can still hear them. Depends mainly on the level and source proximity.

Those who have protected their ears will of course get better results. Well trained ears can also compensate. The human brain is also very adaptative and can even "decide" to "stop" hearing some frequencies, when exposed to continuous stressing frequencies (like some hummmssss in some working situations).

When people are no more exposed to these stressing freqs they will gradually recover the ability to hear these frequencies.

So the hi freqs "content" present in a signal will have an influence on the perceived overall sound in almost all cases whatever the current state of your ears (ie if they're not too much damùaged of course). If you ears are not in a so much good shape, this influence will be lessened of course.

Hearing is a very complicated process indeed.

Back to Zebra I hope I will use it before the age limit.

Whatever limits I expressed on its usability, oe merely its ability to "make it all" and "replace everything in your sound box", the more important imho is that it has a distinct sound and sonic signature. And a great depth in programming.

LtZ

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'm slowly getting to the conclusion that Zebra is good for people who get pain with frequencies beyond 12 kHz or so. And vice versa.

Fortunately, everyone who tries to like Zebra will ultimately get to that point, somewhen between the age of 27 and 41 (or way earlier, on behalf of extensive clubbing)

Interesting theory!

I have to be honest here. Zebra is one of my favorite synths, but I use for certain sounds only (quite a few though). I like it for sharp yet clean sounds the most. Cutting arps, string like sounds, also brass type synth sounds and airy pads and fx. What I do not like it for it those fuzzy gnarly synth sounds like you hear from a moog or that many soft synths excel at, such as imposcar, sylenth1, massive, minimosta, minimoogV etc. These synths do great full spectrum dirty bass/leads with a lot of high end fuzz. Like when you open the filter on the default minimnonsta/minimoogV patches. The reason I don't like this kind of sound in Zebra is because of something in the high end. Something about about it (when doing this kind of patch) sounds a little harsh to me and I can never get it how I want it (Including patches from all the add-ons). I'm 30. Don't know how high my hearing goes. This same harshness is actually the reason that it can do so much that other synths can't do though. Very convincing brass types sounds that you'd never find in another synth, or sounds that really cut through with really sharp attacks. It's such a great synth to have, but it has it's signiture sound and I'll never believe that it can do what anything else can, but why should we hold a synth to such standards? I have many synths that Zebra absolutely can not replicate accurately. But that's fine. It's even harder going the other direction.

[ATS]

Fortunately, everyone who tries to like Zebra will ultimately get to that point, somewhen between the age of 27 and 41 (or way earlier, on behalf of extensive clubbing)

Hehe. Done some extensive clubbing myself and turning 34 this year so I was very happy when I recently tested my ears and found I still could hear up to 19khz And yeah, I love Zebra for what it is, so that can't be it, Urs

Lucky you! I'm down to less than 15kHz @ the age of 39 - we did a test recently and I could hear higher frequencies at certain levels, but all dogs in Berlin had a barking contest

It's not really a problem for me when some people don't like Zebra today (about 98% of KVR are not yet zebrified, in contrast to what the public observation may be). Who knows, maybe I *do* add an oversampling option of the oscillators at some point, making them go all the way up to 20+kHz, and then all out of the sudden the number of people who successfully try to like it doubles over night?

We'll see...

Urs