ACE vs. Zebra

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LeVzi wrote:What is ACE's big brother Bazille going to be about then ? I am getting confused tbh. :)
Bazille is a different synth from ACE. They are both patch based modular designs and share some module design, but they are different synths with different synthesis methods. ACE XL will be the big brother to ACE. ACE XL, Bazille and a third as yet unseen synth will comprise the initial Berlin Modular.

You can try Bazille alpha. It is available in the u-he forum on the bazille thread. It is stable and functional, but has no presets and does not have a pre-patched default routing like ACE does so it makes no sound until you patch it.

Purchasing ACE now, the purchase price will be put towards Berlin Modular should you decide to buy the full package.

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Ace is not even hard on my PC, even at 96k.

Bloody whiner kid punks, yeah you know, I used to have synths and 4 notes I would max out my cpu and get crackles, now I can do 4 notes of Ace at 96k and only use 20% cpu.

Of course I have dual core E8400 3ghz, but that cpu is over 2 years old and cheap as chips now !

About time somebody upped the quality no matter bar like ACE.

ME

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how much cost new cables?

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ACE's Osc's, but especially its filter sounds vastly superior to those found in Zebra. Although with the release of Zebra 2.5, the filters have improved somewhat.

Zebra to me, is a synth I really want to like, as find it's approach and gui amazing, but keep finding it's Osc's and Filter mediocre compared to many other soft synths.

I know that isn't a popular view among many Zebra lovers out there, some of whom claim it to be one of, if not the best sounding vsts out there. As powerful as it's synthesis and gui are, it sounds rather average.

If Urs would implement ACE's Osc and Filter into Zebra, I think it would sound very impressive. But perhaps that's what Bazille is for.

If ACE is a mini preview of Bazille, I think U-he are on the best path to further their success. ACE is a fantastic synth, with it's flexible patching, and audio-rate modulation.

I use ACE less for instrumentation, than as a tool for the creation sound effects and textures. The results are often impressive, and I would recommend any one that hasn't already, to take a closer look and demo it . l
Last edited by nexusdawn on Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Igro wrote:how much cost new cables?
Free!!

they are covered by the 99 year warranty ;)

:hihi:
whats a sig?

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nexusdawn wrote:ACE's Osc's, but especially its filter sounds vastly superior to those found in Zebra. Although with the release of Zebra 2.5, the filters have improved somewhat.

Zebra to me, is a synth I really want to like, as find it's approach and gui amazing, but keep finding it's Osc's and Filter mediocre compared to many other soft synths.

I know that isn't a popular view among many Zebra lovers out there, some of whom claim it to be one of, if not the best sounding vsts out there. As powerful as it's synthesis and gui are, it sounds rather average.

If Urs would implement ACE's Osc and Filter into Zebra, I think it would sound very impressive. But perhaps that's what Bazille is for.

If ACE is a mini preview of Bazille, I think U-he are on the best path to further their success. ACE is a fantastic synth, with it's flexible patching, and audio-rate modulation.

I use ACE less for instrumentation, than as a tool for the creation sound effects and textures. The results are often impressive, and I would recommend any one that hasn't already, to take a closer look and demo it . l
ACE is a mini preview of Berlin Modular. Bazille is a different synth from ACE. Bazille is also a part of Berlin Modular.

The ACE filter is essentially the same as one of the Zebra filters. Some of the Zebra filters are not particularly great sounding but are light on the cpu. Some of them are outstanding. The improved LP12 in Zebra 2.5 is one of my favorite filters in any synth. The 2.5 XMF filter is also fantastic! Aint much like it in other synth. The Vintage and Allround filters are also excellent.

Obviously the ACE osc's are different.

IMO the Zebra osc's are fantastic. Remarkably versatile. the oscFX are something unique to Zebra. 16 waveform slots per osc, user drawn waveforms, additive options, etc etc. The OSC sync in Zebra cannot compare to the sync in ACE... but then what other synth can equal the sync of ACE? You get something for that CPU use.

Zebra and ACE are both unique and outstanding synths with different strengths and palettes.

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Meateater wrote:Ace is not even hard on my PC, even at 96k.

Bloody whiner kid punks, yeah you know, I used to have synths and 4 notes I would max out my cpu and get crackles, now I can do 4 notes of Ace at 96k and only use 20% cpu.

Of course I have dual core E8400 3ghz, but that cpu is over 2 years old and cheap as chips now !

About time somebody upped the quality no matter bar like ACE.

ME
The 20% cpu usage you stated as small is a huge number to some people. If you need several instances of Ace or have a large project or use other hungry plugins then 20% IS huge to many. Most of my plugins are 3% and higher on my i7 920 running at 96khz. I consider 2% hungry.

Don't get me wrong i'm not complaining, i love the fact that plugins are sounding better and better as time passes and i understood a long time ago that better has a heavy cpu price generally, i got no problem with that. I'm just pointing out that what you consider light on cpu many of us consider hungry due to other elements of our production and where we like to keep our cpu meter.

I to use Ace at 96khz, i'm not scared :) .. I've gotten around 20% at times to, it's more of a pleasure then a pain when the synth sounds really good and i'm still able to tweak it like i want it, no compromises.
T2 Icarus is a must. SonicCore SCOPE is the most. As heart of studio it has my vote, cause XITE-1 is all she wrote.

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After a few weeks of having a will I, won't I argument with myself, I have finally cracked and pressed the order button for ACE :) Seeing as Zebra give me so much joy I guess I had too.

After only buying Alchemy 2 weeks ago though I probably didn't need another complicated thing to learn right now but I suppose what else was I going to do with my birthday money. Plus the crackle from the demo was starting to annoy me anyway :lol:
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