KVR Audio

stephenchoi · Post by **stephenchoi** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:23 pm

To those who are much more familiar with ACE and Zebra than I am, is there any point to owning both? Are they overly redundant? If not, which of these two would you choose and why?

I posted the same question in another forum, but this one may have more UHE users to comment.
I appreciate your opinions. Thanks for sharing.

EvokDubstep · Post by **EvokDubstep** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:51 pm

if anything Zebra. besides UHE Ace is ugly as sin

Spitfire31 · Post by **Spitfire31** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:06 pm

Comparing Zebra 2 to ACE is like matching a Thai boxer against a sumo wrestler. Or something.

Zebra is light on the CPU, has cohorts of excellent free and commercial soundbanks and is almost ridiculously versatile.

ACE is for connoisseurs, with fantastic sound quality but is real heavy on the CPU and the number of available sounds is limited compared to Zebra.

So, no, they're not mutually redundant and yes, there's every reason to own both.

Myself, I mainly use Zebra 2.5 because I'm more of a preset tweaker than creator. Also, I need to upgrade my Mac to enjoy the full power of ACE.

/Joachim

xh3rv · Post by **xh3rv** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:20 pm

They are fairly different, and each does what they do well enough to justify having both IMO (so I won't directly answer your second question

).

Zebra is a very large toolkit and is capable of a ton of methods of synthesis, has a complete range of modules and filters and effects, and quite a few elements of it really shine as unique and powerful implementations of standard synth components.

ACE has sort of a uncompromising approach to sound quality, it's a more focused (and static) set of modules that can be robustly patched together in some exponential number of ways, emulating the operation of an analog modular synth.

As to which one you'd want, I think a good question might be what kinds of sounds you're looking for ... there's some overlap, but in general Zebra is more flexible while ACE delivers the sounds it does as pretty as anything ever has. I think it's easy to justify both, if there's justification to have more than any one synth it's justifiable to have this pair.

This question has come up before and a forum search might turn some threads up. The demos are not locked on calendar dates, so there's no drawback to checking those out.

ViktorW · Post by **ViktorW** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:38 pm

Never quite liked the sound of ACE. Despite the overwhelming praise, it failed to grab my attention. Tested the demo for 2-3 weeks - meh.

Zebra though is one sweet mother of a synth, and I also find it easier to program, despite it being more complex.
Mind you, this comes from a demo version user, don't own any of these, but I'd go for Zebra, don't understand the ACE hype (well, hype IMO). To all ACE lovers, no offense, please.

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:56 pm

ViktorW wrote:Never quite liked the sound of ACE. Despite the overwhelming praise, it failed to grab my attention. Tested the demo for 2-3 weeks - meh.

Zebra though is one sweet mother of a synth, and I also find it easier to program, despite it being more complex.
Mind you, this comes from a demo version user, don't own any of these, but I'd go for Zebra, don't understand the ACE hype (well, hype IMO). To all ACE lovers, no offense, please.

Funny,i feel exactly the same.

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:40 pm

Spitfire31 wrote:Comparing Zebra 2 to ACE is like matching a Thai boxer >snip<

perfectly spoken. not comparable at all, two completeley different synths, 2 completeley different tasks... exept maybe urs'special color is present in both... in general, you got to have both, imo.

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:42 pm

ViktorW wrote:>snip< Zebra though is one sweet mother of a synth, and I also find it easier to program, despite it being more complex.
>snip<

don't make the mistake and underesthimate the complexity of ace. you can to stuff with it far beyond any imaginable. you can do stuff with ace you can't do with any other digital synth, even digi modulars fail there, only analog modulars can cope with that stuff.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:47 pm

brok landers wrote:
Spitfire31 wrote:Comparing Zebra 2 to ACE is like matching a Thai boxer >snip<
perfectly spoken. not comparable at all, two completeley different synths, 2 completeley different tasks... exept maybe urs'special color is present in both... in general, you got to have both, imo.

Agreed. I'd say that they have overlapping features but they have different focuses. Both are top of their class though.

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:47 pm

Well, one reason they might be considered similar is that Zebra 2 has some very powerful (and nasty) XMF filters. If you customize your OSC waveforms and use XMFs you can get some seriously phat tones that have a nice analog quality to them. While the modulation options are in some ways more limited, I'm having a hard time convincing myself to buy ACE when most of the presets I hear are just VA stuff that Z2 can do very well with its XMF modules.

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:51 pm

zircon wrote:Well, one reason they might be considered similar is that Zebra 2 has some very powerful (and nasty) XMF filters. If you customize your OSC waveforms and use XMFs you can get some seriously phat tones that have a nice analog quality to them. While the modulation options are in some ways more limited, I'm having a hard time convincing myself to buy ACE when most of the presets I hear are just VA stuff that Z2 can do very well with its XMF modules.

then try the crossmodulation of the osc's in ace... try to do that in zebra... or fast pitch modulations... do them in zebra, then in ace... you'll see... there's just no way at all in zebra, i tell ya... don't get me wrong, i absoluteley love zebra, and as justin correctly states, they might share some similarities, but that's about it. you just can't compare them. if you use ace for what it's made for, zebra can't even hear the shot. but if you use zebra for what it's for, or, for what it can do that ace can't, ace is out the game, too. again, you gotta have both, they're coplementing each other perfectly.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:56 pm

The big advantage of Ace over Zebra for me is feedback. Modulation feedback and ganging filters in ways that can't be achieved in Zebra. I just wish that the effect section was patchable. Also the "circuit bending", every patch I do, I love to crank the crosstalk for added nasty.

dhalfen · Post by **dhalfen** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 8:02 pm

Spitfire31 wrote:Comparing Zebra 2 to ACE is like matching a Thai boxer against a sumo wrestler. Or something.

Yup -- like matching a Thai boxer, with one arm tied to the opposite leg, against a sumo wrestler wearing diving flippers and a pink tutu.

IOW, ridiculous.

Get both!!!

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 8:26 pm

brok landers wrote:
zircon wrote:Well, one reason they might be considered similar is that Zebra 2 has some very powerful (and nasty) XMF filters. If you customize your OSC waveforms and use XMFs you can get some seriously phat tones that have a nice analog quality to them. While the modulation options are in some ways more limited, I'm having a hard time convincing myself to buy ACE when most of the presets I hear are just VA stuff that Z2 can do very well with its XMF modules.
then try the crossmodulation of the osc's in ace... try to do that in zebra... or fast pitch modulations... do them in zebra, then in ace... you'll see... there's just no way at all in zebra, i tell ya... don't get me wrong, i absoluteley love zebra, and as justin correctly states, they might share some similarities, but that's about it. you just can't compare them. if you use ace for what it's made for, zebra can't even hear the shot. but if you use zebra for what it's for, or, for what it can do that ace can't, ace is out the game, too. again, you gotta have both, they're coplementing each other perfectly.

The crossmodulation in ACE is amazingly good... try it in Zebra or just about any synth and ACE really stands out...

xh3rv · Post by **xh3rv** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:04 pm

zircon wrote:Well, one reason they might be considered similar is that Zebra 2 has some very powerful (and nasty) XMF filters. If you customize your OSC waveforms and use XMFs you can get some seriously phat tones that have a nice analog quality to them. While the modulation options are in some ways more limited, I'm having a hard time convincing myself to buy ACE when most of the presets I hear are just VA stuff that Z2 can do very well with its XMF modules.

It might be a little like having a different pickups in a guitar, I feel like a VA-like XMF patch is a bit humbucker while ACE is really clean like active pickups. I think especially in the upper frequency ranges is where ACE (or Bazille for that matter) really impresses me as clean in a way nothing else I use is ... I'm a big fan of active pickups too

UHE Ace vs. Zebra