Question about phasing

[Gino Cortesi]

While playing around I found a difference between Zebra and other VST synths which I can not explain (yes, I'm that easily confused! ).

If I hold a simple sawtooth at E4 and add another at E5 on Zebra, they go together nicely.

If I do the same thing with other synths it can sound harsh, and sometimes even out of tune.

Here is a simple A/B test I made: http://www.box.net/shared/palgzqyz4z3nznrxb258
(you guess which one is Zebra)

Just wondering why this is?
It's some basic synth knowledge I don't know yet. My guess would be wave reset, but that did not make a difference.

Best regards,

Gino

[Bronto Scorpio]

Turn of the "drift" of Zebra in the global section and it will sound as ugly as any other synth

The voices of Zebra are slightly drifting if drift is turned on. Like a good old analog synth

If the voices aren't drifting (like in many other synths) pure octaves (like you describe) can sound really ugly because one note plays exactly the freq of the other note * 2. Since both notes will have different phases (unless you turn on the osc reset and hit the notes at EXACTLY the same time) this will lead to weird, static phase issues. And that's exactly what you hear

In most cases it's a good idea to leave the drift turned on.
There are exceptions like drums of course.

I hope this explanation is understandable
I'm sure someone else who can give a way better explenation will chime in soon.

Cheers
Dennis

[Gino Cortesi]

Thanks Dennis, that explains it perfectly!

Drift is one of those things that I didn't understand (what advantages it has, and why to use it).

It's probably fully explained in the new Zebra manual, and if so I should have read it before posting

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Edit: From the manual >>>

Voice Drift
When set to On, each new note is slightly detuned, emulating the imprecise pitch of classic analogue oscillators. Switch this off for absolute precision.

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I've just become a fan of voice drift.

Best regards,

Gino