u-He Zebra II Vs Arturia Complete (Analog)

[Kaboom75]

I have Zebra 2.5 it is the best sounding I have ever tried or owned

For that pure analog sound I prefair U-he Ace http://www.u-he.com/cms/ace it was designed to simulate the components of a semi modular analog synth at the cost of lots of CPU. I run it through Soundtoys Decapitator to get more analog magic. You can try the demo of both.

Urs is working on a modular analog simulation called bazile that is free for the so far unfinished version.

[bmanic]

The most analog sounding software synth in my book is Loomer Aspect http://www.loomer.co.uk/aspect.htm

I usually don't read these kind of threads but I am damn glad I did! Loomer's Aspect sounds absolutely insanely good!!!! HOLYMOLYSUPERMANBATMAN GOOD!!!!!

OH. MY. GOD. GOOD. (enough hyping? )

I've been playing with the demo for the past 3 hours.. time just simply vanished!

How on earth have I not heard about this thing before? Any idea if it's still being developed? How active is the developer? I wish it had at least double the polyphony and updated the modulation to be both bi-polar and reversible easily (currently you need to use some silly inverter for very basic tasks.. at least as far as I can see).

EDIT: looks like it is updated fairly regularly. Interesting that they kept the relatively low polyphony (well, 32 voices is plenty but I want more! ) and the quite basic and slightly cumbersome modulation scheme.

Anyhow, for the sound quality and CPU usage it's an incredible achievement in indeed. Extremely musical. It's very very very hard to make this thing sound bad.

Major cheers for introducing this thing to me!
bManic

[bmrzycki]

So, the comparison is not about the overall features of Arturia Vs. Zebra. It's about how well the two packages fair at emulating analog sounds, and their depth of coverage in the area of analog sounds.

I guess it all depends on what you really want at the end of the day.

Do you want the sounds pre-packaged for you? If so then Zebra might not be your best bet. You can also consider listening to some of the commercial soundsets. Keep in mind the factory bank is made by Howard Scarr and has his signature touch. You may or may not find that sound is what you're after. Be sure to check out the BIGTONE sound demos and Michael Kastrup's work; both are excellent sound designers and might be just the sound you're after.
http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra2-patch-banks

Do you truly want one instrument that can really get all the sounds you're after, even if it means investing the time to learn it inside and out? If this is the case then I'd definitely recommend Zebra. Learning is is rewarding and you'll find as you grow the synth will grow with you. This will take a lot more than flipping through a few presets and turning the cutoff knob on the filter however. I've owned Zebra since 2006 and it still surprises me. A big part of that is Urs' attention to upgrading it (for free all that time mind you).

However, from some of your comments it seems to me you want to quickly find a preset in mind and then tweak it to your needs. If that's the case I'd recommend Omnisphere (and Trilian for that matter). The number of soundsources is amazing and the attention to detail on the presets is astounding.

Finally, Urs' new baby, DIVA sounds like it'll have quite a bit of the analog analyzed character built in with fewer knobs being tweaked...

[goldenanalog]

I'm looking for a synth or a set of synths that will cover the majoriy of my analog emulation needs. I was immediately attracted to the Arturia Complete package because it has loads of great analog sounds. However, many people have ushered me toward Zebra II instead because they claim that Zebra II does better analog emulation. So, the comparison is not about the overall features of Arturia Vs. Zebra. It's about how well the two packages fair at emulating analog sounds, and their depth of coverage in the area of analog sounds.

OK, first off: I'm NOT a license holder of Zebra II (a hell of a lot of others plug-ins, tho), but I DO own Arturia's V collection, Spark, Origin...

Arturia's stuff sounds great! But Kruddler: It all comes down to what inspires you personally, bra.

So you find that Zebra doesn't do it for you. No Big Deal; I've never been that motivated to buy Zebra, myself; in spite of the fact that Urs (U-He) is a rockin' guy & brilliant programmer; there's just not enough hours in my life to use all the plug-ins that I already have!

If I could throw another suggestion at you (this is a personal favorite-sounds friggin' great & analog-ish; and has recently been 're-activated' to a current softie at a reduced price)

FAW Circle

http://www.futureaudioworkshop.com/circle/

On the right side of their homepage are 100 sound examples (like 15. Ephemeral 7.05)

So got Circle, and added about 5,000 of these waveforms to it:

http://www.galbanum.com/products/archit ... forms2010/

Now I have a ridiculous # of waves to build sounds out of, all consolidated in one synth! Check it out, and please let me know what you think

[Ingonator]

in spite of the fact that Urs (U-He) is a rockin' guy & brilliant programmer; there's just not enough hours in my life to use all the plug-ins that I already have!

I agree to all of that. A few months ago i had to sell a bunch of my huge softsynth collection to get things done with the stuff which remains and i think i could still sell some more stuff. Zebra was one of the synths which had to go but maybe i the future (maybe after another clearout) i'll get it again. Anyway from U-He i still got ACE and the free TyrellN6.

Please read the OP carefully. I'm looking for a synth or a set of synths that will cover the majoriy of my analog emulation needs. I was immediately attracted to the Arturia Complete package because it has loads of great analog sounds. However, many people have ushered me toward Zebra II instead because they claim that Zebra II does better analog emulation. So, the comparison is not about the overall features of Arturia Vs. Zebra. It's about how well the two packages fair at emulating analog sounds, and their depth of coverage in the area of analog sounds.

Like I already mentioned Synthmaster 2.5 could be a nice replacement for Zebra (and other synths). Synthmaster 2.5 could do analog sounds and much more.
Besides this the synths from Xils Labs, especially Synthix, are some of the best analog emulations i ever used. Some links are in one of my last posts here.


Ingo

[ATS]

The most analog sounding software synth in my book is Loomer Aspect http://www.loomer.co.uk/aspect.htm

I usually don't read these kind of threads but I am damn glad I did! Loomer's Aspect sounds absolutely insanely good!!!! HOLYMOLYSUPERMANBATMAN GOOD!!!!!

OH. MY. GOD. GOOD. (enough hyping? )

I've been playing with the demo for the past 3 hours.. time just simply vanished!

How on earth have I not heard about this thing before? Any idea if it's still being developed? How active is the developer? I wish it had at least double the polyphony and updated the modulation to be both bi-polar and reversible easily (currently you need to use some silly inverter for very basic tasks.. at least as far as I can see).

EDIT: looks like it is updated fairly regularly. Interesting that they kept the relatively low polyphony (well, 32 voices is plenty but I want more! ) and the quite basic and slightly cumbersome modulation scheme.

Anyhow, for the sound quality and CPU usage it's an incredible achievement in indeed. Extremely musical. It's very very very hard to make this thing sound bad.

Major cheers for introducing this thing to me!
bManic

Yeah I think all the Loomer stuff is top quality

[EvilDragon]

VAZ synths are extremely well done, too. So very warm and sexy sounding.

[Liero]

The most analog sounding software synth in my book is Loomer Aspect http://www.loomer.co.uk/aspect.htm

I usually don't read these kind of threads but I am damn glad I did! Loomer's Aspect sounds absolutely insanely good!!!! HOLYMOLYSUPERMANBATMAN GOOD!!!!!

OH. MY. GOD. GOOD.

Heh, I can't help but chuckle because this guy must have the worst gear acquisition syndrome of them all, he keeps being suddenly overwhelmed by a product fairly regularly

Anyway, certainly a good sounding synth to my ears as well but somehow I had a more overwhelming 'wow' experience with ACE than this. But I'll check out the effects as well, Sequent seems interesting.

[PAK]

It's all cool. Different tastes for different people I guess. I say nothing touches THAT character of the original, over 30 years old vintage D, from my experience.

Ahh, but what is "THAT" character? It's a lot more nebulous than it seems. The Minimoog was in production for (iirc) 13 years - longer than just about any synth you can think of. Over that period everything from mod wheels to logo badges changed. That meant changes to other parts too, whether it was components that changed filter drive, oscillator boards being made more stable, or matching less transistor pairs in later models, there can be audible differences between them all.

30-40 years of time also adds differences, whether it's failing parts, mods or repairs, or simply decisions made by whoever opens the synth to adjust the tuning (beating oscillators or not etc). The early ones can be brighter, with a more "precise" tone, where the later ones are darker with "thicker" tone. Some are said to be in the middle. So which version do you want?

There are multiple variations of the same theme out there, all calling themselves "Minimoog". As soon as you acknowledge this it suddenly opens the door to the realization that, if there's no "one" universal Minimoog sound (due to a lack of consistency in components) then maybe differences in copies might not matter as much either. But they lack the label, look, and iconic status of the original

The Voyager series does miss the higher frequency "sheen" of old. Some, who've run the audio from the Voyager through the Model D, have commented that (even with the filter bypassed) the Voyager still retained that quality from the earlier Minimoog, and the VCA is actually very important in imparting that on the sound. Whatever the case, the Slim is priced such that it's maybe not so difficult to forgive its short-comings in comparison to a Voyager (maybe ).

Getting more back on topic, if Urs could surpass where Creamware went with the Minimax then perhaps, just maybe, it's also possible for native software to scratch that itch for many people. Of course I don't need that hardware zen "one with the controller" stuff much. If someone does, as often seems to be the case with the Mini, then hardware is maybe a more difficult proposition to replace, because it's about more than just the sound.

More specifically, Re U-He Vs Arturia, at least until Diva is out it's not a comparison that makes much sense. But I think the biggest difference between the two is that Urs' synths are more of a work in progress. Where he's trying to figure ways to make them better Arturia, by contrast, has pretty much sat on the same code for the best part of a decade. There appears to be a "good enough" attitude at Arturia, and they're content to sit on products for years without improving much, if anything, even where specific differences in behaviour are pointed out for where their emulations could be improved.

[goldenanalog]

All good points, PAK.

OK, one more suggestion:

Use-Audio's Plugiator.

It comes with the MINIMAX built in, but you have to use the included software to program it. EDIT: The Plugiator DOES give you some level of RT control, it's just limited-it isn't necessarily intuitive, either; because the layout on the plugiator is different compared to what you see on the the screen (although what is available for RT control is logical)

[EvilDragon]

Nothing that BCR2000 can't solve.

[Urs]

All good points, PAK.

OK, one more suggestion:

Use-Audio's Plugiator.

It comes with the MINIMAX built in, but you have to use the included software to program it. EDIT: The Plugiator DOES give you some level of RT control, it's just limited-it isn't necessarily intuitive, either; because the layout on the plugiator is different compared to what you see on the the screen (although what is available for RT control is logical)

Minimax doesn't model distortion in the VCA and filter closes quite early... I suppose it was modeled after a Voyager rather than a Model D (even though the gui suggests otherwise). That's at least what we observe with the Scope version...

[bmanic]

The most analog sounding software synth in my book is Loomer Aspect http://www.loomer.co.uk/aspect.htm

I usually don't read these kind of threads but I am damn glad I did! Loomer's Aspect sounds absolutely insanely good!!!! HOLYMOLYSUPERMANBATMAN GOOD!!!!!

OH. MY. GOD. GOOD.

Heh, I can't help but chuckle because this guy must have the worst gear acquisition syndrome of them all, he keeps being suddenly overwhelmed by a product fairly regularly

Anyway, certainly a good sounding synth to my ears as well but somehow I had a more overwhelming 'wow' experience with ACE than this. But I'll check out the effects as well, Sequent seems interesting.

Indeed! I suffer from GAS way too often. Especially when good stuff comes completely out of left-field! I had never even heard about Loomer before yesterday. ACE blew me away as well and I use it all the time. It's one of my favourite synths. It's just too CPU heavy to be used on my laptop which is not the case with Aspect.

Cheers!
bManic

[goldenanalog]

Minimax doesn't model distortion in the VCA and filter closes quite early... I suppose it was modeled after a Voyager rather than a Model D (even though the gui suggests otherwise). That's at least what we observe with the Scope version...

That doesn't surprise me, but it still sounds pretty good; and Plugiator (especially in bundle form, with the other 7 e-mu's) is a good deal. My guess is that it was modeled after the elder statesman since I believe that Creamware's Mini e-mu was on the market before the Voyager (but I could be wrong about that)

[Urs]

That doesn't surprise me, but it still sounds pretty good; and Plugiator (especially in bundle form, with the other 7 e-mu's) is a good deal. My guess is that it was modeled after the elder statesman since I believe that Creamware's Mini e-mu was on the market before the Voyager (but I could be wrong about that)

Possibly. Maybe they just had a totally different sounding Mini than ours.