Zebra vs Serum

[Zexila]

Zebra alone is the reason i making soundsets now, so for me it's a great gift

You are great gift too, one of the best around, if not the best, really like your output

[PatchAdamz]

I never understand the "this VS that" concept.

Especially when the synths in question are sooo different in terms of sound and capabilities.

It seems from reading the posts that most people believe these are 2 GREAT synths.

I would agree...

Idea....Get them both...or...

Maybe, flip a coin.

[ATN69]

You can compare apples and pears. They are both fruits ..but in the end it comes down to personal preferences and taste. I own both and I don't regret spending that Money. And it is not against the law to buy them one at the time.

[wagtunes]

I never understand the "this VS that" concept.

Especially when the synths in question are sooo different in terms of sound and capabilities.

It seems from reading the posts that most people believe these are 2 GREAT synths.

I would agree...

Idea....Get them both...or...

Maybe, flip a coin.

I think the problem with many people is that they're maybe on a budget and they're torn between two synths and need a 3rd party to make the decision for them. So in a sense, they put it up to a vote.

I'll only ask for suggestions when I'm looking for a particular kind of synth and don't know what's out there, like what I recently did when I was looking for a synth with certain features. After posting a list of every synth I owned, I was then given suggestions which I wrote down and then tested each synth before I finally made my own decision based on price, sound, GUI and, unfortunately in some cases, whether the synth worked without bugs on my system. Some did not and they were immediately eliminated. In fact, one synth whose sound I absolutely loved literally crashed my DAW to the point where I had to reinstall it. I won't mention the company but I will never buy anything from them no matter how good it sounds.

Point is, I totally understand the purpose of this thread. Sometimes making decisions is hard and we need help.

It's kind of human nature.

Unfortunately, the person doing the buying still has to make the final decision.

Nobody can do that for him.

[GHOST19]

It seems you prefer Zebra sound and Serum Workflow. Check if you really can have fun programming Zebra to make good enough sounds for your music then it's a deal.

Something to consider is that Serum is a popular EDM preset synth, so you will have an easier time finding and buying flavour of the month house preset packs if you're into that.

[PALU]

It seems you prefer Zebra sound and Serum Workflow. Check if you really can have fun programming Zebra to make good enough sounds for your music then it's a deal.

If that's the truth - check out the alternative skins for Zebra. Plugmon and Redux opened Zebra for me. It's like totally new experience.

[fischkopf]

I never understand the "this VS that" concept.

Especially when the synths in question are sooo different in terms of sound and capabilities.

It seems from reading the posts that most people believe these are 2 GREAT synths.

I would agree...

Idea....Get them both...or...

Maybe, flip a coin.

This. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses, but most importantly they both have a unique sounding character, which is a general thing to say but a lot of people seem to neglect that. It often sounds better when you use multiple synths in a song that complement each other in a song.

[PatchAdamz]

I never understand the "this VS that" concept.

Especially when the synths in question are sooo different in terms of sound and capabilities.

It seems from reading the posts that most people believe these are 2 GREAT synths.

I would agree...

Idea....Get them both...or...

Maybe, flip a coin.

This. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses, but most importantly they both have a unique sounding character, which is a general thing to say but a lot of people seem to neglect that. It often sounds better when you use multiple synths in a song that complement each other in a song.

Excellent point!
Using to many instances of the same synth can be very limiting tonally.
It is better production to use several synths.

The tonal character of the mix will benefit noticeably.

[Apostate]

Point is, I totally understand the purpose of this thread. Sometimes making decisions is hard and we need help.

It's kind of human nature.

Unfortunately, the person doing the buying still has to make the final decision.

Nobody can do that for him.

+1

Having had both of the synths (amongst a ton of others), I started out exhilarated with the amount of options the two together provided. Serum at first interested me far more, mostly because of the wildly raving reviews upon release, plus at the time I was in an EDM/Dubstep-Metal phase, and it worked quite easily for that. Plus, Serum helped me get into programming initially, as its visual feedback really aided my studies.

I resisted Zebra at first, as I couldn't get into the gui (though I would have been first to rally in regard to its fantastic sound). Then, out of sheer cantankerousness I decided to go on a Zebra tutorial spree and the rewards started piling up. I got into Hans Zimmer's soundtracks and bought the Dark Zebra, which finished my conversion.

Although this is just my experience, once I started tiring of the EDM "thing" (it didn't take long with the genre's rampant oversaturation, to briefly digress I'm betting soon the world will follow...disco redux), I got tired of Serum. Of course I realize that Serum is far more than just that realm, but I must have negatively associated it with that genre since that's one of the main reasons I bought it in the first place. Zebra and its association with Zimmer (who can be stylistically a bit like my longtime musical hero Wagner) just captured me, and brought me back to my old love of heavy action, superheroic, fantastical soundtracks. And Zebra can be terrific for that, though again it's so much more.

So, I focused more on the one synth and it made a positive difference in my output. It won't be the same for everyone, but I meant to give an example of how sometimes choosing one (and even using a forum "VS." topic to do so) can be a positive thing. I say, the demos for each synth are pretty darn generous, so take your time and go through each.

[tristan-]

Basically, although I have Serum and I like it, it's heavy on CPU because of it's high quality resampling to reduce artifacts of the wavetables.

It seriously lacks, in my opinion, a proper arpeggiator and tracegate like what you get with Massive.

The wavetables it comes with are incredible though.

[rentboyrenton]

subjective post below:

i didn't like either, didn't care for the hype both of them got when they came out and this is not meant to rip on urs because ACE and DIVA are one of the best sounding synths out there but both synths lack personality to me, zebra at least sounded quite versatile from what i got in the time i tried it out

Serum on the other hand just sounds thin and harsh but the UI was well designed albeit a bit small for my taste and the workflow was one of the best in synth design but they can't make up for the sound - at least not for me

[keisuki]

i didn't like either, didn't care for the hype both of them got when they came out and this is not meant to rip on urs because ACE and DIVA are one of the best sounding synths out there but both synths lack personality to me, zebra at least sounded quite versatile from what i got in the time i tried it out

Serum on the other hand just sounds thin and harsh but the UI was well designed albeit a bit small for my taste and the workflow was one of the best in synth design but they can't make up for the sound - at least not for me

I can agree with this. Out of the synths you mentioned, Diva actually feels "alive" to me, it has a certain charm to it. I seemed to get along with it a lot more than any other synth I've ever used but I spent so much time just playing with it and having fun that I never really put it in a track. I haven't tried ACE but I've heard similar things from people. Zebra and Serum seem more like "utilities" to me, I just made sounds with them and I always knew what I wanted to make when I opened them, I always got what I expected. That's good in it's own way.

I kind of get what you mean regarding both of them lacking personality. It's hard to describe, but it's not a bad thing at all.

[Apostate]

If you want a great character synth that deals in waveforms, allow me to highly recommend the Nave vst. Though nowhere near the modulation monsters that Serum and Zebra are (especially in terms of effects and filters), Nave features some of the most characterful effects among synths; the delay, reverb, and flange are more than worth checking out. That goes for Largo as well, a modulation beast that hangs tight with the former two, but you can't import waveforms, and the presets...oh well, can't have everything. Still, those Waldorf synths are still a regular part of my workflow, due in no small part to that characterfulness.

[rod_zero]

If you want a great character synth that deals in waveforms, allow me to highly recommend the Nave vst. Though nowhere near the modulation monsters that Serum and Zebra are (especially in terms of effects and filters), Nave features some of the most characterful effects among synths; the delay, reverb, and flange are more than worth checking out. That goes for Largo as well, a modulation beast that hangs tight with the former two, but you can't import waveforms, and the presets...oh well, can't have everything. Still, those Waldorf synths are still a regular part of my workflow, due in no small part to that characterfulness.

Nave sounds great but after demoing it a lot I still prefer Largo, the GUI of Nave to me was not very intuitive, too much tabing and too much wasted space. The browser is also horrible. Largo wins on both and the sound is as good.

[Apostate]

Nave sounds great but after demoing it a lot I still prefer Largo, the GUI of Nave to me was not very intuitive, too much tabing and too much wasted space. The browser is also horrible. Largo wins on both and the sound is as good.

All very valid points. I just really like Nave, the graphic/waveform-displaying side of the GUI is very cool and useful to me, plus there's a lot of extremely cool things you can do to waveforms once you master that window. But Largo is equally amazing, if not more (particularly in terms of modulation, though Nave is a bit deeper in that area than most people think). The sound is, as you said, about even on either side.

I personally am crazy about the Waldorf character-sound, so right off the bat I'm biased.