What makes U-he Zebra so loved?

[layzer]

no clue

You're absolutely right. You have no clue..........

yeah, well next topic will be "What makes U-He Zebra help people improve their sex drive"
or "What makes UH-e Zebra help people quit heroin"

[kokotte]

What makes U-he Zebra so loved?
The:
mod mapper
comb filter
osc fx
filter variety & quality
snappy env
a lot of lfo's
semi modular.
a lot of free great update
zebrify is a nice multi fx
it can be a go to synth :
i want a simple noise with one filter or
i want 4 osc or 8 with fm with parallel filters/ distortion in serie... do it.
the workflow is very nice and quick,
my 2 cents.

[Cinebient]

Well, 3 things mainly.....the sound, workflow and the developer.
First i like what Zebra can do and everything you modulate or change on the fly sounds buttery smooth.
I´m not a fan of the original GUI but this can be solved with great third party skins or the next Zebra update.
Midi integration is fully there (even 14bit if you want). Usable with MPE controller (but not exactly perfect here).
Much appreciated are things like microtuning via .tun file import. There is a world behind 12 note western scales...even for synths
What else? Oh yes, i like that U-he is a transparent developer and don´t make a secret out of everything. Some developers seems to be a mystic fantasy thing no one ever talked with.
FX version....is there too. A lot non-EDM stuff, great!
It gets support from some of the best sound designers out there and some other stuff.

[pdxindy]

I purchased Zebra 2 when it first was coming out. There was an intro discount.

Since then, Zebra 2 has received easily 3-4 paid upgrades worth of new features, workflow improvements, midi support, new presets, ongoing OS support, etc. I have not had to pay a single penny for a decade. It is an incredible deal over the long haul.

Add in that it is a simple serial #... can be installed on multiple machines (as long as you are the user)... is super solid.

Then there are the Mod Mappers... It is worth the price of Zebra for the Mod Mappers alone!

[aMUSEd]

I purchased Zebra 2 when it first was coming out. There was an intro discount.

Since then, Zebra 2 has received easily 3-4 paid upgrades worth of new features, workflow improvements, midi support, new presets, ongoing OS support, etc. I have not had to pay a single penny for a decade. It is an incredible deal over the long haul.

Yes same here, the one and only group buy for Z2. Great VFM, just gets better and better.

[Krakatau]

no clue

You're absolutely right. You have no clue..........

BTW where's clueless gone ? ...i'm wondering !

[Urs]

Shit, i think something fishy is going on here. This is the 2nd post ive seen recently with the same theme "what makes u-he so great? " Everyone then replies with "oh because of this and that". A little fishy if you ask me.

Yep...after being one of the most loved KVR developers with top of the top products for years now and known to not use public stunts like Slate or others - U-he decided to register fishy account to desperately promote itself...And he is doing it so subtle that noone can comprehend timeline..

makes sense totally

Yes, I prepared for this moment by registering a second account in 2002.

[Local Man]

Shit, i think something fishy is going on here. This is the 2nd post ive seen recently with the same theme "what makes u-he so great? " Everyone then replies with "oh because of this and that". A little fishy if you ask me.

Yep...after being one of the most loved KVR developers with top of the top products for years now and known to not use public stunts like Slate or others - U-he decided to register fishy account to desperately promote itself...And he is doing it so subtle that noone can comprehend timeline..

makes sense totally

Yes, I prepared for this moment by registering a second account in 2002.

The long con. Brilliant!

[.jon]

Please allow me to speak openly. You kinda need a PhD or something to do in Reaktor what you can do in Zebra within a few minutes. I can't do it. Even some of the most basic factory patches of Zebra would bring your CPU to its melting point should you succeed to recreate the result in Reaktor (remember: Zebra's control rate is 10+ kHz... set Reaktor to that if you like. Also, Zebra's signal flow is stereo all through the signal path). Reaktor can do almost anything and it's very well suited for this and that, but it's IMHO totally not suited to be a workhorse synth in a day to day production environment. And why is that? - Easy: Reaktor comes with thousands and thousands of ensembles, modules and building blocks which all look, sound and behave differently. If you want to load a patch and tweak it to your needs you first need to understand it. So yes, you can do almost everything, but it comes with a cost. The currency of that cost is *time*. No-one has time. Reaktor's biggest feature is also its weakest spot. It's a usability nightmare which emerged from the most comprehensive playground for synthesis. Can't have one without the other.

Zebra can do a shitload of things too. In almost no time and with only a few modules whose sound, look and behaviour just need to be learned once. With a very good ratio of control rate vs. CPU which IIRC is 16 times higher than Reaktor's standard setting.

So where again are we at in the value discussion?

You're absolutely right, nobody really regards Reaktor as a "workhorse synth", neither did I, so there's no comparison... but imo Zebra is too cumbersome to fill that slot either, and that slot is heavily contested, with some viable candidates costing half of it. I'd personally get something more nimble and modern UI as the do-it-all synth.

I see Zebra as an advanced sound design synth, but is overpriced in that sector when compared with the king of the hill.

[pdxindy]

but imo Zebra is too cumbersome to fill that slot either, and that slot is heavily contested, with some viable candidates costing half of it. I'd personally get something more nimble and modern UI as the do-it-all synth.

I see Zebra as an advanced sound design synth, but is overpriced in that sector when compared with the king of the hill.

I see Zebra as the king of the hill when it comes to an easy to use, advanced sound design synth. And has been without competition (IMO) as far as the best bang for the buck in such a synth.

[ZaBong69]

Why are people so much more passionate about Zebra than most other synths?

A more than ten year old virtual synth that still can wipe the floor in 2017 with the competition with regard to flexibility and range of sound design options.

If that is not awesome, nothing is.

[yellowmix]

I'd personally get something more nimble and modern UI as the do-it-all synth.

Curious what these would be. UVI Falcon is nearly twice the price. I don't think anything else comes close to the breadth, depth, and workflow of Zebra.

Also, take a look at the Massive Modular skin by Plugmon.

[yellowmix]

I felt the same way. And I found that you can improve the workflow a great deal with the Massive Modular skins from Plugmon.

I like and bought Plugmon's work for Diva and Zebra. But TBH, what improved my workflow the most was reading the manuals.

I've taken to putting all my synth manuals in the cloud and I can read them on my mobile whenever I have downtime. Definitely need to do at least one thorough run-through, then periodic refreshes. With Zebra it's necessary due to how many modules there are and how deep each module is. Fortunately there's a link to the user guide directly from the synth.

On that note, u-He's documentation is top-notch. One thing common to them that I don't find in other synth documentation are the "Tips & Tricks" sections. I've learned a lot from those.

[wagtunes]

Zebra 2 was the 3rd synth I ever purchased behind Synthmaster and ACE. I bought it because it was semi modular and had lots of possibilities. I love it because of what I can do with it. It is one of my most used synths mostly because I'm more familiar with it due to owning it for so long now. I'm not claiming I think it's the best sounding of all my synths, though it's up there, but I find it easier to get to what I want than a lot of other synths that I have to work harder at.

The lazier I get, the more I turn to synths like this, Omnisphere, Dune 2 and Synthmaster because you can be brain dead and get what you want out of them with very little fuss.

[ATS]

I'd personally get something more nimble and modern UI as the do-it-all synth.

Curious what these would be. UVI Falcon is nearly twice the price. I don't think anything else comes close to the breadth, depth, and workflow of Zebra.

Also, take a look at the Massive Modular skin by Plugmon.

yeah would be nice to name a few because that is why i started this thread, to see if I want to buy Zebra for the third time