KVR Audio

randybobandy · Post by **randybobandy** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:44 am

I need a good workhorse synth, that can also do some rather weird sounds. I have Diva so love u-he already and also have Strobe 2 and had Cypher 1 so love those guys too.

Are Zebra and Cypher comparable? Appreciate anyone chiming in with their thoughts, esp if you own both!

ta

Stefken · Post by **Stefken** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:22 pm

My take on it is that Zebra 2 and Cypher 2 are, as synths, both very good at emulating natural/cinematic sounds (think string modeling, flutes, drones...). That's what I appreciated them the most for.

Cypher 2 (I just played a little with the demo) strikes me as an instrument that focusses mainly on performance and expression. It's modeling might be a bit 'newer' than Zebra 2, which has been around for quite some time.

Zebra 2 strikes me as a sounddesign tool that can do almost any sound. I does pretty convincing Juno, Moog, ... sounds which is not the aim or strong suit of Cypher 2. Zebra does not focus as much on expression as Cypher 2 does.

My 2 cents.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 3:20 pm

randybobandy wrote:I need a good workhorse synth, that can also do some rather weird sounds. I have Diva so love u-he already and also have Strobe 2 and had Cypher 1 so love those guys too.

Are Zebra and Cypher comparable? Appreciate anyone chiming in with their thoughts, esp if you own both!

ta

They are quite different synths. They both have demos. I suggest you spend some time exploring them. I've had Zebra for years and have been extensively exploring the Cypher demo the past few days.

If you want an MPE synth, then Cypher is the clear choice.

Different people mean different things by 'workhorse synth'. I would say Zebra makes a better workhorse synth because it uses much less CPU and it has more diverse oscillators with user drawn waveforms, wavetables, additive etc. Zebra is great for lots of sounds and you can use a bunch of instances.

If someone is a preset user, Zebra has many high quality soundsets. Cypher 2 being brand new it doesn't obviously.

FastTriggerFish · Post by **FastTriggerFish** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 3:29 pm

To be taken with a grain of salt as I haven't properly explored Cypher2 yet but it seems to me that Cypher2 sounds a bit more coloured and analog by default, whereas zebra is more powerful but sounds more neutral and you have to add the colour yourself.

tapiodmitriyevich · Post by **tapiodmitriyevich** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 3:55 pm

FastTriggerFish wrote:but it seems to me that Cypher2 sounds a bit more coloured and analog by default

Coloured/analog vs. neutral. Does it maybe say nothing about the synths?
Are you saying: "I listened to presets which had some transmod variations, maybe subtle noise, vibrato"?

I thought Zebra sounds a bit coldcoffestainish.

plexuss · Post by **plexuss** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 4:17 pm

I have both. I've spent years with Zebra and house with Cypher2. If you are looking for "workhorse" I'd say Zebra because of it wider depth and bredth than Cypher2 - Zebra has more components and more flexibility in terms of programming them. Cypher2 is very nice as well but is simply not as flexible.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 4:24 pm

The Cypher GUI is disappointing for me... especially after how long it has taken to arrive.

fisherKing · Post by **fisherKing** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 5:23 pm

i now have both, and both have their place; zebra is an old favorite, cypher2 is a new favorite.

really, download the demos, decide for yourself.

randybobandy · Post by **randybobandy** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:08 pm

I have listened to both sound examples, but never knew you could demo Zebra. Will try it. Even after that though it is also valuable to ask peers who might have more experience with them, as it can take a while to really discover these complex synths.

By workhorse I mean what most people would identify with - wide variety of sounds, excellent quality, low CPU, easy to tweak to get what you want.

The preset thing is a good point as I sometime find them good starting points when there is less time to program from scratch. MPE is not a factor.

I need the synth to blend well with orchestral elements as I am more on the cinematic composer side rather than EDM.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:09 pm

randybobandy wrote:I need a good workhorse synth

Then the choice should be clear. It even has stripes on it.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:15 pm

randybobandy wrote:I have listened to both sound examples, but never knew you could demo Zebra. Will try it. Even after that though it is also valuable to ask peers who might have more experience with them, as it can take a while to really discover these complex synths.

By workhorse I mean what most people would identify with - wide variety of sounds, excellent quality, low CPU, easy to tweak to get what you want.

The preset thing is a good point as I sometime find them good starting points when there is less time to program from scratch. MPE is not a factor.

I need the synth to blend well with orchestral elements as I am more on the cinematic composer side rather than EDM.

Then Zebra is the clear choice...

Check out the sound demos of the latest u-he soundset "Zebratron"
https://u-he.com/products/soundsets/zeb ... #zebratron

Stefken · Post by **Stefken** » Thu Aug 16, 2018 10:14 am

pdxindy wrote:
Then Zebra is the clear choice...

+1

Lost of presets for Zebra, including free ones. There were zebra preset challenges here on KVR that yielded the free ZPC presets. I don't know the url but maybe someone else can post it?

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:00 am

Wow... you might end buying both (I have both) !

They're not the same beasts AT ALL !

Zebra is this kind of do-it-all synth with hundreds of presets, but has this butter-ish very recognizable U-He sound that not everybody will love (I love it, but I do not own only Zebra : I think it's a must-have synth, and Zebra 3 is coming soon...). Imho, if you quickly compare what you get with it (I mean the presets, the soundbanks), you'll have to admit they do not sound like they've been made in 2018.

Cypher 2 is a brand new synth with fresh sounds, that can do things unheards before thanks to the MPE technology... You'll probably be amazed by some of the presets and think it's way more powerful than Zebra ! When the reality is that they're simply not really comparable imo...

Delta Sign · Post by **Delta Sign** » Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:19 am

Cypher 2 seems to be a really great sounding synth with a lot of flexibility, but even after all those years, Zebra 2 still plays in its very own league, in my opinion. The fact that it's one of the very few synths that allows you to break free of the classic Osc->Filter->Amp flow the Minimoog has cursed us with alone opens up so many possibilities that others synths simply don't offer.

Don't get me wrong, Cypher 2 seems to be fantastic, but if I had to choose, I wouldn't even think twice.

That's of course entirely subjective it may be the complete opposite for other people.

Fernando Carvalho · Post by **Fernando Carvalho** » Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:34 am

randybobandy wrote: low CPU

That puts cypher out of the table.

I have myself to decide which one to get first, money is short so I have to wait and pick one first. I think it will be cypher as I just love it and wait for zebra 3. My workhorse right now is Europa by Reason.

Zebra 2 vs Cypher 2