KVR Audio

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:34 am

Btw. I think Zebra would excell at those fart basses when using the Scrambler OscFX in the right way. I remember some presets from 2005 which had that vibe of slippery air exhaustion, maybe a bit dryer in nature. Might try that as well.

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:34 am

Delta Sign wrote:It definitely gets you there. Check out pretty much every single Bigtone preset, for example. He uses this technique a lot.

Yes, I remember now...

kmonkey · Post by **kmonkey** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:43 am

Trancer wrote:What do you think of this Vst?

He looks very powerful and sounds sound quite advanced and evolved apparently.

A very particular grain.

On the other hand the grip does not look simple.

I't one of the best plugin i ever worked with.

Ton of inspiration and still to this day i am getting "wow it can do that too" or "wow i can't believe it can sound like that" feelings. I can not even describe sound character in few simple terms.

On top of everything it does have awesome company support and really good ongoing development after all these years.

Probably one of the best investment ever. Seriously.

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:45 am

There is a soundset by Xenos with all sorts of wobble basses

IMO, these presets sound quite authentic, the only thing they may lack in comparison to Massive or Serum is some presense or consistency in the sound, for the lack of better word.

This is what i don't like about Zebra in general, synths like Bazille and Repro have more weight and definition in their sound, which makes them easier to mix. I'm sorry for not being able to explain this in proper technical terms

Delta Sign · Post by **Delta Sign** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:49 am

Urs wrote:Btw. I think Zebra would excell at those fart basses when using the Scrambler OscFX in the right way. I remember some presets from 2005 which had that vibe of slippery air exhaustion, maybe a bit dryer in nature. Might try that as well.

Yeah, Scrambler and Scatter are definitely good for this kind of thing. Choplift followed by distortion can also sound pretty strange

Regarding the allpass thing, the effect gets even more pronounced when some kind of distortion is applied after the allpass.

Here is a simple Zebra kick I made, the first 4 bars without the allpass and the last 4 bars with allpass:

Clubby Zebra Kick

The preset, if anyone wants to have it.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:57 am

recursive one wrote:This is what i don't like about Zebra in general, synths like Bazille and Repro have more weight and definition in their sound, which makes them easier to mix. I'm sorry for not being able to explain this in proper technical terms

Yet Hans Zimmer has no problems mixing Zebra in, and by his admission Zebra is the only VSTi that translates well on an IMAX sound system. Take from this what you will.

EDM doesn't have nearly the same auditive requirements as an IMAX system. It has to sound ok on shit earbuds.

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:01 am

EvilDragon wrote:
recursive one wrote:This is what i don't like about Zebra in general, synths like Bazille and Repro have more weight and definition in their sound, which makes them easier to mix. I'm sorry for not being able to explain this in proper technical terms
Yet Hans Zimmer has no problems mixing Zebra in, and by his admission Zebra is the only VSTi that translates well on an IMAX sound system. Take from this what you will.

EDM doesn't have nearly the same auditive requirements as an IMAX system. It has to sound ok on shit earbuds.

No doubts that he has far superior mixing skills than an average bedroom psytrance maker. But putting this aside, I think the soundtrack stuff he is making requires different mixing approach than EDM/psytrance/dubstep/etc.

Delta Sign · Post by **Delta Sign** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:19 am

I think one of the main big things is that Zebra doesn't come with a lot of very digital wavetables, and it's not as easy to make your own as it is in Serum, for example.
I think, as others have also mentioned, that Zebra is probably not as instantly satisfying as other synths in that regard and that is a very valid point to have. Many people just don't want to spend the time tweaking stuff, they just want results fast, and that's perfectly fine.

I, as a sound nerd, totally love spending hours tweaking sounds down to the tiniest detail and enjoy the flexibility Zebra gives me, but I totally understand why others might feel differently.

Anyway, regarding the phase thing again

This sound also heavily relies on the phase trick to make it sound more "physical". I don't know what it's supposed to be, but it sounds angry

https://soundcloud.com/deltasign/angry-zebra
Sorry, I've been waiting for an excuse to post that one for far too long

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:26 am

EvilDragon wrote:
recursive one wrote:This is what i don't like about Zebra in general, synths like Bazille and Repro have more weight and definition in their sound, which makes them easier to mix. I'm sorry for not being able to explain this in proper technical terms
Yet Hans Zimmer has no problems mixing Zebra in, and by his admission Zebra is the only VSTi that translates well on an IMAX sound system. Take from this what you will.

EDM doesn't have nearly the same auditive requirements as an IMAX system. It has to sound ok on shit earbuds.

I find that bolded part to be pretty insane myself. How is it that only zebra would translate well out of all the software out there? I don't get that at all. It's magical and all but that is just a stupid statement.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:37 am

It's his statement, verbatim. He obviously went through a lot of VSTi and they didn't work out for one reason or another.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:39 am

FM itself isn't particularly hard on CPU, but combating the aliasing it can create is.

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:41 am

EvilDragon wrote:It's his statement, verbatim. He obviously went through a lot of VSTi and they didn't work out for one reason or another.

How many years ago it was?

EvilDragon wrote:FM itself isn't particularly hard on CPU, but combating the aliasing it can create is.

Shouldn't this be in the Hive thread by chance?

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:44 am

EvilDragon wrote:It's his statement, verbatim. He obviously went through a lot of VSTi and they didn't work out for one reason or another.

I'm just saying it makes little sense. I understand he is God and all but I don't see how that is possible at all.

voidhead23 · Post by **voidhead23** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:53 am

Delta Sign wrote:I think one of the main big things is that Zebra doesn't come with a lot of very digital wavetables, and it's not as easy to make your own as it is in Serum, for example.
I think, as others have also mentioned, that Zebra is probably not as instantly satisfying as other synths in that regard and that is a very valid point to have. Many people just don't want to spend the time tweaking stuff, they just want results fast, and that's perfectly fine.

Agreed, though i've gotten pretty aggressive and digital sounds by just using the FM oscillators instead of relying on wavetable stuff.

About the Zimmer quote...he must have done his comparison around 2008/2012 since that's when his stuff started relying heavily on Zebra. A lot has evolved in plugin synthesis since then, as Hans himself would probably agree with, so that quote should be taken with a grain of salt. But at this point, why change your instrument if you're still satisfied with it?

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:17 am

Well, the thing is, Hans now has an extensive collection of presets he relies on. And when he complained about the sonic quality of certain modules, we added new ones. There was a giant shift in about 2009 when parts of Zebra were rewritten with updated algorithms. You'll hardly hear algorithms from 2004 in current presets. And then of course, we added Diva filters, per-voice post-VCA compressors (unique!), Resonators, Diva-Filters, Wavefolders, new Oscillator Effects, new filter modes, new distortion modules, bit crushing and what not.

Zebra itself may be old, but it's not outdated by any means. And if you listen to the sounds used in Dunkirk, Inception, the recent Blade Runner, even the good old 2006 Dark Knight ones. Or half of those choirs in Angels & Demons. Which synth is gonna deliver those instead? Certainly not any of those mentioned here.

Thing is, it more and more occurs to me that the reason Zebra is underrated for some musical styles, has nothing to do with Zebra but everything with the people who want their tools to be a certain way - i.e. unlike Zebra.

Your opinion about Zebra 2