KVR Audio

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:05 pm

recursive one wrote:It all boils down to personal preferences anyway. Synths do have character, even those which are intentionally made "neutral" sounding have that neutral character. While I don't doubt that Zebra can technically make most of the sounds typically used in trance or EDM (and this thread is full of relevant sound examples), I prefer character of other synths for whatever subjective reason.

I don't understand why the discussions on this matter are always so heated and why people who happen to like Zebra feel the need to convince the people who don't like it that they are idiots, don't know how to use synths, write crap music for stupid kiddies and the like.

+1...

But are you saying they aren't/don't? (I kid, I kid)

rsp

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:08 pm

recursive one wrote:It all boils down to personal preferences anyway. Synths do have character, even those which are intentionally made "neutral" sounding have that neutral character. While I don't doubt that Zebra can technically make most of the sounds typically used in trance or EDM (and this thread is full of relevant sound examples), I prefer character of other synths for whatever subjective reason.

I don't understand why the discussions on this matter are always so heated and why people who happen to like Zebra feel the need to convince the people who don't like it that they are idiots, don't know how to use synths, write crap music for stupid kiddies and the like.

Ok, I'm back.

The problem is someone says "I hope Zebra3 will deliver". Thing is, if people are too ignorant to understand their tools, it won't either. If people just copy some workflow they got from a Youtube video or some random forum, and they don't even know what they're doing, but it's some kind of magic trick and "everyone does it that way". OMG. I'm not making synthesizers for these people. I'm actually not even interested in their input. They're copy cats, not experts.

(not saying this is you, but the vibe I get from some peeps... sigh)

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:08 pm

recursive one wrote:It all boils down to personal preferences anyway. Synths do have character, even those which are intentionally made "neutral" sounding have that neutral character. While I don't doubt that Zebra can technically make most of the sounds typically used in trance or EDM (and this thread is full of relevant sound examples), I prefer character of other synths for whatever subjective reason.

And you are entitled to... No problems with that

recursive one wrote: I don't understand why the discussions on this matter are always so heated and why people who happen to like Zebra feel the need to convince the people who don't like it that they are idiots, don't know how to use synths, write crap music for stupid kiddies and the like.

I didn't feel any particular heat in this thread (certainly, there wasn't any from me). I was just discussing Zebra, and clarifying some things that I see more as "trends" than objective realities

But I'm OK with that, too.

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:16 pm

Urs wrote:Well, here's how I see it: You don't want to post any example that *you* record straight out of your favourite synth, but you still want to keep telling us that "Zebra doesn't sound like it".

It's cool. I've become used to that over the decades (funnily enough, it started with a compressed-to-death example of a Virus sound, possibly recorded by the same person as this Youtube video)

OK, here is an example of a RAW, unprocessed, without any external FX, straight from Avenger demo I've just exported :

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14mx2x ... 1C44U1mTDH

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:22 pm

Urs wrote:
recursive one wrote:It all boils down to personal preferences anyway. Synths do have character, even those which are intentionally made "neutral" sounding have that neutral character. While I don't doubt that Zebra can technically make most of the sounds typically used in trance or EDM (and this thread is full of relevant sound examples), I prefer character of other synths for whatever subjective reason.

I don't understand why the discussions on this matter are always so heated and why people who happen to like Zebra feel the need to convince the people who don't like it that they are idiots, don't know how to use synths, write crap music for stupid kiddies and the like.
Ok, I'm back.

The problem is someone says "I hope Zebra3 will deliver". Thing is, if people are too ignorant to understand their tools, it won't either. If people just copy some workflow they got from a Youtube video or some random forum, and they don't even know what they're doing, but it's some kind of magic trick and "everyone does it that way". OMG. I'm not making synthesizers for these people. I'm actually not even interested in their input. They're copy cats, not experts.

(not saying this is you, but the vibe I get from some peeps... sigh)

Well, thank you for being honest. I'm not claiming to be synth expert, nowehere near. By in my defence (for some reason I feel the need to defend myself now, even despite you aren't saying it's me), I rarely use presets in any synth and I know how to make most kinds of sounds typically used in the genres that interest me, and I actually had made a large portion of the factory presets for Adam Szabo Viper. I did reverse engineer some of the existing Virus TI patches for that but in most cases I didn't just copy them by numbers. So I'm not an idiot who just copies youtube videos made by other people whithout trying to udnerstand what's actually going on (I may be some other kind of idiot though, I told myself more than once not to participate in discussions like that)

I hope Zebra 3 will deliver, anywyas

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:24 pm

DJErmac wrote:
Urs wrote:Well, here's how I see it: You don't want to post any example that *you* record straight out of your favourite synth, but you still want to keep telling us that "Zebra doesn't sound like it".

It's cool. I've become used to that over the decades (funnily enough, it started with a compressed-to-death example of a Virus sound, possibly recorded by the same person as this Youtube video)
OK, here is an example of a RAW, unprocessed, without any external FX, straight from Avenger demo I've just exported :

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14mx2x ... 1C44U1mTDH

How did you get it to peak at exactly 0.00 without any limiter or compressor?

or are you using an Avenger Limiter
rsp

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:33 pm

Yes I left the Avenger limiters of each presets on.

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:44 pm

It must also have a master limiter too..
ok, thanks
rsp

Cinebient · Post by **Cinebient** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:48 pm

Another thing Zebra 2 offers which i like is microtuning and that it won‘t let my fans run like hell (like Avenger).
But since the thread converts into another EDM preset war thread or love/hate thing it doesn‘t matter anyway.
But an opinion is just an opinion. Just saying....it‘s easy to demo Zebra 2 and decide if it‘s the right thing

Most synths are good these days and offer different workflows and they have all pro and contra.
Even most stock synths in most DAW‘s can do nearly all genres.
Isn‘t EDM just to compress the shit out of any tone

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:48 pm

Yes of course, Limitless on the master, but it barely moved.

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:49 pm

DJErmac wrote:Yes of course, Limitless on the master, but it barely moved.

oh. then it isn't raw then......
rsp

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:53 pm

Cinebient wrote: But since the thread converts into another EDM preset war thread or love/hate thing it doesn‘t matter anyway.

Well, the name of the OP is Trancer... that's why I thought initially I could say there are other options available for EDM and see what happens...

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:57 pm

zvenx wrote:
DJErmac wrote:Yes of course, Limitless on the master, but it barely moved.

oh. then it isn't raw then......
rsp

I think it didn't move at all actually but I'll check again. If it did it would be a micro peak or two. Would be totally transparent anyway if I remove it.

Delta Sign · Post by **Delta Sign** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:12 pm

Ahh, thanks for the example, now I know what we are talking about

A similar Zebra sound, including the overcompression and pronounced highs. No processing at all.
https://soundcloud.com/deltasign/overcompressed-zebra

Ohh and a 1999 supersaw for good measure

https://soundcloud.com/deltasign/zebra- ... e-its-1999

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:17 pm

I guess compression and limiting is key to that clicky sound. I guess Avenger has some tools like that built into it.

I guess someone could come up with a simple way to do this in about any synth, with a small chain of specialized tools at particular settings.

For me, this isn't part of what makes a synthesizer, it's part of the production process. We have discussed the addition of mastering tools to one of our synths, but abandoned the idea because it seemed too much geared towards "canned sounds". It would make many great presets unusable in any different context.

Your opinion about Zebra 2