KVR Audio

Delta Sign · Post by **Delta Sign** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:24 pm

Yeah, I agree. I'm barely ever even using the compressors in Zebra, with the exception of that "thing" above

Canned sounds is exactly what some people want, though. There is nothing wrong with that, but Zebra might just not be the right tool for the job.

I mean, Avenger won't do this anytime soon:
https://soundcloud.com/deltasign/microtonal-zebra

The right tool for the right job, I'd say.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:33 pm

Urs, the thing is, in this world of bedroom producers, a lot of people want to do as little work as possible. They want to be able to open a synth, pull up a preset and make the music they want to make with as little fuss as possible including external processing to get just that right sound. And there is nothing wrong with this. Sometimes that's what I want to when I know exactly what I want and know that to get it with Synth X will take me 2 hours but Synth Y will give it to me in 2 seconds. There is a place for synth with internal processing of the sound.

Again, this is why I don't own just one synth. Even with your own line of synths. Zebra 2 can't do what Bazille can do and Bazille can't do what Repro-1 can do. You don't try to hammer a nail with a screwdriver and you don't try to turn a screw with a hacksaw.

I love all your synths but I don't love them all for every single possible situation that arises.

Show me a professional handyman with just one tool in his toolbox.

Anyway, Zebra 2 is great for what it does and Avenger is great for what it does. That's why I own them both.

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:34 pm

wagtunes wrote:Anyway, Zebra 2 is great for what it does and Avenger is great for what it does. That's why I own them both.

+1

DJErmac · Post by **DJErmac** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:38 pm

Delta Sign wrote: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

The overcompressed Zebra example is not a bad supersaw but it sounds distant and unfocused, like it's... overcompressed...

sinemotor · Post by **sinemotor** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 6:53 pm

all I can say is that Zebra 2 is far from being a one trick pony.

WilliamT.Mack07 · Post by **WilliamT.Mack07** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 7:06 pm

high caliber (yet at the same time cpu agreeable) sound motor together with various sound.A most loved among soundtrack authors, makers and sound planners, Zebra2 gives every one of the instruments you need.the supervisor window is resizable, and there are some decent elective skins accessible.

Trancer · Post by **Trancer** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:30 am

A very big thank you for all these answers.

Not yet able to read everything and listen, but thank you very much for your feedback on Zebra 2

Trancer · Post by **Trancer** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:38 am

This post was the basis for your opinion on this great Vst and as you read to listen to the audio and video examples, even if the basic idea was not to buy it and well I will let myself be tempted by this odyssey with Zebra 2.

A fabulous Vst.

Beyond your opinion sure this Vst, quite rare nowadays, why it is important to report it, the team U-he is simply EXCEPTIONAL, kindness, patience, listening, a professionalism of rare effectiveness .

Respect and thank you to the people of this company.

JoeCat · Post by **JoeCat** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:35 am

There's an assumption a lot of EDM producers are just picking a preset and adding some compression/verb, and that's probably true of the millions of amateurs, but there's a lot of creative layering and effects. A lot of "what's that synth/patch" questions aren't answerable - take a band-passed piano for the pluck / attack (Avicii), along with a simple saw-tooth / square wave, and creative use of reverb (very small ambiance with the right settings can create a very wide, thick sound and simulate unison) - create a template with that, make a few changes (different piano, square vs/ saw) for each floorbanger, add a few more effects, and you're playing Ibiza.

I get that some synths are better /quicker at arriving at certain sounds used primarily for EDM (zipppy-wub-zap), but Zebra's too versatile so say it "can't" do any genre quite well.

If you want to get to "untamed" quickly, Bazille will do that, and with a little work you'll stand out from the Serum crowd.

I had to come up with some EDM tracks quickly using NI only (because of licensing on multiple systems that weren't mine), and found Kontour to by quite awesome - probably not anyone's go-to choice!

And yeah - you can kinda end any sound quality argument with "it was good enough for Hans Zimmer to use in like a billion popular movies." Try that with a Timbre Wolf (sorry Akai - cheap shot

)

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:11 am

DJErmac wrote:
Delta Sign wrote: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
The overcompressed Zebra example is not a bad supersaw but it sounds distant and unfocused, like it's... overcompressed...

Zebra is not my favorite for supersaws... it can do good supersaws, but they take a bit of work. Hive is better for the basic supersaw sound. It's a newer and improved implementation. Bigger sweet spots...

Zebra has so many other attributes and tools... it is an awesome synth. I'm looking forward to Zebra 3 cause it will be MPE capable... u-he has developed so much new tech since Zebra 2 first came out. Lots of goodies can be incorporated in Z3 because it does not have to be preset compatible.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:16 am

Zebra is very flexible...

https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/repsun.mp3
https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/Zebra75.mp3
https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/Zebra55.mp3
https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/Zebra63.mp3
https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/detar.mp3
https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/Solardrop.mp3
https://dandelionaudio.com/sound/stutterstep.mp3

JoeCat · Post by **JoeCat** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:25 am

pdxindy wrote:Zebra is very flexible...

But why when you can easily do "stutterstep" on your $10,000 modular, and reproduce it easily after a day of patching spaghetti?

(OK, I do get modular - sexy beasts - but still: awesome patches there

)

Delta Sign · Post by **Delta Sign** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:13 am

Yeah, great stuff, as always! Solardrop is my favourite

Stutterstep indeed sounds like one of those "I patched rings through clouds" modular demos

digitalboytn · Post by **digitalboytn** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:04 am

Urs wrote:For me, this isn't part of what makes a synthesizer, it's part of the production process.

I know it's little lazy,but it's handy to have a limiter on the master output of a synth...Not to crush things,but just to keep things "tidy"...

I guess that there are always various opinion about the effects in synths, but it is true that they are often an integral part of the patch and it's nice to be able to "print" those sounds directly...a little like recording guitars with the effects already in place..

It also makes using those synths and sounds a lot easier when playing live...

Even though a lot of those subtleties get lost in the mix,they are still present...

But I prefer to get great sounds out of synths before any effects are added,so that those effects are there to enhance the sound rather than to create it...

Too many synths these days are drenched with effects and they sound like shit when the effects are removed !

An orchestra is made up of many instruments that help to provide a wide range of timbres and our synths pallets should reflect this diversity...

It would be a little boring to have an orchestra with just 80 violins

So the different synths provide us with the colours we need to put together our modern orchestras and as in arranging 101,we can blend and layer different instruments to create the different timbres...

I think that Urs should be given a lot of credit for the development of Zebra 2....

Over the years,it has evolved into a very deep and organic sounding soft synth and it's reputation has been built on solid development,rather than the hype and BS that surrounds a lot of releases these days...

Is it the only colour we need in our pallet ?

No...

But to those of us who appreciate it's depth and quality,it is one of the major players in our arsenal and it provides a wide range of tonal colours that always sit well in the mix...

Over the years,Zebra is one of the few soft synths that has really earned it's stripes

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:22 am

JoeCat wrote: And yeah - you can kinda end any sound quality argument with "it was good enough for Hans Zimmer to use in like a billion popular movies."

Sorry for the long post (and it will be my last post in any U-he related thread

) but nobody is arguing against the sound quality. But the assumption like "it's good enough for Hans Zimmer so it must be good enough for everyone for every task" is not quite valid imo.

I mean, would you recommend Zebra to someone who has years of experience in production and sound-design, wants to make new usuual sounds no other synth can make, make the sounds playable in unusual tricky ways? Of course, Zebra is made for such people.

But would you recommend Zerba to a beginner who wants to make some trance tunes sounding like his/her favourite tracks ? My opinion is that there are better tools for that, including those from the same company (Hive).

Yes, beginners, at least some part of them, often want to sound like someone else and often want good results fast, this doesn't mean that they are stupid and lazy copycats, I believe that's a normal part of learning process for many people. Some people do stuck forewer at copying others, some outgrow this stage but it's a normal stage.

When I was starting out I bought Zebra (because people at KVR were telling me that it's a must have for everyone) and Sylenth (because I immediately liked how it sounds). I started with making some cheesy uplifting trance. Sylenth was fun, it had many patches sounding like my favourite records and putting few Sylenths together was giving cool sounding results pretty quick. Zebra was frustrating, it has some cool presets but it always sounded "wrong" in a mix, either too thin, or something else felt wrong for some reason. I was a total noob, that was the reason

I'm not making this kind of trance anymore and I've learned some stuff since then, was focused at sound-design for few years, now I'm trying to improve my mixing and production. I keep returning to Zebra every now and then thinking that now I'm good enough to use it but apparently I'm still not. I'm always getting distracted by other synths because of more familiar workflow, more predictable results, sound character more suitable for a particular task (this is very very subjective, I know). Maybe Zebra days will come later, when it gets 3.0 update or when my production skills reach 1.0 level, that's why I'm keeping it.

So long story short, it's not like I tried few presets, din't find these wobbles and supersaws and decided that the synth is crap. I tried hard to use it and like it but at my current level of production and sound design competence it's not worth the effort as there alternatives that are more fun to use and give more rewarding results. This is why I'm not recommending it to beginner trance producers. But obviously it's a great choice for some fraction of more advanced users.

Your opinion about Zebra 2