Is it still worth buying Zebra2 (and The Dark Zebra)?

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aldo_arf wrote: Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:09 am Hi!
Any news on Zebra 3?


Should I buy Massive X ?

Thanks and keep safe!
No news on Zebra 3. I am in no hurry. Zebra 2/HZ is a classic synth on its own. There is no rush for a next iteration.

I am not a fan of Massive X. Have you tried Demos of Hive 2, Rapid, Serum, Sylenth, and Synthmaster so you can make an educated decision? Maybe even investigate Falcon and try demos of Dune 3, Avenger, and Anima. (Among others). If you are itching for EDM sounds, have you checked out the Zebra DancePack soundset? Spend your money as you see fit.

Thanks for the well wishes! :)

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Zeb is Always nice to have. But there are several Competitors that I also do not want to miss in my Toolbox and the Time invested in Zeb is"lost" when Z3 comes. Not compatible.

I prefer Dune and MSF at the Moment. Awesome Synths and Zebs OSC sound outdated in Comparison.

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It may be better to value Zebra as part of the larger U-he collection.
There are tons of Zebra tutorial videos and megatons of Zebra presets.
Someone wanting to learn about, and create with synthesizers,
will find Zebra to be the top value, all things considered.

Some specific niches are filled, if not created, by other U-he products,
which also are top choices in the market.

Zebra 3 cannot be hurried, if it is to be a superior U-he product.
To become the new U-he flagship synth will be a great feat
in the short history of synthesis :party: :hyper: :party:

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Personally I think Zebra is probably the best software synth in most ways. It is a synth that becomes significantly better once you really get good at designing synthesizer sounds at a higher intermediate to advanced level, in my opinion. At a beginner level it's actually not very good just on its own.

What I like about it is the flexibility, easy of use, sound quality and reliability. Personally I would use it for strings and pads, bells and plucks, and arpegiator things. I don't personally use it for keys or bass.

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GRUMP wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:29 pm I prefer Dune and MSF at the Moment. Awesome Synths and Zebs OSC sound outdated in Comparison.
I cannot understand how one would think MSF's oscillators sound better than Zebra 2's. What does "outdated" even mean if something sounds good? To each his own.
Doing nothing is only fun when you have something you are supposed to do.

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Zebra2, Msf and Dune3 are awesome. Must have plugins. And they complement each other so well.
Best
YY

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GRUMP wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:29 pm Zeb is Always nice to have. But there are several Competitors that I also do not want to miss in my Toolbox and the Time invested in Zeb is"lost" when Z3 comes. Not compatible.

I prefer Dune and MSF at the Moment. Awesome Synths and Zebs OSC sound outdated in Comparison.
Are the Minimoog’s, Jupiter’s, etc. oscillators “outdated”, too? I don’t understand your logic.

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I'm not in the U-He club because I am not in the market for virtual synths. Also when I use a synth I know in a very short time whether it's usable to me. Zebralette is impossible for me to create any single sound I would want to try making. I've watched hours of tutorials but I cannot retain the information. The control and workflow and layout is not memorable. The demo versions are really generous though, very nice of U-he. But something about them, I don't want to use them, I just reach for Charlatan by Blaukraut when I need to rapidly create a sound with a synthesizer. Probably Diva is straight forward. U-he has maybe the best sounding synths but the controls are just too fiddly for me, with so much novelty that is exclusive to U-he synths that it's like learning Swedish or something, not useful outside of that one synth, like some sort of mental dongle.

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Z2 as a feat of design continues to impress me. It gives you just enough freedom to do what you want, with the occasional gentle reminder that often what you *want* (e.g. a bajillion envelopes or FM operators or wavetable frames) isn't what you *need* to make a sound. the modules are equipped with so many clever features that lead you to elegant solutions, like OSC FX, the FMO's modes and stereo/detune options, XMF 'click', the sideband modules, the MMaps...

also, Zebrify is criminally underrated.

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HTT wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:17 pm
GRUMP wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:29 pm Zeb is Always nice to have. But there are several Competitors that I also do not want to miss in my Toolbox and the Time invested in Zeb is"lost" when Z3 comes. Not compatible.

I prefer Dune and MSF at the Moment. Awesome Synths and Zebs OSC sound outdated in Comparison.
Are the Minimoog’s, Jupiter’s, etc. oscillators “outdated”, too? I don’t understand your logic.
Outdated reflects the Users (my) Perception. I have to listen closely. But if you don't head for "Brilliance" and maybe also don't have the Comparison all that may be irrelevant for you.

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GRUMP wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:47 am
HTT wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:17 pm
GRUMP wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:29 pm Zeb is Always nice to have. But there are several Competitors that I also do not want to miss in my Toolbox and the Time invested in Zeb is"lost" when Z3 comes. Not compatible.

I prefer Dune and MSF at the Moment. Awesome Synths and Zebs OSC sound outdated in Comparison.
Are the Minimoog’s, Jupiter’s, etc. oscillators “outdated”, too? I don’t understand your logic.
Outdated reflects the Users (my) Perception. I have to listen closely. But if you don't head for "Brilliance" and maybe also don't have the Comparison all that may be irrelevant for you.
There's a trick though. Use the -Morph waveforms, use "crisp". Full spectrum, no lack of brilliance, has been available since 2009 or so.

The -Blend waveforms have fewer harmonics simply because they only have 128 sample points. You'd need certain OscFX to get the full spectrum, but that's possible as well.

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HTT wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:17 pm
GRUMP wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:29 pm Zeb is Always nice to have. But there are several Competitors that I also do not want to miss in my Toolbox and the Time invested in Zeb is"lost" when Z3 comes. Not compatible.

I prefer Dune and MSF at the Moment. Awesome Synths and Zebs OSC sound outdated in Comparison.
Are the Minimoog’s, Jupiter’s, etc. oscillators “outdated”, too? I don’t understand your logic.
Ähm.. they are. Progress wiped these Companys away as you know.

Or do you mean that there is no Progress in the Sound Generation Technology? How should Z3 sell then:?

However... Saws and Squares are - lets say an Atavism. Outdated. Yes. Completely. Already with the DX7.

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Urs wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:53 am
GRUMP wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:47 am
HTT wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:17 pm
GRUMP wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:29 pm Zeb is Always nice to have. But there are several Competitors that I also do not want to miss in my Toolbox and the Time invested in Zeb is"lost" when Z3 comes. Not compatible.

I prefer Dune and MSF at the Moment. Awesome Synths and Zebs OSC sound outdated in Comparison.
Are the Minimoog’s, Jupiter’s, etc. oscillators “outdated”, too? I don’t understand your logic.
Outdated reflects the Users (my) Perception. I have to listen closely. But if you don't head for "Brilliance" and maybe also don't have the Comparison all that may be irrelevant for you.
There's a trick though. Use the -Morph waveforms, use "crisp". Full spectrum, no lack of brilliance, has been available since 2009 or so.

The -Blend waveforms have fewer harmonics simply because they only have 128 sample points. You'd need certain OscFX to get the full spectrum, but that's possible as well.
Thx for that and the Recommendations. Seriously!

And by the Way - I still like Zeb. Workhorse. But unfortunately I don't have so much Time anymore since my second Daughter arrived. Straight forwards now - focussed on the multisampled Result. I don't know what Howard did but I suppose that be is a really patient Kind of Guy!

But... as we're just talking about it... the Spectro-Modes have a very critical Area in the "Presence" Spectrum. Its usually called Harshness. The Rest is difficult to describe (in English). I decided not to invest that much Time into it anymore. 50+ Mulisamples already don't match my Expectations anymore. Most of them too Dull because I eliminated the mentioned Problem 😉

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GRUMP wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:54 am
HTT wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:17 pm
GRUMP wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:29 pm Zeb is Always nice to have. But there are several Competitors that I also do not want to miss in my Toolbox and the Time invested in Zeb is"lost" when Z3 comes. Not compatible.

I prefer Dune and MSF at the Moment. Awesome Synths and Zebs OSC sound outdated in Comparison.
Are the Minimoog’s, Jupiter’s, etc. oscillators “outdated”, too? I don’t understand your logic.
Ähm.. they are. Progress wiped these Companys away as you know.

Or do you mean that there is no Progress in the Sound Generation Technology? How should Z3 sell then:?

However... Saws and Squares are - lets say an Atavism. Outdated. Yes. Completely. Already with the DX7.
I was specifically talking about oscillator quality. If you are looking for more variety in waveforms from an oscillator then Zebra has some notable limitations. I do have other synthesizers for those cases. They don’t have the Diva filter, though. 😉

Progress wiped out those companies? Err... no.

https://www.moogmusic.com/

https://usa.yamaha.com/

https://www.roland.com/us/categories/keyboards/


Congratulations on your new daughter!

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HTT wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 4:29 pm
GRUMP wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:54 am
HTT wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:17 pm
GRUMP wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:29 pm Zeb is Always nice to have. But there are several Competitors that I also do not want to miss in my Toolbox and the Time invested in Zeb is"lost" when Z3 comes. Not compatible.

I prefer Dune and MSF at the Moment. Awesome Synths and Zebs OSC sound outdated in Comparison.
Are the Minimoog’s, Jupiter’s, etc. oscillators “outdated”, too? I don’t understand your logic.
Ähm.. they are. Progress wiped these Companys away as you know.

Or do you mean that there is no Progress in the Sound Generation Technology? How should Z3 sell then:?

However... Saws and Squares are - lets say an Atavism. Outdated. Yes. Completely. Already with the DX7.
I was specifically talking about oscillator quality. If you are looking for more variety in waveforms from an oscillator then Zebra has some notable limitations. I do have other synthesizers for those cases. They don’t have the Diva filter, though. 😉

Progress wiped out those companies? Err... no.

https://www.moogmusic.com/

https://usa.yamaha.com/

https://www.roland.com/us/categories/keyboards/


Congratulations on your new daughter!
But I was talking about OSC. what is Quality and how much of what you call so goes back to the OSC? me personally i'd rather suspect the Circuit 🤔 and what would those Moog OSC have been without those Ladder Filters? Anyway - please don't discuss such issues with my dad. PLZ!

They live again. Because the People buy such Stuff again and because the Brands work. Roland and Yamaha were the Grave Diggers btw 😉

Oberheim, SC n Moog etc were long time gone. I didn't miss them and feel that there are lots of Synth Conservatives standing in the Break of the development engine 😉

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