Serum 2 or Zebra 3 ?

[Fannon]

If I get either, it would be Serum2.

Sound designer synths that require either just using someone else’s presets or diving deep aren’t for me. Tried and strongly disliked the new Zebralette.

I also had a hard time getting into Zebralette. It seems unnecessary difficult to get something simple out of it. It could imho been better just by having other defaults: Use the "Basic Shapes" (preset) curves by default, having "Filter" in OSC2 by default and having a more typical ADSR shape in MSEG by default (so you can use it as filter mod).

A curve browser / selector is also missing (maybe coming in next release, I hope?). The current presets seem very experimental / sound-designy, there are only very few "standard" ones like "Pro Solo" (which I really like).

For Zebra 3 I think the situation will be better, because it has dedicated filters and ADRs and you don't need to first understand Osc FX and MSEG in order to make standard patches. As weird as it sounds, but I think Zebra 3 will be easier to use than Zebralette (where you need to work with / around a lot of limitations).

[pdxindy]

I also had a hard time getting into Zebralette. It seems unnecessary difficult to get something simple out of it. It could imho been better just by having other defaults: Use the "Basic Shapes" (preset) curves by default, having "Filter" in OSC2 by default and having a more typical ADSR shape in MSEG by default (so you can use it as filter mod).

A curve browser / selector is also missing (maybe coming in next release, I hope?). The current presets seem very experimental / sound-designy, there are only very few "standard" ones like "Pro Solo" (which I really like).

Zebralette 3 hasn't had a release yet. It's a public alpha version missing a bunch of stuff.

[DJErmac]

As Serum has been HUGE in the electronica market, with millions of highly usable presets available every month, tons of tutorials everywhere on Youtube, I must say I can't wait for Serum 2. Plus DMG Audio being involved is like a guarantee of impossible failure to me, they're my favourite plugin developer.

But I'm a bit curious about Zebra 3 also. I don't think it will be as big as Serum 2 (personal bet, involving me, myself and I), but anyway I'm pretty sure I'm going to want it. Anything that can do complex sounds is a must-buy, the rest is just details.

[Dencheg]

Good news is that both will be very gut

[AdvancedFollower]

I even thought about Sylenth 2, but that would be an overkill I guess.
Still wondering if Absynth 6 will fit the bill...

I think Zebra 3 is enough for me. Now I just need to decide whether I should stick with my Cubase 15 or switch to Reaper 8. Reaper 8 is a bit more efficient, but I just upgraded to a Ryzen 11950X3D so Cubase 15 runs pretty well too, even on Windows 12 despite the criticism that OS received.

[martinjuenke]

Just wait for Windows TripleX
That solves everything and far more than that.
It's already in Gamma.

[martinjuenke]

Serum has won!

[Sampleconstruct]

Get a harp.

[User3]

I wonder whether or not Serum 2 or Nexus 5 will be able to compare with Kontakt 7 and 8 as for advanced third-party emulations of real instruments.

[KBSoundSmith]

No, not even in the discussion.

[coroknight]

It’ll be a tough choice so I’ll probably end up getting both. Something that surprised me about Serum 2 is the pleasant softness to the sound that makes it easier to get good sounds out of it.

I felt the same way about Zebralette 3 when it came out. I didn’t think a single oscillator would sound that good and be that versatile.

[a9k1tp]

Keep both and delete everything else

[Fannon]

I only quickly tried Serum 2 demo, but now that it became a sample layer / multi-samples and granular it fells like it's got almost the same feature set as Pigments. There won't be sample based synthesis in Zebra 3, so if you need that Serum 2 or Pigments would be a good complement. But Serum 2 and Pigments are also very conservative in their features, I'm sure Zebra 3 let's you do crazy things that neither of them could do.

[Ah_Dziz]

Both. They are different enough (not even having seen Z3) to be extremely useful.

[HOTF]

wait for Serum 3