Pulsar Modular's First Instrument Zorba Semi-Modular Synth

[P900]

Quick workflow tip:
You can use up/down arrows to move between modules and Left/right arrows to flip between the same family's modules.

More edgy sound, push the gain on the VCOs and lower the VCA OUT.

[Old Norse]

Nice to finally get my hands on Zorba - was a very early adopter

I'd love to hear your take on it - your "Gossamer" patches for Tela are brilliant!

Also KVR member @cinebient, who made some gorgeous stuff with the original p900 back in the day. But he seems not to be active anymore.

[Uncle E]

So yeah, Zebra is remarkably full featured, and sounds great, but I bet it can’t get close to the vibe of Zorba. It’s a different animal.

The first thing Zorba reminded me of is AudioThing July. Similar crunchy oscillators.

[wagtunes]

Okay, so I just listened to this off of Soundcloud.

https://soundcloud.com/pucks-recordings ... ar-modular

And there are other tracks now playing. They sound very good. $225 good? I'm not hearing it. To me, it just sounds like another good sounding vst.

So what am I missing? Am I simply unable to hear the greatness of this synth?

[VariKusBrainZ]

Wag is last as usual

[Uncle E]

Okay, so I just listened to this off of Soundcloud.

https://soundcloud.com/pucks-recordings ... ar-modular

And there are other tracks now playing. They sound very good. $225 good? I'm not hearing it. To me, it just sounds like another good sounding vst.

So what am I missing? Am I simply unable to hear the greatness of this synth?

I'd say that demo is a fair representation of the sound.

[htothehza]

Congrats PM! Took the demo for a spin and it sounds really good.

Feature request: Parameter lock for the fine tune control.

[Seafire Mk2]

Am I simply unable to hear the greatness of this synth?

Unlikely

[wagtunes]

Wag is last as usual

Last to what exactly? This thing just came out.

[pekbro]

Have these guys ever even done an accurate emulation of anything?

[zerocrossing]

Had a chance to try it. I'll not be buying it.

First off, cranking it into self resonance gets noticeable aliasing on higher notes. Unacceptable for 2026, especially a premiumly priced plugin that uses as much CPU as this one does.

Second, no polyphonic aftertouch support, a dealbreaker for me.

Third... why does there always seem to be some filter attack when there is none?

Fourth, terrible UI. Incredible waste of space, and don't get me started on the mod matrix.

Last, not much there. There's not really that much going on, even though it does sound pretty good. I'll pay a premium price for a plugin, but it's got to be a premium plugin.

I'd planned on getting Korg's PS-3300, and I think I'm going to stick with that plan. Maybe if they make some updates, I'll give it a second try, but I'm not feeling it.

[zerocrossing]

Have these guys ever even done an accurate emulation of anything?

I can't speak for the accuracy of any of their emulations, but Lunar Lander is a great plugin.

[pekbro]

Have these guys ever even done an accurate emulation of anything?

I can't speak for the accuracy of any of their emulations, but Lunar Lander is a great plugin.

So I hear, though they didn’t write that as I understand it. In any event while I’m not
really on board with them, I think their stuff
sounds good, even if I think their engineering could be better.

[Benjamin923]

This doesn’t stand out to me tbh, and highlighting it as a semi modular synth almost seems odd unless I’m missing something. Do they just mean it has a modulation matrix or is there something more fundamentally modular you can do here?

[Uncle E]

Seems to be semi-modular the way that DIVA is semi-modular. You can swap in different oscillators and filters. - I was wrong