Massive X vs Zebra 3

[nexusfluxx]

OG Massive is a pretty great UI!

*Very* fast to work with. Bit of an ugly spud, but a top example of a tool designed to just...

Get. Stuff. Done.

[oobesan]

The GUI comparisons are kind of pointless. Different synths with different features are going to have different needs for GUI. If there is one design principle that always holds true, however, it’s simpler is better. To that end, I offer you Retro Synth (Logic Pro) and TRK-101 (Native Instruments) as dead-simple GUI.

[EvilDragon]

MassiveX is far better sounding than this sterile Zebra thing.

Aaaaaaand no that's not true. They are on par sound quality wise, they also have different strengths.

[machinesworking]

MassiveX is far better sounding than this sterile Zebra thing.

Aaaaaaand no that's not true. They are on par sound quality wise, they also have different strengths.

Exactly, its a bit like comparing Kontakt and Falcon, owning both is not redundant.

[digitalboytn]

and in the red corner we have.....

[JsinOwl]

For me, Zebra 3 wins by default judgement because I like u-he as a company and dislike NI immensely.

[SamDi]

IMO neither Serum nor Pigments are perfect as far as GUI.

OK "perfect" is a big word. At least they are the "momentary reference" of good GUI

Pigments is nausiating to me, too many colors and too much movement.

It's a really hard question because there is no objective answer. Plus, perfection is unattainable. But I would say the likes of FabFilter and Tokyo Dawn Labs are doing stellar job at this.

GUI is not just colors and the look. It's also about workflow - how many actions do I need to do to achieve certain thinks, how far do I need to move the mouse, how easy can I find out, what is going on in an patch.

It's furthermore the balance of different things: how easy can you do things, without everytime needing to consult the manual (for beginners) vs. how quick and efficient can you do things by involving the keyboard, without needing to click deep in menus (for advanced). It's also consistency (things doing the same way) vs. shortcut paths (things doing in a extra but quicker way).

Your example with Fabfilter is a very mixed bag. Timeless 3 is the worst GUI of all the delays, I own. And Twin 3 is also one of the worst synth GUIs, I ever experienced. And that'a a very simple synth. Imagine Zebra 3 or Serum with the Twin GUI. It would be a hell of a mess.

While Pro-Q is a very nice pleasent and functional GUI, it can be discussed, if it is the best GUI for pros, who have to set hundreds of EQ bands per day. Or if a solution like Equlibrium, where you can set to have all the boring, non-fancy knobs for all bands accessible at once, might be the better solution. Since some time, I started to stick more on the DAWs EQ (Nuendo), since it's way faster, more convenient and a very integrated workflow especially, if you wanna do things quickly on multiple tracks.

For Pro-C and Pro-MB, I think they are as best as GUIs for compressors can get.

[Alexander_D]

Zebra 3 is an amazing and power synth! And Urs is really great sound engineer. And I am sure, that they will add more great things in the next updates of Zebra 3.

[mambo888]

For me Zebra is more advanced than Massive X, but I like both of them.

I don’t want all synths to have the same GUI, I don’t mind that they are all different, they have their own character.

I don’t mind clicking and using the mouse, what I hate is adjusting the notes in piano roll, for me that’s the nightmare, everything else is a piece of cake.