KVR Audio

ew · Post by ew » Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:27 pm

zerocrossing wrote: BTW, I see people suggest Tera, but no one seems to ever mention Poseidon by Virsyn. I find it easier to use than Tera and just as good sounding. Cheaper too.

M

There's a world of difference between Tera and Poseidon. Poseidon does resynthesis of images and samples- that's it. Tera does "analog", FM, physical modeling, additive, sample playback, wavetable/Walsh/wavelet (through the spectrum oscillator), formant- in short, everything other than what Poseidon does. They don't really overlap at all...

Any of the Virsyn synths are worth the money; they're all used lots around here.

ew

sounddesigner · Post by **sounddesigner** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:19 pm

Psy-T wrote:1. which sounds better for you?
2. which works better for you?
and if necessary, 3. which is more important to you (sound- which is to say core sound of the synth and presets, or 'work'- which is to say interface, cpu usage, et cetera)?

Good answers!

shogger · Post by **shogger** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 9:31 pm

For me personally creating sounds with Zebra is way easier than with Surge. I like Zebras sound more in general. Zebras sonic palette seems to be bigger. It can do a very wide variety of sounds very convincing and pleasing to my ears. What I mean is: Zebra can't do everything but all that it can do sounds great if done right. Eh, yeah. Exactly, something like this.

Shogger

BFunKu · Post by **BFunKu** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:34 am

Shit! Zebra2 makes Surge Look like a Joke.

MitchK1989 · Post by **MitchK1989** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:43 am

I prefer Surge.

I demoed both, and Surge reminded me of my old nord lead, both in general sonic character and in it's wonderful ability to just "fit" in a mix without having to hack it to pieces with a parametric EQ. The modulators are quite possibly the most powerful I have seen in awhile without being absurdly time consuming to use... The system for routing modulation is second only to Fabfilter's twin IMO.

I am planning on picking zebra up too as soon as 2.5 comes out. Surge is more digital sounding, and more aggressive. Like Massive, only not so extreme and more feature packed (and it uses WAY less CPU). The FM osc algos in particular can make some great sounds. The presets suck, but the interface is great for making your own. Zebra on the other hand is an entirely different workflow with the patching and such, has weaker modulators (the MSEGs and User LFOs are flexible, but time consuming, the normal ADSRs and LFOs aren't as flexible as surge's... And Surge just has more mod sources total you can use at once...) but more flexibility on the wavetable side of things (as you can create your own with drawing tools or additively) and zebra on a whole is a lot more "smooth" and "creamy" compared to Surge's grit.

Bob Nova · Post by **Bob Nova** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:56 pm

I'll vote for Zebra. One of my favorite softsynths.In a very cluttered field, it stands out.

kuniklo · Post by **kuniklo** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:00 pm

I love them both, but the XMF filter in Zebra means I can use it for everything, instead of keeping some analog emu plugs around for those kinds of sounds.

warbug · Post by **warbug** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:02 pm

i vote both.

Zebra is more modular... if that helps any

i use Zebra more in my music..but i think that will change once i get more comfortable with surge.

fceramic · Post by **fceramic** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:39 pm

I guess Zebra is more favored.
As for sound I agree that they seem very different. Zebra is very smooth and powerful. Surge sounds more like Thor, grittier and better for dryer sounds.

I guess Zebra will be my pick. I will keep demoing it a little more to see if I can get my head around all the crazy possibilities.
Surge so far wins GUI-wise. It's not a pretty synth but it's compact and very intuitive. The LFO and the envelopes are really cool too.

But in the end I my impression is that Zebra 2 will go really well with my current instrument collection.

fceramic · Post by **fceramic** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:17 pm

I got a 50% discount on Surge, so the choice is obvious. Haha it's all about the budget then. I wanted both anyways. If U-HE could just be so kind to offer the same.

Zebra 2 will have to wait.

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:52 pm

fridtjof wrote:I got a 50% discount on Surge, so the choice is obvious. Haha it's all about the budget then. I wanted both anyways. If U-HE could just be so kind to offer the same.

Not sure whether U-He offers student discounts. Maybe he does, if you ask (there's even the "Dinosaur crossgrade" option).

Anyways, if you want a little more taste of Zebra without any demo linmitations, get yourself a copy of "Computer Music" and check out Zebra CM. It's already quite capable, plus, should you ever get the full version, you can continue using the sounds you made with the CM version.

MaxSynths · Post by **MaxSynths** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:06 pm

Sascha Franck wrote:
fridtjof wrote:(there's even the "Dinosaur crossgrade" option).

...yes but I must admit that I don't know if the "Zebra2 Crossgrade Gallery" is a fake

You can see things like an Andromeda, Matrix12, SCI Pro One, Nord Modular, Prophet V and many more. For 199$ I do prefer to keep my analog stuff and buy the softsynth.

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:14 pm

MaxSynths wrote: For 199$ I do prefer to keep my analog stuff and buy the softsynth.

Urs doesn't require you to send him the actual synth. Just a (hopefully slightly funny) picture with that "retired and replaced with Zebra" logo thing will do.

MaxSynths · Post by **MaxSynths** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:16 pm

Sascha Franck wrote:
MaxSynths wrote: For 199$ I do prefer to keep my analog stuff and buy the softsynth.
Urs doesn't require you to send him the actual synth. Just a (hopefully slightly funny) picture with that "retired and replaced with Zebra" logo thing will do.

So the dino crossgrade option what is??

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:25 pm

MaxSynths wrote: So the dino crossgrade option what is??

It's all described here:
http://www.u-he.com/zebra/download/Z2Crossgrade.pdf

What killer synth do I need? Surge or Zebra?