Zebra/Alchemy vs... the world?

[Lotuzia]

..............

ok, so now you have steered this back to xils somehow...

...............

You commented two Xils synths, I answered. End of.

If you dont like me to answer to your posts, just dont mention Xils synths. Simple.

[Lotuzia]

OK, so you're dumbing down the process of making a wub wub dubstep bass even further... It's something that can be done in massive just using the internal sequencer pretty easily, or any other synth that you can modulate a tempo locked LFO speed with a sequencer... The bass sounded pretty smooth *but*, lacked edge if you ask me. Maybe that was the programming rather than the sound, but who's to know... Your synth doesn't even exist yet.

If you cant understand the difference between playing a bass in a natural way and getting this result, and playing "any" bass and then make more or less complicated automation in a Daw , then you might have missed a part of what *music* is about. You can also make a synth by taking a sine wave in your daw, add an external filter, and draw the LFOs with the mouse in the automation panes. See, you dont really need "synths". I already mentioned that Massive could eventually make this sort of instruments, with a different sound though, not in the same way, or not with the same interaction with the musician playing.

Then of course, the bass is not by design, you know the synths come bundled with ready made instruments made by the gremlins inside the machine. See when Agent K opens the door of the chest in MIB II to get a more complete explanation of this phenomenon. Unfortunately our gremlins are very bad programmers, like all the things we do, as you're well aware of.

Finally, It doesnt exist but it makes sound.

[Urs]

Well, if the OP doesn't go for ACE or Diva then I'd suggest to wait a bit too. We have something really exciting on our white board that might fit inbetween our endeavours to update Zebra. Also, of course, the upcomming Zebra update might leave little else to wish for.

How many K does your white board hold? That must be mounted on
a long long wall

This concept is so simple and so good, it needs just a square of about 50 x 50 cm to warp a smile on each of our faces.

[xx JPRacer xx]

This concept is so simple and so good, it needs just a square of about 50 x 50 cm to warp a smile on each of our faces.

ETA?

[Urs]

This concept is so simple and so good, it needs just a square of about 50 x 50 cm to warp a smile on each of our faces.

ETA?

As I said, if we can justify doing it on the side then it'll happen this year. It does take a few technologies we've planned for Zebra and put them in a very digestible package. The target audience would not necessarily be our typical userbase (if such exists).

[_leras]

OK, so you're dumbing down the process of making a wub wub dubstep bass even further... It's something that can be done in massive just using the internal sequencer pretty easily, or any other synth that you can modulate a tempo locked LFO speed with a sequencer... The bass sounded pretty smooth *but*, lacked edge if you ask me. Maybe that was the programming rather than the sound, but who's to know... Your synth doesn't even exist yet.

If you cant understand the difference between playing a bass in a natural way and getting this result, and playing "any" bass and then make more or less complicated automation in a Daw , then you might have missed a part of what *music* is about. You can also make a synth by taking a sine wave in your daw, add an external filter, and draw the LFOs with the mouse in the automation panes. See, you dont really need "synths". I already mentioned that Massive could eventually make this sort of instruments, with a different sound though, not in the same way, or not with the same interaction with the musician playing.

Then of course, the bass is not by design, you know the synths come bundled with ready made instruments made by the gremlins inside the machine. See when Agent K opens the door of the chest in MIB II to get a more complete explanation of this phenomenon. Unfortunately our gremlins are very bad programmers, like all the things we do, as you're well aware of.

Finally, It doesnt exist but it makes sound.

You have a pretty soft bass, with an LFO type filter opening sound afaik. It honestly sounds just that, a bit muffled and a bit plain. I don't see anything unusual in that playing - what part of the playing or bass sound do you think I am missing? Maybe you've done something 'funky' like map keyboard velocity to LFO rate. Woooh, ground breaking!

Maybe you wanted a 'softer' bass sound here, and not one with 'edge' - I don't know. Maybe you were limited by the filters on the 'real but not available' synth.

You actually don't need to automate things in a host sequencer to speed up the LFO rate, depending on what synth you are using...

btw, I do understand that *we* are the gremlins programming the machines. Stop getting your knickers in a twist just because I didn't like one of your synths. I like the other one I own, even if it is a bit of a pain to program.

[Bronto Scorpio]

A few tricks to get more "edgy" sounds out of Zebra:

1. Use the FMOs! FMOs are perfect to get aggressive sounds. Try to feed them with complex signals instead of just sine waves.
2. The Scrambler and Scatter OscFX are great to get those Massive like wavetable sounds.
3. Use the Shaper module (particularly the Crush mode) and the Decimate VCF filter.
4. Combine some/all of these methods.

For aggressive sounds it's often a good idea to start with a harmonically complex source. Use some unusual wavetables (not just squares and saws), mangle them with some OscFX, route them into an FMO......the possibilities are endless. And don't forget to modulate the sh*t out of everything. Also try to assign some of the XY controls.

Here is an example I made *really* quickly: Ugly Beast

Cheers
Dennis

[bmrzycki]

Here is an example I made *really* quickly: Ugly Beast

Very nice raw grunge there BS. I'd recommend adding a resonant bandpass filter in parallel and modulate the cutoff to add more presence and movement to the grit.

At the end of the day it's all about personal preference. We're lucky to have the choices we do today.

[padillac]

I love both of these tools, and particularly like sampling a sound from Zebra and loading it into Alchemy. Now I'm just wondering if I can go the other way...convert a wav into zebra's format to use as the wave table.

[deadReactor]

A few tricks to get more "edgy" sounds out of Zebra:

@Bronto
Excellent tips, very casually posted . The stuff you can produce applying those is pretty amazing, I'm actually pretty stoked.
Thanks! .

[_leras]

A few tricks to get more "edgy" sounds out of Zebra:

Here is an example I made *really* quickly: Ugly Beast

Cheers
Dennis

Nice sound - certainly not polite! How easy it is it to then add a 'bass pressure' layer onto that sound in Zebra for some true phatness?

.

[@midnight]

Okay - I've had the urge to buy yet another software synth recently. I hear that happens sometimes.

I was thinking of getting something a bit more aggressive and digital than my usual fare; perhaps Cyclop or Massive - or even Helix (despite the GUI).

The problem is, I bought both Zebra and Alchemy some time ago. As ever, when I'm tempted to buy a new synth, I have a big guilt trip and go back to these favourite two to see if I can do something that sounds appropriate with them.

So - with Massive in mind - I sat down with Zebra and found that with a little effort, I was getting massively distorted, growly basses and weird jangly leads out of it that weren't a million miles from the synth I was considering. I was surprised. I had assumed that Zebra lacked aggression. I was wrong.

So:

Bar 'workflow/UI' preferences*, has anyone found anything in Massive, Cyclop or Helix that just can't be done with these two? In fact, is there a patch in any non-sample-based synth that can't be made almost identically in Zebra?

This genuinely isn't meant to be flamey-troll-bait, nor hubris. I'm just finding that the major distinction between software synths these days seems to be 'workflow/UI', 'reduced aliasing', or 'decent audio-rate FM'... and that's it.

Am I missing something? Has anyone else found this 'Huh... I'll just do it in Zebra' mentality creeping in?



*Workflow/UI is - of course - an entirely valid reason to prefer to use something over Zebra. In my case, it might not be sufficient to convince me of a purchase, though!

Skrillex uses FM8 for his best growl basses, like what you hear on Scary Monsters and Rock & Roll. There's a youtube video showing you how to do it. If you have Zebra and Alchemy I would recommend FM8. That would be 3 synths that can do almost anything.