Zebra vs Serum

[Apostate]

Zebra's pretty awesome with all the modulation capabilities, and keep in mind it's wavetable in its own right...not as capable as some others out there.

Dark Zebra/Zebra HZ is incredible as you now get the Diva filters as well, but keep in mind this brings about a decent CPU hit. For those thinking Serum may be too CPU intensive, Dark Zebra may be in the same boat.

I've never used Serum. Zebra HZ is one of my gotos, and I even prefer it over Diva these days only because the modulation abilities on Zebra are so much more and varied. In the end, it all depends on the sound(s) you're looking for along with the workflow. And it sounds like you've already answered those questions in the OP.

As good as Diva is, I actually sold it once I studied Dark Zebra. I mostly just used the former for leads, which is imo where Diva really excels. I simply stopped finding a use for it as Zebra opened up for me. Still an excellent synth of course.

[pdxindy]

I have made my own sounds in Serum and It is quite easy. Much easier than in Zebra. But if you have some knowledge and a lot of spare time you can do make miracles with Zebra.

The modular nature of Zebra definitely adds a bit of initial learning curve, but once learned, then it is fast and easy.

[pdxindy]

Serum has an amazing workflow

I think that Serum is excellent for beginners and initially cause it makes sense visually... but past that, I'm a bit doubtful that most of the people who say it has such a great workflow have dome a lot of actual sound design themselves. I mean, it is a basic 2 Osc, plus sub and noise, 1 filter fixed architecture synth (it's the complex wavetable Osc's that are noteworthy) and yet there is so much tabbing to do.

Want to edit 2 envelopes together? gotta tab back and forth. Wanna see the Mod Matrix, tab... now you cannot see and edit sources and targets. A lot of parameters I would commonly edit in conjunction with one another means constant tabbing back and forth in Serum. I find that clumsy.

Compare Serum to Hive. Hive I can see and edit all 4 Osc's, 2 filters, 4 Envelopes, 2 LFO's, Mod Matrix and FX without tabbing. Now that is what I call an amazing workflow. Little to no tabbing. I would like to see a GUI version of Serum that had a lot less tabbing.

[Igro]

Serum has an amazing workflow

Want to edit 2 envelopes together? gotta tab back and forth. Wanna see the Mod Matrix, tab... now you cannot see and edit sources and targets. A lot of parameters I would commonly edit in conjunction with one another means constant tabbing back and forth in Serum. I find that clumsy.

Good points!

[V0RT3X]

Serum Features



- up to 4x oversampling for minimal aliasing (Zebra2 has no oversampling options)
- loadable tuning files
- Ability to turn Pitch tracking on or off for the oscillators
- 2 Chaos oscillators for random modulation sources
- In depth unison settings (Not as much control over Unison spread in Zebra)


- Drag and Drop modulation similar to Massive (Zebra2 has a new target modulation system that it took from Hive)
- Most knobs in Serum can be modulated



- 32 Max voices of Polyphony
- 512 Maximum Voices when using full 16voice unison on both oscillators



- 4 Macro knobs which can be assigned for performance.



- Mod Matrix with 32 levels of Sources, Destinations, etc



- Portamento and glide features.



- Simple velocity Keymapping section



- 3 Envelopes, No MSEGs though, and you get a maximum time of 32s for them. You can adjust the curves on the slopes, but it's not as flexible as Zebra.



- 2 Oscillators max
- 16 voices of unison vs Zebras 11 voices per oscillator



- Wave shaping effects that are much different than what you get with Zebra2! Lots of these are identical to what you get with Massive.



- 6 types of OSC shapes for your sub osc. You can also send the output of the sub directly out, bypassing the filters etc. However in Zebra you can make your own Sub Osc using any OSC module you want and have way more control.



- Welcome to the OSC editor which is the heart of Serum IMO. You can draw your own shapes using the editor on the left hand side. You can also change the resolution of the wave table grid for more detail if you wish.



- At the top of the page is a Bin editor which lets you do additive synthesis to create your waves. There are a maximum of 512 bins for you to work with. Compared to Zebra I am not sure how many bins you get per oscillator.



- Built in math parser for creating your own shapes. This comes with lots of predefined math for you to use.



- Each wavetable has a maximum of 256 waves vs Zebras 16. This is per OSC.



- The noise section uses samples, much like Massives. Zebra2 uses generated noise so it is much cleaner and presents less artifacts.



- The LFO Section, gives you 4 LFOs all with their own speeds and settings. If you hold down shift it lets you draw in stepped mode. The Grid has a maximum resolution of 16, and you can lower that for bigger or smaller sizes. It also features a smoothing knob which smooths out the LFO shape as you turn it up.



- Serum has one main filter, and a second filter in the FX section. You get quite a number of filters, however compared to Zebra you do not get the routing flexibility that Zebra offers.



- More filter types



- Comb, flanger and phaser filter types.



- More filter types, including a formant filter, bandreject, allpass etc.



- FX section with drag and drop ordering



- FX Modules part 1



- FX Modules part 2



- FX Modules part 3

[Apostate]

All respect, but I'm not sure what the point of showing all the Serum modules is...could you explain? It doesn't exactly look impressive or reveal anything really pertinent to the topic; most people can just demo Serum and see that for themselves.

Serum has a lot of features, so does Zebra.

We could show all the modules in Zebra next I guess. I'll pass.

No offense intended.

[V0RT3X]

All respect, but I'm not sure what the point of showing all the Serum modules is...could you explain? It doesn't exactly look impressive or reveal anything really pertinent to the topic; most people can just demo Serum and see that for themselves.

Serum has a lot of features, so does Zebra.

We could show all the modules in Zebra next I guess. I'll pass.

No offense intended.

None taken, i just figured it would be a good way for some people to see the differences between the two. I did put two notes under each picture to show some of the differences.

Sure some people could Demo it, but this might just save them the time. For complete beginners I figured this might be a good thing to see it visually.

I actually was going to do the Zebra modules next, but my internet is currently slow as I am on vacation.

My point in showing these modules off is not to say one is better, but that both offers features the other does not have. Therefore owning both is a good option.

If i had to start with one, it would be Serum. This is just my opinion, but it is very fast to work with. For a more modular sound design approach, Zebra is an excellent option.

[quantum7]

In you own words, "Zebra: Jesus, the sound. Holy smokes. It blasts into your ears." Zebra should be your pick, as sound should be the most important thing, of course. Serum sound good, but Zebra is just something special, and very CPU friendly compared to Serum. When you get Zebra, make sure and check out the many fantastic 3rd-part sound-sets. IMO, many of the factory presets do not do Zebra justice. Other than perhaps Omnisphere 2, I cannot think of another synth that I would rather have on my DAW.

[Apostate]

None taken, i just figured it would be a good way for some people to see the differences between the two. I did put two notes under each picture to show some of the differences.

Sure some people could Demo it, but this might just save them the time. For complete beginners I figured this might be a good thing to see it visually.

I actually was going to do the Zebra modules next, but my internet is currently slow as I am on vacation.

My point in showing these modules off is not to say one is better, but that both offers features the other does not have. Therefore owning both is a good option.

If i had to start with one, it would be Serum. This is just my opinion, but it is very fast to work with. For a more modular sound design approach, Zebra is an excellent option.

Oh I get it

I did own both, it's just that I left Serum unopened for most of last Summer and found myself making excuses to open it up just because...when it reaches that point, I'm selling. My deepening understanding of Zebra made it a foregone conclusion, not because one is necessarily better. It's just that I also have Nave, PPG Wavegenerator and 'Mapper, Hyrogliph (Reaktor), Electra. I realize those all have differences as well, but I felt I was pretty well covered

[NAD]

For all those people mentioning that Zebra sounds dark in comparison to Serums brightness, it's worth mentioning in Zebra the Brilliance oscillator effect will give you a much crisper more modern sounding saw whereas turning it counter-clockwise is useful for sounding more analog or vintage.

[Apostate]

For all those people mentioning that Zebra sounds dark in comparison to Serums brightness, it's worth mentioning in Zebra the Brilliance oscillator effect will give you a much crisper more modern sounding saw whereas turning it counter-clockwise is useful for sounding more analog or vintage.

I really love the oscillator effects, there's so much you can do there, plus mod away!

[Fred_Abstract]

i find zebra (and some other u he synth like bazille and diva) sound veiled ,something weird on the top of the spectrum, once you focus on that it become really iritating . serum is the opposite but it's too much.

both synth don't sound the same at all , i find it weird to choose a synth based on feature..always go for the sound you enjoy best.

[blob 59]

Zebra : the sound , versatility , CPU efficiency , oh and did I mention the sound! You should give it priority , no question .
But Serum is an excellent synth, doing what it was primarily built to do superlatively well, but it takes power to deliver it's results (there's always 'freeze' etc.)
It will be interesting to learn what you conclude.

[jdoo]

You have three mega-threads, all somewhat related. "What Synth? What affordable Synth (where you talk about Serum..), and now this one... "Zebra vs. Serum".

In both the OP here, and on the "What affordable Synth?" thread - you lean away from Serum.

I have both. Zebra kicks butt. So does Serum. You don't mention it here (but I have to admit, to not wasting too much time looking for it) - but you mentioned in one of your other threads... that your prefered genre is trance/progressive house. Both Zebra and Serum will do those. IMO - Serum a little easier. In any case, you can't go wrong with either one. They're both excellent. If you can't make up your mind, with all the previous q & a- i would recommend going with Zebra. Serum is a fantastic synth - but you already stated, "I wanted Serum at first- I soon realized that it's not necessary for all of it's greatness. My genre would be trance/progressive house, so I probably won't use all of Serum's tools."

[hollo]

I love every little bit of Serum. The Oscillator and the editing is great.
The synth is brilliant what is made for.
It was quite a challenge for me to make some more soft and warm sounds for it
and i am still proud and happy i could finally made the "Warmed" soundset.

When i switched back to Zebra it was a relief to make the same kind of sounds.
Open possibilities in every direction. I didn't yet found a dead end in it.
Zebra alone is the reason i making soundsets now, so for me it's a great gift and still top of the list - until Zebra3 coming.
(hopefully coming with the same kind of oscillator editing features like in Serum or better. )

No other synth has come close for me as far as being able to craft the exact sounds with the nuances I want. Zebra is a tool of fine craftsmanship.

This!

Cheers,
Joseph