Cakewalk sells Z3ta+ for $20

[BFunKu]

z3ta+ for $20!!!! That is just a Must Have!!! What other Synth can load midi files into the Arpeggiator?

[Shabdahbriah]

Excellent synth. A steal at $20. I bought it 7 years ago and still love it as much as the first day I got it. Just be aware that with the latest version you can't use the extra banks available on the internet without having to tweak the presets. You have to change the oversampling setting for many of those presets as well as sometimes disable the limiter to hear those presets. I reverted to the older version of Zeta which is not available from Cakewalk. That older version opens all presets just fine.

How much "older"? I'm on v.1.5, I think the newest is v.1.5.3(?).

I know I have a ton of them all the way back to v.1-ish.

[androidlove]

You'r going to want to use the instructions given in the download AND then these instructions to install the Virus MOD

there are many differences between what the instructions mention and what was installed by cakewalk today

[zerocrossing]

It's interesting to see Cakewalk do this, but I hope it's a prelude to zet4+. Look, I already named it for them.

[kevvvvv]

Sentimental post follows:

I remember when Zeta first came out.

KVR went mad for it. There was hardly a thing to touch it for power, quality and programmability in its day.

And it was presented by this studiously polite and extremely intelligent dude from Tierra del Feugo, which is such a romantic concept for a northern world dweller like me.

Rene faithfully listened and upgraded, and answered all questions, and the presets grew and grew, including notable contributions from Fr4ncesco, and many others.

The "fussers" complained it was too digital, but most people were in awe of arps, lfos galore, and sfz wave imports (totally radical then), and such a stunning fx section.

Then Cakewalk stole Rene away, and it was never quite the same after that.

I guess we're all ruined now

[Chaos practise]

What other Synth can load midi files into the Arpeggiator?

I'm sure something could be built in Reaktor.

Sounds to me like this is going to be a discontinued product in a years time.

[androidlove]

the presets grew and grew

any recommendations? the kire banks are fantastic. i already have enough sounds for a lifetime of making dance music

[izonin]

oh yeah $20 Snap! time

[Shabdahbriah]

What other Synth can load midi files into the Arpeggiator?

Alchemy does... uses pitch, timing, or velocity (IIRC) from directly imported midi files.

[cryophonik]

It's interesting to see Cakewalk do this, but I hope it's a prelude to zet4+. Look, I already named it for them.

I'm guessing this is probably a combination of trying to jumpstart sales of an older synth to generate some revenue, and building anticipation for an updated version of Rapture. As mentioned previously, Cakewalk sent out a rather lengthy poll recently asking for opinions on specific features and functions in the next version of Rapture. I'm pretty excited to see what they come up with.

[DrApostropheX]

Cakewalk's pricing has always kind of reminded me of having an alcoholic uncle: some days you can catch him in a generous mood and he'll give you the shirt off his back (or Z3ta+ for $20) and other days you'll want to upgrade to the new version of the software you bought less than a year ago and he'll scream at you and charge you $250 for it.

[androidlove]

Cakewalk's pricing has always kind of reminded me of having an alcoholic uncle: some days you can catch him in a generous mood and he'll give you the shirt of his back (or Z3ta+ for $20) and other days you'll want to upgrade to the new version of the software you bought less than a year ago and he'll scream at you and charge you $250 for it.

yay! caught him on the upswing
with this, the ik gb, and rainbow released for free, i've been happily deleting vst's

[pheeleep]

Hey Shabdahbriah,

I'me using V1.4

But I am am going to resave the banks (the free ones I got on the net) and install the latest version of Z3ta+ to see what gives..

Oh, and I love the original skin. I can't see myself ever changing it. It still looks better than the other skins people made

[eduardo_b]

That's pretty cheap for a nice synth that also works as an effect.

More than pretty cheap. Compared to the price way back when, before Cakewalk acquired rgc:audio, this is a fabulous price for a great instrument.

The difference way back when, I guess, is that they were still paying out to develop it. Now it's been put on the "legacy" shelf, they can charge what they want for it.

I know that's a common explanation for pricing, but Z3TA+ didn't have a long development cycle after release, and hasn't been updated in many years. I think prices have come down overall to deal with a changed marketplace with or without development. Still, $20 is almost like getting this plug-in for free.

I bow down to your knowledge on this, and it is indeed a great bargain! But now that it looks like that Rapture, Z3TAs successor, will follow the same path, I'm wondering where Cakewalk are going with all this. They haven't produced any new standalone instrument in a long time.

Either they're winding down the synth arm as a source of revenue (there's been a lot of hardware released recently), or something major is about to be released...

Dude, NO bowing.

I think Rapture is much more challenging to use than Z3TA+, which is why I rarely used it and now it's archived on an external drive.

[Cyforce]

20€? WTF

Mhmmmm compelling price...