u-he

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 6:03 pm

so ill be buying a new pc for sure this march but, im done playing the buy/sell game and i want a synth that will have tons of presets, sounds great, be very versatile, be very easy to tweak, excel at all genres, and just be everything i want it to be.

zebra seems to fit this the bill. but, for now, (will be buying the new pc after march 19th my birthday) is a q9540 quadcore 2.6, and 3 gigs of ram enough to make entire tracks with zebra.

it 'seem's thats zebras cpu is quite moderate you might even say low. but, is this just because the factory presets are very minimal or is zebra pretty good on cpu/ram?

system requirements don't specify what type of cpu you need but do state that 1 gig is the minimal. so, till i get my new pc, do i have enough cpu/ram for zebra?

aaron aardvark · Post by **aaron aardvark** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 6:50 pm

The Zebra sounds can be rather complex, but easy on the computer compared to u-he Diva, and some popular competitors. I run an iMac. I would imagine some PC users will chime in. A great way to see how it works with your computer, is try the free demo (I think the sound cuts out every once in a while, so you'll probably be willing to pay for it once you're hooked on it). Great synth for a reasonable price, if you like it. I think you mean "pull the trigger" (to go ahead with) instead of "pull the plug" (which lets something or someone die).

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 7:29 pm

aaron aardvark wrote:The Zebra sounds can be rather complex, but easy on the computer compared to u-he Diva, and some popular competitors. I run an iMac. I would imagine some PC users will chime in. A great way to see how it works with your computer, is try the free demo (I think the sound cuts out every once in a while, so you'll probably be willing to pay for it once you're hooked on it). Great synth for a reasonable price, if you like it. I think you mean "pull the trigger" (to go ahead with) instead of "pull the plug" (which lets something or someone die).

yeah i mean the trigger

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:12 pm

i need more opinions. maybe from urs himself. cause zebra isn't cheap. but it does seem very reasonable on cpu but what im afraid is that once i buy it, and actually start tweaking it the cpu will start to show its ugly head. i find that a dirty trick that software developers do is limit use of most of the really cpu intensive features in a synth. i really don't need this happening

bmrzycki · Post by **bmrzycki** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:16 pm

AstralExistence wrote:it seems that zebra's cpu is quite moderate you might even say low. but, is this just because the factory presets are very minimal or is zebra pretty good on cpu/ram?

Zebra tends to be quite friendly on your CPU. Any modern Intel processor, either on Mac or PC, will do a decent job with several (more than 6-10) instances of Zebra on a single track. It's much lighter on your CPU than Diva.

If you want to see Zebra hog your CPU do one ore more of the following:
* use 2.5 mode only (2.3's filter models are a bit more CPU friendly)
* use XMF filters instead of VCF
* add long amp envelope release times and switch the note count to Many
* Play multiple notes (chords) at once
* increase the resolution of the OSCs to maximum

So the most CPU intensive preset has 4 OSCS with full resolution, uses both XMF filters, is in 2.5 native mode, and has a long release time with Many notes allowed. You can quickly create such presets and watch your CPU spike. as you play 10 notes.

And really, download the demo and try these out. The only restriction the demo has is notes start to wander after 15 minutes. You can save presets and load everything on the PatchLib to test the load.

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:25 pm

bmrzycki wrote:
AstralExistence wrote:it seems that zebra's cpu is quite moderate you might even say low. but, is this just because the factory presets are very minimal or is zebra pretty good on cpu/ram?
Zebra tends to be quite friendly on your CPU. Any modern Intel processor, either on Mac or PC, will do a decent job with several (more than 6-10) instances of Zebra on a single track. It's much lighter on your CPU than Diva.

If you want to see Zebra hog your CPU do one ore more of the following:
* use 2.5 mode only (2.3's filter models are a bit more CPU friendly)
* use XMF filters instead of VCF
* add long amp envelope release times and switch the note count to Many
* Play multiple notes (chords) at once
* increase the resolution of the OSCs to maximum

So the most CPU intensive preset has 4 OSCS with full resolution, uses both XMF filters, is in 2.5 native mode, and has a long release time with Many notes allowed. You can quickly create such presets and watch your CPU spike. as you play 10 notes.

And really, download the demo and try these out. The only restriction the demo has is notes start to wander after 15 minutes. You can save presets and load everything on the PatchLib to test the load.

ok.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:54 pm

I'm curious if Zebra has the same multi-thread optimization that DIVA has. I did own it once a year ago but I ended up selling it and never really found out the answer. I did find that Zebra could run with 12 or so instances at 24bit 96khz in ableton live and it barely used up that much of my 2.4ghz Intel i7 Quad core CPU. However keep in mind I was using mostly the presets instead of using my own. I think it would be good if someone made a very CPU intense patch for testing purposes so people could see how many instances of Zebra they can run at varying resolutions.

Sequent · Post by **Sequent** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 10:44 pm

I think you should be fine using Zebra especially on a new computer. I wouldn't worry about it. Here's the thing: download the demo and see for yourself. Obviously you won't be able to do that until you actually have the computer. As for pricing... just keep an eye out in the marketplace. It seems that there is usually one available more often than not. The great thing about U-He is that you don't get penalized as a customer for buying a second hand license. Finally, maybe you could do the Dinosaur upgrade as another option (to save $50).

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 10:57 pm

Sequent wrote:Finally, maybe you could do the Dinosaur upgrade as another option (to save $50).

i would but i dont own a printer. wish i could just email it in.

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:04 pm

Most of Zebra was designed in an era where single core processors of about 1GHz were common. Back then it wasn't necessarily light on CPU but it wasn't much of a hog either. In 2.5 we upped the specs a bit, but also not to twice as expensive, whereas CPUs have easily become ten times as powerful.

Like back then, a busy patch can be taxing. But most presets get along with a reasonable number of modules.

Zebra never got a multicore option, because the modulation matrix in Zebra contradicts with the way we do multicore in Diva. It's impossible. I sometimes think about that but haven't yet come up with a concept for modulation matrices that allows for multicore support while preserving flexibility. Otoh Zebra does not need multicore as urgently as for instance ACE or Diva do.

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:05 pm

AstralExistence wrote:
Sequent wrote:Finally, maybe you could do the Dinosaur upgrade as another option (to save $50).

i would but i dont own a printer. wish i could just email it in.

We've seen pencils, iPads and crayons used

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:13 pm

Urs wrote:
AstralExistence wrote:
Sequent wrote:Finally, maybe you could do the Dinosaur upgrade as another option (to save $50).

i would but i dont own a printer. wish i could just email it in.
We've seen pencils, iPads and crayons used

time to get creative

AstralExistence · Post by **AstralExistence** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:15 pm

double post.

Erkenfresh · Post by **Erkenfresh** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 12:12 am

Zebra is pretty tame on the CPU, especially on a modern PC. You really should consider getting more than 3GB of RAM though. It's super cheap and you won't regret it. Just make sure you have a 64-bit OS and you should be good. Now Diva on the other hand... she's a monster. She'll eat up everything you have but it'll be worth it in the end.

Sequent · Post by **Sequent** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 12:42 am

Yep, Zebra overall is really tame on the cpu. As far as getting creative... I don't remember seeing it the last time that I checked but I swear at one time I saw someone had baked some sort of cake that was decorated to look like a synth and had sent that in! (a photograph, that is)

u-he

KVR Audio

thinking of pulling the trigger zebra. but, system requirments?