Your opinion about Zebra 2

[EnGee]

Might there be an upgrade discount for Dark Zebra owners? I understand if things are tight right now though.

It's gonna be free for owners of Zebra2 + TDZ. But we don't know when we can do it.

Things are not tight right now, they are just slow (no finance issues, just time consuming processes).

IMO, If you really want to have presets or/and modified code to make it attractive for the EDM crowd, then I suggest to cooperate with a DJ that care about the tiny details of how "modern" EDM sounds should be. Or at least have alfa/beta testers from this crowd. In short, you need to be in touch directly with EDM Pros in order to understand their requirements.

And that of course is no guarantee that it will then be popular and used for that purpose (if it isn't already)

It needs a consistency. It is must not end when the synth released, but keep going. I don't see a fail if it is planned well. A good choice of a DJ and relative beta testers to the EDM will lead to a good result as Urs has the open mind to listen and response (I think).
Also, there are few players in the market as far as I know, so I see a good opportunity for u-he to release such a product (It is already there, Hive!), but if the new Zebra can compete with Serum, Avenger ... etc, then why not. It still can produce everything else, so it can be like a Massive X quality but with a better GUI interactions and the advantage of a good care by a company like u-he.

We certainly get and respect a lot of input. Thankfully it's not out of thin air. We can look back on almost twenty years of Zebra. We have collected a humungous amount of data and we have created concepts that truly excite me. And there's a high bar for that.

In the end though we are a development driven company, not a marketing driven one. As such there is no role for particular genres to take part in the development process. To be blunt, the one time we did cater for a particular target audience - Hive - was the one time we failed, though luckily we managed to fix it 7 years later. We value input from experienced users no matter what music they make, and Hive is good proof of that.

Zebra 3 was talked about the day Zebra 2 went public beta, long before we actually mentioned it. Back then it would have looked exactly the same. But today, we look at the technologies available. We make some of the best sounding DSP algorithms out there in many, many areas. And these are not bought elsewhere, these are all our own inventions (many of the examples often named are created through contract work or licensing, but that's a whole different story to talk about). The same goes for our user experience, preset management, the whole package. I'm confident we'll solve a lot of the shortcomings Zebra certainly has, but we won't reinvent the wheel and make it a totally different concept.

Which brings me back to the question of whether or not it will be accepted by EDM people. That is something I don't think can be planned. EDM is apparently a set of genres where things get old-fashioned quickly. I think that's got a lot to do with the tools that define it more so than with it defining the tools. It seems to me that it's not only the sounds that mark the era, but the sounds are likewise identified by the synthesisers which made them. No matter if that's physical or psychological, it poses the problem that designing a synthesiser for contemporary styles of EDM may inherently lead to fast expiry. We need to think further than that.

In my view it is much more likely that pushing boundaries is contributing more to inspire culture than setting a framework on what's in the charts this week. Again, that doesn't mean we won't listen to individual concerns or ideas, but suggesting that Zebra 3 needs to match synth X or Y for particular sounds for particular genres simply isn't visionary enough. We'll have a look, but we won't stop there.

Great explanation Thank you

Still there are some points to be sure of. All teens and young trends changes fast, but if we notice other fashion industries, we see companies that are doing a line for young that changes fast other than their classic lines.

I don't know, I see that Hive is succeeding especially in the Dance world. So, you might keep Hive for the fast EDM results that suits young generation, while keep Zebra the classic power horse. In fact if Hive gets FM and sync with Zebra Oscillator's FX (like fold, symmetry, ...etc) I'm sure it will attract more EDM sound designers and automatically will be in the spot! But of course you know better.

[Peraqsha]

I like Zebra2, it might be old but I think U-he has done a good job at keeping the sound good over the years. I think it's strength really lies in how many instances of it you can use before your CPU decides to give up. The sound quality also speaks for itself, and even though it might not do analog sounds as effortlessly as Diva, I think it can still cover many different analog tones. As for digital sounds, I think it really covers those with ease.

It's definitely a workhorse synth that earns its stripes.

[Igro]

I would be interested in zebra 3, say, 3 years ago. But considering how slowly it is developing I have managed to obtain top quality advanced synths during that time. So no more excitement with probably "not that soon coming" v3.