Z3TA+

I was originally hesitant about this synth as I thought it would be too complex to use but the abundance of fanstatic presets have shown me just how much I can do with just minor mods. There are so many presets that if you hear a sound that's 'kinda' what you're looking for just a few tweaks in the waveshaper will probably give you what you crave.


Multi-point envelopes are all the sexy rage these days [see Absynth, Sytrus, Rhino, Tera] but they aren't everything. They can literally be a `drag` to work with in trying to set 25 precise break-points to make a simple arppegio in a patch. I like z3ta+'s use of arp patterns... select between 200 groove patterns to hear rythmic variations on your sound, no envelopes to tweak. It's nice to get an actual piece of `music` from a single note with these arps. It's especially nice playing live if I trigger a MIDI note for the z3ta+ to play a melody. If I hook up my host to Arkaos I can triger different melodies in z3ta+ to match the shifting videos in Arkaos this way.

The mod-matrix is dead-simple to use (of course you have to know how synths work) and allows for the most wild hookups possible (you can even modulte the effects).

So z3ta+ certainly doesn't need any exotic new features (as evidenced by it's already fantastic sound, the synthesis engine is stellar). And the sound is really where it's at... it's very distincitive, not overly bright, it's organic-ish and yet `spacey`. Perhaps this is what synths sound like on zeta-reticuli?? It pulls you in to listen to it, and that's unique as some synths produce a sound so bold they put you off. The sound from z3ta+ is always `there` for me. It has an out-there spacial sound quality that really won me over from the other soft-synths in it's range. Hat's off to a great synth and effects system.

I use FLStudio as my host and z3ta+ automates perfectly in it... that means I can sweep effects, filters, envelopes, etc... outside of the mod matrix for even more incredible pads. I can also record the playing of z3ta+s `ribbon bar` essential for those smooth glissandos.

Another class-act synth and support as Rene is always here at the Forum.

p.s. I need to mention that you can use the FX as a VSTi. The FX section alone is better than what comes with most of the hosts I've used. All options are there in one screen for easy tweaking. The FX plugin doesn't take as much CPU as the synth and is quite reasonable if you compared it to loading 6 other seperate FX plugins to do the same thing.Read Review