Z3TA+

HI

Some say this synthesizer has become a legend in its own lifetime; well what I would say is that it is starting to SOUND like that!

I have had zeta (the nickname those in the 'know' have gifted z3ta with) for about a year now and have gone through several phases of usage with it, I have to be honest and say I have never felt the need to get into any serious editing or patchmaking with it - the amount of patches that come with zeta allied to those that are avalible for free or purchase make me somewhat lazy in this regard.

The recent appearance of some top flight pre-set banks have taken this synth to the very top of the pile and zeta can only be matched IMO by a small handfull of equally essential synths like cameleon, rhino, symptaohm, vaz and tassman.

One of my early dissapointments with zeta was the relentless (and still quite prevelant) usage of ARP's used in many patches, these may sound nice for a quick play with but when any given bank has like 50% of the bloody things and then multiply that by almost every bank that comes out this does hinder your creative juices, and before you think; "can't you turn the ARP off" - yes you can - but have you ever heard a standard synth patch that is good for Arping, they tend to sound very similar and lifeless!

As stated though this has taken a turn for the better of late with a variety of banks coming out that ease up on the arp's and get creative without it.

Not everyone is a sound designer or an edit freak; this is sacrilege talk for some but I am sure many will agree
even the best synth served up without the necessary ammo is likely to be recieved with dissapointment.

The interface for zeta is a nice size; its not too big yet gives up enough on screen parametres to not have to be switching around too much - well, at least not for my undemanding needs, should you be a tweaker though you will have to get used to using a constant flip section to many of the parametres, no interface could show all that is avalible - but I think it is a good compromise.

The feature set is massive and more so should you want to fully take advantage of its hidden mysteries - I would be misleading you if I was to try to explain them in any depth because I have only scratched the surface of zeta; what is instantly obvious and intuitive though is the ease with which you can manipulate filters, envelopes anbd oscillators without much ado, the modulation matrix is equally easy to get some mayhem going and of cours a click on the fx button brings up a full (new) page dedicated to a wide variety of quality fx treatments that include comprehensive eq, reverb, distortion, flanging, phasing, delay and more.

I can't really say much about documentation; I have never used it, but I did have a quick look at it for this review and it is comprehensive although I think a tutorial or quick guide might be a welcome addition - I know a lot of smaller developers have probably got better things to do but an illustrated guide to the feature set would be nice as would the option of buying a printed manual, which I hazzard to guess would be a very welcome bit of real estate for those of us who need a kick up the rear to go deeper (with 'in hand' instruction).

Oh did I mention sound quality?

Well it is top notch, with a sparkling top end full middle and a rounded bottom; sound like a girl I used to know - I say rounded bottom because I have never thought of zeta as a bass synth and although it does basses they always sound controlled and refined - that isn't to say you can't program rough gut wrentching ones, but I haven't heard any and have found (without a great deal of effort I must say) quite elusive coming up with one.

Any one who frequents KVR will know that RGC are always around and respond to problems quickly - TBH I can't say I have experienced any major problems with any of the RGC range and think that they are extremely well coded and beta tested before releasing their products.

There is a small trade off with using zeta and that is one of fuel - some patches can be very gready on the old processing power and this has been something that has concerned users in the past - I have to say that I think the continued development along with ever faster computers has to a large extent dealt with this issue and unless your running a very underpowered (by plug-in standards) computer this should not be an issue or at least it shouldn't pose problems that can't be worked around.

Alternatives; its a matter of choice and preference, if I was starting over again I would want the synths I mentioned earlier rather than a folder chock full of cheaper synths - my reason being a few well learned synths will take you further than a large pool of even the best stuff.

I have found zeta to be very stable which certainly gives you confidence in the product, in short this is an essential tool for anyone that intends or uses softsynths, full stop.Read Review