Product Reviews by KVR Members

Synthmaster has to be closest thing to a musical Swiss Army Knife I have ever seen. If they have forgotten anything,,, it will be something you don't really need.

The first thing that struck me was that the GUI had no frilly bits to detract you eye - this monster is for serious music makers. Dabblers are not wanted here and you soon find out why...

Running through the presets you realises so many of them are really familiar. Time and time again I spotted sounds from chart hits and in film scores alike. This synth is, quite rightly, a staple for a lot of big time music producers and if it's good enough for them - I'd better pay attention. The other thing that struck me immediately was all the presets seem to sit in the mix beautifully. So often I find myself stripping back presets that are designed to impress you straight out of the box but take up too much space when mixed in with everything else. Somehow KV331 Audio have built a synth that creates beautiful, vibrant sounds that are all ready to go straight to work.

Not satisfied with just versatile oscillators KV331 Audio gives you samples and single cycle waveforms to use as sound sources too. Most exciting for me is the fact the Synthmaster lets you load your own samples - I feel a tear welling in my eye. The flexibility here alone is awesome, As you move on through the rest of the architecture you quickly realise everything is at hand and equally flexible. The multimode filters offer more choice than I have ever seen and the step arpeggiator is amazing.

If you want to surgically operate on a sound- the sharpest scalpels are there to operate with. Equally, if you are happy with a sledge hammer- the quick controls are right under your nose.

I found myself reading bits of the manual twice, not because I didn't understand it but because I didn't believe it...use Synthmaster as an insert!!? I opened up the effects rack on my sequencer and there it was! More tears....

Put the price into the equation and not buying it would suggest some need for councelling.

You can't shake the feeling that this is a synth for the big boys but, after a little time getting familiar with it, you soon want to grow up.

A great synth, thouroughly recommended.

I have never written nor cared to write a review about a synth before. Partly because my relationship with them was simply "find a preset that's close and (perhaps) tweak it". After ten days with Zebra two I am completely obsessed with oscillators, X/Y pads, comb filters, VCFs and so, so much more. The online library of thousands of presets that have built up over a short space of time is a clear indication of how inspiring the instrument is to players of all standards.

Brightness, depth and clarity of sound were the first things that struck me as better than any other synth in my arsenal. Following that, the range of sounds prompted me to retire several synths in that arsenal straight away.

This flexibility is down to a confounding number of ways to generate and manipulate countless wave forms. The multi stage envelope generator and user definable LFOs can set the sound moving both rhythmically and organically long before engaging the arpeggiator/sequencer and oscillators have their own effects long before reaching the very well equiped effects stage.

The UI is stunning, never leaving you confused with aspects you don't need and keeping everything you do need nearby. It's hard not to marvel at the programme's architecture. It even allows you several versions so you can change the size of the image.

So inspiring is the whole experience of discovering Zebra2 that the manual(which has been critised by some) works, quite rightly, more as a great reference point as you venture through this sonic jungle(Zebra - get it?)

I have set up five or six instances of Zebra 2, armed them all with their more CPU demanding presets and played concurrently. Inside Cubase (XP-32bit, i7chip, 3 gig of RAM) the strain was VERY MINIMAL(APPROX 6%)!

The rules for reviewing here say; "Review the product on what it is supposed to be able to do and not on what you would like it to do." That's easy here as Zebra 2's potential completely outstrips my mere-mortal imagination. But with each day my imagination is pushed much further. THOROUGHLY RECOMMENDED.