Zebra vs. Sylenth - Owners Opinion?

[milfhuntr]

I am trying to decide between Zebra and Sylenth. I will be using it for Ambient IDM and minimal. I am leanding toward Sylenth because it seems to have more 303 emulation and seems more geared to IDM. What do users think?

[glitchrock-buddha]

Basically it's a question of simplicity vs. versatility. Sylenth1 can get a nice smooth sound much easier. But Zebra is capable of soooooo much more, and is also great for minimal and IDM stuff, perhaps even better. Zebra has many filters and has a few that are actually very similar in character to Sylenth1's filters. However the oscillators are very different. Sylenth1 has a seriously smooth osc, but less versatile, much less tricks up it's sleeve. Keep demoing both and go with what's more enjoyable.

[robyale]

Both products are great. The Sylenth UI is very much like a hardware synth, and can be interacted with in much the same way. Zebra is very powerful, and makes less of an attempt to emulate the look and feel of a hardware synth.

If you're doing dance tracks, Sylenth is easy to get into if you want to create your sounds from scratch. Zebra has more of a learning curve, but as the previous poster said, "is capable of so much more".

I bought Zebra back when Urs came out with the first version. In fact, I think I had the beta. I thought it was interesting, bought it, but then was promptly seduced by Atmosphere. I recently heard that Hans Zimmer has been raving about Zebra, so I paid my $20 to upgrade to the 2.5 version. I now know what Hans is on about!

Rob

[sowhoso]

I dunno know about sylenth, but zebra isn't geared toward any genre. Visit the zebra forum on kvr and you'll find people using it for all kinds of music. There are also tons of free patches you can download to hear what ppl are doing with it

[mholloway]

I am trying to decide between Zebra and Sylenth. I will be using it for Ambient IDM and minimal. I am leanding toward Sylenth because it seems to have more 303 emulation and seems more geared to IDM. What do users think?

The whole "more geared to" thing is pretty silly. Sylenth is no more "geared to" IDM than Zebra, in fact Zebra is FAR more flexible a synthesizer than Sylenth, that's not a subjective argument, it's just literally far more advanced in terms of design capability than the relatively straight-forward Sylenth. Both sound fantastic. For IDM tweakiness you will be much more rewarded by Zebra IF you are interested in sound design rather than preset-surfing (i'm not knocking preset use, just saying that Zebra isn't going to meet your needs unless you want to program it). Sylenth's preset patches are straight-up set toward Dance and Trance.

i agree that Sylenth is better for "immediacy" and Zebra better for in-depth programming ability.

-M

[Saxer]

sooner or later you will own both of them anyway

[Klauser]

Yea zebra 2 is so well designed. Those guys really know how to make good software. J would watch some video tutorials on programming a sound in zebra and you'll see the workflow it has. Very very open synth letting u exploit it for loads of sounds.

Only used sylenth for basses, but I love the crisp sound it has on lower frequencies. I really need to dig deeper into this synth.

Yea get both eventually

[Machinesworking]

Jeez? another compare thread about two completely different synthesis types, and no mention of that fact???

Sylenth1 is a virtual analogue synth, it's basic synthesis type is Analoge subtractive.

Zebra is a semi modular wavetable synth, it has analogue emulation capabilities in that some of the waves are based on analogue synths, but that's not what the synth is modeled after.
Think more like PPG or Wavestation ramped up. It's a digital synth through and through. A very warm sounding digital synth though.

All I'm saying is it's apples and oranges you're comparing here.