Zebra 2. Oh dear god.

frankie123 · Post by **frankie123** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:51 pm

Nokatus wrote:
frankie123 wrote: isn't it 200? Says so on the site. For 80 bucks more you can get the Motu MX4 which I think sounds better.
It's $169 until the next monday. Btw, have you actually tried the demo and the included presets? Although high quality ones, the mp3 demos on the site didn't quite convey the richness and the sheer depth of the synth, but once I tried it first hand, listened to the evolving sounds and got lost in marvelling and tweaking them, I was pretty much sold

Yup, got it on my computer right now. Download the MX4 demo, the patches sounds much fuller and Hi quality then zebra 2 patches.

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:58 pm

frankie123 wrote:Yup, got it on my computer right now. Download the MX4 demo, the patches sounds much fuller and Hi quality then zebra 2 patches.

Well, the MX4 is nice, but...

Maybe I'm just biased here

Urs

Nokatus · Post by **Nokatus** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:59 pm

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:05 pm

its pretty fantastic allrite. How would you compare it to reaktor?
Im gunna buy somthing soon.......

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:20 pm

oh and are any of the presets straight instrument kind of stuff?
(ie strings/brass/keys etc..... boring stuff to go with all the nice stuff)

FaX-01 · Post by **FaX-01** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:18 am

frisbeedisk wrote:if anyone would like a link for this, pm me :wink:

Do the words Fuck Off mean anything to you.

I'm a totally fed up with small dev's (ie: single product coders who work friggin hard like Urs & Jon from ConcreteFX) getting screwed by the likes of people like you.

YES I AM SERIOUS.

-Now shit like this should be dealt with by a moderator.
-Not appreciated.

Hey I can't afford to buy it at the moment but have been way impressed with the early beta's Urs did.
Even at 200 clams this thing is slammin'.

12micsn1 · Post by **12micsn1** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:21 am

frankie123 wrote:
Kodama wrote:I could understand if you said freeware is good enough for you & you can make amazing music with it , etc... but I would love to know what you think is so great for $169 that comes close to Zebra2???

isn't it 200? Says so on the site. For 80 bucks more you can get the Motu MX4 which I think sounds better.

mx4 maybe the best softsynth out there but even this one could be improved some.

glitchrock-buddha · Post by **glitchrock-buddha** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:25 am

jesso wrote:oh and are any of the presets straight instrument kind of stuff?
(ie strings/brass/keys etc..... boring stuff to go with all the nice stuff)

Yes, there are a lot of great instrument presets. Flutes, keys, strings. All really good too, the physical modeling is excellent here. Really reminds me of logic's sculpture at times. That's one of the things that really sets it apart. It can do all of these sounds, and it's kept in one nice tidy interface. Although some of the elements are extremely small because there is so much.

Cool demo limitation too: all of a sudden, any note you input becomes random. Totally took me by surprise. I was looking for some weird modulation setting I hadn't seen, and then I figured it out.

grb

zfigz · Post by **zfigz** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:45 am

I've got Zebra 2 . . . I love it.

I was gonna get MX4 but the ilok dissuaded me pretty easily...I don't have anything with an ilok nor do I want anything with an ilok...

Zebra 2 kicks ass and the current price it's a steal

$119 W0W!

frankie123 · Post by **frankie123** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:53 am

glitchrock-buddha wrote:
jesso wrote:oh and are any of the presets straight instrument kind of stuff?
(ie strings/brass/keys etc..... boring stuff to go with all the nice stuff)
Yes, there are a lot of great instrument presets. Flutes, keys, strings. All really good too, the physical modeling is excellent here.
grb

Are you serious dude. The modeling is catered towards electronic music, what you wrote gives off the impression that there are actually great *real world* flutes, keys, strings sounds, which is untrue.

polyslax · Post by **polyslax** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:54 am

Yes, congrats to Urs! A smokin synth to be sure. The fact that Urs is probably the nicest, most personable dev in the business adds a lot of weight to the choice as well, imo. The synth is a sound designer's paradise.

As for MX4, it too is an awesome synth, one of my favourites. Sounds very different to Zebra though, and I don't necessarily mean better. I love MX4 for noisy, trashy, nasty and evolving sounds, and I think it has the most incredible mod system and options going. Great wave tables as well.

All that said, my favourite new synth at the moment is Surge. Incredibly quick gui after a short learning curve and a mod system that really gives MX4 a run for the money (brilliant envelope and hybrid envelope/lfo menus). Very rich, complex though not exactly analogue sounds.

glitchrock-buddha · Post by **glitchrock-buddha** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:42 am

frankie123 wrote:
glitchrock-buddha wrote:
jesso wrote:oh and are any of the presets straight instrument kind of stuff?
(ie strings/brass/keys etc..... boring stuff to go with all the nice stuff)
Yes, there are a lot of great instrument presets. Flutes, keys, strings. All really good too, the physical modeling is excellent here.
grb

Are you serious dude. The modeling is catered towards electronic music, what you wrote gives off the impression that there are actually great *real world* flutes, keys, strings sounds, which is untrue.

Indeed I am serious. Given that we're talking about a synthesizer here, I figured it was safe to assume wer're talking about synthetic "real world instruments". Of course they're not real instruments, it's a synthesizer, not a sampler. I doubt the guy who asked that would have misinterpreted it that way.

My point is that the possibilities of Zebra for physical modeling stand up quite well to the likes of other PM synths such as reaktor's steampipe and Logic's sculpture. The sound of it is quite comparable and these excel at recreating synthetic but tonally fairly accurate imitations of strings, air instruments, mallets, keys etc.

The zebra presets include many of these types of sound. And they are indeed quite nice sounding. None of this is untrue.

grb

frankie123 · Post by **frankie123** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:54 am

glitchrock-buddha wrote:
frankie123 wrote:
glitchrock-buddha wrote: Yes, there are a lot of great instrument presets. Flutes, keys, strings. All really good too, the physical modeling is excellent here.
grb

Are you serious dude. The modeling is catered towards electronic music, what you wrote gives off the impression that there are actually great *real world* flutes, keys, strings sounds, which is untrue.
Indeed I am serious. Given that we're talking about a synthesizer here, I figured it was safe to assume wer're talking about synthetic "real world instruments". Of course they're not real instruments, it's a synthesizer, not a sampler. I doubt the guy who asked that would have misinterpreted it that way.

My point is that the possibilities of Zebra for physical modeling stand up quite well to the likes of other PM synths such as reaktor's steampipe and Logic's sculpture. The sound of it is quite comparable and these excel at recreating synthetic but tonally fairly accurate imitations of strings, air instruments, mallets, keys etc.

The zebra presets include many of these types of sound. And they are indeed quite nice sounding. None of this is untrue.

grb

I guess you haven't heard modelling of strings, mallets, and keys of commercial products like roland and korg

glitchrock-buddha · Post by **glitchrock-buddha** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:21 am

frankie123 wrote:
glitchrock-buddha wrote:
frankie123 wrote:
Are you serious dude. The modeling is catered towards electronic music, what you wrote gives off the impression that there are actually great *real world* flutes, keys, strings sounds, which is untrue.
Indeed I am serious. Given that we're talking about a synthesizer here, I figured it was safe to assume wer're talking about synthetic "real world instruments". Of course they're not real instruments, it's a synthesizer, not a sampler. I doubt the guy who asked that would have misinterpreted it that way.

My point is that the possibilities of Zebra for physical modeling stand up quite well to the likes of other PM synths such as reaktor's steampipe and Logic's sculpture. The sound of it is quite comparable and these excel at recreating synthetic but tonally fairly accurate imitations of strings, air instruments, mallets, keys etc.

The zebra presets include many of these types of sound. And they are indeed quite nice sounding. None of this is untrue.

grb

I guess you haven't heard modelling of strings, mallets, and keys of commercial products like roland and korg

Roland and korg modelling synths are beside the point. Look at the question "are any of the presets straight instrument kind of stuff?". Yes, there are many. And they sound great. And that's what I said. I could have been more accurate and stated that this synth is not meant to replicate real instruments to the precision of some others, but I don't think that's necessary given the nature of the synth. Perhaps I assumed to much, but I don't think so.

But if it makes you happy, then we can say it together. Ready? "Zebra2 can not produce physical modeled sounds as accurately as Roland or korg". but it's damn nice for a hybrid. so there.

Quite nitpicking.

I'd just like to say that's the first time I've used the eye-rolling face.

gnapier · Post by **gnapier** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:24 am

...and Urs is great. Totally top-notch dev with an amazing vision.

I think Zebra will get snapped up like Absynth did...who knows maybe even by NI. Truly outstanding piece of kit.

GN

Zebra 2. Oh dear god.

Zebra Rocks...