Zebra or Twin

[nebulae]

Let's not turn this into a huge debate. Just want your opinions on whether to purchase Zebra or Twin, and why. Also, I have Live Suite 8, so keep that in mind when making your recommendatios. So for example, will getting Twin overlap with Analog? Does Zebra offer way more? What do ya think?

[Pasha]

Let's not turn this into a huge debate. Just want your opinions on whether to purchase Zebra or Twin, and why. Also, I have Live Suite 8, so keep that in mind when making your recommendatios. So for example, will getting Twin overlap with Analog? Does Zebra offer way more? What do ya think?

Hi Neb,

I own Zebra so I might be biased but it seems to me that both are similar.
Zebra is due to be upgraded and it will offer 'Zebrify' the ability to use whatever
sound source as input, more than Corpus... try the beta if you haven't done so.

[nebulae]

Cool, thx for your opinion. Can we discuss a bit? I know that Zebra has a lot more options. My situation is that I have Suite8, but I'm not getting the sounds I want easily. Meaning it takes a lot of work to dial up Analog to get that fat warm sound I'm after. Not impossible, but a lot of work.

I already have Sylenth1, Z3ta, Sytrus, and ZeroVector. However, Z3ta is showing it's age - the grit is no longer as welcome. Sylenth1 is fabulous, but it has a signature sound. Sytrus is cool for FM stuff, but I have Operator for that. Sytrus also can import single cycle waves, which is cool, but it always sounds cold and digital to me. ZeroVector is also showing it's age, though its filter is beautiful and it's a lot smoother and way more programmable than Z3ta.

So, knowing all that, here are my questions:

1. Will I increase my arsenal by getting Zebra or Twin, or will either be redundant?
2. Will Zebra help me shelf some of the synths in my arsenal. They are nice to have, but they are showing their age, and as hard as it is to put away, I'd rather limit myself to a choice few synths and move ahead.

Ok, sorry for the lengthy post, but I welcome your comments. Thanks.

[sublimelobc]

Neb-
If you could go back about a month and get the twin/volcano/timeless bundle for $99....I'd say go that way.

Comparing twin to zebra....I'd say go with zebra2. They both sound fantastic, zebra is more versatile in my opinion.

[slow riot]

obviously trying demos will give you the best ideas.

i use both, but only been using twin for a small while.

twin is quite a unique sounding take on software subtractive. it has quite a distinctive tone/chracter. sometimes I think it's really nice but sometimes not. the same with all instruments I guess. it seems kind of 'acoustic' sounding in a way. I find the workflow to be quite natural and lots of modulation options.

zebra is immense. not too much to say really. some really amazing modules and all organised in a really amazing way. zebrify will expand it's potential.



so yeah, both are great synths I think. if I had to pick one it would probably be Zebra but that's just me.

[polyslax]

The Fabs are really nice folk, but let's face it, nobody is as good to their customers as Urs... he's constantly doing little value-added updates/freebies. Mind you, that wouldn't be worth a whole lot if his stuff sucked... luckily that's not the case.

Twin has a lovely sound. A little on the polite side, imo. Nice clean gui and intuitive mod system, again imo... I know some people hate it , so ymmv.

Zebra has a much wider sound palette and many more options in terms of oscillators, filters, fx, routing. Some people find the ui complicated and cluttered.

You've no doubt run the demos for both? It may come down to workflow since they are both capable synths.

[nebulae]

^thx for chiming in, everyone.

Yes, both are quite capable synths. But will either help me replace older synths with a more modern, thicker, better sound? And will either be easier to work with than the Suite synths? I realize this is subjective, but I'm looking for your opinions.

Yes, I've demoed them both, and I've never gotten to the point of pulling the trigger on either. With Twin, there are deals to be had. With Zebra, I've got a dinosaur coupon, so it would be $150.

Thoughts?

[tekkers]

the twin sounds alot more of a traditional subtractive than the zebra, both compliment each other quite nicely i find..

i much prefer the twin's ui as well, its abit weird at first, buts really clear once ya used to it. the zebra on the ohter hand for me is very fiddly - as everything is in tiny boxes which i just cant see well

[gurumonkey]

Neb,

I think the deciding factor is that all future upgrades to zebra are included. (okay, i actually couldn't find a quote on that on the website, but i think it's true. anyone else know for sure?) Urs is a dude. I don't know about twin, but i know that zebra is more powerful than i could ever hope to fully understand. So great custom service and upgradability. It's worth it.
some things that Urs is working on...

# faster ui opening
# collapsible preset folders
# right click presets to tag as Favourite or Junk
# shift or option/alt click presets for multiple selection
# drag presets to move into folders
# option(alt) drag presets to folders to to make copies
# various bugfixes
# sharper text rendering on Windows
# Zebrify
# new init preset for Zebrify
# option for latency free operation
# option for gui editor

[Pasha]

1. Will I increase my arsenal by getting Zebra or Twin, or will either be redundant?

Absolutely no. Zebra comes with something like a 1000 to 2000 sound palette made free from various contributors
including imitations of Access Virus and Prophet 5 Banks...
The character of Zebra has nothing to do with all the L8/L7 suite instruments so you can even complement Zebra with them. The FM Part of Zebra IMHO is less immediate and sound different from Operator so sometimes I rack them together.
If not satisfied with the free stuff you can always turn to commercial libraries they are said to be exceptional.
Remember that Batman:The Dark Knight was entirely scored by Howard Scarr (which makes part of the demo patches) with Zebra.

2. Will Zebra help me shelf some of the synths in my arsenal. They are nice to have, but they are showing their age, and as hard as it is to put away, I'd rather limit myself to a choice few synths and move ahead.

.. And this is good. Urs offers the Dinosaur Upgrade if you declare that you will replace your aged hardware with it.
Here's the link : http://www.u-he.com/zebra/index.php?item=DC
I still use L8 suite instruments, especially now that the sound palette is amazing and especially after the Operator ability to draw your waves... but when I need some sound well round... a Prophet 5 Level 42 Micro Kid or Love games style.. I jump riding the Zebra...
As you know by now I'm not the Sound Design junkie but I live more on the Patch Library side with little or major tweaking when needed. However, Zebra is not difficult to learn and it's satisfactory, especially the internal Arpeggiator (that can be insanely coupled with Live's)... Suite + Zebra for me does the trick. Zebra gets 1 bank of 128 Midi program change since 2.3.

- Hope this helps
- Cheers
- Pasha

[McQ714]

D-CAM!?! and Zebra!

and Tetra!!! i know it's hardware...

[nebulae]

Thx, everyone, and Pasha, thank for your post. I do have a dinosaur upgrade coupon from when I sold my virus a couple of years ago, so I can get $50 off. I think Zebra is probably going to be the right way to go.

I've flirted with Zebra before, but I've always wanted to make it work with my current synths. I think the hardest thing is to part with synths you've paid good money for. But they are starting to age, so time to put them away, so I can focus on better sounding newer stuff.

[elxicano]

What's up Neb...

Both of these are my favorite synths and they actually compliment each other well, but since you're asking... There is definitely some overlap between the 2 synths.

Zebra is by far the most flexible between the two. Currently, Twin 2 is most capable of a very "dirty" sound, but supposedly the 2.5 release of Zebra will close that gap... I just can't say for sure that it will, since I can't test the 2.5 beta (current public beta is at 2.3.3).

I think both synths would be a great upgrade, but I even have a hard time telling you that you'd get a 'thicker sound" from either of these. I will say both can produce very thick sounds. I'll also say that both of these have some of the cleanest sound (really up to you if you consider that better), but to get the best comparison from Twin, you'll need to drop FX afterwards (I know you know this already).

Comparing these to Live's instruments... Workflow wise, both synths are easy, but Twin's workflow if more apparent immediately. Zebra is very easy once you realize where everything is (like mod matrix, fx per oscilators, modulation per osc and modulation of modulators). So, IMO, both of these are easier to program then Live's instruments and Zebra at least is more versatile than anything native to Live.

I bought Twin first, mostly because I didn't understand Zebra enough to take advantage of, but I don't think that'll be your issue.

My suggestion for you would be to buy Zebra since it has the most capability to replace other synths of yours. There's also a large selection of 3rd party preset banks (free and commercial). I know you're very capable of designing your own sound, but the preset libraries are great for learning new features (but there's also video tutorials too).

The only reasons I'd suggest getting Twin 2 would be if you absolutely love Twin's workflow and you're looking to have something up and running very quickly.

Still... in a perfect world you'd own both (in addition to all your other synths), but I still say go with Zebra if you have to choose.

[nebulae]

^ cool, thx for all those details.

I try really hard to NOT have a lot of synth or preset options. More is less, IMHO...because you have too many paths to take, and you end up not reaching your destination. The less I have, the more I get done. So I'm looking for one synth that will help me replace Z3ta, ZeroVector, and Sytrus (keeping in mind that I can do the FM stuff with Operator, and with Analog, I should be able to get some fat zappy shit). So Zebra will have to do for evolving pads, Virus-like sounds, and other general fillers and leads, and basses and drums.

[bodhi71]

+1 for Zebra.
And if the GUI is too small to read, you can change the size.
I like to rack it up, and assign the macros to the X,Y of Zebra.
I'd throw Synplant into the fray as well in making you're decision, it's rather unique and inspiring.