Zebra or Twin

[aqua_tek]

One thing it's easy to forget in Zebra is that less is more, that you don't have to use much of what's offered, just add what you need etc.

So true. Some of my favorite patches that I've made for Zebra are some of the simplest ever. Very few modules, just nicely tweaked.

[nebulae]

^^ thanks to you both, and to everyone else for chiming in...how it sits in the mix, and how easy it is to get good sounds, well those were the deciding factors for me...I'm gonna get Zebra.

[woodie]

Twin is awesome - got it on the Mac Promo deal....a crazy amount of presets and finding it very versatile....more versatile than anything I've got as far as non-sampled synths. Waiting for a sale on Zebra...I don't "need" it....tried a demo of it quite some time ago and never liked the demo set. I've heard some say the presets don't give it justice, but I would think if having a demo...you would want to showcase some pretty spectacular stuff.

[willdahbe]

^ i don't always drink beer, but when i do, i prefer dos equis! stay thirsty my friends.

+3 for the greatest commercial quote ever!

[ghast]

+1 zebra. have you used your z3ta+ as an insert? yeah, it rules like that, which is why zebrify is so fly.

[stutter]

aah, neb, don't say that bout Z3ta+, not so loud anyway, she might hear you. I'm afraid I'm feeling a little similar... the filters really are the problem for me. But zeta was the first synth I learnt to program to any degree on, so I won't abandon her.

Another great thing about Zebra is that it is pretty light on cpu.

I was wondering about this. Presumably if you're creating relatively simple patches, with fewer modules, cpu is lower? I have Massive, which soundwise replaces zeta, but cpu-wise is not a synth that will happily sit on many tracks on my computer.

None of that helps neb's decision, but it looks like that's made already. These Zebra threads tend to go the same way.

Anyway, the real reason I was replying was to say that foobar shuffled to Nebulae - The Pale Stone (Dedbird's Wax Box mix) yesterday, and I raised myself painfully from my buggered-leg sitting position to find out what it was, such was my excitement. I like it.

[nebulae]

^ ha! thx for that nice comment on the Dedbird remix - Martyn does amazing work on everything he touches!

As for Z3ta, you're right, it's worth keeping around. I've decided to keep it in my stash and turn to it for some familiar tarncy sounds. There's a lovely Virus Snow skin for it that really makes it nice to work with.

[Nokatus]

Damn, the Ableton forum login was down when I wanted to chime in, and now it's almost late... No worries, I would have recommended Zebra, too

I have both Twin and Zebra, and I like them both a lot, but in your situation I think you can benefit from Zebra much more.

To further highlight how versatile that bugger is, here's something different to listen to:

http://www.synthtronic.com/zebra.html
Michael Kastrup's Zebra sound demos. Everything is 100% Zebra, sometimes quite unbelievably as I could swear some of them use at least a few samples. The vast majority of these aren't even using external processing (the exceptions have "*" marks on them). For example, according to Mr. Kastrup this is all Zebra going straight to main outs with just some stereo widening at the end of the chain.

http://uhe-patchlib.3amnoise.net/preset ... update.mp3
Demo of the (free) Switched On preset pack by Polybius. Zebra extends more to the oldskool territory with grace.

http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK_Z2msegfun.mp3
More from Michael Kastrup. I'm not sure if this is on his main page yet, but in its own category it's so much worth a listen I'm linking it here.