Your opinion about Zebra 2

[Teksonik]

My opinion of Zebra 2 ? It sucks.......that I sold my license years ago. Dumbest thing I've done since paying full price for Absynth.

[wagtunes]

Obviously people have no idea what I mean when I use the term "neutral" as if that's a bad thing. Not going to bother trying to explain it other than to say the BEST synths are the ones that have a neutral basic sound. They're the ones you can do the most with but also require the most amount of work to get the most out of it. Tone 2 synths, such as Electra, sound great out of the box but they're so colored that they're difficult to fit into more than just a few genres. Synths like Synthmaster, Zebra 2, Falcon, HALion 6, and other similar synths, are easier to sit in a multitude of mixes and genres because their basic sound (does anybody even understand what I mean by basic sound?) isn't so colored.

Synths that are extremely colored

All Tone 2 synths. In fact, they're probably the top of the list.
ANA 2
ARCSyn
CRX 4
Dune 2 and 3
MPowerSynth (extremely digital sounding)
Omnisphere
PolyM
Rapid
Serum
Spire

An absolute amazing neutral synth that sounds fantastic once you start adding all the built in FX is Repro-1. But just listen to a basic simple saw lead with nothing on it. You couldn't tell it from any other synth. Once you start working with Repro-1's modulations and FX, it's flat out awesome.

Zebra 2, once you start working with all the different modulations, is also flat out awesome. But it's basic sound is neutral. Maybe not to the degree of Synthmaster, but it's no Tone 2 synth. Which is why I use Zebra 2 on almost everything and very rarely use Tone 2 synths except for very special cases.

But for some reason people seem to think I've just insulted their child because I called its basic sound neutral.

Thank God for neutral synths or I'd hardly do any music at all.

[Stefken]

My opinion of Zebra 2 is that is time that it's brother Zebra 3 comes along.

[Teksonik]

Synths that are extremely colored
All Tone 2 synths. In fact, they're probably the top of the list.
ANA 2
ARCSyn
CRX 4
Dune 2 and 3
MPowerSynth (extremely digital sounding)
Omnisphere
PolyM
Rapid
Serum
Spire

Thank God for neutral synths or I'd hardly do any music at all.

So you couldn't "hardly do any music at all" with the "colored" (non-neutral) synths you listed above ?

Ok whatever.....

I'm out of here........

[wagtunes]

Synths that are extremely colored
All Tone 2 synths. In fact, they're probably the top of the list.
ANA 2
ARCSyn
CRX 4
Dune 2 and 3
MPowerSynth (extremely digital sounding)
Omnisphere
PolyM
Rapid
Serum
Spire

Thank God for neutral synths or I'd hardly do any music at all.

So you couldn't "hardly do any music at all" with the "colored" (non-neutral) synths you listed above ?

Ok whatever.....

I'm out of here........

For one thing, synths themselves make up a small part of the kind of music I do which is comprised mostly of Piano, Electric Bass, Acoustic Drums, Electric Guitars, Orchestral Brass and Strings. The synths that I mostly use to compliment these things are the neutral sounding ones that don't automatically have that "what the hell is this EDM sounding thing doing in a pop/rock song" sound.

Zebra 2 can be molded into any genre EASILY. The key word being EASILY. Not so with the Tone 2 synths whose presets are like 99% geared towards EDM.

It's why when people come here asking for synth suggestions for EDM the same synths are mentioned right off the top all the time, such as Spire, Serum, Viper, etc. Why do you think that is? Why isn't HALion 6 the first thing mentioned when people ask for an EDM synth? It's because to get HALion 6 to get that EDM sound, a lot, and I mean a LOT of work is involved. I wouldn't even attempt it when I can just go to something like Spire and get the sound I want in 5 seconds.

If every synth was good for every single genre, we wouldn't have these discussions in the first place. When people would ask what synth to get to do Trance, others would just say "Get any synth. They're all the same." But they don't because they're not.

But whatever. This is SOOOOO far down on my list of what's important that it's just not worth discussing it anymore.

We have different definitions of what the term "neutral" means to let's just leave it at that.

I'm just glad Zebra 2 is the kind of synth it is, one I can use on just about anything.

[chk071]

I guess we all have a different opinion on what a "neutral" sound is. (wagtunes beat me to it) I find Sylenth1 to be very neutral, for example. I can understand why one would say that Tone2's synths don't sound very neutral. They surely have a lot of character. And, Markus is also known to like to work with psychoacoustic enhancements to the sound (which you can switch off in most of their synths... there's still a base sound to them though).

I also think that Dune sounds pretty neutral, even though it has its own character as well. It's a different type of "neutral" though. Rather the kind of neutral, where you have to work it, like, add some instability while randomizing the oscillator pitch, or add some drive or saturation to the filter, add some EQ, to get some better highs, and some more bass. In general, i think you have to work Dune a bit more to get a good results. At least that's valid for me.

[wagtunes]

I guess we all have a different opinion on what a "neutral" sound is. (wagtunes beat me to it) I find Sylenth1 to be very neutral, for example. I can understand why one would say that Tone2's synths don't sound very neutral. They surely have a lot of character. And, Markus is also known to like to work with psychoacoustic enhancements to the sound (which you can switch off in most of their synths... there's still a base sound to them though).

I also think that Dune sounds pretty neutral, even though it has its own character as well. It's a different type of "neutral" though. Rather the kind of neutral, where you have to work it, like, add some instability while randomizing the oscillator pitch, or add some drive or saturation to the filter, add some EQ, to get some better highs, and some more bass. In general, i think you have to work Dune a bit more to get a good results. At least that's valid for me.

Like you said, we all have our own definitions. I find Dune 2 and 3 very easy to get great sounds out of it. For me, hardly any work at all. But it is one of the first synths I bought and I have been using it a long time. So I am sure that has a lot to do with it.

Zebra 2 was my 3rd synth purchased after ACE and Synthmaster. For me, it's the polar opposite of Dune. I need to work with it a lot to get what I want out of it. Part of that has to do with the fact that the synth itself is so deep.

[voidhead23]

Man, i hate this thread...anyway, i'm with you, Wags. i thought the character and personality was supposed to come from the musician, not the instrument? i want people to listen and go 'hey, that's that guy', not 'hey, that's that synth/daw/guitar/whatever'.

[chk071]

I want people to listen and go 'hey, that's that guy', not 'hey, that's that synth/daw/guitar/whatever'.

Usually, it is like that. I can make out some artists, even on this forum, from a mile.

Nonetheless, i pick my synths by how the sound to me, how they make creating nice sounds easy for me, how big the sweetspot is for me etc. Anything else would be silly. Because, again, everyone could just use Synth1 for everything, and be happy ever after. That's my usual argument, which i don't get tired to repeat, because, so often, people argue that it doesn't matter what you use. For me, it absolutely matters, because some instruments are just making me frustrated, while others are beautiful to play with.

[voidhead23]

i totally agree, i think you sort of turned my point around to mean completely the opposite. What you use totally matters, but it matters based on your personal relationship with it and whether it helps you (or hinders you) in expressing your character and ideas through it, which is pretty much what you just said. Where i think i get frustrated, and i think what my vague point was, is when people choose an instrument to impart its (supposed) character, not theirs. Also, i get super annoyed when people equate 'neutral' with bad and 'colorful' with good. Which is why we have hundreds of tape saturation console emulations...

[HcDoom]

Zebra 2 is ok...but waiting for Zebra 3 to finally come out, I am sure its gonna rock the synth world!

[chk071]

i totally agree, i think you sort of turned my point around to mean completely the opposite. What you use totally matters, but it matters based on your personal relationship with it and whether it helps you (or hinders you) in expressing your character and ideas through it, which is pretty much what you just said. Where i think i get frustrated, and i think what my vague point was, is when people choose an instrument to impart its (supposed) character, not theirs. Also, i get super annoyed when people equate 'neutral' with bad and 'colorful' with good. Which is why we have hundreds of tape saturation console emulations...

Fair enough. I definitely prefer "coloured" though, when it comes to synths, or effects. As long as i like the colour.

[chk071]

Zebra 2 is ok...but waiting for Zebra 3 to finally come out, I am sure its gonna rock the synth world!

If i had to guess, then i would think that Zebra 3 is a lot more like Hive than Zebra 2 was. In terms of sound character.

[wagtunes]

Zebra 2 is ok...but waiting for Zebra 3 to finally come out, I am sure its gonna rock the synth world!

If i had to guess, then i would think that Zebra 3 is a lot more like Hive than Zebra 2 was. In terms of sound character.

I hope not. Hive is the only U-he synth that I no longer own. I'm sure part of it had to do with that interface. It's a well made synth and for a while I did get a lot of use out of it but when I saw that I was only using it for certain things, I decided to let it go, needing the cash at the time.

I'm sure I'd probably like Hive 2 a lot more but don't really have the funds for it as my money has to be spent very judiciously this year as times are very tough, which is why I only bought 2 synths all of last year.

[chk071]

Pure speculation. But, i'd be surprised if Urs didn't take anything from the Hive development.