u-he

JPTinAshland · Post by **JPTinAshland** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 1:02 am

What can Alchemy do that Zebra 2 cannot ?

I'm struggling on which to buy...

And please - don't tell me "BOTH" ; it really needs to be one or the other. Surely one of these two can "do it all", can't they ?

Or not ?

Thanks for the input.

~JT.

Polybius · Post by **Polybius** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:03 am

It's a bit like going to the Coca Cola factory to ask which is better: Pepsi or Coca Cola.

My advise is, demo the hell out of both products, and make up your own mind. Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh, but that's the best advise i can give you.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:13 am

At this point, if I had to choose between the two, I'd blow my brains out.

Zebra over Alchemy for VA, physical modeling and wave sequencing. Alchemy's filters don't do it for me the way U-He filters do. Alchemy doesn't do FM.

Alchemy has Zebra on morphing sounds and audio manipulation. The granular stuff is good but the spectral resynthesis is just insanely awesome and there are some modulation tricks that Alchemy can do easily that take some backwards fanagling in Zebra.

My verdict, as much as you don't want to hear it... save up, get both.

MitchK1989 · Post by **MitchK1989** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:21 am

I agree with polybius.

They're pretty apples and oranges... Zebra is a modular that does FM and Wavetable synthesis, Alchemy is fixed routing audio wise with similar modularity when it comes to modulators, but it does Additive, Resynthesis, and Granular... Both do VA, but I have yet to hear alchemy VA sounds that are as "analog" as zebras... Maybe it's just the focus on unison, but it alchemy sounds more stereotypically "VA" in the nord lead/JP-8000 sense of the term, which isn't always a bad thing of course.

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:51 am

How can this is even be a question ?

Zebra2 is the baddest motherf**ker synth you'll ever encounter.
As simple as that really.
It has no equal.

However it does'nt do samples. There's some rumour about someone who has made some kind of sample import utility for Z2 but that sounds unlikely to me.

I have'nt tried Alchemy but from what i can tell it's pretty much the mother of all sample manipulating bastards.

So do you want a sampler or a synth ?

So synth == Z2
Sampler == Alchemy.

What's really the problem ?

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:52 am

In the u-he forum? Let em think...

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:28 am

JPTinAshland wrote:What can Alchemy do that Zebra 2 cannot ?

I'm struggling on which to buy...

And please - don't tell me "BOTH" ; it really needs to be one or the other. Surely one of these two can "do it all", can't they ?

Or not ?

Thanks for the input.

~JT.

Alchemy can resynthesize sounds and manipulate them so if you want to work with your own samples, get it.

If you want a synths synth, get Zebra... more refined, no just born growing pains to go through, has a wide range of great presets, and it sounds fantastic.

Really depends on what you want to do and what vst's you already have.

Ogg Vorbis · Post by **Ogg Vorbis** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 3:26 pm

What sold me on Zebra is the way it sounds. I didn't know anything about its usability, features, approach to synthesis, etc. I just heard some of the demos of Zebra and thought, "Oh yeah! I want my sound to be like THAT!"

I've listened to about a half-hour or more worth of Alchemy sounds and, although very good, it just doesn't have the Zebra "sheen" or organic movement or "life" that Zebra has.

There's something about the unmistakable Zebra sound that grabs me and I can recognize it in someone's mix after about 1 bar.

I've noticed that Zebra wants to be "out front" in the mix because it's rather extroverted and I have to say, "down boy!" to get it to support the other voices. This is rather easy to do. But when I want a searing lead or something very punchy, Zebra always steps right up.

None of the Alchemy demos seemed to have that quality. I'd hate to have to apply additional plug ins to a CPU intensive plug in like Alchemy just to get it to pop out of the mix.

My thought is get Zebra and then save up for Reaktor if you want a sample cruncher.

Vectorman · Post by **Vectorman** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 5:45 pm

I don't think there really is one "do it all" synth at this point. Zebra comes closest out of everything I use for sure, but there are times even when going for an analog-type sound that I do look elsewhere for sounds with a character that differs from Z2's. Zebra has a smoother and more restrained top end than many other synths, and much of the time I love that. But when I want something that sounds brighter, more "airy" and "fizzy," or sometimes really hard, metallic sounds, I tend to go to something like Sylenth that has oscillators with a little more high frequency content. You can contrive some of that with EQ, but it's not quite the same as using oscillators that go higher in the frequency spectrum to start with.

I think Urs alluded at some point to the possibility of adding a new oscillator module that is oversampled and brighter-sounding to Zebra's bag of tricks, though, which I think would be a great addition. Being able to choose between Z2's current oscillators and brighter-sounding oversampled ones, mixing and matching both types within a single patch at will, would broaden the tonal palette even further.

It would be great to see that sometime in 2009, but no rush obviously, Urs...your plate's been just a TAD full lately, LOL.

JPTinAshland · Post by **JPTinAshland** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 7:27 pm

Thanks guys, for the great clariying posts !

You're all really smart, and very informed on the differences of the two. I appreciate the detailed explanations...

No offense meant by posting the question in the U-he forum - I figured it would be answered effectively here.

I'll be getting Zebra, as I already have Kontakt 3.

Thanks again,
JT. :-)

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 8:47 pm

Vectorman wrote:
I think Urs alluded at some point to the possibility of adding a new oscillator module that is oversampled and brighter-sounding to Zebra's bag of tricks

Have you tried using oscfx? you can brighten the osc's that way

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:30 pm

pdxindy wrote:
Vectorman wrote:I think Urs alluded at some point to the possibility of adding a new oscillator module that is oversampled and brighter-sounding to Zebra's bag of tricks
Have you tried using oscfx? you can brighten the osc's that way

Yep - brightening oscillators is almost TOO easy! Adding a special "bright" oscillator model/mode or whatever is completely unnecessary IMO.

shogger · Post by **shogger** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:39 pm

JPTinAshland wrote:I'll be getting Zebra, as I already have Kontakt 3.

Thanks again,
JT.

Oh, then you'll be well equipped me thinks. Kontakt does lotsa cool sampling things so that Zebra will complement it greatly with tons of good sounding synth abilities.

Shogger

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 1:34 am

Howard wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
Vectorman wrote:I think Urs alluded at some point to the possibility of adding a new oscillator module that is oversampled and brighter-sounding to Zebra's bag of tricks
Have you tried using oscfx? you can brighten the osc's that way
Yep - brightening oscillators is almost TOO easy! Adding a special "bright" oscillator model/mode or whatever is completely unnecessary IMO.

Wait an see... uhm, listen

strav100 · Post by **strav100** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 1:36 am

If you have Cameleon - er.. no choice - Alchemy is waaayy cheaper

u-he

KVR Audio

Other than Sample Import...