I'm not very good at sound design, and my skills as a composer are marginal. I generally get an hour or two in a day to do anything music related. I'll be working through some of these for to give you a perspective on the other side of things: I am a hobbyist with an unrelated full-time job and small children. Thanks for the link! They have a huge amount of tutorials. Plus, you get a cheap upgrade to Zebra 3 (or free if you go all-in with the Dark Zebra), so you'll have plenty of time to wrap your head around it. I have been having so much fun using soundsets, and have been using Zebra so much in my work this year, that my interest in sound design has been rekindled. I myself have been using nothing but drums and Zebra 2 Luftrum / Sonic Underworld soundsets to make satisfying Psychill and Synthwave tracks. On the other hand, I see people making sounds for EDM, Trance, House, etc. And obviously, it is used extensively and successfully in hybrid scoring. Naroth has used it (actually, Dark Zebra) to re-create tracks from the Dune soundtrack, with no added samples and minimal external effects. It sits very well in the mix, the X/Y pads allow convenient tweakability, the browser makes it easy to find sounds, it is very stable, and it is an extremely versatile synth. I took a chance on Dark Zebra last Christmas, and I am absolutely loving it. Not sure if I'm very skilled but at least I've been using Zebra for a long time now!Ĭlick to expand.Thanks for the link! They have a huge amount of tutorials. This means you can control the how much modulation with a second modulation. There are a couple of ways of approaching this.ġ) Some modules have modulation knobs, and you can modulate those knobs.Ģ) In the mod matrix, each modulator has a sidechain, so to speak. Most parameters in Zebra can be modulated but you get almost zero visual feedback. Give it time to grow on you, don't be fooled by superficial impressions! Honestly, just demo Zebra and try it out for a bit. Also AFAIK there's nothing in the market like its comb filter.ĭune is a very different synth which I also love. Oscillators and the filters are still top notch.

The sound itself is still fantastic and has an organic and timeless classic quality to it. You can quickly create and understand very complex patches. For example, there are almost no animations.

The UI is showing its age too in some ways. This might not matter to you if you're going to add say an external reverb. Some parts are starting to show its age IMO, like the effects.

U-he zebra2 review