# Zebra Dream World - One Synth Challenge



## kaiyoti (Oct 21, 2013)

Short demo made for the One Synth Challenge at the KVR Audio forums. The synth used is Zebra CM (The Computer Music Mag free Zebra). Spent about half of a day making all the sounds from scratch, and another half on the track itself. 

No samples used. Features some custom synthesized French Horns and Trombones, Trumpets as well as drums. e 

Kind of a "Inception" meets "Oblivion" meets "Tron Legacy". 

Host: Reaper
Synth: ZebraCM (24+ instances)
FX & Processing:
- KR Reverb CM 
- ReaEQ 
- FerricTDS 
- TDR Feedback Compressor 
- Barricade 

[flash width=450 height=110 loop=false]http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F116325020&secret_url=false[/flash] 

Not really looking for feedback to the musical aspect itself since it's clearly not a very musical piece. Could look for some notes on the dynamics and the mix itself as well as the sound design.


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## mark812 (Oct 21, 2013)

Deshi Deshi Basara Basara :D

Nice sound design.


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## kaiyoti (Oct 21, 2013)

The drums were indeed designed with Bane's rhythm looped!


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## kaiyoti (Oct 22, 2013)

Updated with French Horn sounds emulated from more ZebraCM instances.


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## Arbee (Oct 22, 2013)

I nearly missed this, nicely done! Zebra is certainly one of the great synths....

.


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## kaiyoti (Oct 23, 2013)

Agreed, I actually never thought much of ZebraCM due to it's limited / semi modular aspect compared to Zebra2... but this baby packs quite a bit! I did have to use external equalizer to get the sounds I wanted since that's in Zebra2 and missing in ZebraCM. I should really port these patches to Zebra2 (or Dark Zebra for this matter to keep the Zimmer-esque faith) so they'd be standalone.

Also added some trumpet and trombone ensemble emulations.


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## dp_audio (Oct 23, 2013)

Fantastic! Loved it. (Man, I wish I was good at synthesis.)


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## Herenow (Oct 24, 2013)

Beautiful work! 
Like the beginning a lot. Could you explain briefly how you did that?


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## kaiyoti (Oct 24, 2013)

Herenow @ Thu Oct 24 said:


> Beautiful work!
> Like the beginning a lot. Could you explain briefly how you did that?



Did which part specifically? The pitchbend effect... put a pitchbend on any pad synth will work  



dp_audio said:


> Fantastic! Loved it. (Man, I wish I was good at synthesis.)



I experimented with a lot of imitative synthesis (particularly brass / percussion) few years back before I stopped doing any audio work altogether 4 years go, recently picked it up again and just decided to use ZebraCM because the One Synth Challenge. Actually about 90% of my music projects previously have synthetic sounds in place of real instruments. I often used synthetic brass sounds to "beef" up any brass samples I use, it sounds somewhat fake... but sounds awesome IMO. What can I tell you, I love my synthesizers . Keep in mind that majority of these won't sound anything like the sample libraries you get from commercial samples but it's all part of the fun.

Some of my stuff from when I first started imitative synthesis.

No brass samples used... synthesized from Synth1 (strings and winds are samples)
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/387042

Same brass patches used in a rearrangement:
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthesis/BubbleBobbleTheme.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthes ... eTheme.mp3)

When I first created the brass patches:
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthesis/synth1/Brass-NewSoundsTest.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthes ... dsTest.mp3)

Trumpet patches (and Dizi) from Synth1 used in all Synth1 context yet again:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/386175

More trumpet in all Synth1 context:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/211304

Dark Knight Brass Swell imitation:
https://soundcloud.com/kaiyoti/darkknig ... mulationv2

Another rearrangement featuring "plucked" instruments:
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthesis/ClassicalGasII.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthes ... lGasII.mp3)

My first all synth work (Synth1):
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthesis/Synth1Orchestra.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthes ... hestra.mp3)

Another all Synth1, was a demo for my synth1 soundbank (remix), harp in here was my personal fav (you can download it from my bank):
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthesis/HadoukenShoryuken.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthes ... ryuken.mp3)

All Synth1 percussion demo:
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthesis/synth1/Percussion-VariousTest.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthes ... usTest.mp3)

First One Synth Challenge Entry:
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthesis/ArmyOfSynth1.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthes ... Synth1.mp3)

Violins Imitation (muted/sordino):
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthesis/synth1/Strings-SawtoothNoiseHighNote.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthes ... ghNote.mp3)

There was a discussion somewhere about Batman Begins: "Chase" bass percussive effect, this was my take:
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthesis/BatmanBeginsPerc.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/synthes ... nsPerc.mp3)

Most recent Zebra2 endeavor:
https://soundcloud.com/kaiyoti/zebra2-bass-drum-patch

Posted this on this same forum a long time ago, little do people know that 90% percussion is synthesized, but heavily modified after bouncing them to wave files. I loved Joker so much from the second Dark Knight franchise so I made a tribute piece.
http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/other/JokerGothamMenace.mp3 (http://media.kaiyoti.com/stream/other/J ... Menace.mp3)


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## Herenow (Oct 24, 2013)

> Did which part specifically? The pitchbend effect... put a pitchbend on any pad synth will work



The subtle rhythmical synths in the beginning (the first 8 seconds; and from 0:33) 


ps. maybe it's not something hard, but i'm new to this kind of sounds


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## kaiyoti (Oct 24, 2013)

Ah... that's just two oscillators synced... and filtered to the right amount


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## Saxer (Oct 25, 2013)

good work! super organic!


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## Mike Marino (Oct 25, 2013)

Very impressive both on the construction of the sounds and track. Thanks for sharing; there's a lot of great information here.

- Mike


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## Krakatau (Oct 26, 2013)

+1

I strongly agree !!! 

...all i want to add is that your work, _confirmed_, is truly IMO a major example for beginners of what can be done with almost nothing in term of money

I would perfectly imagine, basically as an exercise of style, you showing some of your compositions that are made entirely with totally free softwares and plugins (for instances Mulab free as host + Synth 1, KR-reverb, etc, etc...) on an small, and likely obsoleted platform (P4 on windows XP for instance)

This on a dedicated page on the web or a newspaper like CM

The reason i feel concern myself is that i'm working regulary with musicians and (potentially) home-studist in Burkina Faso in where often the best they can hope in material side would be such platforms (Pentium 4 + windows XP)

Your work is talking by itself as suggesting:

* " This is what you can do with what you have, it's just matter of time, effort and intelligence...no real need for big money ! "*

No real for big platform and softwares, very often cracked :wink: , to do a work of that level of quality...

On that grounds, it is ,or could be if you're sensitive to the cause... 

~o) 

...a huge lesson


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## kaiyoti (Oct 26, 2013)

Krakatau, that's a familiar name from my 4 year music haitus 

This is exactly my philosophy. I never really wanted to point it out because I feel I would just come off insulting talented folks compared to my lackluster musical theory abilities.

Don't get me wrong, commercial sample libraries have that "authentic" sound, but digital music communities today are more infatuated with which library is the "best" and which synth have the best soundbank. It's a bit saddening to see new musicians come into communities only to ask for the best sound library and willing to throw in big money. I've even saw one individual say "I love [some library], it makes me a better composer". It's like saying smartphones make you smarter... 

I'll be honest, when I first gotten myself tangled in music, I was guilty of always looking to get "that sound" through libraries and preset as well. But I soon realize I always end up being on a holy grail hunt simply because there isn't just ONE way to do a sound, and you lose creativity when you "obtain" a sound. It's also not a very rewarding feeling when you achieved a sound that someone else created.

At the risk of insulting anyone, I AM a very cheap individual. So it did force me to 
I'm refining the trumpet patches atm for Synth1 and will be releasing it at some point in the near future. 

[flash width=450 height=110 loop=false]http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F117200520&secret_url=false[/flash] 

With Valhalla Room for spacial fx. Still very crude... wish it had the same control as Zebra where I can modulate multiple parameters with one control in a more fine tuned interpolation. The vibrato still sounds very fake at the moment.


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