# ZEBRA 2 : Any advice on which commercial presets are worth it?



## Valérie_D (Nov 13, 2014)

I am a newbie to Zebra so any shared experience with these presets are welcome, there are quite a lot!

http://www.u-he.com/PatchLib/commercial.html#zebra2

Many Thanks!


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## gsilbers (Nov 13, 2014)

This one is the one i find worthwhile
http://www.theunfinished.co.uk


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## paulmatthew (Nov 13, 2014)

http://www.sound.artenuovo.com/ Padsheaven bundle for $65 or Dark Zebra from U-he http://www.u-he.com/cms/118-tdz-news


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## Dryden.Chambers (Nov 13, 2014)

These are my faves..

The Unfinished
http://www.theunfinished.co.uk/shop/zebra-bundle/

Alexander Hacke NYC
http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra2-patch-banks

Perimeter Sound
http://www.producerloops.com/Download-P ... sonix.html

http://www.producerloops.com/Download-P ... ra-25.html

Hollo Padsheaven
http://sound.artenuovo.com/


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## tmm (Nov 13, 2014)

Any by The Unfinished, and I also really like the Botanica soundsets (esp the second one). Then, of course, there's also the Dark Zebra.


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## dhlkid (Nov 13, 2014)

Unfinished & all 3 volumes of PadHeaven


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## oxo (Nov 14, 2014)

- darkzebra / zebraHZ
- all from the unfinished
- all padsheaven

...and the best way to learn zebra is analyze the patches of howard scarr (HS).


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## pmountford (Nov 14, 2014)

Anything from The Unfinished you can't go wrong with, especially for film.


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## mk282 (Nov 14, 2014)

ZebraSkools is also a must (over 600 patches)!


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## zvenx (Nov 14, 2014)

I think it depends what types of sounds you are looking for....

For zebra, I mostly love the rhythmic seq/arp stuff, the bell types of stuff and the pads stuff.


My personal favourites are the previously mentioned hollo stuff, unfinished stuff, dark zebra. I also really like the two big tone banks (stratosphere and chronosphere I think they are called) available on u-he's site.
Although I haven't used them in awhile, I quite like the Transitions stuff also on u-he's site, but its an older library.
The ZebraSkool stuff was great, it was that bank rather than the factory bank that made me even buy Zebra in the first place, but for me that sounds very dated now, and for me, they are much better libraries currently.

I also quite liked Dimitri's Ambient Voices, although in all honesty it doesn't get much use.




rsp


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## paulmatthew (Nov 15, 2014)

I almost forgot , the U-He site also has links to a ton of free presets from users found here http://www.u-he.com/PatchLib/zebra.html


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## H.R. (Nov 15, 2014)

Here is a freebie bank which I did recently:
http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3807168


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## Valérie_D (Nov 15, 2014)

Hey Thanks H.R.!

Thanks everybody for your precious inputs!


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## evilantal (Nov 17, 2014)

I also really enjoy 3ee Sound Design's Winter soundset and the stuff by Vintage Synth Pads


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## New_Loops (May 21, 2018)

You can download the free demo presets in this new Zebra presets pack - 
https://newloops.com/products/empyrean-zebra-presets


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## SoNowWhat? (May 21, 2018)

As above, I’ll just add my votes for
@hollo Pads Heaven Bundle (Artenuovo)
And
@TheUnfinished

Quite a few soundset providers have demo sets (10-20 odd sounds for example), that let you see if/how their sounds work for you. The two devs above definitely work for me (and have demo sets for various soft synths). Whether I need it or not I’m always interested when they have something out.

I think there was a whisper on here about @Vin (midissonance) possibly releasing a Zebra soundest. I’d be all over that too if it happened.


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## darrenwonnacott (May 21, 2018)

Stephan Baer's (Sonic Underworld) soundsets for Zebra are awesome! (Stephan also does soundsets for Omnisphere, Diva etc) http://sonicunderworld.com/store/


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## ctsai89 (May 21, 2018)

Depends on the kind of music u making.

Aiyn zahev makes phenomal presets for dance electronic music

Most of those are more complex sounds than those film score pads from other libraries and you could use it for films as well


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## SoNowWhat? (May 21, 2018)

One other thing (if you haven't already tried) is scroll down to the authors in the side pane and take a look at what takes your fancy there. Then see if that author has any commercial sets. U-he has a few third party contributors to standard patch sets.


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## Rctec (May 21, 2018)

Howard Scarr - who I consider one of the most amazing programmers ever - and I did the “Dark Zebra”, which really is just a patch library of sounds either one of us had created over the years... with some custom modules I needed that Urs kindly added. But ultimately, all these libraries are undoubtedly pretty great, made by passionate synthesis (my favorite type of people!) and worth it. I still find Zebra (and no, I don’t get any money from Urs) a wonderful synth to discover new sounds with. What I think I’m trying to say is... start taking anyone’s sounds apart. It’s actually a very easy synth to be creative with and to learn synthesis from. 
I’m not trying to discourage anyone from buying and supporting the creative souls that have put all this work into the libraries. It’s just that Zebra is such a great piece of software to create you very on sounds with...


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## Jeremy Gillam (May 21, 2018)

The Massive Modular skins from Plugmon really brought Zebra to life for me. The pack comes with a few skin options for both Zebra2 and the HZ version, and a couple of nice sound sets as well. For whatever reason the way these skins display the parameters really helped me get my head around the synth, and I'm finding that I'm able to make an increasingly satisfying racket by starting with the init patch and seeing where I end up.


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## X-Bassist (May 21, 2018)

Has anyone mentioned the unfinished?  He has soothing walkthrough videos playing many of his patches, so there’s no guessing.  I also like how he says “Zeh-bra”.



His videos lull me into a false sense of security about opening my wallet.
http://www.theunfinished.co.uk/shop/zebra-nordsund-gold/

The Omnisphere 2 presets are also excellent. I love the latest release he just posted:


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## Old Timer (May 22, 2018)

I think the sounds Zebra comes with by Howard Scarr are pretty amazing. But I agree with Rctec that making your own sounds in Zebra is a good route to follow. Your patches may not sound so polished, they many not be as immediately impressive but they will be _yours_ - as the English philosopher John Locke might have said (had he been a synth enthusiast), you will have 'mixed your labour' with these sounds so you can claim ownership of them in a genuinely meaningful and satisfying way. I've only made 10 sounds in Zebra, but they are amongst my favourite sounds because I made them - they're like little synth babies.


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## paulmatthew (May 22, 2018)

If you're looking to learn programming in Zebra 2 , here is a link to Andrew Aversa's Zirconst You tube page. Check out the playlist for Zebra 2 tutorials. They will get you up and running in no time. I still refer to them myself from time to time . https://www.youtube.com/user/zirconst/playlists


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## Arbee (May 22, 2018)

ctsai89 said:


> Depends on the kind of music u making.
> 
> Aiyn zahev makes phenomal presets for dance electronic music
> 
> Most of those are more complex sounds than those film score pads from other libraries and you could use it for films as well



Yep, I have this and love it:


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## ctsai89 (May 22, 2018)

Arbee said:


> Yep, I have this and love it:




But then aiyn zahev has made even more and better banks for other synths. Sylenth1 diva2 hive serum spire dune2 you name it


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## lp59burst (May 22, 2018)

+1 for The Unfinished & Hollo Sound stuff... 

Luftrum 13 is quite good too...

http://www.luftrum.com/luftrum13/


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## Robo Rivard (May 22, 2018)

I would ask the same question for DIVA (I don't have Zebra). I love DIVA!


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## Greg (May 22, 2018)

Unfinished and HZ packs were the only ones worth the time of going through if you're looking for modern sounds for film.


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## quantum7 (May 22, 2018)

Due to a life of chronic back pain, I unfortunately cannot spend the time program nifty sounds all day long from scratch, so 3rd party soundsets are a godsend for me and a great starting point for further creation. I never truly appreciated just how powerful Zebra was until I started purchasing commercial libs for Zebra. I am really excited for the eventual Zebra 3.


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## evilantal (May 22, 2018)

Robo Rivard said:


> I would ask the same question for DIVA (I don't have Zebra). I love DIVA!



And the answers would be the same for a large part (plus Soundsdivine) 

Oh yeah, and a recommendation for Kyhon's sounds for all uhe synths. That stuff's crazy


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## Arbee (May 23, 2018)

ctsai89 said:


> But then aiyn zahev has made even more and better banks for other synths. Sylenth1 diva2 hive serum spire dune2 you name it


Very true, I have his Serum banks and love those too.


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## SoNowWhat? (May 23, 2018)

Greg said:


> Unfinished and HZ packs were the only ones worth the time of going through if you're looking for modern sounds for film.


Did you mean the Dark Zebra soundsets? If @Rctec has other soundsets out for Z2 I’d completely missed that.


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## Greg (May 23, 2018)

SoNowWhat? said:


> Did you mean the Dark Zebra soundsets? If @Rctec has other soundsets out for Z2 I’d completely missed that.



Yeah just those


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## Robo Rivard (May 23, 2018)

If I own DIVA (which I love), is it a good move to buy the whole "Diva bundle" from The Unfinished? Their demos sound quite epic.


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## mr336 (May 23, 2018)

I've purchased some pretty cool sound banks from Triple Spiral Audio. Jaap the creator is amazing to deal with and has some killer deals.


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## Vin (May 24, 2018)

SoNowWhat? said:


> I think there was a whisper on here about @Vin (midissonance) possibly releasing a Zebra soundest. I’d be all over that too if it happened.



In the works


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## SoNowWhat? (May 24, 2018)

Vin said:


> In the works


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## Jaap (May 24, 2018)

mr336 said:


> I've purchased some pretty cool sound banks from Triple Spiral Audio. Jaap the creator is amazing to deal with and has some killer deals.



That is very nice to hear, thanks!


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## drasticmeasures (May 24, 2018)

Can't go wrong with The Unfinished patches. Matt does great work.


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## H.R. (Jun 30, 2018)

Here is my preset library for Zebra. Use it for free and have fun.


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## zvenx (Jun 30, 2018)

zvenx said:


> I think it depends what types of sounds you are looking for....
> 
> For zebra, I mostly love the rhythmic seq/arp stuff, the bell types of stuff and the pads stuff.
> 
> ...



My probably favourite Zebra bank came long after I posted the above. 
It is Sound Author's Undertow:
https://eclipse-sound.com/72/5/zebra/undertow72-detail

(whilst I don't profit from any sale of it, I did do a few sound demos for it and give him suggestions/feedback along the way of the bank's creation)

I also love EH's first Zebra bank, Analog Memories.
Very very very playable.

http://www.electric-himalaya.com/u-he_zebra2_presets.html

rsp


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## gussunkri (Jun 30, 2018)

I have bought a few, but the ones I regularly use are “Dark Zebra”, and “Absolute Zebra”.


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## New_Loops (Sep 12, 2018)

116 right here - https://newloops.com/products/empyrean-zebra-presets


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## Beluga (Sep 12, 2018)

Was really disappointed with any of the commercial packs I bought. These were really bad and unusable (to me). It’s weird because the basic lib is so incredibly awesome.


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## New_Loops (Sep 12, 2018)

Beluga said:


> Was really disappointed with any of the commercial packs I bought. These were really bad and unusable (to me). It’s weird because the basic lib is so incredibly awesome.



Wow thats a shame. Did you try the new loops demo patches?


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## Beluga (Sep 12, 2018)

New_Loops said:


> Wow thats a shame. Did you try the new loops demo patches?


Will have to. Bought 3 or 4 additional packs but won’t buy any more at this point.


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## SoNowWhat? (Sep 12, 2018)

Can I just chuck in the u-he patch-lib which has many downloadable goodies (soundsets, MSEGs and OSCs) for Zebra2. And free.
It’s just been (is being) updated.
https://u-he.com/community/patchlib/

Old patch lib link here.
https://u-he.com/PatchLib/

This was mentioned earlier in the thread too so apologies. I just d/l the Zebra Vision set from Mcnoone. There is some very cool material in there (IMHO and of course YMMV).


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## Andreas Moisa (Feb 2, 2021)

For film and tv scoring:









Products


Real-Life. Emotional. Simple.




whatabaudio.com


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## New_Loops (Feb 2, 2021)

Beluga said:


> Will have to. Bought 3 or 4 additional packs but won’t buy any more at this point.


Sorry to hear that. If you buy the New Loops Zebra presets and are not happy you will get 100% refund.  Go ahead and try them, risk free!  https://newloops.com/collections/u-he-synths-presets


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## Johnny (Feb 2, 2021)

I am finding a lot of hidden gems in the Zebra 2 patches from The Very Loud Indeed.Co
These libraries contain a lot of genres that are not very often explored from synth sound set creators. Also they release Zebra + HZ sound sets : ) Spooky/horror to punchy cinematic! Great stuff here!
Very useful: https://www.veryloudindeed.com/


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