# Just bought Zebra 2: presets vs. learning sound design



## h.s.j.e (Dec 15, 2019)

I bought Zebra during the end-of-November sale, and although I'm pretty close to played out budget-wise for the year, I'm really tempted by the sales at The Unfinished and Sound Dust, and thought I might let myself buy one set of sounds.

At this point, I'm leaning toward either something from The Unfinished, or just spending more time experimenting in Zebra on my own, but I'm also open to picking up Cluster. I don't have a defined style, but I tend to shy away from EDM and related genres, and enjoy more cinematic sounds.

Is there a particular great starter set of Zebra sounds at The Unfinished? Is it worth it to stretch my wallet a little further and go for Cluster? Should I save money and spend time, instead?


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## D Halgren (Dec 15, 2019)

That's a hard one, as I have all of Matt's Zebra sound sets, and I immediately bought Cluster, as Pendle is a genius. They both have sales going on currently. You could just delve into the factory presets and learn from those for now. Really, you should get the Dark Zebra sound set to get Zebra HZ. Hell, flip a coin, or max out some credit


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## h.s.j.e (Dec 15, 2019)

Haha, thanks for the advice! I figured that the real answer might be something along those lines. I just have too many kids and not enough dollars to make it all work .


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## D Halgren (Dec 15, 2019)

h.s.j.e said:


> Haha, thanks for the advice! I figured that the real answer might be something along those lines. I just have too many kids and not enough dollars to make it all work .


I do think that Cluster is really something special, but Matt's sets are great, too. The good thing is that they will be available anytime. It's just too hard to pick. Good luck! Watch the walkthroughs and see if anything really strikes you!


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## shawnsingh (Dec 15, 2019)

If you're asking "should I buy presets or take time to learn sound design", everyone will almost certainly reply "yes"


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## mscp (Dec 15, 2019)

Why don’t you do both?


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## h.s.j.e (Dec 15, 2019)

shawnsingh said:


> If you're asking "should I buy presets or take time to learn sound design", everyone will almost certainly reply "yes"


Agreed! I plan to do both (I'm a faithful One Synth Challenge-er), but the question is more about which one I should do first. And if you're voting for presets, I'd love to know what you'd recommend.



D Halgren said:


> I do think that Cluster is really something special, but Matt's sets are great, too. The good thing is that they will be available anytime. It's just too hard to pick. Good luck! Watch the walkthroughs and see if anything really strikes you!


Also a really fair response. Any favorites from the Unfinished?


Phil81 said:


> Why don’t you do both?


Should've made it more clear. I definitely plan to do both. And if I buy soundsets, which ones would you recommend?


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## cqd (Dec 15, 2019)

Does the dark zebra ever go on sale?..


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## D Halgren (Dec 15, 2019)

h.s.j.e said:


> Also a really fair response. Any favorites from the Unfinished?


The Zebra Bundle


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## kgdrum (Dec 15, 2019)

D Halgren said:


> I do think that Cluster is really something special, but Matt's sets are great, too. The good thing is that they will be available anytime. It's just too hard to pick. Good luck! Watch the walkthroughs and see if anything really strikes you!




@D Halgren
Did you get the Cluster Soundset for Zebra? Or did you get the Cluster bundle which includes samples and loops for Kontakt? I bought the Zebra soundset but I'm intrigued with the Cluster-Kontakt set.I'm curious to hear from users who got both.
I'm intrigued but broke,so I'm all ears.
Thanks


@ hsje
Yeah it's great learning how to use and program a synth like Zebra but IMO you can learn probably more and faster if you have a few of the top notch soundsets from Matt or Pendle or Howard (analyze the presets and see what they're doing) while you learn to program Zebra.
IMO these 3 are among the best soundset/preset creators in the business, they have been at it for years.
As others have mentioned don't underestimate the quality of the presets and programming that come with Zebra and DZ.
U-he's resident GENIUS Howard Skarr is a briiliant programmer and to my knowledge many if not most of the Zebra presets are his creations.A bit of reverse engineering with any of these patches from these wizards will be enlightening.
IMO it's great to dive in and learn what you can on your own but we can all also learn from these extremely talented characters that are aka Howard,The Unfinished and Sound Dust.


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## D Halgren (Dec 15, 2019)

kgdrum said:


> @D Halgren
> Did you get the Cluster Soundset for Zebra? Or did you get the Cluster bundle which includes samples and loops for Kontakt? I bought the Zebra soundset but I'm intrigued with the Cluster-Kontakt set.I'm curious to hear from users who got both.
> I'm intrigued but broke,so I'm all ears.
> Thanks
> ...


Just the sound set. I didn't think that I would need both and I wanted the Zebra skin


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## reimerpdx (Dec 16, 2019)

D Halgren said:


> I do think that Cluster is really something special, but Matt's sets are great, too. The good thing is that they will be available anytime. It's just too hard to pick. Good luck! Watch the walkthroughs and see if anything really strikes you!


Thank you for doubling down on your Cluster rec. watched the walkthrough and grabbed it. Can’t wait to play!


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## D Halgren (Dec 16, 2019)

reimerpdx said:


> Thank you for doubling down on your Cluster rec. watched the walkthrough and grabbed it. Can’t wait to play!


It's so unique! Instant inspiration!


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## germancomponist (Dec 16, 2019)

When someone buys a synth, than the first reason should be to program your own sounds. A best start with Zebra is it to use the presets from Howard Scarr and then edit it into the way you want it to sound like. His presets are sooooo good!


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## ckeddf (Dec 17, 2019)

I am in the same boat, just bought Zebra/ZebraHZ and a couple of sound sets including Cluster. Regarding the Unfinished: I was particularly taken by the Nordsund: Gold sound set. I might get Nordsund: Blood next.


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## pfmusic (Dec 17, 2019)

ckeddf said:


> I am in the same boat, just bought Zebra/ZebraHZ and a couple of sound sets including Cluster. Regarding the Unfinished: I was particularly taken by the Nordsund: Gold sound set. I might get Nordsund: Blood next.



The Unfinished Zebra soundsets are brilliant. Still got a good few to purchase. Love the Nordsund soundsets - you'll like the blood version. I'd recomend always getting the dark editions. Minima is one of my favourites and recently got Tunguska which is great.

Think there's a new release this week...hoping for Minima II or Nordsund sequel


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## BassClef (Dec 17, 2019)

...considering Zebra2 plus HZ for hybrid... only synth I have now is Alchemy and those “sound design” modules inside some of my orchestral libraries like the Albion’s and Jeager. I’m not into sound design but am certainly interested in some tinkering under the hood, and there appears to be a lot of 3rd party developers for the product. 

QUESTION... If I purchase both “2” and HZ, can I use ONLY HZ? In other words can I access and edit all of the “2” patches (500 I think) from inside HZ, or do I need to run “2” when I want to use those patches?


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## D Halgren (Dec 17, 2019)

BassClef said:


> ...considering Zebra2 plus HZ for hybrid... only synth I have now is Alchemy and those “sound design” modules inside some of my orchestral libraries like the Albion’s and Jeager. I’m not into sound design but am certainly interested in some tinkering under the hood, and there appears to be a lot of 3rd party developers for the product.
> 
> QUESTION... If I purchase both “2” and HZ, can I use ONLY HZ? In other words can I access and edit all of the “2” patches (500 I think) from inside HZ, or do I need to run “2” when I want to use those patches?


You can use 2 and HZ separately, and you can access the 2 presets from within HZ, just not the other way around.


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## wst3 (Dec 17, 2019)

I own a few sound sets for some of my software synths, and I've learned a great deal from them. I still prefer to create sounds from scratch, but deadlines, and missing pieces in my skill-set, make that less than practical sometimes.

You will benefit, greatly, from learning at least something about programming your synthesizers. Even if it just means that you can tweak a preset to make it "perfect" for the application.

And you will learn - if you so choose - a lot from other designers sound sets.


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## KEM (Dec 23, 2019)

Which pack from The Unfinished would have the most of those awesome bass arps like what’s heard in The Dark Knight or Inception? I really wanna buy want to buy a pack but I want to get one that’s geared towards that sound in particular.


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## chimuelo (Dec 23, 2019)

Don’t forget Joeseph Hollo.
Try some of his freebies on the u-He site.

The guy has great tricks to learn and if you like Zawinul synth sounds from Weather Report he actually dials in separate Oscillator glide like real hardware.

Cant comment on Arpeggiators though, I use the ones at the end of my arms.


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