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Torn between LCO Strings and U-He Zebra 2...

jononotbono

Luke Johnson
So, for a bit of fun...

If you could only afford to buy one, which would you go for? Spitfire LCO Strings or U-he Zebra 2?

Recently I've been doing quite a bit of Horror/Suspense stuff for a few Short films and I have been rinsing Albion UIST for the Aleatoric and Atonal playing techniques I can't fake with my other Orchestral Sample libraries. So, I'm very interested in LCO Strings especially with the aspect of playability.

I'm also very interested in finally owning U-He Zebra 2 (and the HZ Soundset) and my inner geek is telling me I need it in my life.

So, I know this is kind of an Apples and Oranges type thing, but just curious what anyone's thoughts are. Both sound ridiculously great. Both can be used in Horror/Suspense (and a whole lot more) and I can only afford one of them at the minute...
 
I would buy Zebra 2. But then again, I already have LCO. So, that's not really helpful.

I have to admit that I haven't found a good use for LCO yet. That's probably mainly down to a lack of inspiration and talent. I am curious about Zebra 2 myself. But I still have the demo version that came with Zebralette. I can't remember what the restrictions are, but maybe you can download that (if you not already have done so) to give you a better impression of it.
 
There are far more things you can do with Zebra, as long as you're okay with programming it. Zebra, due precisely to this multi-capablility, is a no-brainer, unless you have specialty project(s) you're sure would sound great with LCO.
 
I have the both, and if I had to start over and had to chose only one, I would buy Zebra. I don't have so much opportunity to use LCO compared to Zebra. As mentioned before, Zebra and Omnisphere are the best synths available on the market. You cannot go wrong if you want a good synth.
 
zebra obviosuly covers a lot more ground.
depends on what you need more in your work though
be aware that lco is a very niche lib
 
You could do a whole score with Zebra 2, presets from TheUnfinished and a bit of synthesis knowledge. It's a fantastic synth, and Zebra 3 is out soon(ish) which will be even better.

I have LCO strings and it's great on the projects I need it for, but Zebra is there in every one of my templates. Zebra rocks.



Very good. This may have just tipped my decision.

Apparently there was a Discount Voucher given to people who signed up for the U-he Newsletter last month. I totally missed that as I've been a little busy doing some DIY to my house and other non music related stuff. Shame. If there is anyone that has that voucher that doesn't intend on using it, then I'd happily take it off your hands. Just saying! :)
 
It seems that due to the flexibility of synthesis, and for horror, Zebra 2 would be the "better" choice.
I don't own the full version yet though, only the Zebra2CM version.
 
Very good. This may have just tipped my decision.

Apparently there was a Discount Voucher given to people who signed up for the U-he Newsletter last month. I totally missed that as I've been a little busy doing some DIY to my house and other non music related stuff. Shame. If there is anyone that has that voucher that doesn't intend on using it, then I'd happily take it off your hands. Just saying! :)

Would you qualify for this? https://u-he.com/products/zebra2/zebra2-crossgrade.html
 
The 25% voucher from their newsletter is also still possible to add (bringing it down to 150€ incl. taxes [at least for me, don’t know how it is for other countries]).
Or at plug-in boutique I think it should be at ~180€ (not much but still 20€ less;))
 
Very good. This may have just tipped my decision.

Apparently there was a Discount Voucher given to people who signed up for the U-he Newsletter last month. I totally missed that as I've been a little busy doing some DIY to my house and other non music related stuff. Shame. If there is anyone that has that voucher that doesn't intend on using it, then I'd happily take it off your hands. Just saying! :)

I don't know if you can still get that voucher, and if not, if you could use someone else's, but if so then you can have mine. It's probably best to check first though.
 
I need to dust off my Zebra.

Haven't used it in ages. Hive is great too.

Love u-He.

U-He Presswerk is one of my fave compressors. Only recently knocked out by the newly upped Klanghelm DC8C.
 
I don't know if you can still get that voucher, and if not, if you could use someone else's, but if so then you can have mine. It's probably best to check first though.

Thanks man. Yeah I wouldn’t want to annoy the Devs so I’d definitely check first. And if it’s not possible then thanks anyway for the offer!
 
For Horror NI Thrills should be high on your list. But perhaps you already have it?

I could have sold you my Zebra (no HZ though) but due to all the soundsets I've bought it's not really worth it for me to sell it, as I can't sell those. After getting Avenger I just don't use Zebra that much.
I do think, once you have a handful of quality synths, they start to overlap in terms of features and it starts to become more of a preference of GUI more than anything.
 
In fairness, LCO does sul tasto way better than Zeba. It's really an amazon sul tasto.

But it's interesting that its LCO vs Zebra, which on the surface is kind of an apples to oranges comparison, or a "how long is a piece of string" question.

And there is something highly unique about LCO - you can almost consider it a kind of "hyper organic" synth. Not because it sounds synthy (at all), but because it has such an amazing range of textures that normally you only get with a synth.

In fact I'd go so far as to say that in all that time I've spent messing about with synths, I was all along going for just such an organic sound. And perhaps the key thing I learned from all messing about with synths (besides that I *really* hate cheap 80s FM synthesis, if I never another day programming a DX11 it will be too soon) is that it is he textural dimension of composition that I was trying to compose hone in on all alone, and not the "synth" sound per se.

Which is a dimension that this recent generation of highly textural orchestral libraries suddenly bring into focus - none more emblematically that LCO, although the warblyness of the p layer of the JB violin has this quality if used carefully, or the whispered trems of the SsS Vl which are an entirely new soundscape to my ears, or any number of articulation in any number of recent libraries, has really made me realize that this is what I wanted to do with synths all along.


So possibly not relevant to your actual question, but I'd vote for LCO. In this (very narrow) sense, it's the best synth I've ever owned.
 
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In fairness, LCO does sul tasto way better than Zeba. It's really an amazon sul tasto.

But it's interesting that its LCO vs Zebra, which on the surface is kind of an apples to oranges comparison, or a "how long is a piece of string" question.

And there is something highly unique about LCO - you can almost consider it a kind of "hyper organic" synth. Not because it sounds synthy (at all), but because it has such an amazing range of textures that normally you only get with a synth.

In fact I'd go so far as to say that in all that time I've spent messing about with synths, I was all along going for just such an organic sound. And perhaps the key thing I learned from all messing about with synths (besides that I *really* hate cheap 80s FM synthesis, if I never another day programming a DX11 it will be too soon) is that it is he textural dimension of composition that I was trying to compose hone in on all alone, and not the "synth" sound per se.

Which is a dimension that this recent generation of highly textural orchestral libraries suddenly bring into focus - none more emblematically that LCO, although the warblyness of the p layer of the JB violin has this quality if used carefully, or the whispered trems of the SsS Vl which are an entirely new soundscape to my ears, or any number of articulation in any number of recent libraries, has really made me realize that this is what I wanted to do with synths all along.


So possibly not relevant to your actual question, but I'd vote for LCO. In this (very narrow) sense, it's the best synth I've ever owned.
Interesting angle. While I do like LCO, I find it a little bit finite in its uses. The range of sounds possible with Zebra are essentially limitless.
Both products are great. I guess it's down to whether you want organic acoustic sounds over synthesized sounds?
 
In fairness, LCO does sul tasto way better than Zeba. It's really an amazon sul tasto.

Indeed, the sul tasto is pretty reknown in LCO. However, I get really good results with the same articulation in BHOT (really).
 
Indeed, the sul tasto is pretty reknown in LCO. However, I get really good results with the same articulation in BHOT (really).

And instead of using the grid as advertised, I find myself using the Olafur chamber evo as basically a library with 15 different sul tasto articulations. The great revelation here is that just can't have too many flavours of sul tasto. Tundra has a half dozen arguably even more amazing variants on sul tasto.

Which gives you this huge textural variety of a synth - if not quite as endlessly tweakable - with the organics of the orchestral. Best of both worlds in my estimation.
 
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And instead of using the grid as advertised, I find myself using the Olafur chamber evo as basically a library with 15 different sul tasto articulations. The great revelation here is that just can't have too many flavours of sul tasto. Tundra has a half dozen arguably even more amazing variants on sul tasto.

Which gives you this huge textural variety of a synth - if not quite as endlessly tweakable, - with a organics of the orchestral. Best of both worlds in my estimation.

I think all the string Evos (I own all three) have quite a few sul tasti as well. It gets really interesting in 2.
 
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