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

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.


As owner of both, I totally agree, especially re The Unfinished presets to get you started.
 
As owner of both, I totally agree, especially re The Unfinished presets to get you started.

I really like some of the Unfinished's work (especially on EDNA, extraordinary stuff that makes the purchase worth it), but I always got a lot of good from both Zimmer/Howard (HZ, highly recommended) and Simon Stockhausen's presets (check out his site, as he has other great libraries as well for multiple synths including Electra!).
 
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Also worth noting that zebra comes loaded with presets (as you know from the demo). So you don’t need any third party stuff to start out. But yes, unfinished is highly recommended. Go for the dark zebra if you can.
 
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!

Just sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t already and they will send you the discount code. If you have the newsletter shoot them an email- they sent me the discount in just a few minutes. :)

The discount is good until the end of August. Thinking about Z2 myself...
 
If you could only afford to buy one, which would you go for? Spitfire LCO Strings or U-he Zebra 2?

It is a good question. Of course everyone will say you need both.

If you already have a list of good synths, like Alchemy, the NI synths, Omnisphere and Diva, I would probably suggest the strings. If you don't have a raft of synths, however, get Dark Zebra (not Zebra 2, though that rocks as well). For a long time Dark Zebra was my synth go-to and it still occupies centre stage on many cues.

If you need convincing (doubt you do!) that synths are very useful in driving horror, listen to the score for "The Quiet Place." It's a scary movie and the score is the best thing about it. (Actually, while acknowledging that not much is scarier than "Ringu" and "The Grudge," there is more to like about the movie than not -- thought the acting was excellent.)

Been using Omnisphere more lately than I once did, though I still have 50-100 Zebra instances in many cues. Omni is so easy to customise and it seems to be less heavy-handed on the CPU nowadays, although it may be that I have a more powerful computer.
 
I fell in love so hard with Dark Zebra that for awhile I was completely stuck in the Dark Knight mode. So, always best to exercise caution when you buy presets from a certain musical personality.

I approach presets differently from some folks, as I've never used a stock preset from Zebra, period. All have been "Parsifal-tized" so any of the developer's personality gets downplayed in favor of mine. In the case of the HZ, even when a trailer begged for that Rises sound I did my own thing with HZ.

I should also mention that the Diva filters in Dark Zebra are to die for, and actually had me put away the mighty Diva for awhile (btw that's saying a lot, because Diva is probably at least as good as Zebra as a tool imo, incredible, super recommended synth).
 
get Dark Zebra (not Zebra 2, though that rocks as well)
Not possible correct? As I understand it, Dark Zebra is a $115 soundset that requires a Zebra2 license?

[EDIT]: Just realized the price of Zebra2 is now more expensive at 199 euros...currently $231. Very odd...never seen a VI go UP in price over time.
 
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Maybe it has changed but when I bought it quite some time ago, Dark Zebra was separate. I already had Zebra or Zebra 2, however, so maybe I am misremembering.

Either way, Dark Zebra sounds better to me.

Dark Zebra can also be one heck of a lot of fun. Try sitting with your laptop in front of Dark Knight Rises (the movie) and have a ball going back and forth trying to find the appropriate (approximate) patches! :)
 
@jneebz I think you are correct, at least today. I don't see "Dark Zebra" under "Products" on the u-he website, just Zebra 2.

But once you buy Dark Zebra as a sound set, you get the Dark Zebra filters, which are closer to the Total Awesomeness of Diva. Diva just kills me, actually. I love that one.
 
@jneebz I think you are correct, at least today. I don't see "Dark Zebra" under "Products" on the u-he website, just Zebra 2.

But once you buy Dark Zebra as a sound set, you get the Dark Zebra filters, which are closer to the Total Awesomeness of Diva. Diva just kills me, actually. I love that one.
Not sure if you saw my edit but the price for Zebra2 also went up...bummer.
 
@jneebz I think you are correct, at least today. I don't see "Dark Zebra" under "Products" on the u-he website, just Zebra 2.

But once you buy Dark Zebra as a sound set, you get the Dark Zebra filters, which are closer to the Total Awesomeness of Diva. Diva just kills me, actually. I love that one.
They changed their website, so it's now under 'soundsets', just doesn't work without a Zebra2 license:)
https://u-he.com/products/soundsets/zebra2-soundsets.html
 
[EDIT]: Just realized the price of Zebra2 is now more expensive at 199 euros...currently $231. Very odd...never seen a VI go UP in price over time.
199€ incl. taxes though (at least in €-countries). Don't know if that applies also in the U.S., but if so (so already incl. taxes) then it should be ~ the same than before, as I believe (correct me if memory serves me wrong) the 199$ was always excl. taxes?!:)
 
Alright sorry for the post barrage.....But for those interested, JRRshop has Zebra2 for $199 and an active discount code "forum" which lowers the price to $177, which is roughly the same price as applying the newsletter discount on the U-he website store.
 
It's hard to regret buying Zebra/Dark. There's so much you can do with them, especially when armed with online lessons for instance ADSR. You can have a great time just programming that synth, I sure have!
 
I believe the deal is still that if you buy Zebra 2 and HZ you get Zebra 3 for free. If that's still applicable, it's definitely worth considering. You should absolutely play around with the Zebra 2 demo. u-He has one of the most generous demo arrangements around. And because of it, I own almost all of their synths.

I also own LCO and I love it because it really fits what I like to write and I agree with the comparisons it gets to synthesizers in terms of how you can apply it.
 
It's hard to regret buying Zebra/Dark. There's so much you can do with them, especially when armed with online lessons for instance ADSR. You can have a great time just programming that synth, I sure have!
Got Z2 today. Wow. On top of all the fun tweakability, I just can't get over the pristine sound...like there's some mojo going on in there for sure! Definitely no regrets here!
 
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