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Zebra Legacy or EW Forbidden Planet?

An important note for anyone on the fence that uses multiple computers:
  • U-he products do not limit the number of activations and only have a single time online serial registration per activation.
  • EW Products only give you a single iLok activation on a dongle or machine.
Since EW does not allow multiple machine activations or iLok cloud activation, this means you can either only use EW products on a single machine, manually deactivate and activate machine licenses every time you switch between PC and laptop (which is an unnecessary hassle), resign yourself to the archaic dongle, or buy a second license for every additional machine.

If you only use a single machine, you're fine. If you bounce between two machines and refuse to deal with archaic dongles, like I do, EW iLok decisions make the products essentially unusable.

I like the sound quality of their products and the breadth of what is on offer, but until they rethink their decisions on iLok activations, I personally won't be using or buying their products ever again.
 
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Trash Panda said:
An important note for anyone on the fence that uses multiple computers:
  • U-he products do not limit the number of activations and only have a single time online serial registration per activation.
  • EW Products only give you a single iLok activation on a dongle or machine.
Since EW does not allow multiple machine activations or iLok cloud activation, this means you can either only use EW products on a single machine, manually deactivate and activate machine licenses every time you switch between PC and laptop (which is an unnecessary hassle), resign yourself to the archaic dongle, or buy a second license for every additional machine.

If you only use a single machine, you're fine. If you bounce between two machines and refuse to deal with archaic dongles, like I do, EW iLok decisions make the products essentially unusable.

I like the sound quality of their products and the breadth of what is on offer, but until they rethink their decisions on iLok activations, I personally won't be using or buying their products ever again.
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Valid point. They should at least allow for three activations like UVI (or five like Arturia).
 
Trash Panda said:
An important note for anyone on the fence that uses multiple computers:
  • U-he products do not limit the number of activations and only have a single time online serial registration per activation.
  • EW Products only give you a single iLok activation on a dongle or machine.
Since EW does not allow multiple machine activations or iLok cloud activation, this means you can either only use EW products on a single machine, manually deactivate and activate machine licenses every time you switch between PC and laptop (which is an unnecessary hassle), resign yourself to the archaic dongle, or buy a second license for every additional machine.

If you only use a single machine, you're fine. If you bounce between two machines and refuse to deal with archaic dongles, like I do, EW iLok decisions make the products essentially unusable.

I like the sound quality of their products and the breadth of what is on offer, but until they rethink their decisions on iLok activations, I personally won't be using or buying their products ever again.
Click to expand...
Strongly agree with this, it really needs to offer a cloud ilok license so you can move between computers.
 
ALittleNightMusic said:
I’m going to guess it’s due to the responses like “not even a question zebra” from folks that most likely haven’t properly compared the two pieces of software in question.
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I was the one IIRC who stated "not even a question" as first (or second or third) one in this thread.
And I'm absolutely meaning it like I said it, also, if it was a very short answer and not one who stated the same in many words.
But here you go:
While I listened to the walkthrough of Forbidden Planet and also think there are for sure great patches in it, the main impression for me what that it captures the past in quite a distinct mode.
It has a retro flair that probably is of more interest for somebody who wants to revisit that vintage era or wants to revive aspects of it. Which I personally don't do.

My relation to Zebra 2 goes back almost to the day it was released, and I guess of all synths I've used in my life, Zebra had by far the biggest ROI for me.
It's named "zebra" but it can behave like a chameleon.
If I need an interesting noise loop, it takes me around 10 minutes to program an interesting one with a couple of MSEGs, noise, one or two filter modules and maybe a comb module.
And then, I have tons of great sounds (categorized in my own Logic habitat since over a decade) which I can always modify in a way that suits my needs.
I've used Zebra in all film genres I work (from historic documentaries to modern feature films).

Once more, my intention was not to bash "Forbidden Planet", but as said, I think it puts you in quite a specific direction (at least the walkthrough does) while Zebra is a blank canvas which can bring you everywhere. And while I'm sure that over a decade of work has gone into the former, if you have a closer look at all the sounds you can get in the u-he Patchlibrary for free you will have maybe a century of hard work of talented programmers.
And of course, if somebody is looking specifically for what FP is delivering, I'm pretty sure it's great.
Still, my initial statement stands.
 
Living Fossil said:
My relation to Zebra 2 goes back almost to the day it was released, and I guess of all synths I've used in my life, Zebra had by far the biggest ROI for me.
It's named "zebra" but it can behave like a chameleon.
I
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Hey can I ask how you would compare Zebra to Pigments? I'm a lifelong musician/guitar player, but relatively new to synthesis. Other than traditional emulations (which I have a lot of) I first decided to make Serum my go-to as a sort of non-emulation swiss army knife kind of home-synth. Then I switched that to Pigments because of the added sampler and better FX. But after learning it somewhat and auditioning a LOT of patches (Arturia and 3rd party) I can honestly say there's just something about it that I'm not bonding with. But I'm not sure if that's my lack of programming capability or something about the sofware itself. With all the things I'm trying to learn and catch up on, time is very valuable, so I'm leaning on putting all my energies from Pigments into learning the ins and outs of Zebra. So I'm just curious as to your thoughts on how they compare and differ.
 
Living Fossil said:
While I listened to the walkthrough of Forbidden Planet and also think there are for sure great patches in it, the main impression for me what that it captures the past in quite a distinct mode.
It has a retro flair that probably is of more interest for somebody who wants to revisit that vintage era or wants to revive aspects of it. Which I personally don't do.
Click to expand...
That was the impression I had too. Funny that the marketing babble says the following about this:

You don’t have to design synth patches from the ground up or settle for outdated analog-modeled hardware sounds.
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Dylanguitar said:
Hey can I ask how you would compare Zebra to Pigments?
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Unfortunately I don't have Pigments. I was thinking about getting it pretty early, but I thought it would be to time consuming to get really a big value (that my other options provide) out of it...
Also, for many things I also use Omnisphere quite a bit (often for things that involve samples).
(Falcon and Phaseplant would be other plugin that I'd immediately buy if I had _much_ more time... :) )

But I think, Zebra, Pigment, Phaseplant, Falcon, Omni are all pretty great allrounders that are worth to be explored in depth, but also to great to be neglected...
 
Dylanguitar said:
Hey can I ask how you would compare Zebra to Pigments? I'm a lifelong musician/guitar player, but relatively new to synthesis. Other than traditional emulations (which I have a lot of) I first decided to make Serum my go-to as a sort of non-emulation swiss army knife kind of home-synth. Then I switched that to Pigments because of the added sampler and better FX. But after learning it somewhat and auditioning a LOT of patches (Arturia and 3rd party) I can honestly say there's just something about it that I'm not bonding with. But I'm not sure if that's my lack of programming capability or something about the sofware itself. With all the things I'm trying to learn and catch up on, time is very valuable, so I'm leaning on putting all my energies from Pigments into learning the ins and outs of Zebra. So I'm just curious as to your thoughts on how they compare and differ.
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I demo-ed Serum and Pigments and eventually settled on Phase Plant. Lots of fun and possibilities, GUI was very intuitive for me and was very easy for me to get accustomed to very quickly.

edit: my bad I didn't read the post all the way through before posting :emoji_face_palm:
 
Living Fossil said:
Unfortunately I don't have Pigments. I was thinking about getting it pretty early, but I thought it would be to time consuming to get really a big value (that my other options provide) out of it...
Also, for many things I also use Omnisphere quite a bit (often for things that involve samples).
(Falcon and Phaseplant would be other plugin that I'd immediately buy if I had _much_ more time... :) )

But I think, Zebra, Pigment, Phaseplant, Falcon, Omni are all pretty great allrounders that are worth to be explored in depth, but also to great to be neglected...
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Sorry to steer the conversation off topic but... Siegfried how would you compare Zebra to Omnisphere purely in terms of synth sound? (Not samples)
 
StefanoM said:
I see a lot of people laughing on that post by Robert_G, ...but it is one of the most intelligent things I have ever read in this forum. :)

Of Course I Love Zebra and its my first ( classic Synth...)..but... it depends very much on what you are looking for, and what you have to do.
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I kind of expected the response I got. I know guys here love their zebra (and it's a great product), but the OP was asking for cinematic hybrid scoring synth duties which is something Ethera/Elements is exceptional at.

Dylanguitar said:
I'm trying to spend very wisely going into BF, so I would be curious to know what others think? Which is the better option/deal for cinematic hybrid scoring synth duties?
Forbidden Planet for $134.06 or Zebra Legacy (Zebra2 with all soundsets...including Dark Zebra) for 99€.
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It's true that Zebra is great at creating sounds, custom waveforms (I think), etc, but not only does it take time to do those things, but it interferes in your workflow when composing...and for me....that is why Ethera/Elements is so amazing.
You can't be in both states of mind at one time. You are either creating sounds or you are composing. If you are constantly going back and forth between the two, your workflow (and creativity) is going to suffer.

That is why I bought into the Ethera/Element ecosystem. There is very little one could possibly need that Stefano hasn't put in there in the way of presets. On top of that I have not seen any VI hybrid/synth on the market out there that is as user friendly as Ethera/Elements. That is also crucial in workflow.

As for needing a sound that might not be available in the exact presets available, Ethera/Elements is designed to be adjusted easily and quickly....if a tweak is even needed. Most of the time it I can find what I'm looking for in the presets....maybe I might need a quick volume adjustment on one of the layers at most....or something minor like that.

It is true that some guys here thrive on getting (and searching and experimenting) that exact sound for their work. I would say it is fair to assume that most people here are not THAT guy. Most of us want to compose and not want to spend hours getting 'that sound'.
Ethera/Elements is the perfect compromise for me when I want to compose hybrid/synth. Excellent workflow management is one of the things I believe Stefano prioritized with the Ethera Gold and Elements series...and that is why for guys like myself....I highly recommend it over the 2 initial suggestions.
 
Dylanguitar said:
I think it was a statement of "we love Zebra and romplers are inherently inferior" and that's that. .
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I thought this until very recently, much preferring the best softsynths from u-He, Softube etc to any sampled synths. But I bought FP a couple of days ago when it dipped finally into impulse-buy territory and it really is an exquisite package. All the sounds have been really expertly processed to be mix-ready and the level of control plus arp/FX etc are awesome. I can absolutely see workflow reasons why people would prefer to use FP for many things, and the result is in no way sonically inferior.
 
Pier said:
Sorry to steer the conversation off topic but... Siegfried how would you compare Zebra to Omnisphere purely in terms of synth sound? (Not samples)
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There are astonishing sounds that are based purely on the synthesis capacities of Omnisphere, however in that area i still (clearly) prefer Zebra. The oscillators, the filters, the comb modules and all the other features just have so much magic in my ears.
What makes Omni indispensable is the implementation of many (high quality) soundsources that still can make use of all synthesis capabilities.
Also, the effect section of Omni is quite spectacular; also how they can be an integrated part of the synthesis.
I'm glad that I don't have to decide between different tools :)
 
Some interesting thoughts in this post, learning a little more about Zebra and FP. Though at this point I really have no intention of buying either. Kinda of short on funds.

But, I was glad to see @Quantum Leap jumping in and giving some background on FP. It’s nice to hear from the other side, that is from a developers perspective.
 
Just to make a, probably ludicrous, point: when I first saw Zebra’s GUI, I got scared. Definitely not for the faint hearted. I did try to appreciate it, though, and almost got this far with Diva, but even that one was too much for me. Bazille was another no-no. Of course, no criticism soundwise, but I’m simply not inclined to sit in front of all those knobs. Getting a Sequential synth felt like overshooting, but I’m still here ;)
 
@Dylanguitar Technically FP is a synth that uses samples in lieu of oscillators. It's a niche product and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have experience with OPUS. However, if you are okay with OPUS and looking for these types of sounds the samples are very good.

Zebra, in contrast, is a far more versatile "workhorse" synth. It's a better buy for approx the same price and even if you aren't currently interested in doing sound design there are countless excellent inexpensive 3rd party sound sets for all imaginable genres available and Zebra now includes approx 3x more presets than FP out of the box. Zebra is a synth you can explore for years to come and go as deep as you want. U-He updates their synths on a regular basis and Zebra 2 is CLAP enabled.

But perhaps the most important consideration is that unlike East West products, you can resell Zebra if you decide it's not your cup of tea for approx the same $ you paid for it.

That's my two cents and yes, I have both.
 
Alchemedia said:
@Dylanguitar Technically FP is a synth that uses samples in lieu of oscillators. It's a niche product and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have experience with OPUS. However, if you are okay with OPUS and looking for these types of sounds the samples are very good.

Zebra, in contrast, is a far more versatile "workhorse" synth. It's a better buy for approx the same price and even if you aren't currently interested in doing sound design there are countless excellent inexpensive 3rd party sound sets for all imaginable genres available and Zebra now includes approx 3x more presets than FP out of the box. Zebra is a synth you can explore for years to come and go as deep as you want. U-He updates their synths on a regular basis and Zebra 2 is CLAP enabled.

But perhaps the most important consideration is that unlike East West products, you can resell Zebra if you decide it's not your cup of tea for approx the same $ you paid for it.

That's my two cents and yes, I have both.
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Thank you for the response. I ended up getting both. Forbidden Planet for $135. An impulse buy? Perhaps but it seems like a great deal for what you get.
 
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