u-he The Dark Zebra review

The Dark Zebra rises?

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Unfortunately, The Dark Zebra can't do Christian Bale's 'Bat voice' trick

MusicRadar Verdict

The Dark Zebra is an odd semi-upgrade, and we're not totally sure how we feel about the price, but the quality of the patches and new synth modules is unquestionable.

Pros

  • +

    Excellent quality patches. Hollywood fun at your fingertips.

Cons

  • -

    Steep price for a partial upgrade.

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u-he's latest (which requires a Zebra 2.5 license) comprises a soundbank of 400 patches by Hans Zimmer and Howard Scarr, as used in the soundtracks for The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, and Zimmer's custom Zebra 2.5 mod, ZebraHZ.

"The patches add up to one of the most impressive, beautifully designed sound libraries we've ever heard"

ZebraHZ adds quite a lot of new stuff to the original - stuff that's ultimately destined for Zebra 3. It's by no means a rewrite of u-he's classic semi-modular at this point, but four polyphonic compressors (great for hard-transient patches), a Resonator module (emulating the Polymoog Resonators unit) and an extra filter section pulled from DIVA certainly take the Zebra sound to new places.

The patches add up to one of the most impressive, beautifully designed sound libraries we've ever heard. Making great use of the mod and pitch wheels, they're epic, evocative, highly playable and ever-so-Hollywood.

Computer Music
Computer Music

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