Review: Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 by The Unfinished

With Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 The Unfinished delivers an incredible collection of cold, dark, and beautiful atmospheric sounds for both Zebra 2 and Dark Zebra (Zebra HZ). These are some of the best sounds I’ve heard emerge from Zebra yet, which is to say, these sounds are special.

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Jump to the Demos of Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 by The Unfinished

Review: Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 by The Unfinished

Each time The Unfinished comes out with a new soundset it’s almost as if an entirely new synth has been created. This is especially true of Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 and 4. These sounds are fantastically cold and filled with electronic beauty. With a Dark Edition of each soundset bringing you twice the volume of sounds, Zebra Lazarus delivers a hefty load of synthetic goodness that is almost unparalleled for setting dark, cold, electronic atmospheres.

Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 normally sells for £24.99 and £34.99 each from The Unfinished

Thoughts

Matt Bowdler’s (aka ‘The Unfinished’) sounds have long been the secret weapon of many composers. To use a Spinal Tap metaphor, Matt has a way of taking an already fantastic synth and turning it up to eleven. Each time he comes out with a new soft synth soundset it’s almost as if an entirely new synth has emerged from my computer. I’ve come to expect nothing less than high quality, innovative sounds from Matt’s work. With the continuation of the Lazarus series, this is true in spades.

The latest iteration of the Zebra Lazarus series is presented in two volumes: Zebra Lazarus 3 and Zebra Lazarus 4. However, because each volume is also available in a Dark Zebra (Zebra HZ) edition, the reality is that The Unfinished just added four new volumes to series. On the surface, the Dark Zebra editions contain the same presets (the preset names all match the Zebra 2 edition), but the Dark Zebra edition delivers a different timbre and tone from its Zebra 2 sibling. Both editions deliver cold and highly electronic sounds, but the Dark HZ presets tend to be a bit more on the muted side from the brighter-sounding Zebra 2 patches. At times, using the two editions together can help you form a perfect A/B section for a song (i.e., using a lead patch from Zebra 2 that is then restated in its Dark Zebra version during another part of the song). In fact, I just found myself doing this while reviewing these volumes – I had to stop previewing the sounds to lay some of them down on a new track that I was just inspired to start writing while doing this review. It’s always a good sign when a soundset is so good that you can’t even finish reviewing it before song ideas are jumping out of the DAW that you have to stop and capture!

Both Zebra Lazarus Volume 3 and 4 contain the following preset categories: Arpeggios, Bass Lines, Basses, Drums, Keys, Leads, Looped Percussion, Pads, Soundscapes, SFX, Sequences, and Synths. Here’s a quick summary of the kinds of sounds you can expect from each:

ARPs
The arpeggios in each volume are cold and digital, with a bell-like quality to many of the sounds. These sounds can be both beautifully eerie and meditative, depending on the key being used.

Bass Lines
The bass lines are always one of the first stops in my journey through a soundset from The Unfinished. The bass lines here are dark, gritty, crunchy, and analog sounding. These can serve as the underpinning for many a tension track indeed.

Basses
Just as the bass lines, the playable basses on offer are dark and dirty. These are perfect for everything from scoring work to dark techno.

Drums
There are only a small selection of drum patches; mostly deep electronic-sounding kicks.

Keys
In many ways, the keys are to the arpeggios what the basses are to the bass lines – playable versions of the same kinds of tones and timbres. The keys here are cold, ethereal, and filled with wonderful atmosphere.

Leads
The leads here are different from traditional synth leads. Whereas, traditionally synth leads are monophonic sounds that tend to pierce through a mix, the leads here are more akin to the keys: cold and atmosphere with some grittiness here and there.

Looped Percussion
The looped percussion in these libraries make the perfect percussive sound bed for tension or investigative tracks. These range from low kick loops to high percussive sounds.

Pads
The pads continue the cold and atmospheric ethos found in the rest of this set of sounds. The modwheel includes some lovely filter sweeps. You’ll find cold shimmering pads, warm wobbling sounds, and some detuned tones here as well, but all with a digital character to them.

Soundscapes
These are cold, dark, gritty soundscapes that are begging to be placed into a dark sci-fi project. Some pulsing, some evolving, but all darkly digital and filled with character.

SFX
There are only 3 SFX patches in each volume. Again, these are right at home in the cold and dark ethos of this collection.

Sequences
These sequences deliver such a great variety of tones while fitting perfectly into the dark and digital landscape that the soundset creates. These vary from delicate and fragile thin, digital bell sequences to distorted and noisy digital sequences.

Synths
All of these are obviously synth sounds, but the total of 4 sounds within this category have a slightly different tone and quality. These have a fuller synth tone while remaining digitally charged. These sounds would fit nicely into a Blade Runner-style project.

As always, The Unfinished has delivered something unique and beautiful, but when it comes to Zebra, this might be his best work yet.

Facts

Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 and 4 are available both individually and bundled with their respective Dark Zebra collection. Each volume contains 180 patches per synth (180 for Zebra 2 + 180 for Dark Zebra for a total of 360 presets for each volume). Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 and 4 can be purchased at The Unfinished’s website for £24.99 each or with the Dark Edition for £34.99 each.

Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 normally sells for £24.99 and £34.99 each from The Unfinished

Demos of Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 by The Unfinished

Videos of Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 by The Unfinished

Contributor Raborn Johnson reviews Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 by The Unfinished
“With Zebra Lazarus Volumes 3 & 4 The Unfinished delivers an incredible collection of cold, dark, and beautiful atmospheric sounds for both Zebra 2 and Dark Zebra (Zebra HZ). These are some of the best sounds I’ve heard emerge from Zebra yet, which is to say, these sounds are special.”