Hi all
 
Would someone be kind enough to enlighten me on the currently available versions of Z3ta please?
 
I have Sonar Platinum. What version is bundled with that?
I notice in the store there is (i) BigTone EDM expansion pack and (ii) Z3ta +2
 
Has anyone any experience of these? Are they a major upgrade over the version supplied with Platinum?
 
One of the plugins I'm lacking at the moment is a synth for strings and pads. I like Roland type string sounds but unfortunately my Juno D hardware synth has decided to die on me and I did post sometime ago regarding recommendations for string sound plugins. I received some excellent suggestions but then I remembered Z3ta. I quite like some of the sounds in the Sonar version but I probably need a bit more, hence the question about the upgrades. Any thoughts?
 
Many thanks
Dave 

In my experience, Z3TA isn't my goto synth for pads.
 
I'm had greater success using some of the pad sounds in Rapture or DimPro

platinum has z3ta+2 bundled, i think?
 

pwalpwal
platinum has z3ta+2 bundled, i think?
 

yes

Z3ta+ is more of a virtual analog modular synth, esp. when it came out.  It is pretty buzzy (rather than smooth if you want short hand) and wouldn't be the first place I'd look for pads. The same goes for Z3TA + 2, which is an update and has plenty of new patches and upgraded modulation.  Z3ta should come with your version of SONAR.  There are some libraries for it, but it comes with a 1000 patches.
 
You might have the Roland Groove Synth, an older synth that used to be included.  Good stuff, including beatboxes, but there are plenty of fulsome synth patches too.  You might have Dimensions Pro, which is exactly what you are looking for.  A sample playback synth, there are plenty of string/pad patches and you can add your own samples - made or bought.  Rapture is included with the top of the line SONAR, I believe, and it has been superseded by Rapture Pro.  A really nice synth, combines the samples and libraries of DimPro and Rapture (they use the same engine) into a nice super synth.  It comes as 3rd party and if you don't have the other 2 synths a nice buy - esp. if you wait for it to go on sale.
 
But you should have Rap and Dim light versions, which are mostly playback synths (not much access to programming).  I've never checked but there should be pads there.
 
Check your version against the on-line Cake comparison chart.

Sonar Platinum actually comes with z3ta+ Classic. See here - > http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions 
On my system (Sonar Platinum 2017.01 ) it shows as z3ta+ v 1.5.
 

 
You would need to purchase z3ta+2 and the EDM expansion pack through the Cakewalk store. 
 
There are quite a lot of examples of z3ta+2 on YouTube  - see here https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=z3ta%2B2
 
ZT 
 

Thanks all. I'll have to dig a bit more. I don't like 'swelling' pads with slow attacks particularly. I tend to go for more 'immediate', more modern sounds. Probably strings would be a better description but they tend to conjure up things like violins, violas, quartets which are a bit too staid for me and not what I'm after at all. 
 
I think part of the problem is that I'm not really much of an experimenter - which means sculpting sounds from scratch just isn't me. Prefer decent presets. I've tinkered a bit with Rapture and Dimension Pro but they both seem pretty identical to me. 
 
Maybe I'm just a hardware guy. Maybe something like a Roland JD-Xi would be better. Or on the plugin side, Spectronics Omnisphere 2 or Komplete?
 
Not sure what I what I want if I'm honest :-)
 
Dave 

One piece of advice - if you really don't know what you want, keep your money in your pocket until you do!

demo demo demo!

ZincTrumpet
Sonar Platinum actually comes with z3ta+ Classic. See here - > http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions 
 

You're right and I should have checked before I replied. Sorry about the confusion. I rarely use the original anymore, and often use Z3ta 2 so I ASSumed it was a tag along with SONAR. (You know what they say about assuming anything).