Basic tip:
Learn and experiment OscFX + combinations

Fast gritty timbre selector mini-tutorial:
Start with a Osc Module (saw or sawish Geo waveforms) followed by a VCF LP6db

OscFX1: PhaseXFer 100
OscFX2: Scrambler -48

Backoff VCF cutoff to tame brightness.
Lower notes sound more.. cool
Randomlly tune one or both OscFX but let them to a static position (No OscFX mod.)
Plethora of gritty timbers to choose from with some microtweaks!
Last edited by 3ee on Fri Oct 07, 2011 2:10 am; edited 1 time in total

I forgot to add a very vital tip for learning to use Zebra.

Read the manual.



http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=304206&start=0

try this:
-Load a default saw oscillator.
-OSCFX:
slot 1: load the "registerizer" and give it about half of positive value.
slot 2: load "symmetry" and give it positive or negative 4 to 12.

-Lower pitch.

+1 The manual is great!

Thanks for all the tips everybody! Zebra is a bit more complicated than my old analogs But what a payoff for time spent!

Yaaaaaay! Lasers! Pweeew pweeeew
Great patch! Thanks for sharing

Cheers
Dennis

Hey.. not that low! (pitch)
Was referring more of a cool texture for a bass sound.
Like this one: http://www.box.net/shared/p18489fcqkclaqvtk9nr

Try switching to arp more to get an idea.... some XYs are assigned as well.

Here's one I call Zebra's "Plastic Filter"

Get the standard sawtooth, and add the following Osc FX:

Ripples to FX1, knob fully clockwise. This will add a fake resonant peak.

Filter to FX2, knob central. This is a fully open filter, which will close when we apply negative modulation.

Now add negative modwheel modulation to both effects. Start with both assignments at fully negative position, and tweak the ripples mod a bit if you like, so that it tracks the 'cutoff' point in a pleasing way. Then, replace the modwheel assignment with something else if you like, like and envelope. I recommend upping the waveform resolution (how often waveforms using the wavetable and Osc FX are updated) if you're using fast envelopes. A value of 2 or 3 o'clock seems to be a good 'catch all' value.

This produces a really weird, plasticy-digital, phase-distortion style resonant filter which sounds kinda whacky on chords especially.

EDIT: I made a mistake here. This setup doesn't provide enough modulation to sweep the resonant peak.

To correct it, cancel the FX1 modwheel modulation in the oscillator panel, and instead go to the matrix. Now add modwheel in entry 1, with a fully negative amound, set the via knob to fully negative as well, selecting "modwheel" for the source. Now set the destination to Spectral FX1 Value.

Setting modwheel "via" modwheel in this way creates a more exponential response which seems to follow the cutoff better, and tends more toward the lower, more interesting frequencies. It's this "via" value that you can alter slightly to change the nature of the sweep and pick out different harmonics.

To improve the "plastic filter" sound, I've added a suboscillator square with it's own filter, and added a static notch filter, whose job it is to remove the resonance ringing when the filter is fully open... And it works better than I could have expected! I can also use the notch filter to track the resonance, and attenuate it by a desired amount, providing variable "PD-style" resonance. I haven't tried executing this yet, but this is quite a unique sound

Where's the best place to upload a patch?

I like Box.net, free and easy to download from.

Spurious half-baked light-bulb-shorting-out feature request: copy and paste between an active Zebra and clipboard text

+1 for box.net and the clipboard feature

Cheers
Dennis

I'll be checking out these patches as soon as I can. Thanks everybody

Yep... +1 for box.net

Try this on a default saw wave:

OSCFX:
1st: Filter set to (-96 to -100)
2nd: Phase Xfer set to +50 or -50.

The result will be an analogue like waveform similar to the "sine" wave in ACE.

PS If you set the oscillator to PWM mode and the phase to 50, it will turn into a triangle. Nudge the phase knob a bit for tuning the sound character.
You can also try to alter the wave a bit in the osc wave tab.

Zebra LFO tips and tricks:

1a. LFO noise (Feedback LFO)
1b. LFO noise (Random MMap)
2. Very fast LFO (Custom Drawable LFO Shape)
3. Fastest LFO Clock.

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1a. 2LFOs + 2ModMatrix Slots:

Pick a 1st LFO to modulate the pitch of an oscillator for example and set the mod amount to 1.00 or 0.50 for starters.
Triangle shapes seem to work best but sines or other shapes may work OK as well so, triangle shape, speed max synced by 0.1s, phase to 50.

mod matrix: LFO phase modulated by a 2nd LFO (with the same settings as the 1st) by the amount of 50.
mod matrix: 2nd LFO phase modulated -50 by the 1st LFO.

Now you can assign the 1st LFO or the 2nd to any control to introduce small (or large) amount of noisy artifacts. Some of the best candidates are; pitch, pw, pan, sync.

1b. Same basic idea but a different way. 1LFO + 1 ModMapper
Start with a new preset: modulate the osc pitch for example with the modmapper by the amount of 2.

128 step randomized MMapper in smooth or quantize mode, modulated by an LFO (same settings as in 1a.)

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2. one envelope (or MSEG) + MMapper

Trying this on a oscillator pitch again but you can modulate (almost) any other parameter, select MMap and set any modulation amount.

MMap: 128 step, map smooth mode with a triangle wave drawn in, smooth it out and select an envelope as it's modulator.
Env: Set it to loop D mode (loop A for a bit more control, usually not needed)
Set the fall/rise knob to maximum (minimum will also work) and everything else to 0.
Control the "LFO" rate with the env decay knob (+attack in loop A mode) use the rest of the knobs to control the "LFO" behavior.

You can also use, the MMap with a less number of steps, but you'll loose the maximum speed of the oscillation. (in most cases you won't care about that anyway)
Lot of fun with 2-8 steps... also try setting the MMapper in map quantize for a ... modulation sequencer

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3. Similar to the 2dn example but even faster... I guess we can call it "HFO"
Set it up like in example 2, but use the MMix instead of the MMap as the modulation source.

MMix: sum modulation, select the MMapper for 1st and 3rd slot... set the constant to maximum.

The rate of the maximum oscillation is so fast, that you can actually tune the oscillator with the modulation value with a couple of cents "handicap" within the 48X2 semitones range.
That means that the oscillation rate is about 22,050 Hz, right? .. anyway, most of the parameters aren't even picking up the modulation at this speed.

Get another oscillator running as your tuning fork, set the envelope to v-slope and finetune the oscillator pitch from there instead of the detune knob.

You may want to use this LFO trick for aliasing, alternative offsetting values and ... still trying to figure out how to "re-clock" the oscillator and have a bit more control.
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Some patches Zebra 2.5.2 http://www.box.com/s/de8ug15z6nzq0kti2v60
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Last edited by 3ee on Tue Nov 29, 2011 7:02 pm; edited 3 times in total

Here's something I've had fun with recently: Square wave additive synthesis.

Four squarewaves stacked in octaves atop eachother and with phase reset active to bind them together, and you have something along the lines of a sawtooth. You can now get a nice take on "saw PWM" by using the modwheel to do PWM to all of the waveforms in unison. Set to a slow envelope it makes amazing pads.

Sync sweeping all of the squares in tandem doesn't create a sync saw, but instead they lose coherence and the sound disappears into a sea of pulse noise. The impressive thing is that when you bring the sweep back down, the pulses will 'magically' reform into the sawtooth approximation again.