Zebralette 3 Modulation Section Discussion

[sauceversace]

easier way to set modulation sources, like left press on knob or drag and drop modulation, and it could be a game changer to preview it before applied like in vital. very cool.

[sauceversace]

2 mseg envelopes in total. its crazy to ask.but i still will. all good that gomes of this iz gonna suit the new zebra

[sauceversace]

i would love too see lfo fx on this synth, look at meld.

[Urs]

Another suggestion for the MSEG: I think it would be great if there was an option to scan the envelope with a knob instead of triggering it. Like a lookup table.

Here's the issue:

We also want to make the MSEG available as source for the VCA. In that case, the MSEG always needs to "finish" and go back to 0. Because only then does the voice stop playing its note and go to standby. This feature has been requested for many years.

If we added any form of external shift/scan/offset to the MSEG, it may continue even if it reaches its end, simply by being reset to "somewhere inside". There may be modulation where the MSEG never reaches its end. In that case a voice would never stop playing, notes would never end.

Likewise, we changed the MSEG behaviour from Z2 to Zebra 3 so that loops would not optionally loop forever - for the same reason since "forever" would be bad for a VCA envelope.

So the dilemma is, it's a bit of "either this or that" but probably not both. VCA or modulation driven. The only chance I see is that the MSEG could ignore any Modulation/forever looping if it's selected as VCA source. That's something I'd probably like to experiment with at a later time.

[uhoenig]

Hi Urs, thank you for this wonderful synth and for your explanation.

The only chance I see is that the MSEG could ignore any Modulation/forever looping if it's selected as VCA source. That's something I'd probably like to experiment with at a later time.

That would be great!

[BobDog]

Mod Matrix - Target selectors and slot modifiers have no automation parameters
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One of the great things about Bazille is the mod destinations have automation parameters.

The Z3 mod matrix like Hive and Z2 do not have these even though they do have automation params for the sources, have you ever thought of adding them?

Also the modifiers can be midi mapped but do not have automation parameters.

[Urs]

Mod Targets are not automatable because they refer to an internal parameter ID which can change across updates. In presets they are therefore not referred to by a number but by an identifying string. Automation however only ever deals with numbers and never with string identifiers. This may eventually change with CLAP as I think it will support text based parameters at some point. This would open up the possibility.

Note that in Bazille the number of targets is limited and not bound to parameters, while the ModMatrix in Hive and now Zebralette can address almost every continuous parameter that is represented by a knob or fader.

[BobDog]

Thanks for the info Urs, so basically the targets can control parameters that have no automation ids?

[Urs]

Thanks for the info Urs, so basically the targets can control parameters that have no automation ids?

Yes, even if they are not otherwise automatable. We use this for instance to add "invisible" parameters that are very rarely of any use, except for few special cases.

[BobDog]

Nice one, thanks for all the info. Makes sense now

[Andreya_Autumn]

Couple of little issues.

First of all, the Sample and Hold shape and I are having a disagreement about what a quarter note is. I'm guessing it's sampling every time the square crosses 0. But for the square it makes sense that one positive + one negative crossing = one cycle, whereas with S&H it makes sense to sample once per cycle. Not a big deal maybe, but thought I'd raise it anyway.

Somewhat more annoying, in my opinion, is the "Single" LFO mode interacting with the random shapes. These re-seed at every note-on, so you get sudden jumps in mod value, rather than gradual change (or consistent S&H pulse). This rather severely limits the usefulness of the random shapes, since in practice their behavior wrt note-on is very similar across all the modes.

It'd make a lot more sense to me if the random modes just did freerun in Single mode.

[Andreya_Autumn]

Attaching a simple patch that shows what I mean. Play a chord and let decay = nice and smooth. Slowly arpeggiate the chord = sudden jumps in timbre.


Also, another small nitpick. The symbol used for the Bipolar switch is not very clear to me. Maybe make it show + for uni and +/- for bi? Or alternatively, make the mod ring that appears around the target show extend one way for uni and both ways for bi?

[sauceversace]

using a lfo a single cycle, that doesnt retrigger.

[sauceversace]

adding fx to lfo that costimize its shape and can be modulated. kinda like osc fx.

[uhoenig]

make the mod ring that appears around the target show extend one way for uni and both ways for bi

+1 for this. And the origin of the mod ring should move with the knob, like for example in Bitwig.