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Zebralette

Synth (Modular) Plugin by u-he
MyKVRFAVORITE342WANT125
Free
Zebralette

Download the free Zebralette 3 beta now.

Favorite Developer - Best Audio and MIDI Software - KVR Audio Readers' Choice Awards 2023Favorite Developer - Best Audio and MIDI Software - KVR Audio Readers' Choice Awards 2022Favorite Developer - Best Audio and MIDI Software - KVR Audio Readers' Choice Awards 2021Favorite Developer - Best Audio and MIDI Software - KVR Audio Readers' Choice Awards 2020Favorite Developer - KVR Audio Readers' Choice Awards 2019
Zebralette by u-he is a Virtual Instrument Audio Plugin for macOS and Windows. It functions as a VST Plugin, an Audio Units Plugin and a VST 3 Plugin.
Product
Version
2.9.3
Product
Version
2.9.3
Instrument
Formats
Copy Protection
None
Important Note
RTAS version is Mac only
My KVR - Groups, Versions, & More
1075 KVR members have added Zebralette to 375 My KVR groups 1303 times.
Not In Your MY KVR Groups
(or group limitation prevents versioning)
+375 in private groups

KVR Rank

Overall: 90   68   89

30-Day: 39; 7-Day: 77; Yesterday: 101

Zebralette is just one of Zebra2's oscillators packed into a simple, easy-to-learn framework – but you have everything you need to make some pretty amazing sounds. Sound that can be directly loaded into Zebra2 later. And should you eventually decide to upgrade to Zebra2, you will already know everything there is to know about the oscillators – which is quite an advantage.

Zebralette has two LFOs (one per voice, one global), a multi-stage envelope and three on-board effects (chorus, EQ, delay). Not forgetting Zebra2's famous dual spectral effects, which include several squelchy filter algorithms.

Latest User Reviews

Average user rating of 4.67 from 3 reviews
Zebralette

Reviewed By harbinger [all]
March 1st, 2019
Version reviewed: latest on Windows

I cannot do without this plugin! I use it for a lot of my electronica and EDM. I love any synth which can morph pads over time, and this has multiple ways of doing it. I am so glad u-he came out with a 64-bit version (which i just DL'd).

Read Review
Zebralette

Reviewed By pbek [all]
June 27th, 2018
Version reviewed: 1 on Windows

great sound (like all uhe products), not to hard for cpu, strange appearance but you get used to.

Read Review
Zebralette

Reviewed By Sendy [all]
July 21st, 2011
Version reviewed: 2.5.1 on Windows

One of the essential giveaways of 2011! If you've read my gushing review of Zebra 2.5 you'll be aware of my awe and respect for U-he products, not to mention my love of the Zebra oscillators, which are pretty much fully fledged unique and versatile synths in their own right.

Zebralette is one oscillator, a couple of LFO's and envelopes (including one multi-segment, freely designable envelope capable of looping). ONE oscillator which can sound like 16, 20, 42 but forget supersaws and the like, in here we have huge tone clusters that can actually move in interesting ways, not just quantity for the hell of it.

In essence you have a freely drawable 16 wavetable morphing oscillator, capable of morphing between waveforms to create exotic and unheard of PWM and filtering effects, or crossfading smoothly for some PPG-style love. 16 waves per table may not *sound* like much, but like the best wavetable implimentations, they are essentially 'key frames' which are interpolated between to create a sweep consisting of what must be hundreds of infinitely variable waveforms. I kid ye not.

If that wasn't mind-blowing enough, you have an option of four different schemes to construct your waveforms, including freehand drawing, beizer curves and lines to build the waveform, and additive graphs allowing you to spray sinewaves all over the place like they're going out of fashion. What I like about this wavetable implimentation is that you can explicitly specify not just what will morph into what, but *how*. This is a serious boon to all sound designers and wave-freaks out there :)

You'll notice a lack of resonant filters, but instead of a gaping hole where they should be, the space is filled with two spectral FX slots capable of throwing your harmonics around in ways that can make a resonant filter seem somewhat boring. These spectral effects include phase distortion (several sine-bending varieties, and the CZ-style 'resonance'), spectral brickwall filters (highpass, lowpass, band stop and pass), spectral gates/boosters, spectral unison, phasing, geometric mangling such as PWM/wave symmetry shifting, wave wrapping (a sort of cross between FM and sync), fractal sync (the synched waveform is included in succesive repeats), and a shedload of others. These are all per-voice and modulatable, and with adjustable resolution (which controls how frequently they are updated).

On top of that we have a standard oscillator control section, featuring phase control, antiphase mixing (for another flavour of PWM), oscillator self-sync (yes, several simultaneous ways of making sync and PWM - stack them and see what happens!), unison up to 11 voices... everything you'd find on the finest 'normal' oscillator.

If by now you aren't salivating and already downloading this plugin, I suspect you aren't really a synthesist at heart. While many have found Zebra 2.5 slightly overwhelming with it's myriad multimode modules and ways to connect them, Zebralette is a good way to get the Zebra sound and creativity into your music, without paying a penny and needing a degree in audio geekery. And if you're wondering about sound quality, just try something: Create the most gnarled waveform you can, add a sync sweep and some FM or other dangerous technique, and play around the high end of the keyboard, using plenty of pitch bend. Do you hear any aliasing or loss of definition?

Ok, why are you still reading this? GO! Install this plugin and let your inner explorer into this universe of sonic possibilities!
Read Review

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Comments & Discussion for u-he Zebralette

Discussion
Discussion: Active
clangorous
clangorous
15 November 2013 at 2:32am

Awesome synth, hard to believe it's free. Also hard to believe it is a single oscillator with the sounds you can create. As recommended, I used Zebralette to learn how to work with the Zebra oscillators before diving into Zebra2. Here is a short (1:34) orchestral piece produced as part of that effort:

https://soundcloud.com/keith-sherwood-1/dark-skies.

Everything...drums, strings, brass, and extra sounds...are all Zebralette.

If you are looking for a soft synth give it a try. The presets are excellent, and if you like creating unique sounding instruments yourself Zebralette is a must-have.

sasha0125
sasha0125
10 February 2014 at 2:28pm

Hello! i installed plug in zebralette and its not playing in the host im using- acid music why?
Thanks!

T-CM11
T-CM11
10 February 2014 at 2:34pm

- Does your version of Acid Music support VST Instruments?

- Have you installed Zebralette into the correct folder?

BlackWinny
BlackWinny
10 February 2014 at 3:03pm

Do you use it exactly as written here?

And also... have you pressed the button "Scan" to refresh the list of your VST's in your Acid Music Studio?

BlackWinny
BlackWinny
10 February 2014 at 3:21pm

Beware also, there is a point which is very important for all the VST's and all the hosts:

  • A 32-bit host can use only 32-bit VST's.
  • A 64-bit host can use only 64-bit VST's.

There are very, very few exceptions, so few that there is no need to explain that longer here.

The most part of the problems encountered in a host about its communication with the VST's are due to this important thing which is unknown by beginners of even sometimes forgotten by the others.

sasha0125
sasha0125
10 February 2014 at 3:25pm

"Does your version of Acid Music support VST Instruments?" yes i already have one.

"Have you installed Zebralette into the correct folder?" C:\Program Files\Vstplugins\u-he/Diva.Data and the Diva.dll.

BlackWinny
BlackWinny
10 February 2014 at 3:43pm

You wrote:

"C:\Program Files\Vstplugins\u-he/Diva.Data"

It should be:

"C:\Program Files\Vstplugins\u-he\Diva.Data"

THIS POST HAS BEEN REMOVED

Jazzyspoon
Jazzyspoon
10 February 2014 at 5:59pm

This conversation seems like it would be so much more helpful if taken to the actual forum page and not the product page. http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=31.

sasha0125
sasha0125
10 February 2014 at 5:51pm

its the same about Diva...its not playing when i press the play button in the host.

THIS POST HAS BEEN REMOVED

BlackWinny
BlackWinny
15 April 2014 at 5:30pm

There is a version 2.7.

Urs... could you update this KVR page to inform your users?

Kind regards,.

BlackWinny.

BlackWinny
BlackWinny
15 April 2014 at 5:34pm

It should be nice also if you would create a page for Triple Cheese in KVR. Actually there's not yet any page for this though very nice free synth.

(for the moment, here is the original page on Urs' website)

tripleflows
tripleflows
4 November 2016 at 6:05pm

Check out this new article about Zebralette: 10 Tips to Use U-he Zebralette More Creatively

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