Zebrify as a Guitar Synth

[krraqk]

Im a long time guitar synth player using almost all the devices from Roland, Axon, Fishman and software/plugins.
Just recently started to use Zebrify as mono processing and even in polyphonic mode (running 6 instances processing 6 separate strings). The results are first class!.
On the other hand, I am a beginner when it comes to sound synthesis issues and although I have had Zebra for several years it is too complex for me and I have always used it with presets by slightly modifying some parameters.
I wanted to ask if there are any sound packs especially for this synth guitar feature that you can buy or try, or some kind of tutorial on how to use Zebrify to create classic synth sounds played with a guitar input.
I understand that in Zebrify the sound of the guitar is the oscillator itself and the different modules are used to modify the sound, but is there a way to use normal oscillators that can be played with the guitar input? Can Zebra presets be reused for Zebrify? I tried but when I add an OSC it sounds and produces sound and seems to follow the guitar playing but when I don't play any notes it stays sounding, I can't get an ENV to control this.
As you can see, I am a neophyte in the structure and mode of operation of Zebrify so any help would be very appreciated.
Thank you.

[aaron aardvark]

Until someone says something better, can you use the demo version of Zebra (assuming you don't own it) to check that out? Or write down the settings in Zebrify and try to duplicate that in Zebra?

[krraqk]

I own Zebra, so don’t need the demo.
sorry I am not sure what do you want me to check.
What I want is any help to understand how to use Zebrify to work as a guitar synth, the workflow, how to use OSC, ENV... any advice or suggestion could help.

[lunardigs]

Im a long time guitar synth player using almost all the devices from Roland, Axon, Fishman and software/plugins.
Just recently started to use Zebrify as mono processing and even in polyphonic mode (running 6 instances processing 6 separate strings). The results are first class!.
On the other hand, I am a beginner when it comes to sound synthesis issues and although I have had Zebra for several years it is too complex for me and I have always used it with presets by slightly modifying some parameters.
I wanted to ask if there are any sound packs especially for this synth guitar feature that you can buy or try, or some kind of tutorial on how to use Zebrify to create classic synth sounds played with a guitar input.
I understand that in Zebrify the sound of the guitar is the oscillator itself and the different modules are used to modify the sound, but is there a way to use normal oscillators that can be played with the guitar input? Can Zebra presets be reused for Zebrify? I tried but when I add an OSC it sounds and produces sound and seems to follow the guitar playing but when I don't play any notes it stays sounding, I can't get an ENV to control this.
As you can see, I am a neophyte in the structure and mode of operation of Zebrify so any help would be very appreciated.
Thank you.

First off, I agree, I think Zebrify is an excellent guitar processor.

About gating the OCS, do the following per the screenshot. In gist, we control the OSC volume with EnvFol1, we mute the audible guitar signal coming from Input1, while outputting the OCS on another channel.
There's other ways to go about this, but this should be a good starting point.

Screenshot_20210117_175754.jpg

About sound sets for Zebrify, I can't say I've run across any. However, I'd love to create one for guitar and bass. I'd also like to do the same for vocals. Perhaps others might be interested too, like we did for the Bazille "Quarantine sound set"?

[krraqk]

Thank you, envfol works.
Controled this way the OSC sound is a bit to much soft, its possible to use a normal ENV or MSEG or other strategies to control de envelope of the sound and get more sharp attacks and envelopes?

[aaron aardvark]

krraqk,
I guess I misunderstood you. At least I gave your thread a bounce. No problem. Years ago, I tried out Jam Origin "MIDI Guitar" (a plugin) as they developed it. It didn't really work that great for me, but I have been intrigued by guitar synthesizers in the past.

[krraqk]

krraqk,
I guess I misunderstood you. At least I gave your thread a bounce. No problem. Years ago, I tried out Jam Origin "MIDI Guitar" (a plugin) as they developed it. It didn't really work that great for me, but I have been intrigued by guitar synthesizers in the past.

Yes thanks for that.
Yes I use MIdi Guitar, its fantastic one of the best, no matter hardware or software, but here we are talking about another type of guitar synthesizer much more organic and expressive, a different beast.

[lunardigs]

Thank you, envfol works.
Controled this way the OSC sound is a bit to much soft, its possible to use a normal ENV or MSEG or other strategies to control de envelope of the sound and get more sharp attacks and envelopes?

I may not understand either; are you using a 'MIDI-AXE' type thing? Meaning, is your guitar/guitar-interface producing MIDI itself, which you can send to Zebrify?

[krraqk]

I’m using the guitar audio signal, monophonic or exaphonic (using and SY1000 wich sends 6 string signals separately to the computer).
From the description of Zebrify from the manual, its the ‘effects’ version of Zebra2, so its pourpose is to process audio signals, right?
I see that in the midi section I can choose between midi or input so Im using it in "input" mode, not sure what is the midi option for.

[lunardigs]

... From the description of Zebrify from the manual, its the ‘effects’ version of Zebra2, so its pourpose is to process audio signals, right?

Yes, that's how I understand it.

I see that in the midi section I can choose between midi or input so Im using it in "input" mode, not sure what is the midi option for.

Yes, note & gate control is MIDI, by default. Audio input is the special one. However, I don't believe you can mix the use of both. The reason to use one or the other is contextual, of course.

A practical example might concern use with vocoders. Traditional vocoder use has carrier-notes played via keyboard/controller. Thus, MIDI input mode.
Yet, I prefer to have Zebrify pitch-track my modulation source (my voice usually), as opposed to using MIDI note input. To me, this makes Zebrify an ideal carrier, because it does pitch-tracking so well.

[krraqk]

So I understand that in Zebrify the midi or audio input are mutually exclusive, so it is not possible to send any midi events to control any parameters while using the audio input? or this limitation apply only to midi note events?
No way to use any of the midi related modulators like modwheel, ENV, MSEG, velocity, aftertouch, etc. while in audio input mode?

[lunardigs]

So I understand that in Zebrify the midi or audio input are mutually exclusive, so it is not possible to send any midi events to control any parameters while using the audio input? or this limitation apply only to midi note events?
No way to use any of the midi related modulators like modwheel, ENV, MSEG, velocity, aftertouch, etc. while in audio input mode?

Only the note & gate part are exclusive that I know. Modwheel and other CC messages work as you'd expect.

Zebrify is a weird one. It almost seems like it was an afterthought, but then you see the level of detail that went into it, as differentiated from Zebra and it makes you wonder. I personally would love to see it embellished with further development and features. My mind goes to guitar synth and vocoder type stuff, but really it's so much more than this.

Zebra3 will be interesting, because I think the idea Urs has it to unify everything into one shell, meaning no separate Zebrify[3]. Which is a better idea I think, lest something be taken away from the current feature set. I doubt it though, I think it'll probably get better. We'll see.

[krraqk]

Only the note & gate part are exclusive that I know. Modwheel and other CC messages work as you'd expect.

Ok thats interesting to know.

Zebrify is a weird one. It almost seems like it was an afterthought, but then you see the level of detail that went into it, as differentiated from Zebra and it makes you wonder. I personally would love to see it embellished with further development and features. My mind goes to guitar synth and vocoder type stuff, but really it's so much more than this.

Yes I agree, its an strange beast which one needs to discover little by little by experimenting, because the manual does not explains a lot really, especially the input section where the mother of the whole amplitude and pitch detection system is located, even transients and wheezing!
Apart of Envfol, also pitchness, transient, essnes can be used as modulators to control every parameter, its crazy.

Zebra3 will be interesting, because I think the idea Urs has it to unify everything into one shell, meaning no separate Zebrify[3]. Which is a better idea I think, lest something be taken away from the current feature set. I doubt it though, I think it'll probably get better. We'll see.

That would be amazing and would allow to use all the Zebra presets controlled like zebrify allow. Meanwhile would be great to have a way to convert zebra to zebrify presets.

[krazykiwiboy]

Interesting discussion.
Im also interested in using Zebrify to process some live audio. Can you tell me if this is possible, and how to get started. Im trying the demo product before going any further.
I need to take a constant audio input (the output of organ) and modulate the 'volume' with a square wave so that it pulses on and off. Then modulate the cutoff freq with a slow sweeping sine wave.
Is that possible within Zebrify?
Hoping someone might help me there.
Thanks.

[krraqk]

Interesting discussion.
Im also interested in using Zebrify to process some live audio. Can you tell me if this is possible, and how to get started. Im trying the demo product before going any further.
I need to take a constant audio input (the output of organ) and modulate the 'volume' with a square wave so that it pulses on and off. Then modulate the cutoff freq with a slow sweeping sine wave.
Is that possible within Zebrify?
Hoping someone might help me there.
Thanks.

Of course you can process any live audio you want.
About what can you do with that audio I cant answer your question but you can read about the different processing modules in the manual:
https://uhedownloads-heckmannaudiogmb.n ... -guide.pdf