Zebra PC blog

[Urs]

Of course I agree completely with this. A simple synth I can use to dial up an interesting patch on the fly is far more useful to me than a behemoth that can do anything if you're willing to spend half an hour flipping through all its pages.

Maybe it would be useful to have a sort of russian-doll synth collection. It starts with a very simple synth but you can export the patch into the next, slightly larger synth if you bump into the limits of the smaller one. There could be three or even four of these. Or I guess they could all be contained in the same UI even.

Anyway, Z2 is already sounding like a somewhat complex instrument so I appreciate your instinct to limit it somewhat.

Yeah, I can think of "add on packs" or "module refills". But honestly, I think this kind of stuff is overrated from a business perspective. I prefer to have one synth and that's it. Maybe one mini synth for the masses later on, but nothing along the lines of modular collector's items.

However, the pure modularity allows me to add in new modules for updates. And an update every six-twelve months is IMHO the ideal model for online distributed business.

Nevertheless, if anyone insists on having 20 envelopes, okay, he can send me a couple of sixpacks. I compile it for him and clone some gui widgets. Takes an hour maybe. If he thinks it makes him any cuter...

(Hmmm, maybe I should make a hardcore version available for total geek customers... 16 oscillators, 24 envelopes, 12 lfos, 12 filters. But is there any such gearslut who really needs that?!?)

Cheers,

Urs

[Sascha Franck]

(Hmmm, maybe I should make a hardcore version available for total geek customers... 16 oscillators, 24 envelopes, 12 lfos, 12 filters. But is there any such gearslut who really needs that?!?)

Well, it was you mentioning biomechanoid allready, wasn't it?

[Urs]

[ianscott111]

Hi,

I haven't read much about Zebra 2 so I have a question which may have already been answered at some point. Is Zebra 2 going to allow the user to select any amount of processors, effects, modulators, sound generators,etc. or is going to have a pre-defined architecture?

[Urs]

I haven't read much about Zebra 2 so I have a question which may have already been answered at some point. Is Zebra 2 going to allow the user to select any amount of processors, effects, modulators, sound generators,etc. or is going to have a pre-defined architecture?

I can refer to Zebra 1.5 here.

Check out this screenshot: http://www.u-he.com/zebra/images/zebra2.png (This is Zebra 1.5, not 2.0 ...)

Zebra has a fixed number of modules. But you can arrange the audio modules to any signal flow in a matrix (called "the Grid"). You can chose from various oscillators, filters, waveshapers etc.

In the typical case, there's more than enough of everything.

Part of the concept is to keep things in a sensible balance of flexibility and usablility. Too few modulators leave too few options, too many cause confusion.

The user interface is pretty adaptive to the things you need in any situation. Can't explain in short, but it's designed in a way that you don't need to flip pages all the time.

Cheers,

Urs

[rockin1]

I'll make saveable "templates" for certain modules/parameter groups, just like Zebra 1.5 lets you save, load, copy, paste spectral waveforms. This will be extended for stuff like the Grid, Arpeggiator, Waveforms, Effects.

At the risk of sounding like I didn't read the rest of your post (which I did - it was a great read!) I'll ask about modulator routings. I think you've got the other biggies that I'd look for, but I think modulator routings could also be very useful. The catch is that they aren't so localized which may make it more difficult to do. Maybe at least if the matrix could be saved off...

[rockin1]

*Z2 does wavetable, additive, subtractive, FM, bits of PD and some stuff that sounds like physical modeling. It doesn't do sampling/resynthesis, nor granular although the inner workings are somehow related to granular synthesis, which sometimes becomes audible. Funnily, these are not totally optional concepts, it's more like they're all in there simultaneously.

Maybe in Z3 we can see more complete granular synthesis if the inner workings are started. I'm thinking more along the lines of true granular synthesis like the stuff Curtis Roads has researched and not so much the sample based granular stuff that is more well known.

[rockin1]

(Hmmm, maybe I should make a hardcore version available for total geek customers... 16 oscillators, 24 envelopes, 12 lfos, 12 filters. But is there any such gearslut who really needs that?!?)

Might be fun to play with, although it would be overkill most of the time!

Probably the envelopes and lfos would be the most useful parts. In an FM patch you might have one envelope per oscillator and then maybe a couple filter envelopes plus an overall amplitude envelope. That already takes us to about 10. But 24???

[Urs]

Probably the envelopes and lfos would be the most useful parts. In an FM patch you might have one envelope per oscillator and then maybe a couple filter envelopes plus an overall amplitude envelope. That already takes us to about 10. But 24???

I'm afraid you gotta live with 8 envelopes (4 normal, 4 multistage...)

Cheers,

Urs

[Urs]

Maybe in Z3 we can see more complete granular synthesis if the inner workings are started. I'm thinking more along the lines of true granular synthesis like the stuff Curtis Roads has researched and not so much the sample based granular stuff that is more well known.

This will not be a derivate of the Z-device, it's planned to be that most obscurely rumoured thing going under the working title P-device.

Cheers,

Urs

[rsmus7]

Hi urs, just for your interest

I made a crappy song for tis month contest and the only synth I used is:














































Podolski,
and some drums.
and only a bit of reverb and compression and a bit of eq.


for a listen you get it here:

Poddies Dance



must say again

if Zebra is only double as good as Podolski ...

[Urs]

I think modulator routings could also be very useful.

I don't know...

I can see a need for transferrable data in case of *huge* blocks of parameters, such as wavetables, tuning tables, arpeggiator/sequencer grooves. And I can definately see that in terms of routing layouts.

It's hard for me to explain, but I think that there's a difference between audio module routing layouts (the Grid) and modulator routings. I see the first ones as *formal* structures while the modulation routing has merely a semantical character, like "what do I want to do within that structure". More along the lines of grammar and expression (uh, shit, I have studied this designer blah stuff for ages, didn't think I'd come up with that anymore). However, I think that modulation routings have more of a parametric character and they are not easy to describe, as the effect of the modulation is not determined by the routing itself (with little exceptions, like LFO->OSC = vibrato).

I mean, you can easily describe a synth architecture as "2 oscillators with parallel filters". That's pretty fundamental and useful. But saveing something along the lines of "envelope on each osc and various other interesting assignments" is not only long, but it also doesn't really say much unless you also say that it's good for this and that structure when you want to do some FM stuff...

Hmm, as I said it's hard to desribe.

We gotta discuss that later.

Cheers,

Urs

[Urs]

I made a crappy song for tis month contest and the only synth I used is:

OMG! You're crazy!

Hmmm... I think I should contribute an entry, too... a 100% Zebra 2 alpha0.1 production

Zebra is only double as good as Podolski ...

WTF?!? Zebra is not only double as good as Podolski, it's already twice as good and it isn't even finished!

Cheers,

Urs

[rsmus7]

WTF?!? Zebra is not only double as good as Podolski, it's already twice as good and it isn't even finished!

Cheers,

Urs

OMG

twice !!!


might get tripple right before end and then ...


maybe fourtle or fiftle or sixtle....

or ...

auf jeden Fall wird er SUPER !!!

[rsmus7]

I made a crappy song for tis month contest and the only synth I used is:

OMG! You're crazy!

well I think I´m not half as crazy
as this damn coder of this might synth, called ....


Zebra