i'm on board
zebra2
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- KVRAF
- 1602 posts since 14 Oct, 2002
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- KVRAF
- 4878 posts since 13 Jun, 2002 from Montreal
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- KVRian
- 1399 posts since 29 Feb, 2004
----So hey, Urs, how about an update, a text one, where are you at on Z2 ? Not rushing you, really, just wanting to know what the new 2006 timeframe is looking like here.
Jeff
Jeff
- u-he
- 30209 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
You know, all these little things. Lots of small modifications in the guts that one can't see from the outside but which are needed to put things differently later, such as Midi Learn.
Microtuning is in. Now it's about adding a "normal" file loading dialog for .tun files and everything. Gotta be abstracted so that it works on either platform.
And platforms. Platforms are highly depressing for small audio developers these times. I'm *very* reluctant to upgrade to VST 2.4 and to bother with Universal Binaries. Just subscribe to the VST development mailing list and feel the sheer panic all around. I provide 3 versions now (AU, VST Win, VST X). But with VST 2.4, Win64 and IntelMacs it might have to be 6! I got a really bad feeling here... gonna see the whole picture when my MacBook Pro arrives (if it ever arrives).
However, as I'm back to 24/7 coding (now that the flood of feedback went down), I'm also getting short worded. That's pretty natural, like I havn't posted much from June to September. This helps me concentrate.
Later,
Urs
Microtuning is in. Now it's about adding a "normal" file loading dialog for .tun files and everything. Gotta be abstracted so that it works on either platform.
And platforms. Platforms are highly depressing for small audio developers these times. I'm *very* reluctant to upgrade to VST 2.4 and to bother with Universal Binaries. Just subscribe to the VST development mailing list and feel the sheer panic all around. I provide 3 versions now (AU, VST Win, VST X). But with VST 2.4, Win64 and IntelMacs it might have to be 6! I got a really bad feeling here... gonna see the whole picture when my MacBook Pro arrives (if it ever arrives).
However, as I'm back to 24/7 coding (now that the flood of feedback went down), I'm also getting short worded. That's pretty natural, like I havn't posted much from June to September. This helps me concentrate.
Later,
- KVRAF
- 8700 posts since 9 Jan, 2004 from leroyaumeuni
for me testing is usually for afterwardsbluedad wrote:took you that long??lalo wrote:tryed the demo for 10 minutes...
i'm on board
My other host is Bruce Forsyth
- u-he
- 30209 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
No new ones. Paradoxically I don't wanna create any hype currently. The more hype, the less I get donesnooky wrote:any audio DEMOS?
Cheers,
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- KVRAF
- 10815 posts since 26 Nov, 2004 from UK
www.skirize.adbe.org/Subjective_Zebraz.mp3snooky wrote:any audio DEMOS?
Subz
EDIT: sorry URS!
hopfully this one wont make any hype at all
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- KVRist
- 490 posts since 8 Mar, 2005 from Helsinki, Finland
Pointless noodling, parts 5-7:
http://hylky.com/temp/zebratests5.mp3
http://hylky.com/temp/zebratests6.mp3
http://hylky.com/temp/zebratests7.mp3
(single patches, mostly single notes as well)
http://hylky.com/temp/zebratests5.mp3
http://hylky.com/temp/zebratests6.mp3
http://hylky.com/temp/zebratests7.mp3
(single patches, mostly single notes as well)
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- KVRist
- 237 posts since 5 Feb, 2006 from Toronto
those are fun! thanx... sometimes sounds like you are twirling x/y knobs too..krushing wrote:(single patches, mostly single notes as well)
_________________
O
S
X
12.5 -- > + -->
VENTURA 13
- u-he
- 30209 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
Not sure if Ned's wonderful tune was posted before?
http://www.zebrasynth.com/songs/NedFX_ZebraPlanet.mp3
Cheers,
Urs
http://www.zebrasynth.com/songs/NedFX_ZebraPlanet.mp3
Cheers,
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- KVRian
- 1399 posts since 29 Feb, 2004
Urs wrote:You know, all these little things. Lots of small modifications in the guts that one can't see from the outside but which are needed to put things differently later, such as Midi Learn.
Microtuning is in. Now it's about adding a "normal" file loading dialog for .tun files and everything. Gotta be abstracted so that it works on either platform.
And platforms. Platforms are highly depressing for small audio developers these times. I'm *very* reluctant to upgrade to VST 2.4 and to bother with Universal Binaries. Just subscribe to the VST development mailing list and feel the sheer panic all around. I provide 3 versions now (AU, VST Win, VST X). But with VST 2.4, Win64 and IntelMacs it might have to be 6! I got a really bad feeling here... gonna see the whole picture when my MacBook Pro arrives (if it ever arrives).
However, as I'm back to 24/7 coding (now that the flood of feedback went down), I'm also getting short worded. That's pretty natural, like I havn't posted much from June to September. This helps me concentrate.
Later,
Urs
----Well, keep at it, I'm sure it's coming together, looking forward to taking the full deal for a test drive, kinda been putting off using it much myself until it's done, so just checking in and seeing what's up.
Jeff
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- KVRAF
- 1602 posts since 14 Oct, 2002
I'm doing lot of zebr-ing 
i noticed that on many preset even a single note produce 20% or even more ..25-30% cpu usage on my pentium M dothan 2.0 Ghz...
is there some room for cpu optimization in the future or have we to live with this cpu usage...is zebra sse optimized yet?
thanx
lalo
i noticed that on many preset even a single note produce 20% or even more ..25-30% cpu usage on my pentium M dothan 2.0 Ghz...
is there some room for cpu optimization in the future or have we to live with this cpu usage...is zebra sse optimized yet?
thanx
lalo
- u-he
- 30209 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
Hey lalo,
there are some things that might take up more cpu than they should. I.e. some modules don't go into standby mode if there's nothing to do and thus might even suffer from denormalization. Candidates are RingModulator, Shapers and even some filter types.
Regrading SSE/Altivec, there's not much that could benefit. For instance, the filters are faster now *without* SSE/Altivec than their counterparts in Zebra1.5 which use Altivec. It's generally easier to parallelize software with a static layout (i.e. if one can calculate multiple identical modules at once), but this can hardly be done in Zebra where everything has to work in arbitrary order. Another obstacle is, the power of SIMD can only be unleashed on 32-bit audio data (single precision floating point). Now, most modules in Z2 require 64-bit precision...
The one thing that benefits from Altivec big time on the Mac are the oscillators, due to MacOS X' very fast FFT implementation. I'm gonna check out if buying the corresponding Intel libraries will give us a speed bump, but I want to wait and see if there's a chance to buy them for both Win and the new Intel Macs.
However, here are some tips that might help to make individual patches faster:
- mute unused Grid channels (red square between Grid and corresponding mixer)
- lower "Resolution" for oscillators in corresponding "more OSCx" tabs if possible
- avoid "LP Vintage" and "LP Vintage2" filter modes if possible, these are expensive analog simulations
- use one Osc in "dual" or "quad" mode rather than 2 or more Oscs in "single", if possible
- use shorter Release times on VCA envelopes (but don't set them to 0 or you might get clicks)
- use "few" voices or even switch to "legato" or "retrigger" voicing modes
Cheers,
Urs
there are some things that might take up more cpu than they should. I.e. some modules don't go into standby mode if there's nothing to do and thus might even suffer from denormalization. Candidates are RingModulator, Shapers and even some filter types.
Regrading SSE/Altivec, there's not much that could benefit. For instance, the filters are faster now *without* SSE/Altivec than their counterparts in Zebra1.5 which use Altivec. It's generally easier to parallelize software with a static layout (i.e. if one can calculate multiple identical modules at once), but this can hardly be done in Zebra where everything has to work in arbitrary order. Another obstacle is, the power of SIMD can only be unleashed on 32-bit audio data (single precision floating point). Now, most modules in Z2 require 64-bit precision...
The one thing that benefits from Altivec big time on the Mac are the oscillators, due to MacOS X' very fast FFT implementation. I'm gonna check out if buying the corresponding Intel libraries will give us a speed bump, but I want to wait and see if there's a chance to buy them for both Win and the new Intel Macs.
However, here are some tips that might help to make individual patches faster:
- mute unused Grid channels (red square between Grid and corresponding mixer)
- lower "Resolution" for oscillators in corresponding "more OSCx" tabs if possible
- avoid "LP Vintage" and "LP Vintage2" filter modes if possible, these are expensive analog simulations
- use one Osc in "dual" or "quad" mode rather than 2 or more Oscs in "single", if possible
- use shorter Release times on VCA envelopes (but don't set them to 0 or you might get clicks)
- use "few" voices or even switch to "legato" or "retrigger" voicing modes
Cheers,

