Zebra PC blog

[Urs]

I'm tempted to write some SSE code

This has caught me.

I've spent the weekend on SSE for some of the critical algorithms that could benefit (quad oscillators, some filters) and the results are *very* promising. I'll spend a few more days on this. Can't do much for delay based modules (reverb, delays, comb filters, chorus), but I'd expect some of the hungry patches to be 40% faster, based on initial observations. That may well be worth an extra week until release.

Btw. I might consider doing the same in AltiVec, as I've only used SSE instructions that can be ported 1:1 to AltiVec. At least I think so. And because the code layout is already there... I mean... why not?

Cheers,

Urs

[Kriminal]

Sounds good to me, anything that lets you play more notes has got to be good no?

[beej]

Ah, you just like the hardcore stuff, you geek...

[Beardedone]

Wow! That will be great! You are glutton for punishment eh Urs?

[Urs]

Ah, you just like the hardcore stuff, you geek...

You know, making the whole Z signal flow stereo has cost 20% cpu. I feel a bit obliged to bring it back

Urs

[JeffSanders]

Hey Urs,

I just put one of my mics on Ebay to preorder this synth.

All I can say is holy freaking shite, sir. You are the master. And Zebra is the king of all VSTi synths. Thanks for porting this to PC.

[Spintwista]

will be cool to have for each of the 16 Wavetable windows an CC control,to jump as example form wavtable wind. 3 to 14 with out going over 456789,11,12,13,....at least in combination with an 16 Step patter arp for jumping in rythem figures between each waves..

Cheers

Hannes

[Urs]

Intel Macs anybody?

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 22#1765522



Urs

[gbles]

will be cool to have for each of the 16 Wavetable windows an CC control,to jump as example form wavtable wind. 3 to 14 with out going over 456789,11,12,13,....at least in combination with an 16 Step patter arp for jumping in rythem figures between each waves..
Hannes

If I understand you correctly, you should be able to do this now by assigning the wave to a user LFO (using steps) or an arp mod source. Using those sources should jump directly to a specific wave. I've not done it before (not using much wavetable stuff yet), but I imagine that it should work.

[Urs]

Yeah, you can also use an LFO in "User wave" mode...

Urs

[beej]

Maybe by alt-clicking or something on the wave knob it could step in wavetable increments?

[liars&ashes]

----So what is the latest word on the Pc version of Z2, any updates or updates coming down the pipeline soon ?

Jeff

[VitaminD]

the word is.. Z2 kicks major hiney. It just keeps getting better and better.

[liars&ashes]

----Well, that's not quite what I meant. I haven't really heard anything since buying it back in January. Is there a new version out yet or what's the current status of the Pc version ? I've been more or less putting of using it, waiting until it was officially at V1.0, so I'd know it at least had all it's major features, and any radical bugs worked out etc.

Jeff

[Urs]

----Well, that's not quite what I meant. I haven't really heard anything since buying it back in January. Is there a new version out yet or what's the current status of the Pc version ? I've been more or less putting of using it, waiting until it was officially at V1.0, so I'd know it at least had all it's major features, and any radical bugs worked out etc.

Hey Jeff,

Sorry for the silence. I was really keeping my mouth shut because the less emails I have to answer, the more work I get done. I had to answer roughly 2000 emails from December to March, which wasn't exactly what I expected. Even though most of them were positive and much appreciated, the sheer number set my schedule back for several weeks...

Most major features that were missing in the preview are implemented, here's a brief list:

- Arpeggiator/Sequencer
- Global Swing
- Module Presets
- Modulation Mixers
- Global Tuning /w alternate scales
- Universal Binary for Audio Units
- a text editable preset file format (needed for some intrigueing stuff, see text-editable presets below)

Stuff I've done in addition (mostly speed optimizations):

- Faster GUI opening
- up to 40% faster dsp code in many modules, especially on SSE2 capable machines, including Intel Macs
- fixed bugs in the cpu management of some modules so that idle modules don't process silence

Stuff I'm still at:

- unified crossplatform file handling (a techy thing that is needed for module presets and loading .tun files etc.)
- improvements to preset script engine, for intelligent random presets, XY assignment scripts etc.
- VST2.4 support for Intel Macs, 64Bit Windows and some hosts that simply need this
- some more optimizations, maybe
- Add preset import and module presets for Zebralette which will be bundled as a free add on (good for learning Z2's oscillators)
- a lot of minor switches, i.e. Attack Smoothing (turn it off to get harder but clicky attacks), a switch to remove unused modulators etc.
- Preserving GUI state (i.e. current view when you close/open the editor, order of modules in the racks save with preset, etc.)
- Installer and clean up for Windows version, i.e. get rid of the uhe_data folder

I've also designed a new filter module suited for audio rate modulation (FilterFM) that I'd love to include, but it's so expensive on cpu that I don't think it's ready for prime time, even if I made AltiVec/SSE versions.

I've also outsourced some stuff to an external developer, so that I hope that the things remaining will be finsihed within 2 weeks.

Cheers,

Urs