oops, external audio input?!

[hellleutel]

hi there

I was checking the mac demo version of Plogue Bidule, I opened Zebra there and what did I see? Audio inputs. When I fed something into them, the audio was led straight to Zebra's FX section... Wow great I thought and jumped back to Logic to see if there is a new sidechain input or such since version 2.3 but... there is none!
Any different way to get external audio into Zebra inside Logic just like in Plogue Bidule?

greetings

Uli

[Urs]

It's a bug

Bidule is about the only host that lets VST instruments have inputs.

The downside is, some VST hosts don't clear the input buffers which results in weird noise. Thus I have to take it away again...

But I will eventually finish Zebrify, promised. And then you have it all in every host!

Urs

[hellleutel]

that's true luxury these bugs that others would call revolutionary features

[kodama]

But I will eventually finish Zebrify, promised. And then you have it all in every host!

[hersoot]

It's a bug

Bidule is about the only host that lets VST instruments have inputs.

Urs

energyXT also allows external audio input to Zebra2.3, and I've been using it with nice results.

[readyswift]

hi, recently i had an idea about zebra mayb it could be included cause it isnt a "big deal" . SO I'd want to use output waveform as LFO... This should be synced to tempo... And would want easier wave generation, say I press the first wave slot: triangle... press the last slot : sinewave, then the inbetween steps are interpolated. output should be available as fairly accurate (14bit) NRPN or OSC signal , this would be so much fun (now i see audio input , that tells me envelope follower to mix LFO with ) ... Not an urgent thing, just something to think about (while im building my converters and studio monitor If someone knows similar , please tell me , Im bored by these dumb virtual analog LFO-s big time btw.

Wishing merry Christmas and successful new year to everyone!

Greets.

[Guenon]

It's a bug

Bidule is about the only host that lets VST instruments have inputs.

Urs

energyXT also allows external audio input to Zebra2.3, and I've been using it with nice results.

Just checked in Live 7.0.14, works just as expected: you can see the instrument channel with Zebra as an "audio to" destination, and choosing that as the desired routing destination on an audio track you can choose Zebra inputs (in0/in1). I'm effecting a drum loop with it as I write.

Urs, if possible, please don't disable these "unofficial" inputs in an upcoming update, as they are an inspiration and they seem to work in multiple hosts that indeed support them.

Edit: and THANKS to the original poster for pointing out the inputs are there!

[pedrorf]

Urs, if possible, please don't disable these "unofficial" inputs in an upcoming update, as they are an inspiration and they seem to work in multiple hosts that indeed support them.

Edit: and THANKS to the original poster for pointing out the inputs are there!

+1. I hadn't actually noticed the audio input before. I'm using zebra as a guitar fx box right now. Pretty cool

[rexlapin]

HI,
I'm trying to get this to work in Live 7.0.14 on an iMac running
OSX 10.4.11. I put an instance of Zebra on a midi channel and
an audio loop on and audio channel. The Audio send to doesn't
give me an option to choose Zebra. Can you give me a step by
step process to set this up and let me know what I am doing
wrong? It sounds like great fun!
Cheers,
Scott

[mcnoone]

HI,
I'm trying to get this to work in Live 7.0.14 on an iMac running
OSX 10.4.11. I put an instance of Zebra on a midi channel and
an audio loop on and audio channel. The Audio send to doesn't
give me an option to choose Zebra. Can you give me a step by
step process to set this up and let me know what I am doing
wrong? It sounds like great fun!
Cheers,
Scott

It was already stated in this thread.
It's a bug. It happens in the Bidule host only. It doesn't work in Live or anything else. You can get Uhbik for effects though.

[rexlapin]

Guenon's post above seemed to indicate that it was available in Live.
Did I misunderstand?
Cheers,
Scott

[Guenon]

It was already stated in this thread.
It's a bug. It happens in the Bidule host only. It doesn't work in Live or anything else.

It was "already stated in this thread" that it works at least in Live and EnergyXT as well

You can get Uhbik for effects though.

But, specifically for the the Zebra effects, the upcoming official audio-in version of Zebra (Zebrify), not Uhbik.

Guenon's post above seemed to indicate that it was available in Live.
Did I misunderstand?

Nope, you didn't misunderstand. It works in Live. Maybe there's a difference between the Windows and OSX versions of Live/Zebra..? I'm using the Windows versions, and this works 100%.

I see any channel with Zebra on it in every "audio to" dropdown menu, just as it is in Live with any plugin that has audio inputs. After selecting the channel, from the dropdown below (i.e. where you specify the actual inputs you want to shoot for on that channel) you select the Zebra inputs. No bugs, no workarounds or fiddling, it just works as any plugin with inputs would in Live

Anyway, basically this gives you the whole effects section of Zebra in Live, including all the nice filters. To my understanding, the main difference with the official (not yet released) Zebrify is that you will also be able to route audio from the inputs into the whole modular structure in Zebrify, including XMF, FM, combs and so on.

But in any case, now we have the whole effects section with modulation sources, yay! Here's a tip on that one: now you can, for example, use the Live Simpler/Sampler to play a sound, and if you trigger it with a MIDI signal you send also to Zebra, you can effectively slap an in-sync Zebra filter section in the rear of your sampler, as every time you hit a note, Zebra will trigger its envelopes which you can use to control the filters -- which will be tightly synced with the sampler indeed

[Urs]

I'm sorry but this "functionality" will be gone with the next build. Only because 3 hosts allow for audio inputs on instruments does not mean that it works on every host. On the contrary, I've been flooded with emails about some hosts which totally screw up

Hence I'd recommend to wait for a proper solution. Which I hope to come up with in a couple of months...

Urs

[Guenon]

I'm sorry but this "functionality" will be gone with the next build. Only because 3 hosts allow for audio inputs on instruments does not mean that it works on every host.

I believe there are more than just these three hosts that allow audio inputs on instruments perfectly fine, but yep, on the other hand it's not nice to make a feature official if it can screw up some hosts real bad.

I just wish it could somehow be kept as a non-documented feature for the hosts which support it this well... But no biggie: because it works just like it should in Live, I'll just keep on using Zebra 2.3.1 until Zebrify comes out

I particularly like how you can route MIDI note events into Zebra to trigger the envelopes while it's effecting the audio from the inputs (like I described above). Will this be available in Zebrify as well, even though it will be an effect plugin, not an instrument one?

[Urs]

I particularly like how you can route MIDI note events into Zebra to trigger the envelopes while it's effecting the audio from the inputs (like I described above). Will this be available in Zebrify as well, even though it will be an effect plugin, not an instrument one?

Yep, that's the idea. It's going to be a full Zebra, but with only 1 voice. While only 1 voice may seem like a downgrade, you on the other hand have *all* modules including reverb and compressors within the voice structure

Urs