Improvements!

[mcnoone]

Ah! I remember looking at an MMap and not being able to work out what it did - and now I know. Thanks for explaining that. .

That's not what it's for. It can be used for doing that, but it is for much more constructive and useful purposes. Like randomness.
I don't need any visual feedback and bright flashy lights on Zebra.

[Howard]

Ah! I remember looking at an MMap and not being able to work out what it did - and now I know. Thanks for explaining that...So, I wonder what's the horizontal division for if there's no information plotted on the y axis?

The Mod Mappers are general purpose control shapers - the visualisation thing is just an interesting sideline. A few examples of what you can do:

1) Create any LFO waveform you like
2) Make alternate notes do something e.g. pan hard L-R
3) Make any MIDI controler non-linear
4) Tune anything (e.g. OSC1 pitch or cutoff) per MIDI note
5) plus plus plus...

[hakey]

The Mod Mappers are general purpose control shapers - the visualisation thing is just an interesting sideline.

Thanks for explaining that Howard, MCnoone, I get it now! (Is there an explanation in the manual? I couldn't find one.)

I don't need any visual feedback

You work in Braille then?

I find the elements of visual feedback that we have at the moment - the more OSC and MSEG graphics - pretty useful. That said, I'm very much in favour of having just sufficient visual FB to do the job rather than too much; but that is perhaps stating the obvious!

[Glich]

I don't need any visual feedback

You work in Braille then?

I find the elements of visual feedback that we have at the moment - the more OSC and MSEG graphics - pretty useful. That said, I'm very much in favour of having just sufficient visual FB to do the job rather than too much; but that is perhaps stating the obvious!

I agree, I dont need a shit ton of visual feedback to the point of excess but I definitely think visual feedback on MSEGs to be EXTREMELY helpful. I hear the whole "just use your ears" line over and over and, I'm sorry, but our brains have evolved to be predominately sight oriented and incorporating visual feedback makes things a LOT easier. especially in the case of MSEGs, where the relative position of envelope points and slopes can be difficult to gauge to its corresponding sound without a lot of pain in the ass and time consuming tweaking and sound retriggering. If you can SEE a locator line scrubbing through the MSEG, it alleviates your brain of tedious guesswork and gives you an immediate understanding of the correlation between the MSEG and the sound its producing. Its just one of those things that I've come to expect from MSEGs and step sequencers these days because of how much more difficult it is to work without it.

[Urs]

Glich, last time I checked Zebra's MSEGs had 3 settings for a locator line (off, coarse and fine, coarse being default) - Similar indicators exist for custom LFO waveforms and for arpeggiator steps. Or am I misunderstanding your post? (I'm wiped out from today's work...)

[blurk]

[...]think about it from the point of view of a new or only casually acquainted user: it's completely mysterious what those blank knobs are for[...]

I have to respond to that
[...]
Now comes the point: Things that make the initial perception of a product very easy are usually also the things that a) make a product boring (nothing to explore) and b) get in the way of the experienced user (think tooltips all over the place).

OK. Fair point and thank for explaining the rationale. If it's a deliberate design decision on your part (and with the industrial design qualifications I was foolish to think otherwise) then that's OK. It may not be my personal preference but of course there is still plenty of stuff in Zebra to keep me enchanted. (But I do wonder if labels could be attached via an alternate skin.)

[Urs]

(But I do wonder if labels could be attached via an alternate skin.)

Yes, of course. An alternate skin could even crowd the place with (i) or (?) buttons that pop up help/info fields for each and every parameter/module.

It's just... hmmm... my preference is to keep text portions as little as possible...

I'm evaluating to mark the ... fields by a slightly different background colour. The problem here is, the layout is really tight and some of these fields overlap with labels of neighbouring knobs (the labels overlap, not the text on them). A background would require more pixels inbetween these knobs, which I'm not quite sure of at the moment...

[red37]

Yes, of course. An alternate skin could even crowd the place with (i) or (?) buttons that pop up help/info fields for each and every parameter/module.

Do you mean like Fabfilter's stuff Urs?

Great products - but when the help feature is turned on, its a nightmare to work with all those text boxes popping up. I get the reason WHY they are there, and it is easily toggled on/off. But man.....its so crowded.

[djsubject]

but when the help feature is turned on, its a nightmare to work with all those text boxes popping up.

Tracktion is the same,

great for learning crap for working

[Glich]

Glich, last time I checked Zebra's MSEGs had 3 settings for a locator line (off, coarse and fine, coarse being default) - Similar indicators exist for custom LFO waveforms and for arpeggiator steps. Or am I misunderstanding your post? (I'm wiped out from today's work...)

I wasn't directing this statement towards Zebra, just speaking generally.

[Urs]

Glich, last time I checked Zebra's MSEGs had 3 settings for a locator line (off, coarse and fine, coarse being default) - Similar indicators exist for custom LFO waveforms and for arpeggiator steps. Or am I misunderstanding your post? (I'm wiped out from today's work...)

I wasn't directing this statement towards Zebra, just speaking generally.

Oh

(sorry, I'm highly overworked these days...)

[Glich]

but when the help feature is turned on, its a nightmare to work with all those text boxes popping up.

Tracktion is the same,

great for learning crap for working

I dunno about tracktion, but the Fabfilter learning tips are EASILY turned on/off so its not really an issue. Its actually a handy feature to implement to allow one to avoid having to read a manual, its like a manual built into the program so you can learn the details of a function while you're playing with it, then you can turn it off to get back to tweaking. I'm a big fan of the fabfilter design, the modulation is bar none in my opinion.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I just want to say that I think the (...) control is a brilliant method for having a modulation. Having it be a drop down as well as control saves a lot of space and is very clear. And I love that both functions are assignable to hardware. I really like when each important parameter has it's own mod source, then a mod matrix for added modulation. It's a great system.

Also, I can't wait to see this new skin in action! Looks nice 'n shiny. I hope the modules have distinctive looks like the dark horse skin as well. That's my favorite thing about that one, that the modules stand out against each other with different colors.

[coyote]

i don't know if this one has been sugested before or not but is was thinking that it would be pritty cool if you could use the master effects in the grid, rather then just in the master section.

might help make some crazier patches, but yeah just a suggestion not moaning or owt.

nice one.

[Urs]

i don't know if this one has been sugested before or not but is was thinking that it would be pritty cool if you could use the master effects in the grid, rather then just in the master section.

might help make some crazier patches, but yeah just a suggestion not moaning or owt.

nice one.

This is actually what Zebrify is all about. Reverb, Chorus, Delays and everything are in the main Grid. The disadvantage though is its limitation to just 1 "voice" (if one can call it a voice...).