One-Synth-Challenge 32: Zebralette - Submissions and gossip

[V'ger]

ONE-SYNTH-CHALLENGE WEBSITE

• Zebralette by U-he:

RULES:

New Rule:
"Submissions may be uploaded in any format"

Create a track using only Zebralette for all sounds, including percussion.

The song MUST comply with ALL the rules HERE!

Upload to SoundCloud only.

Songs must be submitted before 1st October (KVR time)

NOTE:
1. A reminder to name the file properly, they should both be the same like this: Artist - Song Name where artist name is your KVR nick.

2. Also remember that ALL effects must be free and available to all. That means NO host effects are allowed. Exception is host EQ.

PRIZES:
U-he: Plugin of choice


Wusik : Wusik Station V6 Full + Wusik EVE V2 Full


GSI : Free choice of one plugin
[url=hhttp://www.genuinesoundware.com][/url]

MaxSynths : Free choice of either Cryologic, Teutonic Tension or aPiano


Frantic Records : Free choice of 2 soundsets: Sylenth1, Predator, Largo, Blofeld, PPGV3 or Dune


Electric Himalaya : Free choice of one soundset (as sold directly via the website)


Luftrum : Luftrum5 - a ReFill for Reason


Kreativ Sounds: RAW Bundle
(RAW Bass, RAW Drums, RAW TranSID, RAW Textures)

Any other offers of prizes will be greatly appreciated.

[Examigan]

The last one with Z3TA+ was fun and a bit tough to get done in time (my time contraints), so I think I will jump in on this one too.

I'll have alot more time to work on it this time around.

[SJMmusic]

Indeed, a very positive first experience and I definitely want to create a track for this month, too You all are great people and it feels good to be in such a nice enviroment

[IrionDaRonin]

Indeed, a very positive first experience and I definitely want to create a track for this month, too You all are great people and it feels good to be in such a nice enviroment

I felt the same the first days here, since OSC27. And still feeling the same, good enviropment, good mates, and good tracks.
Thank you, you are a good person too.

Well, time to start with Zebralette track.
I already have the basic idea and the title. I was tweaking it this evening and i got good results very quickly with it.

This free synth is powerful and the build-in filters are amazing. The filters can do FM synthesis, some distortions, ring modulator, and some other things to tweak the sound to the extreme.
A lack of reverb, but well, we have a huge selection of free external reverbs, so no problem really.

One of my favourites, no doubt.
I always wanted to create a concrete lead sound long time ago, which i got this evening with this synth practically in a record time.

The GUI is a bit weird, i mean, there are some parameters i don't know how works yet, but that's the magic, to learn about it.

This month is going to be ethereal and analog.

So well, have a good day, i'm going to play some online videogames and recharging my inspiration batteries.

[V'ger]

Ok after many complaints about SoundCloud dropbox player sound quality and a discussion about solutions, let's try to avoid SoundCloud's forced transcoding from mp3 to mp3 and allow for any type of format in the hope that wav or flac to mp3 might give better results, so:

New Rule:
"Submissions may be uploaded in any format"

After competition deadline, all tracks not in mp3 or ogg format will be converted to mp3 and uploaded to Archive.org where they can be downloaded (in a zip or individually), so don't fret about huge wav downloads from SoundCloud if that's an issue for you.

[V'ger]

Cheers for the nice feedback guys, and indeed a very nice synth this time, no doubt one of the all time best free virtual synths.

And again one with decent range, makes it so much easier to do a genre of choice.

[satYatunes]

I'll have alot more time to work on it this time around.

you're going to create even more super hot track this month? damn...

Well, time to start with Zebralette track.
I already have the basic idea and the title. I was tweaking it this evening and i got good results very quickly with it.

What the... already?

Indeed, a very positive first experience and I definitely want to create a track for this month, too You all are great people and it feels good to be in such a nice enviroment

I couldn't agree with you more.

It will be awesome if Urs could throw in Zebra in the prize pool.

[IrionDaRonin]

Zebralette Instruction Manual
I decided to sumarize and copypaste some of the most weird functions here from the Zebralette manual and other basic informative things.

Voices
Few = 4 notes
Medium = 8 notes
Many = 16 notes

Mode
Poly - normal polyphonic (see Voices parameter above).
Retrigger - monophonic, each new notes triggers the envelopes.
Legato - monophonic, envelopes continue i.e. they are not retriggered until you leave a space between consecutive notes. Legato is essential for nuanced phrasing.

Knobs
Values are adjusted via the usual click-and-drag, often allowing finer resolution via the SHIFT key on your computer. Note that several of the knobs are bipolar (i.e. zero is in the center so you can set negative values).

Knobs can be reset to their default values via double-click, or remote-controlled / automated via right-click (MidiLearn function).

Tip for wheel-mouse owners: Unless you need very fine control, you don't even have to click on knobs and switches to change values - just 'mouseover' and roll the wheel.

GeoMorph & SpectroMorph
Although there are four oscillator modes, only two editing methods are required. This section describes the two 'Morph' waveform modes, and how to edit them...

GeoMorph mode lets you draw waveforms by defining up to 32 handles, and (if you like) adjusting the curvature of the lines connecting them. Note that the first and last handles define the level at 0° phase - they cannot be deleted or moved horizontally. The minimum number of handles is 4, and all waves in the waveset adopt the same number of handles.

SpectroMorph mode is a completely different animal! Although it looks and feels like GeoMorph.
It does not depict a waveform directly, but rather its spectrum. 1023
harmonics in the horizontal axis are scaled logarithmically, for a total span of about 10 octaves. In this mode, a horizontal line spanning the width of the editor (i.e. all harmonics have equal
levels) describes a bright saw wave.

WaveWarp
Position (index 1-16) in the waveset. Unlike the row of selectors below the wave editor, the WaveWarp knob lets you set intermediate values.

Resolution
This parameter controls the interval (in time) between successive waveform calculations.
This trick ensures that Zebralette is very CPU-efficient compared with other spectral synthesizers that calculate their waveforms in realtime.

Irion sumarized note: More resolution, more CPU usage needed, basically. The balanced quality/cpu optimized is 5.0.

FX Filters

Phase Xfer
A variant of PD (phase distortion) synthesis. The original waveform is not output directly, but is used as the phase response of an extra sine wave - which you can hear when the value is zero.

Phase Root
The original wave multiplies the phase response of the sine wave.

Trajector
The original wave adds to the phase response of the sine wave. Like phase modulation in 'FM' synthesizers - try Trajector on a pure sine.

Ripples
Multiplies the waveform with a harmonic, resulting in resonant sounds.

Formanzilla
Multiplies the wave spectrum with a variable harmonic, resulting in 'formant' sounds with a number of strong peaks and troughs.

Sync Mojo
Simulates hard sync by contracting the time axis then writing the
waveform back into wave memory.

Fractalz
Like Sync Mojo, except that the contracted wave is contracted again
etc.. This results in a fractal waveform with even more harmonics
than Sync Mojo.

Exophase
A classic 7-stage phaser is applied to the original wave. This effect is equally useful for static coloration or resonant sweeps.

Scale
The relative amplitudes of harmonics are scaled, either to the power of 2 (negative, softer) or 3 (positive, brighter). This results in finer resolution of quieter harmonics, i.e. more precise control over the overtone structure.

Scatter
Similar to the Scrambler effect, but in this case the phase of the waveform is modulated by itself squared (i.e. to the power of 2). An FM triangle or square from a pure sine or absolute chaos from a sawtooth - Scatter is flexible.

ChopLift
Negative values raise an amplitude threshold below which all harmonics are faded out (Chop). Positive values raise the levels of fainter harmonics Lift).

HyperComb
Adds two (negative) or three (positive) copies of the original wave. The phases are randomly shifted, resulting in a subtle to dramatic effect similar to chorus. HyperComb is particularly dependent on the value of Resolution.

PhaseDist
Phase distortion, as in the '80s Casio CZ series of synthesizers...
The wave acts as a function for the phase of an inverse cosine. The amount knob cross-fades between zero and full effect, so the most dramatic uses of this effect involve modulating WaveWarp.

Wrap
Inverts any parts of the original wave that extend above or below a variable threshold. The limits for multiple wrapping are greater for negative values.

That's all weird parameters and other things i sumarized from the instruction manual of Zebralette.
I hope it would be interesting and informative.


@Satyatunes
Yeah, already, as soon as the month begins, i start with the project/projects.
I have too many ideas in my mind.

Have a good day.

[andjac1963]

I read about this challenge and I'm keen to have a go.

I have been playing with Zebralette and it has great sound quality for a free synth, big up to u-he for releasing it.

I have a question though regarding percussive sounds from Zebralette, I can create a kick drum but I'm struggling with anything resembling a snare or a hi-hat. Is there a way to get the oscillator to generate white noise?

I'm guessing that if I used Zebra2 in demo mode to create and sample some percussive sounds then this would be against the spirit, if the not the letter, of the contest.

Cheers
Andy

[Urs]

Cool! I'm throwing a u-he plugin of choice in for the winner

Cheers,

Urs

[Examigan]

Cool! I'm throwing a u-he plugin of choice in for the winner

Cheers,

Urs

Cool! I better get started then...

[bzur]

Cool! I'm throwing a u-he plugin of choice in for the winner

Cheers,

Urs

OMG!!!

[MajorBloodnok]

Cool! I'm throwing a u-he plugin of choice in for the winner

Cheers,

Urs

Cool indeed!

MajorBloodnok

[Examigan]

I started a bass line that jumped into my brain this morning, and will continue after work today, and then most of the day tomorrow.

3-day weekend!

[evo2slo]

Cool! I'm throwing a u-he plugin of choice in for the winner

Cheers,

Urs

Well there's some nice incentive! Best get cracking!

I started a bass line that jumped into my brain this morning, and will continue after work today, and then most of the day tomorrow.

3-day weekend!

A 3 day long bass line?! Good luck uploading that to soundcloud!