Latest Builds: Zebra 2.8 (beta 02)

[tasmaniandevil]

Hi all,
While Urs is away in Australia we are working to release a couple of updates before we start our sprint towards Superbooth.
So, here is a new build, hopefully solving some issues, plus improvements and new features.

This beta comes with an all-new preset browser. As a precaution, please backup your presets before updating.

Win: https://uhedownloads-heckmannaudiogmb.n ... 14_Win.zip
Mac: https://uhedownloads-heckmannaudiogmb.n ... 14_Mac.zip

A few notes for those experiencing unusually long wait times when loading the first instance of the plug-in:

* The very first time you load the new beta, it will have to do a scan to rebuild the database
* The whole process should only take a few seconds, depending on how many presets you have installed
* Once the scan is complete, your folders and presets will appear and you are ready to go.
* After the initial load, you can switch the new preference "Scan on startup" to "Off" to prevent subsequent scans
* Manual scans can be started using the "Refresh" command in the directory view right-click menu
* The scanning process now has a progress bar
* You can browse your presets during a scan (except during the initial scan after updating)
* GUI reopening times and preset search performance have been improved

If you experience unusually slow scanning times (mainly on Windows), make sure to exclude the u-he data folder from any malware realtime scanners you might have installed (e.g. Windows Defender).
Note: Windows Defender slows down the database scan, even if the u-he folders are excluded from scanning.

Zebra 2.8 beta 02 changelog (rev. 7114)
Changes since revision 6849 (2.8 beta 01)

Improvements:

* New MIDI Control A/B feature that replaces fixed expression / breath modulation
* Increased maximum number of skins from 10 to 20
* Mouse-over shows parameter values in main display
* Improved handling of 14bit MIDI CC assignment
* Init preset improved (still needs a few more refinements)
* Fullscreen editors - reduced lag at bigger GUI sizes
* Improved GUI reopening time
* Browser - added preference for disabling database scan on first load
* Browser - added database scan progress indicator

Fixed:

* Zebrify - DotEight skin u-he badge was missing the menu
* A few GUI glitches (some controls not reacting in the new skins)
* Browser - folders surrounded by square brackets were not showing presets
* Browser - folder result-numbers sometimes not updated
* Browser - text-search input was yellow while active (Windows only)
* Browser - misc bug fixes and improvements
* High Sierra (APFS) - MIDI program changes were still unsorted

Known issues & notes:

* Some modules don't remember which tab was opened last
* Osc editor - graphics glitch in blend modes
* MMap spectralize not automatically updating number of steps
* Crash when trying to load script presets (e.g. Randomizer)
* Some small quirks in preset browser (e.g. scrollbar jumping)
* Some issues in Microtuning and Osc/MSEG preset browsers (incl. crash when creating new folder)

[zvenx]

Thanks
rsp

[clangorous]

Awesome! Thanks guys!!!

[SaganTech]

This version crashes like crazy for me. Went back to Zebra2_28_6849_Win and it works fine.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

This version crashes like crazy for me. Went back to Zebra2_28_6849_Win and it works fine.

The U-he folks will probably be interested in knowing any/all of the following to help diagnose and resolve the issue:

1. Crash logs (locate them and email them to U-he support)
2. Which format (VST, AU, AAX, 32/64bit)
3. Which host (include version)
4. Which OS (include version)
5. System specs
6. What you were doing at the time of the crashes (and are the crashes consistently reproducible or random - if reproducible, how)?

Only played with it a few minutes, but it's been stable here on Windows using VST2 in Studio One x64 on Windows 10.

[#rob]

This version crashes like crazy for me. Went back to Zebra2_28_6849_Win and it works fine.

The U-he folks will probably be interested in knowing any/all of the following to help diagnose and resolve the issue

Yes, please do send all & any information that you can to support at u-he dot com.

If you can/feel like it, please check if the crashes just happen in existing projects, or if they also happen in empty projects with nothing but Zebra2 in it.

[manuriga1]

are there actually any new presets and if so how they are tagged.
thx

[EvilDragon]

No new presets.

[UmFuFu]

* Improved handling of 14bit MIDI CC assignment

Upon reading this I got excited as it sounded like Zebra might now be MPE ready, but after playing with it I realized that it's probably not right? It doesn't seem to accept per-note pitchbend.

It was probably silly of me to get excited, as I didn't think MPE was coming until Zebra3, but what's a man to do.

B

[EvilDragon]

14-bit CCs don't have much to do with MPE (in this context, it's related to MIDI learning Zebra's controls, so you can have a finer range of values to adjust compared to regular 128 steps of 7-bit CCs). However being able to set two modulators to arbitrary CC numbers (instead of them being fixed to 2 and 11) sure helps. i.e. you can set one of them to CC 74 now...

[UmFuFu]

14-bit CCs don't have much to do with MPE (in this context, it's related to MIDI learning Zebra's controls, so you can have a finer range of values to adjust compared to regular 128 steps of 7-bit CCs). However being able to set two modulators to arbitrary CC numbers (instead of them being fixed to 2 and 11) sure helps. i.e. you can set one of them to CC 74 now...

got it... but either way we shouldn't expect MPE until v3 right?

[EvilDragon]

I'd say that's likely, yeah. Urs said something along those lines.

[UmFuFu]

thought so.
cool thx!

[joris.roling]

It asked for my registration again, and, after I entered it, it says it is wrong. I looked the code up in my mail (wow! sent by Urs on 11 October 2006). But still the same...

Did I miss something?

The previous beta ran fine for me. After installing that again (Zebra2_6849_Mac), all is back to normal.

Regards, J*

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

14-bit CCs don't have much to do with MPE (in this context, it's related to MIDI learning Zebra's controls, so you can have a finer range of values to adjust compared to regular 128 steps of 7-bit CCs). However being able to set two modulators to arbitrary CC numbers (instead of them being fixed to 2 and 11) sure helps. i.e. you can set one of them to CC 74 now...

got it... but either way we shouldn't expect MPE until v3 right?

Right. He mentioned in either the Zebra3 or MPE threads (or maybe both) that Zebra's voice structure would need to be rewritten entirely for MPE, which wouldn't happen until Z3.