Zebra 3 and Zebra Legacy

[operator]

I don't hear any difference modulating the amp

But on the Phase parameter as target the result is night and day --> no need for phase inversion to hear the differencies... I tested it with an OSC (sine) and LFO (sine) at 64th/rate200/gate. Just switch between the Matrix and "direct-modulation" and you hear it immediatly.

I found AM always more forgiving when using LFOs in audio-rate without upsampling the synth... not sure if this is related nor why I always had this impression [i guess this isn´t only my imagination].

ALSO isn´t it suboptimal to test "FM stuff" with a Saw/Ramp (decay) as modulator? --> years ago I had a read about using Saw as modulator in FM and how the saw-wave is only an alternating value instead of a waveform --> or something like that (cannot recall it fully). Not sure if this relates to LFOs and the Decay stage too --> just try to further the discussion.

[Shiek927]

With regards to the whole GUI thing -- Plugmon makes some incredible skins, no doubt. But I wouldn't say the original Zebra2 GUI's were horrible or anything. In fact, the two most recent ones that comes with the synth did a wonderful job of giving it a good facelift.

[gentleclockdivider]

I found the original zebra 2.0 gui a bit of a misser ,especially the weird 3D- shaped modules .

Dark horse alternative gui to the rescue , everything from 2.5 onwards was imho perfect .
Evolution of the modules appearance over time , I find 2.8 alternative blue gui the best looking but that's sadly not available for Zebrz Hz

[operator]

With regards to the whole GUI thing -- Plugmon makes some incredible skins [...]

I am a big fan of the Izmo skin in Hive... he did an excelent job there --> it feels almost like an upgrade in itself. I am mostly a "dark-mode" guy when using software BUT this skin is SO pleasant to look at...
A very ellegant and visually mature GUI -> It doesn´t overstimulate the visual receptors with colors on a large scale. It has maximum pleaseant contrast between this very dark and very light grey. Everything is very clear to read and ontop of that the "color-coded modulation-interaction points" are piercing the eye-receptors (in a good way) and are highlighting functionality.

If Vital would have an "Hive Izmo" skin it would be my overall favorite synth... but for now I think my visual cortex prefers Hive. I have no doubt that Zebra 3 will not be on par with all the other modern synths like Hive, Vital, etc... (btw--> I don´t think it needs much animation to feel modern --> too much unnecessary animations on the other hand can make something "unconciously" repulsive --> e.g. Arturia Pigment

[nilhartman]

Having a peek at MFM 2.5's GUI and UX, I'm not worrying one bit with regard to Z3's.

I have a few Plugmon skins, for Diva and Bazille, (and am a huge fan of his .uhm WT for Hive 2) but always come back to built-in ones instead.

[LFO8]

Anything less than Z2 in features is a regression...

Are you considering legal action?

He's putting together a class action

Nope... I already have Zebra +the Hz... I just stated my observation... The bar is already High in the Uhe Pedigree of Stable Synths and 12 years feels like a long time in terms of expectations. .. Then Again I think that Urs Deflatory comment might have one of those .. pressure-releaving-lower-all and everyones-expectations ...... AAAAND THEN BLOW THE SOCKS OFFF AT release!! and everybody Salutes Urs as a Synth Hero ( which in most ways he is!)

The current version of Zebra is an absolutely impressive piece of work. A joy in sound and operation. Apart from being able to import wav files as wave tables I would be extremely hard pressed to think of anything that can be improved upon.

1 thing comes to mind: having incremental osc voicings in steps of 1 up to eleven instead of single, quad, eleven as is currently.

[Lbdunequest]

It would be awesome if ZebraHZ would have default Zebra 2.9 skins

[Ronnycash]

yes, would be really cool to get the latest zebra 2.9 skins for zebra hz.
Love the dark blue one.
Thank you for all the great synths! (Zebra HZ, Hive 2 and Diva are my most used virtual synths!)

[jtsterays]

Mr.Urs, how is Z3 coming along?

[Urs]

Mr.Urs, how is Z3 coming along?

Nicely, but slowly.

[nilhartman]

Marvelous ! What about Zebralette 3 ? Can’t wait to use Z3 but I bet Zebralette will be a lovely appetizer

[atukao]

Will Zebra 3 have a reduced introductory price for new users?

Mr.Urs, how is Z3 coming along?

Nicely, but slowly.

[dayjob]

Will Zebra 3 have a reduced introductory price for new users?

Mr.Urs, how is Z3 coming along?

Nicely, but slowly.

all that info is in the very first post of this thread.

Dear everyone,

It’s been almost ten years since I first responded to speculation about an imminent Zebra3 release. We now know that the envisaged time frame was overly optimistic, to put it mildly! We had just released The Dark Zebra and Diva, and little did I know the extent to which these events would transform the company from being just one guy plus two employees into what u-he is today. Instead of “a year or two, max” it took all of eight years and a global pandemic to finally have something sharable...

Actually, that’s not quite correct, as we spent a good chunk of that decade on product maintenance, and developed a lot of technologies needed for Z3. Here are a few examples of the “milestones” required for Zebra3 development:

• A library of curve manipulation tools (powers e.g. Hive’s Shape Sequencer)
• A multicore-enabled modulation matrix which can be used in multithreaded software. Already implemented in Repro and Hive.
• Wavetable import, manipulation and export like in Zebra2 and Hive, but taken to new levels. Work in progress!
• Filter modelling technologies which rival Diva in terms of “beef” but use significantly less CPU by sacrificing a tiny bit of authenticity: Filters don’t really need to sound 100% like this or that synth if they still sound GREAT. Good examples are already in Hive, Bazille and Repro.
• Novel comb filter and physical modelling technologies, some of which have been deployed in Colour Copy and Hive.

Countless other UI improvements and audio tweaks were necessary to reach our goals, but those were the main ones.

Even though a skeleton Zebra3 project already existed several years ago, none of those technologies have been built into a working example of Zebra3 yet. Our most ambitious goal was always the unification of Zebra’s visual curve editors instead of the 6 different editors for oscillator “Geo” curves, “Blend” waveforms, MSEG curves, ModMapper steps, LFO steps and Key/Velocity scalings. The main incentive of Zebra3 development is to have just one kind of editor for all of these jobs. The new editor needs to be comprehensive, fast and must be ‘professional’ in every way.

Today we have a usable, almost feature-complete prototype of this editor. It does what it’s supposed to and is every bit as good as we had hoped! It’s also as extensible as it gets, so I could probably spend another decade on it. However, we decided to show it off at the Superbooth event in Berlin as we want to let you make music with it ASAP.

A release of “Zebralette 3” (freeware Zebra 3 oscillator plus MSEG) as precursor to Zebra3 has become a possibility in the near future, so we need to communicate a few things that have changed since 2012. Hence this post!

Back in 2012 I pledged that the upgrade from regular Zebra2 to Zebra3 will be 30 bucks, but free for existing owners of The Dark Zebra. Of course we will honour that pledge, but in the meantime we have switched our pricing from USD to Euro. There is a cutoff date: Some time later this year - not sure when exactly - we will stop selling Zebra2 and The Dark Zebra as individual products (see the next paragraph). We will post a gentle reminder when the cutoff date is getting close. So...

To ensure that Zebra2 and The Dark Zebra continue to be maintained and kept up-to-date, we will bundle the two in a new product called “Zebra Legacy”. Everyone who has a license for Zebra2 will automatically have their license crossgraded to Zebra Legacy. Zebra Legacy will contain all our existing soundsets (including The Dark Zebra) for a very attractive price. However, there’s a catch: There will not be an upgrade path from Zebra Legacy to Zebra3 for anyone who buys it after this cutoff date. The upgrade conditions will only be available to those who have bought Zebra2 (and/or TDZ) before these become “Zebra Legacy”.

I know we can’t make things perfect for everyone, but I think that letting you know our plans way in advance should preempt any bad surprises. We think this scheme, while unusual, is best suited to secure the investment of our most loyal customers, and at the same time allows us to keep going.

Now for the part that is probably the one people are most interested in. What must happen for Zebra3 to be finished? Unfortunately of course, a lot! We think half a year or so until the editors, oscillators and MSEGs are ready. That’s several months before we can start beta testing Zebralette 3, make presets, sound demos and so on.

On the module front, everything else is a piece of cake in comparison. We have half a dozen more or less mature modules (LFOs, filters, FMOs, comb filters etc.) and plenty which “just need to be slapped together from existing parts”. On the UI front we lack a few controls and upgrades (e.g. things that exceed 32 layers). All things MPE, CLAP, NKS will happen in parallel anyway. In total it’s optimistic to say “at least a year”. We’ll be super happy if we can show some more technology previews at NAMM 23 or at the next Superbooth.

I think the message you can take away from this post is that there’s a strong commitment to getting this done. There’s a plan!

Cheers,

Urs & team

[Joe Leidigkeit]

The people from Bitwig should take a look at this thread. This is how you communicate with your custumers.

[FakeNatty]

The people from Bitwig should take a look at this thread. This is how you communicate with your custumers.

i wish they stop doing partnership promotions with Bitwig from now on.

The last promotion they had recently with Bitwig was just uncomfortable for me to watch and felt like something was going on.

Like Bitwig just had summer sale, crossgrade sale, and now all of a sudden a U-He promo. Why such a large amount of aggressive promotions in such a short time?

Today, it all came clear why...

I hope U-He dissociates themselves with Bitiwg and continue to remain impartial as one of the best devs out there. Otherwise, I'll have another big batch of plugins to sell.