Zebra 3 and Zebra Legacy

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The Dark Zebra Zebra Legacy (Zebra2)

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am i weird when i say that this is almost better looking than Zebra's current look?

(then again, i'm having a soft spot for Atari's operating system too (as long as it's in monochrome 🤓 )
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The GAS is always greener on the other side!

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:tu: I still have a lot of love for the ST...

Edit: I wonder who's desktop that is..? I'm in good company there, nestled alongside the emagic apps, I see... :tu:
Last edited by beely on Mon Feb 20, 2023 4:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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You guys are awesome!! I wasn’t expecting that many responses but I love to see it!!!

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Urs wrote: Sun Feb 19, 2023 10:16 am Some Zebra 1 demos around early 2004... there were quite a few more by other people, I would have to find some old backups...

https://soundcloud.com/ursheckmann/zebriforge

https://soundcloud.com/ursheckmann/zebraelectric

Apparently the web does forget, as do hard drives... I do not have any screenshots of some of its UI, and I had looked through the backups I found...
I had no idea softsynths back then sounded this good (I know there was FM7 back then, and so were the KORG products)! I wonder how much CPU they took up.

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Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:21 amI wonder how much CPU they took up.
Nothing, on today's machines. The number of machines that Zebra 1.0 ran on was comparably small, there were just so and so many Macs, and back then with PowerPC G3/4/5 processors. I remember that an oscillator took up roughly 1% CPU on my machine from 1999. That was pretty good. Synths with a lesser sound (aliasing...) used more.

Today, on a 4 years old machine a Hive oscillator takes up something like 0.3% CPU at 16 x unison. Hive's oscillator has evolved from those in Zebra 1.0. Back then it would have been CPU hog, probably using 10% or more (per oscillator, per voice!).

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Urs wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:39 am
Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:21 amI wonder how much CPU they took up.
Nothing, on today's machines. The number of machines that Zebra 1.0 ran on was comparably small, there were just so and so many Macs, and back then with PowerPC G3/4/5 processors. I remember that an oscillator took up roughly 1% CPU on my machine from 1999. That was pretty good. Synths with a lesser sound (aliasing...) used more.

Today, on a 4 years old machine a Hive oscillator takes up something like 0.3% CPU at 16 x unison. Hive's oscillator has evolved from those in Zebra 1.0. Back then it would have been CPU hog, probably using 10% or more (per oscillator, per voice!).
Thanks for that. You mean Have or Hive 2? A hive oscillator on my 2016 Dell XPS 13 takes anywhere from 4-6% at 16x unison. Maybe it's the DAW reading?

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Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:46 pm Thanks for that. You mean Have or Hive 2? A hive oscillator on my 2016 Dell XPS 13 takes anywhere from 4-6% at 16x unison. Maybe it's the DAW reading?
Dunno, I've got a built-in CPU meter for each algorithm. It's very precise.

But as with all algorithms, things depend on cache and what else is going on on a computer, so there can be momentary spikes and what not, and if the DAW does a peak hold on those, then you get a higher readout than reality. Who knows. Or maybe some machines perform really a lot less efficient than anything we have.

I think I recently posted screenshots of the Reaper's CPU readout using 16 voices of Hive with multiple oscillators set to 16x unsion, and the CPU was something way below 10%. I think to remember that I set the CPU to use only 2 physical cores for that.

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Ah yes, here:

viewtopic.php?p=8616213#p8616213

1.6% with 3 Osc x 16 x unsion and dunno how many voices (I think I just forearmed the keyboard), which I think gets divided by 2 or 4 cores (can't remember).

In 2003 people were happy that they could use virtual instruments at all, even if a complex arrangement would need to be mixed down in parts.

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Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:21 am I had no idea softsynths back then sounded this good (I know there was FM7 back then, and so were the KORG products)! I wonder how much CPU they took up.
Using Logic 6 (PPC) on a G4 Powerbook, Zebra 1.x was generally friendly enough to use without problems on that machine, as were the inbuilt Logic instruments like ES1, ES2, EXS24 and so on. Sculpture was a bit heavier.

The one at the time I remember that could really max out the CPU was Minimonsta, especially in unison mode, or with chords. That was just a bit too heavy for that machine unless you limited what you did with it.

Obviously, I had a freeze a lot to do much of note ( :wink: ) with virtual instruments on that machine (the Powerbook was my first Mac, but my main DAW was still a PC running Logic 5.x at the time.) I'd have to check my backups for other plugins I was using at the time, I can't remember them all offhand.

So that might give some idea of relative CPU use.

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beely wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 4:06 pm
Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:21 am I had no idea softsynths back then sounded this good (I know there was FM7 back then, and so were the KORG products)! I wonder how much CPU they took up.
Using Logic 6 (PPC) on a G4 Powerbook, Zebra 1.x was generally friendly enough to use without problems on that machine, as were the inbuilt Logic instruments like ES1, ES2, EXS24 and so on. Sculpture was a bit heavier.

The one at the time I remember that could really max out the CPU was Minimonsta, especially in unison mode, or with chords. That was just a bit too heavy for that machine unless you limited what you did with it.

Obviously, I had a freeze a lot to do much of note ( :wink: ) with virtual instruments on that machine (the Powerbook was my first Mac, but my main DAW was still a PC running Logic 5.x at the time.) I'd have to check my backups for other plugins I was using at the time, I can't remember them all offhand.

So that might give some idea of relative CPU use.
You gotta see if you can do a screen recording of Zebra1! I don’t even know if that’s possible on a machine like that but man that’d be so cool!!!

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TENETfanboy wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 6:56 pm You gotta see if you can do a screen recording of Zebra1! I don’t even know if that’s possible on a machine like that but man that’d be so cool!!!
Just hook it up to your VCR.... and record it externally. :hihi:
Everyone knows more than I do...

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Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:46 pm Thanks for that. You mean Have or Hive 2? A hive oscillator on my 2016 Dell XPS 13 takes anywhere from 4-6% at 16x unison. Maybe it's the DAW reading?
I hate to make you feel old here, but 2016 would be a seven year old CPU, not four.

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MitchK1989 wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 10:30 pm
Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:46 pm Thanks for that. You mean Have or Hive 2? A hive oscillator on my 2016 Dell XPS 13 takes anywhere from 4-6% at 16x unison. Maybe it's the DAW reading?
I hate to make you feel old here, but 2016 would be a seven year old CPU, not four.
Oh, sorry I misread it. Its CPU is an i7 6560U (paired with 16 GB RAM). Also last night, I did two tests at 41 kHz and 512 samples. I was able to run at least 55 instances of Hive playing Acidity, and I was able to run 28 instances of a 6-note polyphonic unison and filtered pulse patch at 140 BPM (Studio One 5).

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Cool, depending on the patch - how many oscs used, what else used - that's easily in the vicinity of those 0.3% for a single 16 x unison oscillator.

With the Acidity patch, as it's monophonic, the biggest impact on CPU would probably be the FX chain, with reverb and compressor as the main culprits.

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Urs wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 2:45 pm
Korg Supporter wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:46 pm Thanks for that. You mean Have or Hive 2? A hive oscillator on my 2016 Dell XPS 13 takes anywhere from 4-6% at 16x unison. Maybe it's the DAW reading?
Dunno, I've got a built-in CPU meter for each algorithm. It's very precise.
...
Can we get it as a modulation source?

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