U-HE Zebra 3 Alpha Prototype Developments

[vurt]

Zebralette 3 OTOH I was able to dialed in sounds so cool and complex that I have never heard before

Can you post some of those so cool and complex sounds?

I've posted a bunch of sounds from Zebralette 3 - You'll have to go look through that thread.

are they cool and complex? and complex by teks standards, no one elses!

[pdxindy]

If it doesn't work for you, there is no use trying to force it to work or have others attempt to prove to you it is worthwhile.

Whether someone likes the sound of a particular synth/oscillator is subjective.

The Osc in Zebralette 3 is easily the most capable and sophisticated Osc I have ever used, and that includes all the eurorack osc's I have.

A single Z3 Osc has a vast sonic palette and a very high sound quality.

[briefcasemanx]

I know you aren't into presets from other developers, but the bank I found really good to my taste is:
https://www.benjaminhowell.work/store/p ... -cinematic

rsp

These are cool on a technical level, but they just sound like worse/spectrally weird versions of sounds that a good musician would use to make a cool song. "But it was done with one oscillator and awesome programming" is great, but no one hears that in the final result.

I own every U-he plugin and I love Zebra 2. I think the new Zebralette and Zebra synths are/will be great BUT the ability to endlessly tinker with a million options, from what I've seen, doesn't produce better resultant sounds than other really great "Supersynths" like Serum or whatever. Of course, I reserve the right to be blown away and have my mind changed by Zebra 3 when it releases.

[seafire]

Serum isn't a supersynth. Even the update is a decade behind the competition

[briefcasemanx]

Serum isn't a supersynth. Even the update is a decade behind the competition

[kmonkey]

BUT the ability to endlessly tinker with a million options, from what I've seen, doesn't produce better resultant sounds than other really great "Supersynths" like Serum or whatever.

You kinda forget to pinpoint and finish the line by including only yourself and your own experience in that statement

[briefcasemanx]

BUT the ability to endlessly tinker with a million options, from what I've seen, doesn't produce better resultant sounds than other really great "Supersynths" like Serum or whatever.

You kinda forget to pinpoint and finish the line by including only yourself and your own experience in that statement

You mean, I have to write "in my opinion" in every single post in a discussion forum.

Check your own post history and see if you've done that.

[VitaminD]

If it doesn't work for you, there is no use trying to force it to work or have others attempt to prove to you it is worthwhile.

Whether someone likes the sound of a particular synth/oscillator is subjective.

Yes. Those type of 'discussions' are worthless. Because they rarely (never) get to a level of agreement.

I more got the impression someone wasn't really asking for examples though to be won over, but more so just looking for something to slag off due to a previous chip on their shoulder they have yet to dust off.

That or it's down to boredom and arguing is entertaining for some.

Anywho back to the synth..

[IvyBirds]

BUT the ability to endlessly tinker with a million options, from what I've seen, doesn't produce better resultant sounds than other really great "Supersynths" like Serum or whatever. Of course, I reserve the right to be blown away and have my mind changed by Zebra 3 when it releases.

I own multiple "Super Synths" like Falcon, HALion, Serum (old and new), Omnisphere, I also own Zebra 2

I get different results with each one as they are all different tools focused on different things

Serum is Wavetable forward, Omnisphere is sample and synthesis forward with a huge diverse library of samples to play with , HALion7 is a sampling workstation with phenomenal FM Synthesis, Falcon for me is a jack of all trades that has a horrible UI but has a really good selection of presets

Zebra is its own thing that can do some serious sound design. It's unlike any of the others. That is why Hans Zimmer says he uses it for 90% of his work

[gentleclockdivider]

"Amazing Rhodes Sounds" is an oxymoron to me. That sound got stale to me many many decades ago so to use it as an example of what the new whizz bang synth can do is not really a flex in my book. Using a synth that's supposed to be pushing the boundaries of synthesis to recreate a sound from the 1960's seems a bit pointless to me. I want to hear the future not the past.

My point being that the spectral envelope is able to mimick the intricaties and fine details of the rhodes , the tines and pickups .
It can do way more then that , if you have the slightest amount of imagination you know that the sky is the limit

[pdxindy]

My point being that the spectral envelope is able to mimick the intricaties and fine details of the rhodes , the tines and pickups .
It can do way more then that , if you have the slightest amount of imagination you know that the sky is the limit

The ability to finely control the sound in an easy and visual way is valuable. And not just in the initial waveform, but how it changes/decays over time.

[Urs]

If it doesn't work for you, there is no use trying to force it to work or have others attempt to prove to you it is worthwhile.

Whether someone likes the sound of a particular synth/oscillator is subjective.

The Osc in Zebralette 3 is easily the most capable and sophisticated Osc I have ever used, and that includes all the eurorack osc's I have.

A single Z3 Osc has a vast sonic palette and a very high sound quality.

It is not designed for sweet spots though, even if it's easy to get to them when knowing what to do. I have seen people on YouTube though who apparently had less of a clue, who dialled in some random harshness and thus found the sound quality lacking - apparently without having any doubt that they should be hearing bliss, and thus we must have done something wrong. That's the downside of limitlessness, someone else somewhere will find something to bicker about.

Sometimes, when my brain doesn't shut up during wake nighttime moments, it may spend time on mitigating those issues. Like, placing warning signs in the UI. Signs which would only flare up if the settings reach inhumane territory. That's fighting windmills though.

Other days I prefer switches that harness the harshest of possibilities. I reckon, most of it is related to an old feature request from Zebra 2. People found the gain scaling of the spectrum modes too limiting. Now we have no such scaling at all - more freedom! -, and thus any harmonics can go crazy. They may even exceed the mathematical limits of our otherwise great sounding wavetable renderer (same as Hive). Maybe I should add a switch that confines such stuff within reasonable limits...

(but even if there was a switch, someone on YouTube will find it, switch it off and bicker about the results, then post an example from a other synth that has nothing in common with it, drenched in reverb and thus they prove how much better that sounds)

[Fannon]

Just thinking, would adding a "simple" sweet-spot OSC (like Hives non-wavetable OSCs, or some analog inspired OSCs like from Diva) help here? So if you just want a standard subtractive synth sound, you go with that instead of the fully flexible Zebra 3 OSC.

But probably you can achieve this well enough with the Zebra 3 OSC and it would add more modules and complexity. Well.. I think if you want a simple and "sweet spot" optimized synth, there are other options, also from u-he.

Don't get me wrong. I'm totally fine with the design-choices Zebra 3 seems to make. Maybe sticking to the own vision and ignoring the often overrepresented "Nörgler" is the better course.

[Urs]

I think a couple of nice oscillator presets will do the trick

[Fannon]

I think a couple of nice oscillator presets will do the trick

OSC Presets would be a great thing to have for sure! And if the default is something like "Basic Shapes", it would also help, I think.