U-he Zebra 3 (Alpha)

[Urs]

I love seqencers and arps in synths and soundsets!

It often is the deciding factor in me making a purchase or not!

I agree with this. But Urs has pointed out a "mod mapping" feature in the upcoming Z3, also in the new Uhbik effects bundle, that should be able to handle rhythmic and maybe also sequencing needs. I haven't figured out how to use it for rhythmic purposes in the new Uhbik products, because I don't see a "sync" function tied with different speeds (1/8, 1/16, etc.). We'll see how it manifests in Z3!

In Uhbik, just like in Z3, the rhythmic possibilities emerge from the combination of modulators: An LFO sets the tempo and triggers the envelope and/or the Mapper, and this way the three together become a pretty powerful sequencer.

[surreal]

I love seqencers and arps in synths and soundsets!

It often is the deciding factor in me making a purchase or not!

Do you really need an arp or sequencer in every synth though? Why?

It fits into the type of music that I produce, if I don't need it, I can simply turn it off. If it's not there as a part of the synth then I have to use an external plugin to drive the midi sequencing and sometimes that can break my workflow when I am in the flow zone. More often than not, a synths own arp or sequencer just gels and syncs better internally than using an external arpeggiator or Sequencer plugin.

It's about workflow without external resistance or inertia working against my ideas when i am in the groove (pun unintended!)

[Teksonik]

Allow me to address the ARP/SEQ issue.

1. There is a big difference between an SEQ patch made by someone else and one you make yourself. I can see avoiding melodic sequences made by others and I do that myself but I do enjoy making my own SEQ patches when in sound design mode and then using them in a track when I'm in composition mode. The argument "just use the DAW's Piano Roll" falls apart when we understand that we can't play a Piano Roll but we can play a SEQ patch in a synth. That only requires you to have a midi keyboard and I assume we all do (or should). If you're using the qwerty keyboard to trigger notes in your DAW do yourself a favor and get at least a 25 note keyboard. I think you'll find it opens up a lot of creative possibilities.

2. An Arpeggiator is a musical instrument that needs to be played. It doesn't make sound on its own but I still categorize it as a musical instrument since you can play it with only a modicum of playing skills. Again that requires a midi keyboard to fully appreciate.

I've loved playing Arpeggiators since the one in my old Juno 60 got radio air play in a track on the Hearts of Space program back in the 80's.

What I love doing these days is using multiple Arps going in different directions at different speeds trigging different sounds. 1/8 going up triggering a saw wave, 1/16 going down triggering a square wave as an over simplified example, the possibilities are endless especially in synths with sample based capabilities. I've spent countless joyful hours playing such patches listening to the patterns weave in and out of each other and I'm not a great keyboard player by any stretch of the imagination, I'm no Jordan Rudess. Making and playing such patches brings me great pleasure and they very frequently get used in my tracks.

So yeah I do want at least an Arp in every plugin. Sure I could use the one built into my DAWs but having everything included in a synth patch rather that faffing about with loading multiple plugins is much more efficient to me and that goes for FX as well. Built in Arps often have modulation lanes that allow you to modulate different parameters as you play which would be a royal pain or downright impossible with an external Arp.

The bottom line is that if a feature exists it's there as a tool to use for those who want that feature and can easily be ignored by those who don't. If a feature does not exist then those who want it are just out of luck....or they'll simply reach for (and purchase) a synth that does have those features. I have synths that allow multiple Arp/Seqs and I tend to reach for them since they have less limitations for the kind of sounds I like to make, play, and use in compositions.

The weakness of Zebra 2 for me is that the Arp is a Mode and not a Module. For example you can't send one Osc to the Arp and one Osc to bypass the Arp which is something I do all the time in other synths. Imagine if the Arp was a module that could be added to each lane. I can certainly imagine the patches that could be made with such a feature.

I'm disappointed to read that Zebra 3 will not have a dedicated Arp/Seq on release and it's kind of surprising given the modular passion of U-he in general. Most modular based music I hear makes good use of Seqs at least. Sure we can use an MSEG or something similar to do pitch sequencing but I find them so fiddly that I'll just reach for another synth that has a Seq where note offset values are easily edited and in some of the better ones step input or recording into the Seq is possible.

[Urs]

The reason Z3 starts without a dedicated Arp or Sequencer is this: The built-in means to do similar things are so much vaster than we expected, and so much fun - any arpeggiator or sequencer needs to integrate with those nicely. That is, they should complement each other, not compete. Therefore we decided to see what people come up with, so we can do the best job possible at designing a complementary sequencer.

[morphex]

Allow me to address the ARP/SEQ issue.

1. There is a big difference between an SEQ patch made by someone else and one you make yourself. I can see avoiding melodic sequences made by others and I do that myself but I do enjoy making my own SEQ patches when in sound design mode and then using them in a track when I'm in composition mode. The argument "just use the DAW's Piano Roll" falls apart when we understand that we can't play a Piano Roll but we can play a SEQ patch in a synth. That only requires you to have a midi keyboard and I assume we all do (or should). If you're using the qwerty keyboard to trigger notes in your DAW do yourself a favor and get at least a 25 note keyboard. I think you'll find it opens up a lot of creative possibilities.

2. An Arpeggiator is a musical instrument that needs to be played. It doesn't make sound on its own but I still categorize it as a musical instrument since you can play it with only a modicum of playing skills. Again that requires a midi keyboard to fully appreciate.

I've loved playing Arpeggiators since the one in my old Juno 60 got radio air play in a track on the Hearts of Space program back in the 80's.

What I love doing these days is using multiple Arps going in different directions at different speeds trigging different sounds. 1/8 going up triggering a saw wave, 1/16 going down triggering a square wave as an over simplified example, the possibilities are endless especially in synths with sample based capabilities. I've spent countless joyful hours playing such patches listening to the patterns weave in and out of each other and I'm not a great keyboard player by any stretch of the imagination, I'm no Jordan Rudess. Making and playing such patches brings me great pleasure and they very frequently get used in my tracks.

So yeah I do want at least an Arp in every plugin. Sure I could use the one built into my DAWs but having everything included in a synth patch rather that faffing about with loading multiple plugins is much more efficient to me and that goes for FX as well. Built in Arps often have modulation lanes that allow you to modulate different parameters as you play which would be a royal pain or downright impossible with an external Arp.

The bottom line is that if a feature exists it's there as a tool to use for those who want that feature and can easily be ignored by those who don't. If a feature does not exist then those who want it are just out of luck....or they'll simply reach for (and purchase) a synth that does have those features. I have synths that allow multiple Arp/Seqs and I tend to reach for them since they have less limitations for the kind of sounds I like to make, play, and use in compositions.

The weakness of Zebra 2 for me is that the Arp is a Mode and not a Module. For example you can't send one Osc to the Arp and one Osc to bypass the Arp which is something I do all the time in other synths. Imagine if the Arp was a module that could be added to each lane. I can certainly imagine the patches that could be made with such a feature.

I'm disappointed to read that Zebra 3 will not have a dedicated Arp/Seq on release and it's kind of surprising given the modular passion of U-he in general. Most modular based music I hear makes good use of Seqs at least. Sure we can use an MSEG or something similar to do pitch sequencing but I find them so fiddly that I'll just reach for another synth that has a Seq where note offset values are easily edited and in some of the better ones step input or recording into the Seq is possible.

There are several really well thought out ideas here. I’m still looking forward to Z3, and I’ll make use of any features that can help to create patterns, because I love evolving sequences.

I’ve come to trust the design decisions that Urs has made in the past. He is well aware of what synth lovers want in a top tier plug-in. And I don’t think that we’re going to be disappointed.

[sheeepsss]

Hi, is there a release date for this vst?
I purchased my copy of Zebra 2 when I was 26 and they were already talking about Zebra 3: this December I'll be 40 and I started to have white hair. My dog wasn't even born in 2012 and now she's 11 and she also has white fur. How much do we have to wait for this synth to be released?

[Akanomad]

Don't worry, it will be out before GTA VI.

Even Urs can't beat the meme.

[akira2]

and for diva 2, you'll have time to loose your hair

[KBSoundSmith]

Hi, is there a release date for this vst?
I purchased my copy of Zebra 2 when I was 26 and they were already talking about Zebra 3: this December I'll be 40 and I started to have white hair. My dog wasn't even born in 2012 and now she's 11 and she also has white fur. How much do we have to wait for this synth to be released?

Pretty sure it was said on the forums that the U-he development roadmap was to finish the Uhbik 2.0 release and then full steam on Z3 (whether or not that is still the case, well I'm not privy to any info, just what's publicly available, nor have I read the forums much recently so I have no idea what they've discussed). Given that Zebralette 3 and Uhbik 2.0 has been released, I don't think there will be (relatively) too much longer to wait.

[sellyoursoul]

Hi, is there a release date for this vst?
I purchased my copy of Zebra 2 when I was 26 and they were already talking about Zebra 3: this December I'll be 40 and I started to have white hair. My dog wasn't even born in 2012 and now she's 11 and she also has white fur. How much do we have to wait for this synth to be released?

[scott_free]

Hi, is there a release date for this vst?

Is Z3 finally happening in 26?

We're in the bug fixing / polishing / sound design stage. Some features need a bit more attention, a few things are still in flux a bit. We may add a module or a filter algorithm here or there, or maybe we add them later. But we sure hope to go public beta in November (this year), and release in December or January.

[Urs]

A rather small team has finished Uhbik, mostly our surround/framework guys, UI guys, sound designers and myself.

Another part of the team has worked on Zebra 3 for quite a while. It contains modules that were developed 10+ years ago and that have been reviewed and improved as we went, as well as several new modules that have been developed in the past 1-2 years. So this didn't just start, but it's a crazy complex project with a lot of unchartered territory for us.

In parallel to preparing Uhbik for the release we have seeded beta versions of Zebra 3 to sound designers for a few months, gotten plenty of feedback and improved things further. We'll need a few more months or weeks to get the best possible library of factory sounds.

But we will most likely have a version of Zebra 3 out in the wild between end of November to mid December.

Our main concern right now, apart from presets, bugs and fine tuning is CPU performance. If Diva says "I'll smoke your CPU", Zebra 3 will say "Hold my beer!". Well, everyone wanted Diva filters in Zebra 3, and we gave them that quality, but in stereo. We also have ultra-low-aliasing FM (also stereo, of course), pretty extraordinary Modal Synthesis and of course the oscillators and MSEGs from Zebralette 3. I'm quite confident that all of this stuff is beyond spectacular, and time well spent on research and development. I'm also sure that we'll speed up all of those hungry modules as much as one possibly can, even if some of that may have to happen during the public beta phase.

[Ah_Dziz]

Are there any limits to using audio, lfos, envelopes, etc etc to trigger/ retrigger other bits that want a gate/ trigger. Maximum speed or downsampled control bus? I love using this kind of functionality and it's usually more fun for me than using sequencers or arpeggiators but it gets less fun when things choke on a speed limit.

[wintoid]

Well that sounds delicious, and sooner than I personally expected!

[Urs]

Are there any limits to using audio, lfos, envelopes, etc etc to trigger/ retrigger other bits that want a gate/ trigger. Maximum speed or downsampled control bus? I love using this kind of functionality and it's usually more fun for me than using sequencers or arpeggiators but it gets less fun when things choke on a speed limit.

Zebra 3 treats Triggers and Gates as equals to other modulations. Almost any source can be a trigger, be it LFOs, MSEGs, MIDI CCs, Pressure, Release, Mappers. Many things can be triggered, such as envelopes, Mappers, Exciters, Noise Bursts, Grains of the Texture module, and of course the Sample & Holds of the Mod Matrix and elsewhere.

We have another ton of concepts here that we did not yet implement though. But it's pretty cool as it is already I think.

We have btw. implemented a glimpse of this in Uhbik, where the Mapper can act as a sequencer that's triggered by the LFO or the envelope follower, while latter itself can be a triggered or gated envelope. Combined with the S&H in the ModMatrix this brings out a lot of possibilities that want to be explored, such as sequencing or randomising parameters based on the rhythm in the source material. Only want delay or reverb on ever 5th hit? - No prob.