Zebra 3 and Zebra Legacy

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The Dark Zebra Zebra Legacy (Zebra2)

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Urs wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:44 am Well, let's have this talk when you guys spent a month with Zebra 3.

I know very well that people will ask for more of everything, but I think the pieces we chose pose a challenge and an opportunity at the same time. If one can't make a particular sound in Z3 as it is, I'm quite sure that more stuff is not gonna change that. I'll argue that more stuff is even gonna make it more difficult.

Zebra 2 is already overwhelmingly complex when a lot of stuff is going on. We address that in Zebra 3 by offering ways to solo, mute, group and hide modules, which allows to focus and analyse things. If you like layered synths, in Zebra 3 you can work as if it was a layered synth. But you can still use the stuff from any one layer in any other.

A lot of work has gone into precision and predictability. Another whole lot has gone into character.
Man, that sounds like it ticks all the right boxes for me, can't wait any longer :wheee:

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Urs wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:44 am We'll see if people manage to utilise Ctrl A-D which work a lot like macros but are also MIDI/Expression Controllers. We can easily expand those to a set of 8, we can easily add one or more XY controls. But I think that the overlap between Ctrl A-D and macros may be just the thing that makes them more useful than a separated concept of controllers, expressions and macros.

We believe that many, many people never actually try Ctrl A/B in Hive or Repro or Diva, even though they are set up for almost every preset and greatly expand the mileage of the presets we offer.

If people need to save Ctrl A-D in presets, we can do that. Currently they don't, but I'm sure they will automate in DAWs as parameters if the DAW (or workflow) does not favour MIDI.
I actually agree with that. Since CTRL A/B (and C/D now) are not modulation targets but can be just mapped to a single Midi CC input, I find them not very useful. I think they are probably also underused, because there's no knob to simply twiddle with or modulate as DAW automation lane trivially.

So if I could have a wish, I wouldn't really need CTRL A-D at all, just make MPE Timbre its own modulation source (so no indirection via CTRL is needed) and have 4 macros that you can use as modulation targets. If you want some MIDI CC to trigger something, just wire it up to modulate a certain macro. Maybe have a global option for this (by default not setup) or wire this up per patch in the DAW.

But that's just me, I totally get that we should first get to use Zebra 3 and I'm sure it's already plenty powerful!
Last edited by Fannon on Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Find my (music) related software projects here: github.com/Fannon

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Urs wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:44 am Well, let's have this talk when you guys spent a month with Zebra 3.
Agreed! there's no point in overthinking. Zebra3 will be available for decades to come. All the time in the world to get user feedback and build up a request list.

Hans Zimmer himself has said that he's yet to exhaust all the possibilities of Zebra2, despite using it as his primary synth for over 10 years. I'm confident it will be the same with Z3, even as it is right now.

Honestly, apart from the arp/seq which I deem as essential, the world's your oyster when it comes to Zebra3.

Really, what I'd love to see next, are sound examples! let's hear some songs and patches!
Last edited by Shiek927 on Mon Nov 24, 2025 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Urs wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:44 am
Zebra 2 is already overwhelmingly complex when a lot of stuff is going on. We address that in Zebra 3 by offering ways to solo, mute, group and hide modules, which allows to focus and analyse things. If you like layered synths, in Zebra 3 you can work as if it was a layered synth. But you can still use the stuff from any one layer in any other.
The ability to solo/mute modules is really exciting! This is a function I really need.

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Shiek927 wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:45 pm
Urs wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:44 am Well, let's have this talk when you guys spent a month with Zebra 3.
Agreed! there's no point in overthinking. Zebra3 will be available for decades to come. All the time in the world to get user feedback and build up a request list.

Hans Zimmer himself has said that he's yet to exhaust all the possibilities of Zebra3, despite using it as his primary synth for over 10 years. I'm confident it will be the same with Z3, even as it is right now.

Honestly, apart from the arp/seq which I deem as essential, the world's your oyster when it comes to Zebra3.

Really, what I'd love to see next, are sound examples! let's hear some songs and patches!
I knew it was odd z3 was taking so long. Turns out it was done a long time ago, just zimmer paid millions to keep to himself for a decade. Wonder how much :borg:
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Touch The Universe wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 8:24 pm
Shiek927 wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:45 pm
Urs wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:44 am Well, let's have this talk when you guys spent a month with Zebra 3.
Agreed! there's no point in overthinking. Zebra3 will be available for decades to come. All the time in the world to get user feedback and build up a request list.

Hans Zimmer himself has said that he's yet to exhaust all the possibilities of Zebra3, despite using it as his primary synth for over 10 years. I'm confident it will be the same with Z3, even as it is right now.

Honestly, apart from the arp/seq which I deem as essential, the world's your oyster when it comes to Zebra3.

Really, what I'd love to see next, are sound examples! let's hear some songs and patches!
I knew it was odd z3 was taking so long. Turns out it was done a long time ago, just zimmer paid millions to keep to himself for a decade. Wonder how much :borg:
LOL!! I meant Zebra2, but I'm sure he'll Z3 just as long :lol:

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Agreed, yes let's give this new set of tools a go before we just demand it be more similar to the last tool.

Honestly, I'm hyped and have been practicing a lot more, going deeper with Zebralette 3 in preparation and just want to say that the Osc FX are seriously incredible when combined with the spline editor and morph editor... And then being able to easily switch from wavetable to additive and back again with just one click...

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Urs, will Zebralette 3 patches load in Z3 ?

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brick wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:42 pm Urs, will Zebralette 3 patches load in Z3 ?
We hope so. Some of the modules and parameters in Zebralette 3 are not exactly the same as in Zebra 3, mostly the LFO and the FX. We'll try to map those as closely as possible in Zebra 3. Can't be sure that it loads every patch properly, but I'm confident that we get really close.

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Urs wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 10:00 pm
brick wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:42 pm Urs, will Zebralette 3 patches load in Z3 ?
We hope so. Some of the modules and parameters in Zebralette 3 are not exactly the same as in Zebra 3, mostly the LFO and the FX. We'll try to map those as closely as possible in Zebra 3. Can't be sure that it loads every patch properly, but I'm confident that we get really close.
That's great. Thanks Urs.

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Urs wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 10:00 pm
brick wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:42 pm Urs, will Zebralette 3 patches load in Z3 ?
We hope so. Some of the modules and parameters in Zebralette 3 are not exactly the same as in Zebra 3, mostly the LFO and the FX. We'll try to map those as closely as possible in Zebra 3. Can't be sure that it loads every patch properly, but I'm confident that we get really close.
Will a future official Zebralette3 release, perhaps match more closely with Zebra3, after it's official v.1.0 release?

... With the previous Zebralette3 beta versions then being relegated to an internal "Legacy Mode" or else, Depreciated?

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Nah, Zebralette 3 will be pretty much identical with all the betas we already published.

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Im very hoping zebra 3 public beta will be out next week

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Oy same I know I am too eager but I was hoping that the small "11/25" in a previous teaser post was pointing to today

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literally visiting the u-he forum daily now........

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