U-he Zebra 3 (Alpha)

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MrJubbly wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 2:12 pm
ThoughtExperiment wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 8:53 am Urs, once again I admire your patience. I can't believe where this thread is going atm- speaking for myself what I'm excited about is listening to all the new sounds and trying to get my head around the new techniques. As long the UI isn't actually invisible I don't much care what the alpha version looks like, or even the public beta.
What's so hard to believe? Suggesting patience is required to tolerate standard queries about a synth's GUI is rather condescending.

This recent discussion about the appearance of a plugin's user interface, have all been valid queries/requests, imho. Or should only features which personally matter to yourself be considered?

Look! We're all excited about the imminent and long-awaited release of Z3 and we also fully understand that not all features will be initially ready within the first public betas. That however, doesn't negate any prior discussion thereof.

There have been plenty of suggestions submitted from other members, which don't personally interest me. However, I'm happy for those to whom such features are important to likewise discuss them. As these are also completely valid.

Just try to understand there are a lot of people in the world, some with needs that may differ from only yourself. For example, there are many musicians suffering with mild-to-severe visual impairments, to whom, such UI theme/colour customisation options are an important accessibility feature. So it's not just about superficial or aesthetic reasons. Albeit, they too are valid, since how a synth looks can affect mood/inspiration/legibility/workflow.

Urs has kindly responded regarding such queries, that hopefully, once the synth has been officially launched, there may also be a light theme included. This is important information that will be greatly appreciated by many such users.

Additionally the revelation that it will at least be possible to manually theme/skin Z3, albeit it may be a rather more complex or time-consuming task to do so, at the early stages, than previous u-he synths have been, is also very useful information for anyone who may be considering/hoping, to create their own custom Z3 skins in the future. If this didn't matter, then third-party skins would not have be as popular for other synths, as they have been for so many years.

Finally, almost everything else about Z3 has been discussed to death about the imminent Z3 beta releases, so why not also query the look/themes at this point?

Apologies if you had to patiently tolerate reading/skipping past such comments. Just think of it as another "Thought Experiment" :wink:
Wow.

Actually, my point (which I obviously didn't make sufficiently clear) was not that questions about the UI aren't important, but that Urs had answered them already in great detail, so why keep banging on about it?

But perhaps I shouldn't take your pompous response too seriously since it comes from someone named after a cat...
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ThoughtExperiment wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 10:49 pm Wow.

Actually, my point (which I obviously didn't make sufficiently clear) was not that questions about the UI aren't important, but that Urs had answered them already in great detail, so why keep banging on about it?

But perhaps I shouldn't take your pompous response too seriously since it comes from someone named after a cat...
Each follow-up response, whether by myself or from other users, posed a different aspect or queries regarding the information that had been revealed. Not as you state: "banging on about" something already answered.

As for being "pompous," well, at least those GUI queries managed to glean new information about the plugin itself, rather than your own esteemed contribution (after delivering your not-so thinly-veiled condescension that is), whereupon you deigned it worthy to state...
ThoughtExperiment wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 10:49 pm...speaking for myself what I'm excited about is listening to all the new sounds and trying to get my head around the new techniques. As long the UI isn't actually invisible I don't much care what the alpha version looks like, or even the public beta.
Yeah! Some really great insight there. Thanks for your "patience!" ThoughtPolice :roll:

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OK, thanks so much for taking the time to clear that up for me. It's been an absolute pleasure:)
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daily patcher wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 9:06 pm
wagtunes wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 8:37 pm You know, I tend to take u-He synths for granted. Today I finished a song and decided to put a splash of Hive on it, which admittedly I hadn't used in a while. Well, it was just the spice the track needed.

Getting Zebra 3 will be my best Christmas present this year.
To me Hive still has the most pleasing UI and satisfying workflow of all synths.. still my gold standard. And yes not to mention the sound and different filters available are fantastic. I wish uhm scripting was more popular, though now with LLMs I'm having a field day doing sound design with my personal "scripter" generating endless uhm wavetables.
Wait!! What?!! We must have more information!!! :)

I, personally, am not smart enough to benefit from the UHM scripting. I suck at understanding the intense mathematical formulas that I’ve seen tossed around when talking about it. Are you saying that LLMs are now advanced enough to feed it wav files and it can spit out the needed formulas, or even the whole UHM script??

What engine are you using? What is your prompting process? Could you post an example of one of your prompts? :)
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Vortifex wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 9:12 pm
daily patcher wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 9:06 pm To me Hive still has the most pleasing UI and satisfying workflow of all synths..
I sold Hive 2 because I just couldn't get on with the UI. The mirroring of controls was inconsistent and I could never get a quick at-a-glance sense of where everything was or what was going on with a patch. It was decent in every other respect though.
This is me as well. I haven’t sold it, but I’ve always had a hard time with the mirrored layout. Ideally, I would love to see Hive 2 gain an additional oscillator and a gui more akin to the Serum 2 layout. The Serum 2 layout is such a logical and intuitive interface! I wouldn’t need anything else, and they could call it Hive 3. :)
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I am surprised that the new layout of Serum is seen positive here, particularly in respect of Hive. To me it feels like the UI of Serum 1 was brilliant for what it was, but the UI of Serum 2 strikes me as too busy with odd choices on proportions.

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I basically never liked the Serum GUI, for one. :D

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audiojunkie wrote: Mon Dec 01, 2025 1:03 am This is me as well. I haven’t sold it, but I’ve always had a hard time with the mirrored layout.
+1

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EvilDragon wrote: Mon Dec 01, 2025 10:27 am I basically never liked the Serum GUI, for one. :D
Not a big fan either but I like what the synth can do so I tolerate it.

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Urs wrote: Mon Dec 01, 2025 10:14 am I am surprised that the new layout of Serum is seen positive here, particularly in respect of Hive. To me it feels like the UI of Serum 1 was brilliant for what it was, but the UI of Serum 2 strikes me as too busy with odd choices on proportions.
And what about Bazille and Hive? :-D

I love GUIs of both Serums :-)

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Too bad Ask Video / MacProVideos have basically stopped making new tutorials. I would love to hear them go through Z3 section by section.
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Urs wrote: Mon Dec 01, 2025 10:14 am I am surprised that the new layout of Serum is seen positive here, particularly in respect of Hive. To me it feels like the UI of Serum 1 was brilliant for what it was, but the UI of Serum 2 strikes me as too busy with odd choices on proportions.

Serum 1 was what I was thinking about when I typed “Serum 2”. Sorry about that. :)

But when it all boils down, the mirrored aspect throws me off more than anything else. A third oscillator would be a nice extra.
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(Also: I'm Accused of lying about Linux—it boots, runs my pro audio workflow, stays stable, updates--though yearly dismissed as “niche”. Yet I'm the deluded one.)
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There are so many good Hive 2 skins though... some that explicitly reverse the mirroring, and even implement completely different workflows...

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Urs wrote: Mon Dec 01, 2025 1:29 pm There are so many good Hive 2 skins though... some that explicitly reverse the mirroring, and even implement completely different workflows...
You are not wrong. However, skins can lose compatibility when software updates are done, and I dislike feeling reliant upon 3rd party skins. I'd rather rely on skins directly supported in the app itself. Do you REALLY like the mirrored placement of components? Or do you, like me, have to stop and think every time you go from working on one oscillator to the other to remember where the settings are? It throws off my thinking every time. Even though it is just for a few seconds, it feels like an unnecessarily "forced" change, just to fit within the shape of the gui, rather than an optimization of the workflow.
Vendor‑Dependent Copy Protection: Customers lose. Pirates win.:mad:
(Also: I'm Accused of lying about Linux—it boots, runs my pro audio workflow, stays stable, updates--though yearly dismissed as “niche”. Yet I'm the deluded one.)
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I personaly love default Hive 2 skin

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