Hello everyone.
This is the day. The day we've been working towards this whole year, and the last year. The last dozen years actually, on and off.
It took a while... and I'll be up front: It's still not finished. The engine is ready for public beta testing - now we're off to finalize the UI, complete the factory bank and tame some of the CPU usage. There are also a few bugs and niggles, some which we know and some doubtlessly which you'll come across.
Here's a little video we prepared for the occasion, my apologies if I'm being a little more tense than usual:
As mentioned, it will be a familiar workflow for users of Zebra 2. But it is a completely new plug-in. Every algorithm, parameter set, feature, down to UI workflows have been written new from ground up, surpassing what Zebra 2 can do, sound or feel like. Some of that comes at a price: A Zebra 3 module will commonly use about twice the CPU of a Zebra 2 module. The improvements are vast though.
Some of the new filters are on par with Diva's, so don't go too crazy with them on pads and such. They're totally fine for solo sounds and basses.
We're looking forward to your feedback. Maybe also anxiously bracing for impact
Downloads
Zebra 3.0 Public Beta 20399 Mac
Zebra 3.0 Public Beta 20399 Win
Zebra 3.0 Public Beta 20399 Linux
Licenses, Pricing
Zebra 3 is available for pre order starting today.
Everyone eligible for a free upgrade (owners of both Zebra 2 & The Dark Zebra licenses from before they became Zebra Legacy) should already have their license in their account. Head over to our My Licenses page to request your license card.
Zebra 2 license owners (from before it became Zebra Legacy) can upgrade to Zebra 3 for 30€ - just also head over to our My Licenses page, your license email contains a link.
During the beta phase, everyone else can purchase a Zebra 3 license at the introductory price of 179,-€ here (note, this is 70€ off from 249€, so this is better than anything we'd be able to offer owners of Zebra Legacy):
Pre-Order Zebra 3 for 179€
And for everyone who just wants to test Zebra 3 for a while without running into the demo restrictions, we got a beta license card (it'll expire at some point...):
Download Zebra 3.0 Public Beta License Card
To learn more about license cards, join the discussion here: viewtopic.php?t=625547
What you need to know
This is a beta version. Do not expect everything to work perfectly; it won't. Use a limiter on your master track to protect against unexpected glitches.
There are some rare unresolved crashes. If you are working on a cool preset or song, save your work often.
We don't expect the sound to change drastically during the beta phase, but there might be slight changes due to bug fixes or improvements.
A selection of 300 demo presets is included. We will continue working on the factory library during the beta phase.
A comprehensive user guide is available by clicking the u-he logo on the GUI. It's recommended reading for everyone who wants to do more than just flip through the included presets.
Before you report a bug, please have a look at the known issues list below.
Known Issues:
- The preset adapter to load Zebralette 3 presets inside Zebra 3 is still work in progress
- Sample import is an experimental feature (expect glitches)
- Filter FM can break the filter, be cautious when using it
- Don't rely on undo/redo yet, not everything will work there
- There are some rare unresolved random crashes (save your work regularly)
- There is a rare plug-in loading error in Cubase/Nuendo (load the plug-in on an empty instrument track instead)
- Animations might be slow on some Windows systems (there's a preference to switch them off)
- The filter palette is missing parts of its UI after reopening the GUI (open filter 1 palette to fix it)
- The key control selection box does not adjust its position when using the scrollbar
- The plot graph can cause audio glitches on Linux (you can switch it off to fix this)
- The preset context menu misses the favourites and junk icons on Linux
- The Pitches page UI is very broken on Linux
- There is a modulation depth indicator glitch when swapping Osc FX slots
- There are some mouse cursor quirks in Pro Tools on Windows
- There are some quirks and small bugs in the curve editor
- The Textureverb freeze button graphic can get stuck on Windows
- Guide curves are currently only saved for MSEG 1, not for 2-4
- There are no module presets for curve sets yet
- No multicore support yet
- No MPE support yet
- All the Gremlins we didn't catch yet
Enjoy,
Urs & team
