KVR Audio

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 3:24 am

Urs wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 3:20 pm
zerocrossing wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 3:01 pmEven the way to morph through waves is called "curve morph," when the expected name would be "wave morph," like pretty much every similar type of software. Even "Shape Morph" would make more sense.
We're pretty clear about the terminologies:

A Curve is a single complete waveform, spectrum or envelope, made up of stitched together Bezier Splines.

A Curve Set is the complete set of up to 16/8 of each

A Shape is something like a sine, square, triangle, blip whatsoever that can be drawn into a Curve. The Shape based editor offers a bunch of Shapes to be drawn into the Curve, and a Curve can consist of multiple Shapes, like you can draw 7 blips into a single Curve.

Morphing happens between Curves, regardless of what shapes they contain, hence "Curve Morph". The result of morphing is a Curve again, to be interpreted in whatever way, consisting of whatever shape or form.

A Waveform in this context is a Curve that's used in the oscillator, when interpreted as such.

A Spectrum in this context is a Curve that's used in the oscillator, when interpreted as such.

An Envelope in this context is a Curve that's used in the MSEG.

We use "Wavetable" in the actual sense of the word, as a waveform that is stored in memory as a set of 2048 samples. Those samples are not directly editable, but we render Curves into them.

Likewise, and Additive Spectrum is a set of frequencies and volumes of up to 1024 sine oscillators.

It is not difficult, and IMHO not even all that convoluted. But then, I've spent the past four or so years with this...

It's not difficult to understand. It just bucks convention. Is the red octagon stop sign the best thing for a stop sign? Maybe a hand shape would work better, but it would be confusing because people are so used to the octagon. Not that it's so confusing, but I had to stop for a few seconds when I wanted to modulate the waveform, which is ultimately what's happening, and think about it. I can't remember the last time I had to think about what control was the one that modulated the waveform.

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 3:43 am

Urs wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 8:49 am
SamDi wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 12:08 amAnd it's annoying that they are limited to 4.
If "King Crimson is not a band, it is a way of doing things",

Deep cut. Saw Belew, Vai, Levin and Carey on the first show of their Beat tour. It was great. They're going to be in your neck of the woods on 15/06. Highly recommend it. I didn't miss Fripp at all. He usually hides anyway.

https://beat-tour.com

JerGoertz · Post by **JerGoertz** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:08 am

I haven't had much chance to play with Zebra 3, but a couple questions:

- Does it have the Diva filters like The Dark Zebra?
- Is there a v1.0 release schedule or ETA for a first release version?

SeeingInMidi · Post by **SeeingInMidi** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:23 am

I assume zebra 2 presets are not compatible? Will there be a way to convert them? Even if there is a change of sound?

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:41 am

Am I losing my mind, or did U-he change their mind about the free upgrade to Zebra 3 for Dark Zebra owners? When I requested my licenses, I got an email with a link to upgrade to Z3 for $35, but I bought Dark Zebra more than 10 years ago when they promised the free upgrade.

Update: turns out my ZebraHZ was registered to a different email account, but Support got it merged and I should be good now.

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:54 am

I think you need Zebra 2 AND Dark Zebra for the free update deal.

Fannon · Post by **Fannon** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:56 am

cryophonik wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:41 am Am I losing my mind, or did U-he change their mind about the free upgrade to Zebra 3 for Dark Zebra owners? When I requested my licenses, I got an email with a link to upgrade to Z3 for $35, but I bought Dark Zebra more than 10 years ago when they promised the free upgrade.

For me this worked. Best contact support, maybe this went to different mails / accounts?

Fannon · Post by **Fannon** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:57 am

JerGoertz wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:08 am I haven't had much chance to play with Zebra 3, but a couple questions:

- Does it have the Diva filters like The Dark Zebra?
- Is there a v1.0 release schedule or ETA for a first release version?

Urs mentioned that some of the new Filter have Diva quality and resource consumption, but the filters are not 1:1 the same

1.0 Release probably for Q1 next year

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:04 am

liquidsound wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:54 am I think you need Zebra 2 AND Dark Zebra for the free update deal.

Yeah, you're correct and I do have both. I've had the OG Zebra for about 100 years now.

I just downloaded the latest update from the email I received per my license request and it had both Zebra2 and ZebraHZ installers included in the file, installed just fine, same serial number, etc. I'll contact support and see if there's some glitch or something.

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:07 am

cryophonik wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:04 am
liquidsound wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:54 am I think you need Zebra 2 AND Dark Zebra for the free update deal.
Yeah, you're correct and I do have both. I've had the OG Zebra for about 100 years now. I just downloaded the latest update from the email I received per my license request and it had both Zebra2 and ZebraHZ installers included in the file, installed just fine, same serial number, etc. I'll contact support and see if there's some glitch or something.

A glitch in the MatrixHZ I guess

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:13 am

Fannon wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:56 am For me this worked. Best contact support, maybe this went to different mails / accounts?

Yeah, that's a possibility, but my Zebra download includes Zebra2 and ZebraHZ, so I'm not sure. I've contacted support and I'm sure they'll sort it out.

GruvSyco · Post by **GruvSyco** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:21 am

cryophonik wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:13 am
Fannon wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:56 am For me this worked. Best contact support, maybe this went to different mails / accounts?
Yeah, that's a possibility, but my Zebra download includes Zebra2 and ZebraHZ, so I'm not sure. I've contacted support and I'm sure they'll sort it out.

When Zebra Legacy was released, all Zebra 2 licenses were automatically upgraded to legacy (therefore all expansions including Zebra HZ)… or something like that. A few people have claimed the same issues you’re having. They are asking people to contact support but please be patient. They are getting hammered with support requests.

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:25 am

GruvSyco wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:21 amA few people have claimed the same issues you’re having. They are asking people to contact support but please be patient. They are getting hammered with support requests.

Good to know!

Fortunately, I just bought about a gazillion new plugins over BF/Cyberweek to keep me busy, so I'm in no hurry, and I can only imagine the number of support requests they're getting.

billinder33 · Post by **billinder33** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:55 am

I spent some time with the beta tonight. I have no prior experience with Zebra 2 or earlier, so coming to this version as a total Zebra noob. Here are some general impressions.

I hate the interface. So many descriptors come to mind - convoluted, confusing, archaic, a total mess. Everything seems randomly scattered all over the place. The entire module routing system is a nightmare and needs a complete rewrite. It's like a worse version of Synthmaster 3. It makes the Omnisphere 3 UI seem ultra cutting edge.

It's a shame because most of the the DSP is really good. The oscs sound amazing, the filters, distortions, and other modules sound incredible. FX like the compressor, verb, delay, are sadly pretty 'meh' but still usable and have some personality.

Since the interface is so nonsensical, It took me a while to get even a usable sound going. I was seriously about to throw in the towel but at the last second I hit on something that sounded great and kept working from there - tweaking the osc, adding dirt via other modules, editing the wavetables, adding more movement via the modulators, etc. Some of the DSP here is completely unique and utterly amazing.

I'm really torn on this one. It really excels at nasty, raw, unique lead sounds. I love that kind of device and there's a place for it in my arsenal. But it's also not much fun to use. Like really not fun. I don't even care about it missing this or that feature, it has plenty of great features. It's just the whole UI is utterly whack and needs a total rethink. Such a shame.

I'll tinker more in the next few days to see if a can get a faster workflow rolling, but initial impression is "oof, not good"

ffx · Post by **ffx** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 6:58 am

cryophonik wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:41 am Am I losing my mind, or did U-he change their mind about the free upgrade to Zebra 3 for Dark Zebra owners? When I requested my licenses, I got an email with a link to upgrade to Z3 for $35, but I bought Dark Zebra more than 10 years ago when they promised the free upgrade.

I guess you simply should contact support, they will surely help.

I'll tinker more in the next few days to see if a can get a faster workflow rolling, but initial impression is "oof, not good"

Well, the interface is quite "linear", maybe it's confusing, if you compare with other synths. But I think it works quite nicely, once you are used to it. It also is quite an improvement over the Zebra2/HZ interface.

Personally what bothers me is only the "padding / margin vs. controls sizes ratio". There is a lot of very nice looking padding, and the actual controls are quite small. But it's still way better than, let's say recent Korg GUIs

There seems to be a bit of space wasted, with very nice pixel art for sure.

But the synth also comes with the usual U-He skin design system, so it will be only a matter of time, when other, maybe quite different gui skins will appear.

Zebra 3 Public Beta (final beta)