Zebra 3 Public Beta Revision 20399

[Touch The Universe]

Honestly, I just want to hear patches! songs! amaze me!

Ask and Ye shall receive



This was pretty much my whole day - 234 patches. Not often I'm this inspired. Haven't programmed a synth in 4-5 months! Thanks and good job, seriously the crew at uhe - mind blown in rich sweet honey.

[Shiek927]

Honestly, I just want to hear patches! songs! amaze me!

Ask and Ye shall receive



This was pretty much my whole day - 234 patches. Not often I'm this inspired. Haven't programmed a synth in 4-5 months! Thanks and good job, seriously the crew at uhe - mind blown in rich sweet honey.

I'm officially amazed!!

I absolutely believe Zebra3's strongest suit is the sheer strength of it's physical modeling. This could be the best physical modeling I've ever heard from something that is "pure synthesis". The ice taps? when they become wood? the droplets of water, the metallic cymbals and sounds or...what the heck, a phone glitching?!

I have no idea how far it can be taken, but it's crazy how realistic these timbres can be.

[u-he Basti]

Could somebody finally explain to me what with the plugin window size? Why it's so problematic to fit the UI into screen in 100% size?

I'm on Macbook Pro 14" M3 Max.

...

I know and I am thinking of a few options to solve this. It bugs me too!

[Matty686]

I am having issues getting release velocity to work in Bitwig with zebra 3

[Matty686]

I want to use release velocity to modulate mseg release rate but it is not working

[Matty686]

yah this seems like a bug

[Matty686]

Release velocity its not working in reaper either definitely a bug

[Pridonas]

Still trying to understand whats new here but I want to say I really miss the XY assignments here, it was a very unique way to control zebra 2 and using an ipad as a controler was making the synth capable to do incredible hands on stuff with up to four fingers moving multiple assigned controls at the same time. I consider the omission of the XY a step backwards, please bring the XY controls back!!

[PieBerger]

Secondly, none of that was clear to me when I bought Legacy and the other Uhe stuff I own. Not everyone is paying attention to "the wall" or whatever.

The information on Zebra upgrade pathways has been on the u-he website since November 2022. When you go the Zebra Legacy product page, there is a yellow banner bringing users attention to a linked article that clearly explains, what the terms are for existing Zebra2 and or HZ owners are and what they will be for new Zebra Legacy owners. Additionally, if there was any uncertainty about these terms, you could have emailed support for clarification before committing yourself.

Paying attention to the wall is irrelevant as all of the pertinent information was available to you on the official website, where you would have purchased the ZL license from; it's not available from retailers AFAIK due to the heavily discounted price.

With regards to other discounts, there is no mention of any loyalty scheme on the official site so it's unreasonable to assume there is/might be one in the future, even if other companies do have them.

You can't really be complaining to any company about the lack of anything that wasn't clearly offered to you and it's for this reason why you are rightly accused of acting entitled.

We've all missed out on intro and or seasonal sales and or other special offers and made impulse purchases, but that's life and we learn from our mistakes and make better choices in the future. You can make another choice, pay 179 now or 249 later or if you wait long enough (2-3 years) maybe only 125 during an NI NKS partner sale (I waited long enough and for two separate sales to grab Z2 and HZ at halfprice, specifically to qualify for the free upgrade to Z3).

[Matty686]

I tried assigning release to all sorts of things they all do nothing If release is supposed to be release velocity its not doing anything witch is really sad part of the reason I bought zebra was to use release velocity its easier for hand programing than than a pressure based workflow sometimes

[Urs]

any plans to implement a right click assign modulation feature? Also, is there an alternate modulation source that flips between two ranges?

There's one that's called "Alternate".

Alternatively, check out the Mappers... they can do key maps, switches, alternative curves for LFOs and envelopes... they also do sequencing, repeated randomisation, per Note offsets...

We have no right-click assign, but we're going to improve the usability of the assigned ModMatrix slots... strangely, we have been using the current mechanism for many years in other products, but some really good feedback is coming in only now...

[stippenstoh]

I bought Zebra 3 on beta as I was looking for a do-it-all sound design synth, and it seems like it can really deliver on much of that which is great. I do have some issues with the UX though, which I hope that there may be some time to address while still in beta:

• The lack of moving modulation and visual feedback in general is really confusing when you're working on a complex patch. It's something that's pretty much standard these days, and would help ton with overall comprehension. Relying on your ears to make sure something is happening is not always reliable with many variables at play. This was particularly noticeable with the key-tracking modulation, it just became guesswork at times, especially because the key-tracking range is not obvious. Even a small highlight on the modulation ring/bar which tracks the current level would help a ton here.

• Not being able to right click a knob/slider to assign LFOs / envelopes etc is kind of annoying - It means you have to constantly switch your attention to the lower panel, hunt for the tool and then assign it manually. A small detail but it really breaks the flow, you go from creating to setup, which can make everything feel disconnected.

• No number values appearing when adjusting slider/knobs is inconvenient, as it means that again you are guessing at the range of those values. Being able to set duration in ms and beats/bars for envelopes would be great too.

• The little modulation modules which appear in the lower section are hard to understand, as the knobs have no value labels or feedback. The mod matrix is also super messy - there's no ordering of modules - So if I assign LFO2 to two different places at different times, they might be spread out somewhere across the bottom bar, meaning you need to hunt for them and read every single label and assignment. Could these be grouped by modulation source, or even better, allow the modulation module to expand for different destinations? The best possible solution would be an actual matrix with visual feedback as we see in something like Serum, opened via one of the tabs like the "Pitches" window.

...

• Some kind of feedback on the main panel for what the oscillators and filters are doing would be very helpful. The filter in particular has a huge amount of dead space on the left side.

...

These issues with modulation assignment and visualization in particular though, are making it feel kind of unwieldy and tedious at times.

I think this is valid feedback.
I too have a feeling of having to hunt for information about what is doing what.

[Matty686]

I like to assign velocity to attack time and release velocity to release time and use expression or a control macro in place of velocity for gain and velocity type expressions I realize I can just use pressure but I sometimes find this method to be easier to wright midi for as I do not use a keyboard to record I usually use reaper for this kind of instruments and Bitwig when I want to use pressure I use different instrument banks for each daw cause it works better that way

[Urs]

Any cpu saving tips? how worried should i be increasing polyphony for detune for thick pads? I usuall go crazy with 16 with 4 osc and then overload but i try to reduce and i don't notice much of a change? Which things require most cpu --> fx, filters, detune/poly - osc fx?

• Click the u-he logo on the top right, choose "Module Performance Panel"
• This opens a panel that looks awkward at first
• There's a Play button on its top left. Push it
• Hold some notes
• Now you can see hat your individual modules take up on CPU
• In the text field on the right, find some CPU saving tips

This panel is also still in its infancy, we have not implemented many CPU saving recommendations beyond the obvious ones in the oscillator. We will show more in depth suggestions after we finalise the optimisation process.

That said, Oscillator unison does *not* take up much CPU. 16 is fine. It's mostly Curve Maths, Resolution and modulation of Curve Morph.

[Matty686]

I bought Zebra 3 on beta as I was looking for a do-it-all sound design synth, and it seems like it can really deliver on much of that which is great. I do have some issues with the UX though, which I hope that there may be some time to address while still in beta:

• The lack of moving modulation and visual feedback in general is really confusing when you're working on a complex patch. It's something that's pretty much standard these days, and would help ton with overall comprehension. Relying on your ears to make sure something is happening is not always reliable with many variables at play. This was particularly noticeable with the key-tracking modulation, it just became guesswork at times, especially because the key-tracking range is not obvious. Even a small highlight on the modulation ring/bar which tracks the current level would help a ton here.

• Not being able to right click a knob/slider to assign LFOs / envelopes etc is kind of annoying - It means you have to constantly switch your attention to the lower panel, hunt for the tool and then assign it manually. A small detail but it really breaks the flow, you go from creating to setup, which can make everything feel disconnected.

• No number values appearing when adjusting slider/knobs is inconvenient, as it means that again you are guessing at the range of those values. Being able to set duration in ms and beats/bars for envelopes would be great too.

• The little modulation modules which appear in the lower section are hard to understand, as the knobs have no value labels or feedback. The mod matrix is also super messy - there's no ordering of modules - So if I assign LFO2 to two different places at different times, they might be spread out somewhere across the bottom bar, meaning you need to hunt for them and read every single label and assignment. Could these be grouped by modulation source, or even better, allow the modulation module to expand for different destinations? The best possible solution would be an actual matrix with visual feedback as we see in something like Serum, opened via one of the tabs like the "Pitches" window.

...

• Some kind of feedback on the main panel for what the oscillators and filters are doing would be very helpful. The filter in particular has a huge amount of dead space on the left side.

...

These issues with modulation assignment and visualization in particular though, are making it feel kind of unwieldy and tedious at times.

I think this is valid feedback.
I too have a feeling of having to hunt for information about what is doing what.

I have OCD. I need everything to be able to be reordered, or I get nuts. So I second the idea of being able to sort stuff in the modulation matrix or at least have it organized in some rational format other than the order you assigned it.