Zebra 3 Public Beta Revision 20399

[Chris-S]

Z3 can not load Z2 presets, it's a completely new synth.

[hihat]

Z3 can not load Z2 presets, it's a completely new synth.

thanks !

[limitlesssss]

please add Sonic Conditioner and Velvet from Repro-5

Please also add Lyrebird and Drench to Zebra 3. We Lyrebird and Drench.

[canum lupus]

Hi there,
nice and interesting synth, sounds really great !!, but I miss terribly the colors from Zebralette3 (both). Looks not bad, but I actually don't like this greenish... just my taste.
And don't get me wrong, Limitation in zooming and no sequencer or even arp? Maybe it's kind of more like an alpha version then beta?
Anyway, congratulation to the teem, nice work so fare

[spektralisk]

If it's not too long or too complicated, I'd like to see this list broken down by device category. Delay near reverb, etc., I'd like to organize the list. If that's not possible, so be it. That's not the point. The main thing is that the Zebra 3 has excellent features and great sound! I already like it more than the Zebra 2, but the Zebra 2 will always be on hand.

+1 for that. These should be grouped by device/type just as mod sources should be grouped

[stippenstoh]

Here’s my feedback.

Sound-wise: perfect. The oscillator is ultra-powerful. Filters, FM, and Modal all sound amazing. I also really love the texture reverb.

The only real issue for me is the modulation workflow. Deciphering even my own work after some time becomes a burden.

I’ve always liked how the modulation system was handled in Alchemy.

• You click a control and immediately see which modulators are assigned to it

• You can right-click a control and see options such as: add modulation, clear modulation, copy/paste modulation (this is, in my experience, the fastest way to assign modulators—much faster than dragging from a modulator or searching in a matrix)

• You can select a modulator and click “Show mod targets,” which lists all assigned targets

• Modulation visualization via an animated dot showing the current modulation value

I think these ideas could translate well to Zebra 3.

• Clicking any control that accepts modulation could show currently assigned modulators in the bottom-right pane, with the control itself slightly highlighted

• Right-clicking any control could show a menu to assign modulators, grouped by modulation type

• Copy/paste modulation would be a very handy feature and highly welcome

• Right-clicking the modulator dot (the one used to drag to a target) currently shows “Remove Modulation”; it could also show “Select Modulation,” with a list of currently assigned targets. Selecting one would highlight that control and show all modulators affecting it in the bottom-right pane

• Modulation visualization would be very useful: a small dot on the modulation arc around knobs showing the current modulation value. I’ve always found this extremely helpful for debugging patches

Some additional issues I noticed:

• The modulation arc is always unipolar; it should follow the polarity of the modulator. For example, if an LFO is set to bipolar, all arcs displayed for that LFO should also be bipolar

• Selectors for direct modulation on modules show one large flat list. These modulators should be grouped by type, in the same way the targets are in the modulation matrix—those long flat lists are mentally tiring

And finally, please add Sonic Conditioner and Velvet from Repro-5

+1 for Envelope Follower (should present couple of points in signal to tap into)

Good feedback.
There's still lots of Right-click potential in Zebra3 right now imo.

[grandmasterbird]

At the risk of being branded a heretic (and perhaps going against the design philosophy), I'd love to see some factory oscillator presets included.

I've been with Zebra2 since 2006 so the modules, the mixer, the layout etc is familiar, it's just those oscillators that I find confusing.

I'm sure as time goes on I'll figure it out, but sometimes all I want to do is quickly get a couple of saw waves on the go or whatever, and having oscillator presets that you could both save and quickly load up would be really handy. I'm not really into sound design, I just make or tweak sounds to fit in with whatever I'm working on.

It's obviously a very deep synth that requires time and effort to get to grips with, but one of the great things about Zebra2 is the fact that it is a very deep synth but you can also build a simplistic patch very quickly.

Just my 2c...

(This is where someone tells me that you can already do that! )

Sound wise I think this synth is absolute quality, the years of work have paid off

[Bugslayer]

I am sure it was already mentioned somewhere, but I second the possibility of a limiter. The Oscillators are very versatile, but there is the possibility of awful clipping. So it would be great if the plugin could prevent that.

[pic-cel]

Well, I've already made some FM Monstrosities with this thing! It's a bit good

I have experienced a reproducible crash if that's of any help. I use Reason+ on MacOS. To get Reason to crash out, I open an instance of Zebra3, go to the patches window and select the 808 patch and that's it, Reason just bombs out. This does not happen in Logic, so this could be one of those really odd bugs that would normally take an age to track down. I should probably mention this to the chaps at ReasonStudios too. It could have exposed a bug in their VST Handling.

[Bugslayer]

So I have a workflow request for the menu structure.
When right-clicking a control in the bottom line, for example, it would be nice if it could show all the modulated parameters right away and then the "remove modulation" menu as the second option. It would be a lot easier to find a modulated parameter like that.
If you don't remember the Ctrl you assigned it to, you have to click twice on every parameter, first to get to a menu that shows if there is any parameter assigned and then on the "remove modulation" menu entry to show the actual parameters.
This would also enable a button to turn on and off modulation temporarily, not just remove it completely. Sure you could scroll through the list, but that is tedious too.

It would be great to somehow show if there is modulation at all, maybe a different colored background for the option somehow.
An optional tooltip could be nice as well to show all the parameters without even having to click on them in the first place. These tooltips could be used to explain parameters as well in general, but I am aware that there are no tooltips at all for now, so it might be a bit of a hassle.

[exmatproton]

Hi there,
nice and interesting synth, sounds really great !!, but I miss terribly the colors from Zebralette3 (both). Looks not bad, but I actually don't like this greenish... just my taste.
And don't get me wrong, Limitation in zooming and no sequencer or even arp? Maybe it's kind of more like an alpha version then beta?
Anyway, congratulation to the teem, nice work so fare

Nah, it is a beta. They didn't want to include an Arp (sequencers are included in the form of the mappers. Try it, it's fun)

[aMUSEd]

Hi there,
nice and interesting synth, sounds really great !!, but I miss terribly the colors from Zebralette3 (both). Looks not bad, but I actually don't like this greenish... just my taste.
And don't get me wrong, Limitation in zooming and no sequencer or even arp? Maybe it's kind of more like an alpha version then beta?
Anyway, congratulation to the teem, nice work so fare

Nah, it is a beta. They didn't want to include an Arp (sequencers are included in the form of the mappers. Try it, it's fun)

And the MSEGs - Absynth which just came out in v6 has never had an ARP or Sequencer yet has always excelled in rhythmically complex patches using MSEGs and so does Zebra 3.

[u-he Basti]

Hi there,
nice and interesting synth, sounds really great !!, but I miss terribly the colors from Zebralette3 (both). Looks not bad, but I actually don't like this greenish... just my taste.
And don't get me wrong, Limitation in zooming and no sequencer or even arp? Maybe it's kind of more like an alpha version then beta?
Anyway, congratulation to the teem, nice work so fare

Thanks for your feedback. We initially said that the UI is WIP and will be tweaked in the process (public beta phase). I am collecting a lot of good thoughts here, so keep them coming!

My plan during this beta is:
1. better overall readability of the ui:
- increase font sizes of labels, in controls etc. for the entire UI, adjust colours and contrast accordingly
- finding colour schemes for logically connected devices in racks (did that for physical modeling devices and comb filters...and have to agree – we're not there yet!)
- the accent green shouldn't be overused (alongside others)
- make it visually more fun

2. UX:
- unify control types e.g. drop-down lists with two options vs. tab systems with two options (oscillators curve and guide selectors bug me the most)
- tweaking UX -> parameter flow of certain modules (mixers especially!)
- finding a new spot for the modulators drag-and-drop assign bar (at the bottom) for a more compact ui that fit on a 14" display at 100% UI-size
- idea to use a combination of icons and texts for modulator lists and assign bar
- effects grid and racks modules need a overhaul

A growing list of tasks to get the best result. Thank you guys so so much. We appreciate <3

[exmatproton]

Hi there,
nice and interesting synth, sounds really great !!, but I miss terribly the colors from Zebralette3 (both). Looks not bad, but I actually don't like this greenish... just my taste.
And don't get me wrong, Limitation in zooming and no sequencer or even arp? Maybe it's kind of more like an alpha version then beta?
Anyway, congratulation to the teem, nice work so fare

Nah, it is a beta. They didn't want to include an Arp (sequencers are included in the form of the mappers. Try it, it's fun)

And the MSEGs - Absynth which just came out in v6 has never had an ARP or Sequencer yet has always excelled in rhythmically complex patches using MSEGs and so does Zebra 3.

agreed. And the awesome thing is now we can morph complex MSEG's to other spline configs. I love it

[Urs]

Shouldn't drop-down menus and lists like the one above follow Zebra 3's color scheme? White menus (when the plug-in itself is not white) feel kind of jarring and very disconnected.

Kind of reminds of Cubase with its still old-style menus, even though the whole software has been visually modernized.

We use what the operating system offers. We actually just finished a major project to have all menus, dialogs, alerts and notifications done with the means of the operating system. That is just the most reliable way of doing these kinds of things.