Zebra 3 Public Beta (final beta)

[adash123]

Zebra 3 is good, but not as intense or as artifact free.

C'mon, really? The worst case I could measure is like 60dB headroom before aliasing kicks in... that's 1:1000... with tone fully up.

If others have better anti-aliasing with an equally beautiful tanh() shaper, I want to see how much CPU (or latency) they use...

Zebra, especially Zebra 3 has some of the best sounding oscilators in the industry. In fact, so do most of the U-HE synths.

[adash123]

Urs, not really a feature request, more of just a question out of cusirosity. Are there any plans to introduce any kind of sample handling in the future? Maybe something like Instruo Arbhar or even just basic sample playback? Whetether its a Zebra 3 module or another synth? Happy either way but hope you dont mind me asking

[sQeetz]

It's "that one synth" I've paid close to 200 Quid. I want to learn how to use it
and how to integrate it into Ableton Push 3

[ffx]

What if two finger scrolling on a control would fine-tune it and dragging raw-tune it? then you wouldn't need to use a modifier key anymore.

I think the LFOs would benefit from some live-visualization, be it a led which fades in/out, or a transparent moving circle part on the target control. currently it's sometimes pretty difficult to estimate the speed of an lfo. Visualization would greatly improve understanding.

[kraster]

While I am able to understand your opinion on the concept of Zebra, I think with this statement you are noticeably wrong. I can not see how e.g. the concepts of Phase Plant do sacrifice either workflow or especially depth. So having curves and LFO shape tables, each able to modulate everything with everything, freely remapable and retriggerable by everything does not offer depth? Sorry but it seams like, you have some blind spots on that.

Phase Plant does not have any kind of oscillator FX and that's where a lot of Zebra's power comes from.

Oscillator FX are not just added extras they are incredibly deep ways of sculpting the sound. The implementation of oscillator FX in Zebra is probably the deepest of any synth I've come across...

Not entirely true. Along with filters, it has a distortion effect with overdrive, saturate, fold-back, sine, hard clip, and quantize types. You also have all the oscillator types, including samples with a granular effect, as modulation sources. Now add a much wider range of effects, that can be used per-voice, and you find a very deep instrument. I did a survey of per-voice distortion on software synthesizers, and Phase Plant was a clear winner, both in depth and intensity of distortion, and lack of digital artifacts. Zebra 3 is good, but not as intense or as artifact free.

You can argue that Zebra is "deeper," but really it's just different. Both are excellent synthesizers, IMO.

Per voice effects are different to per oscillator effects. The fx I’m talking about in zebra are 2 per oscillator. They’re more similar to Serum 2’s warp modes.

Phase Plant doesn’t have an equivalent unless you include things like FM.

Per oscillator fx are tied to the generation of the base sound of an oscillator. Per voice fx happen downstream of the oscillator generation.

Things like phase coherence and pitch tracking are intrinsic to oscillator fx. Per voice fx are operating after the oscillator generation. Zebra has both per oscillator fx and per voice fx.

There’s no doubt that Phase Plant has many more options in terms of per voice fx but it doesn’t have any per oscillator fx at all.

Current, Serum, Avenger (kind of) Icarus all have their version of oscillator fx.

Phase Plant has a lot of strengths but the lack of per oscillator fx is definitely one of its weaker aspects.

[DoktorTenma]

I think the LFOs would benefit from some live-visualization, be it a led which fades in/out, or a transparent moving circle part on the target control. currently it's sometimes pretty difficult to estimate the speed of an lfo. Visualization would greatly improve understanding.

You can use the Scope to visualise this. See page 10 in the User Guide.

[Sampleconstruct]

Created with the first public Beta version of Zebra 3, a patch using a noise oscillator, two modal filters and an LP filter with FM.

[DCrown]

Created with the first public Beta version of Zebra 3, a patch using a noise oscillator, two modal filters and an LP filter with FM.

Wow, very nice.
This synth really has a splendid sound, a sound designer's dream come true.

[ffx]

You can use the Scope to visualise this. See page 10 in the User Guide.

Thanks, already knew that, should have written that, but I don't use it currently, because it's a popup window which you can't even move outside the normal vst window. So it covers up important controls and therefore is not suitable for permanent usage. I guess that indicators on each device would help a lot more (and also would be much more intuitive). So that you at least can get a clue visually about the speed and the pattern. Or maybe a scrolling waveform as in Korg Multipoly/Opsix. The GUI currently seems to miss a lot of oppurtunity to indicate "live" data/modulation. I mean it already has a very good, hardware accelerated drawing engine, why not use these capabilities?

Created with the first public Beta version of Zebra 3, a patch using a noise oscillator, two modal filters and an LP filter with FM.

Very nice.

Phase Plant has a lot of strengths but the lack of per oscillator fx is definitely one of its weaker aspects.

Phase Plant also has only a few OSC types and filter types/colors, something I really like about Zebra 3 (and Zebra2HZ).

[sQeetz]

One more question: is it Zeebra or Zaebra?

[ffx]

What about an option to "render fx into wavetable", so it would take the output and fill it into the wavetable, disregarding any automation?

What if the per-module modulations would be also visible in the matrix? This would give the following benefits:

- Better overview about what actually is happening
- Being able to use modulation curves for there, too. Maybe this would already make it possible to have a log<->exp-curved env?

How do I use a constant (knob value) as a source in the mod matrix?

[shorty]

One more question: is it Zeebra or Zaebra?

ˈt͜seːbra?

[sQeetz]

One more question: is it Zeebra or Zaebra?

ˈt͜seːbra?

probably

[xmstkvr]

Wow, very nice.
This synth really has a splendid sound, a sound designer's dream come true.

You have x10 better and at the same time similar-sounding patches inside. Just install it, free beta and go through TAG manager. Amazing stuff.

[Urs]

Urs, not really a feature request, more of just a question out of cusirosity. Are there any plans to introduce any kind of sample handling in the future? Maybe something like Instruo Arbhar or even just basic sample playback? Whetether its a Zebra 3 module or another synth? Happy either way but hope you dont mind me asking

It's a difficult topic. I don't mind samplers, but I don't think the concept fits within Zebra. I prefer for Zebra to remain solely a synthesiser.

I am well aware that sample playback would probably make Zebra a lot more attractive, but I can't shake off the feeling that it would also take something away from Zebra, paradoxically its authenticity as synth.

And also, I'm fairly sure that a sampler only ever makes sense commercially if it comes with a library. And for that we neither have the means nor the expertise. We'd have to start from scratch.