Zebra 3 Public Beta (final beta)

[ffx]

The "Every new synth sucks" club is out strong. Bless their hearts.

You too can join the club in three easy steps:

1. Be firm in your conviction that every new synth sucks.
2. Install the new synth and figure out where it sucks.*
3. Tell everybody this new synth sucks.

* Sometimes this part is hard, because even though you know it sucks, it can be difficult to find the suckage. But don't worry. You can always just grab one of these classic standbys:

• "It sounds cold/artificial/digital."
• "The UI has <insert a random control here> and that sucks."
• "The presets are garbage."
• "The workflow is crap."
• "I hate the copy protection."
• "The price is too high and they are just out for your money."
• "The price is too low, and they are flooding the market with crap."
• "u-He is a CLAP whore."

Good luck!

Just to add:

[*] This synth isn't exactly like X synth therefore it sucks (X synth also sucked when it was new but let's not talk about that now)

I don't really get this... Yes, there might be some smart-asses, also a highly nuanced style of expression is not common these days. On the other hand people are also over-reacting already, if someone put his/her thoughts into not so well formulated words. In the end most critics can be a a source of productive information. But it is certainly not good, if there are regular complains which are ignored. Or communication is not possible. This is not the case here. So why this framing now? Is there anything to defend here?

[Download SOphist]

I like Aliasing, it makes my dog fall asleep.

I bet your neighbours like Aliasing too...

congrats on the release, Urs. this is clearly over my head but I´m gonna upgrade nevertheless.

[Urs]

I don't really get this...

I get it, but then I also don't.

I think the general reception is really great, most of the feedback is really helpful and positive. As for critical replies, we have had way worse moments in KVR history, for plug-ins that were much easier to use. I do understand when people are frustrated, and while some are outspoken, we'll be happy to address their concerns.

So on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is the worst case scenario and 10 is the best case, I think this beta release is much closer to 10 than it is to 1.

My main take away is, 2 or 3 valid points came unexpected, because they have hardly ever or never been raised with our other products. We might want to address one or two of these, but the impact may delay the final release for a few weeks. Q1/2026 should still be doable though.

[Oberheim 8000]

I tried a beta, firstly the experience was good, but after I updated driver for my graphic card (NVidia studio driver), the whole gui is too slow (mainly in oscilator editor). I even turn off animations, it doesn't help. I also notice that oscilator visual is only shown when I start play a note. Before it never show up. After that it will be visible all time.
I also have to note that I use 200% on gui, if I set it to 100% the gui is more responsibile. I have 4k monitor therefore I need a 200% as I like working when the screen size of plugin is on whole screen and comfortable to read text and icons.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I tried a beta, firstly the experience was good, but after I updated driver for my graphic card (NVidia studio driver), the whole gui is too slow (mainly in oscilator editor). I even turn off animations, it doesn't help. I also notice that oscilator visual is only shown when I start play a note. Before it never show up. After that it will be visible all time.
I also have to note that I use 200% on gui, if I set it to 100% the gui is more responsibile. I have 4k monitor therefore I need a 200% as I like working when the screen size of plugin is on whole screen and comfortable to read text and icons.

The UI doesn't use GPU acceleration on Windows yet. They're planning on working on that at some point next year.

Word of advice: giant UHD monitors and Windows for pro audio is a combination that's going to cause a LOT of headaches. Microsoft really doesn't make things easy.

[Benjamin923]

Question about CPU burn. Is the idea that you run it for a moment to get on a performance core and then turn it off? Otherwise it seems kind of counterintuitive to just leave it grinding at your CPU.

[chagzuki]

Finally it's 2025, sliders should be banned from Envelope UIs in modern sound design synths!!!

I know this has been commented on already, but I have to agree. I can see that the slider ASDR fits neatly in the window space available, but it's rare that I don't want to adjust curves and a node/spline representation is by far the best.

[ffx]

Urs, could you give me/us a bit info about host samplerate? My questions here would be:

- Which sample rate do you recommend?
- Is the oversampling the same factor at 96kHz as 48kHz?
- Couldn't the oversampling set to half the quality at 96kHz vs. 48kHz, to get a similar result and also save cpu?
- I think I can hear some differences with 96kHz, it sounds somehow "thinner", more defined. Or would that then caused by a bug in a module?

[MrJubbly]

Word of advice: giant UHD monitors and Windows for pro audio is a combination that's going to cause a LOT of headaches. Microsoft really doesn't make things easy.

That is not my experience. The vast majority of my audio software and plugins scale and perform very well on my UHD 4K, including u-he's. Especially since u-he recently improved this a lot for their CLAP format plugins.

I think users experience in such UHD environment can differ greatly dependant upon which DAW and plugins they personally prefer and use regularly.

If you use software with very limited (or non-existent) scaling capabilities (especially older software), then you're more likely to struggle. If however, you use more up-to-date software which have such scaling and resizing support added, it's no longer a problem.

[TranceMaschine]

I've never used Zebra before, but after trying the Zebra 3 beta, I found the sound to be very subtle and simple, compared to synth monsters like Dune 3, for example. Where a saw would cut right through the mix, here everything is so subtle and simple. I thought, of course, that the synth is complex and I probably don't understand everything 100%, but I went to YouTube to look at samples of Zebra 2 and Zebra 3 and couldn't find any strong, powerful, or ultimate sounds.
I've read a lot of rave reviews about the sound design and all that, but I completely don't understand where it is in Zebra. I don't mean to offend anyone, but on the contrary, please point me in the right direction to see the sound design and all that wonder everyone is talking about here.
Also, while I was writing this message... I don't even know what kind of music this synth is suitable for? In an age when there are huge libraries of live instrument samples, vocals, granular synthesizers, and so on... I probably didn't understand the main thing—why this synthesizer is needed. I'd be very interested to know.

[synaesthesia]

I've never used Zebra before, but after trying the Zebra 3 beta, I found the sound to be very subtle and simple, compared to synth monsters like Dune 3, for example. Where a saw would cut right through the mix, here everything is so subtle and simple. I thought, of course, that the synth is complex and I probably don't understand everything 100%, but I went to YouTube to look at samples of Zebra 2 and Zebra 3 and couldn't find any strong, powerful, or ultimate sounds.
I've read a lot of rave reviews about the sound design and all that, but I completely don't understand where it is in Zebra. I don't mean to offend anyone, but on the contrary, please point me in the right direction to see the sound design and all that wonder everyone is talking about here.
Also, while I was writing this message... I don't even know what kind of music this synth is suitable for? In an age when there are huge libraries of live instrument samples, vocals, granular synthesizers, and so on... I probably didn't understand the main thing—why this synthesizer is needed. I'd be very interested to know.

Well, from my own personal experience, when I've been hired to programme synth sounds for films, TV and video games (including big sounds for action scores etc.), Zebra has been the synth of choice, for me and the client.

Zebra most certainly can sound huge. As well as subtle. That's what makes it such a flexible synth.

[Puduku]

I don't mean to offend anyone, but on the contrary, please point me in the right direction to see the sound design and all that wonder everyone is talking about here.
Also, while I was writing this message... I don't even know what kind of music this synth is suitable for?

The most notorious user of Zebra is Hans Zimmer. He's 68 years-old. Not your modern DJ.

Think : vintage.

But give a try to U-He Hive. If, like me, you're into fat modern sound, you should find it more to your liking.

[Urs]

Urs, could you give me/us a bit info about host samplerate? My questions here would be:

- Which sample rate do you recommend?
- Is the oversampling the same factor at 96kHz as 48kHz?
- Couldn't the oversampling set to half the quality at 96kHz vs. 48kHz, to get a similar result and also save cpu?
- I think I can hear some differences with 96kHz, it sounds somehow "thinner", more defined. Or would that then caused by a bug in a module?

Things that are oversampled at 44.1/48 kHz will be less oversampled at 88.2/96 kHz. So they'd basically run at the same rate. Things that are not oversampled, like all modulators and - double take - the oscillators, will use more CPU at a higher samplerate.

There should not be any big sonic differences. If there are, I'd love to have a preset and I'd check out what is causing it.

[TranceMaschine]

I've never used Zebra before, but after trying the Zebra 3 beta, I found the sound to be very subtle and simple, compared to synth monsters like Dune 3, for example. Where a saw would cut right through the mix, here everything is so subtle and simple. I thought, of course, that the synth is complex and I probably don't understand everything 100%, but I went to YouTube to look at samples of Zebra 2 and Zebra 3 and couldn't find any strong, powerful, or ultimate sounds.
I've read a lot of rave reviews about the sound design and all that, but I completely don't understand where it is in Zebra. I don't mean to offend anyone, but on the contrary, please point me in the right direction to see the sound design and all that wonder everyone is talking about here.
Also, while I was writing this message... I don't even know what kind of music this synth is suitable for? In an age when there are huge libraries of live instrument samples, vocals, granular synthesizers, and so on... I probably didn't understand the main thing—why this synthesizer is needed. I'd be very interested to know.

Well, from my own personal experience, when I've been hired to programme synth sounds for films, TV and video games (including big sounds for action scores etc.), Zebra has been the synth of choice, for me and the client.

Zebra most certainly can sound huge. As well as subtle. That's what makes it such a flexible synth.

Well, these are just words again, I would like to see examples, or rather hear them.

[SamDi]

It's just that if we support horizontal scrolling, which we want, and the user has a single wheel mouse, the operating system (macOS in this case), interprets shift+scroll as horizontal scroll. In that case, our controls don't see this as shift-scroll, they see it as horizontal scroll.

With a trackpad etc. shift-scroll arrives as shift-scroll. With a normal mouse, vertical scroll.

So by having a preference, we can enable shift-scroll on an ordinary mouse.

I don't know atm how to put it easier. I hope it's clear, and if not, I'll get our writers to clarify it in the user guide.

Sorry, I still don't get, what the problem should be. You clearly describe, that for each device the appropriate messages are coming.

So which message is coming with an ambiguity to which GUI-widget so that the user has to decide/dissolve this in the settings?

You get either SHIFT-scroll or horizontal-scroll messages and both should do exactly the same on a non-input GUI element, namely horizontally scrolling.

On an input GUI you wanna (mis-)use SHIFT-scroll for fine-tuning, although it's reserved by standard behavior for horizontal scrolling (using SHIFT-horizontal wheel should do vertical scrolling the other way around BTW). That's the source, where your problems come from, but I think, it's still solve-able with an appropriate GUI- and message logic - so if SHIFT-scroll or horizontal scroll is going to an input-widget, then you use it for fine-tuning instead of scrolling.

BTW you don't use SHIFT-scroll for scrolling horizontally ATM, but CTRL-scroll instead (on Win 11).

Maybe you should do it other way around: give back SHIFT-scroll to horizontal scrolling and taking CTRL-scroll for fine-tunig. It's pretty common to take that for fine-tuning in other plugins also.