Zebra 3 Public Beta (final beta)

[Urs]

Dunno about Windows. On Mac, if I have a mouse with just a mouse wheel and I shift-scroll, the plug-in receives events for horizontal scrolling. If I shift-scroll vertically on a Trackpad, the plug-in receives vertical scrolling events with shift key as modifier. There is no way for us to avoid ambiguity in every situation without the user telling us what they use.

So I get that "vertical" isn't ideal wording on our side when that is the setting that enables horizontal scrolling with a vertical-only scroll wheel. We'll find better language that is more intuitively understood.

In any case, testing these settings is part of the beta test. So if the settings don't cut it, we'll improve them. But the plethora of screen resolutions, the plethora of input devices etc. do not make things easier for anyone. Unfortunately there are no UI frameworks that can do what we need, so we need to maintain our own. And that means dealing with these things.

[gassle]

...

[werter318]

I really want to like it but I'm just not getting the same sonic density out of this than I get out of ZebraHZ. Everything sounds kinda flat, and it also doesn't collapse to mono. I'm running at 88.2Khz. I think the interface is fine, but it's all about the sound right.

[HcDoom]

I really want to like it but I'm just not getting the same sonic density out of this than I get out of ZebraHZ. Everything sounds kinda flat, and it also doesn't collapse to mono. I'm running at 88.2Khz. I think the interface is fine, but it's all about the sound right.

Jelaous competitor?

[werter318]

I really want to like it but I'm just not getting the same sonic density out of this than I get out of ZebraHZ. Everything sounds kinda flat, and it also doesn't collapse to mono. I'm running at 88.2Khz. I think the interface is fine, but it's all about the sound right.

Jelaous competitor?

Is that truly necessary in a public beta where any feedback is welcome?

[Super Piano Hater 64]

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

Try these on for size.





These are great showcases of the kind of sound design you can do with Zebra's architecture, but they're (mostly) not track-in-a-box style super demos designed to leave a smoking crater when they crash into your mix. In fact, that style of patch is famously unpopular with Zebra's biggest customers. Sometimes you need sounds that stay in their own lane.

[nusound mind]

I really want to like it but I'm just not getting the same sonic density out of this than I get out of ZebraHZ. Everything sounds kinda flat, and it also doesn't collapse to mono. I'm running at 88.2Khz. I think the interface is fine, but it's all about the sound right.

Interesting. So far this is among the best sounding synths I have. It has that "raw" sort of sound I associate w/ u-he which, some people like and some people don't; but it's a magnitude of order better than Zebra2 imho, which I also own but in the end didn't use much. ZebraHZ bit of a different story, but still it surpasses that to me also by a fair bit with a comparable cpu hit.

It's not something I'll use for everything probably, not something I'll pull out if I want a supersaw trance sound for instance; but it's amazing for arp/seqeunced type sound with shifting transitions from one bar to the next. Also excels at bell type sounds, pristine pads, although admittedly I've had limited chance to use it to make any sort of final opinion but it'll almost certainly slot in the rotation, right at the top with a few others.

[Puduku]

These are great showcases of the kind of sound design you can do with Zebra's architecture

Come on, those presets are a joke to me (well, they're perfectly made, that's not the problem)!
I've heard an accordion, an organ, and even a motherf***** plane!!!! Why would you buy a new $200 synth to get the same sounds you've been already getting everywhere for the past 50 years? Just buy emulations or sample libraries, or any of the thousands of synths that already have those sounds inside! And why would you want a synthesizer to create a plane sound when you can simply get a plane sound in the first place???

That's my problem with what Zebra 3 is offering right now : the included presets are reinventing the wheel. Vintage organs, sitars, vintage basses... come on! We all have those sounds already!

I absolutely love the sound design that has been made with Diva or Hive. But I don't click with Zebra 3's one. Not a big deal btw.

As it's an open beta : please sound designers, if you're still creating presets for Zebra3, don't forget to create sounds that are not from other machines please.

[Fannon]

I partially disagree with the take on the presets. First, the Treeswift presets are made *really well*. I bet most people would just rate how good a synth sounds by its presets, because a good sound designer can really bring most synths to shine! Such presets also take a LONG time to make. I wonder what Treeswift would come up when using Zebra3!

And I would like to have a lot of bread-and-butter sounds in Zebra 3, too. A good mix between what's common and what's very much Zebra-3 only would be nice. The current beta presets feel like mostly showcasing new features to me. But with Zebralette 3 it was similar. When in beta, it was just a few presets that mostly showed what's technically possible - then with RC we got a nice, more rounded preset library.

[Urs]

So by publishing a beta version, we are fully aware that the first impression may not be the best, and we will lose a whole bunch of potential customers. Many people will not change their minds once they get to try the polished final product. I've seen this many times, it's a thing. Some peeps won't come around even if their niggles are resolved.

However, the feedback from those who constructively take part in this process is invaluable. We sacrifice a few sales in favour of making a better product.

A few years ago I would probably have taken on the argument and tried to sway some minds. Nowadays... if it's not for them, it's not for them

[DCrown]

I really want to like it but I'm just not getting the same sonic density out of this than I get out of ZebraHZ. Everything sounds kinda flat, and it also doesn't collapse to mono. I'm running at 88.2Khz. I think the interface is fine, but it's all about the sound right.

Jelaous competitor?

Annoying fanboy?

[Stan Navi]

The sound in Zebra 3 is incredible. I had problems with Zebra 2 and Zebra HZ designing my own sounds(I don' count presets from great sound designers like Unfinished which are gorgeous). I think most of the time Oscs was sounding weak for me(low resolution sound), except FMO. It was 50/50 either good result or shitty result. With Zebra 3 it is more difficult to make bad sounding preset, because quality of all modules on another level and I mostly like what I get exploring Zebra 3.

[werter318]

So by publishing a beta version, we are fully aware that the first impression may not be the best, and we will lose a whole bunch of potential customers. Many people will not change their minds once they get to try the polished final product. I've seen this many times, it's a thing. Some peeps won't come around even if their niggles are resolved.

However, the feedback from those who constructively take part in this process is invaluable. We sacrifice a few sales in favour of making a better product.

A few years ago I would probably have taken on the argument and tried to sway some minds. Nowadays... if it's not for them, it's not for them

Alright so seeing as this is probably directed at my comment, I’ll try to explain it a little further.

I’m not reacting to the idea of a beta, nor am I making a judgement about the musical intent or feature set. I’m purely talking about the sonic behavior I’m hearing under specific conditions.

In my experience, what my ears usually push back against in digital synths isn’t the core algorithmic idea, but secondary digital artifacts. Things like oversampling strategy, interpolation, phase behavior, or other numerically related side effects. That’s also why I personally don’t like working at 44.1 kHz at all; most of those issues tend to calm down for me at 88.2 kHz, which is where I do almost all of my serious work.

That’s also why I brought up ZebraHZ specifically: at 88.2 kHz it has a density, depth, and mono behavior that, to my ears, feels much more “resolved.” With the current beta, even at 88.2 kHz, I’m still hearing something flatter and less cohesive, and it doesn’t seem to collapse to mono in the same way.

To be clear: I’m not saying “the algorithms are bad” or “this will never be for me.” I’m saying that what I usually react to negatively in digital instruments is often not the musical design, but the digital implementation details, and those are exactly the kinds of things that often evolve during a beta.

So my comment wasn’t meant as a final verdict, just as a description of what I’m hearing right now and where, based on past experience, I’d expect improvements to potentially land. Usually going into these details doesn't work on forums but seeing as THE Urs Heckmann replied I probably should.

If it ends up not being for me, that’s fine but I wanted to clarify that my feedback is coming from that angle, not from a knee-jerk dislike of early software or a resistance to change. You can be sure I will try the release demo again and will very much hope I will like it!

[Morty-C-137]

These are great showcases of the kind of sound design you can do with Zebra's architecture

Come on, those presets are a joke to me (well, they're perfectly made, that's not the problem)!
I've heard an accordion, an organ, and even a motherf***** plane!!!! Why would you buy a new $200 synth to get the same sounds you've been already getting everywhere for the past 50 years? Just buy emulations or sample libraries, or any of the thousands of synths that already have those sounds inside! And why would you want a synthesizer to create a plane sound when you can simply get a plane sound in the first place???

That's my problem with what Zebra 3 is offering right now : the included presets are reinventing the wheel. Vintage organs, sitars, vintage basses... come on! We all have those sounds already!

I absolutely love the sound design that has been made with Diva or Hive. But I don't click with Zebra 3's one. Not a big deal btw.

As it's an open beta : please sound designers, if you're still creating presets for Zebra3, don't forget to create sounds that are not from other machines please.

Why not try your hand creating your own unique patches? Synths like Zebra can do a vast pallet of sounds. To wait around on the perfect preset pack to come around that exactly fits what expectations you personally have seems like a more frustrating (and less gratifying) experience to me than the journey of learning synthesis patch and sound design.

[Dalle]

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.

Why would you buy a new $200 synth to get the same sounds you've been already getting everywhere for the past 50 years? Just buy emulations or sample libraries, or any of the thousands of synths that already have those sounds inside! And why would you want a synthesizer to create a plane sound when you can simply get a plane sound in the first place???

Not really surprising that something like Zebra isn’t appealing to you if you think synthesis can be replaced by sample libraries