Zebra 3 Public Beta (final beta)

[Zipede]

I spent a while trying to figure out why my CPU melted every time I used the Burn module Then I saw the latest YouTube video... relieved I don't need a new PC

[PieBerger]

Also, remake the comp/limiter into some kind of OTT/Smasher

wub in under a minute without needing the manual.

Market it to the wub wub and DJ crowd as an entry level product into the world of U-he.

ZeBROlette is the name you are looking for

[pdxindy]

Why a separate routing interface for both Oscs and FX, with the same things in both, instead of just one matrix where unlimited instances of any module can be added? Why the fixed (slider-based) envelope positions? The popup filter configurator/matrix makes absolutely no sense. Also, why not just show us graphically what the filter is doing?. You can't sweep the EQ filters en masse without individually assigning them (or alternatively there's supposedly workaround hack that can be done with the pitch?).

There are two routing interfaces because the top one is per voice and the bottom is global.

I'd also like a global frequency knob for the EQ.

4 ADSR knobs or 4 Sliders doesn't make the slightest difference to me.

The popup Filter matrix makes sense to me. It's easy to understand at a glance and I would rather that than a menu with over 100 options.

[Urs]

We have an internal FR for a global EQ frequency knob for a while now.

[whassup]

Also, remake the comp/limiter into some kind of OTT/Smasher

wub in under a minute without needing the manual.

Market it to the wub wub and DJ crowd as an entry level product into the world of U-he.

ZeBROlette is the name you are looking for

Yes, bro! This!

[Super Piano Hater 64]

That whole concept just sounds like Hive to me

[whassup]

That whole concept just sounds like Hive to me

Yes, I had the same thought.

[buffalo roam]

Because u-he has been very generous in providing a free beta-tester card to allow for uninterrupted access to the new Zebra 3, I feel obligated to share some feedback.

I usually first check out a new synth by listening to many of the presets, to get an idea of what the synth is aiming to do. What I heard tended toward very pleasant soft sounds, with some similarity of textures among them. Occasionally, switching from preset to preset while my daw was playing a loop of notes resulted in a crash in Logic Pro on my M3 Mac with the latest OS. Meanwhile, just messing around with sound design convinced me that Zebra 3 is quite capable of raw, harsh sounds, as well as a great variety of others. With its interesting array of filters, this opens a lot of sound-design possibilities. I applaud this!

More interesting to me were the presets that had some sort of rhythmic movement to them. In deconstructing how the movements were accomplished, I was impressed with how combinations of lfos, mappers, msegs, and even oscillators were used to create some syncopation in sounds—and not just the usual 1/8th- and 1/16th-note regular pulses that so many synths offer.

That said, it struck me that these rhythmic techniques were monophonic, without an opportunity for polyphonic possibilities, unless, with difficulty, this is achieved by loading multiple instances of Zebra 3 on different tracks. The way the synth is structured, I don’t see how it can evolve into polyphonic sequencing, as offered in Serum 2 and Nexus 5. I know this is just my own interest, which may not be shared by many others, but it is a limitation that makes me pause. I know Urs has been open about not immediately imposing a normal sequencer on Zebra 3 but preferring to wait to see how the built-in capabilities can be complemented. I respect his decision. And, well, that’s my feedback.

[Andreya_Autumn]

4-voice polyphony is absolutely possible, by modulating each of the 4 pitch centers. And then assigning each to an oscillator of its own or something. That's different from playing multiple notes (each of which might use all 4 oscillators) at once of course, I get that. Just saying.

Personally I'm more of a "the DAW/keyboard is how I do that" kind of person anyway. But the 4 pitch thingies are really clever I find. I love how they let you do mono-, duo, trio- or quadra-phony. Really fun stuff.

[Fannon]

I spent a while trying to figure out why my CPU melted every time I used the Burn module Then I saw the latest YouTube video... relieved I don't need a new PC

Maybe that module should have "CPU Burner" as a name, from name and looks I guess many expect it to be some distortion unit

Or only make it available if someone "opts in", which assumes they know what they are doing.

Already curious how many 3rd party presets in the future will accidentally have a burner module in it..

[kraster]

4-voice polyphony is absolutely possible, by modulating each of the 4 pitch centers. And then assigning each to an oscillator of its own or something. That's different from playing multiple notes (each of which might use all 4 oscillators) at once of course, I get that. Just saying.

Personally I'm more of a "the DAW/keyboard is how I do that" kind of person anyway. But the 4 pitch thingies are really clever I find. I love how they let you do mono-, duo, trio- or quadra-phony. Really fun stuff.

Pretty much any modulator can be set to a scale and that can be assigned to anything that takes pitch. So the four main oscillators, the FM Oscillators and modal filters. The combs and the filters also can be pitched.

The four pitch modules can be set to quantize those scales to certain pitches keys. So up to 10 note polyphony is possible with the osillators. 4 X Osc, 4 X FM and 2 X modal. The mappers are well suited to pitch sequencing.

[kraster]

We have an internal FR for a global EQ frequency knob for a whole now.

Doesn't the track function in the eq effectively shift the entire eq?

[Urs]

We have an internal FR for a global EQ frequency knob for a whole now.

Doesn't the track function in the eq effectively shift the entire eq?

Yes.

Individual bands can already be modulated, but that is tedious for instance when the whole set should be key tracked in the voice.

[Teksonik]

I had some time for Z3 today but got this in FL Studio during the session:

Z3 122025-3.png

All I was doing was changing presets so no real "steps to reproduce". I did not have Fixed Size buffers on but I have worked with Z3 for quite a few hours over several days with them off so not sure what's going on. It did take down FLS as well although it did not create a crash log.

Ryzen 7 7700X 8 core 16 thread, turbos at 5.4Ghz, 32 GB ram, Windows 11 25H2, 48K 256 sample buffer.

[Funky40]

Already curious how many 3rd party presets in the future will accidentally have a burner module in it..

haha, yes.

+1, renaming to "CPU Burner" would be appropriate, imho.