What these are
"module" is underlined here to make it clear that these are module presets and not instrument presets (the Z3 beta already comes with 300 of those). Module presets work with Zebra 3's various generator/modulator/effect modules, which you can save/load/select from their panels' little downward-pointing arrow.
Well you could... except this first beta doesn't come with any module presets (apart from two basic Oscillator WTs)! That's totally understandable for a product that's still under heavy internal development, however testers in the beta thread mentioned missing them—so I dumped these as examples from the various instrument presets.
Installation
To install these presets, download the zip file and extract it under your installation's Zebra3.data/Modules/ directory:
- macOS: MacHD/Library/Application Support/u-he/Zebra3/Modules/
- Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\u-he\Zebra3.data\Modules\
- Example: C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\u-he\Zebra3.data\Modules\
- Linux: ~/.u-he/Zebra3/Modules/
- Example: /home/users/YOURUSERNAME/.u-he/Zebra3/Modules/
- Example (Ubuntu): /home/YOURUSERNAME/.u-he/Zebra3/Modules/
After installing the presets, go to a module's panel and click the downward-facing arrow icon: This brings up a pop-up window should include that module's presets. Here's an example of what the top portion of the MSEG module's preset pop-up will look like:
You'll notice that there are naming conventions to describe each preset, which in the case of MSEGs includes their basic envelope characteristics ("ADLR"), a description I came up with ("Unsteady Loop"), an abbreviated summary of any baked-in (Z3 manual calls them "direct") modulation assignments ("⧛KF⇒CM⧚") and the original Zebra 3 beta preset the module was originally sourced from ("(Aphelion Drift)"), in parentheses.
This "Name ⧛Mod⇒Target⧚ (Original Patch)" pattern is the basic naming convention, although (as seen with the MSEG envelope prefix) there might be slight differences tailored to the properties of individual modules. For instance, here's a breakdown of an Oscillator preset:
Code: Select all
x3 Brite 1 ⧛LFO1⇒CM,Env2⇒FX1⧚ (Glow).h2p
┬─ ───┬─── ────────┬──────── ─┬──
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ ╰╴Z3 beta patch preset was derived from
│ │ ╰╴Preset-assigned ("Direct") Modulations:
│ │ - LFO1 controls Curve Morph
│ │ - Envelope 2 controls Oscillator FX1
│ ╰╴Preset Description
╰╴Oscillator contains 3 unique non-default WaveformsHopefully the modulation abbreviations will be obvious, but here's a sampling of the most common ones:
- A: CtrlA
- B: CtrlB
- C: CtrlC
- D: CtrlD
- FX1: Oscillator FX1
- FX2: Oscillator FX2
- MW: ModWhl
- KF: KeyFollow
- CM: Curve Morph
What's included
The collection currently contains 358 presets for 26 modules:
- MSEG: 49
- Oscillator: 45
- Mapper: 33
- Envelope: 25
- FMO: 25
- FX Grid: 20
- Noise: 17
- Comb Filter: 14
- Filter: 14
- EQ: 13
- Delay: 12
- LFO: 12
- Modal Resonator: 12
- ModFX: 9
- TextureVerb: 8
- ChannelMix 2in1: 7
- Utility: 6
- ChannelMix 4in1: 5
- Distortion: 5
- Exciter: 5
- Wavefolder: 5
- ChannelMix 4in4: 4
- Compressor: 4
- Ringmod: 4
- Reverb: 3
- 8-Tap: 2
As of Z3 beta rev 20399, the module preset popups don't support nested folders—but if a later revision adds that capability, it will open doors to more presets and much better organization for many modules.
What's missing
As of collection 1.1.0, the pack provides at least a few presets for all capable Z3 modules that support them. However, there are currently2 enigmatic folders under the Zebra3 Modules/ directory that won't have any .h2p files:
- CPUBurner*
- OscFX*
What's next
I originally intended this as a quick one-off project to collect a few good examples of each module from the already great instrument presets. But as I went along, I learned a lot about using Z3's modules, modulations, and the preset system. By this point, I'm sure they can be improved.
So as I get to know Z3 better, l'll probably find things to improve in these presets wrt QoL adjustments or better examples. If you're interested in contributing improvements to the collection and are familiar with collaborating on GitHub, I've thrown up a repo at https://github.com/colonel-blimp/zebra3-module-presets.
Anecdotally, it's been more fun (and effective) beta-testing a bunch of new modules after breaking down some good examples as presets. They've helped me learn a lot about what Z3 can do. I hope they can help you, too!
