Zebra 3 - Sound design, tips & tricks

[Howard]

Side note: I would have liked to make the oscillator polyphonic and the noise monophonic so that it doesn't stack up when you play chords, but I couldn't find a way to do that. Any ideas?)

Could use a very fast LFO in 'Single' mode? Example attached: Use mod wheel to prove that the "noise" really is the same for all voices. Ctrl A reduces modulation depth so that you can make it sound like wobbly tape.

lockstep noise experiment.h2p.zip

BTW I tried high-pass filtering the LFO using a Math module, and making the LFO a tad faster still by modulating it up beyond maximum. Both work OK, but I didn't want to complicate the simple experiment.

[Beachboy]

I made a vocal preset using the Formant OscFX and the resonators. It looks a bit complex for what it does but it was fun to create.

Zebravox.zip

[Urs]

(Side note: I would have liked to make the oscillator polyphonic and the noise monophonic so that it doesn't stack up when you play chords, but I couldn't find a way to do that. Any ideas?)

MSEG with super short blip. Single Trigger. Route onto Noise Vol through ModMath or ModMatrix with same MSEG as trigger for S&H. Expected result: First voice has 100% modulation, all voices played shortly after have no modulation, thus no noise.

Works only with hand plays chords (notes a few milliseconds apart) and noise will stop when first note is released...

(makes me think about ModMath additions for number of voices divider etc.)

[NAD]

Could use a very fast LFO in 'Single' mode?

That's a neat trick I hadn't considered! Sadly it seems quite impossible to get it to sound anything like what you get from the Noise module. Still a useful trick for getting consistent tape wobble for multiple voices.

MSEG with super short blip. Single Trigger. Route onto Noise Vol through ModMath or ModMatrix with same MSEG as trigger for S&H.

I tried this and the results were interesting. I wasn't able to get it to work very reliably either when playing by hand or programming chords on a grid, seems to sometimes work and sometimes not.

Anyway I think the obvious simple solution for the original patch I was lamenting about is to simply use two separate instances of Zebra. Ultimately makes more sense in the context of an actual production, but just won't allow you to package the ready-made preset "out of the box".

(makes me think about ModMath additions for number of voices divider etc.)

That's cool, I like that. I never once used the MMIX in Z2, but this new one I've found indispensable! If I wasn't forced by the lack of a Constant mod source I might have completely overlooked it. Also I was thinking a derivative mode might be useful (and/or a rectified or squared derivative?). Not quite sure how exactly that could be implemented but maybe it's as simple as current_value - previous_value? I think it could be handy for triggering stuff.

[Urs]

A derivative is a highpass filter. So ModMath Highpass is a derivative, more or less.

[joradn]

Made a tool which converts .utu files for Sumu into Zebra 3 modal profiles. They can be made with its free companion tool. Is this something that would interest anyone?

[Tj Shredder]

Yes, of course. Fortunately KVR lets you post links…

[NAD]

Here's a fun one which I'm sharing to hopefully demonstrate how to achieve a decent vowel filter using the Resonator mode in the amazing new EQ module:

Echo Buddha.zip

So this was my attempt to recreate the sound of the legendary Delay Lama, and, if I may say so myself, I think it sounds pretty damn close! Critically, the filter is manipulated by the pitch-bend wheel (as with the original) so don't forget to try that out. Anyway, there's not a lot going on here other than a (slightly modified) saw going through a bank of band-pass filters. Three mappers are used to set way-points along the pitch wheel travel to control the frequency of the bottom three formants, which were meticulously tweaked to match the target on a spectrum analyzer. Ctrl C changes the "head size" by shifting all of the formants together, definitely play with that one. Ctrl A adds portamento (glide) and Ctrl B adds some stereo delay. You could try out different oscillator wave-forms which should work as long as they're sufficiently harmonically rich. I did use the Formant OscFX basically as a static EQ, whereas an actual EQ or a low/high-pass pair might have done the trick. One last thing to note is that setting up the EQ module as a vocal filter was a bit involved so it's not quite as immediate as having a dedicated vowel filter. While you can save the the EQ settings as a preset, the formant modulations are sadly not saved, so if you want to use this in your own sounds you might just start out with this patch as a template and go on from there. Have fun and stay safe!

Question to the devs: Since this is a monophonic patch and the EQ is I assume purely linear, would there be any CPU benefit to moving it to the FX grid?

[Urs]

Question to the devs: Since this is a monophonic patch and the EQ is I assume purely linear, would there be any CPU benefit to moving it to the FX grid?

No need to move it if it's a monophonic patch. You actually save CPU if it remains in the voice.

[NAD]

Made a tool which converts .utu files for Sumu into Zebra 3 modal profiles. They can be made with its free companion tool. Is this something that would interest anyone?

This is something that very much interests me! However I am unfamiliar with Sumu, and I didn't have much success using this tool. What I tried was the following:

1. I downloaded the free Vutu tool from the Madrona Labs Sumu webpage.
2. Imported a percussive metalic tone into Vutu, tweaked some parameters, and exported a .utu file.
3. Uploaded the .utu into your nifty Vutu to Zebra 3 tool and downloaded the resulting .csv file.
4. Moved .csv into the appropriate folder and loaded it up into a Modal module in Zebra (preceded by an Exciter module).

The result ended up sounding not very different to the "Basic Sine.csv" profile perhaps with a touch of detuned unison. If I crank the Pitch 1 tuning WAY up I get something vaguely resembling the source material. Do you have any tips on how to use this thing more effectively?

[NAD]

Question to the devs: Since this is a monophonic patch and the EQ is I assume purely linear, would there be any CPU benefit to moving it to the FX grid?

No need to move it if it's a monophonic patch. You actually save CPU if it remains in the voice.

Thank you, that's good to know!

[joradn]

Made a tool which converts .utu files for Sumu into Zebra 3 modal profiles. They can be made with its free companion tool. Is this something that would interest anyone?

This is something that very much interests me! However I am unfamiliar with Sumu, and I didn't have much success using this tool. What I tried was the following:

1. I downloaded the free Vutu tool from the Madrona Labs Sumu webpage.
2. Imported a percussive metalic tone into Vutu, tweaked some parameters, and exported a .utu file.
3. Uploaded the .utu into your nifty Vutu to Zebra 3 tool and downloaded the resulting .csv file.
4. Moved .csv into the appropriate folder and loaded it up into a Modal module in Zebra (preceded by an Exciter module).

The result ended up sounding not very different to the "Basic Sine.csv" profile perhaps with a touch of detuned unison. If I crank the Pitch 1 tuning WAY up I get something vaguely resembling the source material. Do you have any tips on how to use this thing more effectively?

If you upload your sample here, I can see if I can get something usable out of it, or if I need to refine the filtering/algorithm for better results. Keep in mind everything is scaled up or down to the fundamental, so your source sound will essentially be retuned.

Some general things I do are making sure to cut the attack out of the sound in Vutu. It should just be the body/tail of the sound. Then I'll tweak the settings on the left until it roughly looks like a reasonable number of partials that are pretty steady in frequency without too much high frequency noise. You can synthesise and preview it in Vutu before exporting to make sure it sounds clean but still reminiscent of the original tone. Due to the nature of how Vutu analyses partials, sometimes outliers will dominate in amplitude or decay and some audio sources just won't translate over cleanly.

I may make a proper video demonstrating my process since there's interest, but you have the basic steps correct.

Edit: Also, if anyone is looking for the tool, NAD has kindly included links to everything needed in their post.

[NAD]

If you upload your sample here, I can see if I can get something usable out of it, [...]

Thank you, that's very kind of you to offer! Here's the sound:

Pole.zip

As you can tell there's not much in the way of attack to shave off. It is however very high pitched, which I'm realizing is likely the issue here. Perhaps this particular sound is not the ideal candidate for this process.

I may make a proper video demonstrating my process since there's interest, [...]

That would be great. Speaking of which, the sounds you demoed in your video are quite nice, any chance of sharing a few of those profiles?

[FragileX]

I was wondering if it would be possible to implement some "pitch bend modes".

Yes, we've discussed a few of these, and when time permits we'll make a plan. For now, all devs are on holiday till early/mid January though.

One of the things we want to do is a sample & hold or track & hold for each Pitch module. This would basically help to freeze/unfreeze any pitch modulation with anything that's currently a gate or a trigger. Should almost get us there.

Thanks a lot for considering this ... looking forward to this...as no synth I know has this possibility as of now

[joradn]

Thank you, that's very kind of you to offer! Here's the sound:
Pole.zip
As you can tell there's not much in the way of attack to shave off. It is however very high pitched, which I'm realizing is likely the issue here. Perhaps this particular sound is not the ideal candidate for this process.

That would be great. Speaking of which, the sounds you demoed in your video are quite nice, any chance of sharing a few of those profiles?

Ah yeah, I see what you mean. The main decay of the sound is quite high up, I had to play it around F7 to get a similar tone to the sample. I recorded a short video comparing them. I think it sounds quite cool at lower frequencies though! I'll attach the .csv I got from it to this post.



I've also attached the profiles from my first video, they are mostly from ultrasonic recordings I took pinging various objects around the house. Perhaps later on I'll convert a large batch of them and share the best results in this thread.

I would love for Urs to release the official tool for this though.