Hey,
Here's maybe the missing link between what Zebra 3 can do and why we haven't added a dedicated combo of arpeggiator and sequencer yet.
Note that we're not saying "hey, if you want arps, do this thing". We're saying "ugh, we need to check this out ourselves and see how we can come up with a cool design for an arp/seq that somehow interfaces with these possibilities".
Happy New Year,
- U
P.S.: I have attached the original preset folder from this tutorial... I guess 1+5 are the same preset though, and just know that these are not polished in any way, just meant to be educational.
Zebra 3 and What-The-Arpeggio
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- u-he
- 30188 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
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- KVRer
- 8 posts since 31 Aug, 2021
Those were some lovely arps 
When mapping to the 4i1 mixer, does the values just have to be 4 different values for it to work? And also is it only the high values that trigger the next step in the mapper, that jumps in octaves? (it looks like it only moves on to the next step after completing a cycle in the mapper 1)
When mapping to the 4i1 mixer, does the values just have to be 4 different values for it to work? And also is it only the high values that trigger the next step in the mapper, that jumps in octaves? (it looks like it only moves on to the next step after completing a cycle in the mapper 1)
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- u-he
- Topic Starter
- 30188 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
You can of course use any value in the 4-in-1 mixer, so you can actually combine two notes if you feel like it. I just set up the Modulation to +/-100%, which gives me 9 positions in the ModMapper -100, -75, -50, -25, 0, 25, 50, 75, 100 where I have one input by itself.
The second mapper is triggered whenever the first mapper has a positive zero crossing. That's why I used negative values in the first Mapper when I did not want to trigger anything, and then one positive one that triggers.
The second mapper is triggered whenever the first mapper has a positive zero crossing. That's why I used negative values in the first Mapper when I did not want to trigger anything, and then one positive one that triggers.
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- KVRer
- 8 posts since 31 Aug, 2021
Ah - I see (I need to go back to reading the manual a bit closer)... this is extremely powerful!Urs wrote: Wed Jan 07, 2026 10:29 am You can of course use any value in the 4-in-1 mixer, so you can actually combine two notes if you feel like it. I just set up the Modulation to +/-100%, which gives me 9 positions in the ModMapper -100, -75, -50, -25, 0, 25, 50, 75, 100 where I have one input by itself.
The second mapper is triggered whenever the first mapper has a positive zero crossing. That's why I used negative values in the first Mapper when I did not want to trigger anything, and then one positive one that triggers.
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- u-he
- Topic Starter
- 30188 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
I've uploaded the presets used in the video in the first post. That should make it easy to figure out how things work and allow for experiments.
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- u-he
- Topic Starter
- 30188 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
Hehe, here I thought I was saying “look how uncomplicated it is to do this even without a dedicated arpeggiator”. How many synths are there that can do this with just one voice, apart from modulars that need a lot more work to set up?ffx wrote: Thu Jan 08, 2026 5:02 pm Nice to see such tutorial video from you... However this one seems to me unnecessarily complicated, setting up an arp like structure...?
So, again, we’re not trying to replace an arp. But we’re sure totally happy that Zebra’s concept makes these things possible.
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- KVRian
- 657 posts since 2 May, 2002 from Kalispell, MT
Im rather impressed with myself for figuring out some of that on my own from your video. The patches helped me get the rest of the way. Thanks.Urs wrote: Wed Jan 07, 2026 10:52 am I've uploaded the presets used in the video in the first post. That should make it easy to figure out how things work and allow for experiments.
Im trying to be much more active in learning Z3. I have all your synths and most of my ability of programming them is fairly rudimentary knowledge from my analog synth days and a little bit of stuff picked up from modular. Im excited to step up my game. This really helped understand mappers.
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- u-he
- Topic Starter
- 30188 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
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- KVRist
- 65 posts since 9 Oct, 2015
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- u-he
- Topic Starter
- 30188 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
unbedingt!
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- KVRer
- 27 posts since 30 Nov, 2019
Brilliant video, and a great example of the possibilities for the 4-in-1 + mappers. It's easy to see how a few simple building blocks can have a big effect. I'm looking forward to playing with this idea on all sorts of things (besides just pitch), and of course future demonstrations.
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- KVRAF
- 9546 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
So this acts more like a quartet with 4 solo voices or an orchestra… It doesn't get louder when playing polyphonic. The pitches are distributed to individual sources when needed. Its a bit like the paraphonic modes of old analogs. Could get into very interesting areas when combined with cross modulation of the oscillators…
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- u-he
- Topic Starter
- 30188 posts since 8 Aug, 2002 from Berlin
Indeed, that is the point. Allow for interesting interaction between differently, dynamically tuned oscillators and filters.
(You can also for example have only one oscillator which always plays the lowest note, and control 2-4 filters which follow the other notes you hold)
(You can also for example have only one oscillator which always plays the lowest note, and control 2-4 filters which follow the other notes you hold)
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- KVRist
- 110 posts since 1 Jul, 2019
It's a fantastic lateral thinking take on sequencing and arpeggiation!
I have one probably not so small request. I've been working with microtonal scales in Z3 and it works great, picks up the MTS tunings when I have Surge set as source.
However the scale quantizers in the pitch section assume 12 note scales. At some point, could we get a variable length table (like a modmapper) in the pitch sections to determine which notes in, say, 17 equal we want included and excluded? Would make Zebra much more useful for generative purposes with alternate scales, when driving pitch selection from various modulation sources. The number of notes in the scale and hence the columns in the table should be settable manually - not expecting Zebra to know about Wendy Carlos non octave scales, Bohlen Pierce etc.
I know you guys are trying to get a finalized product out the door rn - just a thought for the future, perhaps.
I have one probably not so small request. I've been working with microtonal scales in Z3 and it works great, picks up the MTS tunings when I have Surge set as source.
However the scale quantizers in the pitch section assume 12 note scales. At some point, could we get a variable length table (like a modmapper) in the pitch sections to determine which notes in, say, 17 equal we want included and excluded? Would make Zebra much more useful for generative purposes with alternate scales, when driving pitch selection from various modulation sources. The number of notes in the scale and hence the columns in the table should be settable manually - not expecting Zebra to know about Wendy Carlos non octave scales, Bohlen Pierce etc.
I know you guys are trying to get a finalized product out the door rn - just a thought for the future, perhaps.