Zebra 3 Public Beta 2 Revision 20552

[Gottrahmen]

Hiya, just a quick bit of feedback on the modulation visualizer dots: for the envelope sliders, I find the placement of these dots kind of awkward and hard to read, it's hard to see at a glance if they belong to the slider to their left or to their right and they look like they're not supposed to be there. I think it might make more sense to put them above or underneath the sliders. Currently there's not a huge amount of room for that but it might be able to work if the dots were smaller. Something to workshop a bit more imo!

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mockup.jpg

[Urs]

The placement and visual design of these dots is likely to change. For this beta I simply had to work with what I got, and now the design team can absorb the new options and develop a language for them.

[stippenstoh]

- I don't get any readings on the Data Display when using the modwheel. I can't remember if that's how it was in the first beta but some sort of reading would be good.

- I can assign the MW to the modulation selector of the filter...but I can't dial the range in. I'm using a Macbook trackpad, as soon as I push or pull, the "yellow" selection is gone and the two small arrows go back to dialing in the filter cutoff itself (see image).

- I love the target finder choices!!

Screenshot 2026-01-21 at 14.30.34.png

[charlee8t]

Something very weird happening with presets/Zebra's audio engine on my system:

Thanks, I can confirm. They suddenly stay silent over here too.
We'll look into it.
Could be the TextureVerb module.

For the "Ice Stranding" preset, it seems to be the TxVb module? Disabling it at least brings the sound back. But that is not true for "Ice Worlds". Not sure if this is of any help, though

[Urs]

- I can assign the MW to the modulation selector of the filter...but I can't dial the range in.

The modulation of modulation depths is something we still need to think about. This currently only works in the ModMatrix view, both for ModMatrix targets as well as direct modulations.

[bonch]

I appreciate the minimalist dot but when modulation is this deep, I was hoping for something closer to a light show.
The UI feels like the neighbor politely asking it to keep the noise down. Like a Zen reminder that modulation exists somewhere.

Give us blink blink all over the place. If an LFO moves, the knob should panic a little! Eye candy feedback, something impossible to ignore

I don't know what useful purpose that would serve. I admit I find the endless fixation on visualizing modulations difficult to understand.

[ThoughtExperiment]

...
Give us blink blink all over the place. If an LFO moves, the knob should panic a little! Eye candy feedback, something impossible to ignore

Nonononononononononono

[PieBerger]

...
Give us blink blink all over the place. If an LFO moves, the knob should panic a little! Eye candy feedback, something impossible to ignore

Nonononononononononono

I like that my Eurorack system lights up like a malfunction spaceship console, but when it comes to soft synths, I want things tame and polite visually. I guess it's that plugins are already so visually demanding, flashy stuff just pushes it over the edge. I like how my modular smells though, so maybe I'm just a wrongun

[stippenstoh]

The modulation of modulation depths is something we still need to think about. This currently only works in the ModMatrix view, both for ModMatrix targets as well as direct modulations.

Got it, thx.

[rmbles]

No further presets yet? Or will they follow a different release cadence? (I know, I'm demanding...)

[magickalmutagen]

Nice work on the new beta, especially on some of the small but effective visual improvements which lead to more intuitive UX -- UX being my main concern as I haven't had any doubts about the audio quality in Z3 or any of your other products.

Some things I've noticed regarding the new modulation graphics:

1. If the cursor hovers over the modulation dot in the centre of a knob, the readout at the top of the synth should probably show the source's name and its modulated amount. You can right-click the knob to see a list of sources and their amounts for this info, or visually hunt around the UI to locate the currently active crosshair symbol on a mod source to at least know where it's coming from, but nothing would beat the readout simply presenting this info upfront.
2. Sometimes a modulation amount ring on a knob is rendered primary green rather than the lime green that it is normally and I'm not sure why (possibly a bug).
3. When a modulation amount is under 10, no modulation ring graphic is shown. Depending on the source, sometimes even tiny modulation amounts can be enough to cause a desired effect, so the ring should likely render for amounts smaller than 10 too (not necessarily arguing for the ring to be any visually thinner than it is, but to at least be present when any modulation is set). Because of this, for amounts under 10, you cannot immediately tell if the modulation is positive or negative.
4. Continuing about the modulation ring: If a knob's base value is at its max (e.g. positive), and then a modulation amount goes beyond that max, no ring is shown, even if the value is above 10. Yes, the knob is at its max already, but a positive modulation isn't indicated at all in this state (e.g. to easily know a bipolar LFO is doing something). A sliver of a ring could be rendered on the other side of the grey minimum and maximum markers which graphically represent the range of the knob / \. If modulation is beyond the positive max, then: / \\ (the bold being the ring).
5. When hovering over a modulation source, a box now highlights the control(s) its affecting, which is good. However, the modulation amount should probably also be revealed on hover too. Currently you must click the source (i.e. the crosshair) for the modulation ring amounts to jump to their actual positions (expected), but it would be nice to see those amounts without needing to actually click the source.
6. Clicking on, for example, an MSEG tab activates the tab. Clicking on its modulation crosshair also activates the tab (and highlights any knobs which have been modulated by the MSEG). But clicking and dragging from a mod crosshair to assign it to somewhere doesn't activate the tab (only highlights any modulated knobs), which I think in most cases it should as you'd want to see the MSEG for context when pressing notes to hear, see, and adjust its effect, which is usually immediately after.
7. Tangent: In line with the apparent inconsistency in UX above, I'm still hoping you will visually sync more of the UI together, e.g., as mentioned before, clicking or adjusting the Osc 1 module should select the Osc 1 tab at the bottom, and also its grid cell (also highlight the Osc 1 module border). In some cases the tab activating may not be desired, but what I suggest seems reasonable to be the default as far as I can tell. For other cases a different solution would need to be found, e.g. a tab pinning system if you don't want tabs to be activated automatically.
8. The modulation dot / mode for a knob is likely meant to remain continuously active (lime green) until a different modulation source / crosshair is picked / clicked, so the fact that it can get deactivated by clicking certain parts of the UI is potentially a bug: Try clicking the background of where the knobs at the bottom of the grid are (near Volume), or selecting an item from a drop-down list, e.g. Osc 1's Pitch Source to "Pitch 2": any lime green mod dots will become greyed out.
9. Tangent: As stated in the previous beta's topic, I still believe the bullseye design of the modulation "knob" being embedded within the main knob isn't ideal ergonomically, but it could be worse. Anything which could lead to misclicks is always bothersome to me. If you're committed to this design, then why not allow us to adjust the modulation of knobs with currently greyed-out centre dots, i.e. without needing to first activate a modulation dot from a knob's context menu, or by clicking a source crosshair? In that case, all dots from that particular modulation would light up and the others automatically grey out. I believe this would only further highlight why having non-embedded knobs / mouse targets to separately control base and modulated values would be better.
10. Tangent: Probably mentioned by someone before, but the mouse sensitivity of the ADSR sliders is much too high compared to the knobs. Disabling "Hide Mouse on Drag" doesn't fix it either.

Thanks.

Win x64 CLAP Rev 20549

[ThoughtExperiment]

Something very weird happening with presets/Zebra's audio engine on my system:

Thanks, I can confirm. They suddenly stay silent over here too.
We'll look into it.
Could be the TextureVerb module.

I can confirm it's happening here with the VST3 version, also in Reaper. I turned the master fader down by 18dB and switching to 'Ice Worlds' boosts the volume up to about -12dB, even though there's no sound if I(carefully) edge up the master fader. I had a quick look at SPAN and whatever it's doing it's below 20Hz or above 20kHz...

If I deactivate TextureVerb the volume boost goes away - actually if you reduce the 'amount' or wet/dry mix it also reduces the 'boost' - so it does look like the culprit somehow - even though most of the settings are less extreme than those on e.g. 'Ice Stranding'.

Hope that helps (in some small way) you to track it down.

[jtsterays]

The placement and visual design of these dots is likely to change. For this beta I simply had to work with what I got, and now the design team can absorb the new options and develop a language for them.

Would be cool if it lights up the actual sliders, or too much?

[Urs]

[*]Tangent: In line with the apparent inconsistency in UX above, I'm still hoping you will visually sync more of the UI together, e.g., as mentioned before, clicking or adjusting the Osc 1 module should select the Osc 1 tab at the bottom, and also its grid cell (also highlight the Osc 1 module border). In some cases the tab activating may not be desired, but what I suggest seems reasonable to be the default as far as I can tell. For other cases a different solution would need to be found, e.g. a tab pinning system if you don't want tabs to be activated automatically.

Thank you for these thoughts, I think some of those things are underway, others may need some further discussion. We have several designs and concepts on dealing with modulation depths that are "cut off" visually. IDK where we'll settle and when.

Regarding selecting things quicker, like select the Osc if one clicks in the Osc's background or its respective tab etc., I'm not a big fan. The highlighting of modules in the Grid serves multiple functions in the Grid and Racks, and inadvertently selecting modules can interfere with Groups.

We do have ideas for adding the option to focus or select modules from other places, e.g. to bring hidden modulation targets into view. But that's something we won't have time to experiment with right now.

As of parameter value readouts, I have thought about temporarily showing multiple values, but then again, I'm not happy about hiding the surrounding controls. If anything, I'd like to experiment with an option to undock the parameter feedback from the value display in favour of a hovering overlay close to the control or mouse cursor.

[tasmaniandevil]

Something very weird happening with presets/Zebra's audio engine on my system:

And fixed.
Updated the download links, new revision 20552 fixes an issue with the Modal Resonator and the TextureVerb modules, resulting in silent presets.
Mac and Win builds only for now.
New Linux build will follow asap.
Linux build updated as well.