Zebra 3 Public Beta 2 Revision 20552

[Urs]

Is the Voice Index modulator supposed to be tied to the number of Voices selected in the Perform tab?

Currently, it's always 16, even when I reduce the number of voices.

No, we just use it for debugging atm.

We'll drop it in the final version.

[jasperdunn]

Possible minor UI bug -> the scope freezes when a dropdown menu is opened.

[jasperdunn]

Is the Voice Index modulator supposed to be tied to the number of Voices selected in the Perform tab?

Currently, it's always 16, even when I reduce the number of voices.

No, we just use it for debugging atm.

We'll drop it in the final version.

Fair enough, we can easily use a mapper for that sort of thing anyway, much more powerful

[wilx]

As per the 'balls in orbit' stuff:


I know there was some mention of 'but if the modulation is complex, the movement will be chaotic' - but that isn't a negative. As people have said above, just being able to see slow modulation, or fast modulation, or chaotic modulation, or tempo synced modulation is enough to be an enormous help when working with big projects and needing to zero in on things quickly.

Screenshot 2026-01-22 at 11.49.46.png

See animation below:

http://wilx.co.uk/synth_modulation_animation

[jtsterays]

As per the 'balls in orbit' stuff:


I know there was some mention of 'but if the modulation is complex, the movement will be chaotic' - but that isn't a negative. As people have said above, just being able to see slow modulation, or fast modulation, or chaotic modulation, or tempo synced modulation is enough to be an enormous help when working with big projects and needing to zero in on things quickly.
Screenshot 2026-01-22 at 11.49.46.png

See animation below:

http://wilx.co.uk/synth_modulation_animation

It's the fastest way to tell which is modulating what.

[pdxindy]

As it happens, this morning I've found my own way around this - if I swap 'Pressure' for 'Hold Pedal', which is in the list and has a CC number (64), and map one of my sliders to CC64, I get all 7 modulation paths: mod wheel, pitch bend, A, B, C, D and CC64 in lieu of aftertouch. So we're all good

Glad you found a solution.

I'm still curious what list you are talking about?

[rmbles]

Just to say that the '808 designer' preset still crashes Reaper on Linux as soon as you play a note. Other presets are fine. This was the same in the first beta too.

Which Linux distribution are you using? I cannot reproduce this on Ubuntu Studio.
Which sample rate and buffer size is Reaper running at?
And are you using the CLAP or the VST3 version? Is it revision 20552?

It's on Arch, Reaper 7.58, VST3i, latest 20552 version. Can/shall we take this offline and I can get you the rest of the details?

Edit: I've just re-tested with the CLAP version and that works...

[psychedelicspaniel]

As per the 'balls in orbit' stuff:


I know there was some mention of 'but if the modulation is complex, the movement will be chaotic' - but that isn't a negative. As people have said above, just being able to see slow modulation, or fast modulation, or chaotic modulation, or tempo synced modulation is enough to be an enormous help when working with big projects and needing to zero in on things quickly.
Screenshot 2026-01-22 at 11.49.46.png

See animation below:

http://wilx.co.uk/synth_modulation_animation

It's the fastest way to tell which is modulating what.

+100
It's a subtle method of visualising modulation and realtime visual feedback makes creating easier & quicker. For those who would prefer to rely solely on their ears or for possible performance reasons, include an option to enable/disable the animation.

[ThoughtExperiment]

As it happens, this morning I've found my own way around this - if I swap 'Pressure' for 'Hold Pedal', which is in the list and has a CC number (64), and map one of my sliders to CC64, I get all 7 modulation paths: mod wheel, pitch bend, A, B, C, D and CC64 in lieu of aftertouch. So we're all good

Glad you found a solution.

I'm still curious what list you are talking about?

Well it's not ideal, since I have to make sure CC#64 is below 64 at the end of a clip otherwise the note/chord sustains forever But at least now I can hear what AT modulation is meant to sound like on a given preset, by wiggling a knob on my ancient nanoKontrol.

The list I'm referring to is what you see if you click the 'source' label in the mod matrix (screenshot attached)

Screenshot the_list.png

BTW, I checked Reaper and I can't find any way to map any CC to channel pressure - I guess because AT isn't a continuous controller - it's easy enough to map one CC to another CC, but not aftertouch. I've posted a question on the Reaper forum just in case, but I probably already went through all this years ago. If I ran out of mod sources like this in Zebra2 my workaround was to use the XY pads instead, but it was the only time I used them...

[SamDi]

I don't understand, what the LFO free trigger option really does. Shouldn't a LFO with free trigger setting then not reset or change the phase, but running as a continuous curve?

Here there are sometimes phase shifts, when playing a new note. Global is set to legato.

[pdxindy]

BTW, I checked Reaper and I can't find any way to map any CC to channel pressure - I guess because AT isn't a continuous controller - it's easy enough to map one CC to another CC, but not aftertouch. I've posted a question on the Reaper forum just in case, but I probably already went through all this years ago. If I ran out of mod sources like this in Zebra2 my workaround was to use the XY pads instead, but it was the only time I used them...

AT is a continuous controller.

There are free plugins that can convert CC's to AT.
PizMIDI can do this (midiConverter3)
PlugInGuru ModMate also can do this.

There are also JSFX Scripts for REAPER out there that users share. I don't use Reaper (since many years). It's easy to convert in Bitwig so I don't use those plugins, but they should still work in Reaper.

[gauderbock]

This is a hack but it works. Save this as a text file in the Reaper effects folder, changing the 'CCno = 16' part to the CC number you want to convert to AT

Code: Select all

desc:CC#ToChannelPressure

@init
CCno = 16; // change me to change the CC#

@block
while (midirecv(offset,msg1,msg2,msg3)) (
  (msg1 & 0xF0) == 0xB0 && msg2 == CCno ? (
    msg1 = 0xD0 + (msg1 & 0xF);
    midisend(offset,msg1,msg3);
  ) : (
    midisend(offset, msg1, msg2, msg3);
  );
);

You can then add a JSFX plugin CC#ToChannelPressure as the first plugin in the chain, before Zebra3.

I'm afraid I've no idea where I got this from so can't give proper credit...

[pdxindy]

The list I'm referring to is what you see if you click the 'source' label in the mod matrix (screenshot attached)

Thanks for answering. I was confused since it has been something like 10 years since that list in u-he synths had Breath as an option.

[ThoughtExperiment]

The list I'm referring to is what you see if you click the 'source' label in the mod matrix (screenshot attached)

Thanks for answering. I was confused since it has been something like 10 years since that list in u-he synths had Breath as an option.

No problem. TBH this is driving me more nuts than it really ought to - I've never missed aftertouch but now I'm trying desperately to fake it
I'll get over it, eventually.

[pdxindy]

The list I'm referring to is what you see if you click the 'source' label in the mod matrix (screenshot attached)

Thanks for answering. I was confused since it has been something like 10 years since that list in u-he synths had Breath as an option.

No problem. TBH this is driving me more nuts than it really ought to - I've never missed aftertouch but now I'm trying desperately to fake it
I'll get over it, eventually.

The easy answer of course is to get a midi controller with AT

I also have 2 Expression Pedals I have connected to my midi controller.

I think it would be more flexible if Zebra 3 presets had controllers A, B and C assigned, but left D unassigned so there is a control option open for users... without having to figure out which of A,B,C and D they want to unassigned.