Zebra 3 Public Beta 2 Revision 20552

[NAD]

There's noting wrong with 8 macro knobs. The 4 we have are based on the wishes of two dozen sound designers who do not want to spend a large portion of their time on setup with little returns. 4 seems a good compromise.

I wish sound designers didn't feel compelled to use all the available macros. Speaking just for myself, when a patch has maybe just a modwheel assignment and perhaps one macro that does something really noteworthy (pun?), it makes the process of browsing through presets feel much more fun and creative. When there's a ton of macros I feel like I'm missing something if I don't try them all in various permutations, and browsing presets becomes a bit of a chore. Aside from that, I feel like a preset with fewer macros is making more of a statement, you know? Like it's saying "this is it, check me out!", whereas a million macros feels kinda non-committal.

[jtsterays]

Will they be renamable in the future?

We're considering labels. This would not change their names in drop downs, but it would let people specify what they do.

You talked about how Serum and it's clone (eg Vital) have too much tabbing, but these macros knobs are in a tab, wouldnt it be better if they're always shown like in those synths? (I'm aware that this requires a GUI rework)

I don't know. I use MIDI, and I think many people want them to use automation or expressions. Those things are in the host, I'm not sure we permanently need to put them on the screen.

Speaking of Serum, who needs to permanently have Vel/Key Curves available? Why not tuck something like that away for the one half minute anyone needs to set them up - and use the freed up space for something more frequently useful?

Maybe in the drop down it could be something like this?: Ctrl A (_custom name_)
So I don't have to double guess myself.

I don't have a controller, so let's say I assign a macro knob to an OscFX knob, now I have to constantly tab back and forth to preview my settings, see if the range I set is correct. It's quite annoying.
And yes, that Serum part is quite dumb.

[exmatproton]

well...times have changed quite a bit. If i could freely speak out my wishes for the already awesome Zebra3 i would certainly wish for the following;

(lots more of everything

That would be a disaster... it would completely break the UI.

Hence

4 modfx is nice i was partly joking (partly not though )

[pdxindy]

Yea, what's wrong with just having 8 automatable macros knobs?

The current sources list just fits on my screen. With 4 more Control sources, then I would not see everything at once and scrolling would become necessary.

Another example, the bottom sources bar will get more compressed if more sources are added. It's already packed a bit tight.

My point is, adding stuff has drawbacks. I'd prefer to leave it just at the 4, or maybe 2 more.

[Urs]

Maybe in the drop down it could be something like this?: Ctrl A (_custom name_)

Sure, but we have no quick solution for this. Developers don't like special cases because they tend to become inconsistencies and lead to less maintainable code. So we already have a working and reliable menu generation code, and touching this for Z3 may require us to touch it everywhere...

(I recently built Hive to check out how the improvements to the modulation drop downs have panned out there... quite a few UI glitches ahead... doable, but extra UI work)

[Urs]

Yea, what's wrong with just having 8 automatable macros knobs?

The current sources list just fits on my screen. With 4 more Control sources, then I would not see everything at once and scrolling would become necessary.

Another example, the bottom sources bar will get more compressed if more sources are added. It's already packed a bit tight.

My point is, adding stuff has drawbacks. I'd prefer to leave it just at the 4, or maybe 2 more.

We'd have to amend menus dynamically. 4 by default, add more when all 4 are used up...

[Fannon]

I wish sound designers didn't feel compelled to use all the available macros. Speaking just for myself, when a patch has maybe just a modwheel assignment and perhaps one macro that does something really noteworthy (pun?), it makes the process of browsing through presets feel much more fun and creative. When there's a ton of macros I feel like I'm missing something if I don't try them all in various permutations, and browsing presets becomes a bit of a chore. Aside from that, I feel like a preset with fewer macros is making more of a statement, you know? Like it's saying "this is it, check me out!", whereas a million macros feels kinda non-committal.

This is well put! Yes, I'd be fine with 1-2 macros as well if they are what is really needed. And 4 macros + modwheel should probably be enough for sound designers, so they focus on the important ones.

I wonder how User Macros would work. They should not be assigned in presets out of the box (preset packs), but once I assign something to them, I want to be able to save it along with the patch.

[jtsterays]

Also here's an argument for 8 instead of 4 macro knobs: The reason sound designers like 4 more because they want to pack more into each knob, to make them really stand out/impressive when you turn them. But to be honest, when you're actually making music, most of these "show off" presets (I dont intent to be mean, coudnt find another word) are often unusable, because they're too impressive and distinct. Also makes sense for preset surfers, they cant program and 4 knobs already look intimidating (some arent even aware of them).

But if you design your own sound, ime some of the best patches are ones that are built around the song, where you have a bunch of automations for various parameters that change overtime throughout the track, instead of letting the modulations do all the work, think virtual instruments libraries like strings where you have CCs for dynamics, expression, vibrato, attack types, release time, legato types/speed, etc... Each knobs have simple assignment, but when all are automated, it's way more expressive than 1 single macro knob.

That's why I think 8 is better, sometimes I just want knob 1 to be cutoff, maybe 2 is decay time, so at softer section it's a pluck but at bigger section it's a sustained sound and so on.
"Well just automate them" - the problem is not all DAWs have non destructive automation like Z3 CLAP + bitwig in the future. So finetuning these automated knobs would be really tedious.

[pdxindy]

That's why I think 8 is better, sometimes I just want knob 1 to be cutoff, maybe 2 is decay time, so at softer section it's a pluck but at bigger section it's a sustained sound and so on.
"Well just automate them" - the problem is not all DAWs have non destructive automation like Z3 CLAP + bitwig in the future. So finetuning these automated knobs would be really tedious.

I can't disagree with you because I mainly use the included Z3 Macros for live playing.

For automation (like you describe) I use Bitwig Macros which are more convenient and more capable than the built in ones... plus I can adjust them without even having to open the plugin GUI.

So yeah, I'd probably want 8 too in your case.

[jtsterays]

That's why I think 8 is better, sometimes I just want knob 1 to be cutoff, maybe 2 is decay time, so at softer section it's a pluck but at bigger section it's a sustained sound and so on.
"Well just automate them" - the problem is not all DAWs have non destructive automation like Z3 CLAP + bitwig in the future. So finetuning these automated knobs would be really tedious.

I can't disagree with you because I mainly use the included Z3 Macros for live playing.

For automation (like you describe) I use Bitwig Macros which are more convenient and more capable than the built in ones... plus I can adjust them without even having to open the plugin GUI.

So yeah, I'd probably want 8 too in your case.

Yea, it sounds wonderful with Bitwig. But with FL, without a controller and my style of patch design, man it's a struggle. Those 8 automatable knobs would be a huge time saver.

[JoeLowery215]

Screenshot 2026-01-24 at 1.07.44 PM.png

Screenshot 2026-01-24 at 1.06.09 PM.png

I've ran into a potential issue...For the life of me, I can't figure out how to decouple these end points. While the Saw and triangle shapes are uncoupled.

[johnnyberrygoode]

The voices get stuck periodically. This happens if you change the controls of the synthesizer during playback. This also happens while playing on a midi keyboard. It happens quite a lot and there are many ways to reproduce this problem. This issue was also present in the previous beta version. Windows 10, Studio One 6.6.4, VST 3.

[Rnaroth]

Urs, what happened to Vintage and Vintage2 filter types? What is the closest to these in zebra3?

Ladder for sure.

Will Zebra 3 have Vintage filter types at some point (fingers crossed)?

[Rnaroth]

Urs, what happened to Vintage and Vintage2 filter types? What is the closest to these in zebra3?

Ladder for sure.

Will Zebra 3 have Z2 like Vintage filter types at some point (fingers crossed)?

(sorry about the double post.. blame it on posting from phone..)

[Urs]

In my view, the Ladder one in Z3 is more accurately vintage than the Vintage ones in Z2.