Zebra 3 Public Beta 2 Revision 20552

[Ficciones]

A quad core processor will be part of the minimum requirement though, not just 4 logical cores on 2 physical cores.

Hm, I'm doing fine on a 2015 Macbook pro with 2 physical 4 logical. Yes yes I need to upgrade, but finances yknow. Anyhow it mostly runs great, only a few patches in the beta drop out with polyphony. Hope 4 physical will not be a hard requirement to install the final product.

[BBFG#]

It depends on the preset.

So, it is easy to create a preset that no current computer can play. Therefore we have to find a different metric to determine minimum system requirements.

To do this reasonably, we will optimise the final set of presets so that they play well on a reasonably current computer, say, maybe a Macbook Pro from 2022 or a Windows computer with a 3 year old quad core processor. If a few presets are too expensive, that's probably okay, too, but in general we'll make sure that by far most presets will play on a fairly average machine.

A quad core processor will be part of the minimum requirement though, not just 4 logical cores on 2 physical cores.

So far I've only had a couple presets crackle and only if I played too many notes holding over to the next.
That system is a four core Xeon but at the very least older than three years.
Been relatively amazed at Z3's efficiency.


(And I actually have more problems with AAS Chromaphone 3.)

[ThoughtExperiment]

Ryzen 6 core here, and Z3 is very well behaved, particularly since v20552. Yet still, my pc also struggles with Chromaphone3 In fact, one of the many things about Z3 I was excited about was the physical modelling. I need some more Urs tutorials on it (I'm a slow learner), but I can see already Zebra 3 is a Chromaphone-slayer

[Sampleconstruct]

This is odd: I am editing a sequencer patch with several lanes/elements, while the sequence is running I switch one of the lanes to a different output - e.g. bus 1 - to try the effect inserted on that bus, but only when I re-trigger the sequence with a Midi note that change becomes effective so I can't switch outputs on the fly while the sequence is still running. Is there a technical reason for that behavior?

[Urs]

This is odd: I am editing a sequencer patch with several lanes/elements, while the sequence is running I switch one of the lanes to a different output - e.g. bus 1 - to try the effect inserted on that bus, but only when I re-trigger the sequence with a Midi note that change becomes effective so I can't switch outputs on the fly while the sequence is still running. Is there a technical reason for that behavior?

That's a bug currently being looked at.

[DrWashington]

With all this talk of physical modeling, I'm reminded of my Korg Z1 and how much I loved that Digital Dulcimer patch... I wonder if Z3 is capable of replicating it perfectly. I sold it a few years back and have found myself missing some of what it could do. But that one patch! Gorgeous. That kind of richness is rare.

[Matty686]

I am still awaiting release velocity I have experimented with lots of stuff and still think it would be cool If you good make it work well I was floundering around a lot about weather or not to use it but I think if implemented right it would be really Awesome an I have been playing with zebra 3 msgs and I think they could handle it.

[Urs]

We have growing list of things we want to add down the road.

[pdxindy]

I need some more Urs tutorials on it (I'm a slow learner), but I can see already Zebra 3 is a Chromaphone-slayer

It is for me... Chromaphone is easier for someone inexperienced, but it also has a particular tonal character and various limitations whereas Z3 is far more sonically diverse and flexible. Z3 is also, ultimately, a higher sound quality too.

[pdxindy]

I am still awaiting release velocity I have experimented with lots of stuff and still think it would be cool If you good make it work well I was floundering around a lot about weather or not to use it but I think if implemented right it would be really Awesome an I have been playing with zebra 3 msgs and I think they could handle it.

Yeah... Release Velocity works in Bitwig with the CLAP version of Z3. That along with Z3's Envelopes that can trigger on Release is a useful combination.

Hopefully Z3 gets internal RV support in the future.

[JoeLowery215]

Urs apologies if this was asked but I dont see an option to save MSEG shapes or Oscilators

I’ve been messing around and got a really good Simmons snare sound but it would suck to have to draw in the curves every patch.

I used to make really cool C64-like sounds using fast MSEG shapes in Z2 but that’s because I could save the shapes


Hopefully they’ll be a save feature..right?! Right?!

[Instatetragrammaton]

The oscillator/oscillator FX section alone reminds me of when I had to cram for a test where I really understood nothing of the source material, so that's an ongoing topic of study for me; there are a ton of possibilities and since this is my first Zebra I've got my work cut out for me

I am however eager to dive in and I'm trying to find out how much I can find out by brute force without cracking open the manual because I'm of course very stubborn - synthesizers should just submit to my wishes

When I used the previous build, I looked up in the manual on how to add new waveforms. In the easy editor, the right-click menu would only show "Distribute Evenly" and "Reverse order" and nothing else.

In case the screenshots are not visible: imgur (dot) com/a/z2am6U6 has them all.



I was initially pretty frustrated but I figured that this was a small oversight that would probably be fixed in the next beta.

Now, it shows the Add Curve menus, but as the position reveals, I've had to move my mouse a bit:



But it also still shows "Distribute evenly" and "Reverse order".

This confused me.

With the deep oscillator editor, this "click on exactly the right spot" is even more pronounced, and now we have three variations:







and it's not clear at all that you have to move your mouse a tiny bit to see the other kind of menu.

Keeping Fitt's Law in mind, I would humbly propose to show the same context menu regardless of where you click as long as it's somewhere near the timeline, because there's no indicator that you have to click exactly on the dotted line (no color changes or anything!).

I'm running Zebra at a comfortable size of 130% on a 4K monitor, and there the "click exactly on the dotted line" is already small as it is; smaller's probably worse.

[Instatetragrammaton]

Hm, and I think the warning about "you need 5 posts" will disappear if I add this one. Let's hope so

In case it matters: MacOS Tahoe (26.2), Ableton Live Suite 12, Zebra build 20552, VST3 version.

[pdxindy]

Urs apologies if this was asked but I dont see an option to save MSEG shapes or Oscilators

I’ve been messing around and got a really good Simmons snare sound but it would suck to have to draw in the curves every patch.

I used to make really cool C64-like sounds using fast MSEG shapes in Z2 but that’s because I could save the shapes


Hopefully they’ll be a save feature..right?! Right?!

The save option is already there. One the left side in the bottom pane (For Osc's and MSEG's) next to the name is a down arrow... click that

[chlorinemist]

Can someone explain to me where the wavetables are? Normally a wavetable oscillator has a library of wavetables but I seem unable to find this. Even reading the manual didn't help. Is it not there?