Zebra 3 Public Beta Revision 20399

[audiojunkie]

But.... I thought we could purchase it while it is in beta for a discounted price? I looked all around your site, and didn't find any link anywhere to purchase it.

The link is in the opening post of this thread.

https://checkout.u-he.com/1843/?scope=c ... EORDZEBRA3

Nice! Thanks!

[wheelD]

with rev 552 of zebra some of included sounds are very cpu intensive like a said zebra 3 has potential but i'm not impressed at all when it comes to beta patch content cpu 7900 zen 4
1. please add the glide knob on the front of the keyboard area
2.Please make it so it's possible to delete module by right click and select delete on the module ui
3. please don't hide model selection ,instead of it right click on the model module picture ,and select from the available models menu
4. i don't understand the need to downgrade the default osc mode ,from precise to fast for 0.3 procent performance gain

[Urs]

with rev 552 of zebra some of included sounds are very cpu intensive like a said zebra 3 has potential but i'm not impressed at all when it comes to beta patch content cpu 7900 zen 4

So I think you need to compare the right things. I know several additive synths that render using similar method as Zebra's oscillator. When you set these synths to use 500 or 1000 partials, they may use twice or thrice as much CPU as Zebra for the same kind of sound. But in Zebra you can add more to a patch than just 1 oscillator. So of course this gets busy then, but it is still a lot faster than some actually comparable products.

1. please add the glide knob on the front of the keyboard area

Yeah, been thinking about that, too.

2.Please make it so it's possible to delete module by right click and select delete on the module ui

I hear similar wishes several times. I tried right-clicking an oscillator in Serum to quickly turn it on or off. It does not work. I think it's a highly unusual idea to make the background of a panel interactive only because the panel is associated with module. I think it would be unwise to do this in Zebra's rack, where a module would then disappear, and possibly even disappear from the Grid.

This goes along with the wishes to be able to drag and drop modules into a different order. The rack is one dimensional, the grid is two dimensional. One can't drag anything one dimensional to rearrange it in a two dimensional space.

Likewise, in the modulator's rack this would not work at all. One does not activate or deactivate modulators by switching them on or off, one does this by assigning them to targets or not. We would rather not add multiple ways to achieve the same thing, and in Zebra this is how this works.

That said, we are thinking about implementing a new control to allow module specific interactions (solo, mute, remove, select, group, copy, paste...)

3. please don't hide model selection ,instead of it right click on the model module picture ,and select from the available models menu

Module drop down are planned, not sure how far this has come along.

4. i don't understand the need to downgrade the default osc mode ,from precise to fast for 0.3 procent performance gain

It is less apparent on CPUs with AVX2 or AVX 512. But on CPUs with SSE or Neon, this is can bring an oscillator down from 4% to 1%.

[Grizzellda]

Anybody running Z3 on a somewhat modern Ryzen?

[Touch The Universe]

I’m noticing that the curves can be used as a kind of filter, which made me think of Thorn and its harmonic filter. What’s interesting about Thorn’s approach is that it isn’t a traditional frequency-domain filter, but a harmonic-domain (partial-index) filter, where a drawable curve applies gain directly to harmonic numbers rather than to Hz.

Since Zebra also operates in a harmonic/additive sense under the hood, I’m wondering whether something similar could be implemented there—either as a new module or an extension of the existing oscillator tools. A harmonic-domain filter like this could be very powerful for precise spectral shaping, formant-style effects, and pitch-locked timbral control, without the harmonic drift you get from normal filters.

Is there currently any way to achieve something like this in Zebra, or is it fundamentally outside its architecture? If it helps, I can post a video showing how Thorn’s harmonic filter works in practice.

[Urs]

It is doing this within the oscillator.

[ThoughtExperiment]

Anybody running Z3 on a somewhat modern Ryzen?

Not cutting-edge, but fairly modern I guess (Ryzen 5 4600G) - why do you ask?

[Touch The Universe]

how can we import custom modal partials thing?

[Touch The Universe]

It is doing this within the oscillator.

Can we get those similar sounds from Thorn into. Thorn has a very ubiqutious flavor and Im wondering how to go about doing that. The entire curve pattern needs to be skewed (and automated) i iknow one can skew a pattern in the editor but i don't see a way to do that in the plug. yet.

Also is there an ott compressor I'm missing - def need something like that in zeb3. Current, Serum, Vital have that certain sound otb due to this. I found myslef looking for it here, for sure that I would find it - but nope

[JoeLowery215]

I’m noticing that the curves can be used as a kind of filter, which made me think of Thorn and its harmonic filter. What’s interesting about Thorn’s approach is that it isn’t a traditional frequency-domain filter, but a harmonic-domain (partial-index) filter, where a drawable curve applies gain directly to harmonic numbers rather than to Hz.

Since Zebra also operates in a harmonic/additive sense under the hood, I’m wondering whether something similar could be implemented there—either as a new module or an extension of the existing oscillator tools. A harmonic-domain filter like this could be very powerful for precise spectral shaping, formant-style effects, and pitch-locked timbral control, without the harmonic drift you get from normal filters.

Is there currently any way to achieve something like this in Zebra, or is it fundamentally outside its architecture? If it helps, I can post a video showing how Thorn’s harmonic filter works in practice.

Pretty sure Z3 does this exactly in curve spectrum mode and then you have even more control in additive mode. You can draw in the partials by creating any shape you want

[JoeLowery215]

It is doing this within the oscillator.

Can we get those similar sounds from Thorn into. Thorn has a very ubiqutious flavor and Im wondering how to go about doing that. The entire curve pattern needs to be skewed (and automated) i iknow one can skew a pattern in the editor but i don't see a way to do that in the plug. yet.

Also is there an ott compressor I'm missing - def need something like that in zeb3. Current, Serum, Vital have that certain sound otb due to this. I found myslef looking for it here, for sure that I would find it - but nope

Use those synths then.

I feel like people are missing the point of Beta testing. Urs isn’t going to remake Z3 to sound like another synth. Beta testing is to make his vision of this synth better.

[Touch The Universe]

If Urs feels the same way, I'll go by what he says. He seems to be the cool sort open to new ideas. I've spent all day with the synth so it someone doesn't feel like I'm being ungrateful.

[Urs]

If Urs feels the same way, I'll go by what he says. He seems to be the cool sort open to new ideas. I've spent all day with the synth so it someone doesn't feel like I'm being ungrateful.

From Thorn's user manual:

"The Harmonic Filter takes 128 harmonics from each Oscillator, applies a spectrum curve to them, and converts harmonics into an audio signal."

Zebra 3 does the same, using 1024 harmonics. It's within each oscillator though, so you have 4 of those.

[Touch The Universe]

If Urs feels the same way, I'll go by what he says. He seems to be the cool sort open to new ideas. I've spent all day with the synth so it someone doesn't feel like I'm being ungrateful.

From Thorn's user manual:

"The Harmonic Filter takes 128 harmonics from each Oscillator, applies a spectrum curve to them, and converts harmonics into an audio signal."

Zebra 3 does the same, using 1024 harmonics. It's within each oscillator though, so you have 4 of those.

I looks like it is doing the same, at I wonder if there is a different chain or routing. Please take a look at this video at the time stamp. It has a different results from what I'm getting in Zebra currently and I'm just wondering if there is already a way to get to to sound like this..



Please listen at 8:37

There is a harmonic filter that has a shape or pattern similar to a curve in z3 and can be sweeped as a custom shaped filter but it's more than this, and there is also and a bend that is the same pattern but can be skewed left and rights so the patterns becomes bipolar, all this harmonics in two dimensions, one inside the harmonics themselves as a synth that is also and which acts as a filter on the output of itself in real time. According to my understanidng, might be wrong here. Really cool if this is somehow possible in z3, yet still thorn is no where near as capable as z3 as is.

I just noticed similarity between the two.. hoping to learn if z3 can possibly do this already, or peak your interest if not. The results in the video are steppy, but it is capable of smoother, softer glistening formant harmonic shifting that is out of this world.

[Urs]

Looks nice and easy in the video, but sounds like a large part of the synth is devoted to hundreds of phaser patterns? Is that all it does?