Zebra 3 - Analogue Beauty

[Urs]

Hi all,

a new video drop from our headquarters:



We're looking at (and listening to) a vintage analogue hardware synth, which is exemplary for a select few properties that contribute to, well, analogue beauty. And then we show how to easily achieve similar effects in Zebra 3.

Main ingredients in this example:

- detune voices using the "Uncalibrate" option on the Pitches page
- stretch envelopes individually for each voice using Mappers
- add not too much, not too little distortion post VCAs

Here's the final patch (the first patches are super simple, hence not included):

05 All Of It.zip

Enjoy,

- Urs

[ffx]

Again nice to see a video made by you, sharing knowledge how to use Zebra 3... On the other hand I already am able to tie my shoes, maybe the level could be far more advanced? This is a level above "1st step - how to breathe"

[zvenx]

Cause maybe the video wasn't geared towards you and like they have said countless times, there will be videos (of a more advanced level) once zebra3 is out.
rsp

[Urs]

Yeah... more advanced stuff once we have a final UI where it's more important that things look exactly like they should.

[SLiC]

I really enjoyed the video- keep them coming!

[pdxindy]

Again nice to see a video made by you, sharing knowledge how to use Zebra 3... On the other hand I already am able to tie my shoes, maybe the level could be far more advanced? This is a level above "1st step - how to breathe"

For every person like you (who knows this 'basic' stuff), there are a dozen who don't.

[jtsterays]

Hmm, couldnt I just use Random instead of the mappers? It would be cleaner, or am I missing something here?

[Urs]

Hmm, couldnt I just use Random instead of the mappers? It would be cleaner, or am I missing something here?

Yes and no. Repeating patterns by the number of voices is a thing, too. Like, we have a Memorymoog and a Synthex each that has one voice off a bit. You get used to these patterns then. True randomness also gets you periods of "too close" and periods of "too far". Mappers are controlled - set up once and forget.

[jtsterays]

Gotcha, that makes sense.

[Grizzellda]

Cool vid Urs, will be looking forward to more.

[Instatetragrammaton]

I love these little vignettes! They're always a delight to watch.

For some reason I was expecting this to require per-voice distortion somehow, but of course this is more of a voice gain-staging thing. Always easier on monosynths than on polysynths

[stippenstoh]

That's exactly the kind of videos I love to see, thanks. Also, sounds so good!

[pdxindy]

I love these little vignettes! They're always a delight to watch.

For some reason I was expecting this to require per-voice distortion somehow, but of course this is more of a voice gain-staging thing. Always easier on monosynths than on polysynths

The filter has per voice distortion... (plus of course there is a distortion module in the main grid as well)

[ffx]

Again nice to see a video made by you, sharing knowledge how to use Zebra 3... On the other hand I already am able to tie my shoes, maybe the level could be far more advanced? This is a level above "1st step - how to breathe"

For every person like you (who knows this 'basic' stuff), there are a dozen who don't.

I don't think so, this is a common misunderstanding. If someone does not intuitively realize what's different in the sound of an analogue synth, the person might simply lacking of auditive skills. I don't think the world needs more videos describing obvious things, or things that a 10 year old already can understand. The internet is filled with that, the main reason is money here. Youtube is flooded with very low content quality videos, and then expanded to the maximum, so sponsors can interupt it.

On the other hand, what's the internet lacking of is really high quality content, dense and depth knowledge packed into a video. So real learning stuff, just as you were used it in school or while studies, too. You don't need to target also grandma and a stonecutter as your audience...

[Urs]

Hehehe, so this video format is quite obviously a crossover thing between marketing and education. It is called "Zebra 3 and what you can do with it" for a reason.

The things and features we address are however directly informed by the things people ask a lot, or where we think Zebra needs a little extra explanation. The Pitches page is prominent, as are the Mappers, and we casually answer frequently asked questions here (e.g. about arpeggiators, filters). We also hope to show why we think that "4 of each" is enough for some of the modules often mentioned.

Another aspect is "how much time do we put into this while we do not have a final product". So this format is nice and easy for me, we prepare an idea, we don't need much of a script, preset design does not take too much time, the shoot takes only a few hours, and our video guy can take it form there, putting it together in two to three days.

Once the UI is finished, we can go deeper. Those will be videos that I am probably not so much involved with. We'll probably continue the current format as it's got a lot more traction than our common tutorial videos.