Zebra 3 Public Beta 3 Revision 20977

[atticmike]

Any idea when a release is targeted?

We're working like mad on the new UI to make it look "less dated"

We hope to have a release candidate by next week, then release two weeks later.

That's awesome Can't wait. Thanks so much Urs for all the hard work and dedication.

I hope you're not gonna do a DLSS5 on the GUI and rather just polish it up a little bit 🫢

DLSS5-ON-OFF-HOGWARTS-HERO-1200x624 (1).jpg

[loctune]

I have been digging into Zebra 3 for a few days. It’s pretty deep and I’ve already seen quite a few possibilities to do very complex sound design.

However I have been scratching my head that I can’t figured out a way to do a relatively basic task in Zebra. I am trying to recreate the famous 3-1 FM commonly found on minimoog or voyager, essentially a osc3 to osc1 FM. In Serum this is like click waveform 1, click waveform 2, FM A to B and done. But I can’t find a way to do anything similar in Zebra. Seems lime everything FM would have to use FMO, which does pure sine tones only.

Could someone educate me about the correct way to do this basic osc to osc FM in Zebra 3?

[benmason]

Is it possible to do auto panning with an LFO without bidirectional modulation? Also some modulation parameters don't go past +100 > -100 eg. pan, volume, dry in different modules.

[HAJIME KOURIKI]

This is how you do it.

[Urs]

I have been digging into Zebra 3 for a few days. It’s pretty deep and I’ve already seen quite a few possibilities to do very complex sound design.

However I have been scratching my head that I can’t figured out a way to do a relatively basic task in Zebra. I am trying to recreate the famous 3-1 FM commonly found on minimoog or voyager, essentially a osc3 to osc1 FM. In Serum this is like click waveform 1, click waveform 2, FM A to B and done. But I can’t find a way to do anything similar in Zebra. Seems lime everything FM would have to use FMO, which does pure sine tones only.

Could someone educate me about the correct way to do this basic osc to osc FM in Zebra 3?

Yes, this is a thing Zebra's main oscillators never did and still do not do. It is a relatively frequent feature request though, so we have plans to evaluate a 3rd rendering mode which, if viable/possible offers FM and maybe Sync even.

It is the reason we have dedicated FM Oscillators, and with Through Zero FM ("TZFM") on the input selector one can do analogue-like FM, while the Feedback Modes ("DX" and "DX^2") at least make basic Sawtooth and Square waveforms possible. (which reminds me, we might have forgotten to FM both modulator and carrier from the input... this might be rather interesting as well...)

[HAJIME KOURIKI]

With the current Osc-to-FMO and FMO-to-FMO routing, it’s already incredibly easy to create complex and great-sounding tones.

[HAJIME KOURIKI]

I must have been sleep-deprived; I wrote something weird.

Oops, I got it all wrong. My mistake...

[loctune]

I have been digging into Zebra 3 for a few days. It’s pretty deep and I’ve already seen quite a few possibilities to do very complex sound design.

However I have been scratching my head that I can’t figured out a way to do a relatively basic task in Zebra. I am trying to recreate the famous 3-1 FM commonly found on minimoog or voyager, essentially a osc3 to osc1 FM. In Serum this is like click waveform 1, click waveform 2, FM A to B and done. But I can’t find a way to do anything similar in Zebra. Seems lime everything FM would have to use FMO, which does pure sine tones only.

Could someone educate me about the correct way to do this basic osc to osc FM in Zebra 3?

Yes, this is a thing Zebra's main oscillators never did and still do not do. It is a relatively frequent feature request though, so we have plans to evaluate a 3rd rendering mode which, if viable/possible offers FM and maybe Sync even.

It is the reason we have dedicated FM Oscillators, and with Through Zero FM ("TZFM") on the input selector one can do analogue-like FM, while the Feedback Modes ("DX" and "DX^2") at least make basic Sawtooth and Square waveforms possible. (which reminds me, we might have forgotten to FM both modulator and carrier from the input... this might be rather interesting as well...)

Bummer. Should have thought of that earlier. You still saved the rest of my day though.

I'd vote for this FM and sync option. IMO osc to osc FM has more or less become a standard osc feature for modern soft synths released in the past 10 years, and Zebra 3 and sound developers could benefit from this extra flexibility.

[loctune]

With the current Osc-to-FMO and FMO-to-FMO routing, it’s already incredibly easy to create complex and great-sounding tones.

I agree it's easy (although somewhat convoluted in workflow) to create complex tones. But osc to osc FM definitely adds more flexibility and I don't see a downside having it in Zebra. So I don't quite get your point here.

I think most of the big name software synths do it anyway and users do use this feature when available. Serum, Phase Plant and Avenger come to mind...

[Urs]

Well, we had to start somewhere. Most of these synths have 3 or 4 oscillator types, a few filters, a decent range of modulators and a decent range of effects. With the exception of Phase Plant (which grew over the years), Zebra 3 has a lot more different module types and algorithms than the ones named frequently (not necessarily the same, as Zebra doesn't do sample playback). Like Phase Plant, and like Zebra 2 before, we expect Zebra 3 to grow over the years.

That said, we had originally planned to include way fewer module types at the start, e.g. it wasn't at all clear if we'd have FMOs, EQs or RingMods. So I'm quite happy that the team was able to pull it off, and I'm sure they'll do more in the future.

[Lbdunequest]

Any idea when a release is targeted?

We're working like mad on the new UI to make it look "less dated"

We hope to have a release candidate by next week, then release two weeks later.

That's awesome Can't wait. Thanks so much Urs for all the hard work and dedication.

I hope you're not gonna do a DLSS5 on the GUI and rather just polish it up a little bit 🫢

DLSS5-ON-OFF-HOGWARTS-HERO-1200x624 (1).jpg

This picture actually shows that DLSS5 makes it look better

[Urs]

Well, we're definitely increasing contrast, as that was one of the main criticisms of the beta UI. People couldn't properly read the labels.

A lot of focus is on the modulation system and colour coding of modulators, but also on layout consistency. The original concept was about creating individualism in modules by giving them individual layouts. This led to inconsistency. The new layout is consistent, but we're currently struggling to add a dimension to the modules that makes them easily distinguishable. Too much colour interferes with the colour coded modulations, too little colour looks like a flat panel with some bright dots sprinkled across.

We're discussing 30 variants of the design, investigating what's most readable and yet appealing.

Anyhow, we're also using some shader-type algorithms I had implemented 12 or so years ago and then forgotten about. This should help to "uncheap" the vector look with a subtle solidity and soft shadows. It also lets us render the module backgrounds into bitmaps, which speeds up drawing on Windows.

All colour and contrast will be fully controlled using our built-in colour editor, so we should be able to create variations and skins for various needs right inside the working UI (little to no roundtrips between UI and external software like Figma or Photoshop).

We're anxiously waiting for all module layouts to be finalised so we can start implementing variants. We hope to have at least one fully functional one by next week, and more can always be added through the theming system.

[krans]

30 variants?
Sure you don't want to put them out here and let us vote?

[The Sound Of Merlin]

30 variants?
Sure you don't want to put them out here and let us vote?

Oh please don't. That would be like going to the baby store and picking one randomly that you are going to love the rest of your life. I'd go home with 30 babies

[Urs]

They are very similar, just different shaded of brightness or contrast, or patterns or colour schemes.