Zebra 3 - Sound design, tips & tricks

[Grizzellda]

My view is, to appreciate Z3 for it's unique technology approach, and also the other synths mentioned, for their uniqueness.

Z3 is a waveform builder, I feel. That is why I am interested in it.

[Igro]

My view is, to appreciate Z3 for it's unique technology approach, and also the other synths mentioned, for their uniqueness.

Z3 is a waveform builder, I feel. That is why I am interested in it.

That doesn't go against having a dedicated wavetable player module, as it doesn't break anything in Z3.

[Grizzellda]

Sure! More options, waveform builder!

Although, come to think of it, could too many options become a liability???

[Urs]

That doesn't go against having a dedicated wavetable player module, as it doesn't break anything in Z3.

I always think, wavetables are only as good as the sources they come from.

Wavetables made from sampled instruments often lack harmonic density as transposing them below the original frequency creates a hole in the upper spectrum. Nice transitions, but less than optimal spectrum.

Wavetables made from drawing by hand are usually only assemblies of individual waveforms (great or not) which can be crossfaded through, with often little sonic spark. Great spectrum, but not so interesting transitions.

The most interesting wavetables that are both crisp and nice to scan through are thus based on either maths (as in Hive) or morphable vectors (as in Zebra 3). I consider these latter methods sonically superior to former (unless you need realism, for which I'd still prefer a (re)sampler).

That said, I am not entirely against adding wavetable support to Zebra 3. In fact, this was part of the original idea. But as we think in decades of product support, not just the initial months, I first want to see what people do with the spline based stuff.

[Igro]

Hi Urs.I agree, many wavetables on many synths do sound unpleasant and very alike. Especially those "noisy" ones without any idea behind them. But still, It would take ages to create even those noisy wavetables in Z3 in its current wavetable engine, because you have to do all that from scratch. So yeah, I'm glad to see that you are open to the proposal. I just got Z3 a week ago and already dived deep into it.

[surreal]

That doesn't go against having a dedicated wavetable player module, as it doesn't break anything in Z3.

I always think, wavetables are only as good as the sources they come from.

Wavetables made from sampled instruments often lack harmonic density as transposing them below the original frequency creates a hole in the upper spectrum. Nice transitions, but less than optimal spectrum.

Wavetables made from drawing by hand are usually only assemblies of individual waveforms (great or not) which can be crossfaded through, with often little sonic spark. Great spectrum, but not so interesting transitions.

The most interesting wavetables that are both crisp and nice to scan through are thus based on either maths (as in Hive) or morphable vectors (as in Zebra 3). I consider these latter methods sonically superior to former (unless you need realism, for which I'd still prefer a (re)sampler).

That said, I am not entirely against adding wavetable support to Zebra 3. In fact, this was part of the original idea. But as we think in decades of product support, not just the initial months, I first want to see what people do with the spline based stuff.

Which resampler would you personally recommend Urs?

[Urs]

Which resampler would you personally recommend Urs?

Well, I guess i'm the wrong person to ask this. I don't use samples, I have never used a resampler.

[Grizzellda]

Ableton has a specific "resampling" feature, but I think the concept is available in any DAW.

What I would look at is combining the synthesis of Zebra 3 along with this.

[jasperdunn]

Hey folks, thought I'd share a very dynamic, copper xylophone preset I made.
Not sure where the best place is for sharing Zebra 3 presets, do we have a dedicated place for it?

My journey may help those looking to imitate natural sounding instruments.

I was synthesising click sounds at the time and fell down a rabbit hole. If you analyse real world click sounds, you can see specific frequencies standing out amongst the noise, so instead of using only noise, I added a resonator afterwards targeting the same frequencies that I saw standing out in my click. I discovered for myself that using a resonator with noise is incredible for making more realistic percussion sounds.

I passed this into a Comb module to create a metal chime sound, and then added a triangle oscillator for some body.

Enjoy!

[loctune]

That doesn't go against having a dedicated wavetable player module, as it doesn't break anything in Z3.

I always think, wavetables are only as good as the sources they come from.

Wavetables made from sampled instruments often lack harmonic density as transposing them below the original frequency creates a hole in the upper spectrum. Nice transitions, but less than optimal spectrum.

Wavetables made from drawing by hand are usually only assemblies of individual waveforms (great or not) which can be crossfaded through, with often little sonic spark. Great spectrum, but not so interesting transitions.

The most interesting wavetables that are both crisp and nice to scan through are thus based on either maths (as in Hive) or morphable vectors (as in Zebra 3). I consider these latter methods sonically superior to former (unless you need realism, for which I'd still prefer a (re)sampler).

That said, I am not entirely against adding wavetable support to Zebra 3. In fact, this was part of the original idea. But as we think in decades of product support, not just the initial months, I first want to see what people do with the spline based stuff.

There's something I don't fully understand yet. So from a technical perspective, is it possible to create the same "interesting" wavetables between Hive and Zebra 3, using these two different methods?

[Urs]

There's something I don't fully understand yet. So from a technical perspective, is it possible to create the same "interesting" wavetables between Hive and Zebra 3, using these two different methods?

The methods they use are completely different, so the do not result in exactly the same waveforms. They complement each other.

(some of the things Hive's uhm language can easily do, Zebra has as OscFX. So while Hive's method is more flexibly but harder to use, Zebra is easier to interact with and offers more degrees of freedom for realtime processing)

[NAD]

Hey folks, thought I'd share a very dynamic, copper xylophone preset I made.

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[stippenstoh]

Is there a simple way to link Decay and Release of an envelope?

[Urs]

Is there a simple way to link Decay and Release of an envelope?

Not really, but with Key Control on you should be able to quickly copy and paste between them. You know, Cmd/Ctrl + C & V

[stippenstoh]

Thank you Urs for the reply. What I meant was to link them so they move in tandem, like a combined Decay/Release knob that some synths have. I thought maybe there's another way than assigning them both to the same controller but it's no big deal.