Zebra 3 Teething Troubles

[cb8rwh]

Any specific preset you get these issues on? I am running an M4 Pro and have had zero problems CPU-wise. (Bitwig and Ableton Live)

I'd humbly request that multicore support gets the bulk of the development cycles, as I'm routinely getting crackles on even four-note chords with various presets, some of which don't even seem all that complicated texturally. Which is surprising and a bit of a let-down, if I'm being honest, as I'm running this on a very high-spec M4 Pro Max Macbook. I know you guys can do it! Diva, for example, still runs beautifully in multicore on this very same machine.

[zerocrossing]

Hi, congratz to the finale release!

The icon of this button is not clear. My first thought was this is a download button for an update, like in Discord. But it is a Save button, normally this symbol should be a floppy disk.

Screenshot 2026-04-20 184411.png

I thought the same thing. How will people know what the button is for, unless it's the modern floppy disk icon?

[ckoe]

Hi, congratz to the finale release!

The icon of this button is not clear. My first thought was this is a download button for an update, like in Discord. But it is a Save button, normally this symbol should be a floppy disk.

Screenshot 2026-04-20 184411.png

I thought the same thing. How will people know what the button is for, unless it's the modern floppy disk icon?

Maybe it's the new go down damm data button style^^

[aMUSEd]

Hi, congratz to the finale release!

The icon of this button is not clear. My first thought was this is a download button for an update, like in Discord. But it is a Save button, normally this symbol should be a floppy disk.

Screenshot 2026-04-20 184411.png

I thought the same thing. How will people know what the button is for, unless it's the modern floppy disk icon?

Maybe it's the new go down damm data button style^^

It’s in a few older plugins eg Hive

Just means ‘save to disk’ (which is essentially what downloading something does too) instead of ‘save to floppy’ which is very 90’s

[ckoe]

Here from Chrome

Screenshot 2026-04-21 175929.png

[DrWashington]

I'd humbly request that multicore support gets the bulk of the development cycles, as I'm routinely getting crackles on even four-note chords with various presets, some of which don't even seem all that complicated texturally. Which is surprising and a bit of a let-down, if I'm being honest, as I'm running this on a very high-spec M4 Pro Max Macbook. I know you guys can do it! Diva, for example, still runs beautifully in multicore on this very same machine.

What DAW are you on and on what sample buffer size do you run?
I only have a M1 Mac MBP and that doesn't happen to me, at least since the final Beta.
(Cubendo 15, I run at 128 Buffer Size)
rsp

I'm on Cubase 15, usually running at 512 or 1024. But I'm normally also at 96kHz. Granted, the project where I noticed this isn't the lightest, but still... the likes of Diva, Dune, and Pigments all perform like champs, no issues.

My point is that multicore support, properly done, is one of the most important things for polyphonic usability in my experience, and I sure wish both Zebra 3 and Serum 2 would implement it (although the latter probably never will, as they have such a popular product that there's very little motivation for them to do so and Steve Duda seems pretty obstinately against it for some reason).

When it works well, it just makes all the difference in the world, really.

[zerocrossing]

Hi, congratz to the finale release!

The icon of this button is not clear. My first thought was this is a download button for an update, like in Discord. But it is a Save button, normally this symbol should be a floppy disk.

Screenshot 2026-04-20 184411.png

I thought the same thing. How will people know what the button is for, unless it's the modern floppy disk icon?

Maybe it's the new go down damm data button style^^

It’s in a few older plugins eg Hive

Just means ‘save to disk’ (which is essentially what downloading something does too) instead of ‘save to floppy’ which is very 90’s

I'm just poking fun at language. I was working on an MMO and someone got a bee in their bonnet about making a new icon for an NPC that had a quest for the player. I'm not sure what game first started to use an exclamation mark, but that's the standard. Is it good? Not really, but like the qwerty keyboard, it's become a standard that persists. I argued that changing it would be confusing to players, but they pushed us to develop a new one and then handed it off to play testers... who found it confusing. I'd like to say we shipped with the exclamation point, but while we were in beta, they cancelled the project. This is oddly common in game development.

(graphic showing the difficulty of the quest)

https://www.charmedparticle.com/portfol ... ct-title-3

[Signifier]

I found another patch apparently exhibiting clicking/popping with polyphonic/chord/sustained play:
Factory bank 04 Poly Synths, patch 'High Fidelity Pop'.
Can anyone else confirm this on their setup?
When I scroll through the various filter options it gets worse with some filter types but seems to happen with me across all the filter options, so not sure its a filter-type dependent problem like the other one I found.

[DoktorTenma]

I found another patch apparently exhibiting clicking/popping with polyphonic/chord/sustained play:
Factory bank 04 Poly Synths, patch 'High Fidelity Pop'.
Can anyone else confirm this on their setup?
When I scroll through the various filter options it gets worse with some filter types but seems to happen with me across all the filter options, so not sure its a filter-type dependent problem like the other one I found.

I do not have any problems with that patch on my M1 Max machine at 48k and 128 buffer size. I can play the full 8 note polyphony without glitches.

I recommend that you use the built in Module Performance Meter to see if you are running into CPU issues on your system. To open that, click on the u-he badge in the top right and select it from the menu that is displayed. Click the play button in top left of the performance meter and play some notes and see what is using up your cpu and how much. See page 10 in the user manual which also contains this link to a video describing this. (And the currently removed cpu burner.)

[ThoughtExperiment]

I'd humbly request that multicore support gets the bulk of the development cycles, as I'm routinely getting crackles on even four-note chords with various presets, some of which don't even seem all that complicated texturally. Which is surprising and a bit of a let-down, if I'm being honest, as I'm running this on a very high-spec M4 Pro Max Macbook. I know you guys can do it! Diva, for example, still runs beautifully in multicore on this very same machine.

What DAW are you on and on what sample buffer size do you run?
I only have a M1 Mac MBP and that doesn't happen to me, at least since the final Beta.
(Cubendo 15, I run at 128 Buffer Size)
rsp

I'm on Cubase 15, usually running at 512 or 1024. But I'm normally also at 96kHz. Granted, the project where I noticed this isn't the lightest, but still... the likes of Diva, Dune, and Pigments all perform like champs, no issues.

My point is that multicore support, properly done, is one of the most important things for polyphonic usability in my experience, and I sure wish both Zebra 3 and Serum 2 would implement it (although the latter probably never will, as they have such a popular product that there's very little motivation for them to do so and Steve Duda seems pretty obstinately against it for some reason).

When it works well, it just makes all the difference in the world, really.

Urs has already stated (more than once) that they're working on multicore support, but it's no longer as simple as you seem to think it is. If it was simple I think he'd have implemented it already, and so would Steve Duda for that matter.

In the meantime there are other ways to save cycles, like maybe running at 48kHz?

[brightonrock]

Hi

On MacOS in Bitwig 6.0.4 using the CLAP version of Zebra3, I don't see the 'tentacles' that are demonstrated here .

For me, the modulation targets are highlighted, but no lines (tentacles) are drawn.

Thanks.

[neverbeeninariot]

Hi

On MacOS in Bitwig 6.0.4 using the CLAP version of Zebra3, I don't see the 'tentacles' that are demonstrated here [video]

For me, the modulation targets are highlighted, but no lines (tentacles) are drawn.

Thanks.

Right-click on any modulator in the lower bar for options, or change in the settings page.

[brightonrock]

Thanks. I did look at settkngs but didnt spot anything. Will take another look.

[Urs]

Yeah, I should have mentioned this. We hide them by default because they annoyed some people.

[tasmaniandevil]

Try to modulate the Ctrl-C macro knob with a Bitwig modulator (I tried the classic LFO), and there is no audible effect. Try to modulate the Ctrl-D macro knob with a Bitwig modulator, and it has the same audible effect as modulating the Ctrl-C macro knob manually within Zebra.

Confirmed. Super weird. Additionally, modulating Ctrl A seems to modulate Ctrl B.
Have added it to the list in the first post.