Zebra 3 - final beta Rev 21625 April 8th

[pdxindy]

Zebra 3 has only 4 filter slots (although they sound better to my ears) compared to the 4 VCF/2 XMF/8 Diva filters in Zebra Legacy. No notch filter as filter option. All single filter so no SEM style morph/sweep. Zebra 3 also only has linear envelopes and 4 (morphable) MSEGs, so a few things might be harder to do in Zebra 3 as well.

Maybe we'll get there one day...

Get there one day? Zebra 3 has already far exceeded Z2 in both sonic diversity and sound quality.

Want a Notch Filter in Z3? Use a per voice EQ. The EQ's add 2 more flexible filters.

The Zebra 3 Envelopes aren't linear. They have a lovely falloff curve. They also have a Hold option (AHDSR). And they can be re-triggered. Couldn't do either in Z2. The Z3 Env's also have the stack mode so that notes played quickly stack up in level. They also modulate better. The Z3 Env's are a significant improvement.

The modulation possibilities are far far more diverse and capable in Zebra 3.

[loctune]

Wow, such great suggestions! Got some more things to experiment now.

[benmason]

A lot of improvements in this and yes while I agree with your point that I’m not as comfortable or used to this version as the beta it is by far superior.

Some standouts for me

Folder module improvements - Great
FMO - Fantastic
Presets - Unbelievable

Now for what I think needs a bit of tweaking in the UX/UI

Spacing for MA1-4 needs to be slightly wider across the bottom
Noise. In guide Filter 1 and Filter 2 are LP and HP this is not the same in the release and should be changed to the guide
Help bubble message in modulator section is not de-clickable and is really annoying
Mapper Needs a Grid Mode. Can make space for this as a toggle my moving up slightly the manual reset and Key Reset and add grid mode at the bottom.
Curve morph in editors and front view of OSC editors should be bigger
Like I mentioned in the previous beta EQ should reflect modulations eg. LFO modulating frequency (similar to how you can see curve’s being modulated in OSC section. The UI on this though is fantastic
In the Mod Matrix clicking on the number beside the I/O or on the empty space itself should reveal the modulation path which is colourised on the main panel. It should also turn a slightly darker or lighter grey for a select and another click as a deselect. A shift select function would also be great to delete multiple modulators and you could also have a deselect function under ‘sorted by slot.’
Noise floor control should be front end in Mod FX (space in the top right corner)
You have a blank space on the left of OSC effects, I assume this is where the OSC shapes/Wavetables will go. I think this section should also be included in the easy editor on the left of the OSC FX in the preview window.
I can’t understand the reasoning for removing the simple view in the modulations tab for the MSEG but keeping the mapper. I’m using an MSEG to map stuff like the dry/wet of a chorus or something in the FX panel and it is difficult to switch between tabs while working on a sound.
User directory needs a lot of work.
1. Description and Usage should be editable in the directory view. A double click function/ right click like others under each word
2. Banks should be able to be created by right click and ‘create new’ rather than dragging sounds
3. There should be an export bank option ‘export all to h2p’ or something like that
4. Saving a preset in the user subfolder is not remembered when overwriting a saved preset. It saves back into the regular user folder as a new preset.
5. There should be save to subfolder function and save to bank in the main save window
6. Tags should be all editable in left window
7. In the Tags window under search and above categories there should be an option for, ‘Set Author’
8. Character selector should be the same as features I understand the UX for this but the selection whether it is or isn’t selected is confusing


Bugs I Found:
Selecting Rotate and then selecting multiple grid points inside OSC editor causes pinwheel of death
Undo doesn’t work when changing filter from the filter matrix
Restore Preset not switching between sounds and is stuck on a previous user sound
Selecting and deselecting favourites is sticky/ glitchy when a category is selected

General UI/UX Improvements and Ideas:
Slightly lighter shades on sliders and knob dials. Increase white marginally.
More contrast in shadowing for knobs in the main section
Back panels and on all OSC and modulators in my opinion could be a fraction darker colour grey, but looking at screenshots this could be a laptop thing even on Mac as the display looks a little washed.
As many have said higher contrast please or maybe more saturation.

I know this is quite long and I might be annoying but I did put about 4.5 hours into this feedback for you guys

[Urs]

Urs will of course answer you, but my guess is the answer is in the first post:

....
What else is new?

the final release is nearly imminent it may happen as soon as next week, if nothing serious happens...

Thanks. I did see that. I still had to ask anyway because its my birthday on Thursday of that week and I need to know whether I will still need to engineer things in order not to possibly miss out by a matter of days.

It is very likely going to happen next Wednesday or Thursday. We'll have a meeting today, to figure out if we can do it or if we can't. We have events and trade shows coming up from the third week of April, so there's a very narrow slot... any later than next week and we don't have time to prepare for other things.

[Urs]

Too much feedback to react to, just a quick one on the things I can actually comment on:

1. Description and Usage should be editable in the directory view. A double click function/ right click like others under each word

Multiline text editing in the UI is a tricky thing and such a great source of bugs (think UI scaling factors and stuff...), I'd rather keep it at save time.

2. Banks should be able to be created by right click and ‘create new’ rather than dragging sounds

Better not "right click the bank name". The drag and drop interface is the only good way to do batch assignments. The alternative is multi-layered, confusing drop down menus. So if drag and drop remains the primary way, the new bank needs to be created wherever one would drag things to.

3. There should be an export bank option ‘export all to h2p’ or something like that

There is. You can save any number of selected presets "as .h2p" whatsoever and update them with whatever parameter you have locked or feature that's missing when the presets were originally created.

4. Saving a preset in the user subfolder is not remembered when overwriting a saved preset. It saves back into the regular user folder as a new preset.
5. There should be save to subfolder function and save to bank in the main save window

Use Preference to save in selected folder.

6. Tags should be all editable in left window

No, first of all it would be too easy to accidentally tag a patch instead of selecting a tag. Secondly, it would add a third way to tag, and that's just not really good UX either.

Instead, you can tag each patch on the right, or better yet, if you do a lot of tagging, open the tag-this-patch panel.

The tag this patch panel is paramount. Without it, we wouldn't be able to maintain such large preset libraries.

7. In the Tags window under search and above categories there should be an option for, ‘Set Author’

You can batch set the author by dragging the presets on the author in the folder view. Again: Drag and drop is the best way to do this, everything else is drop down hell.

8. Character selector should be the same as features I understand the UX for this but the selection whether it is or isn’t selected is confusing

Yeah, probably not my first choice either, I'll pass it along with your other suggestions.

[Urs]

(Note that there is a good reason the current patch has its tags mirrored in the preset info panel. Imagine how confusing it would be to display the selected tags + current preset tags on the left...)

[Emell]

Phantastic UI. Love it!
Time to preorder... Done!

[benmason]

My bad yes for batch assignments drag and drop is definitely the way. I meant to say that it would also be a nice edition. When I do the 'convert to h2p' it comes up as 'presets already exist'. What would be great is if those could be exported and saved to another folder which don't share the same file path so I can transfer to another computer. Example 'export h2p to new folder'. I should've gone back over the user guide the tagging window is super helpful. No.7 say for example I want to find a bass by Howard Scarr I can't find a simple way to select his name and then search through by category different basses. The others for me are pretty minor or you've addressed and have easy work arounds.

The other two major ones for me was just that annoying bubble gone that pops up in modulation and just making the MSEG modulation window the same size as the LFO and adding back in the simple draw curves.

[Lbdunequest]

After trying to pinpoint the crash, noticed that mostly Loop presets are causing the crash

[johnnyberrygoode]

When I try to modulate curve morph using mseg or mapper in this window, it automatically takes me to the mseg or mapper editing window.

[pdxindy]

You have a blank space on the left of OSC effects, I assume this is where the OSC shapes/Wavetables will go.

Switch the Osc to additive

[Howard]

No.7 say for example I want to find a bass by Howard Scarr I can't find a simple way to select his name and then search through by category different basses.

Easiest workaround: Open TAGS, click Bass category, tap "scarr" into the search field and hit Return. The search string continues to apply while you select subcategories, Features etc..

[u-he Basti]

When I try to modulate curve morph using mseg or mapper in this window, it automatically takes me to the mseg or mapper editing window.

Oh yes... that's an oversight. Fixing it right away. Thank you very much, sir!
Note: It's the very same for all curve morph direct modulators (OSC 1 2 3 4 / MSEG 1 2 3 4 ) in the bottom tabs and editors. We are sorry!

[johnnyberrygoode]

When editing the guide, both curves (spline and oscilloscope) turn gray. I think that in some cases they can merge and it will be difficult to figure out which one of them is which. Perhaps if you lighten the spline curve slightly during guide editing instead of making it completely gray, it would help.

[u-he Basti]

When editing the guide, both curves (spline and oscilloscope) turn gray. I think that in some cases they can merge and it will be difficult to figure out which one of them is which. Perhaps if you lighten the spline curve slightly during guide editing instead of making it completely gray, it would help.

True. I am thinking about using a different shade of the OSC curve colour for the actual oscilloscope in the curve editors background. That would also be more consitant with the MSEGs "oscilloscope" (aka curve morph live view).
Thanks!