Taking requests for Zebra Legacy inspired Zebra 3 presets...

[surreal]

I have heard many "cinematic" preset banks but non has any real world application and i dont bother with that..

The final preset bank will be very balanced, I'm sure.

I am sure it will be Urs and your great Synths never dissapoint, i am just hoping for lower Cpu usage with the regular Synths at least with my cpu I could just manage 8 Repro5 instances at fullblast in one of my projects

[stippenstoh]

"Comb Strings" from ZebraHZ!
Not sure but I believe "HS/HZ" means that you and Zimmer are the authors?

[Tj Shredder]

I have heard many "cinematic" preset banks but non has any real world application and i dont bother with that..

The real world application is the boring one. I love other worldly sounds, you don’t even need to cover it with drums & bass… They shine on them self…
To create playlist or commercial shit, all the tools exist already, you don’t need any sound design skills for it. There are tons of bread and butter preset machines for full-filling those expectations…
I would love to see expressive MPE sounds. There is also room for fine classical inspired instruments… They could be used for all worlds music be it real or surreal…

[inkling]

Any more requests, chaps and chapesses?

So much great stuff of yours to choose from. Anything Tim Blake / Crystal Machine / Gong inspired and taken into the Z3 environment would be great.

[Chris-S]

I like the Z2 default preset (called Default Position).
Already converted this to some other synths.

[MrJubbly]

I have heard many "cinematic" preset banks but non has any real world application and i dont bother with that..

The real world application is the boring one. I love other worldly sounds, you don’t even need to cover it with drums & bass… They shine on them self…
To create playlist or commercial shit, all the tools exist already, you don’t need any sound design skills for it. There are tons of bread and butter preset machines for full-filling those expectations…
I would love to see expressive MPE sounds. There is also room for fine classical inspired instruments… They could be used for all worlds music be it real or surreal…

And yet, every new piano plugin released, contains ... yet another piano. Every drum machine features its kick drums. With no complaints. And as such, every (or almost every) synth should at least also broadly cover the main basic instrument types, before venturing to cover the more spectacular soundscapes.

"Boring" to you, or not. Usually such "boring sounds" are still staples and are most useable and fitting sounds for so many different music genres. That's the very reason why so-called "boring" sounds remain SO popular over the generations. And it is the reason why every great workhorse synth have their own versions thereof. They are great starting blocks for the user to then tweak to wherever they wish to take them to.

The point is, just because so many other synths feature their own versions of many stock bread and butter sounds, doesn't mean that newer synths, like Zebra3 should not also feature their own versions thereof as core factory presets. That's not boring. That's practical. That's being realistic. That's giving customers usable and useful sound resources. Which the vast majority of users will actually then use in multiple projects. Not just a one-time spectacular cinematic sound, or whatever you are wishing for.

I would hate it if there were not a similar amount of musical staple sounds included with the factory presets. It's often easier to take those as a starting point and then make them stranger by adding and tweaking their settings, than via the opposite route.

Even with the increased sound design possibilities that Zebra3 brings, I know I will end up using this synth much more like I often do with Zebra2 for finding more quickly useful and musical sounds, than say, some other more obscure synth like a Synplant or an Absynth, where strange-sounding patches are almost their raison d'etre. They're great for what they are. But they don't often form the backbone of most music genre tracks, imho.

There's one new synth in particular which does the opposite of what I'm saying, and is probably FAR more suitable to you than Zebra3 will be. That is Minimal Audio's "Current". So many of its factory patches are stylish, cinematic and flashy but are also ultimately, next to useless to me in most real-world project situations. And that synth has relatively few "boring" bread and butter (i.e. useful) sounds included. I happen to also own that synth. But I think I've perhaps used it only a sparse handful of times over the years and that's it. It now mostly just gathers dust.

In the time between me buying Current and the present, I have probably used even Zebra2 hundreds of times more than it, primarily because its sound library is so expansive and useable (despite being regarded as boring to you perhaps). With Zebra2 and most other u-he synths, it is so easy to pick a sound which is pretty close to what I want and to then quickly tweak it until its right for what I need.

There could be an argument for (and market for) additional special "Cinematic" sound packs for Zebra3 to be created and purchased, by those who need such specialized content. And nobody would have any issues with that. But not for the staple core sounds factory content. Not in my humble opinion anyway. A few perhaps, as examples. But not to where it becomes annoyingly overwhelming.

Personally, I want Zebra3's sound libraries to be more similar in tone and function to its direct predecessors, than to another synth like Current ... or Absynth, Synplant, and so forth...

[surreal]

I have heard many "cinematic" preset banks but non has any real world application and i dont bother with that..

The real world application is the boring one. I love other worldly sounds, you don’t even need to cover it with drums & bass… They shine on them self…
To create playlist or commercial shit, all the tools exist already, you don’t need any sound design skills for it. There are tons of bread and butter preset machines for full-filling those expectations…
I would love to see expressive MPE sounds. There is also room for fine classical inspired instruments… They could be used for all worlds music be it real or surreal…

And yet, every new piano plugin released, contains ... yet another piano. Every drum machine features its kick drums. With no complaints. And as such, every (or almost every) synth should at least also broadly cover the main basic instrument types, before venturing to cover the more spectacular soundscapes.

"Boring" to you, or not. Usually such "boring sounds" are still staples and are most useable and fitting sounds for so many different music genres. That's the very reason why so-called "boring" sounds remain SO popular over the generations. And it is the reason why every great workhorse synth have their own versions thereof. They are great starting blocks for the user to then tweak to wherever they wish to take them to.

The point is, just because so many other synths feature their own versions of many stock bread and butter sounds, doesn't mean that newer synths, like Zebra3 should not also feature their own versions thereof as core factory presets. That's not boring. That's practical. That's being realistic. That's giving customers usable and useful sound resources. Which the vast majority of users will actually then use in multiple projects. Not just a one-time spectacular cinematic sound, or whatever you are wishing for.

I would hate it if there were not a similar amount of musical staple sounds included with the factory presets. It's often easier to take those as a starting point and then make them stranger by adding and tweaking their settings, than via the opposite route.

Even with the increased sound design possibilities that Zebra3 brings, I know I will end up using this synth much more like I often do with Zebra2 for finding more quickly useful and musical sounds, than say, some other more obscure synth like a Synplant or an Absynth, where strange-sounding patches are almost their raison d'etre. They're great for what they are. But they don't often form the backbone of most music genre tracks, imho.

There's one new synth in particular which does the opposite of what I'm saying, and is probably FAR more suitable to you than Zebra3 will be. That is Minimal Audio's "Current". So many of its factory patches are stylish, cinematic and flashy but are also ultimately, next to useless to me in most real-world project situations. And that synth has relatively few "boring" bread and butter (i.e. useful) sounds included. I happen to also own that synth. But I think I've perhaps used it only a sparse handful of times over the years and that's it. It now mostly just gathers dust.

In the time between me buying Current and the present, I have probably used even Zebra2 hundreds of times more than it, primarily because its sound library is so expansive and useable (despite being regarded as boring to you perhaps). With Zebra2 and most other u-he synths, it is so easy to pick a sound which is pretty close to what I want and to then quickly tweak it until its right for what I need.

There could be an argument for (and market for) additional special "Cinematic" sound packs for Zebra3 to be created and purchased, by those who need such specialized content. And nobody would have any issues with that. But not for the staple core sounds factory content. Not in my humble opinion anyway. A few perhaps, as examples. But not to where it becomes annoyingly overwhelming.

Personally, I want Zebra3's sound libraries to be more similar in tone and function to its direct predecessors, than to another synth like Current ... or Absynth, Synplant, and so forth...

All the points you made here are valid and I agree as you have basically expanded my Thoughts here aswell. I mean i would love to hear the sonic signature differance with bread and butter presets with zebra 3 as well as use them to build on my own esoteric variations on them. But as my Sports coach always said... Guys, Start with the basics and lets build the fancy tricks from there as and when we need too, get the basics right so that we can win this match!!

That being said, i do not discount or wish away any cinematic soundscapes, many cinematic sounds i do love, like pads and keys and basses.. but it must be useable in real world projects.. of course the snazzy stand alone one finger press create a generative cinematic epic 7min presets can be there aswell as showcases. But in the wise words of Depeche Modes song.."Get the balance Right" so that the synth can appeal to a broader target Market!

[aMUSEd]

Lots from Zebra Science I think would work well and sound even better in Zebra 3

Screenshot 2026-01-17 at 12.29.42.png

[aMUSEd]

Any more requests, chaps and chapesses?

So much great stuff of yours to choose from. Anything Tim Blake / Crystal Machine / Gong inspired and taken into the Z3 environment would be great.

Absolutely - more tea pottery please

[aMUSEd]

From the factory bank these are my favourites of yours

Screenshot 2026-01-17 at 13.04.00.png

[aMUSEd]

And from Zebratron

Screenshot 2026-01-17 at 13.09.44.png

[bmrzycki]

Big +1 for Inner Temple. I forgot about that patch!

[MacGyver]

I like HS Wireworms 2 and HS Drumato+ for example

[surreal]

Lol Anything fm Early or Fm Lately or Fm Solid or Anything Like a Analog inspire Funk and Slap Bass will do.. and a few edm type drum sounds and Trance basses

[surreal]

Actually anything from the Legacy Oldschools Chronosphere and MK Hybrids for Zebra 2 would be cool!!