Zebra 3 Public Beta 3 Revision 20977

[HAJIME KOURIKI]

I don't necessarily view the current design as problematic. While there is a trend toward more color, I believe we could provide more value to our users by expanding the routing possibilities and variations within the monitoring scopes.

[HAJIME KOURIKI]

Despite some differing views among users, I believe the current version is achieving a very distinct and steady evolution. The core appeal of Zebra3 lies in its ability to bridge the gap between traditional functions and entirely new possibilities. The two oscillators are, in my view, unparalleled. Although there is surely more that can be added, I consider this to be an exceptional foundation at this stage.

[Kyunghee]

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.

Any plans to let users pick their colour themes in the future?

[pdxindy]

Any plans to let users pick their colour themes in the future?

It's already pretty easy to customize u-he gui's

[loctune]

Today I find the red curve in the osc panel and editor disappears. None of my init/reset/reinstall attempts got it back. Is it a bug or I did something wrong?

[Urs]

Today I find the red curve in the osc panel and editor disappears. None of my init/reset/reinstall attempts got it back. Is it a bug or I did something wrong?

Did you disable the Plot maybe, or set the source to unused OscFX?

Can you post a screenshot?

[loctune]

Nevermind. It came back all of a sudden just 10 minutes ago. I guess it's some random thing going on inside my system.

Another question: I have not yet found an easy way to have the oscillators morph along the timeline automatically. I figured that I can use an MSEG or envelop to define the morphing process but since I can only have 4 available, it makes me feel like I am not approaching it efficiently.

Is there a better way to control the morphing (or any similar modulation process), using something like a pre-defined simple linear/exponential function?

[audiojunkie]

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.

Sounds like I ended up buying it just in time! Thanks for supporting Linux!!

[johnnyberrygoode]

Will there be support for multicore or optimization? The synthesizer consumes much more resources than the second version.

[Urs]

It's actually consumes a lot less on average. Can you pinpoint any particular presets or modules that consume more than before?

(also note that if you have Apple Silicon or a newer Intel mobile processor, you might be running on efficiency cores - which looks like it consumes more, but actually doesn't if it needed a performance core in the previous beta)

[johnnyberrygoode]

It's actually consumes a lot less on average. Can you pinpoint any particular presets or modules that consume more than before?

I probably didn't express myself correctly. I meant Zebra2. With similar settings, it consumes 3-4 times more resources.

[Urs]

That said, we have experimental multi core support, but we need to deploy some weird stuff that helps Zebra run on only performance cores. It just doesn't work right now. This is a bit more involved, so we've postponed that for a 3.x update.

[Urs]

It's actually consumes a lot less on average. Can you pinpoint any particular presets or modules that consume more than before?

I probably didn't express myself correctly. I meant Zebra2. With similar settings, it consumes 3-4 times more resources.

Ah, yes, ok... that is totally expected.

Everything in Zebra 3 is oversampled at least 2x more than in Zebra 2. Additionally, things like Oscillator Resolution are way up in Zebra 3. So if you run the oscillator at "800Hz" setting, that faster than Osc Resolution fully up in Zebra 2.

Lastly, many, many Zebra 3 filters are Diva quality. That's why we recommend those for monophonic patches or low polyphony, and "Vanilla" or "SVF" whenever "Linear" or the improved Zebra 2 ones don't cut it.

[johnnyberrygoode]

It's actually consumes a lot less on average. Can you pinpoint any particular presets or modules that consume more than before?

I probably didn't express myself correctly. I meant Zebra2. With similar settings, it consumes 3-4 times more resources.

Ah, yes, ok... that is totally expected.

Everything in Zebra 3 is oversampled at least 2x more than in Zebra 2. Additionally, things like Oscillator Resolution are way up in Zebra 3. So if you run the oscillator at "800Hz" setting, that faster than Osc Resolution fully up in Zebra 2.

Lastly, many, many Zebra 3 filters are Diva quality. That's why we recommend those for monophonic patches or low polyphony, and "Vanilla" or "SVF" whenever "Linear" or the improved Zebra 2 ones don't cut it.

Thanks for the clarification. So, is a 200 Hz resolution approximately equal to the maximum resolution in zebra2?

[Urs]

Thanks for the clarification. So, is a 200 Hz resolution approximately equal to the maximum resolution in zebra2?

Honestly, I'm not 100% certain. I guess 200 Hz would be a Zebra2 Osc Resolution value around 6 or 7 then, if Z2 runs at 48kHz. In Z2 it is sample rate dependent (which sometimes causes issues), in Z3 it is always exactly the resolution given in Hz.