Zebralette 3 Public Beta Announcement (Revision 15573)

[tasmaniandevil]

Is mts esp supported in zebralette3 yet?

yes

[Compyfox]

Single cycle waveforms should work just fine, and replace the current selected waveform with a vectorised version of what you've dragged in. That is the main purpose of the sample import.

Definitely need to check that with old sample sets I have lying around.

One can also use whole samples at any tune, but it should be a sample of an instrument such as flute, bass or anything like that. The importer has built-in pitch detection and will find good matches. This replaces the full Curve Set.

The cutoff between "single cycle" and "full wave set" is currently set at something like 5000 samples or so.

I tried various types: bass, kick drum, glitched noise (Atari sounds), etc.

Short sounds definitely work better and cause less "hiccups" on my end. But I really only get 8 "forms"/"tables" (the rectangles at the top) to select to then morph in-between. At least for the time being - I am fully aware this is a beta, to figure out what's possible.

So 5000 samples cutoff... as in "sample length"... if my math is not completely off, at 48kHz, that's 104s (1,7minutes)? At least for the analysis... that is quite the big window.

But from this there are still only "8 samples" taken at an equal spacing. "Mindblowing stuff", I'm merely scratching the surface here (I'm happy to find my way around simple subtractive synths, and Zebralette is a Wavetable/Additive Synth).

The parameters that pop up on import need quite some more explanation. They deal with the selection of cycles from the sample and with the accuracy of the vectorisation. If the sample has hundreds or thousands of cycles, e.g. an A3 that is 10 seconds long at 44.1kHz sample rate, and if settings for selection and accuracy are high, the process of converting the sample can take several minutes.

In future I think we'll have to add a progress bar and a cancel button.

A progress bar would definitely help understand what's going on processing wise.

Overall though, speed ups are very welcome.

In any case, this is very advanced stuff and very different from "sample to wavetable" conversion. We will hopefully be able to add that, too, both in .uhm and in Hive 2/Zebra 3, at some point.

Oh definitely! I think what people might be expecting (myself included) might go beyond the scope of Zebralette. While it would be nice to have something "simpler to use", and way more powerful to create new wavetables based upon imported ones... in reality, this isn't the old Waldorf "Blofeld Wavetable Creator", or Ocean Swift Synthesis "Waverabler". Unless you want "Zebralette" to be just that, so that users can revive whatever old synth/device they have been using in the last couple of decades.



Thanks for the insight, Urs... I'll keep an eye on new revisions.

[Urs]

5000 samples at 44.1kHz are roundabout 0.11 seconds, 44100 samples would be 1 second. You might be thinking of cycles, not samples.

You get 8 snapshots (Curves) because that's a number you can set, between 2 and 16 IIRC. There is no option to do tens or hundreds of Curves. The concept of Zebralette is based on morphing a small number of Curves, with seamlessly created intermediate steps.

[fabienaurejac]

I don't find how to get the aftertouch on my Expressive-e Osmose keyboard to control any parameter...
Is it MPE compatible ?

Aftertouch can be assigned through the mod matrix, it's a modulation source called Pressure.
MPE support is not fully implemented yet, as mentioned in the known issues in the bug report thread.

Ok, I don't know if it's MPE related, but here with an Osmose keyboard, I don't get how to have pressure controller working properly, using Midi monitor the Osmose seems to send pressure information using several channels, which is quite embarrassing.

[Viktor [TUC]]

... using Midi monitor the Osmose seems to send pressure information using several channels, which is quite embarrassing.

That's how MPE works, each note plays on its own channel, and on that channel, the key will send its pressure messages.
Fabien, can you maybe say exactly how you're setting this up, and which parameter you're trying to target?
Also, set your Osmose not to MPE mode but to "poly aftertouch" mode for the time being until MPE is fully implemented (which it currently is not).

[fabienaurejac]

... using Midi monitor the Osmose seems to send pressure information using several channels, which is quite embarrassing.

That's how MPE works, each note plays on its own channel, and on that channel, the key will send its pressure messages.
Fabien, can you maybe say exactly how you're setting this up, and which parameter you're trying to target?
Also, set your Osmose not to MPE mode but to "poly aftertouch" mode for the time being until MPE is fully implemented (which it currently is not).

Ok, I'll try to find out if Osmose can be set up to poly aftertouch. Which I don't know, because the midi controller firmware is not finished yet on the Osmose firmware 1.4.4 too.

[Viktor [TUC]]

Press the small button in the top right corner above the display, switch to "ext midi" with the rotary selector on the left, the press the knob down to enter that menu, and there you have a choice of several MIDI modes: MPE, classic keyboard, poly aftertouch and multi-channel, those are your options there.

Cheers

[bluehorizon]

I use a Xeon E5 2650 and it chew down all of it in some patches
Maybe it need to be more compatible with multicore
Win 10z

[Hanz Meyzer]

deleted

[Bako]

I've noticed that in Live 12 configure device has dropdown menus for some parameters where extra options are listed. anybody noticed that . I couldn't find in Live 12th new features log anything about that . don't know may be it is Zebralette specific but it should be to configure it like that for any Vst I suppose . can somebody check !

[Compyfox]

5000 samples at 44.1kHz are roundabout 0.11 seconds, 44100 samples would be 1 second. You might be thinking of cycles, not samples.

Never trust online calculators, Mister Fox.

Funny though, I did drop a 2s file on the OSC Editor, and it looked like the final "snapshot" (curve) was almost a flat line... so maybe the engine did read more than 110ms.

But now that I know this, i can definitely work with blips and beeps, converting them into curves. Unless we can change that window size in the future.

You get 8 snapshots (Curves) because that's a number you can set, between 2 and 16 IIRC. There is no option to do tens or hundreds of Curves. The concept of Zebralette is based on morphing a small number of Curves, with seamlessly created intermediate steps.

Understandable, guess I'm just used to the two standalone tools I've mentioned earlier (Waldorf "Blofeld Wavetable Creator", or Ocean Swift Synthesis "Wavetabler"). Although they are their own can of worms.

Other than that, I must be blind regarding a "snapshot" setting to increase to 16. I should check the manual again.


One way or the other, considering that sample import is a bit buggy for me still, I'll wait for further revisions. But I really like experimenting with Zebralette3 so far.

[jasperdunn]

Wow, this single oscillator makes such rich and captivating sounds; some of these presets sound like a sample library of some exotic acoustic instrument, that's how much depth there is!! Such a great UI too, thanks Urs and team! Looking forward to Zebra 3

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Anyone else want to see a ZL3 Preset sharing thread? Or just me?

[fabienaurejac]

Press the small button in the top right corner above the display, switch to "ext midi" with the rotary selector on the left, the press the knob down to enter that menu, and there you have a choice of several MIDI modes: MPE, classic keyboard, poly aftertouch and multi-channel, those are your options there.

Cheers

Were you answering to my question, I guess yes...
I'm on firmware 1.4.4 (last one) and cannot find these options inside ext midi.
I'm quite sure I've scrolled thru all options.

[jasperdunn]

I noticed that when using a complex shifting wavetable using an LFO to morph the curve, playing multiple keys at once causes a distortion / glitchy artifact; it sounds like Zebralette 3 is struggling to output that many voices.

For me, it starts happening on this example preset when playing 4 voices or more; 3 voices are mostly fine.