Zebra 3 Public Beta Revision 20399

[WalterH]

why kvr doesn't have thumb down emoji for posts... some previous ones are so bad, not to say just sad..

[Howard]

Can there please be a faster way to remove modules in the center routing section?

Also Zebralette3 allows for deleting curves with the delete button... but not in Zebra3 ? Every time I want to experiment or initialize, I have to right click a bunch of times to fix this.

Every time I Initialize I have to do this, I made my own init patch but it's not as easy to access as simply clicking "init"

would save a TON of time for sound designers/ experimenters

1) Quick remove: alt+doubleclick the module. User guide page 18.
2) Remove a curve: Right-click, "delete curve". Or load an oscillator preset. Or activate Key Control and hit Delete. Not a "bunch of times", but a bunch of options!
3) Initialize: Right-click on the data display, select "init". 2 clicks and your preset is fresh.

[Howard]

In Zebralette3, you are limited to only 1 oscillator, so if you want to create a "curve filter" or use spectral distortion along a curve/guide, you must use your only 1 oscillator.

Sure, but you can use a different section along the timeline for your Curve Filter, e.g. from 50 to 100. E.g. "8ve Doctors".

[Howard]

The Classic mode in Zebra 3 is very similar to NuVerb in Zebra 2, but not 100% the same.

Are there any plans on improving this?
As a sound designer I want to deliver presets that sound as finished as possible. Having better reverb(s) would really help.
I would pay extra for having the whole Uhbik suite inside of Zebra

You can make them sound "finished", but it requires a bit more effort e.g. apply subtle chorus and/or Allpass phasing and/or complex delays (or whatever) before and/or after the reverb wet signal only. Doing this also helps make the sound unique. (You'd be surprised at how much of the "lesser" original Zebra2 reverb made it into blockbuster movie soundtracks.)

[Urs]

Awesome !! are you offering discounts for new reproduceable bugs ?

No, but people whose bug reports stand out sometimes get invited to our closed beta team.

[yellowmix]

Zebra 3 is amazing. And so is Zebralette 3. The wait was worth it.

There are no module presets for curve sets yet

For clarification, this would allow us to save wavetables in a native u-He format in Zebra 3/Zebralette 3?

Edit: Already answered on previous page with dropdown. Didn't notice that! Native h2p, nice!

Edit 2: I symlinked Zebralette 3's Modules subfolders to Zebra 3's, and Zebra 3 seems to pick up what Zebralette 3 saved, but not the other way around. In any case, I'm saving all the stuff I made in Zebralette 3 for use in Zebra 3. The head start was really nice.

[Howard]

I suppose it would! (but please get used to calling them "curve sets")

[machinesworking]

Control A/B/C/D are accessible from the plugin UI and they are deemed to fulfil the same purpose as Macros. We have some more work to do here, please be patient with us until January.

Like I mentioned before, they use the same mechanics as XYs in Hive, through ModMatrix slots, and the essentially perform the same tasks.

Once they are automatable, I even think it's a big advantage to fuse these concepts for the different workflows that people have.

I do hope that 4 are enough, as our sound designers would go on strike if we required more to set up. Also, our full time employee who has spent the past 7 years assigning XYs in Hive and Zebra 2 is retiring this month.

I would argue that there should always be macros in super complex synths and samplers like Zebra. I recently purchased the NI Kontrol mk3, and they freed it up from Komplete Kontrol and NKS, it can now "see" the plugin parameters directly. It's hit or miss the order parameters present themselves to the 8 knobs and LED screen, sometimes it's just unusable parameters, sometimes the macros in a plugin present first. That's all I want, the first 8-64 macros to present first in the plugin parameter list when you open a Kontrol mk3, or other Mackie Control capable of reading plugin parameter surfaces. in your DAW. This IMO should have been something that the industry agreed upon 20 years ago. Control surfaces that generically support protocols like Mackie Control could read the 8-64 macros first in a list and allow the end user to save inside a patch the order that the parameters (in the macro) in that patch present themselves.

I don't need some person at U-He or NI assigning parameters, it's nice, but in the case of NKS I never got around to the obviously tedious task of figuring out how to make my own NKS. So if I would want to change the parameters presented, I have to backwards engineer the format... A good example of a great solution for super complex instruments is Falcon All automation parameters are user assignable in any order. So I play with a preset or design a sound from scratch and assign the parameters that I would like to save in the patch to present to devices like the mk3 first in the list.

I get that Macros for multiple parameters being controlled at once is a thing, but even just this basic seeming but obviously tough design choice of presenting 8-64 macros that can reorder automation separately than what is presented would be fantastic.

The present solutions are offered by Live and Bitwig in the sense that they reorder the parameters and allow you to save them with a plugin, this is elegant if you never leave Live or Bitwig. Having at least 8 macros that can be saved at the patch level that present themselves first in the list to DAWs and consequently to smart controllers that can read them is better because it lives outside of NKS, Live, Bitwig, or the failed formats like Automap and VIP.

[pierb]

You can make them sound "finished", but it requires a bit more effort e.g. apply subtle chorus and/or Allpass phasing and/or complex delays (or whatever) before and/or after the reverb wet signal only. Doing this also helps make the sound unique. (You'd be surprised at how much of the "lesser" original Zebra2 reverb made it into blockbuster movie soundtracks.)

Absolutely. Still, it's not like having improved reverb algos and settings would make Zebra a worse product.

[fakemaxwell]

Has any information been released about these new filters? Impossible C, Expanse, and Yellow. The SVF, Ladder, and Cascade all sound as expected (and good), how do they compare to the Diva implementations?

[Ah_Dziz]

Has any information been released about these new filters? Impossible C, Expanse, and Yellow. The SVF, Ladder, and Cascade all sound as expected (and good), how do they compare to the Diva implementations?

They all sound better than DIVA. It may just be that they are more configurable etc but I am enjoying one z3 osc into the vanilla filter more than most DIVA sounds. The yellow is a wasp style analog model. That's the only bit of info I've got in my brain. I made a bunch of crappy techno with z3 yesterday because the filters sound soooo good.

[Urs]

They definitely don't sound "closer" to any originals than Diva's. But I did certainly tweak a lot of them to sound their best possible. That's Cascade, Ladder, Impossible (which has no reference) and Expanse.

Yellow is indeed based on the original Wasp designs, but simplified in Zebra 3. We have loads of hardware references (originals and clones), we even build our own testing hardware to get proper measurements. But again, we decided to simplify to make it sound good and save CPU. (No joke the full fledged model uses even more CPU... but that's also because it needs to be 16x oversampled to avoid aliasing)

SVF is a plain model of the Oberheim SEM, very similar to some really good open source synths, but with an iterative solver for correct behaviour.

Vanilla is a simplified ladder with simplified but very efficient non-linearities.

SVF and Vanilla should be used in high poly patches whenever Linear does not cut it. Or the revamped Zebra 2 filters (Excite, Mid Drive, Old Drive), which were added for nostalgic reasons but improved for audio rate modulation.

The "analogue" ones - Yellow, Impossible, Expanse, Ladder, Cascade - should be used in solo sounds or with low polyphony. Whenever character really matters.

[Vagusuk]

Just wanted to check, will we get the ability to save as .nksf like other u-he plugins?

This makes me life so, so much easier.

[Urs]

Just wanted to check, will we get the ability to save as .nksf like other u-he plugins?

This makes me life so, so much easier.

We have not (yet) added NKS compatibility. I'm not sure where nksf stands since NKS 2.0... I reckon we could still save it for the tags and stuff, but I'm not so sure we'll have macro assignments anymore as NKS 2.0 tries to reach all available parameters.

[Weasel-Boy]

Sort of a bug report on bug reports.

To me, the thing about releasing a beta, is that a primary reason for doing so is the expectation of receiving bug reports about things the devs may have missed for whatever reason.

Unfortunately the Uhe website bug report form page doesn't provide a mechanism for attaching files, like crashlogs or screenshots, which can be extremely valuable (and helpful) in tracking down a bug.

Just sayin'.