Zebra 3 - final beta Rev 21625 April 8th

[Shiek927]

The new UI looks fantastic! much more reminiscent of the OG!

[SamDi]

Unfortunately, I seem to be in the minority, but I really don’t like the new GUI… or rather, the previous one was fantastic, almost too good to be true. I understand some of the design choices, but in my opinion, a big opportunity was missed.

Such a flat interface might have made more sense if we had at least gained real-time modulation visualization like the competitors (not essential, I agree), but without that, I find it hard to justify.

It’s also disappointing that Zebrelette will likely receive the same treatment: what a shame!
This is just my opinion… it still sounds absolutely wonderful.

Yes, I am wondering, if I am really the only ghost driver, who thinks this new GUI is terrible:

-This gray in gray is just boring and completely flattens the structure of the synth. Difficult to get an instant overview of a patch.

-I never understand, how it is considered good design to hide GUI actions just behind text (the preset arrow for modules dissappeared).

-The same with the modulator tab bar. How is it considered nice to have just a black void with eye cancer color text on it, instead of properly formed and separated tabs? I hoped once this just-text-and-symbols-on-dark-background-anti-contrast-flat-design terror came over 10 years ago to soon disappear. Boy was I wrong.

-I needed like a minute to find out, how to open the detail view of the OSCs.

-The modulation matrix is the worst of all. It looks like an ugly Linux open source project, created from some nerds, who never cared about design and just brought a Minimum Viable Product GUI to make things work at all. Why is changing the modulation amount now horizontal dragging? It's so suboptimal and unergonomic. Horizontal dragging to change values, should be forbidden by the Global Software Association, which should be founded just against that!

BTW: it's scrolling in the wrong direction. Scrolling upwards should increase amount, not decrease it!

[M32]

I do find it harder to read text and labels at a distance now. The GUI feels like a 'dark mode' to me, and i would very much like a light mode counterpart. Maybe i will have to use a skin. Thing is unlike apparently a lot of folks i like to work in a well lit room and the greyish text on black background feels super fatiguing to the eyes

[atticmike]

I think you should make the stock UI light / bright in color, black on white.

White on black is really hard on the eyes, or at least have something similar to Mac on first bootup, selecting between light and dark mode. That'd be nice.

[SteveElbows]

As per the first post, they have designed the UI to be adjustable, and also anticipated various criticisms.

[Rnaroth]

New UI is excellent. Just need to get used to where things are now. The Filter representations look fantastic.

[jrgillam]

I do find it harder to read text and labels at a distance now. The GUI feels like a 'dark mode' to me, and i would very much like a light mode counterpart. Maybe i will have to use a skin. Thing is unlike apparently a lot of folks i like to work in a well lit room and the greyish text on black background feels super fatiguing to the eyes

I too find it very fatiguing to constantly be looking at light text on a dark background. It's a gripe I have with many plugins. I know a lot of work went into this and I feel bad complaining, but I agree with most of the criticisms posted here — too dark, too flat, too little color, too little differentiation between different module types, removing arrows for preset menus seems like a bad call, the LFO switcher dial is slower than the previous layout. It reminds me of the Zebra Redux skin for Zebra2, which was cool for experienced Zebra users but not very approachable for beginners, with so many parameter names abbreviated and so on.

I would urge you to make an official factory light theme when time allows so we have a choice. Of course the efforts to make it skinable are much appreciated so I'll be on the lookout for some mods that are more to my taste.

[warcat]

Why can't a GUI be scaled more than 200%? It's a vector, let us drag it to the size we need, please.

Also, as for me, I actually like the black GUI, but the fonts' visibility is not the best since it's actually not white on black in some parts, but rather dark grey on darker grey, which is actually not a good idea for visibility. The fonts are not contrasted to the dark background.

[loctune]

Ok, my post regarding the issues with the new Zebra 3 UI.

I think the new UI is much more modern looking and the design looks much more consistent. But IMHO there are still a number of improvements can be made.

1. The gray on gray color scheme generally looks good, but poses a number of issues:
1) Most of the texts/buttons/elements lack visual contrast and texts appear difficult to read.
2) The shade on option menus do more harm than good.
3) Deactivated modules look bad.
4) The data panel, being the only place offering visual numbers, lacks boundary. Also text hard to read issue.

ac9a9eb2-0e1e-4758-9e7a-8af374363231.png

2. The curve editor could use some more refinements.
1) The black space on the bottom looks bad and weird. It is only occupied when the osc type is additive. Some rearranging is needed. Also nitpicking: for better consistency, the renderer mode should be named as "wavetable synth/additive synth" or simply "wavetable/additive".
2) The curves in the plot lack visual contrast, especially the actual waveform.
3) Need to offer all common wave shapes in 1 cycle form: sine, sawtooth, square, pulse, triangle etc., as "curve presets". Users should be able to add these common waveforms within a single click rather than draw everything by hand.

9c9c2a53-9b1e-4538-9817-18e60d513341.png

3. The MSEG element needs more work.
1) The loop mode text is in a different color (and right click menu shows 0/1)
2) The visualization does not look good. It needs to be much larger to be useful.
3) The "plot disabled" looks bad.

be016ef7-b53a-4f2c-96ce-1c35fe21621a.png

4. All hidden parameters in the FX section should be displayed on the UI element.
5. Right click on empty space in the UI show a weird menu for scaling. This should be disabled and only work when right click at certain locations.

Anyway, look forward to seeing the final release soon!

[atticmike]

Why not implement Zebra into Zebra?

Make the standard UI shades of black and white and as soon as you activate things colors?

[loctune]

It would be nice to say there isn't anything in Zebra 2 that you can't do in Zebra 3, at least.

I took a deeper look into Zebra Legacy these days, and my gut feeling is there are still quite a number of things you can't possibly do in Zebra 3 (yet):

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...

[loctune]

Could someone tell me how I could create this shape in the curve editor? The default square wave has this vertical line on the boundary, but when I draw it myself on the same boundary they'd always merge into a single point...

0edf1a69-8173-4ad6-850f-9f8d38490107.png

[pdxindy]

Could someone tell me how I could create this shape in the curve editor? The default square wave has this vertical line on the boundary, but when I draw it myself on the same boundary they'd always merge into a single point...

Go into the full editor and at the bottom of the left side tools is a category called called Properties. Select the left icon and then you can add a vertical line at the edge.

[loctune]

Could someone tell me how I could create this shape in the curve editor? The default square wave has this vertical line on the boundary, but when I draw it myself on the same boundary they'd always merge into a single point...

Go into the full editor and at the bottom of the left side tools is a category called called Properties. Select the left icon and then you can add a vertical line at the edge.

Cool! Thanks!

[M32]

It would be nice to say there isn't anything in Zebra 2 that you can't do in Zebra 3, at least.

I took a deeper look into Zebra Legacy these days, and my gut feeling is there are still quite a number of things you can't possibly do in Zebra 3 (yet):

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...

Closer than you think. There are also filters built into the osc FX, and the Eq's can also behave (are essentially) filters (maybe 6 notch filters if you want)
Envelopes, explore the vary1 and vary2 parameters, vary 2 'feedback' can turn them logarythmic or exponential. MSEGS, you draw them (hint hint)
morpheable: check out the mixers and in4 modules and roll your own.