u-he

jpinnix · Post by **jpinnix** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:19 am

http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/vie ... c&start=60

Did I miss an announcement somewhere Urs?

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:17 am

No, hehe, you didn't

I'm still working like hell on this beast. I will announce it when I got almost final screenshots.

The current version of Z2 mainly lacks the XY-controls and the modulation matrix. Everything else is pretty much in place, but there are still a lot of little things to do.

It'll be a *huge* update with uncountable improvements

Cheers,

Urs

jpinnix · Post by **jpinnix** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:55 am

btw, someone mentioned somewhere else on this board that Zebra 2 was coming out soon for PC... Will it be available for Macs right away too?

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 9:10 am

jpinnix wrote:btw, someone mentioned somewhere else on this board that Zebra 2 was coming out soon for PC... Will it be available for Macs right away too?

Man, I'm a Mac developer in the fist place. What took me so long with all this stuff: I had to do no more and no less Win development as to be able to just put the Mac code on a USB stick, walk five feet to the right hand side, plug the USB stick into the pc (which normally just runs TV), copy the stuff to the right directory, open Visual Studio, hit F7 and... done!

So, the Mac AU builds are typically finished 5 minutes before the Mac VST which in turn are ready another 5 minutes before the Win version.

The Z2 PC Blog is here, well, because I announced Zebra for PC like 1,5 years ago. It's been vapourware ever since. But not for much longer.

Cheers,

Urs

anti-banausic · Post by **anti-banausic** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:48 pm

Ahhh, not for much longer.

Does this mean that I may finally be able to uncross my fingers?

It is really quite hard to work, let alone type, that way.

Cheers,
Congrats Urs...We are all waiting.

spaceman · Post by **spaceman** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:45 pm

I'm emberrased to admit it but it took me 5 months to finally sit down and get to know my Zebra..

.. and oh boy

I can't wait for v2 to fill my stables

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 1:32 am

spaceman wrote:I'm emberrased to admit it but it took me 5 months to finally sit down and get to know my Zebra..

.. and oh boy I can't wait for v2 to fill my stables

No prob! - Z2 keeps up the spirit of Zebra but it exceeds it both in depth and in sonic experience!

I'm indeed very happy with it. I think it sounds & feels like hardware.

Laterz,

Urs

spaceman · Post by **spaceman** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 10:19 am

well.. I'm not in such a hurry really

this zebra should keep me busy for a long time coming

I always expected a steep-ish learning curve but I have to say Urs, you did a marvellous job on the interface. Everything just falls into place and it's logic all-round.. excellent!!!

will there be any GUI/workflow changes to v2? or will it roughly follow the current version?

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:04 am

spaceman wrote:well.. I'm not in such a hurry really this zebra should keep me busy for a long time coming

I always expected a steep-ish learning curve but I have to say Urs, you did a marvellous job on the interface. Everything just falls into place and it's logic all-round.. excellent!!!

Thanks

spaceman wrote:will there be any GUI/workflow changes to v2? or will it roughly follow the current version?

It's gonna be the same paradigm. You still have the Performance page, you have the Synthesis page with Racks & Grid and you have the bottom panel with all the special stuff. But that's about it. I think it's vastly improved in every single detail.

In Z2 you can change the module order in the Racks. Just click between two modules and they swap position. Or, in a special Rack selection mode, any selected Module goes on top of the Rack. In that mode, you just pick modules in the Grid in the order you want them (i.e. per channel).

Selected modules are now highlighted. When you turn a modulation depth knob, the corresponding module in the right side Rack gets highlighted.

Modulators that are unused don't clutter the Modulators Rack.

The "Global" module is taken out of the Audio Rack. Instead, there's a mixer now directly below the Grid.

Everything has become a little smaller, but with more contrast. It's as easy and quick to use, but you can see more at the same time.

Some special stuff, such as Velocity/Key mappings to ADSR values is now part of the modules in the Racks, but these modules can be expanded/collapsed just in case you really need it or not.

The Zebra logo on the right side was removed to offer more space for the Modulator Rack.

The Modulation Matrix was taken out of the bottom panel. It's now "behind" the Mixer below the Grid so you can see what you're targetting when you target something that's in the bottom panel (or you can see the MultiStage envelopes when used in conjunction with the ModMatrix)

The effects section has a master bus and 2 send busses now. Its Grid was extended (3 colums, 4 rows) to hold all the new effects modules (I think there are up to 8 effects now... dunno...)

Oh... routings in the Grid are now set up in the Grid itself. Much more consistent and less complicated than the old LineMix modules. (But I have yet to code the Mixers that sum two channels if needed)

The bottom panel has a couple of extra things now:

4 x "More OSCx": Waveform/Spectrum/Wavetable editor for each oscillator
"More FMOs": Key/Velocity Scaling of FM Oscillator volumes

The screen dimension are exactly the same. But I'm working on extended skinnability so that simplified views with smaller guis may be possible soon.

Ah... one important modification that has big impact on workflow:

Selecting a modulation source for a certain parameter doesn't happen in an extra pull down menu anymore. Instead you have a right-click menu on each modulation depth knob. The name of the modulator is then printed in the label below that knob.

So, all in all I'd say: It has become more complicated in terms of features, or better yet: Options! On the other hand, things have become more consistent and the gui "hides" the complexity from you just like it does in Z1.5. You can get it if you need it, but it's not in your way if you don't want it.

Cheers,

Urs

Warmonger · Post by **Warmonger** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:10 am

Urs, I think this is one of the few situations where the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" isn't a gross exaggeration.

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:26 am

Warmonger wrote:Urs, I think this is one of the few situations where the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" isn't a gross exaggeration.

That's right... and considering that it's only a week from now... but there's so much stuff on the ToDo list... the Performance pane is still lacking fully... the logo looks shyte...

Ah... nevermind...

http://www.u-he.com/img/Zeb2ShotA02.gif

Urs

spaceman · Post by **spaceman** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:31 am

that's an impressive list of improvements Urs

I think you are by far the best GUI designer

spaceman · Post by **spaceman** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:33 am

zebra 2 + filterscape.. that thought just made me very quiet for a moment

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 12:03 pm

Thanks man

Urs

Sargon · Post by **Sargon** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 1:14 pm

Wow. Looks gorgeous.

u-he

KVR Audio

zebra2