Zebra 2.6 Sanity Check

[Urs]

As you all know, we're going to release the latest public betas as final next week.

Unfortunately a problem came up late, and we had to recompile Zebra 2.6 with all the changes that we made for Bazille/Satin design. It should be all compatible, but d'oh... better test this quick and thoroughly.

http://www.u-he.com/downloads/Zebra/Zebra26Mac.zip
http://www.u-he.com/downloads/Zebra/Zebra26Win.zip

The good news is, the official "normal" Zebra will now have those 3 Easter-Egg filters from ZebraHZ as we call them. Those are 3 filters from early Diva development which resemble the filter in TyrellN6 and 2 versions of the MS-20 type. Mind you, they are not Diva filters, they have different key follow, but they add a lot of character to Zebra.

We had to include these because from next week on the downloads and installers for Zebra and The Dark Zebra/ZebraHZ will be strictly separated, and some film music guys had already started scoring with that version. We couldn't possibly have that popular TV series revert from MS-20 filters to "SR Decimate" in the soundtrack, so we figured we'll just add those.

Thanks,

Urs

[Ch00rD]

Excellent, just in time for a bit of jamming on Friday night.

[Simon-Claudius]

So what are the differences between 'The Dark Zebra' and 'Zebra 2.6' now? Merely the presets?

[EvilDragon]

TDZ still has all the Diva filters, the resonator effect, and per-voice compressors.

[Ch00rD]

... and the extra patches, of course. As mentioned elsewhere, another good reason to get ZebraHZ, studying them is somewhat of a course in patch design by some true masters in the art.

Fwiw: I still need to talk myself into getting Z2 before Z3 comes out (somehow I've managed to do so far with only ZebraCM and occasionally running the demo for 15 minutes...), and ZebraHZ certainly made that route more appealing than ever before. I guess Diva, ACE and Bazille were the main reasons I didn't get my hands on it yet. If only u-he would stop releasing even more good stuff for a while so we can all catch up!

[Ch00rD]

Fwiw: I'm again having the same issue I usually have when downloading from u-he's servers again: with wifi borrowed from a random friendly neighbour (i.e. a somewhat unreliable connection, probably with multiple computers online behind a single firewall/router/switch), the download stalls after a few hundred kb on every single attempt. Switching to the connection of my smartphone (which is capped, hence my preference for 'free' wifi) works perfectly, though.

[Urs]

Fwiw: I still need to talk myself into getting Z2 before Z3 comes out (somehow I've managed to do so far with only ZebraCM and occasionally running the demo for 15 minutes...)

Or maybe you could just lend me a bunch of analogue synths, say a TB-303 or two and I could compensate you for that by sending you a Zebra license...

[Urs]

I'll be looking into a server mirror alternative over the weekend. I guess we've moved past being able to serve from just one machine... (which I guess is a good sign)

[suthnear]

@Urs - you're very welcome to borrow my 303. It's a particularly good sounding one. PM me if you're interested

[Urs]

@Urs - you're very welcome to borrow my 303. It's a particularly good sounding one. PM me if you're interested

Hehehe, thanks so much! My answer was a bit tongue in cheek because Ch00rD actually lent me two. I wasn't aware he hadn't had Zebra, hence I'll send him one

What otoh makes a good sounding TB? I think we should start a thread about this in a few months...

I've learned a lot about Minimoog differences, but Rolands seemed to always be rather consistent within the revision, i.e. a JP-8 Rev1 sounds like a JP-8 Rev1 and a Rev2 sounds like a Rev2.

(forgive me, I've never used a TB, and I can't wait to check them out next week)

[xanderevo]

@Urs - you're very welcome to borrow my 303. It's a particularly good sounding one. PM me if you're interested

Can my TI2 join the party? :>

(Munich)

[Ch00rD]

Fwiw: I still need to talk myself into getting Z2 before Z3 comes out (somehow I've managed to do so far with only ZebraCM and occasionally running the demo for 15 minutes...)

Or maybe you could just lend me a bunch of analogue synths, say a TB-303 or two and I could compensate you for that by sending you a Zebra license...

LOL! That's very generous, Urs, and would certainly be much appreciated. But you'd better make that a NFR then, or I'd have to start getting afraid that you may put my loaners on eBay.

Did you get around to playing with them a bit already?

I'll be looking into a server mirror alternative over the weekend. I guess we've moved past being able to serve from just one machine... (which I guess is a good sign)

Being DDoS'ed by your users is most definitely a good sign... but don't stretch your luck!

I'd definitely look into a more high-end distribution for public releases, although probably not during the weekend (better: take a six pack of German beer, a silver box, and a set of ear goggles to Tiergarten or so). And for relatively small scale stuff (I assume) like posting a beta here, perhaps in the meantime something as simple as using a public Dropbox folder would suffice. This may also be interesting (I don't use it myself, a bit too fancy for me already): get a slice of high-end Amazon storage space, that can also be used for neat backup systems such as Arq. You can never really predict when someone brute-forces a bolt of metal through your development system, I guess.

[Ch00rD]

@Urs - you're very welcome to borrow my 303. It's a particularly good sounding one. PM me if you're interested

Hehehe, thanks so much! My answer was a bit tongue in cheek because Ch00rD actually lent me two. I wasn't aware he hadn't had Zebra, hence I'll send him one

What otoh makes a good sounding TB? I think we should start a thread about this in a few months...

I've learned a lot about Minimoog differences, but Rolands seemed to always be rather consistent within the revision, i.e. a JP-8 Rev1 sounds like a JP-8 Rev1 and a Rev2 sounds like a Rev2.

(forgive me, I've never used a TB, and I can't wait to check them out next week)

I don't have much of an answer to that question. I'd certainly be interested to find out a bit more about the sort of differences there are to be found. Mine definitely seem to have some sonic differences between them, but I have always rather emphasised such differences for the sake of variety (e.g. by adjusting the TM3 and perhaps TM5 screws on the boards a bit) than trying to make them sound as similar as possible, and I can't really say I have a clear preference for any specific one as far as their sound goes (decisive factors are more typically things like "this one has more reliable switches for programming", or "I want that one with the CV input to the cut-off").

I guess the ones that have suffered the least from ageing, and still sound most 'crisp' and/or least noisy are the 'best sounding' ones (btw, rumours have it that placing one in a freezer for a while makes them sound a bit crispier too). For noise-free recordings, I much prefer to use plug-ins like ABL2; but the noise in (most?) 303's definitely does have its sonic charms as well, imho.

Still, "good sounding 303" is a bit of a tautology, imho. Especially with high resonance settings, it has some set of sonic properties that give it a distinct character that just stands out, no matter how 'bad' the rest of the signal flow, much like with the human voice or electric guitar, you'll more often than not still recognise it as such. To some extent, I see this type of sounds as 'indestructible': trying to 'destroy' the tone typically only makes it come out different, like a bubble under the carpet that won't go away no matter how hard you step on it. Inserting yet another noisy fuzz pedal? Sure, bring it on, and turn the knobs all the way up please!

[hollo]

The good news is, the official "normal" Zebra will now have those 3 Easter-Egg filters from ZebraHZ as we call them. Those are 3 filters from early Diva development which resemble the filter in TyrellN6 and 2 versions of the MS-20 type. Mind you, they are not Diva filters, they have different key follow, but they add a lot of character to Zebra.

...
Urs

Thank you Urs!!! I was sure you are not listening to me!

Great!

[noiseprovesnothing]

Ch00rD - you'll LOVE Zebra. Nothing that is that versatile and sounds that good should take as little CPU as it does.