we've heard there have been some questions and rumours about Zebra 3 in the last few weeks and months (or decades).
So today we want to share a first glimpse into the future of our beloved workhorse with you.
Zebralette 3 is the first big step towards the next phase of Zebra's evolution.
Like it's predecessor, Zebralette 3 consists of a single Zebra oscillator with a few modulation sources and effects added, all wrapped in a fresh and modern, fully vectorized GUI.
The oscillator module alone is a world of its own, with a spline based wavetable editor at its core, up to sixteen wavetable snapshots featuring a variety of morphing options, two oscillator effect slots with over twenty effects to choose from, and an audio engine switchable between wavetable and additive synthesis.
Despite there being just one oscillator, there's a lot to explore.
First and foremost, the immensely powerful spline editor allows you to shape your waveforms and modulation signals with ease using many versatile tools.
Create a waveform in seconds with the stamp tools or spend hours meticulously shaping and carving out every detail of the wavetable snapshots and their morphing behaviour, it's totally up to you.
Decide if the wavetable represents the actual oscillator waveform or if it's used to shape the oscillator's spectrum.
Switch between regular wavetable or additive synthesis mode. Manipulate individual harmonics in additive mode.
Further shape and modulate the sound through the two oscillator effect slots, offering a mix of Zebra 2's most used effects and a variety of completely new creations.
Export your wavetable (minus modulation and oscillator effects) to use it in your favourite wavetable synthesizer.
Best of all, Zebralette 3 will of course be completely free.
Before you start, we highly encourage you to watch Urs's introductory video, explaining the main concepts and features of Zebralette 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7jcAVLRQTE
Also mandatory is a look at the work in progress user guide. Best to keep it handy during the first days of exploration:
Zebralette 3 User Guide WIP 20240304
After you've watched the video and read the user guide (you did, right?), it's finally time to take a deep breath, dive right in and start creating your own sounds and wavetables.
We also added a bunch of work in progress presets to give you a first rough idea of Zebralette's vast possibilities.
Downloads:
Zebralette 3 Public Beta 15573 Mac
Zebralette 3 Public Beta 15573 Windows
Zebralette 3 Public Beta 15573 Linux
We want to invite everyone to come join us in shaping the future of Zebralette and Zebra 3.
We want your input, your ideas, your honest critique, your feedback and thoughts about the spline editor, the user experience, and of course, its sound.
If you think there are important tools missing, if you have ideas for additional oscillator effects, if you think you know what's missing in the additive section, let us know.
Even if your ideas don't make it into the inital Zebralette 3 release, your input will still be valuable for the further development and refinement of Zebra 3.
Since there is a lot of ground to cover, we have created multiple threads to discuss the various parts of Zebralette 3.
Here's an overview to quickly reach each thread:
Zebralette 3 Public Beta Announcement - That's the one you are reading right now, use for general feedback and feature requests; you can also post audio examples here (please do).
Zebralette 3 Spline Editor & Usability (UI, UX) Discussion - Let's talk about all the spline editor tools here, along with the user interface and your workflow experience.
Zebralette 3 Wavetable Engine Discussion - Discuss everything related to the wavetable and morphing features here.
Zebralette 3 Additive Engine Discussion - Any thoughts and ideas related to Zebralette's additive engine.
Zebralette 3 Oscillator Effects Discussion - All the questions and feature requests related to the oscillator effects.
Zebralette 3 Modulation Section Discussion - Comments about the MSEG, envelope, LFOs and the modulation system.
Zebralette 3 Bug Reports - Every quirk, every bug, every crash, every WTF just happened, let us know about it.
Zebralette 3 Tips & Tricks - Share your greatest and most surprising findings and insights with everyone else.
What to expect and be aware of:
Now let's talk a bit about what you can expect and what you should be aware of before starting to play with this first beta version of Zebralette 3.
First, this is a very early access build. Don't expect it to be all polished and done, it's not.
There are things missing, parts that need to be improved, parameters that need better names.
There will be bugs, there will be crashes. Unexpected things will happen (in your life in general, and while playing with Zebralette).
Many parts are not yet fully optimized, so certain features might use more CPU now than in the final release version.
IMPORTANT WARNING: Zebralette's audio engine is very flexible and feature rich with few restrictions. This also means it can suddenly get very quiet or very loud at times, especially when using Osc Source "Curve Spectrum" in combination with oscillator effects.
Protect your ears and your gear by always adding a limiter to either the Zebralette track or the master track.
We hope that this build is stable enough to stay compatible to future versions, in terms of sound and project reloading.
However, since it's a very early beta, we cannot guarantee this right now, as it largely depends on your findings and feedback.
Some features are still missing and will get implemented during the beta period, e.g. MPE compatibility and support for CLAP's polyphonic parameter modulation.
Zebralette 3 will include support for CLAP, AU, VST3 and AAX. All formats will be 64-bit only, and there will be no VST2 version.
For a complete list of known issues and exact system requirements, please check the bug report thread.
The beta period will be as long as it needs to be, there is no set in stone date for a release yet.
We are unbelievably excited and nervous about this beta, as this is a major milestone for us we've been working towards for years. This is your chance to help us turn this into the best and most useful freeware synthesizer and wavetable editor we have ever created.
So let's get going and start your journey with Zebralette 3 right now.
Cheers,
the u-he crew
