Uncategorized ZebraHZ User Manual

ZebraHZ

and

THE DARK ZEBRA

Version 2.9

5. Oct 2020

U-HE • Heckmann Audio GmbH • Berlin

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

The Dark Zebra! 5".....................................................

ZebraHZ! 5"................................................................

Installation! 6".............................................................

Terms of Use! 7".........................................................

User Interface 8

Basic Operation! 8"....................................................

Upper Bar! 9"..............................................................

GUI size! 10"...............................................................

Synthesis Window! 10"...............................................

Main grid! 11".........................................................

Lane Mixer! 12"......................................................

Lane Compressors! 13"..........................................

Performance Window! 14"..........................................

Lower Bar and Lower Pane! 15".................................

Preset Browser 16

Overview! 16".............................................................

Directory Panel (folders)! 17"..................................

Presets Panel (files)! 18".........................................

Preset Info Panel! 20".............................................

Installing Soundsets! 20"............................................

Preset Tagging! 21"....................................................

Search by Tags! 22"....................................................

Search by Text! 23"....................................................

Global Settings 25

PITCH! 25".............................................................

GLIDE! 25"..............................................................

VOICE! 26".............................................................

MICROTUNING! 26"...............................................

SWING! 26"............................................................

2

Generators 27

OSC main panel! 27"..................................................

PHA/SNC (Phase/Sync)! 28"..................................

OSC FX! 28"...........................................................

List of spectral effects! 29"....................................

MIXER! 30".............................................................

OSC Lower Panel! 31"................................................

OSC Wave Editor! 32"................................................

Wave Selector! 32".................................................

GeoMorph & SpectroMorph! 33"...........................

GeoBlend & SpectroBlend! 34"..............................

FMO main panel! 36"..................................................

FMO lower panel! 37".................................................

Noise! 38"...................................................................

VCF! 39".....................................................................

XMF! 41".....................................................................

Diva VCF! 43".............................................................

COMB! 45".................................................................

SIDEBAND! 48"..........................................................

SHAPER! 48"..............................................................

Distortion! 49".............................................................

RING! 51"...................................................................

MIX! 51"......................................................................

FOLD! 52"...................................................................

Modulators 53

List of Modulation Sources! 53".................................

Modulation Matrix! 54"...............................................

ENV! 55".....................................................................

MSEG! 58"..................................................................

LFO! 60".....................................................................

LFOG! 62"...................................................................

MOD MAPPER! 63"....................................................

MMix! 65"...................................................................

Outputs and Effects 66

The FX Grid! 66".........................................................

MODULATION FX! 67"................................................

3

DELAY! 68".................................................................

REVERB! 69"..............................................................

COMPRESSOR! 70"...................................................

EQ! 71".......................................................................

NU REV! 72"...............................................................

RESONATOR! 73".......................................................

Performance 74

Arpeggiator / Sequencer! 74".....................................

Hands-on tutorial! 74"............................................

General Settings! 75".............................................

Per Step Settings! 76"............................................

XY Pad programming! 78"..........................................

Configuration 80

About MIDI CC! 80"....................................................

MIDI Learn! 81"...........................................................

MIDI Table! 82"...........................................................

Preferences! 83".........................................................

Tips & Tricks 85

Motion viewer for modulators! 85".........................

Spectralize! 85"......................................................

Modulation inverter! 86".........................................

Absolute value! 86"................................................

Vibrato under control! 86"......................................

More MSEG points! 86".........................................

Modulation Target Lists 87

Generators! 87"..........................................................

Modulators! 93"..........................................................

Global! 95"..................................................................

Effects! 96".................................................................

Flow Diagrams 101

Delay Modes! 101".................................................

XMF Modes! 103"...................................................

NKS 104

4

TOC INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Just a few sections of the main Zebra2 user guide are missing in this version: There is no
‘Quick Start Tutorial’, as it is assumed that you already know the absolute basics. Neither
the Zebrify nor the Zrev chapters are repeated here, as there are no special versions of
those effect for ZebraHZ. However, all important reference information is included, so you
shouldn’t have to refer to the regular Zebra2 user guide very often, if at all.

The Dark Zebra

The Dark Zebra is a bank of 400 presets, a collaboration between Hollywood composer
Hans Zimmer and u-he’s own Howard Scarr. Practically all Zebra sounds used in the
movies The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises are included, plus a few extras that
were made at the same time but didn’t quite fit in the scores.

New in version 2.9…

All presets now include XY pad control and are NKS compatible. Especially the ‘simpler’
presets benefit greatly from the extra controls!

ZebraHZ

ZebraHZ is Hans Zimmer’s custom version of Zebra2. Many of the following extensions
are required by The Dark Zebra:

•

8 extra filters (4 x highpass and 4 x lowpass) based on Diva models

•

4 comb filter modules instead of 2

•

8 MSEGs instead of 4

•

24 modulation matrix slots instead of 12

•

X/Y pads also appear as regular modulation sources

•

4 polyphonic compressors, one for each lane of the main grid

•

3 Polymoog™-style resonators with additional full-range band

Note: For even more powerful physical modelling capabilities, version 2.9 has twice as
many comb filters as version 2.8, and three Resonators instead of just one.

Online resources

For downloads, news and support, go to our website
For heated debates about u-he products, go to our forum
For friendship and informal news updates, go to our facebook page
For u-he presets (paid or free), go to our patch library (PatchLib)
For video tutorials and more, go to our youtube channel
For personal pics and a few videos, go to our instagram page
For audio demos of soundsets, go to our soundcloud

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 5

TOC INTRODUCTION

Installation

Double-click the installer (Mac or PC) and follow instructions.

Important: If you are updating an existing ZebraHZ installation, please either use the
same paths as the original and select the same set of plug-in formats, or remove the old
version before installing the new one. To avoid crashes or other “strange behaviour” while
loading presets, please do not mix old and new versions.

Serial Number: ZebraHZ uses the same serial number as Zebra2. Load ZebraHZ, right­click on the data display then select enter serial number. If you can’t find your Zebra serial
number, go to u-he.com/my-licenses/ and follow the “request” instructions.

Default Paths

Windows

Presets (local) C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\ZebraHZ.data\Presets\ZebraHZ\
Presets (user) C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\ZebraHZ.data\UserPresets\ZebraHZ\
Preferences C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\ZebraHZ.data\Support\ (*.txt files)
MSEG/OSC C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\ZebraHZ.data\Modules\
Microtuning C:\Users\*YOU*\Documents\u-he\ZebraHZ.data\Tunefiles\

macOS

Presets (local) MacHD/Library/Audio/Presets/u-he/ZebraHZ/
Presets (user) MacHD/Users/*YOU*/Library/Audio/Presets/u-he/ZebraHZ/
Preferences MacHD/Users/*YOU*/Library/AppSupport/u-he/com.u-he.ZebraHZ…
MSEG/OSC MacHD/Library/Application Support/u-he/ZebraHZ/Modules/
Microtuning MacHD/Library/Application Support/u-he/Tunefiles/

Formats, Support

•

ZebraHZ supports AU, VST2 / VST3. You can run Zebra2 and ZebraHZ in parallel, as
they are separate plug-ins.

•

ZebraHZ and Zebra2 both require a serial number issued after mid-2009. If your Zebra2
serial is older, go to u-he support and request a new one. If your email address has
changed since then, please let us know. If you can’t remember when you purchased
Zebra2, please retrieve your original serial number before installing ZebraHZ. If you
start Zebra2 with an obsolete code, it will ask you to contact [e-mail] so we
can send you a new one. No worries, you really can’t break anything!

Updates

As a combination of soundset and plug-in, The Dark Zebra cannot be directly downloaded
from its product page. In general, u-he soundset updates can only be downloaded after
you have requested a license email: If you ever need an update, go to the My Licenses
page at u-he.com and enter the e-mail address you originally used to purchase The Dark
Zebra. Our system will reply with an e-mail containing all your u-he plug-in serial numbers
(including the one for Zebra2) plus temporary download links for any u-he soundsets you
currently own, including the latest Dark Zebra / ZebraHZ installer.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 6

TOC INTRODUCTION

Terms of Use

1. Before using this soundset, you must have purchased a legitimate license for Zebra2
as well as for The Dark Zebra soundset.

2. The Dark Zebra may not be distributed without the written consent of the copyright
holder, Heckmann Audio GmbH.

3. You may not distribute resampled or otherwise replicated parts of The Dark Zebra in
any product, commercial, free or otherwise. This includes, but is not limited to, sample
libraries and sample-based synthesizers. You may, however, create such derivates for
your own musical works as long as these derivates are only distributed in the context of
the musical work.

4. The Dark Zebra / ZebraHZ can only be resold together with your Zebra2 license.

Heckmann Audio GmbH, Berlin

Imprint / Impressum

Team (late 2020)

•

Urs Heckmann (boss, concepts, big code)

•

Jayney Klimek (office management)

•

Howard Scarr (user guides, presets, grump)

•

Rob Clifton-Harvey (IT admin, backend development)

•

Sebastian Greger (graphic design)

•

Jan Storm (framework, code)

•

Alexandre Bique (all things Linux)

•

Oddvar Manlig (business development)

•

Viktor Weimer (support, presets, the voice)

•

Thomas Binek (QA, bug-hunting, presets)

•

Henna Gramentz (office supervision, support)

•

Frank Hoffmann (framework, browser)

•

Alf Klimek (rock-star vocals, studio)

•

Sebastian Hübert (media, synthwave)

•

David Schornsheim (more code)

•

Stephan Eckes (yet more code)

Special thanks Brian Rzycki for maintaining PatchLib.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 7

TOC GUI

User Interface

Basic Operation

Although operating ZebraHZ is fairly intuitive, there are a few points worth mentioning…

Standard controls

Values are adjusted via click-and-drag, with fine control by holding
down a SHIFT key. The knobs are either bipolar like Pan in this
image, or unipolar like Volume. Most bipolar knobs are centre-
zero, but there are exceptions e.g. the Delay times.

Double-click resets a knob to its default value. If your mouse has a scroll wheel, hover
over any control then roll the wheel. For finer control, hold SHIFT.

Assignable controls

Most of Zebra’s modules include freely assignable controls that directly
modulate important parameters. Select a source by clicking the label (or the
knob if unassigned). The target is the knob above or to the right, indicated
by a small triangle.

Note that both assignable controls in the VCF module affect Cutoff. Also,
what appear to be assignable controls in the envelopes are actually pre-at­tack and post-sustain options (see ENV).

Parameter locking

Right-click on a control and select ‘Lock’. The lock only prevents the value
from changing when you switch presets, it does not prevent you from
adjusting the value directly. To unlock, right-click again and untick ‘Locked’
in the menu. Example: Lock both Microtuning options to audition various
presets, all with the same non-standard tuning.

Note: Right-clicking a knob also lets you assign XY control – a quick alternative to the
more flexible method described in the XY Pads chapter.

Switches and the mouse wheel

Most of the rectangular buttons open drop-down menus. However, most of them will
also react to the mouse wheel – which is particularly useful in the ARP CTRL panel.

If your mouse wheel is rastered i.e. it has noticeable ‘ticks’, you should check that the
Mouse Wheel Raster preference is switched on (see Preferences). This ensures that
each tick will correspond to a sensible step, usually an integer.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 8

TOC GUI

Upper Bar

SYNTH, PERFORM, PRESETS

The buttons on the left select the 3 main windows.

DATA DISPLAY

The central display has three jobs: Firstly, it shows the preset name. You can step through
the presets by clicking on the triangles to the left and right. Clicking on the name opens a
list of all presets in the current directory – a convenient way to load a preset without having
to open the PRESETS window. Since version 2.9.1 you can even load a preset by drag­ging it from your desktop (or any system window) onto the data display.

Secondly, it shows the value of the parameter being edited. Watch the display whenever
you need to set specific values. After about 2 seconds, it reverts to the preset name.

Thirdly, right-clicking on the display toggles between compatibility mode 2.3 (a faint ‘2.3’
appears on the right) and the regular 2.5+. While editing 2.3 presets, remember that this
mode does not support some more recent features and improvements. Also, the sound
can change when you switch from 2.3 to 2.5, mainly due to the improved XMF module.

A small indicator at the bottom left lights up whenever MIDI data is being received.

INITIALIZE (init)

At the top of the context menu (right-click on the display) is a simple template called init
you can load whenever you want to program from scratch. The main grid contains an oscil­lator and the effects grid has an inactive Chorus/Phaser (ModFX1).

UNDO / REDO

The curved arrows to the left of the data display can be used to fix recent ‘mistakes’. Al­though the number of steps in the undo buffer is limited, you can even undo a change of
preset so that switching presets before saving doesn’t mean losing your work.

SAVE

Stores the preset into the currently selected folder or the ‘User’ folder, de­pending on the Save Presets To setting. To select a different folder, click on
PRESETS and navigate in the directory. Then click on [SAVE], give your pre­set a name and enter the details you want to appear in PRESET INFO area
of the browser. Please avoid using the characters \ / ? % * : " > < =

Right-clicking on [SAVE] opens a menu with a choice of file formats. The recommended
h2p option is our normal cross-platform format (editable text), while h2p extended includes
extra readable information. The native option is the standard format of your system (.fxp
for VST and AAX, .aupreset for Audio Units). If you have loaded the VST2 version you will
also see the option nksf: See the NKS chapter towards the end of this document.

BADGE

Clicking on the u-he badge opens a popup menu containing links to this
user guide, to the documents folder, to our company homepage, to our
KVR support forum as well as to our presence in various social networks.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 9

TOC GUI

GUI size

Right-clicking anywhere in the background of the control bar or lower pane opens a menu
with options for GUI sizes (as percentages and as width x height in pixels). Sizes larger
than the current screen will appear disabled (greyed-out).

A more permanent GUI size setting is available in the Preferences.

Synthesis Window

Click on the SYNTH button in the upper bar...

areas of the

SYNTH window

Generators rack

The area to the left contains control panels for each active module in the main grid (see
the next page).

Modulators rack

The area to the right contains panels for all control signals (envelopes, LFOs etc.) cur­rently in use. Modulators automatically appear as soon as they are used anywhere.

If the rack isn’t tall enough to show all active panels, a scroll bar will appear. Right-click
in an empty area of each rack to choose auto scroll – the rack scrolls (if necessary) to
reveal the panel belonging to the module selected in the grid, or selected on top – the
module selected in the grid moves to the top of the rack.

Note that the order of panels in the generators rack will seldom reflect the patch struc­ture as it is defined in the grid. However, you can swap the positions of adjacent panels
by clicking in the narrow space between them.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 10

UPPER BAR

GENERATORS

RACK

MODULATORS

RACK

LOWER BAR

LOWER PANE

MAIN GRID

LANE MIXER

TOC GUI

Main grid

The center of the Synthesis window is a grid consisting of four vertical lanes. This area
is used for connecting generators together, whereby the signal flow is top to bottom.

To add a module, click on an empty cell and select from the list. Drag modules around
the grid, deactivate via double-click (or Mac: cmd+click, Win: alt+click), specify input
routing or remove the module via right-click. Clicking on a module will highlight the cor­responding control panel in the generators pane.

IMPORTANT: Oscillators and noise generators (as well as FMOs in certain modes) do
not process audio, so when placed on top of one another in the same lane, the signals
are simply mixed together.

Lane 1 Lane 2

In the above example, both OSC1 and OSC2 flow into XMF1 (cross mod filter). The
XMF1 output is then mixed with (not processed by!) OSC3, and the mixture flows down
lane 1. OSC4 flows down lane 2 as well as modulating XMF1 cutoff (the red arrow).

Routing between lanes

Any module can route signals between the
lanes. Right-click on a module to select the
source (‘Input’) lane.

In this example, OSC1 is processed by the
Comb module in lane 1. Both OSC1 and
Noise1 are filtered by VCF1 in lane 2.

Note that the vertical position can matter
when routing between lanes: If Noise1 is
moved to where VCF1 is now, it will take its
input from Comb1 instead.

Note: For the sake of simplicity and brevity,
the names of modules as they appear in
the grid, which often differ from the panel
titles, are used throughout this manual.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 11

OSC1 OSC2 OSC4

OSC3

XMF1

Lane 1 Lane 2

TOC GUI

Lane Mixer

Below the main grid is what looks like a 4-channel mixer. This is where you adjust the
pans/volumes and select envelopes as well as route signals to the FX grid.

main grid

mute button

fx bus select

L/R pan or balance

pan/bal modulation

amp envelope

volume

volume modulation

MUTE

A handy mute button for each lane. In the image above, lane 2 is muted.

FX Bus Select

Selects an output for each lane:

main

............ route to the lefthand lane of the FX grid (MASTER)

bus1

............ route to the center lane of the FX grid (R1)

bus2

............ route to the righthand lane of the FX grid (R2)

PAN / MOD

Pan position knob plus assignable modulation knob. Right-click on a PAN knob to toggle
between Pan and Bal (balance) modes. Remember that balancing to the left means
fading out the righthand channel of your stereo signal, while panning to the left means
moving it over to the left.

Amp Envelope

Selects an envelope for each lane’s amplifier.

Gate

.............a simple on/off envelope, but with enough release to avoid clicks

Env(n)

.........envelopes 1 to 4

VOL / MOD

Lane volume knob and assignable modulation knob. Modulation here scales the volume
from 0% through 100% (centre) to 200%. In the example above, the modulation wheel
fades lane 1 down to silence, irrespective of the VOL value (which is about 70 here).

Note: If you want a unipolar modulation source to fade a lane in from zero it’s best to
use the modulation matrix instead.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 12

TOC GUI

Lane Compressors

Each lane in the main grid has its own polyphonic (per voice) compressor. All controls
appear in the lower area, like the Diva VCF modules.

Click COMP1-4 in the lower bar…

On/Off

To save CPU, lane compressors can be switched off.

GR

Gain reduction indicator

Mode (the vertical 3-way switch)

ECO

original lo-fi version, with low CPU-hit. .................

SMOOTH smooth compression, the best choice for most situations. .......

STRONG very powerful compression, best for bold percussive sounds. .......

ATTACK

The time it takes for the compressor to fully work after the threshold has been reached.
Attack can affect the brightness: very fast values cause the compressor to reduce gain
immediately, which can dull the attack of the original sound. When ATTACK is set to
zero, it is only one sample long.

RELEASE

This adjusts the recovery time i.e. the time the compressor takes to return to unity gain
after the input signal has fallen below the threshold. Very short release can distort low­frequency input, overly long release can ‘clamp’ the sound down and not release
enough before the next ‘attack’ arrives. When RELEASE is set to zero, the release is
only one sample long.

INPUT

The input level before the signal reaches the compressor.

THRESHOLD

The level above which compression is applied and below which it is released. Lower
THRESHOLD values result in more compression than higher values.

COMP

The amount of compression – think of this as a dry / wet crossfade.

OUTPUT

Compensates for any loss or gain resulting from the compression.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 13

TOC GUI

Performance Window

Click on the PERFORM button in the upper bar to open the Performance Window. The
four X/Y pads can simultaneously control up to 16 parameters each…

Performance window, with a different ‘XY’ panel selected below

•

Click to jump to a new position – find different variations of the sound

•

Click and drag to move smoothly – for realtime morphing

•

Double-click to reset to the center

Next to each pad is a large field where you can add a functional description (double-click).

Note: NKS hardware owners might generally prefer to use the 8 knobs instead of the pads,
as the X and Y dimensions are independent. The Dark Zebra presets, however, are
geared towards 2D control.

Clicking on the [+≣] icon at the top right of each pad toggles between the
the pad and a list of X/Y assignments. You can also make assignments
here without having to open the XY panel in the lower area. Drag & drop

assignment also works (as in the above image), but as the generator and
modulation racks are not currently visible, this is mainly useful for assigning XY to the lane
mixer and effect parameters.

For details, see the section about programming XY Pads in the PERFORMANCE chapter.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 14

TOC GUI

Lower Bar and Lower Pane

The lower bar switches the contents of the lower pane:

GLOBAL

Output levels, the FX grid and FX panel, miscellaneous preset settings. Go there

OSC1 to OSC4

Wave Editor, oscillator load/save, miscellaneous oscillator settings. Go there

FMO1-4

Additional settings for all 4 FMOs in a single panel. Go there

MSEG1-8

The 8 Multi-Stage Envelope Generators. Go there

XY1

For programming the X/Y pads. Go there

ARP CTRL

For programming the arpeggiator / sequencer. Go there

MM1-12 / MM13-24

Two pages of modulation matrix slots (1 to 12 and 13 to 24). Go there

DIVA VCF

The Diva filters. Go there

COMP1-4

The 4 lane compressors. Go there

Note: The lower bar and lower pane remain active in all window modes.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 15

TOC PRESETS

Preset Browser

Overview

You can load a preset in the current folder by clicking on the data display, or step through
them by clicking on the arrow symbols either side of the data display…or even drag a pre­set file from a system window or your desktop and drop it onto the data display. But of
course Zebra also has a powerful preset browser – click PRESETS in the upper bar:

Layout

Folders are on the left, presets in the centre and information about the currently active
preset on the right. If there is no PRESET INFO panel on the right, click on the [≡] button
in the top righthand corner and tick Show Preset Info. The same menu also offers Show
Tags in Pr es et Info – untick if you prefer not to see any tags there.

Default, init

When ZebraHZ starts it checks whether Local contains a preset called default. If so, this
is loaded instead of Batcave Syncing Down. If you want a simple template every time
you start a new instance, right-click on the data display and select init. Then select the
Local folder and save it under the name default (which does not appear in the browser).
If a fresh instance doesn’t load your new default, it probably landed in User, in which
case you should change Save Presets To in the Preferences and repeat the above.

PATCH FORMAT

At the bottom right of the browser you can specify the format in which your patches will
be saved. The default is .h2p (recommended). To save in the plugin version’s own for­mat, select native. The .h2p extended format can include comments for each line.

SAVE ONLY ACTIVE MODULES

Unused modules will not be saved with the preset. Activating this option causes newly
created modules to adopt settings from previously loaded presets.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 16

TOC PRESETS

BYPASS EFFECTS

Mirrors FX BYPASS in the GLOB/FX panel. Click to temporarily deactivate all effects in
the grid. This switch is truly global – you won’t hear any effects until you deactivate it!

Directory Panel (folders)

Local and User Folders

Dark Zebra patches are sorted into 9 folders, and there’s an untagged ’best of’ selection
in the ‘Local’ root. At the bottom of ‘Local’ is the entire Zebra2 factory library. After se­lecting a preset you can step through the others using the cursor keys.

‘Local’ is meant primarily for factory content, so you should save all your own creations
into the ‘User’ folder (see the Save Presets To preference).

MIDI Programs

‘Local’ also contains a special folder called ‘MIDI Programs’. When the first instance of
ZebraHZ starts, all presets in that folder (up to 128) are loaded into memory so they can
be selected via MIDI Program Change message. Important: To ensure a fixed order it
is important to rename them e.g. ‘000 rest-of-name’ to ‘127 rest-of-name’.

‘MIDI Programs’ can contain up to 127 sub-folders, switchable via MIDI Bank Select
messages (CC#0). Send Bank Select first, then Program Change. ‘MIDI Programs’ itself
is bank 0, while sub-folders are addressed in alphabetical order starting with bank 1.
Important: The content of ’MIDI Programs’ cannot be changed on the fly. Any changes
there will only be updated when the host application is restarted.

Smart Folders

These are not regular folders, but the results of querying a database of all presets. The
content is therefore dynamic; it will change whenever the underlying data changes.

Search History is a list of past searches. To make them more permanent, right-click and
select Save Search… To empty the list, right-click on ‘Search History’ and select Clear.

Saved Searches contains any ‘Search History’ entries that have been saved. To remove
entries here, right-click and Delete. Items dragged from ‘Saved Searches’ and dropped
into the ‘Local’ or ‘User’ root will create a folder containing real copies of all the listed
presets. This is quite a powerful tool for reorganizing your presets, but requires care!

Bank lists presets according to origin, as also shown in PRESET INFO (3rd line down).

Favourites are 8 colour-coded folders (see Presets context menu below). The context

menus includes a function which removes that particular Favourites status from all pre­sets at once (Remove Favourite n from Presets).

Junk shows all ‘junked’ presets (see Presets context menu below). Presets dropped on
this folder will disappear from the browser unless you make them visible via show Junk.
The context menu (right-click) includes a function which lets you clear the Junk status
from all presets at once (Remove Junk from Presets).

Tags contains smart folders for each Categories, Features and Character tag. Presets
dropped onto these folders will adopt the corresponding tag. Presets dropped onto the
‘Untagged’ folder will have all Categories, Features and Character tags removed.

Author displays a folder for each author name (as defined when presets are saved).
Presets dropped onto these folders will adopt the new name.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 17

TOC PRESETS

Directory context menu

Right-clicking on any folder within Local or User will open this menu:

Refresh: Updates the browser. Windows users might need to call this function whenever
files have been moved, added, deleted or renamed in Explorer. Refresh is seldom nec­essary on the Mac.

Create New… Insert an fresh, empty subfolder.

Rename… Edit the folder name.

Open in Finder / Explorer: Opens the clicked folder in a system window. Hold down op-

tion (Mac) or ctrl (Windows) to switch this to ‘Show in Finder / Explorer’, which highlights
the folder instead of opening it.

On Open Expand to: Determines which nested directories will appear in the directory
whenever the GUI is loaded. The final option reveals all folders, however deeply nested.

Show Folder Icons: Show or hide symbols to the left of each folder.

Presets Panel (files)

The central area of the browser shows all presets in the current directory. Click to load.

Presets context menu

Right-clicking on a preset opens a menu containing the following options:

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 18

Refresh
Create New…
Rename…
Open in Finder *

Move to Trash

On Open Expand to

Show Folder Icons

Mark as Favourite

Select All

Deselect

Show Junk

Rename…
Duplicate
Show in Finder *
Convert to h2p

Move to Trash

Mark as Junk

Mark as Favourite
Mark as Favourite
Mark as Favourite
Mark as Favourite
Mark as Favourite
Mark as Favourite
Mark as Favourite

TOC PRESETS

Mark as Favourite: Choose one of eight ‘favourite’ marks. The selected entry will be re­placed with unmark as favourite.

Mark as Junk: Instead of deleting unloved presets, you can mark them as ‘junk’ so they
disappear from the browser…

Show Junk: Junk appears, but is marked with a STOP symbol.

Select All, Deselect: See ‘Multiple Selection’ below.

Rename: Rename the most recently selected preset.

Duplicate: Selected presets are copied with a number appended to the name. Like ‘Auto

Versioning’ (see Preferences), this is incremented to prevent presets being overwritten.

Show in Finder / Explorer: Opens the enclosing system window and highlights the select­ed preset.

Convert to native / h2p / h2p extended / nksf: Selected presets are converted to the
format specified in the [SAVE] button context menu or in the PATCH FORMAT field.

Move to Trash / Recycle Bin: Send selected presets to the system ‘trash’.

RESTORE

At the top left of the Presets panel is a [RESTORE] button which lets you audition pre­sets to your heart’s content without losing track of the one that was loaded before you
opened the browser: Clicking on [RESTORE] navigates to that preset and reloads it.

Scan / Ready

Progress indicator for Refresh (see Directory context menu above). It is best not to
close the plug-in (or the host) while a scan is in progress.

Multiple selection

A block of adjacent presets can be selected via shift+click, and individual presets can be
added to the selection via cmd-click (Mac) / alt+click (Win). Presets can be moved to a
different folder via drag & drop (see the next paragraph). To deselect, either click on an
unselected preset or choose Deselect from the context menu.

Drag & drop

To manage your own presets more comfortably you can drag presets and folders be­tween the browser and your desktop or any system window.

On the Mac, most Finder operations will automatically update the browser. It might not
update instantly when using multiple formats or multiple host applications, but all it usu­ally takes is a click on the GUI or in the directory tree, which sets the focus to that plug­in instance. On Windows, a manual refresh is required more often.

Export smart folders

Drag any smart folder onto the desktop to create a new folder containing those presets.
Drag an entry from your Search History, or the Category ‘Duo’, or one of the Authors...

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TOC PRESETS

Export favourite status

Shift+click and drag the ‘Favourites’ folder or any subfolder onto the desktop to create a
file called Favourite (n).uhe-fav. Such files can be imported into the ZebraHZ browser
on a different computer, via drag & drop anywhere in the ‘Favourites’ folder.

Note: Importing .uhe-fav files from another computer will only work 100% correctly if all
preset names and locations are identical on both computers.

Preset Info Panel

The panel to the right shows information about the selected preset. If you can’t see this
panel, click on the triple bar [≡] button in the top right corner and tick Show Preset Info:

Below the preset name you should see its path (from /Local or /User), the Bank and the
Author. DESCRIPTION and USAGE text is entered immediately before saving a preset.
CATEGORIES, FEATURES and CHARACTER are the tags for the currently selected
preset. You can remove or add tags directly here (see Tagging via Preset Info below)…

Installing Soundsets

All soundsets we distribute ourselves now have the extension .uhe-soundset, and third
parties are encouraged to use this format for their own commercial soundsets.

Note: You can install any Zebra2 soundset in ZebraHZ.

Standard Method

To install, simply drag & drop the .uhe-soundset file into ZebraHZ – anywhere will do.
The soundset folder will appear within the ‘User’ folder. If a folder with the same name
already exists there, the older versions of any modified files will be backed up and the
location of the backup will be displayed.

Alternative Method

Soundsets in .uhe-soundset format can also be installed by clicking on the u-he badge,
selecting Install Soundset... and navigating to the desired file. This option is especially
useful for Linux users, as u-he plug-ins for that platform do not support drag & drop.

Regular Folders

Folders containing Zebra2 or ZebraHZ presets can be copied or moved into the ‘User’
folder. You might have to refresh (see Directory context menu) before they appear.

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Show Tags in Preset Info

Show Preset Info

TOC PRESETS

Preset Tagging

Tags are elements of metadata, information that you can add to presets so that they can
be found more easily.

IMPORTANT: Tags are updated immediately, so clicking on [SAVE] isn’t required. The
main advantage is that presets don’t have to be saved each and every time you edit a
tag. The main disadvantage is that you should only edit tags AFTER saving your pre­set. If you start editing tags while tweaking a preset, perhaps with the intention of saving
it under a new name, be aware that you are changing the tags in the original preset!

The Tagging Window

Right-click on the [SAVE] button and select Tag this patch:

CATEGORY describes a preset by analogy to instrument types or typical usage, and each
has a more or less appropriate set of subcategories. FEATURES are technical classifica­tions, and CHARACTER tags are pairs of opposites from which you can choose just one.
When you are finished, click on the [CLOSE] button at the top right of the window.

Tagging via Preset Info

In the PRESET INFO panel, right-click on CATEGORY, FEATURES or CHARACTER
labels and select / unselect tags in the context menu. If you right-click on an individual
tag, the first option in the menu becomes Remove Tag…

The function Create Search from Tags finds all presets with the same set of category,
features and character tags (or any subset thereof). Tip: This function can be used to
locate duplicates with different names.

Tagging via Smart Folder

You can tag presets by dragging them onto any of the Tags subfolders in the directory.
To remove all tags from presets, drag and drop them onto the no Tags subfolder.

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Pads

Leads

Keys

FX

Drums

Seq+Arp

Other

Bass Acoustic

Analogue

Digital

E-Bass

FX Bass

Plucks

Rhythmic

Vocal

Sub

Dist+LoFi

Dry

Soft Attack

Chord

Mono

BPM

Slow Release

Percussive

Glide

Natural

Phat

Soft

Constant

Bright

Clean

Aggressive

Moving

Dirty

Thin

Dark

Synthetic

Poly

Duo

Synth

Sync

CHARACTERFEATURESCATEGORY

Modulated

FM

Comb

TOC PRESETS

Search by Tags

Click on the TAGS tab to open this view. The buttons here let you specify search criteria
with just a few mouseclicks:

Below the Search field are 4 sets of buttons (CATEGORIES, FEATURES, CHARACTER
and FAVOURITES). The first 3 correspond to the tags in the tagging window (see the pre­vious page), while the bottom row lets you find presets you have marked as Favourites.
Clicking on the [^] icon to the right of each heading hides the options for that set of tags.

Categories and Subcategories

Here are a few bullet points to get you started. Especially for CATEGORY tags, following a
step-by-step tutorial is much easier than studying a complete technical description.

Each category has its own set of subcategories. Not selecting a subcategory here means
“show me presets tagged with any subcategory”.

You can select multiple categories without specifying a subcategory if you hold cmd (Mac)
or alt (Windows) while clicking. The number of hits can increase dramatically!

Selecting a subcategory with the same name as the main category means “show me all
presets in the category that do not have any subcategories defined”.

Complete category+subcategory tags appear below the subcategories as buttons so that
you can add other main categories by simply clicking on them. Click the [X] to remove.

For a more detailed walkthrough, please refer to the standard Zebra2 user guide.

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TOC PRESETS

Search by Text

The Search field lets you find presets according to a string of characters i.e. text. If you
remember that the preset you’re looking for has the word “clock” in either its name or its
description, simply enter clock into the Search field and hit Return…

Search normally looks into the preset name, author, DESCRIPTION and USAGE (see the
PRESET INFO panel). Searches are not case-sensitive and quotes are not required un­less you want to include spaces between words.

If you want to restrict the search to a particular path e.g. Local/Drums + Clocks, double
click on the Drums + Clocks folder. This path appears below the Search field instead of the
preset folders. You will only see smart folders plus any subfolders within the specified path:

The [^] button to the left moves the search path up one level (in this case to /Local). The
[X] button to the right sets the search path to include all presets (i.e. Local and User), and
the regular preset folders reappear.

Try it: Enter three or four letters then hit Return. For instance, star would find all files con­taining the text string star (e.g. mustard or starters). Entering "star wars" (with the quotes!)
would find e.g. Battlestar Warsaw if such a preset exited.

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TOC PRESETS

Syntax

Scope

You can limit the search to just the preset name or parts of PRESET INFO by using name,
author, desc (description) or use (usage) followed by a colon. For instance, author:the

finds all presets by authors whose names include ‘the’. Similarly, desc:space will find all
presets with the word space in the description.

An alternative syntax lets you use ? (a single letter) and * (any number of letters), but the
scope name, author, desc or use must be specified, followed by ‘=‘, and logical operators
are not allowed.

Logic

The AND operator specifies that presets contain both words surrounding it. AND is implicit,
but can be written explicitly if you prefer: For example, star AND wars (or simply star wars)
will find presets that contain both star and wars.

OR only requires that presets contain one of the words surrounding it. For example, star
OR wars will find presets that contain star as well as presets that contain wars. Or both.

NOT excludes presets containing the following word. To find all presets that contain star
but do not contain wars, enter star NOT wars.

Examples using regular syntax

brass OR string ‘brass’ or ‘string’ appear in the Name, Author, Description or Usage

brass string both ‘brass’ AND ‘string’ appear somewhere in the preset

use:vibrato ‘vibrato’ appears in the Usage

"at =" aftertouch usage is mentioned in the Author, Description or Usage field

(Note: ’=’ is not a valid character for preset names)

“hs s” ctrl #Mono All monophonic factory presets starting with an ’s' that use at least one
of the A / B performance controls

Examples using alternative syntax

desc=*trin* e.g. ’string’ or ‘Patrington’ appear in the Description

author=*ow?e would find "Howie", "That old Howie", but not "Howie S”

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TOC GLOBAL

Global Settings

To open this panel, click on the GLOB/FX tab in the lower bar.

The global parameters

PITCH

TRANSPOSE

Shifts incoming MIDI notes within a range of +/- 24 semitones.

FINE TUNE

Shifts all oscillator and filter pitches by +/- 100 cents (relative to 100% keyfollow).

- BEND +

Sets pitch bend ranges independently from 0 to +/- 48 semitones.

GLIDE

MODE

time

....... The duration of the glide is constant, irrespective of the note interval.

rate

........ The duration of the glide is proportional to the note interval.

RANGE

Lower values shift the beginning of the slur closer to the target note.

GLIDE, GLIDE 2

A smooth pitch transition between consecutive notes. Glide affects the Key Follow mod­ulator, so it is applied to all modules that include this parameter (OSCs, FMOs, Combs,
VCFs and XMFs). Glide2 is a bipolar offset for the even-numbered modules. The modu­lation source KeyFol2 is the same as KeyFol, but includes the Glide2 offset.

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TOC GLOBAL

VOICE

MODE

Poly

Normal polyphonic. ........................

Retrigger Monophonic – each new note triggers the envelopes. ..............

Legato Monophonic – envelopes are retriggered after spaces between notes. ...................

Allows for more interesting musical phrasing.

Arpeggiator

Polyphonic – triggers, pitches etc. are defined in the ARP CTRL panel. .........

Duophonic Emulates an interesting feature of old analogue synths which offered ...........

both low note AND high note priority. Odd-numbered OSC, FMO,
Comb, VCF, D-VCF and XMF pitches and cutoffs follow the lowest note,
while those of even-numbered modules follow the highest note.

VOICES

You can reduce the maximum number of notes that Zebra2 will try to play at once:
few = 4 notes, medium = 8 notes, many = 16 notes. Due to intelligent voice allocation,
these are all approximate values.

SMOOTH ATTACKS

Instantaneous attack times can mean audible clicks at the start of each note. Switching
this on removes all such clicks. Tip: If you do want clicks (consistent ones), leave this
option off, activate RESET in the oscillator panel(s) and adjust PHASE/PW.

VOICE DRIFT

This causes each new note to be slightly detuned, emulating the imprecise pitch of
classic analogue oscillators. Switch off for more precision.

MICROTUNING

ZebraHZ supports standard .TUN microtuning tables. Literally thousands of these are
available online, and most of them are free. Click the ON button, then the selector (likely
to be ‘default scale’) to open a floating directory where you can choose a table. Note:
This window works like the main browser, including the drag & drop functionality.

Alternatively, right-click on the selector and choose a table from the current folder. Near
the top of the same menu is Show in Finder / Explorer, which opens a system window
for the location of microtuning files… you can put more .tun files in there.

SWING

In most synthesizers, ‘swing’ is only applied to the arpeggiator and/or mini-sequencer. In
Zebra2 and ZebraHZ this parameter also affects synchronized LFOs.

BASE / PERCENT

Click on the BASE selector, choose a bar division, then adjust the swing factor using the
PERCENT knob. Note that the indicator will stop flashing if PERCENT is set to zero.

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TOC GENERATORS

Generators

OSC main panel

In ZebraHZ, the oscillator module looks like this:

Oscillator panel with the MIXER sub-panel selected

The button next to the module label is for loading oscillator presets (see Oscillator Preset).

Switches

POLYWAVE

Selects single or multiple (2, 4 or 11) stacked oscillators. The eleven option here is
much more than a “supersaw”, as stacking can be applied to any waveform.

PWM

Adds an inverted copy of the waveform. Applied to a sawtooth, phase modulation (see
PHASE below) creates an effect very similar to classic PWM, hence the name.

SYNC

Activates oscillator-internal hard sync. See PHASE below.

RESET

Causes the oscillator to start at the same phase position each time.

Knobs

WAVE

The position (index 1–16) within the waveset. Unlike the row of selectors below the
wave editor, this knob lets you set intermediate values.

The knob below Wave is for wave index modulation (+/-16) – click on the label to select
a source. How smoothly and precisely waves are interpolated depends on the oscilla­tor’s Resolution setting (in the lower panel).

Note: The center of the waveset is actually 8.5, so a modulation amount of 7.5 from a
bipolar source is enough to span the entire waveset. To reach Wave 16 from Wave 1
using a unipolar source (such as the mod wheel), set the amount to +15.

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TOC GENERATORS

TUNE

Oscillator pitch offset (+/- 48 semitones). You can hold down SHIFT for finer control, but
there is also a Detune knob to the right. The knob beneath it is for Tune modulation (+/­48 semitones). Click on the label to select a source, then turn up the amount.

DETUNE

Detune has two different meanings, depending on the POLYWAVE setting: In single
mode it is simply fine tuning (+/- 50 cents). In dual, quad or eleven modes it does not
affect the overall pitch of the oscillator, but spreads the detuning equally between the
multiple waves

. Of course you can still fine tune the oscillator using SHIFT+Tune!

VIBRATO

The amount of pitch modulation from LFO1, with a range of +/- 50 cent.

The oscillators may appear harmless, but there is a lot more here than meets the eye.
Apart from extra parameters in the lower panel, oscillators have 3 switchable sub-panels,
Phase/Sync, Osc FX and Mixer, selected via the buttons at the top right...

PHA/SNC (Phase/Sync)

Click on the left tab:

PHASE/PW

Adjusts the oscillator phase from 0° to 180° (but you can
modulate it up to 360°). Rapid phase modulation normal­ly affects pitch, but if the PWM switch (see above) is on,
the effect is similar to pulse width modulation.

SYNC

Pitch offset for the oscillator’s integrated hard-sync. This
classic ‘analogue’ sync adds a lot of upper harmonics.

OSC FX

Click on the middle tab:

The waveform can be subtly or radically altered by two
spectral effects routed in series.

To select a spectral effect, click on the label of an upper
knob. Adjust the value and/or modulate to taste using the
assignable control. Here, the Scrambler effect is set to
zero, but is modulated by the pitch bender.

Note: While modulated, the speed and smoothness of
most spectral effects depend on the Resolution setting.

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TOC GENERATORS

List of spectral effects

Fundamental

Adjusts the level of the fundamental. Range = -200% (inverted) to
+200%. At the central position, the fundamental is inaudible.

Odd for Even

Even-numbered harmonics are cross-faded into odd harmonics. This
results in a more ‘squarish’ waveform (square waves contain only odd
harmonics). With negative values, the opposite applies

– odd harmonics

become even harmonics.

Brilliance

Boosts (positive) or attenuates (negative) higher harmonics, resulting in
brighter or darker waveforms.

Filter

A combination of lowpass (negative values) and highpass (positive val­ues) filters. Because in reality the ‘filter’ code only manipulates ampli­tudes, its slope is more than 100dB/octave.

Bandworks

A combined bandpass (positive) and notch filter (negative).

Registerizer

Boosts any octaves of the fundamental while attenuating all other har­monics, often resulting in an organ-like sound.

Scrambler

Similar to operator feedback in FM synthesizers: the phase of the wave­form is modulated by the wave itself, creating many new overtones. If
you need dirty-sounding digital oscillators, this is the one.

Turbulence

Periodically shuffles the harmonics at random. Even if not modulated,
the speed of this effect is dependent on the oscillator Resolution. Turbu­lence is useful in SpectroBlend mode with only a few harmonics.

Expander

Expands (or contracts when negative) the spectrum. Similar to brilliance
if the harmonics are distributed evenly.

Symmetry

Contracts the waveform towards the beginning or end of its cycle. Often
sounds like pulse width modulation – and for a square wave, that’s pre­cisely what it is!

Phase Xfer

A variant of PD (phase distortion). The original waveform is not output
directly, but is used as the phase response of an extra sine wave –
which you can hear when the value is zero.

Phase Root

The original wave multiplies the phase response of the sine wave.

Trajector

The original wave adds to the phase response of the sine wave. Like
phase modulation in ‘FM’ synthesizers – try Trajector on a pure sine.

Ripples

Multiplies the waveform with a variable harmonic, resulting in quasi-res­onant sounds.

Formanzilla

Multiplies the spectrum of the waveform with a variable harmonic, re­sulting in formant-like spectra with several strong peaks and troughs.

Sync Mojo

Simulates hard sync by contracting the time axis then writing the wave­form back into wave memory.

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TOC GENERATORS

MIXER

Click on the right tab:

PAN

Panorama shifts the stereo position to the left or right.

VOLUME

Oscillator output level.

WIDTH

If POLYWAVE is dual, quad or eleven, this knob controls
the stereo separation of the polywave. It has no effect if
POLYWAVE is set to single.

Fractalz

Like Sync Mojo, except that the already contracted wave is contracted
again etc.. This results in a fractal waveform with even more harmonics
than Sync Mojo. Fractal structures can be found in nature.

Exophase

A classic 7-stage phaser is applied to the original wave. This effect is
equally useful for static coloration or resonant sweeps.

Scale

The relative amplitudes of harmonics are scaled, either to the power of
2 (negative, softer) or 3 (positive, brighter). Results in finer resolution of
quiet harmonics, so more precise control over the overtone structure.

Scatter

Similar to Scrambler (see above), but here the phase is modulated by
itself squared (i.e. to the power of 2). An FM triangle or square from a
pure sine, or absolute chaos from a sawtooth – Scatter is flexible.

ChopLift

Negative values raise an amplitude threshold below which all harmonics
are faded out (Chop). Positive values raise the levels of fainter harmon­ics (Lift).

HyperComb

Adds 3 copies of the original wave to the wavetable. For positive values
(only), the phases are randomly shifted, resulting in a subtle to dramatic
effect similar to chorus. Even when not modulated, positive HyperComb
is dependent on the value of oscillator Resolution.

PhaseDist

Phase distortion, as in the ‘80s Casio CZ series of synthesizers. The
wave acts as a function for the phase of an inverse cosine. The
‘amount’ knob crossfades between no effect and full effect, so the most
dramatic uses of this effect involve modulating Wave index.

Wrap

Inverts parts of the wave that extend above or below a threshold. The
limits for multiple wrapping are greater with negative values.

DX

Same as Trajector (see above), but approximately 10 times stronger.

Smear

Blurs the spectrum in one direction (negative = down, positive = up).

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TOC GENERATORS

OSC Lower Panel

Center-stage in the oscillator’s lower panel is its Wave Editor. On the far left is a sub-panel
containing the following elements...

OSC MODULE PRESET

Use this to load or save complete oscillators, including all settings. Left-click to select a
preset from a floating window or right-click to open a menu containing Copy/Paste,

Save Oscillator(n) Settings and Show in Finder / Explorer.

Copy/Paste can be used to transfer all settings of an oscillator to another oscillator,

even in a different instance of ZebraHZ or Zebra2. Show in Finder / Explorer opens a
system window for the oscillator presets (including any you saved here).

Note that all modulation assignments (e.g. Wave modulated by LFO2) ARE oscillator
settings, while the settings in the modulation sources themselves are NOT. This means
that an oscillator preset might not sound the same as when you saved it.

WAVEFORM

Selects the basic mode for the current oscillator: Geomorph, SpectroMorph, GeoBlend
or SpectroBlend. All will become clear in the next few pages...

Renderer (unlabelled)

Oscillator ‘sharpness’, either soft or crisp. We recommend only switching to crisp if you
really need those extra ‘spikes’ and are not too concerned about aliasing.

NORM (normalization)

The output level of the generated wave is analyzed (RMS), then low-level waves are
boosted so that the final level would be 0dB if Normalize were set to 100%.

High normalization values are fine for boosting most low-level waves, but please keep
NORM low on very spiky waves.

RES (resolution)

Controls the time between successive waveform calculations, ensuring that

Zebra2 is still

very CPU-efficient compared with other synthesizers that calculate their waveforms in realtime.

The range is from 4 seconds (at 1.00) to below one millisecond (at 9.00).

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TOC GENERATORS

High values lead to more precise transitions at the cost of higher CPU load. Low resolu­tion can actually make transitions smoother, as intermediates are smoothly interpolated,
but can introduce other unwanted effects e.g. during rapid pitch-modulation. For most
purposes, the default value of 5.00 is best.

KEY S (key scale)

MIDI note to oscillator pitch, centered around the note E2. A bipolar KeyFol (key follow)
for the oscillators. for perfect semitones, set this to 100.00.

Gain Scaling

To the right is a sub-panel containing graphic controls for scaling the oscillator gain...

KEY SCALE / GAIN

MIDI note to OSC gain scaling. It can be used to balance oscillator volumes across the
keyboard or even create ‘keyboard splits’ between oscillators. The horizontal axis is
MIDI note (8 octaves) and the vertical axis is oscillator gain, independent of Volume.

VELOCITY SCALE

Velocity to OSC gain scaling: The horizontal axis is MIDI velocity and the vertical axis is
oscillator gain. Again, this feature is independant of the oscillator’s Volume control. Can
be used for velocity cross-fades or even ‘velocity switching’ between oscillators.

OSC Wave Editor

The Wave Editor is where you can create your own waveforms. As the editor manages up
to 16 waves per Waveset, it includes a Wave Selector bar below the editing area…

Wave Selector

The wave selector has almost the same function as the Wave knob in the oscillator’s main
panel – if you adjust one, the other will move accordingly. Unlike the Wave knob, however,
the selector doesn’t let you set intermediate values (e.g. Wave = 1.5).

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TOC GENERATORS

Mouse operations in the Wave Selector

Some extra functions for multiple waves…

Rearrange

(Mac) opt + drag
(Win) ctrl + drag

Morph or Blend

(Mac) cmd + click on the desired target wave
(Win) alt + click on the desired target wave

Duplicate

(Mac) opt + cmd + click on the desired target wave
(Win) ctrl + alt + click on the desired target wave

Context menu (right-click)

Morph / Blend, Duplicate or Exchange this wave with the currently highlighted one

GeoMorph & SpectroMorph

Although there are four oscillator modes, only two editing methods are required. This sec­tion describes the ‘Morph’ waveform modes and how to edit them.

GeoMorph

A typical GeoMorph wave

GeoMorph mode lets you draw waveforms by positioning up to 32 points, and adjusting
the curvature of the lines between them. Note that the first and last points cannot be delet­ed or moved horizontally – they define the level at 0° phase. The minimum number of
points is 4, and all waves in the waveset adopt the same total number.

SpectroMorph

A typical SpectroMorph wave

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TOC GENERATORS

Although it looks and feels like GeoMorph, SpectroMorph is very different. It does not rep­resent a waveform directly, but rather its spectrum. 1023 harmonics in the horizontal axis
are scaled logarithmically for a total range of about 10 octaves. In this mode, a horizontal
line spanning the width of the editor so that all harmonics have equal levels creates a very
bright saw wave. By the way, the example above is a bright saw (the upper line) with two
wide troughs – practically a “dual notch-filtered saw”.

Mouse operations, GeoMorph and SpectroMorph modes

Create or remove a point

(Mac) cmd + right-click
(Win) alt + right-click

Multiple selection

Click in the background and drag over one or more points
Shift + click on a point to add or remove it from the selection
To move all selected points, click and drag one of them

Adjust curvature (left, right)

(Mac) opt + drag, cmd + drag
(Win) ctrl + drag, alt + drag

Context menu (right-click)

insert point

creates a new point (appears in all waves in the waveset) .....................

smooth adjusts all curves in the selection for minimum spikes. .............................

linear straightens all curves in the selection .................................

peaks adjusts all curves in the selection for maximum spikes ................................

distribute all adjusts the horizontal positions of all points for equal spacing ...................

line up selected line up all points with the leftmost / rightmost in the selection ............

clear resets all points to minimum level ..................................

copy / paste transfers wavesets between oscillators (also between presets) ...................

GeoBlend & SpectroBlend

This section describes the two ‘Blend’ waveform modes, and how to edit them.

GeoBlend

A typical GeoBlend wave

A single cycle is defined by 128 columns. GeoBlend is similar to GeoMorph in that it re­flects the actual shape of the wave. However, when the morph function is used or the
wave index is modulated, waveforms are not morphed, they are blended. The main advan­tage of GeoBlend over GeoMorph is that waveforms can be drawn freehand.

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TOC GENERATORS

GeoMorph wavesets can be extracted from audio sources. A few third-party utilities are
available for this purpose (try googling ‘Wav2Zebra’ and ‘Blueberry Thing’), but they do re­quire some dedication.

SpectroBlend

A typical SpectroBlend wave

The spectrum is represented by 128 bipolar columns. Similar to SpectroMorph except that
it has fewer harmonics, and these are scaled linearly for a total range of six octaves.

The lower half is ‘anti-phase’, so the same harmonic in adjacent waves (e.g. 1 and 2), but
with opposite phases, can cancel each other out (at exactly 1.50 in this example). This
cancellation effect can be put to good use – see the oscillator preset ‘Bells Flipper’.

The main advantage of SpectroBlend over SpectroMorph is the total control over individual
harmonics, including polarity. Waves are not morphed in this mode, they are blended.

Mouse operations in GeoBlend and SpectroBlend modes

draw freehand

click + drag

draw a straight line

(Mac) opt + drag
(Win) ctrl + drag

reset sections to zero

(Mac) cmd + drag
(Win) alt + drag

context menu (right-click)

blur

.......................... softens transitions between columns

sharpen

................ accentuates transitions between columns

maximize

............. sets the highest column to maximum, scales the rest accordingly

copy/paste

.......... transfers wavesets between oscillators (even between presets)

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Expand

A much larger version of the wave editor opens when you click on the vertical EDITOR
button to the left of the data area. However…

To exit, click on the same vertical button, which has been conveniently renamed CLOSE.
While the wave editor is expanded, the lower pane contains a copy of the oscillator panel.

FMO main panel

FMO stands for Frequency Modulation Oscillator, and this module is indeed closely related
to the famous Yamaha DX7. Compare the Zebra2 preset HS DY7 Add Pad with the typical
DX7 e-piano sounds of the 1980s, which were often layered with analogue pads.

the FMO module panel

TYPE (input mode)

FM by Input: The FMO is modulated by its input, and the FM knob controls input level.

FM self (+): The FMO modulates itself, resulting in a brighter waveform approaching a

sawtooth. Values above 50% can produce some interesting digital noise!

RM Input: No FM here, the FMO is actually ring-modulation with its input.

Filtered FM: Like FM by Input except that the FM knob opens a lowpass filter instead of

setting the input level (which is fixed at 100%). This results in a warmer tone.

FM self2 (+): Like FM Self (+) except that the input is the output squared (multiplied by
itself). Great for triangular / squarish tones, including a wonderful ‘shark-fin’ triangle
when the FM depth is between 25 and 30.

MONO / STEREO

Like the OSC module, the FMO can also run in stereo mode. This is hardly noticeable
unless the FMO is detuned and Width is turned up because, unlike OSC modules, the
phase of an FMO is always reset to zero when a note is played.

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The expanded wave editor requires a modern processor, otherwise it will react too
slowly for comfort! If your host application includes a special mode for high resolution
graphics, try switching that option off. Similar applies to the expanded MSEG editor.

TOC GENERATORS

TUNE

FMO pitch offset (+/- 48 semitones).

WIDTH

Stereo spread. This parameter has no effect if the FMO is in MONO mode (see above).

DETUNE

If the FMO is in MONO mode, this lowers or raises the pitch by +/- 50 cents. In stereo
mode, it is a detune spread, simultaneously sharpening the left channel and flattening
the right channel. Of course you can still fine tune the FMO via SHIFT + Tune!

VIBRATO

The amount of pitch modulation from LFO1, with a range of +/- 50 cent.

PAN

Shifts the stereo position to the left or right. Works for mono or stereo (see above).

VOLUME

Output level.

FM

Generally FM depth / input level – see TYPE on the previous page for details.

FMO lower panel

Like the standard oscillators, the FMOs use the lower panel for some extra parameters.
Unlike the standard oscillators, all four FMOs share the same panel…

part of the FMO pane

Generator Mode (the square waveform graphic)

Click to select an alternative waveform. The name appears to the left of the graphic –
for the FMO1 here it is pure sine, for FMO2 it is quadric shift.

Key Scale Pitch (the unlabelled horizontal slider -200 to 200)

MIDI note to FMO pitch, centered around E2. A bipolar ‘KeyFol’ for the FMO modules.
Double-click to set the default 100 (perfect semitones).

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KEY SCALE / GAIN

MIDI note to FMO gain scaling. The horizontal axis is the full 8 octaves of MIDI notes
and the vertical axis is the volume of the FMO from 0 to 100%, independent of the
FMO’s regular Volume setting.

VELOCITY SCALE

Velocity to FMO gain scaling. The horizontal axis is MIDI velocity and the vertical axis is
FMO gain from 0 to 100%, independent of the FMO’s regular VOLUME setting.

Noise

Noise has traditionally been used for percussive sounds, wind effects, explosions etc..

the Noise module

TYPE (unlabelled)

White is a random signal with equal power across the spectrum.

Pink is darker – high frequencies are attenuated by 3dB / octave.

Digital is a square wave with random polarity, like a very lo-fi oscillator. It can be played

in tune if LP Cutoff is modulated by KeyFol with the amount set to 64.00.

Crackles produces random impulses, like a Geiger counter or a worn-out vinyl record.

MONO / STEREO

Even noise can be stereo! See WIDTH below.

LP / HP

Lowpass and highpass filter cutoff frequencies. In both White and Pink modes, these
are 6dB/octave. In Digital mode, the LP is pitch, and the HP adds more irregularity. In
Crackles mode, the HP reduces the probability of an impulse.

PAN

Shifts the stereo position towards the left or right channels.

VOLUME

Noise output level.

WIDTH

Controls stereo spread if STEREO is switched on.

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VCF

Although there are no high voltages in ZebraHZ pushing and pulling on electrons, the VCF
models sound almost as ‘alive’ as their analogue forbears, so the name stuck. These
models are less CPU-hungry than XMF (see 2 pages down).

VCF module panel

Filter Types

LP Xcite

24dB lowpass, with a frequency-dependent exciter as Drive, adding
high frequencies.

LP Allround

CPU-friendly 24dB lowpass, with a strong resonance and smooth col­oration via Drive.

LP MidDrive

Boosts mid-range frequencies via Drive, good for leads that can cut
through the mix.

LP OldDrive

Adds even-numbered harmonics, for a vintage sound bordering on
‘cheesy’!

LP Formant

Vocal filter type. Combines a non-resonant 12dB/octave lowpass with
a resonant formant stage. The Formant parameter replaces reso­nance, and the vowel parameter morphs through A–E–I–O–U. Great
for ‘singing’ voices and vocoder-like pads. Note: The modulation target
of the righthand assinable knob is the Vowel parameter here!

LP Vintage

CPU-cheap analogue-modeled transistor ladder with 24dB rolloff.

LP 12dB

A 12dB version of LP Allround

LP 6dB

A simple lowpass with a very shallow rolloff, non-resonant

BP RezBand

A resonant 12dB bandpass model

BP QBand

Another resonant bandpass, with a different character

HP 24dB

Resonant 24dB highpass

HP 12dB

12dB version of the above

BR Notch

24dB band reject

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* The last 3 were included by mistake in a certain version of Zebra2, and reintroduced for

compatibility reasons. Note: the CPU hit is significantly higher than the other types.

Controls

CUTOFF

The Cutoff determines a filter’s edge-frequency. Like all frequency parameters in Ze­bra2, the scale is in semitones, as tuning cutoff in musical terms makes more sense
than the very scientific ‘Hertz’. With KeyF (key follow) turned down, the cutoff values of
most filter types correspond to MIDI note numbers minus 12 (one octave). For instance,
with cutoff set to 81.00 a filter would resonate at 440Hz (middle A).

RES

Resonance is an internal feedback loop that emphasizes the cutoff frequency. In some
filter types (e.g. EQ Peaking), this parameter is actually a Q-factor, the slope of a band
centered around the cutoff frequency.

KEY F

The ‘key follow’ parameter adjusts how strongly the cutoff follows MIDI notes (the higher
the note, the higher the cutoff). At 100%, it follows semitones precisely.

DRIVE / GAIN

The Drive or Gain parameter of a filter usually adds some kind of distortion. In Zebra’s
VCF this is more of a generic ‘flavour’ parameter – see the remarks in the above list.

EQ Peaking

Peak / reject filter, like parametric ‘mid’ on a mixing desk. Res controls
the slope of the peak. Gain has a range of -20dB (deep notch) to
+24dB (strong peak). This type has little or no effect if Gain is zero.

EQ LoShelf!
EQ HiShelf

Two shelving models, to complete the trio of ‘parametric EQ’ filters.
Like in EQ Peaking, Gain attenuates or boosts the frequency range
(low or high), and the Res parameter controls the slope.

AP Phaser4!
AP Phaser8

The two phasing models use 4 or 8 stage all-pass (AP) filters to gen­erate typical phasing effects. Cutoff controls the center frequency, and
Res controls intensity. In the Phaser8 model, the Split parameter de­tunes the 8 stages.

LP Vintage2

More CPU-intensive version of LP Vintage, capable of self-oscillation.

SR Decimate

Not really a filter, this is a sample-rate reduction processor. The Cutoff
parameter controls rate, meaning it can be tuned harmonically (set
KeyF to 100). Neither Res nor Drive are used.

LP TN6SVF*

TyrellN6’s state variable lowpass. An octave higher than other types!

LP MS2035*

Early version of Diva’s rev1 BITE lowpass

LP S20SK*

Early version of Diva’s rev2 BITE lowpass

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XMF

The XMF (cross-modulation filter) module is an extremely flexible multimode filter featuring
self-oscillation, input-dependent distortion and audio-rate FM via the extra input. The XMF
is more CPU-intensive than any of the VCF models.

XMF module panel

There are 15 filter types / combinations, but you actually have two of these in stereo, with
differential cutoff. So if you ever need a 3-pole allpass in parallel (or series) with a 2-pole
bandreject / lowpass combination... no problem!

Distortion in the XMF is highly dependent on the level of the input signals – they affect the
sound as much as Overload does. You should try e.g. oscillator volumes as low as 2%!

Switches

ROUTING

Each XMF module has two stereo filters, which can be routed in four different ways:

single

Standard mode. Actually two filters with stereo-splittable cutoff values for ...............

spectacular panning effects – try modulating Offset with an LFO.

serial

Type1 filter is fed into the Type2 filter. ................

parallel Type1 and Type2 filters are output separately. ............

diff’ed The difference signal (Type1 minus Type2). Note that if the two types are ...............

the same and there is zero offset, the result is total cancellation.

For more details, see the flow diagrams towards the end of this document.

DRIVER

Five options for the resonance / overload character. Note that output volumes can vary
depending on the Resonance and Overload values (see below).

XMF

Standard high-quality – plenty of bite. ..................

analogue Classic ladder filter overload – warm / dark. ........

biased Diode-like asymmetrical distortion, for more even-numbered harmonics. ..............

eco CPU-friendly version of analogue, lower quality overload. ....................

folded Positive peaks that would otherwise clip are folded back down. ...............

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TYPE 1 (unlabelled)

LP4, LP3, LP2, LP1 Lowpass: 24, 18, 12 or 6 dB per octave – all resonant! ........

HP3, HP2, HP1 Highpass: three different slopes .................

BP4, BP2 Bandpass: two different slopes. ..............................

BR2 Bandreject: 2-pole only .........................................

AP3. Allpass: 3-pole only ........................................

HP3LP, HP2LP Combination of 3-pole or 2-pole highpass + 2-pole lowpass ..................

BR2LP Combination of 2-pole bandreject + 2-pole lowpass ...................................

AP3LP.................................... Combination of 3-pole allpass + 2-pole lowpass.

TYPE 2 (unlabelled)

Same Type 2 adopts the Type 1 setting. ......................................

For all other options, see the Type 1 list above.

Controls

CUTOFF

Cutoff determines the filter’s edge-frequency. Like all frequency parameters in Zebra2,
the scale is in semitones – tuning cutoff in musical terms makes more sense than the
more scientific ‘Hertz’. Cutoff values correspond to standard MIDI note numbers minus
12 (one octave), so 81.00 means a middle A (440Hz) before any modulation.

RES (resonance)

Resonance is an internal feedback loop that emphasizes the cutoff frequencies. High
resonance is very interesting in combination with Overload. Set Resonance to maxi­mum, and the filter will self-oscillate (see Click below).

KEY F

KeyFollow, the depth of cutoff modulation from MIDI note / keyboard. At 100%, it follows
semitones perfectly. Note that the breakpoint (the key that doesn’t change) here is E2.

OFFSET

Splits the cutoff values of the two channels, in semitones (+/-48). Great for panning ef­fects with the standard single routing, or for multiple resonances in serial, parallel or
diff’ed mode (see the previous page). Offset has a assignable modulation knob.

FM

For audio-rate cutoff modulation (‘Filter FM’) from the XMF’s second input. By default,
the FM source is the same as the input signal, but using a different FM source can be
highly rewarding: right-click on the [XMF] cell to change the sidechain input to another
lane – and put something in that lane! FM also has a assignable modulation knob.

OVER (overload)

Pushes the filter ‘too far’! For interesting distortion effects and general oomph. Note that
high overload can amplify the signal a lot.

CLICK

Injects a short impulse into the filter at the start of each note. Turn up for harder attacks
or more instantaneous self-oscillation.

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Diva VCF

Where are the panels?

ZebraHZ is a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster. Under the circumstances, the Diva filters
are integrated in the best way possible. Not in the generator rack like the other filters,
but as tabbed panels in the lower area, like the MSEGs.

Note: These filters are very CPU-intensive, and are therefore monaural i.e. not stereo.

Altogether, ZebraHZ has 8 Diva-style analogue filters: 4 highpass
and 4 lowpass / multimode filters. To access all controls, click on
the DIVA VCF button in the lower bar, second from the right.

General settings

ACCURACY

This is an important global parameter, as it trades CPU-hit for realtime audio quality
(especially resonance). If your computer stutters while playing presets that use D-filters,
switch the accuracy to fast or even draft. You will soon learn which one your system can
handle. Mono presets should be no problem, even on older computers.

OFFLINE ACC

The accuracy used for offline audio rendering. You should generally render tracks to
audio in the highest quality – to do this, set OfflineAcc to best. If you find that your
sound works best in Draft mode (e.g. because it is meant to be gritty), feel free to switch
this to Same.

CUTOFF SLOP

Scales the amount of randomisation applied to all D-filter cutoffs.

RND

The Random button generates new random values for CUTOFF SLOP.

The Diva general settings (left) and highpass filter (right) panels

HPF settings

The 4 Diva highpass filters share a single panel to the right of the general settings (see
the screenshot above), and are tabbed like the MSEGs. To switch between them, click
on the D-HPF1 to D-HPF4 buttons.

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TOC GENERATORS

MODEL

There are two basic highpass types: HPF PRE is a simple, CPU-friendly highpass with
only a cutoff control. Note: Although Resonance and FreqModDepth appear as a targets
in the matrix, these have no effect. HPF BITE is a much more characterful model with a
resonance control. Two REVISIONs with different characteristics are available.

LPF settings

On the right are the main Diva filters, in pairs that are switched via the buttons at the
bottom, D-VCF1+2 | D-VCF3+4. The upper defineable (‘none’) knobs are modulation
depths for Cutoff while the lower one is for resonance.

MODEL / MODE

The Ladder model is a classic 24dB or 12dB per octave filter with key-follow and reso­nance. Click on the MODE selector to switch between the two.

Cascade is cleaner than Ladder but has an extra COLOR switch for selecting revisions
of this famous filter. MODE switches between 24dB and 12dB per octave.

Multimode is based on the filter in yet another classic polyphonic synthesizer (or two).
MODE offers the following options:

LP 24db

4-pole lowpass ..........

LP 12db 2-pole lowpass ..........

HP highpass .....................

BP bandpass .....................

BITE sounds very different – it’s a real character! The tone is highly dependent on the
input signal levels, on the selected REVISION as well as on the resonance. BITE can
deliver anything from solid 2-pole to screaming mayhem.

Uhbie is a classic state variable 2-pole with a silky sound. You can crossfade smoothly
between 3 different modes via the modulatable SHAPE MIX: Lowpass through notch or
bandpass (switchable via the BANDPASS on/off button) to highpass.

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COMB

Comb ‘filters’ are based on ultra-short delay lines with feedback. Even if the input is a very
short impulse, feedback can turn it into a slowly decaying (or even sustaining) tone. The
frequency response curve resembles a regular row of spikes, hence the name.

Comb module panel

You can create envelope-driven polyphonic flangers, realistic plucked and bowed strings,
flutes, mallet and other percussion instruments. Note: Most uses need some FEEDB!

Switches

MODE

This could be called a ‘multi-mode’ comb, as its four delay lines can be connected in
various ways, often with dramatically different results. The options are:

Comb

A simple stereo delay tuned to the played note. Neither the TONE nor the ...............

FLAVOUR parameter have any effect in this mode.

Split Comb

Any input is summed to mono and fed to the first of two delays, which then ....

cross-feed each other. TONE is the ratio between the delay times, while
FLAVOUR controls the amount of input signal fed directly into the second
delay. The left channel is delay 1 and the right channel is delay 2.

Split Dual

The same as Split Comb except that input signal is not summed to mono. .......

Diff Comb The same as Split Dual except that the second ‘delay’ is actually an all....... -

pass filter. This is especially good for strange, complex sounds. FLAVOUR
is the feedback of the allpass filter. As inharmonic frequencies can domi­nate the sound, you sometimes have to tune this one rather carefully.

Dissonant

A 4x4 feedback delay network which always sounds metallic. Both TONE .......

and FLAVOUR affect the delay ratios (i.e. pitches), but DIST is unused.

Cluster

Only included for compatibility reasons – use at your own risk!.............

Blown This mode uses a bandpass filter in the feedback path to accentuate ...............

harmonics rather than the fundamental. Modulating the Flavour parameter
is especially interesting. You can get very realistic flutes and trumpets etc.,
but this does require careful tuning.

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TOC GENERATORS

FILL

The comb has an impulse generator so it can generate sound without requiring an input
signal. The impulse can be one of three different waveforms:

Noise

short burst of white noise – bright, different characteristics for each note ..........

Saw single cycle sawtooth – full / warm .............

Square single cycle square wave – hollow / nasal .......

Main controls

Comb panel, main controls

PRE FILL

The level of the internal impulse signal selected in FILL (see above).

INPUT

Input level. Negative values invert the signal to be processed, so you can even use the
Comb module as an audio signal inverter.

DAMP

A 6dB lowpass filter in the feedback path simulates how a plucked string is naturally
dampened by various physical constraints.

FEEDB

Bipolar feedback level control. Negative values lower the pitch by an octave, and the
timbre is more hollow.

TUNE

Nominal pitch. The range is +/-24 semitones.

DETUNE

For Split Comb this is normal fine tuning. In other modes it detunes in both directions.

VIBRATO

Amount of pitch modulation directly from LFO1 (0 – 100), with a range of +/- 50 cents.

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TOC GENERATORS

Sound controls

Click on the Sound button…

Comb panel, SOUND sub-panel

TONE

The function of this parameter changes from mode to mode. Usually a ratio between
delay times. For details, see MODE above.

FLAVOUR

The function of this parameter changes from mode to mode. Usually a level within one
or more feedback paths. For details, see MODE above.

DIST

Distortion adds harmonics into the feedback. Use with caution!

KEY S (Key Scale Pitch)

MIDI note to pitch, centered around the note E2. Effectively a bipolar ‘KeyFol’ for the
Comb. Leave at 100 for semitone steps (a double-click takes you straight there). For
flanging and resonance effects, set KEY S to 0.00 and take the Tune value down.

Output controls

Click on the Output button

Comb panel, OUTPUT sub-panel

VOLUME

Comb output level. Careful! If this reaches zero either through modulation or simply by
turning down the VOLUME knob, the Dry signal suddenly shoots up to 100%. Whether
this is a feature or a bug, it can make some very interesting rhythms – try modulating
VOLUME from an LFO, and adjusting the VOLUME knob.

PAN

Panorama shifts the stereo position of the processed signal towards the left or right.
Pan does not affect the position(s) of the Dry signal.

DRY

Unprocessed “throughput” from whatever is fed into the Comb.

WIDTH

Stereo separation of the processed signal. Does not affect the dry signal.

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TOC GENERATORS

SIDEBAND

The SIDEBAND module is a stereo frequency shifter, the origins of which go back to the
early days of radio. Related to ring modulation in which two signals are multiplied, resulting
in two sidebands. It can deliver anything from mild stereo phasing to complex metallic
sounds, as frequencies are shifted by a constant (e.g. 100Hz) instead of a factor (e.g. 2.00
times). While the ‘beating’ between two detuned oscillators can become irritatingly fast
when you play higher up the keyboard, frequency shifting remains constant.

SideBand module panel

RANGE

The SB offers 3 bipolar frequency range options, each with 0Hz at the centre.

10Hz

for relatively slow-moving cyclical effects e.g. stereo phasing. ...........

200Hz for low-frequency effects: deep bells, rumbles… or even old dial-tones! ........

4kHz for high-frequency or very wide range effects ...........

FREQ

Bipolar frequency shift.

OFFSET

Bipolar offset between left and right channels. Offset can be used for a special kind of
phasing that continually rises in the left channel, while continually falling in the right
channel. Check this out in headphones: Set the range to 10Hz, Freq to zero, Offset to

2.00, Mix to 50 – and feed it a medium dose of pink noise.

MIX

Bipolar cross-fade between the dry signal and the frequency-shifted signal. Negative
values invert the processed part. For maximum phasing, set to exactly +/- 50.

SHAPER

Input level dependent distortion unit with a choice of 4 algorithms.

Shaper module panel

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TOC GENERATORS

TYPE

Shape Classic waveshaper. The DEPTH parameter adds DC bias before the shaper, ........

making it positively asymmetrical (for even-numbered harmonics similar to
tube distortion). Note that the DC bias can seriously reduce signal level.

T-Drive

Frequency-dependent waveshaper, like a transformer. Can boost ‘presence’. .......

Crush Bit-reduction via DEPTH. Neither INPUT nor HI OUT are used in this mode. .........

Wedge A high-order waveshaper with foldback function (loud signals can become .......

silent or even phase-inverted). The DEPTH knob boosts the input signal,
controlling the distortion amount. Placed after a resonant filter this type can
emulate typical acid bassline sounds.

DEPTH

Distortion threshold, effectively a distortion amount control. Like a guitar amplifier, every
control in this module affects the amount of distortion in some way or other!

EDGE

The main tone control.

INPUT / OUTPUT

Attenuate / boost the input and output signals. Also affects tone...

HI OUT

Attenuates / amplifies high frequencies – the final tone control in this module.

Distortion

The Distortion module creates traditional analogue-type saturation. If used in the FX Grid,
it can mimic a complete guitar amplifier and speaker cabinet.

input amp → pre tilt filter → distortion → post tilt filter → post filter

→ output amp

Distortion module panel

TYPE

Tube Class A

Simulates a complete tube preamplifier. Class-A is the 'traditional' ...........

type of tube distortion, creating both odd and even harmonics by us­ing a single tube and applying DC bias. Due to the asymmetry of the
operational curve, Class A distortion sounds relatively warm.

Tube Class AB

Simulates a preamplifier with two tubes in a ‘push-pull’ arrangement, ........

which leads to symmetrical distortion with no even-harmonic partials.

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TOC GENERATORS

Tube 2 Stages Mimics a tube amplifier with two class-A stages in series. Like class ........

A, this also creates odd and even harmonics, but the results are rich­er and more dynamic. This mode applies additional internal filtering
and feedback for more sonic complexity. At high gain settings you
should hear more pronounced treble roll-off and more bass lift.

Hard Clip This mode simply chops off the top and bottom of the waveform. ...................

Rectify Full-wave rectification. The negative half-wave becomes positive and .........................

the resulting waveform is fed through a DC-blocking filter. Interesting
note: A pure triangle wave will be simply doubled in frequency, with­out altering the waveform.

Foldback

Also known as 'fold-over distortion'. Foldback is similar to soft clip.................... -

ping, except that increasing the gain does not slam the signal against
the ceiling (it reduces the gain instead). Listen out for strange inter­modulation artifacts!

INPUT

Sets the gain (in decibels) at the input

OUTPUT

Sets the final output gain. Note that this stage includes soft clipping, which can create
even more distortion when turned up ‘too high’

PRE TILT

A tilt filter i.e. combined low and high shelving EQ applied to the input signal before the
distortion. At zero the response is flat. Negative values strengthen the bass and reduce
the treble, while positive values strengthen the treble and reduce the bass.

CENTER

Combined low and high shelf frequency control.

POST TILT

Balance the tone after the distortion.

POST FILTER

Dual-Band Shelf A simple corrective EQ: a low shelf at 100Hz and a high shelf at ..........

10kHz. See Low and High below.

Guitar Cab 4x12

Mimics the frequency response of a very popular vintage speaker ..........

cabinet, producing its typical mid-range focused sound, including
peaks and dips caused by resonance within the cabinet as well as
the effects of close-miking.

LOW and HIGH

In Dual-Band Shelf mode these are the gains of the two shelving filters (see POST FIL-
TER above). In Guitar Cab 4x12 mode they control the amount of ‘cabinet resonance’
i.e. bass and speaker ‘edge'.

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TOC GENERATORS

RING

Ring modulation is a variant of amplitude modulation (AM): Two input signals are balanced
so that they disappear completely, leaving only the sum and difference frequencies. These
frequencies are seldom harmonically related, so ring modulation is often used for bell-type
sounds. For the purest results, use sine waves – FMOs and/or SpectroBlend OSCs.

Although the ring modulators in Zebra don’t require a panel, they do need 2 input signals.
The above screenshot shows the context menu of a right-click on ‘Ring1’.

MIX

These modules can be used for simply mixing two signals, for cross-fading (‘Mix’ is a
modulation target) or for reducing the stereo width of a signal: Select ‘Pan Mono’ mode
and set MIX to 100 – you will only hear the sidechain signal now, at dead centre.

Mix module panel

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TOC GENERATORS

PAN MODE

Bal L-R, Pan L-R, Bal R-L, Pan R-L or Pan Mono. With the Pan knob set to the centre,
the Bal L-R and Bal R-L options have 0dB of gain for both channels: only one channel is
attenuated as the control is moved away from the centre. The Pan L-R and Pan R-L
modes, however, mix one channel onto the other while adhering to the ‘pan law’.

PAN, MIX

The stereo position and relative levels of the two inputs.

FOLD

A ‘Wavefolder’ is a kind of waveshaper that maps the signal onto a sine wave, folding it
back on itself multiple times. Like hardware units, Zebra’s FOLD module sounds best
when applied to signals with very little high frequency content – try a pure FMO sine first!

6 ripples, 22% folds, 30% bias and maximum slope

RIPPLES

The total number of cycles, from 1 to 7.

LIVE VIEW

This button activates realtime animation of FOLDS and BIAS modulation. If you need to
save CPU, leave it disabled.

CLIP ANGLE

The horizontal slider edjusts the smoothness of the two ‘knees’ to the left and right.

FOLDS

The percentage of Ripples used. Note: As it is effectively an input level control, setting
Folds to zero without any modulation will result in silence.

BIAS

This parameter shifts the used section of the curve to the left or right. Bias modulation is
applied in opposite directions per stereo channel, resulting in a unique stereo effect.

RATIO

The relative level of the ripples, effectively an output boost control.

SLOPE

Tilts the curve downwards or upwards.

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TOC MODULATORS

Modulators

Modulation is what we use to turn static tones into interesting instruments or soundscapes.
Zebra2 lets you modulate practically any ‘target’ parameter in the synth. As well as LFOs
and envelopes, the list of modulators include some standard MIDI messages for external
control: pitchbend, mod-wheel (CC#01), polyphonic or channel aftertouch, expression
(CC#11), velocity and Gate.

Notes: Practically all the controls can be automated. Using the X/Y performance pads is
the best way to control a lot of parameters at once, and they can also be automated.

List of Modulation Sources

For a complete list of all modulation targets, go here.

ModWhl

modulation wheel (CC#01)

PitchW

pitch wheel / pitch bender

CtrlA

MIDI control A, default = Breath (CC#02)

Ctrl B

MIDI control B, default = Expression (CC#11)

LfoG1, LfoG2

global LFOs

X1 to Y4

the x/y pads

Gate

note on/off

KeyFol, KeyFol2

key follow (center = E2) + glide. (2) includes glide offset

Velocity

MIDI note velocity

ATouch

channel or key (polyphonic) aftertouch, smoothened.

ArpMod1, ArpMd2

arpeggiator modulation

Env1 to Env4

standard envelopes

MSEG1 to MSEG8

Multi-Stage Envelope Generators

Lfo1 to Lfo4

voice LFOs

MMap1 to MMap4

modulation mappers

MMix1 to MMix4

modulation mixers

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TOC MODULATORS

Modulation Matrix

All generator panels include assignable knobs (unused ones appear with an ellipsis … as
label) for setting up local modulation. The mod matrix is where you can set up any kind of
modulation – the image below shows just three of the 24 modulation slots...

Depth (unlabelled)

The lefthand knob sets the (bipolar) amount. of modulation from a source selected in
the label below it.

Via (unlabelled)

The righthand knob sets the amount that a secondary modulator controls how much of
the primary modulator reaches its target. Odd behaviour: When the Via source is at min­imum, negative amounts of Via scale the modulation depth from 100% to 200%!

Target (unlabelled)

The parameter to be modulated. Because drag & drop(see below) uses left-click, open­ing the list of modulation targets requires a right-click.

Two ex amples: In slot 22, Env2
decay is being negatively modulat­ed by Aftertouch: The harder you
press, the shorter the decay.

In slot 23, Env2 is 100% modulat­ing oscillator detuning. However,
this amount is partially scaled by
the mod wheel – the amount of
Env2 reaching its target will be less
than maximum unless the wheel is
at maximum. If Via is set to +100%
instead, none of the Env2 signal
will reach the oscilllator unless the
wheel is pushed.

Drag & Drop

A quick alternative to selecting a target from the menu. Left-click on a Target selector,
drag the crosshair onto any control in the SYNTH page then release the mouse button.

Of course you don’t have drag & drop access to any of the controls in the lower pane
(Global, Osc 1, Osc 2 etc.), but these are still available in the target’s context menu.

Pitch modulation

Setting precise pitch intervals in the modulation matrix requires a bit of arithmetic, as
the 96 semitone range (+/- 4 octaves) is mapped onto 100 steps. Try these:

12 semitones (octave)

100 / 96 x 12 = 12.50 (absolutely precise) .........

7 semitones (a fifth) 100 / 96 x 7 = 07.29 (also try 07.30 and 07.31) ..............

1 semitone 100 / 96 = 1.04 (more precisely 1.0416666667) .................................

Note: If the modulation source is bipolar e.g. an LFO, you should halve the value.

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TOC MODULATORS

ENV

When you load init, envelope 1 is already visible in the modulators pane because in this
preset it is designated as the audio envelope for all 4 lanes of the main grid.

an ENV module in v-slope mode

Although it looks like a regular ADSR with just a few extras, the ENV module has several
tricks up its sleeve: It is syncable, loopable, and offers 2-stage attack or release…

Switches

Time Base (unlabelled)

8sX: Up to eight seconds. The knob scale is exponential (mid-position is 1 second)
16sX: Up to sixteen seconds. The knob scale is exponential (mid-position is 2 seconds)
10s: Up to ten seconds. The knob scale is linear, so 20.00 means 2 seconds etc.
1/4, 1/1, 4/1: Times are relative to song tempo (beat, bar, 4 bars). Knob scale is linear.

Mode (unlabelled)

The curvature of all time-based envelope stages:

quadric: Exponential curves. Attack is convex, Decay and Release are concave.

linear: Straight lines. Linear envelopes can sound unnatural.

v-slope: Exponential curvature via a slider: the far left position is extremely concave, -50
is close to quadric, the center is linear, the far right is extremely convex.

Controls

Pre-Attack (unlabelled)

Although it resembles assignable modulation, the top lefthand knob actually controls
one of two parameters at the beginning of the envelope.

Init: Attack stage starts at a level other than zero (see the lefthand image)
Delay: The Attack stage is delayed (see righthand image)

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INIT ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASE

NOTE ON NOTE OFF

DELAY ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASE

NOTE
ON

NOTE OFF

TOC MODULATORS

ATTACK

The time it takes for the envelope to rise from zero (or the Init value) to maximum

DECAY

The time it takes to drop from maximum to the Sustain level

SUSTAIN

The level after Decay. Normally remains at that position until the note is released

The extra envelope stages below can be tricky. If you prefer regular ADSRs, simply ignore
the following options...

F/R (Fall / Rise time)

Centre: infinite fall/rise time i.e. no effect
Negative values: either fall to 0, or fall/rise to the Sust2 level (see Post-Sustain)
Positive values: either rise to 100, or fall/rise to the Sust2 level

As F/R is not updated in real time you may have play a note repeatedly to adjust it.

Post-Sustain (unlabelled)

Select one of the following options by clicking on the label.

Sust2

Extra Sustain level after F/R ..........

LoopA Time to loop back to Attack ........

LoopD Time to loop back to Decay ........

LoopS Time to loop back to Sustain ........

Rel(nn) Time of extra release stage (nn = target levels 25, 50, 75 or 100) ......

As F/R is always included in the loop, the 3 Loop options require a non-infinite F/R time
i.e. you will need to move F/R away from the centre.

The diagrams below are simplifications. For example, Release (or Rel25/50/75/100) can
start at any point within the envelope, as it is initiated by a MIDI Note Off message.

Normal F/R behaviour, no Sust2 stage

F/R behaviour with a Sust2 stage
(2 possible Sust2 values shown here)

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ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASE

NOTE
ON

NOTE OFF

+

F/R

-

ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASE

NOTE
ON

NOTE OFF

F/R

SUST2

TOC MODULATORS

LoopA: Time to return from end of F/R LoopD: Time to return from end of F/R
(100 or zero) to zero (start of Attack). (100 or zero) to 100 (start of Decay)

LoopS: Time to return from end of F/R Rel25/50/75/100: Time to rise or fall from
(100 or zero) to Sustain level. Sustain to 25/50/75/100%, followed by the
normal Release stage.

RELEASE

The time it takes to drop to zero after a note is released. See also Rel(nn) above.

VEL (velocity)

For dynamic envelopes – keyboard velocity scales the envelope’s output level.

VEL SCALE and KEY SCALE

To see these controls, click on the [+] icon in the top righthand corner of the panel.

ENV module, with scaling sub-panel open

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ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN LOOP D

NOTE
ON

+

F/R

-

ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN LOOP S

NOTE
ON

+

F/R

-

ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASE

NOTE
ON

REL nn

NOTE OFF

100

75

50

25

ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN LOOP A

NOTE
ON

+

F/R

-

TOC MODULATORS

All these knobs correspond to the parameters in the upper sub-panel. For instance, posi­tive Velocity Scale for Decay will legthen the decay times as you play harder, and negative
Key Scale for Release will shorten the release times of higher notes, etc..

MSEG

The Multi Stage Envelope Generator is a complex modulation source offering total shape
control as well as continuous rate control. Click on the MSEG 1 button in the lower bar…

Many different uses can be found in the Zebra2 factory presets. A few examples:

Rhythms

6 Lupins / Twangle ..........................

Pitches 6 Lupins / Seven of Eight (MSEG 3) .............................

Multiple attacks 8 Perkers / Drums of Mordor+ (MSEG 1 and 2) ............

Combinations 2 Leaders / I am Zebra (All 4 MSEGs) ................

Snappy envelopes 6 Lupins / How Money More Times .....

Twisted regularity 7 Noises / Combotor (MSEG 2, MATRIX slot 02) ........

Controls

TIME UNIT

Selects the unit that will correspond to integer steps in the editor’s time-line. Note that
the timing can always be shifted by setting non-zero Attack, Loop or Release values.

Sixteenth / Quarters / Notes: These are note lengths, synchronized to song tempo.
Seconds: Units are 4 seconds long. For seconds, set Attack / Loop / Release to 2.00.

TRIGGER

poly

standard polyphonic .............

single only retriggers after all notes are released (like organ “percussion” register) ..........

mono standard monophonic ..........

A (attack)

Slows down / speeds up everything before the loop. -1.00 is half speed, 1.00 is double
speed, 2.00 is quadruple speed etc..

LOOP

Loop speed: -1.00 is half speed, 1.00 is double speed, 2.00 is quadruple speed etc..

R (release)

Slows down / speeds up everything after the loop. -1.00 is half speed, 1.00 is double
speed, 2.00 is quadruple speed etc..

VEL (velocity)

For dynamic envelopes – velocity scales the MSEG output level.

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TOC MODULATORS

PRESET

Like the oscillators, MSEGs can be loaded and saved. Click on the long button to load
from the floating browser, or right-click to copy, save (to the current folder), or show the
current MSEG folder in Finder / Explorer.

Editor functions

OPEN EDITOR

For a larger editor, click on the vertical label to the left of the editing area. To exit again
you can click on the same button (conveniently renamed CLOSE EDITOR).

While an MSEG is expanded the lower pane becomes an editable list of all its uses, ei­ther as assignable knobs in the panels or in the modulation matrix. Modulation depths
can be adjusted here, either by moving the slider left-right or the VALUE vertically.

Source assignments can even be added by clicking on the Add button. To remove an
assignment, click on the [x] button to the right.

Edit Mode Switches

Bottom right of the editing area are three small icons. From left to right, these are:

Single

moves individual points, the other points remain fixed .........

Shift moves individual points, all following points also move .............

Draw moves multiple points vertically – click on a point and ‘draw’ ...........

Note that points will jump to the nearest unit snap and value snap positions if these are
defined (see Background Context Menu on the next page).

Create New Point (max. = 33)

Mac

............. cmd + click on the background

Win

.............. alt + click on the background

Curvature

Click on a line and drag it in any direction to adjust the curvature. S-curves are also
possible: Hands-on experience is better than a detailed explanation here. To straighten
a curve, left-click on it and release immediately.

Zoom & Scroll

To zoom in or out, click on the background and drag up or down. For optimum zoom,
double-click in the background. To scroll to invisible sections of the envelope, click and
drag left / right.

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Depending on your computer system, the expanded MSEG editor can react very
slowly. The response can improve if you select pointer off from the context menu
(see the next page). Also, if your host includes a special mode for high resolution
graphics, try switching that option off. Mac users should try setting the colour profile

to sRGB IEC61966-2.1.

TOC MODULATORS

Background Context Menu (right-click in the background)

Copy / Paste clipboard functions ............

Half Size shortens the envelope ....................

Double Size lengthens the envelope .............

Upside Down inverts the envelope ...........

Unit Snap horizontally restricts new input to 3, 4, 6 or 8 steps per unit ..................

Value Snap vertically restricts new input to 12, 24, 36, 48 or 15 levels ...............

Quantise to Snap quantizes all points to the nearest step (see unit snap) ..

Unit Spacing distributes all points to successive units ............

Even Spacing evenly distributes all points ..........

Pointer off to save CPU, hide the position indicator .................

Pointer coarse default resolution of the position indicator ........

Pointer fine higher resolution of the position indicator ...............

Point Context Menu (right-click on a point)

Remove Point

delete the clicked point (note: the minimum number of points is 2) .........

Loop Start set the start of the loop to the clicked point .................

Loop End set the end of the loop to the clicked point ...................

Loop Tip1: To create a loop of zero length, delete the ‘loop end’ point.

Loop Tip2: If the loop end is the very last point, the MSEG will continue looping after the
note is released.

LFO

Alongside envelopes, low frequency oscillators represent THE classic modulators – for
vibrato or any cyclic movement e.g. a slowly drifting tonal change:

The frequency is host-synchronized here, but the RESTART phase is random

This is called a ‘voice’ (or polyphonic) LFO because, unlike the LFOG modules, it is instan­tiated per voice – each note you play gets its own LFO.

The main advantage of polyphonic LFOs over the global ones is that each note in a chord
can have a different amplitude, phase and rate. Also, they can be restarted per note (see
RESTART on the next page).

In all OSC, FM and Comb modules, VIBRATO uses LFO 1, which is why the LFO 1 panel
always appears with OSC1 when you initialize a preset. To set up classic vibrato control
via modulation wheel, click on the label of the knob to the right of AMP, select ModWhl and
turn the amount up to maximum. Also turn up VIBRATO in the oscillator, of course.

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TOC MODULATORS

WAVEFORM

sine pure sine wave .........................

triangle pure triangle wave ..................

saw up rising saw (‘ramp’) ..................

saw down falling saw ............

sqr lo-hi square wave, restarted at the lower level ................

sqr hi-lo square wave, restarted at the higher level ................

rand hold random steps ..............

rand glide random curves ............

user up to 32 steps, user-drawn: ........................

SYNC (see below) specifies the length of each step, which means that a complete cycle
in the upper example would be 16 * 1/16 = 1 bar in 4/4 time.

Note: A right-click on the LFO’s edit window in user mode opens the same context menu
as in the modulation mapper, with the same set of useful drawing tools.

SYNC

0.1s, 1s, 10s

absolute times in seconds, three ranges ......

1/64 – 8/1 synced to song tempo (includes dotted and triplets, maximum 8 bars) ............

RESTART

free

the LFO starts with a random PHASE each time a note is played .........................

gate the LFO starts at the same PHASE each time a note is played ........................

SLEW

off can produce clicks, while fast and slow smooth out any sharp transitions.

AMP

Amplitude i.e. LFO output level. For typical “vibrato via modulation wheel”, click on the
label of the assignable knob and select ModWhl as source. Note that AMP modulation
does not add to the LFO output level, but scales it.

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TOC MODULATORS

RATE

LFO rate. This bipolar control scales the SYNC value.

PHASE

Sets the phase at which the LFO will be restarted every time a note is played. Ignored if
RESTART is set to free.

DELAY

Fade-in time. Typically used for so-called ‘delayed vibrato’.

LFOG

The “LFO Global” module is simpler than the normal LFO: The assignable knobs and the
Delay are missing, and the LFOG doesn’t restart per voice – it is practically ‘monophonic’.

LFOG module, triangle wave, synced to ‘beats’ and retriggered every 3 bars

WAVEFORM

The LFOG offers the same waveform options as the LFO (see the list above).

SYNC

The LFOG offers the same synchronization options as the LFO (see the list above)

RESTART

Automatic restart after the specified number of bars (off i.e. no restart, or 1 to 32).

SLEW

off can produce clicks, while fast and slow smooth out any sharp transitions.

AMP

Output level.

RATE

LFOG speed. This bipolar control scales the basic rate set by the SYNC switch.

PHASE

Sets the position (within its cycle) at which the LFOG restarts.

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TOC MODULATORS

MOD MAPPER

The 4 Modulation Mappers are
general purpose tables which
can hold up to 128 user-defined
values. Maps have a wide variety
of uses, e.g. meticulously adjust­ing the tone of each note on the
keyboard, as in this example...

The map used in HS Ligetimat

...or for ‘round-robin’ effects. Old
polysynths had a limited number
of voice circuits, and the tuning
of e.g. pitch and cutoff was also
fixed (via trimmers) for each one.
This example simulates six of
those trimmers...

One of the maps used in HS Poppington

...or for remapping a modulation
source. In the example here, the
aftertouch response is altered:
Aftertouch has zero effect until
you press the keys hard enough
to reach the point where the
curve starts to rise.

The map used in e.g. HS Seed

MODE

Specifies how the map is controlled. The two Map modes won’t do anything unless you
define a Modulator.

Key

the 128 MIDI notes (although nobody owns a keyboard that long) ...............................

Map Smooth the 128 modulator values, interpolated for smooth transitions ............

Map Quantize the 128 modulator values, not smoothed .........

Increment played notes step through the map ..................

MOD (modulator)

This button selects a modulation source (LFO, envelope, whatever) to be mapped in
either of the Map modes. Ignored in Key or Increment mode.

EDITOR

Click to expand the map editor. While a map is expanded, the lower pane becomes a
list of all its uses. Modulation depths can be adjusted here, and source assignments can
even be added by clicking on the Add button. To remove an assignment, click on its [x]
button.

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TOC MODULATORS

Selection / Drawing Tools

To edit a map, draw in the windows by clicking and dragging. To highlight a selection,
hold down the SHIFT key while dragging: The functions are restricted to the selection, if
one exists. To deselect everything, either click in the background (away from the selec­tion) or right-click and choose ‘deselect’ from the Selection sub-menu.

Right-clicking on the modulation mapper’s edit window opens a long list of editing tools.
Shift is used for selection, and alt (Win) or cmd (Mac) is used for applying the selected
draw option. Note: All these options also apply to LFO and LFOG in user mode!

Copy / Paste

! Clipboard functions for the map data. You can ......

use these to transfer maps between presets."

Shapes! Draw Ramp, Triangle, Sine, Cosine, Root, Quadric ..................

or Spectralize. The latter interprets the map as
amplitudes of harmonics in the harmonic series,
then replaces the map with the calculated wave­form (see Spectralize in Tips & Tricks)."

! If you set fewer values than 128 (see 2-128 be-

low) it will be repeated to fill all positions."

Alt/Cmd-Draw

! Modify the shape by dragging in the editor while ...

holding alt (Win) or cmd (Mac). The options are

erase (zero), scale (multiply), shift (2D move) or
warp (2D bend)."

Selection

! Applies functions to the selection: invert, shift left, ..............

shift right, every 2nd/3rd/4th. If nothing is select-

ed, only the ‘every’ options will appear."

Reverse

! Flips the current selection horizontally ................

Invert! Flips the current selection vertically ......................

Randomize" Adds random offsets to the selection"..........

Soften! Interpolates between values ...................

Normalize! Expands vertically to minimum / maximum ............

Straighten! Draws a straight line for the selection / window ............

Reset! Sets all values in the map to zero .....................

Quantize (n)! Adjusts values to an equally-spaced grid. Tip: ........

Select ’12’ here and use the map for pitch modu­lation (set the modulation depth in the osc to 12).

2–128

! Map size i.e. number of values shown/used#....................

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Copy

Shapes

Cmd-Draw
Selection
Reverse
Invert
Randomize
Soften
Normalize
Make Unipolar
Straighten
Reset

Quantise 4
Quantise 6
Quantise 8
Quantise 12
Quantise 16
Quantise 24

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
16
24
32
48
64
96
128

Lock

TOC MODULATORS

MMix

Zebra’s Modulation Mixer processes up to 3 modulation sources in one of three ways...

The three MMIX modes

MODE

sum modulations

All 3 modulation sources plus the value of CONST (constant) ..............

are added together – which saves work and Matrix slots if (for
instance) you want to modulate several parameters at the same
time from the same bunch of modulators!

scale sum by const

The same as sum except that the result is multiplied by CONST. ..........

fade 1/2 by 3xC The constant determines how much of the Mod3 signal cross-.................

fades between Mod1 and Mod2.

MOD1, MOD2, MOD3

Selectors for the 3 modulators.

CONST (constant)

The constant is added to the output in sum modulations mode, it scales the output in
scale sum by constant mode, or scales the amount of Mod3 in fade 1/2 by 3xC mode.

Note that the CONST value can be modulated, as it is a target in the modulation matrix.

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TOC OUTPUTS + FX

Outputs and Effects

The FX Grid

Whenever you select GLOB/FX in the lower bar, you will see the FX Grid in the middle of
the lower pane. The principle is the same as the main grid except that it is not per-voice.
For how to route signals from the main grid into the FX grid, see the Lane Mixer section.

To add a new module, click on an empty cell. Double-click a module to switch it on/off.
Right-click to select input(s) or remove the module.

Seven of the FX module types are the same as ‘processing’ generators available in the
main grid, but of course not per voice: Shape, Mix, Ring, VCF, SB, XMF and Dist. All other
types, ModFX, Delay, Rev, Comp, EQ, Res and NuRev, are described below.

FX Grid with example routing

Output controls

SEND 1 and SEND 2

These two knobs route the unprocessed input of the MASTER lane to the R1 and R2
lanes (otherwise known as bus1 and bus2). In the image above, Send2 is feeding the
SB3 module, and pushing the modulation wheel turns the amount down to zero.

FX-BYPASS

Click on this button (it turns green) to temporarily deactivate all effects in the grid. The
BYPASS status is truly global – you won’t hear any effects in any of your presets on any
day of the week until you deactivate this!

MASTER, R1 and R2

Volume controls for the left, center and righthand lanes of the FX grid.

OUTPUT

The final volume control, this scales the sum of MASTER, R1 and R2. Normally set to
100%, but a preset’s volume can be boosted up to 200% if necessary.

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TOC OUTPUTS + FX

A note about modulating effect parameters

ZebraHZ lets you use any modulation source in the Matrix to modulate global parameters
such as reverb size or delay feedback. However, many of the available modulators are in­stantiated per voice (e.g. envelopes and LFOs). To avoid conflicting values the effects only
use the modulation provided by the most recently played voice. Depending on the source,
target and depth, this can still result in audible glitches. We recommend using global
sources such as the wheels, LfoG or MSEGs (in single or mono mode) wherever possible.

MODULATION FX

Analogue purists may shudder at the mention of built-in chorus (which suggests a lack of
‘beef’ in other departments), but we believe no synthesizer should be without one:

ModFX panel, Chorus mode, equalizer On

MODE

Chorus

chorus / flanger using short delay lines ............

Phorus chorus / flanger using allpass filters .............

Phaser classic phaser unit .............

FEEDB

Bipolar feedback control for ‘flanger’ type resonances.

CENTER

Nominal delay time / allpass cutoff.

DEPTH

Amount of Center modulation from the integrated LFO. See SPEED below.

STEREO

LFO phase offset between the two stereo channels.
Note that 50% often delivers the widest effect.

MIX

Balance between the dry and wet signals.

SPEED

The rate of the ModFX module’s own LFO (0.1Hz to 1Hz).

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TOC OUTPUTS + FX

QUAD

The volume of an additional chorus circuit, with independent LFO.

Q-PHASE

Modulation LFO phase offset (see Stereo above) for the Quad effect.

EQUALIZER

A pair of low and high filters between the dry and chorused signal. These can be used
to preserve the stereo position of bass frequencies while softening the chorus.

ON/OFF

Switches ModFX equalization on or off

LO FREQ / LO BOOST

Low crossover frequency and gain for the dry signal.

HI FREQ / HI BOOST

High crossover frequency and gain for the dry signal.

DELAY

The Delay in Zebra2 is (as you should already have begun to suspect) very flexible. It has
four delay lines, each with time scaling and pan controls. Two flavours of feedback with
inserted low and highpass filters can run at the same time, feeding each other...

Delay module in stereo 2 mode (ping-pong regeneration via x-back)

MODE

stereo 2

stereo delay, uses delay 1 and 2 only ...........

multitap 4 all four delays in parallel .......

dubby 2+2 like two instances of stereo 2 in series .....

serial 2 ping-pong delay, uses delay 1 and 2 only ............

For more details, see the flow diagrams towards the end of this document.

FEEDB and X-BACK

Normal regeneration and cross-regeneration amounts. In multitap mode, the X-back
routing is 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 etc..

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TOC OUTPUTS + FX

LOWPASS and HIGHPASS

Simple filters in the feedback paths which affect the tonal quality of successive repeats.

MIX

Cross-fade between the dry and wet signal.

Sync (unlabelled)

The button above each RATIO knob sets either a synchronized value (1/64th to 1/1
triplet) or absolute time (1 second)…

RATIO

The Ratio knob scales the Sync from 0% (4 samples long) to 200%. Tip: Try using a tiny
amount of random LFOG to modulate one or two of the delay ratios.

PAN

The stereo position of each delay line.

REVERB

The original Rev1 Zebra2 reverb unit. See also NuRev.

Reverb panel, ‘Reverb’ mode

The upper row is the usual set of reverb parameters, and the lower row has a similar set of
controls for the DIFFUSOR

(diffusion adds more reflections, increasing reverb density).

MODE

Reverb is the standard model while Metalverb sounds more artificial and wider.

PRE DELAY

A delay before the reverb starts. Useful for retaining the presence of the dry signal while
using lots of reverb. Or for slap-back effects with short Decay and small Size.

RANGE, D-RANGE

Reverb/Diffusion length i.e. delay times, from ‘very short’ to ‘rather long’. Together, the
RANGE and FEEDB parameters (see below) shape the impression of room size.

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TOC OUTPUTS + FX

FEEDB, D-FEEDB

How much of the reverb signal is fed back into the reverb input. If Range and Feedback
are set to maximum and Damp is at zero, the reverb will carry on almost indefinitely.

Together, the RANGE and FEEDB parameters shape the impression of room size.

DAMP

A simple low pass filter in the feedback loop causes higher frequencies to fade faster
than low frequencies, imitating the ‘warming’ effect of carpets, curtains etc. in a room, or
the audience in a concert hall.

D-MIX

The amount of diffusion.

SPEED, D-SPEED

The rates of the LFOs modulating Range and Feedback / D-Range and D-Feedb.

MOD, D-MOD

The levels of the LFOs modulating Range and Feedback / D-Range and D-Feedb.

DRY, WET

Separate controls for unprocessed and processed signal levels – modulating individual
levels is more flexible than cross-fading dry/wet.

COMPRESSOR

The original Zebra2 global compressor:

The compressor in smooth mode

TYPE

eco

.............. original lo-fi version, with very low CPU-hit

smooth

...... smooth compression, the best choice for most sounds

strong

......... very powerful compression, best for bold percussive sounds

INPUT

Adjusts the input level before the signal is compressed.

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TOC OUTPUTS + FX

OUTPUT

Adjusts the output level to compensate for gain differences caused by the compression.

THRESH (threshold)

The level above which compression will be applied, and below which compression will
be released – so lower values will result in more compression than higher values.

COMP (compression)

Sets the amount of compression.

GR

Gain reduction indicator.

ATTACK

The time it takes to reach maximum compression after the threshold has been crossed.
Attack can affect brightness: very fast values cause the compressor to reduce the gain
immediately, which can dull the attack of the original sound. Note: When set to zero, the
Attack is only one sample in length.

RELEASE

Recovery time i.e. the time the compressor takes to return to unity gain after the input
signal has fallen below the threshold. Very short Release can distort low-frequency in­put, overly long Release can ‘clamp’ the sound down and not release enough before the
next ‘attack’ arrives. When set to zero, Release is only one sample in length.

EQ

A 4-band parametric equalizer. Drag the points to set frequency and gain. Right-click on a
point and drag vertically to adjust the Q (width/slope) of the band. Right-click in the back­ground for basic editing functions: copy, paste, clear (flatten).

Equalizer module, bass+treble boost, dip around 1 kHz

Apart from compression, equalization is the audio engineer’s important “Swiss-army knife”
used to ensure that tracks work well together in the context of the song.

In ZebraHZ, equalizers are very useful for tweaking the final tonal character of a preset –
make it generally brighter or duller, boost or cut certain frequencies...

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TOC OUTPUTS + FX

All 12 parameters (frequency, gain, slope) of the EQ are targets in the
modulation matrix. The highlighted entry in this image is actually the
horizontal position of point 2:

Point 1 = LowShelf
Point 2 = Mid1
Point 3 = Mid2
Point 4 = HiShelf

Example: To use the EQ shown on the previous page as a swept
band reject filter (sounds a bit like phasing), you will need to modulate
point 3 to the left and right. The modulation target is Freq Mid2.

NU REV

A smooth plate reverb with pre-delay. See also the original REVERB.

The NuRev module

PRE DELAY

A delay before the reverb starts. Useful for retaining the presence of the dry signal while
using lots of reverb. Or for slap-back effects with short Decay and small SIZE.

DAMP

A low pass filter in the feedback loop causes higher frequencies to fade faster than low
frequencies, imitating the ‘warming’ effect of carpets, curtains etc. in a room,.

SIZE

Room dimensions, from “sardine can” to infinity and beyond. Balance this with Decay...

TONE

Strong ‘tilt’ equalizer. Bipolar. Use in combination with Damp to “colourize” the reverb.

DECAY

Reflectivity of the room. Effectively how long it takes for the reverb tail to fade to silence.

WIDTH

Stereo spread of the reverb signal.

Dry/Wet

Balance between the dry and processed signals.

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Q Mid1
Gain Mid1
Freq Mid2
Q Mid2
Gain Mid2
Freq HiShelf
Q HiShelf
Gain HiShelf

Freq LowShelf
Q LowShelf
Gain LowShelf

Freq Mid1

TOC OUTPUTS + FX

RESONATOR

One of the very first polyphonic synthesizers ever made included a 3-band peaking filter
that could dramatically colourize a sound.

The ZebraHZ version Res is similar, but is fully modulatable and includes an extra full­range band on the right of the panel.

Click on a cell in the effects grid and select a Res module from the menu…

The Resonator module

MODE

Swaps out the filter type used: LP = lowpass, BP = bandpass, BPi = bandpass with the
second filter (300Hz to 1.5kHz) inverted, and HP = highpass.

INPUT

The signal level at the resonator’s input. Important: The ZebraHZ Resonator is mono­phonic: stereo signals are summed to mono first.

COLOUR

Selects one of 3 different analogue filter models (in the order of CPU hunger).

F = Frequency

The yellow sliders set cutoff frequencies within the ranges indicated by the labels. Note
that the filter on the right is full-range (60 Hz to 7.5 kHz).

E = Emphasis

The blue sliders adjust the emphasis a.k.a. resonance for each filter.

G = Gain

The orange sliders set the output level for each filter.

Tip: ZebraHZ’s resonator is worth studying in depth. It can help you train your ears to
recognize natural formants in the environment or in acoustic musical instruments, which
is very useful knowledge for synth sound design!

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TOC PERFORMANCE

Performance

Arpeggiator / Sequencer

If you would like to experiment with an existing arpeggio, load How Money More Times
from the Zebra2 ‘Lupins’ folder and play with all settings…

Arpeggiator settings used in the Zebra2 preset ‘How Money More Times’

…or you can follow these steps:

Hands-on tutorial

1. Right-click on the data display and select init.

2. Click below the OSC1 cell and add VCF1.

3. Set CUTOFF to minimum, click on an assignable knob in the VCF and select Env1

4. Set the amount of ‘Env1’ cutoff modulation in the VCF to about 110, ENV 1 SUSTAIN
to minimum, and RELEASE to 50.

5. Click on the GLOB/FX tab in the lower bar and select VOICE MODE arpeggiator.

6. Play a low note…

7. Change OSC1 mode to ‘quad’, and DETUNE it a little.

8. Play that low note again and adjust VCF 1 RESONANCE to 10 or a little higher.

9. We should now have a simple slow bass arpeggio. Click on the ARP CTRL tab in the
lower bar to open the arpeggiator...

10. Change STEPS to 4 and SYNC to 1/8. Set TRANSPOSE of the 3rd step to 1 and the
4th step to 7. Play a note...

11. Change the leftmost triangle to a different icon... why is it an 8-note sequence now?
Experiment! Listen to what happens if you change one or two of the other triangles.

12. Play a chord... Change the first four VOICES to 6 (roll your mouse wheel to do this)

13. Play a chord. If it distorts, turn down the volume in Lane 1.

14. Click on the remaining assignable knob in the VCF, select ‘ArpMod’ and set the
amount to +20. To the right of each step you will see two unlabelled columns. Drag
the leftmost of these up or down for each of the 4 steps.

Try adjusting all LENGTH, GATE settings. And don’t forget to add ‘1/8 dot’ delay, of course!

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TOC PERFORMANCE

General Settings

The row of options along the bottom affect the entire arpeggio / sequence:

LOOP

The direction in which the note buffer (see ORDER below) is played back:

f ==> forwards
b <== backwards
fb <=> forwards / backwards

bf >=< backwards / forwards

The names of these options may be a source of confusion: LOOP does not affect the
direction in which the arpeggiator runs!

SYNC

1/64 – 1/1 trip: The duration of the default ‘semiquaver’ step. See LENGTH below.

ORDER

Incoming notes are ordered within a note buffer in one of two ways. The buffer is then
played back in the direction set by the Loop parameter (see below).

by note

notes are reordered according to MIDI note number ............

as played the original order in which notes were played is retained .......

OCT (octaves)

0, 1 or 2 times: This switch sets how often the octave is shifted up after all notes in the
buffer have been played back.

SLIDE

When this switch is active i.e. orange, any Glide/Glide2 set in the GLOB/FX panel will
only be applied to connected notes (see GATE below).

STEPS (1)

This label is used for two different parameters: 1) the number of steps in the arpeggio /

sequence and 2) which note is retrieved from the buffer (see STEPS (2) below).

For the former i.e. to change the number of steps there are 3 methods: Either click and
drag the box at the top left (‘8’ in this image), or hover over it and roll the mouse wheel,
or click on one of the numbers along the top of the arpeggiator panel.

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TOC PERFORMANCE

Per Step Settings

The parameters described below appear 16 times, once for each step. Use them to
make your arpeggios more lively…

STEPS (2)

The symbol immediately below the step index (1 in this image) shows which note is re­trieved from the buffer. Either click to open a menu, or hover over the symbol and roll
your mouse wheel for the following options:

the next note

the same note

the first note

the last note

Tip: For typical monophonic arpeggios, set all used steps to ‘last’.

LENGTH

Step lengths are defined as multiples of the Arp Sync value. Click to open the menu or
roll the mouse wheel for the following:

= 1 x

= 2 x

= 3 x

= 4 x

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TOC PERFORMANCE

GATE (gate length)

As arpeggiators automatically play / release notes, the gate times need to be defined.

0 1 2 3 4 5

0 to 4. From very short to almost the value of SYNC (see 2 pages up). ...............

5. Tie i.e. connect this step to the next one. See SLIDE 2 pages up. ........................

Note that a tie only connects to the first voice of the following step. If the

following step plays multiple VOICES, these will be triggered.

VOICES

0 to 6. The maximum number of notes that can be played simultaneously for the step. A
value of 0 here means skip this step.

TRANSPOSE

The pitches may be already animated, but the steps can also be transposed by up to +/­12 semitones. This feature can be used to create regular sequences, but is particularly
intesting combined with arpeggiation i.e. when you play more than one note at a time.

Arpeggiator Modulators (unlabelled)

The two rather faint columns are bipolar sliders used for modulating any targets you like
(e.g. VCF cutoff and Glide rate) in parallel with the arpeggiator. The corresponding
modulation sources are called ArpMod and ArpMod2.

Tip

Even a simple 3-step arpeggio can create a 15-note sequence (or even 24 in FB or BF
loop mode!) if you set OCT to 2 and play a 5 note chord.

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TOC PERFORMANCE

XY Pad programming

Click on the XY1 tab in the lower bar...

X/Y programming panel #1 in ‘Batflaps Performer’

Hands-on tutorial

Don’t enter the PERFORM page just yet, but stay in the SYNTH page for now.

1. Load init by right-clicking on the data display and selecting the first entry.

2. Right-click on OSC1’s Tune knob and select assign to / X1. Move the top left knob (X1)

3. Click on XY in the lower bar, then on 1 to see the new assignment.

4. Click below OSC1 in the grid and select VCF1. Leave the Cutoff at maximum.

5. In the righthand ‘Y’ area of the X/Y panel, right-click on the topmost ‘none’ and select
Filter1 / Cutoff. Double-click 3 times on that grey segmented bar to set the limit mark­ers appropriately: Y1 will now span the entire cutoff range, with low values at the bot­tom and high values at the top.

6. While watching that bar, move Cutoff up and down in the filter panel. You will see the
bar moving in the opposite direction from Cutoff. Leave Cutoff at maximum.

7. Click on PERFORM in the control bar, then move the handle (the dot) around the XY1
pad while playing. Watch the movement in the lower area until you understand what’s
happening there. Note that only the lower half of the Y axis affects cutoff…

8. ...so grab the righthand (Y1) bar and move it to dead center. The data display should

read “Filter1 Cutoff, 75.00”. If necessary, hold down SHIFT for fine control. Double-click
on the bar 3 times to reposition the limit markers.

9. Play a note and use the XY1 pad again. Positive Y values will now affect the cutoff be­cause you have turned the cutoff knob down to 75 by moving the bar to the right.
Open the SYNTH window and check that, then go back to the PERFORM window.

10.Double-click in the empty field above the pad, enter the text “PITCH & CUTOFF” and
click on the Apply button. Next, double-click in the large empty field to the right and en­ter “x=pitch” and “y=cutoff” on separate lines. Apply.

11. Try assigning XY2 to other targets e.g. filter resonance and oscillator vibrato. Adjust the
triangular limit markers manually instead of double-clicking on the bars this time. You
can assign up to 8 targets per axis. You will only see targets for modules that are used
in the preset… add more modules and look again!

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TOC PERFORMANCE

Controls

X and Y knobs

The 8 knobs in the centre mirror the X/Y controls pads in the PERFORM page: Moving
a knob will also move the handle in the corresponding pad, and vice versa. Use them to
MIDI-learn the X/Y pads for remote control, or for X/Y automation. See MIDI Learn.

Target Selectors and Range Controls

The main area of the XY assignment panel is divided into two blocks: The left half is for
the X-axis and the right half is for the Y-axis.

The 16 Target Selectors (all set to ‘none’ by default) open a nested menu containing
everything that can be modulated in the current preset. As more modules are added to
the grids, more targets will appear. Note that you can use drag & drop assignment here
– simply click on a target selector and drag into the SYNTH window…

target selectors bipolar (top) and unipolar (bottom) range bars
with limit markers (the triangles)

Targets can also be selected from the SYNTHESIS window or effects panels by right­clicking on a knob and choosing ‘assign to / (X1...Y4)’ from the context menu.

As soon as a target is selected, a range bar appears to the right, representing the full
range of the target parameter, plus a pair of limit markers.

Important: In the centre of this area is a vertical line which represents the current value,
and moving the range bar adjusts that value. Go to the SYNTH window and watch the
target parameter move in the opposite direction as you slide the range bar left and right.
Or vice versa – adjust that knob and watch the range bar move.

The two triangular limit markers set the minimum and maximum values. You can invert
the control by setting the upper marker to the left and the lower one to the right.

Double-clicking on a range bar switches between three preset ranges: normal full
range, inverted full range and zero range from the centre (current value).

Note: Although X1 to Y4 appear as modulation sources in the ZebraHZ matrix, these
are fully independent of the X/Y programming panel.

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TOC CONFIGURATION

Configuration

Click on the cogwheel icon at the top righthand corner to open the global configuration
pages where you can adjust the UI size and brightness as well as connect Zebra parame­ters to MIDI continuous controllers. A row of 4 buttons appears:

These are MIDI Learn (L), MIDI Table (

≣), Preferences (“tools”) and Close (cogwheel).

Tip: Right-click anywhere within the row of buttons to Set as Default View. That particular
page will appear whenever you load a new instance and click on the cogwheel.

About MIDI CC

CC, which now officially stands for Control Change (and no longer Continuous Controller!)
is a multi-purpose message format used for editing and performing presets.

CC isn’t the only kind of MIDI performance data. For instance, there are different mes­sages for note on/off (including velocity), pitch bend and two kinds of aftertouch.

Although the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) was kind enough to leave most of the
128 CC numbers undefined, two of them have specific meanings recognized by ZebraHZ:

01 = modulation wheel
64 = sustain pedal

Previous versions of Zebra2 and ZebraHZ also offered the CC controls Breath (CC 02)
and Expression (CC 11). These have been replaced by user-definable Control A and B.
See the Preferences.

Note that you don’t actually need a breath controller (for instance) or an expression pedal
to make use of CC messages. Most of the names are purely convention these days – you
can use anything that can send a definable CC e.g. some knobs or sliders on your MIDI
keyboard, or a controller lane in your MIDI sequencer.

Later MMA revisions to the MIDI spec even included a bunch of esoteric CC definitions
such as ‘Celeste Detune Depth‘, probably at the request of a home organ manufacturer or
two. We can safely ignore all such definitions.

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TOC CONFIGURATION

MIDI Learn

ZebraHZ can be remote-controlled / automated via MIDI messages from a
hardware controller unit or from your sequencer program. Click on the cogwheel
then on the MIDI Learn symbol (L) to open this view…

The overlay shows all MIDI-learnable elements as selectable outlines. Controls that are
already assigned appear filled, like the OSC 1 ‘Wave’, ‘Tune’ and ‘Detune’ controls in the
above image. The currently active element i.e. the one waiting to be learned is highlighted
– like OSC 2 ‘Wave’ here.

Try it: Click on the OSC 1 ‘Tune’ knob and send some MIDI CC data (move a knob or slid­er on your MIDI controller). The ‘Tune’ knob becomes opaque and remote-controllable.

The GUI switches (e.g. all those in the lower bar) remain active so you can MIDI-learn all
parameters without having to exit and switch panels.

Tip: If you ever have problems with parameters magically resetting themselves, the usual
reason is an accidental MIDI learn. Open the MIDI Table and see if there’s anything there!

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TOC CONFIGURATION

MIDI Table

Click on the cogwheel and select the MIDI Table [≣] icon to open an editable list
of all current MIDI CC assignments:

Parameter

The first field displays/selects one of ZebraHZ’s many parameters, which are sorted into
sub-menus. Click on the ‘Add’ button at the bottom and experiment with this option.

Channel / Controller

The next two fields are for MIDI channel and CC number (see About MIDI CC above).

Mode

Specifies the range and/or resolution of values:

Normal

full range, continuous ..................

Integer full range, whole numbers only ...................

Fine 0.01 steps between the two integers closest to the current value ........................

Type

Specifies the data output from knobs / sliders on your hardware controller. Continuous
7bit is the most common by far, but you should check your hardware specifications:

Encoder 127

unipolar encoder ..................

Encoder 64 bipolar encoder ....................

Continuous 7bit 7-bit MIDI CC (normal resolution, most common) ............

Continuous 14bit 14-bit MIDI CC (high resolution, less common) .........

Removing Assignments

To remove an individual assignment, click on the [X] to the right of the line. To remove
all assignments at once, click on the Delete All button at the bottom and confirm.

Last Clicked (experimental feature)

Click on the ‘Add’ button. At the very bottom of the Parameter menu you will see two op­tions called Last Clicked Control and Last Clicked Control Fine. Select Last Clicked
Control, enter a suitable controller (MIDI CC) and exit the configuration pages. Which­ever knobs or switches you click on now, the most recent one will respond to that CC!

The Fine option is similar, but has a very narrow range so you can program a pair of
knobs to remote-control anything “coarse” as well as “fine”. Work in progress.

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TOC CONFIGURATION

Per Instance Control

Control A and Control B

These are local versions of the settings Control A Default and Control B Default in the
Preference page (see below)., and override those global settings.

Note: These are saved per instance with the project, not with each preset.

Preferences

Clicking on the cogwheel then the [TOOLS] icon will open the Preferences win­dow, where you can specify various global settings…

Control

Mouse Wheel Raster

If your mouse wheel is rastered (you can feel
slight clicks as you roll it), switch this on and
parameter values will increment in ‘sensible
steps’ e.g. integers.

Appearance

Default Size

Sets the UI size for each new instance. Note
that you can temporarily change the size by
right-clicking in the background.

Gamma

The default brightness.

Text Antialiasing

Smoothing of all labels and values. Usually
left on, in rare cases switching this option off
can improve readability.

Wavefolder Graph

Appearance of the FOLD module’s little graph.
‘eco’, ‘fast’ or ‘glow’, in order of CPU usage.

Presets

Auto Versioning

If this option is switched on, an index is appended to the preset name and automatically
incremented each time you save. For instance, saving ‘Space’ three times in a row
would give you three files: ‘Space’, ‘Space 2’ and ‘Space 3’.

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TOC CONFIGURATION

Save Presets To

Choosing ‘user folder’ here causes all saved presets to land in the User folder instead
of the currently selected one.

Scan On Startup

Whether the preset library should be scanned and the database recreated when the first
instance of Zebra2 is started, e.g. when you reopen a project.

Audio

Base Latency

Only disable this option if you are 100% sure that your audio system – hardware as well
as software – uses buffers that are a multiple of 16 samples. Otherwise you should
leave it at ‘16 samples’ to prevent crackles.

Note that a new Base Latency setting will only take effect when the host allows e.g. on
playback or after switching the sample rate. Reloading ZebraHZ will always work.

Control A/B Default

The list of modulation sources in earlier versions of included the fixed MIDI CC Breath
(CC#02) and Xpress (expression pedal, CC#11). Since version 2.8 we have replaced
these with the user-definable CC sources Control A and Control B, retaining Breath
(CC2) and Expression (CC11) as the defaults to ensure compatibility with older presets.

MIDI Control Slew

The strength of parameter smoothing for all performance control sources: PitchW (pitch
wheel), ModWhl (modulation wheel), CtrlA, CtrlB as well as ATouch (aftertouch i.e.
channel pressure or poly pressure). The default setting is ‘fast’.

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ABOUT THOSE BUFFERS

Internally, Zebra processes audio in chunks of n x 16 samples. This so-called
‘block processing’ method significantly reduces CPU load and memory usage.

For instance, if the number of samples to be processed is 41, Zebra will
process the first 32 and keeps the remaining 9 in a small buffer (16 samples is
enough). Those 9 samples are then processed at the start of the next call.

Note: The extra buffer is only necessary if either the host or the audio driver is
processing “unusual” buffer sizes. In the many host applications that process
buffers of 64, 128, 256 or 512 samples (all multiples of 16), try switching it off
so that Zebra can process latency-free.

TOC TRICKS

Tips & Tricks

Motion viewer for modulators

Thanks to Brian Rzycki for this tip. Load init then assign MMap1 as modulation source for
something, e.g. Lane 1 Pan (the target doesn’t actually matter for this experiment). A
ModMapper will appear in the modulators pane:

Change the MODE to Map Smooth. Select LFO1 as MOD source. Click on [EDITOR] to
expand the map, set the extreme left and right values to maximum, right-click in the back­ground and select Straighten. CLOSE the expanded editor. It should now look like this:

Play a note and turn down the LFO rate (this trick only works well if the modulator is rela­tively slow). Also works fine with envelopes or MIDI input such as aftertouch.

Spectralize

The context menu of the modulation mappers include a special function adopted from u-he
synths that can use maps as audio waveforms (ACE and Bazille): Spectralize interprets
the map as the first 128 partials of the harmonic series, and converts the data into the ac­tual waveform. In Zebra, this is the easiest way to create a smooth, complex curve.

Try this: Load init, click on the OSC1’s Tune modulation knob and select MMap1. Right­click in MMap1 and select Reset. Right-click again and restrict the size of the map to 5.
Move those 5 values up or down, right-click once more and select Shapes / Spectralize…

To scan in one direction only, set the waveform of the MOD (LFO2 here) to saw up.

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TOC TRICKS

Modulation inverter

It is sometimes necessary to invert unipolar modulation sources, for instance if you want to
cross-fade between two lanes of the main grid. Here’s how to do that:

A Mix module can crossfade between signals at source e.g. 2 oscillator volumes, but the
solution here does unipolar to bipolar conversion and can create non-linear curves.

Absolute value

This example always outputs positive pitch wheel values – minus times minus is plus!

Vibrato under control

When the mod-wheel is at minimum, output is all ATouch, and when at maximum, output is
all ModWhl – so the sum of the sources always adds up to 100%

.

Especially ‘Prog-Rock’ keyboard wizards will understand the reason for this one. It lets you
add vibrato using either mod-wheel or aftertouch or any mixture of the two in the same
preset, without letting vibrato get too deep. So you can take a solo using the mod-wheel,
then get back to playing two keyboards at once using aftertouch instead.

More MSEG points

If you really need more points that the 33 available in each MSEG, try using a couple of
MSEGs in series. Here’s how: Extend the very last segment of the first MSEG to the total
length of the second MSEG, then extend the first segment of that MSEG to the length of
the first MSEG minus that long segment. Add them together using a modulation mixer.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 86

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

Modulation Target Lists

Generators

Target names are in alphabetical order. Knob names are in bold. “Modulation amount”
means the degree to which another modulator affects its target.

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 87

OSC

Detune

DETUNE

key scale

KEY SCALE / GAIN (lower panel)

Normalize

NORM (lower panel)

Pan

PAN

PanModDepth

(assignable) Pan modulation amount

Phase

PHASE/PW

PhaseModDepth

(assignable) Phase modulation amount

Poly Width

Stereo WIDTH (for dual, quad, eleven)

SFX1ModDepth

(assignable) spectral effect 1 modulation amount

SFX2ModDepth

(assignable) spectral effect 2 modulation amount

SpectraFX1 Val

spectral effect 1 value

SpectraFX2 Val

spectral effect 2 value

SyncModDepth

(assignable) Sync modulation amount

SyncTune

SYNC effect

Tune

TUNE in semitones

TuneModDepth

(assignable) Tune modulation amount

Vibrato

VIBRATO

Volume

VOLUME

VolumeModDepth

(assignable) Volume modulation amount

WarpModDepth

(assignable) Wave modulation amount

WaveWarp

WAVE index

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 88

Noise

F1 ModDepth

(assignable) Lowpass modulation amount

F2 ModDepth

(assignable) Highpass modulation amount

Filter1

LP (Lowpass)

Filter2

HP (Highpass)

Pan

PAN

PanModDepth

(assignable) Pan modulation amount

Volume

VOLUME

VolumeModDepth

(assignable) Volume modulation amount

Width

Stereo WIDTH

VCF

Cutoff

CUTOFF

Drive

DRIVE / VOWEL / SPLIT

Gain

GAIN

KeyFollow

KEY F

ModDepth1

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount 1

ModDepth2

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount 2

Resonance

RES

D-HPF

Frequency

CUTOFF

Resonance

RES

FreqModDepth

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 89

D-VCF

Frequency

CUTOFF

Resonance

RES

FreqModDepth

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount

FreqMod2Depth

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount 2

KeyFollow

KEY F

ResModDepth

(assignable) Resonance modulation amount

ShapeModDepth

(assignable) SHAPE MIX modulation amount (for Uhbie mode)

FMO

Detune

DETUNE

FM Depth

FM input

FM ModDepth

(assignable) FM modulation amount

Key Scale Pitch

Key Follow (lower panel, unlabelled horizontal slider)

Pan

PAN

PanModDepth

(assignable) Pan modulation amount

Tune

TUNE in semitones

TuneModDepth

(assignable) Tune modulation amount

Vibrato

VIBRATO

Volume

VOLUME

VolumeModDepth

(assignable) Volume modulation amount

Width

WIDTH

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 90

Comb

Damp

DAMP

DampModDepth

(assignable) Damp modulation amount

Detune

Detune

Distortion

Distortion

Dry

Dry

FBModDepth

(assignable) Feedback modulation amount

Feedback

Feedbk

Flavour

Flavour

FlavourMod

(assignable) Flavour modulation amount

Input

Input

InputMod

(assignable) Input modulation amount

Key Scale Pitch

KEY S

Pan

PAN

PanModDepth

(assignable) Pan modulation amount

PreFill

PRE FILL

To ne

TONE

ToneMod

(assignable) Tone modulation amount

Tune

TUNE (semitones)

TuneModDepth

(assignable) Tune modulation amount

Vibrato

VIBRATO

Volume

VOLUME

VolumeModDepth

(assignable) Volume modulation amount

Width

WIDTH

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 91

Shape

D_ModDepth

(assignable) Depth modulation amount

Depth

DEPTH

Edge

EDGE

Edge ModDepth

(assignable) Edge modulation amount

HiOut

HI OUT

Input

INPUT

Output

OUTPUT

XMF

Bias

(visible but not implemented)

Click

CLICK

Cutoff

CUTOFF

FilterFM

Cutoff FM

Freq mod1

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount 1

Freq mod2

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount 2

FreqOffMod

(assignable) Offset modulation amount

FreqOffset

OFFSET

KeyFollow

KEY F

Overload

OVER

Resonance

RES

XFMmod

(assignable) Filter FM modulation amount

Mix (ChannelMix)

Mix

MIX

Pan

PAN

PanMod Depth

(assignable) Pan modulation amount

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 92

SB

FModDepth

(assignable) Freq modulation amount

Frequency

FREQ

Mix

MIX

MModDepth

(assignable) Mix modulation amount

Offset

OFFSET

OModDepth

(assignable) Offset modulation amount

Distortion

Input

INPUT

Output

OUTPUT

Pre Tilt

PRE TILT

Post Tilt

POST TILT

Center Freq

CENTER

Low

LOW

High

HIGH

Fold

Folds

FOLDS

Fold Mod

(assignable) Fold modulation amount

Bias

BIAS

Bias Mod

(assignable) Bias modulation amount

FoldRatio

RATIO

FoldSlope

SLOPE

Clip Angle

CLIP ANGLE

Voice Circuit (GLOB)

Portamento

GLIDE

Portamento2

GLIDE 2

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

Modulators

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 93

Envelopes

Init

(assignable) Initial level before the Attack stage

Attack

ATTAC K

Decay

DECAY

Sustain

SUSTAIN level

Fall/Rise

F/R

Sustain2

(assignable) Sust2 level (if Sust2 is active)

Release

RELEASE

Velocity

VEL

Vel2I

VEL SCALE initial level amount (if Init is active)

Vel2A

VEL SCALE to Attack amount

Vel2D

VEL SCALE to Decay amount

Vel2S

VEL SCALE to Sustain amount

Vel2FR

VEL SCALE to F/R amount

Vel2S2

VEL SCALE to Sust2 amount (if Sust2 is active)

Vel2R

VEL SCALE to Release amount

Key2I

KEY SCALE to initial level amount (if Init is active)

Key2A

KEY SCALE to Attack amount

Key2D

KEY SCALE to Decay amount

Key2S

KEY SCALE to Sustain amount

Key2FR

KEY SCALE to F/R amount

KeyS2

KEY SCALE to Sust2 amount (if Sust2 is active)

Key2R

KEY SCALE to release amount

Slope

Slope (unlabelled, for v-slope mode)

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 94

Voice Mix

Mod Depth(1-4)

(assignable) ‘Mod’ modulation depth (Vol) – lane mixer

Pan Mod Dpt(1-4)

(assignable) ‘Mod’ modulation depth (Pan) – lane mixer

Pan(1-4)

PAN – lane mixer

Send1

SEND1 – FX mixer

Send2

SEND2 – FX mixer

SendDepth1

(assignable) SEND1 modulation amount – FX mixer

SendDepth2

(assignable) SEND2 modulation amount – FX mixer

Volume(1-4)

VOL – lane mixer

MSEGs

Velocity

VEL

Attack

A (attack time)

Loop

LOOP time

Release

R (release time)

LFO

Amplitude

AMP

Delay

DELAY

DepthMod Dpt1

(assignable) Amp modulation amount

FreqMod Dpt

(assignable) Rate modulation amount

Phase

PHASE

Rate

RATE

MMix

Constant

CONST

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

Global!

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 95

LFOG (LfoG)

Amplitude

AMP

Phase

PHASE

Rate

RATE

Master

Master

MASTER

Return1

R1

Return2

R2

Lane Compressors (AmpComp)

Compression

COMP – compression amount

Threshold

THRESHOLD

Attack

ATTAC K rate

Release

RELEASE time

Input

INPUT level

Output

OUTPUT level

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

Effects

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 96

ModFX

Center

CENTER

Depth

DEPTH

Feedback

FEEDB

HiCut Freq

HI FREQ

High Boost dB

HI BOOST

Low Boost dB

LO BOOST

LowCut Freq

LO FREQ

Mix

MIX

Quad

QUAD

QuadPhase

Q-PHASE

Speed

SPEED

Stereo

STEREO

Delay

Drive

(unused)

Feedback

FEEDB

Hipass

HIPASS

Lowpass

LOWPASS

Mix

MIX

Pan1 ... Pan4

PAN1 ... PAN4

Ratio1 ... Ratio4

RATIO1 ... RATIO4

X-Back

X-BACK

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 97

Reverb

Damp

DAMP

Diff Feedback

FEEDB (in DIFFUSOR)

Diff Mix

MIX (in DIFFUSOR)

Diff Mod

MOD (in DIFFUSOR)

Diff Range

RANGE (in DIFFUSOR)

Diff Speed

SPEED (in DIFFUSOR)

Dry

DRY

Feedback

FEEDB

Modulation

MOD

PreDelay

PRE DELAY

Range

RANGE

Speed

SPEED

Wet

WET

Shape

D_ModDepth

(assignable) Depth modulation amount

Depth

DEPTH

Edge

EDGE

Edge ModDepth

(assignable) Edge modulation amount

HiOut

HI OUT

Input

INPUT

Output

OUTPUT

Mix (ChannelMix)

Mix

MIX

Pan

PAN

PanMod Depth

(assignable) Pan modulation amount

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 98

Comp

Attack

ATTAC K

Compression

COMP

Input

INPUT

Output

OUTPUT

Release

RELEASE

Threshold

THRESH

VCF

Cutoff

CUTOFF

Drive

DRIVE / VOWEL / SPLIT

Gain

GAIN

KeyFollow

KEY F

ModDepth1

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount 1

ModDepth2

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount 2

Resonance

RES

EQ

Freq HiShelf

(4) horizontal position

Freq LowShelf

(1) horizontal position

Freq Mid1

(2) horizontal position

Freq Mid2

(3) horizontal position

Gain HiShelf

(4) vertical position

Gain LowShelf

(1) vertical position

Gain Mid1

(2) vertical position

Gain Mid2

(3) vertical position

Q HiShelf

(4) slope

Q LowShelf

(1) slope

Q Mid1

(2) slope

Q Mid2

(3) slope

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 99

Resonator

InputGain

INPUT

Frequency(1-4)

Yellow sliders

Emphasize(1-4)

Blue sliders

Gain(1-4)

Red sliders

XMF

Bias

(visible but not implemented)

Click

CLICK

Cutoff

CUTOFF

FilterFM

Cutoff FM

Freq mod1

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount 1

Freq mod2

(assignable) Cutoff modulation amount 2

FreqOffMod

(assignable) Offset modulation amount

FreqOffset

OFFSET

KeyFollow

KEY F

Overload

OVER

Resonance

RES

XFMmod

(assignable) Filter FM modulation amount

SB

FModDepth

(assignable) Freq modulation amount

Frequency

FREQ

Mix

MIX

MModDepth

(assignable) Mix modulation amount

Offset

OFFSET

OModDepth

(assignable) Offset modulation amount

TOC MOD TARGET LISTS

presets global generators modulators outs+fx perform config targets 100

NuRev

Pre-Delay

PreDelay

Damp

Damp

Decay

Decay

Size

Size

To ne

Tone

Width

Width

Dry/Wet Mix

Dry/Wet

Distortion

Input

INPUT

Output

OUTPUT

Pre Tilt

PRE TILT

Post Tilt

POST TILT

Center Freq

CENTER FREQ

Low

LOW

High

HIGH