The Soft Synth Built for Deep Sonic Exploration
Expanding the revolutionary Zebra concept — hybrid synthesis meets modeled components — u-he’s Zebra 3 melds novel sound-design possibilities with a fresh user experience tailor-made for deep sonic exploration. This advanced soft synth showcases two oscillator engines, one wavetable and one additive, complemented by 20 oscillator effects, while FM oscillators offer two operators, along with an audio input as a third. You get 13 classic and original filter models, each with up to 12 responses, as well as noise generators, exciters, and modal resonators that mimic their real-world counterparts. Moreover, Zebra 3 offers modular-style routing freedom for modulation using pitch, gate, and trigger signals, enhanced by mod math modules, mappers, and vector and scan mixers. Rounding out Zebra 3’s features are dedicated wavefolder, ring modulator, and distortion modules, along with a global FX Grid replete with modulation, delays, reverbs, and compressors. Beyond that, navigating this virtual instrument is incredibly straightforward, thanks to its adaptive interface, which lets you organize modules using intuitive drag-and-drop gestures. Boasting full MPE support, micro-tuning, and MTS-ESP, Zebra 3 includes over 1,200 factory presets alongside a unified spline editor for oscillator waveforms and MSEG curves with geometric morphing.
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Generator Rack
A powerful modular synthesis firing table, Zebra 3’s Generator Rack contains four main oscillators that morph between hand-drawn spline waveforms and can render as classic wavetables with up to 16-voice unison or as additive engines with up to 1,024 sine partials. Each oscillator features two serial FX slots offering 20 processes, ranging from spectral filtering and phase distortion to animated spectral decay. Additionally, you can freely chain four FM oscillators, each accepting any rack signal as a third operator, enabling you to build complex FX algorithms without a fixed topology. Zebra 3’s noise generators, exciters, and modal resonators work together seamlessly, and you can route the result through one of 105-plus filter responses, a comb in reverb mode, or straight into an FM oscillator as a modulator. Moreover, you can use dedicated wavefolder, ring modulator, and distortion modules to insert harmonics anywhere in the signal path. Finally, vector mixing enables you to crossfade or X/Y-morph between four sources, and you can use nearly every parameter — filter cutoff, fold depth, comb detune, or resonator position — as a modulation target.
Modulation Rack
The synth savants here at Sweetwater are especially impressed by the Modulation Rack in u-he Zebra 3. Four ASDR envelopes offer velocity sensitivity and a One Shot mode, with two Vary parameters for added sonic flexibility. Four LFOs cover sine, triangle, saw, square, sample-and-hold, and smooth random, bolstered by tempo sync, phase offset, and a delay ramp for gradual onset. Additionally, four MSEGs offer up to eight morphable curves along a shared timeline with freely positioned loop points, using the same spline editor as the oscillator. Moreover, attack, loop, and release macros dynamically scale the speed and amplitude. You also get four dedicated pitch modules, providing you with comprehensive control over tuning, glide, and quantization, and you can deploy many modulators as triggers, with pitch and gates enjoying equal footing alongside typical modulators. Beyond that, four mappers let you reshape any modulation signal through a custom transfer curve, and you can use trigger signals to transform a mapper into a step sequencer. Lastly, four mod math modules combine, multiply, and transform sources before they reach their target.
FX Grid
Zebra 3’s FX Grid receives audio from the four voice lanes via four global buses: the main plus three auxiliary sends. You get per-voice modulation for the send levels from the voice grid, making effects depth part of the polyphonic expression, even with global effects. You get ModFX units for chorus, flanging, and phasing, each with its own internal LFO. Delays include mono, stereo, and ping-pong modes with tempo-synced note divisions, feedback filtering, modulation, and diffusion, available in analog-modeled and digital flavors. Additionally, Zebra 3 features two reverb models, enabling you to add dimension to your sounds using everything from tight rooms to vast halls. Moreover, the TextureVerb effect scatters granular microfragments of audio for ear-grabbing, shimmering ambience. Additionally, you can place compressors anywhere in the FX Grid, enabling you to enhance reverb tails, tame modulation dynamics, produce sidechain-style pumping, and more. EQ, filters, distortion, ring modulation, and wavefolder modules are also on tap. Finally, you have access to two stereo mixers, a 4-in-1 mixer with vector and scan functions, and a complex 4-in-4 mixer in the FX section.
u-he Zebra 3 Features:
- The latest iteration of u-he’s Zebra, expanding its revolutionary hybrid-synthesis-meets-modeled-components concept
- 2 oscillator engines, wavetable and additive, complemented by 20 oscillator FX, including spectral decay, sync, phase, and more
- FM oscillators offer 2 operators, along with an audio input as a 3rd
- 13 classic and original filter models, each with up to 12 responses
- Noise generators, exciters, and modal resonators that mimic their real-world counterparts
- Handles modulation with modular-style routing freedom using pitch, gate, and trigger signals
- Mod math modules combine and transform modulation signals
- Mappers act as step sequencers or as freely drawable transfer curves for other modulators
- Vector and scan mixers blend 4 sources with a loopable X/Y pad or scan through them sequentially
- Dedicated wavefolder, ring modulator, and distortion modules
- Global FX Grid replete with modulation, delays, reverbs, and compressors
- Adaptive interface makes navigation incredibly straightforward
- Full MPE support, micro-tuning, and MTS-ESP
- Unified spline editor for oscillator waveforms and MSEG curves with geometric morphing
- 1,200+ factory presets
