That was too my concern, and from the short while I've had with it, it seems to have quelled the zizz of my CPU.

 

According to this video, Z3 uses more CPU than Z2. However, it seems that this can be optimized when building patches using built-in tools and metrics.

 

Yeah, patch import hasn't been promised it will not happen. One thing I'd wish for which I think would be doable is import of oscillator and MSEG shapes, which then could be mangled further with Z3s improved tools.

But hey, that hasn't been promised either and I'm more than happy with what I've got. And Z2 still works fine for those old patches so I'm keeping it alongside Z3.

 

Zebra3 user guide

Tip: Master the unique Zebra 3 oscillators by exploring Zebralette 3 (freeware, included in the Zebra 3 installer but also available seperately at u-he.com). Zebralette 3 presets can be loaded directly into Zebra 3, but please note that any direct modulation of Pan, Volume and Width as well as the effects will be removed in the process.

 

I've mentioned this before but worth repeating I think: Zebralette 3 is great on it's own but it's a handy tool to just design the oscillators. Even if you're not interested in Zebra 3 itself it's a lightweight alternative for some bizarre sounds and you can export the oscillator morphs as wavetables*. So if you use Ableton Wavetable, Vital, Serum, or Pigments or similar wavetable monster you can use Zebralette to create unique wavetables for it.

It's a distraction free environment to knock out some fancy waves and sequences.

*) Right click on the oscillator display and select "Export wavetable".

 

I personally don't care much for backwards compatibility of patches, but a trick he could incorporate that I would like to see would be how Xfer Serum2 can easily load up Serum1. If you're going to have old patches and new features going unused anyway, what's the difference in just leaving your v2 in place? Zebra2 on Mac is 22mb in size for the plugin, plus we also have The Dark Zebra probably installed. How hard is it to side-by-side v3 with v2 and just match the parameter values of the old preset, if you want pile on new stuff?

I don't really see the point of complaining about this one, unless my intent was something to complain about. Like a reviewer...

 

The same, almost identical thing as version two, but with years (and years, and years, and...) of refinement, somewhat improved, somewhat more at home in a modern time of ever-increasing costs, not just of memory. The important part, the thing that might have been worth waiting for, the perhaps somewhat less important part, the filters, are, as is typical with U-he filters, still "ringy, clicky, yoinky, buzzy, scrapy, resy..." They're not "creamy, silky, velvety..." which, of course, isn't always a bad thing. It may not be impossible, but it's difficult, by scraping velvet so to speak, not to unintentionally imitate a kind of moaning, a squeal, a scraping across resonant metal... Version two isn't particularly special in any standout way among the sea of available synthesizers. It would almost be too boring, if it weren't for that boredom itself inviting you to load the plugin, one instance, then two, then three, then four, and ("It's only when I lose myself, that I find myself, I find myself...") lose yourself for hours in "droning." A droning machine... that will surely make your xyz-core processor go full monty.

"Do you hear the funny sound? It's my hooves!"

Version three is the same, almost identical thing as version two, and yet also nothing particularly special, except that for some unknown reason a person eager to try the new version, after a brief skim through the suggested presets, finds themselves lost for hours, having once again wandered into the familiar "droning machine" in a new guise. Same, but not the same animal. If one already owns version two, was it really worth impatiently waiting for — OMFG, I can't put petrol in my new electric car?!? — version three, and is the third incarnation of the striped animal worth €249.99? If you measure it by the minute, by accumulated hours of pleasantly getting lost tinkering with it, then perhaps.

 

The update price for owners of Zebra2 prior to the 2022 cutoff date is a fair price if under $50, imo. I'm not so sure a 4 year gap cutoff date for people who bought Legacy makes much sense, but at least the price for them isn't terrible. The price for late buyers and new ones at $249 is close to justifiable, with other synth plugins being in that same price range now. For Mac users getting the cheap update price is almost a no-brainer, since they are getting a new ARM Native build of it, and a more fully scalable UI. Considering version 2 was out there for 16 years, and Zebra 2 users continued using it productively that long, without it being clearly outdated and obsolete the day before this version was released?
I'm not really synced with the as-always noise about a new version of anything.

The lack of a skins option in the preferences menu is not a great thing. That Neumann Pro skin for Z2 that finally showed up on sister site recently pretty clearly illustrates how much can be done with them. It will probably happen anyway.

 

Did they add the other oscillator types or is it still only wavetable spline editing? I get the simple concept but they could have at least added some of the other syntheses even if you could only use one at a time.

 

It didn't ship with any alternate skins/themes but it handles them apparently, I'm fine with the default but on the official forum people are wanting and designing new ones. How far the new theme/skin support can be twisted to different designs I've no idea, so far the tweaks people have done have been of the "light mode" variety.

Straight from the horse's mouth: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8858781#p8858781