Review: Zebra 3 by u-he

They say good things come in threes. What they don’t tell you is that sometimes you have to wait a bit for all three things to materialize. Best not to hold your breath after the second one, in case the final thing takes a few minutes longer. Or, say, twenty years.

That’s (sort of) what happened with Zebra 3 by u-he, one of the most hotly anticipated soft synth releases in… well, ever. Unveiled in April, nearly two decades after the release of Zebra 2 — and following a decade of active development — Zebra 3 finally takes its place as the third version of u-he’s beloved deep synthesis powerhouse.

(Well, sort of. Zebra 2 did get a major overhaul into ZebraHZ back in 2012, adding all sorts of customized Hans Zimmer-isations to the existing framework.

Also, Zebra 1 was Mac-only, so maybe Zebra 3 is the fourth good thing, unless you’re on Windows. Or if you use a Mac, but didn’t update after Zebra 2? Good things come in whatever complicated numbers they feel like, I suppose.)

Tricky maths aside, Zebra 3 is finally out, fully rebuilt, and fit for exploring. Let’s see what this long-awaited striped beast has to offer.

In for a Zebra, In for a Pound

Let’s be clear about one thing up front: Zebra 3 is a monster. It’s a modular synth with flexible configurations, scads of moving parts, and deep and complex controls at nearly every level. Very few bits in this plugin are as simple as they look (and most don’t look simple to begin with). This is very much not a “pull up and plonk” sort of synthesizer.

Here are two quick examples to illustrate Zebra 3’s complexity. You’d probably expect a synth to have basic pitch controls like key follow and pitch bend. Maybe even a knob or two for each oscillator, if it’s especially fancy. Zebra 3’s pitch controls get their own tab, with four multi-faceted pitch modulation modules that can act independently (or not) and have various parameters further modulated in dozens of ways. Here’s Zebra 3’s version of a simpler synth’s “Pitch Bend” knob:

As you might imagine, Zebra 3’s user manual is thorough, detailed, and positively chonky at over 130 pages. It’s so comprehensive, in fact, that each page includes a footer with links to around two dozen keywords and concepts, because you’ll likely be checking and cross-referencing so often that even scrolling up to a table of contents would get old quickly.

That’s Zebra 3 in a nutshell. Can it be tamed, learned, wrangled, and massaged to produce wildly unique pads, plucks, sound beds, atmospheres, drones, pulses, basses, chimes, and more? Absolutely, given sufficient time and study.

Could you throw up your hands and instead use Zebra 3 as a “preset synth”, leveraging its thousand-plus categorised factory presets as starting points for gentle tweaking? You could, though that really wouldn’t be getting the most out of this zebra-shaped unicorn, either musically or “bang for the buck”-wise. Best in this case to latch onto the Zebra’s mane, dive in headfirst, and discover where you’ll swim together.

(Do zebras swim, actually? I don’t know. This is very much a “don’t try this at home, or on safari” sort of recommendation. Let’s check out the interface before someone drowns in analogy.)

Anatomy Topology of a Zebra

For reasons that are hopefully obvious by now, this won’t be a full (130-plus page) dissection of all of Zebra 3’s innards. Neither of us has that kind of time. Plus, no zebras will be harmed in the writing of this review, though a few may get wet, apparently.

Instead, we’ll jog through the main interfaces, controls, highlights, and pro tips, starting with this one: right-clicking (or control-clicking) in Zebra 3 often reveals important and highly convenient functionality. This includes extra options and common functions (like Lock to prevent accidental parameter adjustment or Add Modulation) for many dials and parameters. Also, right-clicking on the data display in the toolbar at top centre opens the option to load Zebra 3’s init preset, which looks like this (on the main Synthesis tab):

This is as simple as Zebra 3 gets, with the Osc 1 oscillator in the Generator Rack on the left and Env 1 envelope in the Modulator Rack at right, surrounding the Main Grid showing the current active generators. In the Lower Panel, the main attraction (with the Editor tab active) is the graph and curve tools for Osc 1 at left.

The strip above the Lower Panel (called the Editor Bar) indicates the other tabs available for this area: Perform, with virtual keyboard and “performance controls” (or macros, if you prefer); FX|Out, featuring an effects routing grid for the main channel and three send busses; and Matrix, displaying a modulation matrix. This strip also includes tabs to shape and apply effects per oscillator (like the active Osc 1 above) and draggable controls to assign multi-segment envelopes and mappers to modulate nearly any parameter.

(Zebra 3’s mappers are multi-mode up-to-128-value configurable modulation sources with a host of options, baked-in patterns and shortcuts, and near-endless applications.)

The Modulation Assigner Bar at far bottom does just what it says on the tin, allowing you to drag modulation sources both familiar (MW for modwheel, E1 through E4 envelopes, and L1 through L4 LFOs, for instance) and esoteric (the aforementioned P1 through P4 pitch modules, four math modules, and A through D performance controls) to the destinations you choose. Once assigned, these mod sources will appear in either the Modulator Rack or the current oscillator section for further configuration.

 After a bit (or a lot) of work, the space might look like this view, showing (some of) the generators, modulators, and Lower Panel mod matrix for one of Zebra 3’s presets (note that the mod sources in the bottom bar are outlined where active to help you remember):

While the stripes in the lower section remind users about the available modulation sources, you may wonder exactly what “generators” can be added and configured in the Generator Rack. A click on any open slot in the Main Grid will open the long list of possibilities atop the Modulator Rack (the screenshot below also serves as an excuse to show off the Effects Grid and corresponding parameters):

As shown above, each generator is single-use and grayed out among the selections if already active. But the numbers and types of Zebra 3 generators are impressive, from seemingly-simple oscillators to FM oscillators to noise generators, modal resonators, exciters, comb filters, distortion modules, wavefolders, ring modulators, and a host of mixers and utilities.

I said “seemingly-simple” oscillators above because Zebra 3’s “default” oscillators are not your run of the mill “sine / square / sawtooth” numbers, by a long shot. The easiest way to demonstrate that is to select one in the Editor Bar (this also works for MSEGs and mappers) and click the Editor button at far left for the full-on osc editing view:

Here, you can draw, plot, morph, code, shape, tune, warp, rotate, and apply effects to your heart’s (and ears’) content. Zebra 3 includes both wavetable and additive synth (harmonics) renderers, with options including wavetable import and export, spectral modifiers, and number of harmonics, among dozens of others.

I’ve mentioned the effects once or twice, but it’s worth noting the variety of global effects available (including filters, EQs, compressors, wavefolders, modulation effects, and more) and the flexible effects grid with multiple send busses, cross-routing, and more. Most of Zebra 3’s effects are top notch and having options to apply many at per-oscillator, per-bus, or global scopes independently opens further possibilities for creative musical mayhem.

The Zebra That Roared

Hopefully, that gives you an idea of what developing a patch in Zebra 3 might look like. Are there other details to explore, menus I missed, things I left out? Holy Hans Zimmer’s humpbacked harmonica, yes. So many things. Zebra 3 is miles deep – miles! – and if you try it out yourself, you’ll undoubtedly run into bits I don’t even know exist. It’s Pandora’s plugin, and the only bottom is wherever you dare to stop twiddling dials and parsing right-click menus.

With that said, Zebra 3 is also expertly laid out and designed to be as intuitive and convenient as a complex modular synth can be. As you’ve seen in the screenshots, elements are consistently and clearly colour-coded. The main and effects grids behave similarly and drag-and-drop for the veritable constellation of modulation sources onto targets is generally quick and predictable.

Each type of element in Zebra 3 – whether generator, modulator, or effect – has a defined area with adjustable parameters. And where the sets of parameters are too large to handle, a separate “Editor” or “Pitches” button clears a wider space for fiddling.

The best compliment I can give Zebra 3 is that in using it and listening to it, it feels like what it is – namely, a flagship modular synth developed over multiple years by extremely talented and experienced people who had already iterated on the concept and had oodles of improvements, conveniences, modernizations, and new features in mind. The oscillators are Swiss Army knives, the filters are a smorgasbord, and the physical modeling generators are a lost week of experimental doodling just waiting to happen.

The included presets (more than a thousand, remember!) offer a good introduction to Zebra 3’s broad range. But it’s likely they’ll soon make you itch to dig in and carve out patches of your own. It can take a bit of time (and manual browsing and so, so much right-clicking) to get comfortable with Zebra 3’s basics. But then whole worlds of sonic possibilities open up, with discoveries and happy accidents around many corners.

U-he took their time and great care in developing Zebra 3, successor to one of their most highly capable and popular creations. If you’ve used Zebra 2 or ZebraHZ, much of the layout and components of the new plugin will be familiar, but with expanded capabilities and streamlined workflows. If you haven’t, any experience with modular architectures will help ease the learning curve – but in the end, users of any synth should be able to lock into Zebra 3’s way of working with a bit of study and practice. And like any third “good thing” (or fourth? or maybe second?), it’s been well worth the wait.

Buy Zebra 3 from our partners at Plugin Boutique.

Learn more about Zebra 3 at the u-he website.