U-he will showcase the upcoming new Zebralette 3 free Synthesizer plugin (macOS/windows) at NAMM 2024, a public beta coming soon.
Excellent news from U-he. The public beta version of Zebralette 3 is available now on the KVR Forum. Please read carefully on the forum what the current known issues are, and more.
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Article From January 26, 2024
In Berlin at Superbooth 23, Urs Heckmann (U-he) presented the first teaser for the long-awaited Zebra 3 Synthesizer. Not with an actual Z3 version but with a first alpha version of Zebralette 3 Synthesizer. It will be a completely revised version of the popular free synth.
Now, more than 6 months have passed, and the development has continued. NAMM 2024 is coming up, and U-he will be exhibiting in Anaheim. One of the news will be the beta version of Zebralette 3.
U-he Zebralette 3
You read that right: Zebralette 3 will be presented in beta version at NAMM 2024. It’s not Zebra 3 yet, but it’s a light version of what we can expect in Zebra 3. According to U-he, they will showcase its capabilities as well as the excellent wavetable and MSEG editing tools.
Urs Heckmann also says on the KVR forum:
While “beta” means “feature complete but still a bit buggy”, we hope to go public soon after NAMM. We’ll then spend the coming weeks and months fine tuning the user experience and its sonic powers with the help of your feedback.
We’re confident that Zebralette 3 will become one of the most comprehensive wavetable generation tools available, and like its predecessor, it’ll be free.
Zebralette 3 will remain a free Synthesizer plugin with one Zebra oscillator, one Zebra multi-segment envelope generator, LFO, ADSR envelope, and VCA so what we know from Zebralette 2.
The new Zebra 3 engine is already active at the core of it. Part of the engine is a new oscillator that incorporates various synthesis options, including wavetable, spline wave, morphing, VA, and additive. The hefty thing about it is the built-in editor, reminiscent of a super powerful math program.
Once opened, you can draw your own waveforms, generate wavetables, or work with additive synthesis. The new spline technology lets you generate morphing wavetables smoothly together.
On top, there will be a plethora of different oscillator FX with which you can achieve wilder oscillator timbres. All this will also be available in the free Zebralette 3 Synthesizer
Zebra 3 Release?
When is Zebra 3 coming? The question of all questions. Urs Heckmann and U-he currently have no news about them but says:
As for the most tingling question: We can not yet assess a timeline as to when its bigger brother – Zebra 3 – is ready, but once Zebralette 3 is finished, the largest chunk of work on Zebra 3 is done as well.
Also, our team has been making big progress in areas that are not part of Zebralette. We’ll know more once we get there.
Here is an extensive demo from NAMM 2024.
U-he Zebralette 3 will be available in an open beta version after NAMM 2024. The plugin will be a free download and an official release TBA.
More information: U-he
I know very few people care, but it’s actually a “free Synthesizer plugin (macOS/windows/linux)” (as everything u-he does). 😉
Nice to see the use of “windows” instead of “PC”, though!
this is the highlight of the free synth scene 2024. great addition to u-hes other free synth zebra cm. the editor looks like autocad for audio. advanced sophisticated concepts 😀
This the only software beta (and SynthMaster 3) that I have installed.
Love it