Inventing Your Own Patch From Scratch With Zebra 3

Perfectly recreating your favourite patches is a great way to learn how to program synths. But it’s not the only way, so this month we’re taking a different approach. The plan is: we have no plan…

There are two ways to approach music-making. First, go in with an idea… a goal… even a plan. This is the efficient way. The way that always yields finished tracks and meets deadlines.

But it’s often the least fun way, the least creatively interesting. It suits our algorithmic world, where everything has to sound like something else that sells. The second way involves going in with no idea or intention… just having fun. It’s where magic can happen. Unconventional melodies and structures. New sounds. New knowledge and techniques. 

A reliable way to introduce this into your studio day is with a new toy, by trying out all its features with no fixed ideas. Just turning knobs to see what noises come out. Our new toy is Zebra 3, u-he’s from-the-ground-up sequel to their legendary wireless modular soft synth, so today let’s just turn knobs to see what noises come out.

We’re documenting our steps here, as normal, so you can follow along. But before you do, why not try something different? Don’t listen to our audio yet. Load up the same modules we do (we’ll name them at the start of each relevant step) – but then apply your own settings. And maybe don’t listen to our audio examples until the end… then see how your patch compares to ours.

Open Zebra 3 in your DAW with an ‘Init’ patch and import the MIDI file WhoKnows.mid, add the file Kick.mp3, set your project tempo to 127BPM, and press Play. It’s playing the default oscillator and sounds pretty boring. 

Let’s start making the patch our own with one of the tasty new FM oscillator modules in Zebra 3. We set the Ext. Mod Type to Dry and change the FM type from DX (classic linear) to TZFM (the new Through Zero type) and the Mod to 8. Playing with the Ratio yields a range of bleepy sounds and we settle on 1.0 : 2.5 as it sounds resonant and awesome already. In fact, we could almost use this as it is, but let’s keep pushing to see what else we can make. 

Let’s load an LFO to modulate the FM with a Mod Depth of 48. We set an LFO Time Base of 2 / 1 (two bars) and set Trigger to Single. It’s already sounding pretty serious and full of harmonics, even with just this single sound generator (that’s the joy of FM!), but why stop there? Below you can check out the triangle, sine, and square shapes. Square delivers arguably the least usable in its current state. But it’s got a lot of potential so let’s use it!

Triangle

Sine

Square

It’s harmonic… but too polite… so let’s take things up a notch. After twirling some more knobs it’s clear the Feedback knob does something pretty nice when we dial it up, starting with some crunchy distortion before imparting a nice kind of almost EDP Wasp-like resonance at around 73.

Those cool resonances we get with the square LFO wave at 73 Feedback are pretty inspirational but what if we tamed and shaped them? Zebra 3 now has the perfect tool with its multimode filter. Load it up now and we can try some settings and modes.

The Old Time mode sounds great with a Low Pass 24 dB filter, really warming things up, but it needs some control. To do this we add an envelope to the cutoff, then dial the cutoff right down to 8.18Hz so we can use the envelope to control when the filter opens, allowing a tonal but more plucked vibe. 

First we set a nice percussive envelope shape – Attack 0, Decay 1.25s, Sustain 31, Release 96.1 – then play with the modulation depth. Around 105 sounds great. Add the audio file Skippy_beat.mp3 now to hear the patch really come alive. And let’s throw Zebra 3’s built-in reverb on a send bus – not only will it inject a dose of ‘epic’ into proceedings but it will help us appreciate the effects of the next few tweaks. 

Patch

Patch with beat

Patch with beat and verb

We’ve gained control but lost edge so we add bite with Drive. Sounds great, but a tiny bit harsh on the transient so we assign a third envelope to Drive, dial it back down to zero, then set the Mod Depth to full. Setting the envelope Decay to maximum reintroduces the harshness… but if we dial up the Attack a tiny bit… to around 40ms…  we get the nice overdrive coming in later, without harshness on the transient.

Overdrive no envelope

Overdrive with envelope

And for the last tweak to our patch let’s dial up the Velocity on Envelope 3 to maximum. Now we can hear that there are some MIDI note velocity values creating a nice bouncy vibe as the overdrive is increased the harder the velocity setting of the note. 

There are all sorts of things we can try with this patch now. For example, automating Cutoff to build over eight bars gives great dynamic energy. And because we have different envelopes assigned to different modules we can try those same sweeps with different envelope settings. For example, listen below to that same sweep with Envelope 1’s Release opened up to a longer 3.61 seconds length. And we can layer in that boring buzzy Init patch on top now too, maybe even with some 8-Voice detuned Unison!

Cutoff sweep

Cutoff sweep with long release

Main patch with Init layer

Main patch with Init layer in Unison

Mini arrange

Find out more about Zebra 3 on the u-he website.