>Step by step

1. From vintage brass to Euro

1

We’ll start the process in our usual way, by loading a favoured DAW and opening an instance of the U-He Zebra CM plugin. From the central display, click and select the UH Initialize patch, which will give us a starting point for the creation of our sound.

2

Early polysynths offered a very basic subtractive palette for sound creation, and we want to emulate this. Locate Oscillator 1; directly below the legend there is a box which reads Dual. This relates to the number of aliased waves we are hearing, which we need to switch to Single, by clicking within the box. Do the same with Oscillator 2.

3

For a more vibrant brassy synth sound, we’ll raise the pitch of Oscillator 2 by one octave. To do this, stay within the Oscillator 2 section and use the main Tuning control to transpose the Oscillator up by 12 semitones. The central display will read 12.00 to indicate that 12 semitones have been reached.

4

Big brassy pads are often created using a large amount of sustain, from within the envelope. Within our current settings, the filter is being modulated by Envelope 2, so we need to eliminate this. Shift the Env2 pot, within the filter section, to a 12 o’clock position, which should read zero on the central display.

5

If you try playing the sound at this time, you’ll notice that it is almost entirely filtered out. To address this, take hold of the Cutoff pot, within the filter section, and increase it to its maximum point. It will now sound big and brassy, as the harmonic content of the two saw waves are revealed.

6

Even though we have eliminated the envelope modulation toward the filter, there is still a relatively harsh attack affecting the volume. To address this point, we’ll increase the Sustain pot of Envelope 1 (Amplitude envelope) so that the central display reads 85.00. As Envelope 1 controls volume, the patch will appear louder.

7

Our Vintage patch is pretty complete now, however you might like to try altering the volume of each oscillator. As Oscillator 1 provides the lower pitch, increase this for greater depth to the timbre. Increasing the volume of Oscillator 2 will make the patch sound brighter and more cutting.

8

One final consideration for our vintage patch relates to the overall volume. We have increased the envelope sustain considerably, and an adjustment to the master volume on the synth might be necessary to prevent peaking and distortion. Also consider the use of a compressor, from within your DAW, to keep those levels nicely under control.

9

It’s now time to transition our patch to a more Euro-centric locale. The obvious place to begin this transition is with the oscillators, both of which want to exploit the extra wave aliasing that we have available on the Zebra CM. Returning to both oscillator drop-down menu boxes, select Eleven instead of Single, for that extra push over the cliff!

10

If you try auditioning the patch at this stage, it might feel phased. To eliminate this issue, detune the multiple waves using the Detune pot. Adjust this to taste, but try detuning the lower Oscillator 1 to around -20 cents, and the upper Oscillator 2 to +15 cents. Watch the central display for fine adjustment accuracy.

11

Thanks to the Super-Saw nature of this patch, we now have 22 saw waves competing with each other. With all of those additional waves flying around, the patch is seriously loud, so another visit to the master volume would be wise, to prevent peaking. It’s sensible to consider using some DAW-based compression at this stage, to keep levels controlled.

12

The final part of the puzzle for either of our patches is the addition of effects. While Zebra CM boasts its own effects section, using effects within the DAW might inspire greater flexibility. Try using either patch with delay or reverb, or both!