Get with the programmers

We have an update to a legend this issue, produced by a plugin legend. It’s Mr ‘u-he’ himself…

How did you get into music software? UH “My degree is in industrial design, but I’ve been making music by programming computers and synths since I was teenager. The advent of VST coincided with my graduation, and programming plugins became my hobby. When Zebra 1.0 came out in 2003 I realised I could make a living, so I quit my day job and never looked back.”

What is u-he’s philosophy?

UH “We’re development driven as opposed to market driven. We design our plugins to satisfy our dreams instead of what we think will generate the most revenue. Most of our friends in the industry work this way – that’s why this industry rocks! If I had to pick why we excel, I’d say sustainability and ‘good enough is not enough’. Even extreme settings must sound great. We don’t accept any compromise.”

What are u-he’s three greatest plugins and why?

UH “Zebra remains unique in the way it combines complex sound design with fast workflow. Diva is up there, too. When we first published it our slogan was, ‘we think she’s a game changer’. And that she certainly was – Diva has become our most popular product by far. I’m reticent to pick a third as I love all my children equally!”

What did you wish to achieve with the original Zebra CM?

UH “To capture the spirit of the original Zebra using the improvements of Zebra2. Back then you guys asked whether you could get Zebra 1.0 for the magazine CD, but Zebra 1.0 was just an AU with a hack to turn it into VST2. Zebra2 had already been ported to Windows so it was a no-brainer to recreate the feature set of Zebra 1.0 using components from Zebra2.”

And the new version?

UH “It’s based on thoroughly modern technology. It is faster, runs better as VST3, there’s a Linux port and native support for Silicon. It has a new preset browser and a slick new UI, and we added a couple of features and more presets: our team refined the existing library searched the internet for interesting (free) ZebraCM sounds. Their creators graciously donated those included with extras we created in-house. Everything is tagged and sorted into proper categories, and we feel it’s a big improvement.”

What are your favourite five plugins made by other people?

UH “I have so many cool plugins that it’s very hard to choose. My most used tool is Voxengo SPAN, and the two plugins that made me ask myself ‘why didn’t I do this first?’ were Sylenth1 and Serum.”

What would you like to see developed in terms of software tech? UH “An open plugin format, attractive to work with. All plugin standards were created from the host perspective, and it shows. Existing standards constrain plugin features and thwart innovation. A better standard should be developed in cooperation between plugin and manufacturers.”

What have u-he got planned for the near future?

UH “To help design that plugin format! Release updates to MFM2, Filterscape and Uhbik. Make more hardware modules for Eurorack. And finally... put together a major upgrade for Zebra.” https://u-he.com

“The ones where I said ‘why didn’t I do this?’ are Sylenth1 and Serum”