u-he Zebra CM

> Step by step 1. Morphing oscillators in Zebra CM

1 Zebra CM is now on its second incarnation and the newly skinned version is much easier on the eye and easier to use. With an instance loaded up let’s first focus on the fundamental toolset and those rather interesting looking oscillators waveforms.

2 Initialise a new patch by right-clicking on the data display in the control bar and selecting Init. Now look at the display for each of the two oscillators. You’ll see they each have a waveform. Now grab the outer halo and drag it round the edge. You’ll see the waveforms change.

3 Zebra CM has 16 core waveforms, but, significantly, the waveform selector actually morphs between them. Try playing and moving the selector at once. You’ll hear the sound alternating between bright and dark. We can use this fundamental aspect in different ways to create more interesting sounds.

4 First up, let’s use Zebra CM’s onboard modulation. Below the Wave Selector control you’ll see a Modulation knob. In the drop-down menu below, choose a modulation source to apply to the Wave Selector control. We’ve chosen the mod wheel (ModWhl).

5 Turn the knob to its maximum clockwise amount. This reads as 2.0 on the data display. At this maximum amount, you’re morphing through two whole waveforms. We’ve set the Wave Selector to 9, which is dark-sounding. By using the mod wheel we can morph the sound to the brighter wave at 11.

6 Obviously this basic concept needs a bit of finessing. First up, set the oscillator to Quad Unison mode (4) and set a Detune amount (we’ve gone for 10). Now duplicate the settings over to Oscillator 2 but set a negative Detune (-10) and a Tune offset (+12.00). Pan the oscillators in opposite directions.

7 Levels are likely now a bit high. We’ve trimmed each oscillator Volume (about 50.00 for each) and also the global Volume (about 50.00). We’ve extended the amplitude release (Env 1 to 60) for a softer decay and finally set the Filter to LP 12dB with Cutoff set to taste (about 95.00 for us).

8 We now have a pretty good morphing pad created using the core waveforms. However, the modulation limits us to the adjacent waveforms. For something more weird, we simply use a MIDI CC to control waveform selection. From Settings, select the MIDI learn (L) option and move your MIDI controller.

9 Next, remove the mod wheel control – we’ve simply set the amount to zero for both oscillators. For a final layer we’ve activated the reverb, which is a double click on the Rev icon bottom right, and adjust the Wet level to taste. Now simply move your controller as you play.

> Step by step 2. User LFO options in Zebra CM

1 Rather than use a modulation matrix, modulation control in Zebra CM is embedded in the interface. You’ll find drop-down menus to assign modulation sources for target parameters and either dedicated Amount knobs (the Filter, say) or small dots (Oscillator Symmetry for example) for setting modulation depth.

2 In this section we’ll look at one specific modulation section: LFO. But first load a sound. We’ve selected the preset Orient Fretless. Take a quick look at the modulation options in the two oscillators and you’ll see there are already some LFO assignments set up. We’ll work on Osc1, so turn down Osc2 Volume.

3 Dive in on Osc 1 and you’ll see that the Oscillator Symmetry control already has LFO2 assigned. Try using your mouse over the dot to the right and you should see the depth halo around the Symmetry control changing. Try increasing the depth. You should hear the sound changing in a random way.

4 Head over to the LFO section and select ‘2’ in the top left of the display. You’ll see that the LFO2 is set to Rand Glide. If you click on the drop-down window you’ll see all the other LFO shape options, including sine, triangle, saw up and saw down.

5 If you click on LFO G, you’ll see this is actually set to the User LFO option. Each LFO can have its own User shape, and this is what we’ll create for LFO2. So, reselect LFO2 and from the drop-down menu select User.

6 Before we get into designing our LFO shape, let’s choose a few basic parameters. We’ve set Restart to Gate so it retriggers for each note, Sync to 1/8, Mode to Steps, Rate to 100, and number of Points to 4. With a flat curve like this, the LFO should not affect the Osc1 Symmetry.

7 Now create a basic shape by dragging the curve. In Step mode, as you might expect, this creates simple blocky steps. Here we’ve set ours to be full on step 2 and step 4. With the modulation Depth set accordingly (ours is at 70), you should now have a gated effect.

8 Next, for a smoother effect switch the mode to Lines. By adjusting the curve we can now further influence the depth and complexity of the modulation. For starters, simply try making one of the curves smaller as we have here.

9 Finally, increase the number of Steps – we’ve gone for 16. You can now create much more complex LFO shapes to really control the nature of the modulation. You might want to blend Osc2 back in for the final drone-like effect.