U-He has updated its freeware Zebralette virtual synthesizer with a brand new GUI and support for macOS Big Sur.
Zebralette is a free virtual synthesizer based on an oscillator from U-He’s famous Zebra2 synthesizer. Yes, the oscillators in Zebra2 are that complex. You can use a single oscillator to build an entire virtual synthesizer.
See also: Best FREE Synthesizer VST PluginsAnd that’s exactly what U-He did with Zebralette. What you’re getting for free is a polyphonic wavetable synthesizer with a 16-slot wave set, waveform editing, 24 spectral effects, three audio effects, a 32-stage envelope generator, and more. The instrument also includes 300 factory sounds.
U-He describes Zebralette as “their version of a Trojan horse” because it’s supposed to tickle your imagination enough to try Zebra2 and upgrade to the full version.
Whether or not that is true, there’s no denying that Zebralette is a must-have virtual instrument. It’s is probably mentioned on every list of freeware synthesizers, along with U-He’s fantastic Tyrell N6 softsynth.
Despite its complex oscillator, Zebralette is endlessly fun to use. Create custom waveforms, warp and mangle them with spectral effects, and use the WaveWarp control to morph the sound.
Zebralette is a refreshingly different virtual instrument, especially if you’re spending most of your time playing the standard subtractive and virtual analog synthesizers. It’s almost too good to be released as freeware.
But, is it possible to make such a great freebie even better? Obviously, the team at U-He thought so.
Here’s a screenshot of the old Zebralette skin for comparison.
The latest version of Zebralette (2.9.2) introduces several improvements, the most notable of which is a new GUI design. Compared with the old Zebralette interface (pictured above), the new skin looks a lot more modern and clean. It also features a handy preset manager for organizing and storing custom sounds.
Add to that the fact that Zebralette’s interface is resizable (from 70% to 200%), and it becomes clear that this is now a 10/10 GUI.
The new version of the instrument also introduces compatibility with the latest macOS Big Sur and fixes a number of known issues and bugs. Another addition is the soundset installer, which minimizes the effort needed to install new presets.
The new and improved preset manager in Zebralette.
Zebralette is available in VST, VST3, and AU plugin formats for digital audio workstations on PC and Mac. Both 32-bit and 64-bit hosts are supported.
You can download Zebralette for free from the developer’s website without signing up for a user account. It doesn’t require software activation, either.
More info: Zebralette (59.7 MB download size, ZIP archive containing EXE installer, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/VST3/AU plugin formats for Windows, macOS, Linux)
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17 Comments
marti garaughty
onNice, looking more and more like Zebra 2 !
Tomislav Zlatic
onYeah, very similar design, which is great.
Numanoid
onHoping u-he will give Triple Cheese a facelift too. Having a proper readable resizable GUI does so much for workflow using new hi-res screens
Tomislav Zlatic
onThat would be sweet.
Wasyl
onThanks for the heads up, Tomislav.
Tomislav Zlatic
onCheers! And again, thanks to Numanoid for the tip.
MRG
onI see Podolski was updated in january too. Had a lot of fun with this one a few months back.
About Zebralette, funny how GUI design evolved in a couple decades. :-)
Tomislav Zlatic
onIndeed. That old Zebralette GUI looked very modern back in the day!
antti maatteri
onnice news. it hooked me instantly into a session with it. damn nice design, guess its ursa majors work ;P
Tomislav Zlatic
onYou know a synth is good when you end up having a jam session even though you only wanted to check out the GUI. :)
Jürgen Preßler
onyes :D. thats how i mostly get rid of all hoarded plugins over the time, especially synths ^^.
Igor
onIt has always been a pleasure to make music with Zebralette but the new interface seems more melodic 😊.
Tomislav Zlatic
onHaha, makes sense! :)
311nd
onIncase some of you didn’t know, u-he has a big library of custom skins to all their synths:
https://u-he.com/PatchLib/skins.html
I’ve been using this with Zebralette:
https://u-he.com/PatchLib/skins/plugmon-Neumann_Zebralette.png
and this one with Tyrell:
https://u-he.com/PatchLib/skins/Hoverland-GrayTech_Tyrell.png
This new skin looks great too! Don’t know if I like it more than the one I posted above, but good variation when you get bored of one.
Avner
onHi, The link opens the Zebralette page but the dowload is the Zebra2_292_10409_Win file , the full version (in demo mode). Please, how can i download the Zebralette ?
Avner
onSorry I was worng. Its all good.
Atme
onNice! I really hope U-He will make an upgrade of the Tyrell Nexus 6 too. <3