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Even though this synth was love at first sight I am missing the possiblity to automate the envelopes. A env CV-in on the back would really help to at least automate it from another device.

satyr32 wrote:Even though this synth was love at first sight I am missing the possiblity to automate the envelopes. A env CV-in on the back would really help to at least automate it from another device.

As far as I can see you can automate all six "Envelope Amount" of each operator directly, by right clicking and "Edit Automation" on those little round knobs in the "Op Envelopes" section. The same goes for envelopes of both filters, by engaging the Env knob.

OTOH, If you want to modulate the Env Amount through CV signal (lets say with an external CV source), just put your Zero inside a combinator. Now from the "Programmer", every CV input you'll assign to the Combinator (rotary CV included) can be routed to pretty much every envelope is available on Zero (take a look at the "Target" section of the combinator's "Modulation Routing" area).

Ciao,
Alessandro

satyr32 wrote:Shouldn't there be a depth/level knob for the LFOs? It is really hard to dial in e.g. a proper vibrato because with an amount of 0.10 it is already to much. Or am I missing something?

I had the same problem. A workaround is to scale the modultation with x or y knobs.

Thanks for your answer. But what I mean is automating attack time, decay time, release time individually. This seems not to be possible. I found kind of a workararound. It is possible to automate "Amp Envelope Rate". I don't know exactly how it behaves since it is not documented in the manual, but you can automate from a very plucky sound to a pad-like sound with lot of release.
What I would like to have is an env input where you can use external ADSR like Chenille or Blamsoft's Movement.

alex wrote:

satyr32 wrote:Even though this synth was love at first sight I am missing the possiblity to automate the envelopes. A env CV-in on the back would really help to at least automate it from another device.

As far as I can see you can automate all six "Envelope Amount" of each operator directly, by right clicking and "Edit Automation" on those little round knobs in the "Op Envelopes" section. The same goes for envelopes of both filters, by engaging the Env knob.

OTOH, If you want to modulate the Env Amount through CV signal (lets say with an external CV source), just put your Zero inside a combinator. Now from the "Programmer", every CV input you'll assign to the Combinator (rotary CV included) can be routed to pretty much every envelope is available on Zero (take a look at the "Target" section of the combinator's "Modulation Routing" area).

Ciao,
Alessandro

The Routable CV Inputs are meant to allow for external modulation. You can hook an envelope to one of these inputs. It will of course only work for monophonic patches since CV is monophonic. As you pointed out, the Env Rate mod destinations are a way to control the envelopes. They scale all of the stage times in the envelope simultaneously. The reason that the envelopes can't be automated is SDK limitations. Sorry to play the SDK limitations card but I wanted them automatable. I've attached a Combinator with Movement acting as an envelope for the amp and filter 1.

I thought the Env Rate modulation was a very smart trick to overcome the non-automatable envelopes - I was looking for a way and instantly found it. Pleased me greatly.

anybody having spiking problems?

Any words about the CPU usage guys?

in comparison with Antidote for example...

I had no issues making my Zero Competition song on my 3 yr old Dell XPS 8500 i7-3770 3.40 GHz Win 7 64 Bit

This was on the first release version, didn't get the updated version

There haven't been any updates yet.

Oh Ok, my bad i thought there was point bugfix version. That would explain why I didn't update then

Still had no hassles with 6 or so instances hammering (well sliding smoothly) away

The CPU hit for me is fairly terrible, on an i5, but that isn't specific to only Zero.

The Song Challenge means I need to save each instance as it's own sub-project, bounce to WAV and import the audio back in to the master project, in order to show evidence of the device used if required (unlikely, but ya never know). And this in itself is a good habit to get into for any future projects, in order to tweak the original takes if required. It's a pain in the ass, but when I reflect on how easy digital recording is compared to the days of limited track tapes, I think it's a first world problem and just gt on with it.

Blamsoft - GREAT SYNTH by the way. I'm a bit over buying synths but Zero will make it's way into my rack one way or the other.

It shouldn't be quite as complicated as that. Someone can feel free to chime in if they are experienced with this. But I would personally use "Bounce Mixer Channels.." and bounce to "new tracks in song". Then you can just mute the note lanes for Zero, it shouldn't use CPU. The note lane mute button is on the right next to the track. It is smart about not using CPU when no notes are playing.

O REALLY !?!?! That's fantastic, so I can leave 50 instances of Zero in the project and just mute them ? I'm definitely going to try that tonight, because that hasn't been my experience with other virtual instruments.

Have to say though, it may be of limited relevance if I'm stacking FX onto those, and they don't have the same CPU bypassing technology. WHich means I either still need to sub out the tracks.. or use less patched in FX !

Thanks Blamsoft, this has got me excited more than you would imagine.

(and I'm not really trying to run 50 instances - maybe... 10 ?)

If RE developers are following the rules, then if you mute the note lane on an instrument or have silence going into an effect it should use very little CPU. It won't be zero, no pun intended, but it will probably be good enough for your project.

Mr Blamsoft is right that any well coded RE and Reason device will cease to use much/any CPU once it is no longer handling audio. So in (broad) theory you could have 100 instances of Zero in your project and only one playing and CPU usage will be low.

I can't believe how stupid I have been in the years since RE's came into being, for not knowing about this.

Thank you so much guys.

This synth is incredible, though it does have some problems. Not being able to automate the oscillator section is really annoying and I do wish velocity and keytrack mod was available for all the envelopes. It's frustrating having to use the mod matrix for such elementary things.

It's simply one of the best things to happen to Reason in years imo, I wish I had this a long time ago. Still only scratching the surface. Listening to other people's work with Zero I'm impressed by the big and rare sounds being generated, good on you guys.

Here's to hoping for more automatable parameters with the next RE SDK upgrade.

Get your Zero on!

fceramic wrote:...Not being able to automate the oscillator section is really annoying...

Are you talking about changing the shape of the oscillator for each of the 6 operator sections? You could pop Zero in a Combinator, link a combi knob to say Op 2 Shape, and automate the combi knob. Pain in the butt, but doable.

jfrichards wrote: Are you talking about changing the shape of the oscillator for each of the 6 operator sections? You could pop Zero in a Combinator, link a combi knob to say Op 2 Shape, and automate the combi knob. Pain in the butt, but doable.

I'm afraid there is no such "Op X Shape" under Combinator's Modulaton Routing Targets...
I've just checked three times to be sure ...
I'll be glad to be proven wrong!
I've even asked to Blamsoft if this feature could be available through combinator later on, but still no answer.

Nonetheless this synth is a pure beast, it sounds stunning and FWIW is in my TOP 3 realm (the others two are Thor and Antidote).
IMO it finally fills a gap that Reason had: a modern and deep sounding FM synth engine, as already has been said by many others.

I'll buy it for sure next week, before intro price offer's deadline.

Ciao,
Alessandro

I have found that in Rack Extensions, only automatable parameters are available to the Combinator. I think the idea that the Combinator could control extra settings came from built-in devices. If anyone knows of an example of an RE having extra automation by a Combinator let me know. In addition to there being a limit on the number of automatable parameters in the SDK, the Op Shape and harmonics editor settings in particular trigger a CPU intensive calculation. In testing it was found that it required too much CPU to be done in real time.

Blamsoft wrote:I have found that in Rack Extensions, only automatable parameters are available to the Combinator.

Just checked this with Zero & you're absolutely right. I think the assumption has been that, like with stock devices, additional parameters can be accessed via the Combinator programmer. It would seem this is not the case for RE's. Need to look into this a bit more as I to have always assumed you could do this ....... without actually trying it!

In addition to there being a limit on the number of automatable parameters in the SDK, the Op Shape and harmonics editor settings in particular trigger a CPU intensive calculation. In testing it was found that it required too much CPU to be done in real time.

A good enough reason to leave it out. Otherwise there would be complaints about CPU spikes when the Op Wave Shape is automated! You can't win. Personally I think there's plenty enough on this gorgeous beast of a synth to keep me busy for a long, long time. It's all about what's in, not what is not

Jagwah wrote:It's simply one of the best things to happen to Reason in years imo, I wish I had this a long time ago. Still only scratching the surface. Listening to other people's work with Zero I'm impressed by the big and rare sounds being generated, good on you guys.

Yeah I'm very much a novice with Zero, but already I can't believe what I'm getting from it. I've made what basically amounts to a dub track with nothing but one Kong (plus some external FX) and one Zero (using only the onboard Zero FX, and with lots of automation). The synth is generating enough depth & complexity for ten Thors, it's amazing!