U-he Zebra 3: the final beta of the modular Synthesizer plugin is out now

 

U-he Zebra 3, the long-awaited successor of the Zebra 2 modular Synthesizer plugin is now ready for test in public beta

Since mid-December 2025, u-he Zebra 3 has been in public beta. That was a wonderful Christmas present from Santa Urs. Now, four months later, it’s April, and the fine-tuning of Zebra 3 has progressed significantly.

So much so that the u-he developers have now released the final beta with the build 21625.

Final Beta

The final beta is now available for download on the KVR forum. It includes all the features planned for the 3.0 release. However, one thing has changed significantly: Zebra 3 now has its final UI.

U-he says the new vector-based UI offers a vastly decluttered interface, a more consistent parameter layout, new color-coded modulation and modules, a modmatrix, and more.

I actually really liked the Zebra 3 beta UI. The leap from that to the new one is quite big. It takes some getting used to.

According to the developers, the new version can be further customized to better fit your workflow. And they ask the users to spend a week with the new one before asking for the old one back.

In case you don’t like it, I’m sure Plugmon, a UI designer, will offer alternative skins for it in the future. Alongside the new UI, it comes with feature improvements and numerous bug fixes. The final beta includes over 1,200 polished factory presets.

The testing will be finished soon. This is the last beta to accept the beta license card, which expires in July 2026. At the same time, they announced a deal for everyone who doesn’t yet have a Zebra 3 license.

Besides the 30€ for existing Zebra 2 users and a free update for Zebra HZ users, they offer Zebra 3 at a special introductory price of 179€ instead of 249€. This offer is for new users and Zebra Legacy users.

Zebra 3 is on the home stretch. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. Many had long doubted that this moment would ever come. A great moment after so long waiting and testing.

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=629239

Intelligent MIDI patterns generator

 

Stepista

by Mr Jefferson

Intelligent MIDI patterns for every producer.

Generate production-ready patterns for Ableton Live, Logic Pro, and any DAW. 24 genres. 13 parameters. Completely free.

Step 1

Load the plugin

Add Stepista as a VST3 instrument on a MIDI track in your DAW.

Step 2

Route the MIDI

Set the MIDI output of Stepista’s track to another track that has a synth or instrument loaded.

Step 3

Hit play

Stepista generates patterns in real time. The receiving instrument plays them automatically.

Tested in Ableton Live. Should work in any DAW that supports VST3 and MIDI routing.

Using a different DAW? I'd love to hear how it goes.

Three steps to a new pattern

01

Choose a style

Pick from 24 electronic music genres. Set your key, mode, tempo, and parameters.

02

Generate

Hit Gen. The engine creates a pattern matching your style and constraints in seconds.

03

Export

Drag MIDI directly into your DAW or download as .mid.

https://stepista.vercel.app/#download

Chord Dock Lite: Free chord progression editor plugin

 

Chord Dock Lite: Free chord progression editor plugin

Chord Dock

k2get has recently released version 1.5 of its a chord track-style plug-in for building, visualizing, and sharing chord progressions on a timeline.

Chord Dock Lite is designed for songwriters and producers who want to create and edit chord progressions on a timeline directly inside their DAW, organize sections such as Verse and Chorus, keep the harmonic structure of the whole song in view, and export progressions instantly as MIDI.

Chord Dock Lite features:

• Timeline-based chord progression editing.
• Section-based workflow.
• Section Clips / Focus Edit.
• Save and load progression files.
• Instant MIDI drag export.

The plugin is available in VST3 and AU plugin formats for Windows and macOS. An Extended Edition is on sale for the intro price of $19 USD through April 30th, 2026 (regularly $25 USD). It unlocks tensions, slash chords, interactive Circle of Fifths, Arpeggio / Bassline, Reharmo, user preset save, and custom themes.

Build, visualize, and share chord progressions.

A chord-track-style workflow with reharmonization

Chord Dock v1.5 lets you see the whole progression on a timeline, edit it visually, then reharmonize it and generate section-based Arpeggio / Bassline from the same progression.

Lite and Extended share the same installer. Start with Lite for free, then unlock Extended whenever you need more.

https://k2get.github.io/chord-dock-site/index.en.html

The Black Widow Drums

 

The Black Widow Drums project is the first published drum sampler showcase for FxmeSampler's advanced spatial and processing features. Recorded on a Gretsch Black Widow kit, it utilizes an original microphone array and signal processing chain to deliver a studio-ready drum sound.

More info on: https://github.com/odoare/FxmeSampler

BIG MON

 

Professional monitoring and metering for mixing, mastering, and broadcast delivery.

Big Mon Monitoring Plugin Interface - Free VST AU CLAP Plugin

📏

EBU R128 Loudness

Momentary, Short-Term, and Integrated LUFS metering with ITU-R BS.1770-4 K-weighted filtering and gated measurement.

📈

True Peak Detection

ITU-R BS.1770-5 compliant true peak measurement using 4x polyphase oversampling with the official 48-tap FIR filter.

🎧

Stereo Monitoring

L/R Swap, Mono, Side, and Difference modes with click-free crossfading for stereo analysis and mono compatibility checks.

https://www.bigman-labs.com/products/big-mon/