What if an integrated plug-in instrument could rival even full-blown modulars? That’s the question posed by u-he’s Zebra 3, out now at long last for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It’s unlikely any other soft synth takes on just this much synthesis territory, or with this much depth. From spline-based morphing oscillators to physical modeling and through-zero FM synthesis, this is a horse of a different stripe. Urs Heckmann’s Zebra made history back in 2003, with the major v2 update in 2007. In that era, you’d typically have to dive into a modular environment like Reaktor or Tassman to come anywhere close to what Zebra put in a single window. (Remember that even NI’s Massive didn’t arrive on the scene until the fall of 2006.) Now, we’re spoiled for choice — Arturia Pigments, Xfer Records Serum 2, the open source Surge XT, and others all vie for your semi-modular synth experience. But there’s nothing quite like Zebra or u-he’s unique perspective on sound and sound design.…