Zebra is a wireless modular synthesizer by the German developer u-he, with Zebra2 dating to 2006. It combines wavetable oscillators with subtractive, FM and additive elements, letting you chain modules freely, and it became a staple of film scoring after Hans Zimmer's custom ZebraHZ and Dark Zebra variants were used on The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises; Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch later used Zebra on Blade Runner 2049 too. In 2026 u-he shipped Zebra 3, a substantially rebuilt sound-design environment at 249 EUR (about $287) with an adaptive interface and over 1,200 presets, while keeping the older Zebra2 alive as Zebra Legacy at 99 EUR (about $114).
Source MusicRadar interview quoting Hans Zimmer in his own words on the u-he Zebra line: '90% of what I do is done on one software synth. I've been working with that thing for so many years now, and I still haven't run out of ideas.' He works in ZebraHZ / The Dark Zebra, both built on Zebra2 - the engine u-he now ships as Zebra Legacy - not Zebra 3. u-he's own Dark Zebra soundset states it contains nearly all the Zebra sounds from The Dark Knight scores.
Presets from WAVS creators for the instruments Zebra Legacy covers, cleared for commercial use.
Browse pad presetsu-he prices in euros: Zebra Legacy, which is Zebra2 plus soundsets, is 99 EUR, about 114 USD at the European Central Bank rate on 16 September 2026. Zebra 3 is a separate, newer product at 249 EUR, about 287 USD. Price checked 17 September 2026. Mac OS X 10.10 or newer or Windows 7 or newer or Linux CPU load and learning curve summarise published reviews and user forums, not our own testing.
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