What’s changed.

Less unnecessary work on Talk

• Leaner ZTool animation. The visual button avoids repeated searches for its controls on every frame. Its movement, actions and transmission timing stay the same.
• Leaner animated visuals. Corrects redundant redraw requests in animated Talk artwork while retaining your chosen animation and opacity.
• Familiar controls. Appearance settings, ZTool timing, voice effects and audio playback behavior are unchanged.

Animated backgrounds still use power while visible. See the Appearance reference for visual settings.

Clear identity, proper credits

• Rolling build identity. Support now shows Build 157 · 7.12.1 beneath Vermilion.
• Built By Dan. Support credits testers B L A D E, SUDO, Mr. Grey, Sleepy, JerzyTrash and JayBee below the homepage link.
• Third-party acknowledgments. Vermilion components and development tools appear in red within Third party info, alongside the retained original notices.
• One complete guide. Remaining Quick Start help and welcome playback are removed. Lab’s help entry opens the technical operator guide; theme and appearance controls remain available.

Read the navigation and Support reference.

Cleaner menus, direct routes

• Sign in without the introduction. The automatic Quick Start popup and its main menu/Options entries are removed. Optional offline help remains inside Lab.
• Developer is back. The main menu uses Developer again. Backgrounds & controls opens that same Lab destination directly.
• Useful online links. Options now includes Online trending list and, beneath the two companion rows, Technical operator guide.
• Refined Support. A red Vermilion heading sits above the original version. The homepage points to zellomods.cc; Help, Report a problem and Privacy policy buttons are removed. Version, copyright and the remaining settings controls stay.

ZTool timing, audio, voices and the classic chooser are unchanged. Read the navigation guide for the updated routes. The website guide now has sticky navigation, a Contents menu and a Top button; both documentation pages include Home links.

Discover rests when it is off-screen

• Less unnecessary work. Discover pauses recurring list filtering while another screen is open or Lab is in the background.
• Ready when you return. Visible Discover updates resume automatically. Background imports and pending channel-open actions continue normally.
• Same audio behavior. ZTool timing, voices, soundboard playback and external-media coexistence are unchanged. Phone-call handling is unchanged.

A library of sounds, ready for your next transmission

• More audio formats. Import MP3, PCM WAV, Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Opus recordings without a codec download.
• Local soundboard. Six built-in tones, named pads, favorites and your own imported files. Hold a pad for trim, level and recording details.
• Prepared queues. Arrange up to16 clips, including repeats. Prepare once, then use the existing Arm, Pause, seek and Stop controls. The queue follows actual transmission and leaves live mic running when it ends.
• Tool activity. A new Status & settings view separates tool opens from actions and shows measured outcomes and timing for supported workflows.
• Know the source. Speaker, original conversation, duration and tags sit beside the recording. New History exports preserve local message details; older files stay Unknown unless labeled.

Music/background behavior, all33 voices, the classic chooser and ZTool timing are retained. The sender stays silent during transmission. Read the AUDIO and soundboard guide for import, queue, metadata and storage limits.

Keep your music going

• Continuous external playback. Lab avoids taking audio focus from music and video apps during ordinary PTT and playback. Press, release or repeat PTT without Lab pausing, restarting or seeking your other player.
• Keep an armed session through Home. ZTool and prepared AUDIO playback can continue when another app or the lock screen covers the retained Talk screen. Stock toggle keeps its native background lifecycle.
• A visible way to stop. The Active PTT notification shows Transmitting, Connecting or Waiting, with a Stop action for PTT/ZTool and autoplay. External music remains under its own player’s control.
• Phone calls still interrupt. Call-time floor retention is not included. Channel changes, native/server limits, microphone priority and device routing can still end or alter a session.

No digital capture of other apps is added. The existing voices, silent AUDIO transmission and ZTool acquisition/repeat timing remain. See the PTT guide for controls and limits.

Your recording, alongside your voice

• A dedicated AUDIO button. Open recording controls beside VOICE, outside the Talk microphone circle.
• Play saved Ogg Opus audio. Choose a history export or another compatible file, then mix it with your live microphone using independent levels.
• Follow real transmission. Arm for the next key-up; waiting pauses the recording, and reacquisition resumes with adjustable rewind.
• Direct controls. Arm, Pause and Stop stay visible in a solid panel. Seek, jump five seconds, pause only the clip, or stop autoplay and disarm ZTool. Clip completion leaves ordinary live mic running.
• Clear state and measurements. See the selected target, position, buffering, separate mic/recording/mix levels and local mixer performance. The audio guide explains the workflow and limits.
• Hear the result in History. Other listeners hear the recording live. The sending phone stays silent during transmission; replay its completed History message or use Echo to hear the result.
• A deliberate History hold. Hold a message for 0.9 seconds and release to open its actions. Save audio takes a separate tap. Shorter holds do not open the action menu; taps and scrubbing retain their normal playback behavior.

This first pass prepares one Ogg Opus clip before arming. More formats, soundboard pads and playlists are queued. All33 voices and the classic chooser remain; ZTool’s acquisition and repeat rules are preserved.

A fuller Velvet, with your favorites intact

• Velvet Smooth. A separate formant-aware voice with 40 ms buffering, available in the classic voice chooser.
• Original voices retained. Velvet Low, Crystal High and every earlier preset keep their sound. The library now has 33 voices.
• Your existing controls. Tune the new voice, save variations, preview locally or include it in Voice Marquee.
• Clear readiness. The workshop shows preparation status. The engine is bundled and prepares in the background; no download is needed.

Voice buffering is separate from ZTool's controls. Acquisition, retry and release timing remain unchanged. See the voice guide for preparation, fallback and live-audio limits.

Voices in motion

Voice Marquee. Shuffle your selected voices while tone and extra effects move between settings. Set the speed and variation amount, hold a sound, or stop to restore your starting settings. Marquee follows outgoing audio and leaves ZTool timing unchanged.

Try it locally. Open Effects & preview, then Voice Marquee. Start the shuffle, return to the workshop and use Demo → Processed for a local audition. The preview has its own shuffle timeline.

Clearer controls. Tone, dynamics and character settings now explain their audible effect in plain language. VOICE uses the native Talk geometry to sit outside the main button; ZTool keeps its existing placement.

All 32 factory voices and ten extra effects remain available. Recorded-audio autoplay, soundboard and independent formant controls are future work.

Give each voice its own settings

• Six focused repairs. Telephone, Megaphone, Cyber Chorus, Glitch, Studio Clean and Warm Broadcast receive distinct filtering, layering, stutter or speech-dynamics changes.
• Tune each voice. Tone, Dynamics and Character pages expose pitch offsets, EQ, compressor timing, de-essing, drive and controls specific to the chosen character.
• Save your variations. Keep up to 20 named combinations of a voice, its tuning and the global effect/output settings. Loading preserves the VOICE on/off state.
• Fairer local comparisons. Optional preview loudness matching helps compare the sound itself, with processing percentiles alongside the existing timing readouts.
• Keep your favorites. The other 26 factory presets, including Velvet Low and Crystal High, and all ten extra effects retain their previous processing. The classic chooser and direct workshop shortcut remain.

The voice guide explains every new parameter, factory reset, saved variations and preview matching. Independent formant control is not included.

Effects, without the scrolling

• A direct shortcut. Hold VOICE and tap the fixed Effects & preview button directly above Cancel to open the workshop.
• Familiar voice tiles. All 32 presets remain in the classic opaque two-column chooser.
• The same sounds. This menu update preserves the existing voices, extra effects and saved audio controls.
• Clearer audio guidance. The voice guide explains strength, pitch versus timbre, and processing time versus total audio delay.

A larger voice library, with room to experiment

• 32 bundled voices. All 14 existing choices remain, joined by 18 new speech tones, pitch colors, robots, communication textures and spatial characters.
• 10 extra effects. Add room, hall or plate reverb, echo, slapback, flanger, chorus, tremolo, vibrato or phaser after the selected voice.
• Adjust the sound. Voice strength, output level and effect amount are remembered for live use.
• Local before/after preview. Load a synthetic demo or record up to eight seconds yourself, then compare Original and Processed without transmitting. Closing or backgrounding clears the clip.
• Classic presentation. The opaque two-column chooser stays. Scroll to the Effects & preview tile for the new workshop.
• Useful audio measurements. Preview reports processing time, overruns and limiter activity. The updated voice guide explains every preset, effect and control.

Everything is bundled. Preview quality and live codec playback can differ; use your own speech to choose the settings you prefer.

Classic voices, a deeper operator guide

• Two-column voice tiles. The older chooser returns with a solid dark panel, clear labels and outlined tiles.
• Easy to read. The menu has an opaque background and dims the screen behind it.
• Familiar controls. Hold VOICE to choose a preset; tap VOICE to turn processing on or off. The existing voices and audio processing are unchanged.
• Technical operator guide. A new 32-section reference covers tool controls, runner settings, capture/search/export workflows, channel observations and troubleshooting. Search sections locally, browse on mobile, or print a copy.

The voice chooser keeps its classic appearance independently of general interface updates.

Check names before adding them

• Check names only. Paste candidate names to look up availability and channel type without adding, joining or connecting them. Review the results and stop after the current lookup whenever needed.
• Separate controls. Check names, Add All, All On and All Off stay visible in Discover, including after additions finish.
• Clearer additions. Add All checks metadata before insertion, skips missing names, separates pending work from accepted additions and avoids the old blind retry pass.
• Useful channel evidence. Open, Zelect, Zelect+, Broadcast, password requirements, not-found results and the native client removed signal remain distinct. A removal or missing-name result is a recreation candidate, not a guarantee.

Trending, with a way back

• Refresh recovers. Trending restores its controls after a 30-second UI deadline and keeps previously loaded rows available.
• One request at a time. Repeated taps no longer stack another whole refresh while the previous request is finishing.
• Clearer counts. Discover distinguishes available local channel counts from catalog reports and unknown values.
• Toolbar polish. Explicit Back-button tint ownership addresses the dark-toolbar visibility issue.

A more coherent everyday app

• Shared controls. More consistent buttons, spacing and presentation across our added screens.
• Discover and Trending. Compact, expandable discovery controls and a more consistent catalog layout.
• Appearance and Lab. Updated previews, inspectors and tool presentation bring the additions closer to the native app.

A Lab built around the work

• Four clear destinations. Live Log, searchable Tools, Sessions & Evidence, and Status & Settings.
• Better investigation. Session search, bookmarks, source accounting and historical-session recovery.
• Full local Raw. Explicit capture controls, detailed local records and exact local exports; opening Lab does not start capture.
• Less duplication. Shared evidence actions and a compact native Quick Start replace overlapping entry points.

Open tools and clearer state

• Direct access. App PIN and license requirements are removed, and the administration tools open directly.
• Better reporting visibility. More detailed operational status helps distinguish queued work from acknowledged reports.
• Count presentation. Channel activity and online-count handling receive focused corrections.