Is Hans Zimmer going to use Zebra for ModernWarfare2?

Official support for: u-he.com
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

I read he's composing the soundtrack for the game. Any idea if he'll be using Zebra for it like he did with Howard Scarr for Batman?

Would love to hear some Zebra while I'm playing that game :)

Post

Hmmm... no idea... but if synths are used, then you can be quite certain that a Zebra or two are in there (he has a dedicated machine running 17 instances)

Post

Does anyone know if Zebra has been used in any other films/games etc etc... it would be interesting to know!

I'm guessing because of it's versatility a lot of sound designers use it

Post

Urs wrote:(he has a dedicated machine running 17 instances)
Is that some kind of flatout? You add one more instance and smoke will start coming out :hihi:

Post

grandmasterbird wrote:Does anyone know if Zebra has been used in any other films/games etc etc... it would be interesting to know!
One of the signature Dark Knight sounds is used extensively in Shopaholic.

Iron Man should have a fair bit.

Every synth on The International is Zebra, and many, many delays are MFM2.

My favourite of my own presets (DroneDarknessOrchestra) is splat all over Babylon AD (which unfortunately is cursed by accidents, first of which is not casting Vincent Cassel for the main role)

There's a pretty long duo for violin (Joshua Bell) and Zebra (Virtual Monks) in Angels & Demons.

Some Transformers have been sonically reinforced by Zebra in their second part.

These are the ones I know for sure. Looking at the number of Hollywood composers in my customer database I would assume a number of movies a magnitude or two higher than this list. And I havn't even counted the composers for TV, especially in Germany (any new Tatort, Fall für Zwei, whatsoever without a Zebra or two must be an exception)

I've heard a fair bit about games, but I'm not familiar with titles there...
I'm guessing because of it's versatility a lot of sound designers use it
Well, I guess it's that, and then Mr. Z is a big fan. So he pretty much talked all of his fellows into it, such as Ramin Djawadi, Atli Örvarsson and James Newton-Howard. That sure helped a bit spreading the word in Santa Monica.

On the other end of Sunset Boulevard, Johnny Klimek (Run Lola Run, Perfume, The International) is my brother in law, so we got another nest on the eastern end near downtown.

Last but not least, a lot of ex-Tangerine Dream members have hopped on early, with hot spots in the Burbank area and in Germany.

Post

Wow, that's quite a list!

It must be a good feeling to know your product is being used for sound design on films because to me that speaks volumes.

I saw Transformers 2 back in the summer and I thought the sounds in the film were fantastic, I was very impressed. In fact the sound was the only part of the film I enjoyed!!
:lol:

I'll have to check out the others mentioned as well.

Cheers Urs!
Last edited by grandmasterbird on Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post

There must surely be some well known dance music producers using Zebra - kind of as Deadmau5 is to FXpansion and Booka Shade to NI - so who are the Zebra equivalent?

Post

hakey wrote:There must surely be some well known dance music producers using Zebra - kind of as Deadmau5 is to FXpansion and Booka Shade to NI - so who are the Zebra equivalent?
This I would very much like to know!

Post

hakey wrote:There must surely be some well known dance music producers using Zebra - kind of as Deadmau5 is to FXpansion and Booka Shade to NI - so who are the Zebra equivalent?
Yes there are. I'm just not so familiar with their names.

-> and of course, I don't do artist sponsoring, so I can't really brag with names. There have been a few artists who then didn't buy Zebra after I turned them down. But well, really popular artists just buy without asking and they can be sure that I don't bother them with requests for interviews and media.

See, if you spot a big name on a company website, you can be 99% sure that that company gave their products away for free. Which I always hated, because it's a slap in the face of those who need to save up to afford stuff. And why is that anyway? If a product is good, the artist will speak out about it anyway, such as Hans Z. - so if a company is desperate to get good quotes from famous people it's IMHO always a sign of inferiority complex or an attempt to justify something (which is why I havn't update the quotes on my website in 5 years).

That said, if I could unveil my customer database and the feedback I get, some marketing people would get quite pale :hihi:

Post

Urs wrote:That said, if I could unveil my customer database and the feedback I get, some marketing people would get quite pale :hihi:
What gets me is that you have this huge customer base, and yet you don't spaz out, and you take time to answer posts like these, and still work on new stuff constantly. *boggles*
noise and beats: Negutyv Xeiro do people actually click these?
gearlust: Roland JP-8000, too much/not enough eurorack
machinecode by: u-he, Bitwig, Fabfilter, NI, et al

Post

That wasn't meant as a criticism in a 'if Zebra's so good where's the big name producers?'. I hope it didn't come across that way.

It was more - 'Zebra IS bloody good, there must be many well known electro/progressive/minimal/tech/glitch/wonky/skiffle/newest-flavour-of-the-month-sub-genre etc producers using it, so who are they?'

Post

xybre wrote:What gets me is that you have this huge customer base, and yet you don't spaz out, and you take time to answer posts like these, and still work on new stuff constantly. *boggles*
The trick is, the customer base isn't as big as it might seem. In fact, I have a surprisingly small customer base (recently talked to a friend over at NI about it and he jawdropped when I told him my figures... seems like people think that Zebra sold a magnitude higher than it actually did... it's still in the lower thousands, somewhere between two and three, really...).

This is something I call "preserving the potential". All the stuff has a massive market potatial, because saturation is never reached. Unlike products that are marketed to death until the last penny is squeezed out of the customers.

The major advantage is, I can do that as a small business and feed on it over a lot of years. I don't even need to take update fees. And I'm also not all worked up by dozens of support requests every day.

It's a pretty relaxed business here... Heck, I spend a couple of hours on KVR every day which is fully sanctioned by myself. I don't waste much time with fears and I do what I want to do. In fact, all famous and/or rich people I know (with the exception of Annette Humpe maybe) seem to be way more stressed than me.

;) Urs

Post

hakey wrote:That wasn't meant as a criticism in a 'if Zebra's so good where's the big name producers?'. I hope it didn't come across that way.
No worries, it didn't :)

Post

[quote="Urs"There have been a few artists who then didn't buy Zebra after I turned them down. [/quote]

Entirely their loss!


[quote="Urs"If a product is good, the artist will speak out about it anyway, such as Hans Z. [/quote]


I learned of Zebra through word of mouth communication. I.e a friend told me how amazing it was and I ended up buying it so in a sense, it was the quality of the merchandise that did all the talking.

That said, I think there are definately people out there who would buy something simply because their favourate artists either use it or say how incredible it is etc etc...

Post

Another useful form of publicity is Computer Music magazine's latest special issue, Make Synth Music, which has tutorials that feature ZebraCM - as well as simpler synths for numpties like me. :hihi:
Read reviews of free netlabel/Creative Commons music at Catching The Waves, a most amateurish free music blog. @catchingthewave

Post Reply

Return to “u-he”