Why is the Hollow Sun download page down?

[Failed Muso]

I don't understand what's the fuss about Hollow Sun I mean, pretty much all the samples that we're available on the Hollow Sun website was or is available on other free sites.

Like where ???

Probably because they were stolen from Steve in the first place !

[SampleScience]

I don't understand what's the fuss about Hollow Sun I mean, pretty much all the samples that we're available on the Hollow Sun website was or is available on other free sites.

Like where ???

Probably because they were stolen from Steve in the first place !

No, they we're all available way before Hollow Sun:

http://www.analoguesamples.com/
http://machines.hyperreal.org/samples.html
http://www.denhaku.com/r_box/r_box.htm
http://www.akaipro.com/arc_kotw.html

[hollowsun]

Hi Guys,

My attention has been drawn to this thread by a kindly member of this forum.

Sascha hit the nail on the head: the reason the Hollow Sun 'free downloads' service is suspended is purely commercial - it costs money to run it and money is a commodity I don't have a lot of at the moment! It also takes a lot of time and frankly, right now, I need to spend my time chasing work, NOT making quality sounds for the sampling world to get for absolutely nothing!! How the hell is that gonna put food on my table?!

The decision was made because the freebies are bringing the site down every month due to excessive bandwidth. At first, it was only getting closed for the last few hours of the month... I could live with that. Then it was getting closed for the last day... that's a bit more inconvenient. Now, however, it's closing for a week every month which is bad for business coz that's a week when people can't buy the CDs (or existing cusomers can get MFI updates).

The site gets 30,000 visitors a month (that's visitors, not page hits - they're in the millions!) but I can tell from my weblogs where everyone is going and it's NOT the shop unfortunately!

So the freebies are proving to be counter-productive and instead of offering a service that draws people in, all it is in fact doing is giving people incentive NOT to buy a CD. I naiively thought that when people heard the quality of of my work in the free downloads that they would not bat an eyelid at buying a CD or two. Not so

I think AKAI used to sponser him or something, when they pulled out he panicked and everything has gone tits up. Steve can probably tell you what happened with AKAI

No... Akai didn't "sponser" (sic) me - for 16 years I worked for them as a design consultant. I designed the UIs for their S2000, S3000, S3000XL and S5/6000 samplers. I also designed the UIs for their DD1500 and DPS24 DAWs. I also did a large proportion of their sound library including the ROM sounds in their SG01V vintage module and their XR10 drum machine. However, at the end of last year, Akai were acquired by Numark and the new management decided that my services (and other peoples') were no longer required leaving me without a principle source of income. As a result, I had to change the basic ethos of Hollow Sun and actually sell sounds there in order to support the site and (hopefully) me and my family. I thought I could continue with the free service but this has not been the case! On the contrary in fact - people are taking the freebies and running!

And yes - damned right I panicked... so would you if you were effectively left unemployed at my age with a family to feed and a mortgage and bills to pay! And if it has gone 'tits up' as you say, you have to ask yourself why - simple.... people are just taking, taking, taking from me and not buying CDs. If the CDs were selling as anticipated, we (you) wouldn't be in this position now.

did he ever say on the main page of the site or on the download pages "hey, this costs money to keep online, donations would be awesome"?

Yep... tried that some time back. And guess what? In three months, nothing... not a dollar, not a cent. All those people who proclaimed on various mailing lists and forums that they'd pay for the service? They all mysteriously disappeared!

Tried advertising too but found myself spending more time pursuading people to buy advertising space than I was working. I now use Google AdSense which brings in a few bucks but that ain't gonna buy me a beer, let alone pay my mortgage!!!

I am not saying that the service is suspended forever (and I plan to keep the 'museum' alive when I have time to re-organise everything) and I may well continue with some free 'teasers' but right now, the service is suspended because, bottom line, it is simply not worth my while to continue supporting it right now - I need to make some money in order to live!!!!

And if I might say.... whilst I am extremely flattered by some of the comments made here by those who appreciate my work and who appear to understand my motives for withdrawing the service (thanks all - you know who you are!), some of the attitudes expressed in this little microcosm of the sampling community are EXACTLY the reason why there is little or no incentive for me to continue offering the free service... tell me why I should incur extra expense buying yet more bandwidth (at not inconsiderable cost) or devote time to providing free sounds when the only time the recipients see fit to put pen to paper (so to speak) is to complain that the service has been suspended/withdrawn and/or imply that I am some kind of 'hissy fit' precious arse for doing so (and/or express their relief at getting as much out of it for absolutely nothing before it closed with no thought as to maybe why it might have closed!!).

Hmmmmm!

Listen.... I am as disappointed as anyone that I have (reluctantly) had to come to this decision to suspend the free service but I don't have the money or the time to continue with it. That's the bottom line!


Steve
http://www.hollowsun.com

[Sascha Franck]

Sorry, SampleSience, but that's just utter bullshit.
Hollowsuns samples were PERFECTLY looped (and AKP mapped) instrument samples mainly, and the sites you are mentioning are offering one shots only and very few which would even remotely allow for building instruments (apart from a few drumsets).

There's nothing like Hollowsun.

[Failed Muso]

None of the first three links are a patch on Hollow Sun as they are raw samples, unprocessed and unlooped and all need work to be usable. And none have the history Steve has provided on each of his instruments.

And the final link you refer to was produced by Steve for the Akai MPC1000 anyway !! So, typical HS quality.

Steve might not have been the first, but he certainly was the best and will be sorely missed.

[hollowsun]

No, they we're all available way before Hollow Sun:

http://www.analoguesamples.com/
http://machines.hyperreal.org/samples.html
http://www.denhaku.com/r_box/r_box.htm

Get your facts right.

Admittedly, some - a handful - of the samples came from these places. But where do you think everything else came from? The Mellotrons, the Prophet 5, the ARP String Ensemble, the clavs, Rhodes, Wurlitzers, the ARP2600, the MemoryMoog, MiniMoog, the CP70, Polymoog, the Korgs, the Fairlight, RMI Electrapiano, Hohner Pianet and so on? From MY personal library from MY instruments that I either once owned or have access to. And that's not to mention the donations of some very rare and unusual stuff from some very generous donors... point me to one site where you will get a perfectly looped and multi-sampled Hammond M100 or Elektronika EM25 or Eminent string synth or Roland RS202 string synth or.... ?

And point me to a site where you will not only get the samples accurately and painstakingly looped and multi-sampled but also a history of the instrument in question.

Yes... I took some samples from the places you mention (and acknowledge that as and where appropriate). The fact is that I had to do a lot of work on those thoroughly unprofessional samples to make them presentable in a modern music making environment.

http://www.akaipro.com/arc_kotw.html

You're just being silly now!

Not only did those sounds come after Hollow Sun but I damned well did them for Akai! The KOTW was my idea to help promote the MPC1000. And very successful it was too!

Hmmmmmm.


Steve

[GaryG]

I also did a large proportion of their sound library including the ROM sounds in their SG01V vintage module

Sorry, off-topic, but that was a great sounding little module! Congrats on that one, maybe the best sounding (ie. realistic sounding) vintage ROM module out there.

.g

[mn]

Steve, is the Vintage disc that is offered with purchase of any other collection the same as the content that is now down? I may be the only person in the universe not to have downloaded anything while it was up for free, but if this is the same content I'm happy to order another disc. I would say hosting that stuff for free for so long is deserving of at least that.

[hollowsun]

Steve, is the Vintage disc that is offered with purchase of any other collection the same as the content that is now down?

Yes

I may be the only person in the universe not to have downloaded anything while it was up for free,

Ha!

Looks like you probably are

but if this is the same content I'm happy to order another disc. I would say hosting that stuff for free for so long is deserving of at least that.

Thanks

You can also order the Vintage Collection CD on its own for a reduced price without having to buy one of the others. This is actually by popular demand... seems people want to just have this collection as it stands. See:

http://www.hollowsun.com/cds/vintage_vol1.html

I should point out that this CD has many advantages over the 'free' downloadables in that the Multi-Format Installer (MFI) makes it compatible with most of the popular s/w samplers - the free stuff needed to be manually converted. See my Flash demo of the MFI at:

http://www.hollowsun.com/cds/ufo_demo/u ... _demo.html


Steve

[hollowsun]

Sorry, off-topic, but that was a great sounding little module! Congrats on that one, maybe the best sounding (ie. realistic sounding) vintage ROM module out there.

.g

Thanks

It was a popular little module at the time and spawned a whole raft of 3rd-party software editors to get the best out of it. Unfortunately, 'grey imports' by less than scrupulous dealers in Europe destroyed Akai's profitability on the series and it was discontinued.

Sadly, I lost the original sounds in a horrible disk crash (and Akai couldn't locate their master copy either) otherwise I'd have made them available (with Akai's permission) as a download - a mere 4Mb for over 256 sounds can you believe?! Ah well!

Glad you liked it tho


Steve

[Bela D Media]

Who dares to question the loop king?

Hi ya Steve O.

[Spe3D]

Thing to do with the old content that was free – is make it available on a nominal payment to access the url for download – maybe section it out into categories. That and make your free content available on CD-Rom as another option. This way to nearly get rid of all lechers, cover your bandwidth and diskspace costs – plus as feedback is something slim, give free access to the guys that gave you feedback in the past – all others pay for download, and you are covered on all your bases, plus still keep a high profile on the net – if that is a needed thing – make sure all your files are in zips with a text pointing back to your site - plus the benefits of your cd-roms and any news of new content – both to the pay for access and cd-rom stuff. Sorted!

I still think you made the right move, it is a shame but a growing phenomena on the net is download n disappear.



Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

[androidlove]

shutting it down was a great stunt. now many more know

i prefer vsti myself, but i understand the needed to catalog

[Spe3D]

shutting it down was a great stunt. now many more know

i prefer vsti myself, but i understand the needed to catalog

Bandwidth is no stunt – management of content is a good idea for the future I think given the environment – its not like it used to be with the dial uppers – stuff just zooms out

On a side note – quite a lot of vsti would not function without sample providers – particularly ones who can create the ‘perfect loop’ or ‘in tune samples’

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

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