KVR Audio

stevesg · Post by **stevesg** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:03 pm

at one time the hollowsun.com web site had available many samples of vintage synthesizers in Akai .akp S5000/6000 format but were forced to take them down due to bandwidth considerations. They now sort of run a sample of the month club. Does anybody know if these formerly available samples are floating around anywhere?

butter · Post by **butter** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:16 pm

I would be willing to bet that just about everyone here downloaded them at one time or another. The Hollowsun guy is selling sample sets online though. He might be willing to sell you what you might be looking for. His prices are very reasonable.

Bassballjg · Post by **Bassballjg** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:19 pm

Not in .akp to my knowledge, but the original oline free library is available in sf2 from my company, Dangerous Bear Underground:

http://www.dangerousbear.com/products.html

But I also think that the Hollow Sun discs, which take an in depth view of single classic instuments are absolutely worth their weight in gold, which, even given the weight of cds, is more than they cost so that's literally as well as metaphorically true.

http://www.hollowsun.com

butter · Post by **butter** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:24 pm

Does he know that you're reselling his stuff and is he ok with it? If not, ouch!

Failed Muso · Post by **Failed Muso** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:32 pm

stevesg wrote:at one time the hollowsun.com web site had available many samples of vintage synthesizers in Akai .akp S5000/6000 format but were forced to take them down due to bandwidth considerations. They now sort of run a sample of the month club. Does anybody know if these formerly available samples are floating around anywhere?

The "formerly available samples" are now available as a VSTi called Nostalgia, made in conjunction with Zero G...

http://www.zero-g.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=916

http://www.hollowsun.com/vintage/nostalgia.html

Anyone who offers you the samples otherwise is breaking the law and will be persued legally by Zero G & Hollow Sun.

The Dangerous Bear conversions are, as far as I'm aware, still available, and fully authorised by Hollow Sun

butter · Post by **butter** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:35 pm

Good thing they're authorized. That would suck otherwise!

Bassballjg · Post by **Bassballjg** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:42 pm

butter wrote:Does he know that you're reselling his stuff and is he ok with it? If not, ouch!

He knew the last time I paid my royalty.

Dangerous Bear first licensed the use of Hollow Sun samples in the summer of last year, and have been selling products derived from them for Reason, WusikEngine, ST2 and other formats since then. In fact, the Hollow Sun Classic Instruments Reason Refill was, to my knowledge, the first officially authorized commercial product using Hollow Sun samples going on sale in September of 2004.

I count Steve Howell as a friend and collegue, and we are supportive of each other's efforts to put these samples in the hands of as many musicians as possible.

butter · Post by **butter** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:54 pm

I'm just checking. I wouldn't want anyone to get stuck with a lawsuit. I also have an idea as to the amount of work that he did to put all of those together so I wouldn't want him to get ripped off, you know?

It's all good. Not trying to start a fight.

Bassballjg · Post by **Bassballjg** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:08 pm

butter wrote:I'm just checking. I wouldn't want anyone to get stuck with a lawsuit. I also have an idea as to the amount of work that he did to put all of those together so I wouldn't want him to get ripped off, you know?

It's all good. Not trying to start a fight.

No fight here, no offense taken. I meant to insert a wink after the first sentence about the royalty. You asked a legitimate question for the right reasons and my answer was hopefully adequate and appropiate.

emdot_ambient · Post by **emdot_ambient** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:18 pm

I got a lot of them while they were freely available . . . but I ain't sharing (aka pirating) them

I take every opportunity to thank hollowsun for them, especially their INCREDIBLE collection of string ensembles. My old dead Crumar performer is now almost good as new. But their Eminent string ensemble

WOW! Amazing stuff!

Someone should really do a VSTi emulation of Ken Freeman's original String Synthesizer (3 osc per note, modulated by up to 3 vibrato oscillators--not like the cut down version released as the String Symphoniser by Lowery). CheeseMachine is okay, as are a couple others, but non of them really compete with the samples of the real deal. I do miss my old Performers EQ sliders, though

hollowsun · Post by **hollowsun** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:31 pm

butter wrote:I'm just checking. I wouldn't want anyone to get stuck with a lawsuit. I also have an idea as to the amount of work that he did to put all of those together so I wouldn't want him to get ripped off, you know?

It's all good. Not trying to start a fight.

Thanks Butter - good of you to think of my interests.

As John pointed out, the DB stuff is all above board and we came to an agreement some time ago about this.

As you will know as well, the free service just became economically impossible for me to maintain at that scale. It was fine when I could afford to do it (like when I had a job!) but when that all (unexpectedly!) changed, the site had to as well. It was a tough decision - this collection had been a major part of my life for 4 years! - and I did try to sustain it for as long as possible after my change in circumstances but ....

I am glad you appreciate the work that went into that collection. It started off modestly about 4.5 years ago with just a few Tron and synth sounds but grew exponentially over the years to offer what is arguably the most comprehensive collection of 'vintage' gear samples and that doesn't happen without putting the hours in!

When I withdrew that collection, Zero-G stepped in and offered to distribute it but as a VSTi. That in itself was a three month job as I painstakingly converted everything over to Kompakt by hand, tweaking every program, sample (all 5,000+ of them) and loop for use in the Kompakt player but I am very happy with the results. Even though I myself am not personally a fan of s/w samplers (as is probably well documented!), Nostalgia does sound great and it is rather nice having everything there in front of you on the desktop in the Kompakt browser and just dragging in sounds for use and abuse as required!

I still do offer a free service just not on the scale of before. I currently have some gorgeous Japanese windchimes available for free download that were donated by a regular HS customer and S5000 user, Dan McCullough, for use in the site's 'freebie' section (see http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=107811). Prior to that, I had a good dose of Oberheim OB8 stuff available to freely download for about a month or so. And this is the way it will go - new free, high-quality sounds on a regular basis and, as can be seen from the current freebie, maybe a deviation away from solely 'vintage' gear.

BR
Steve

hollowsun · Post by **hollowsun** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:44 pm

emdot_ambient wrote:I got a lot of them while they were freely available . . . but I ain't sharing (aka pirating) them

Good man!!!

emdot_ambient wrote:I take every opportunity to thank hollowsun for them, especially their INCREDIBLE collection of string ensembles. My old dead Crumar performer is now almost good as new. But their Eminent string ensemble WOW! Amazing stuff!

So - another Performer owner?! Me too - bloody marvellous little string synth that...loved it to bits - easily on a par with any of the big 'name' string synths of the time (if not better with that 3-band EQ!).

emdot_ambient wrote:Someone should really do a VSTi emulation of Ken Freeman's original String Synthesizer (3 osc per note, modulated by up to 3 vibrato oscillators--not like the cut down version released as the String Symphoniser by Lowery). CheeseMachine is okay, as are a couple others, but non of them really compete with the samples of the real deal. I do miss my old Performers EQ sliders, though

It's strange but I have not heard a good string synth emulation. Funny you should mention it however....

Do you use Reaktor?

I have done an emulation of a string synth in Reaktor that is an amalgamation of the ARP, the Crumar and others (and yes - it has 3-band EQ). It also has a complex phase shifter and a stereo delay and is (IMO) totally authentic. It offers the usual 8' and 4' footages but also has (optional) velocity. Of course, it also benefits from the fact that each voice has its own AR envelope for separate articulation.

Let me know (oh gawd - what am I letting myself in for now!!!!

)

Steve

butter · Post by **butter** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:50 pm

hollowsun wrote:
butter wrote:I'm just checking. I wouldn't want anyone to get stuck with a lawsuit. I also have an idea as to the amount of work that he did to put all of those together so I wouldn't want him to get ripped off, you know?

It's all good. Not trying to start a fight.

Thanks Butter - good of you to think of my interests.

As John pointed out, the DB stuff is all above board and we came to an agreement some time ago about this.

As you will know as well, the free service just became economically impossible for me to maintain at that scale. It was fine when I could afford to do it (like when I had a job!) but when that all (unexpectedly!) changed, the site had to as well. It was a tough decision - this collection had been a major part of my life for 4 years! - and I did try to sustain it for as long as possible after my change in circumstances but ....

I am glad you appreciate the work that went into that collection. It started off modestly about 4.5 years ago with just a few Tron and synth sounds but grew exponentially over the years to offer what is arguably the most comprehensive collection of 'vintage' gear samples and that doesn't happen without putting the hours in!

When I withdrew that collection, Zero-G stepped in and offered to distribute it but as a VSTi. That in itself was a three month job as I painstakingly converted everything over to Kompakt by hand, tweaking every program, sample (all 5,000+ of them) and loop for use in the Kompakt player but I am very happy with the results. Even though I myself am not personally a fan of s/w samplers (as is probably well documented!), Nostalgia does sound great and it is rather nice having everything there in front of you on the desktop in the Kompakt browser and just dragging in sounds for use and abuse as required!

I still do offer a free service just not on the scale of before. I currently have some gorgeous Japanese windchimes available for free download that were donated by a regular HS customer and S5000 user, Dan McCullough, for use in the site's 'freebie' section (see http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=107811). Prior to that, I had a good dose of Oberheim OB8 stuff available to freely download for about a month or so. And this is the way it will go - new free, high-quality sounds on a regular basis and, as can be seen from the current freebie, maybe a deviation away from solely 'vintage' gear.

BR
Steve

No problem man. I downloaded pretty much all of the free ones you had when they were still available and I had no idea they were all out as a ROMpler. I'm gonna have to look into that as I simply dont have the time to convert every patch to a useable format. I hope they're compensating you exceptionally well for that job by the way.

emdot_ambient · Post by **emdot_ambient** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:16 pm

hollowsun wrote:So - another Performer owner?! Me too - bloody marvellous little string synth that...loved it to bits - easily on a par with any of the big 'name' string synths of the time (if not better with that 3-band EQ!).

Yes, but mine's dead

No sound from it though it lights up. And a lot of the sliders are broken. Because of that I bought a Roland RS-202 on Ebay. It works fine, but then I found your samples and . . . they work better

I used to kind of be ashamed of the Crumar. It could sound so cheesy. But it could sound so incredible! It wasn't until years later and I had access to more info that I realized what a prize I had.

hollowsun wrote:It's strange but I have not heard a good string synth emulation. Funny you should mention it however....

Do you use Reaktor?

I have Reaktor4. I'd LOVE to have a bash at a Reaktor based string synth. I'm totally addicted to string synths. I like them better than real strings. I like them almost as much as Mellotron strings. So, if the ensemble isn't R5 . . . I'd LOVE to check it out!

Oh, that Russian string synth you sampled is also one of my favorites.

hollowsun · Post by **hollowsun** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 10:09 pm

butter wrote:No problem man. I downloaded pretty much all of the free ones you had when they were still available and I had no idea they were all out as a ROMpler. I'm gonna have to look into that as I simply dont have the time to convert every patch to a useable format.

Tho I say so myself, Nostalgia sounds fab and it is very convenient. With the features in the Kompakt synth engine, I was able to expand upon the originals as well (especially with regard to effects - something not present on the originals) and it is very convenient - can be used stand-alone or as a plug-in. Check out the audio demos at http://www.zero-g.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=916

I have to say, the old fart in me was dubious at first when it was first proposed to me by Zero-G but by the end of the project, I took a real shine to it. I am very proud of it.

butter wrote:I hope they're compensating you exceptionally well for that job by the way.

My contract with them says that I will be rewarded in heaven - is that the same?

BR
Steve

hollowsun .akp samples