Dark Zebra - Amazona says Best Buy!

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Sorry guys, I'm visiting mum with just an ipad equipped and she's blabbering away about all sorts of household issues, neighbour gossip, family stuff. Hence following up is difficult - if not mind bending. Must get wife to distract her...

The 30$ upgrade is easily explained... it's all about keeping "cost of ownership" low, in order to please existing customers and have them recommend us. This strategy has served us well in the past, and as long as the market is wide open I see no need to revert to the opposite ("milking customer syndrome"). We're extrapolating the market size from figures that we get from bigger companies, e.g. we may know how many Blablasynths were sold by a single store, and there are so and so many stores and thus Zebra has reached between 10 and 30 percent of its potential market share, conservatively speaking.

The 99$ price tag for the preset pack may seem steep at first glance. But then it's a rather unusual thing in many ways. I don't recall an incidence before where someone in Hans Zimmer's position has made his original presets available. I also don't know any composer (or customer in general) who had a bigger influence on Zebra than Hans. We've followed up on many of his feature suggestions and he spotted some sonical bugs that no-one else has. And - with a bit of bragging here - Zebra was probably the first softsynth to play such an exclusive role in a blockbuster movie score, and Hans did this, and thus we owe Hans a lot.

Actually, in terms of company history there's the time before Hans and the time since. Working with him has meant and still means a lot to us, and this value needs to be reflected. Hehehe, I don't think he'd want us to sell cheap.

(wife successfully distracts mum by now)

As for ZebraHZ... you haven't seen it yet. It's basically Zebra 2.5 with a bunch of extra tabs on the bottom where one can tediously edit the 8 Diva filters (4 x HP and 4 x LP) and the 4 "lane compressors". This is not you usually Zebra workflow. It's got quite a Borgian feel to it. It's nothing that we could seriously release and it wasn't added to the pack light heartedly. It is however meant as an incentive to get the pack - I'll admit to that.

Another word on the preset pack. I'm not sure how "complete" soundtracks are. When I watched The Dark Knight in cinema I had no problems spotting those few sounds that I knew. There has however always been that topic about someone's doubts that Zebra was used in Hans' scores at all - because they're still all orchestra. I am convinced that this notion will go away. And I really hope that "The End" will make it onto the soundtrack of TDKR as announced on iTunes (but isn't in the stream that popped up a few days ago). Because that one is only Zebra, and all sounds will be in the pack.

(back to visiting mum now)

Cheers,

Urs
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Hi Mum!
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sqigls wrote:Hi Mum!
+1

a BIG congratulation to her having such a skilled son...

She has to be proud as possible !!!!

:tu: :wheee: :clap: :party: :clown: :pray:
Last edited by Krakatau on Sat Jul 14, 2012 10:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Sounds pretty reasonable to me. It really is just a 2-step up grade from v2 to v3, essentially paying $129 all up. The fact to we get 350 patches from Hans just sweetens the deal 8)

Count me in....
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Just to put this in perspective, check out the price on this Zebra soundset - £55/$80!
http://www.freshlysqueezedsamples.com/Z ... ume-1.html
"What embecile composed this list :/"
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Wow! I get busy for a week and suddenly there's this 25 page thread... ;)
Urs wrote: I don't recall an incidence before where someone in Hans Zimmer's position has made his original presets available.
Will purchasers of ZebraHZ be given license to use these sounds in a commercial context?
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Breeze wrote:Wow! I get busy for a week and suddenly there's this 25 page thread... ;)
Urs wrote: I don't recall an incidence before where someone in Hans Zimmer's position has made his original presets available.
Will purchasers of ZebraHZ be given license to use these sounds in a commercial context?
interesting question...
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Breeze wrote:Wow! I get busy for a week and suddenly there's this 25 page thread... ;)
Urs wrote: I don't recall an incidence before where someone in Hans Zimmer's position has made his original presets available.
Will purchasers of ZebraHZ be given license to use these sounds in a commercial context?
Does a blacksmith buy a hammer which he isn't allowed to use in his work? ;-)


BTW:
I hope, there will be at least a discount for customers, who own both Diva & Zebra... :-)
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Arrested Developer wrote:Does a blacksmith buy a hammer which he isn't allowed to use in his work? ;-)
He might if he has a hammer fetish...

:hihi:
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Urs wrote: The 30$ upgrade is easily explained... it's all about keeping "cost of ownership" low, in order to please existing customers and have them recommend us.
:clap:
Urs wrote: The 99$ price tag for the preset pack may seem steep at first glance.


no. the price tag is completely ok. there are lots of presets and i can't remember any sound, Howard does, that is not useful or at least blubbery funny.
i'll try to find some money below the trees in the garden :wink:
"It dreamed itself along"
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bump! :hihi:
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Breeze wrote:
Arrested Developer wrote:Does a blacksmith buy a hammer which he isn't allowed to use in his work? ;-)
He might if he has a hammer fetish...

:hihi:

You nail it! :hihi:
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mellotronaut wrote:...blubbery funny...
As in, vintage modular? :hihi:
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and i thought my jokes where bad...

(its a line from the dark knight)
:ud:
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vurtuosity? vurtually vunny? vurt ever! Image :D
"It dreamed itself along"
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