It was bound to happen: an 80s instrument

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Retro KZ

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Aryaroman wrote:Reading between the lines, it sounds to me like they have. The concept of this product seems to be "Hey, let's sample these famous factory presets from these synths".
Well, it can't be many patches they taken from the D50

The page mentions input from well over ten 80's synths, but the plug itself contains just over 100 patches. So can't be more than 5-10 patches from each synth.

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Aryaroman wrote:Surprised no one thought of (as in released a product) this before.
When it comes to the 1980's inspired sounds and soundsets, then many have been made. I have made several for various products myself.
Some try to emulate specific sounds with synthesis, others are loosely based on the 80s vibe. America hasn't been discovered anew here...

However, when it comes to sampling the actual factory presets and any samples contained in them, in order to present them in another product, is totally iffy. I doubt that any self-respecting sound designer would want to do that. So people have definitely thought about this 'not-that-original-concept' (providing exact replicas of famous sounds), but the reason you don't see exact re-sampled sounds from those old synths, which is what we are being presented with here, it appears, see the quote below, is due to any issues with copyright and the personal values one may hold ( do you just rip some other product off in order to make a quick buck or do you spend a not-insignificant amount of time and effort to re-create these sounds from scratch?).
BeatSkillz on their website wrote: Features sounds that you have heard countless times from that era and always wanted but couldn’t find! Here they are, sampled from original 80s Synths and samplers using high outboard gear for maximum fidelity.
http://www.electric-himalaya.com
VSTi and hardware synth sound design
3D/5D sound design since 2012

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Numanoid wrote:In Germany I think it is allowed to do it. There was some kind of copyright case there in the past but the court ruled that patches can't be copyrighted
Read again what I wrote - it's *not* about patches, and I've already said the general consensus is that *patches* can't be copyrighted.

It's about the *sound recordings* - the PCM samples, which *are* legally protected under the sound recording copyright.

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beely wrote:
Numanoid wrote:In Germany I think it is allowed to do it. There was some kind of copyright case there in the past but the court ruled that patches can't be copyrighted
Read again what I wrote - it's *not* about patches, and I've already said the general consensus is that *patches* can't be copyrighted.

It's about the *sound recordings* - the PCM samples, which *are* legally protected under the sound recording copyright.
How long do those samples last? I thought there was some time limit...

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fluffy_little_something wrote:How long do those samples last? I thought there was some time limit...
If you saying that because the D-50 is nearly 30 years old, the copyright might be up, then I think that's probably optimistic. Not sure about company copyrights, but standard copyright is typically something like the owners life + 50 years...

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No, I meant the duration of a sample. Just like there is a limit for the length of other people's music one can sample.

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Too bad Roland/Big Eric didn't impose copyright on D50 patches being used in recordings.

There are some patches that are so totally overused, like digital native dance :scared:

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beely wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:How long do those samples last? I thought there was some time limit...
If you saying that because the D-50 is nearly 30 years old, the copyright might be up, then I think that's probably optimistic. Not sure about company copyrights, but standard copyright is typically something like the owners life + 50 years...
I don't know what he's saying, but that's of course not true. However, it might be the case that not all of those samples are as protected as you think that they are. The law with respect to what was required to obtain protection was different in the 80s than it is today.

The Sonny Bono extensions make copyrights last an obscenely long time in the U.S. if they were properly registered in the first place.

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ghettosynth wrote:However, it might be the case that not all of those samples are as protected as you think that they are.
Sure. I'm just not willing to be taken to court to test this! :)
ghettosynth wrote:The law with respect to what was required to obtain protection was different in the 80s than it is today.
Has sound recording copyrights changed that much in the last few decades?

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Binarymusic got flagged down, had to withdraw the LA50 instrument for Kontakt

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... inarymusic

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beely wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:However, it might be the case that not all of those samples are as protected as you think that they are.
Sure. I'm just not willing to be taken to court to test this! :)
ghettosynth wrote:The law with respect to what was required to obtain protection was different in the 80s than it is today.
Has sound recording copyrights changed that much in the last few decades?
The requirements were different. Look up the MT-32 emulator case where Roland could not provide necessary documentation because they had not put the appropriate copyright notices into the ROM.

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ghettosynth wrote:The requirements were different. Look up the MT-32 emulator case where Roland could not provide necessary documentation because they had not put the appropriate copyright notices into the ROM.
Will do, thanks. I'm not familiar with the details of that situation - from what you say, it sounds like it fell through not because they didn't own the copyright, but that they couldn't prove to a court they owned it? I'll have a nose around and read up on it if I can... :tu:

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Numanoid wrote:Binarymusic got flagged down, had to withdraw the LA50 instrument for Kontakt

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... inarymusic
They probably got a nastygram from Roland. That doesn't mean that what they were doing is illegal, per se. It just means that they made an economic decision to not sell that product.

To be clear, I'm not advocating sampling other samples, I'm just taking issue with the language that it's implicitly illegal when you do.

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fluffy_little_something wrote:No, I meant the duration of a sample. Just like there is a limit for the length of other people's music one can sample.
There is no short or long limit. You need permission to use a copywritten recording.

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Numanoid wrote:Too bad Roland/Big Eric didn't impose copyright on D50 patches being used in recordings.
Who's going to buy something you cant use on a record?

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