Dark Zebra soundsets

[Butwug]

You guys werent kidding about this thing having sounds straight out of Dark Knight. I came across a few patches that were surely used for Blade Runner 2049. Ear candy

That got me thinking about legality of using some of these sounds in production. How does that work? As I stated earlier, some of these sounds are so close to the soundtracks, with just the press of a key! Im more into techno and house but thought it would be cool to attempt minimal techno with some of these killer presets but got thinking about how freely can presets be used, how much tweaking do they need to be used in ones own music production, and the like.

Again, killer soundset! Im learning a lot about how to use Zebra2 by just looking at patches. That alone is worth the purchase.

[nevis]

p.3 of the current manual lays out the terms of use.

[Butwug]

p.3 of the current manual lays out the terms of use.

This seems to be talking more about patches, from my understanding.

"You may not distribute resampled or otherwise replicated patches from The Dark Zebra
in any product, commercial, free or otherwise. This includes, but is not limited to,
sample libraries and sample-based synthesizers. You may, however, create such
derivates for your own musical works as long as these derivates are only distributed in
the context of the musical work."

That whole statement, especially first half, seems to be about redistribution of patches and sampling of patches in a non ZebraHZ product.

As far last sentence, creating derivatives (spelled wrong in manual?) could mean creating a derivative patch from ZebraHZ on your own, on any synth, by just seeing how the patch is built. "You may, however, create such derivatives for you own musical works" can imply you can create similar patches, but not use the original patch, in your own musical work. But again, all this seems to be about patch itself, and not the audio content that the patch produces.

If a patch on ZebraHZ produces an very similar sound to a piece from Blade Runner or Dark Knight, and I use that same patch, as is, with some drums, what is the legality of that? Can that be viewed by the labels as stealing sounds from those soundtracks? Not trying to do remixes of Blade Runner or TDK soundtracks lol, but peace of mind while using these patches will go a long way.

[pdxindy]

Playing patches in music is fine... just don't repackage patches and sell them or sample them for sale.

[zvenx]

I had asked this very question before it was released.
It's ok to use in your own music.

Found it:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=354478&p=4993900&hi ... x#p4993900


rsp

[Howard]

I once asked Hans about those tunes, but he shrugged the question off. My 2c: It's probably best to change the pitch of a note or two in each preset you use that contains a memorable HZ sequence.

[Stokely]

This subject reminds me of hearing a band with Keith Emerson in it (Three maybe? It was in the 80s) and to my horror one tune straight up had the "Digital Native Dance" or whatever it was called patch from the D-50 on it. It was one of those mind-blowing new sounds that you think, How cool...but I can't ever use it. Well, he did. I'm like "You are Keith Emerson, you can't use that factory patch!" Then I thought, he's Keith Emerson, he can use ONLY that patch on every song if he wants to

[zvenx]

A lot of Eric patches especially on the D-50 were used in a whole heap of songs. Same with the M-1 Factory sounds etc.
rsp

[Stokely]

No doubt. I actually found the album and tune on youtube...the whole album sounds like the d-50 actually That patch just was that one that you heard and said..."hmmm, no idea how that would ever go into a song" and lo and behold



2 minutes you can hear the dancing natives

I completely forgot that my band used to cover song 1 back in the late 80s...we had a knack for picking completely obscure cover songs! Anyway, didn't mean to derail the thread. To me the point is: try your best to change patches a bit so everyone doesn't say "aha!"

[Butwug]

I once asked Hans about those tunes, but he shrugged the question off. My 2c: It's probably best to change the pitch of a note or two in each preset you use that contains a memorable HZ sequence.

Is this THE Howard Scarr?! Amazing presets on Zebra2. Youre a beast . Okay thats out the way now.

Yeah, that’s what Im afraid of, not having a concrete answer. If youre, Howard from the amazing presets, and you cant get a straight answer, Im not too confident now. In the thread linked above, Urs implies that every preset is fair game.

“Hehe, why on earth would we sell a patchlib if people weren't allowed to use it?
In reality there's no difference between private and commercial use.”

But Im not so sure that is entirely true. As you mentioned, Howard, it is probably best to change some stuff up. Im just kind of baffled how all this works. Dark Zebra has extremely similar sounds, or about as close as you can possibly get, from some BIG movies. Purchased patches, sounding like they are used for blockbusters!

I would assume if I purchased the soundset, everything within it can be used as I please, similar to some photography licensing; where you pay an upfront one time fee (Zebra purchase.) Using that idea with ZebraHZ, that would mean even the arpeggiated and the obvious “thats from the ____ movie” patches, would be able to be used within ones own musical work, even if that means only adding a simple 4 to the floor drum. I just wouldnt test the waters to see how far one can push the limit before you get into grey areas with the law. It would be nice to have UHE put in the manual in more clear terms the licensing. “Any sound produced with zebra and the patches purchased from UHE for zebra, can be used in any way conceivable if used within a piece of work. Patches may not be used outside of Zebra, resold, or sampled for resell.” not exactly proper legal wording but you get the point.

[Razzia]

I would assume if I purchased the soundset, everything within it can be used as I please

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Vengeance has some VERY murky legal terms in the EULA for their Avenger soundsets. It was surprisingly comprehensive in its restrictions. Manuel sort of dispelled the outrage by saying it just applies to melodies, and (in his words) melodies are just "tunes that you can whistle." As a paralegal who worked as a right hand man to a lawyer for many years, that's not at all a satisfactory explanation, especially when it contradicts the actual language of the license agreement.

Not trying to trash VPS here. Their business practices when it comes to Avenger itself are anything but anti consumer, but just consider it a warning not to assume that just because something was sold to you as a preset pack it's not subject to a restrictive license agreement that contradicts the point of buying a preset pack.

Tbh i expect better from uhe though and i didnt even read the agreement for Dark Zebra. Plus i bought it mostly for zebraHZ

[Vectorman]

This subject reminds me of hearing a band with Keith Emerson in it (Three maybe? It was in the 80s) and to my horror one tune straight up had the "Digital Native Dance" or whatever it was called patch from the D-50 on it. It was one of those mind-blowing new sounds that you think, How cool...but I can't ever use it. Well, he did. I'm like "You are Keith Emerson, you can't use that factory patch!" Then I thought, he's Keith Emerson, he can use ONLY that patch on every song if he wants to

Interesting you should bring up 3...I just picked up a copy of that album again, having had it on vinyl back when it was released. Some fairly cool moments along with some rather cringe-worthy stuff in hindsight, eh? Robert Berry's new 3.2 album (part of which was co-written with Emerson before his passing, although Berry plays all the parts) is actually more of a "prog" album with some parts you'd almost swear had been played by Emerson, with Berry's former tendency towards generic-sounding MTV pop rock on the original 3 album far less in evidence.

/OT