Why is the Hollow Sun download page down?

[Jace-BeOS]

Not only speculative..i´d say it is a bullshit post and the dude should have thought twice about posing it.

What's so speculative about it ?? The guy said he was jobless. Means one of two things...he's still at school or unemployed.

To make a little bit of a sensitive point here... It did strike me as a bit harsh, myself. I was unemployed for a while due to the political BS at the place I worked and the industry in general It's no fun. It didn't make me EXPECT free handouts, but I think it's best to respond to Johnny's comments with more thoughtfulness than emotional reactions or not at all. Maybe he's talented but cannot find the way to make something of it (also something I experience). If he's gotten rude, then he's done it in public and I think it's enough to know that the forum readers tend to see it for what it is.

It's an old and boring argument

That said, I know how irritating it can be to rehash things. Leave it, I say (from personal experience of getting too pissed off about things I cannot affect)

Get a grip, forget about the technicalities and concentrate on making your music.

Could you come over to my place and kick my arse about the room to make me productive? I think I need it. Tons of toys and no productivity coming out of it... A topic for its own thread, I think...

[McLilith]

Hi Steve,

First, let me thank you for providing those cool samples for so long, and not charging for them. That was certainly a very kind gesture on your part. I can certainly understand that you have expenses to cover, and a life to get on with. I can't blame you a bit for dropping the free sample downloads. I'm amazed that you provided them as long as you did, and that they were of such good quality.

I hope you don't let people like Johnny annoy you. We've been trying to explain things to him, but he just doesn't seem to understand. Alas, the free samples are now gone, leaving Johnny ineffectually screaming "I Will Not Go Quietly!", as if he were a Little Tin God or something.

Well Johnny, How Bad Do You Want It? (Not bad enough, apparently. You apparently didn't support the site you seem to have so dearly admired.) I sincerely hope this is The Last Worthless Evening you spend whining about this whole issue. If Dirt Were Dollars, we could all have our own free online sample sites, but it costs money to keep a popular website going, which is The Heart Of The Matter. Johnny doesn't seem to understand that, and continues to point the proverbial gun to Steve's head, shouting "Gimmie What You Got!"

I'm begining to think that Johnny Can't Read very well. Perhaps Johnny will eventually realize that in a New York Minute, everything in life can change, and The End of The Innocence is now upon him. Did he really think the Shangri-La of free samples would last forever?


Good luck with everything, Steve, and take care.


And Johnny, I can feel your pain, but sometimes good things must come to an end. It's certainly not the end of the world. There are other free sample sites, and you are of course free to make your own samples whenever you like. If you really need a sample of something in particular, and don't have access to the gear to record it yourself, just ask here on KVR. The odds are, one of us will probably have a free sample you can use. We're not mean people here. (Okay, I just had a little bit of fun with your comments on this thread, but that was meant in good fun. I honestly don't bare any ill feelings toward you.)


Take care, and cheer up.
McLilith

[winegums100]

Just a little thought...
Apart from leaching all the free stuff from Hollowsun, did anyone actually stop and READ about instruments with each set of samples? The work involved in the descriptions alone is pretty awesome, when you look at the website as a whole.
I personally (and yes, I am a self-confessed tech-geek ) loved reading about what I was about to download and play on my Akai. It's a real pity that Steve has pulled the 'free' stuff, but maybe he could consider re-instating the instrument descriptions on the 'vintage' section?...

Winegums100

[mute]

because of penis

[Jace-BeOS]

...did anyone actually stop and READ about instruments with each set of samples?

Goodness yes. I found it all VERY interesting!

[Failed Muso]

Not only speculative..i´d say it is a bullshit post and the dude should have thought twice about posing it.

What's so speculative about it ?? The guy said he was jobless. Means one of two things...he's still at school or unemployed.

To make a little bit of a sensitive point here... It did strike me as a bit harsh, myself. I was unemployed for a while due to the political BS at the place I worked and the industry in general It's no fun. It didn't make me EXPECT free handouts, but I think it's best to respond to Johnny's comments with more thoughtfulness than emotional reactions or not at all. Maybe he's talented but cannot find the way to make something of it (also something I experience). If he's gotten rude, then he's done it in public and I think it's enough to know that the forum readers tend to see it for what it is.

OK, I accept I may have been somewhat harsh, but it's an argument that he's made before on the HS forum and made similarly ridiculous comments and I get most annoyed at his apparant lack of gratitude towards Steve and all that Steve has tried to achieve with HS.

I apologise for any comments that caused offence.

Get a grip, forget about the technicalities and concentrate on making your music.

Could you come over to my place and kick my arse about the room to make me productive? I think I need it. Tons of toys and no productivity coming out of it... A topic for its own thread, I think...

As long as you come over to my place and do the same

[Failed Muso]

because of penis

May I take this opportunity to say....

WTF ?!?!?!?!?

[Failed Muso]

These are by far and away the most evocative samples I have ever heard and I regularly load them up and just "jam", creating some sonic landscapes with the pads. But explore beyond the pads, and you will find some thumping basses, divine bells and other glorious sounds.

I'm hoping to be inspired I am focused on sounds more than melody and it's hard to make new material!

BTW, if you're an S6000, I do hope you have signed up at the Akai Pro Users Forum !

I did at some point, I thought... I'll have to check it out again.

P.S. What Yamaha USB interface are you using ? I have a UX256 and it has been one of the soundest investments in my studio....solid, reliable and no fuss at all.

Same one. Are you on Windows or Mac? I didn't have such problems on the Mac, but all my stuff is on PC, so it makes it pretty worthless for me for sysex. I use it for input and routing, but sysex is impossible. I can't use any editors/librarians and I am very mad about that. It's why I bought the thing. I've seen other people complain similarly. I have considered buying an Edirol UM880, but it seems like I'm just giving in and wasting cash on something else that might have the same problem (USB MIDI interfaces supposedly have this trouble a lot).

Trust me, the FS1r samples will blow you away

I too had similar problems with sysex data going via the hub. I had to dump some MIDI SDS data to my SU-10 and found (after much head scratching) that the problem was the UX256. Like you said, USB interfaces seem to have this issue. I now use the MIDI ports on my soundcard's breakout box for such functions, but it is a major PITA

Good to see you are aware of the forum too. Hope you find it useful

[winegums100]

because of penis

Ooooooh dear... appears we have a joker.

Winegums100

[Bitstreem]

Steve,

I was an avid user of your fantastic sample collection a couple of years back and I feel like an absolute fool for not contributing financially to the site at the time! I think I had had my S5000 for a year or so when I stumbled upon your website - could it have been around 2000-2001? I can´t remember. There weren´t that many sample packs there at the time, but what was there was of great quality and truly inspiring. I worked at the Norwegian Akai distributor at the time, and I must have recommended your site to users and stores dozens of times. I am no longer an Akai user (sold my MPC4000 last year), but your samples were the backbone of my collection.

It´s sad to see the free service go, but I am truly grateful for what you have given the sampler community both from your interface designs (I loved AkSys) and your free samples. I know this is probably too little and too late, but as I never got back to you with positive feedback back then, I´m doing it now. Thank you so very much!

As for the freeloading problem: I think that you perhaps have been too kind and forgiving to your many users. Many, including me, has simply taken the site for granted, and since you´ve never (IMO) really put your fist down and said: "Look, I´m closing the site this month until enough people have donated to cover the cost of running it." we (I) have assumed things were ok. I´m not criticizing the way you have run the service, I´m just saying that some of us numbnuts really need to have the message smacked in our face before we react.

I would like to make a contribution to your site, however buying your sample CDs is costly because of the strict Norwegian customs regulations. If you still have a PayPal account, I´d be more than happy to contribute through that.

Once more, thank you very much. Oh, and please bring back the wonderful descriptions that followed each samplepack, they were great!

Cheers,

Arne S.

[hollowsun]

Steve,

I was an avid user of your fantastic sample collection a couple of years back and I feel like an absolute fool for not contributing financially to the site at the time! I think I had had my S5000 for a year or so when I stumbled upon your website - could it have been around 2000-2001? I can´t remember. There weren´t that many sample packs there at the time, but what was there was of great quality and truly inspiring. I worked at the Norwegian Akai distributor at the time, and I must have recommended your site to users and stores dozens of times.

Hi Arne,

I remember... how are you?

Yes... the site's been going for almost four years now and in the early days, there were only a few instruments available but the collection has expanded (as has the number of visitors)!

I am no longer an Akai user (sold my MPC4000 last year)

Shame on you! No doubt you've succumbed to convenience over quality

but your samples were the backbone of my collection.

It´s sad to see the free service go, but I am truly grateful for what you have given the sampler community both from your interface designs (I loved AkSys) and your free samples.

Thanks

As for the freeloading problem: I think that you perhaps have been too kind and forgiving to your many users. Many, including me, has simply taken the site for granted

That's the problem!

The diversity and the size of the freebie collection is now such that anyone visiting the site to buy a CD actually has little or no incentive to whip out their wallet when there's over 1Gb of freebies to download for nothing. I have to think about this.

and since you´ve never (IMO) really put your fist down and said: "Look, I´m closing the site this month until enough people have donated to cover the cost of running it."

I actually considered this (that email sat in my drafts folder for some weeks!!!) but thought it might look a bit petulant - "Buy my CDs or I am pulling the service"! Hmmmmm!

So I just tried and tried to keep it going in the (vain) hope that things would improve... that decency would prevail... that through the freebies, people would appreciate the quality of my work... that people would see for themselves the worth of the site and the benefits of buying a CD or two from me (not just to support the site but to get even more exciting sounds that left the freebies standing in terms of multi-sampled detail and quality). But they didn't and the site was getting closed more often and for longer by my ISP due to bandwidth excession as more and more people bled the site dry of freebie downloads.

we (I) have assumed things were ok. I´m not criticizing the way you have run the service, I´m just saying that some of us numbnuts really need to have the message smacked in our face before we react.

Well... it's a fair assumption to make but I didn't want to release any statement to the effect that things weren't well at HS Towers ... looks unprofessional.... and desperate! After all, when Akai sampler sales were flagging, would Norsk have put out a statement proclaiming "business is bad.... please, please, please buy a sampler from us"? I had more pride than that and hoped the situation would change.... but it didn't... it just got worse and I (reluctantly) had to come to my recent decision to suspend the service.

I would like to make a contribution to your site, however buying your sample CDs is costly because of the strict Norwegian customs regulations. If you still have a PayPal account, I´d be more than happy to contribute through that.

I think my on-line reseller does PayPal... I'll have to check.

Oh, and please bring back the wonderful descriptions that followed each samplepack, they were great!

Thanks.

If nothing else, when I have time, I will do that.

Cheers,


Steve

[Amberience]

I never used your site.

[Scotrick]

I know it's already been gone over... but for those of you who might've been picking on Mr. Johnny for not having a job... well, there's another reason:
illness...
I had a number of strokes a few years back, when I was 23, and have been in and out of the work world ever since, depending on my health...
I know that HollowSun has to make money in order to stay afloat, but I also offer up thanks to all of the kvraudio world, from the free vsti to the free sample sites that help those of us who can't quite manage to make ends meet in the american world of terribly expensive health care...

[Failed Muso]

I know it's already been gone over... but for those of you who might've been picking on Mr. Johnny for not having a job... well, there's another reason:
illness...
I had a number of strokes a few years back, when I was 23, and have been in and out of the work world ever since, depending on my health...

Fair point, but this is not the case. Like I have said, this is an argument that has been had before and everyone is aware of the situation.

Let it lie.

[hollowsun]

I know it's already been gone over... but for those of you who might've been picking on Mr. Johnny for not having a job... well, there's another reason:
illness...

Oh... come on! Picking on Mr Jonny?

At the risk of alienating myself completely here, let's stop making excuses - the core of this problem is that there is a (large?) faction of people out there who expect free services such I have offered as some kind of human right! Those same people feel aggrieved when such free services are suspended. It's got nothing to do with joblessness, illness - whatever - it's all to do with being pissed that they can't get something for nothing anymore!

Listen - I am unemployed too (I recently took a part-time evening job delivering take-aways for a local curry house just to get some cash in hand to pay some bills - that was after I signed off unemployment benefit!!). Not so long ago, I was designing the S5/6000 UI and ak.Sys and the DPS24 - now I am delivering curries so don't give me that shit!

Yes... I have articles coming up soon in UK magazine Sound On Sound (a major series on sampling) and many other long term prospects that are under negotiation but I am not gonna see any money until those projects are realised... maybe months! I damned well know what it's like not to have any money so I am understandably intolerant of feeble excuses for expecting freebies from me!

I had a number of strokes a few years back, when I was 23, and have been in and out of the work world ever since, depending on my health...

I am very sorry to hear that but again, at the risk of losing the sympathy vote, that's no reason for developers to provide everything for free. Shit happens (my mother has Multiple Sclerosis and my father had a rare skin cancer that ultimately nobbled him so I understand)

I know that HollowSun has to make money in order to stay afloat, but I also offer up thanks to all of the kvraudio world, from the free vsti to the free sample sites that help those of us who can't quite manage to make ends meet in the american world of terribly expensive health care...

I appreciate your problem but I'll wager that those that you admire for providing freebies are also struggling to make ends meet as well! It cuts both ways!

Sorry for the rant - nothing personal (and you do have my every sympathy for your health problems... good luck and a speedy recovery I hope).


Steve