You make some excellent points and I have to admit that I never looked at things from this perspective before.twal wrote:Depends on how cheap the bundle is in relation to each individual soundset. Touch the Universe has a great bundle for Lush that comes out to like buy 2 get one free or something. They are all good too.
As a customer I prefer:
The instance described above.
For the developer to concentrate on a few synths; therefore, I can buy more than one kind of synth soundset for a particular synth. This allows me to do repeat business with the same designer and follow their increase in creativity, and understanding of a particular synth.
It allows me to PURCHASE a synth just to know I will be able to continue to do business with them in the Future. And know I have someone dedicated to providing a product for me later. I am of the type where I don't want 100 synths, but i will get one or two if i know the developer is bringing more for a synth (Skippy does primarily Omnisphere now because he knows his fan base well, and synths like Spire have become torrented a lot). Not everyone has a lot of synths, so those customers are lost who can only buy the one or two soundsets of a synth provided when they first visit the site. Also, I believe those with a lot of synths can afford them as well as sound design themselves as opposed to the one guy who saved up for a synth and needs presets and can't create his own patches.
For a customer, themes are very important. The actual contents of most products don't sell, but brand and image do. When you buy pepsi, you get pepsi. When you buy McDonald's the same. If I were to buy a soundset that gives me a lot of something, I'll go back and buy more even if it's similar. I also go back if there is new theme of the same feeling (the Mexican burger flame broiled opposed to the Texan burger) like House opposed to New - age house.
I enjoy personalities. I enjoy free youtube videos. I enjoy the individuals opinions and outlooks. I don't enjoy huge bland menus with lists. I like when the developer holds interesting views on many genres but keeps it open; and their interest for specific styles to implement and interest in specific synths- to explain the ideosyncracies of them and features.
The problem is, at least for me, once I've done 250 presets for a synth, it's difficult for me to come up with things that are truly unique. I don't want to just do the same sounds over and over, give them different names, and call them a library. I feel that's not being fair to those who buy libraries from me to just get more of the same.
And let's really be honest here. And of course this all depends on how complex the synth itself is. You're only going to get so many really different sounds out of a synth, especially if it's something like, say, The Legend which has relatively few waveforms. I find, programming some synths, by the time I start getting into the hundreds of patches, things start to really blur. I mean take a listen to the libraries for some of the simpler synths. How many of those sounds are so similar to each other?
Something like Omnisphere, I could probably make 300 patches of just soundscapes. But that's an unusual synth. Same for Falcon, which I have done two libraries for, one of 605 patches and another of over 300. But those are the exceptions and not the norm.
And then there is my own personal experience with sales. My first Omnisphere library has sold double the amount of sets as my followup for Omnisphere 2. Same thing with Serum. My original Serum library has sold 5 times as many sets as my followup.
So for me, the "customer coming back to get a 2nd set of the same library scenario" isn't the case. Not even close. Thus, the reason why I refrain from doing more than one set for a synth. I don't want to put all that work into something and get minimal results.