Old Timer
Active Member
I’ve been developing sample libraries for about a year now. With the launch of Plink 2, I now have three sample libraries available over at https://www.sampleism.com/label/Old-Timer/ (Sampleism.)
Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
Lesson 1 - Timing is crucial
Have you ever known you shouldn’t do something and done it anyway? Like when you know your going to cut your hand if you try to take the stone out of an avocado with the sharpest knife you own and you go ahead regardless? Well, that’s what I did when I released Plink 2 on Black Friday weekend. I knew I shouldn’t do it. I knew, even as a pressed the send button that I shouldn’t do it.
And yet I did it.
Why?
I think I was just plain eager. I’ve been working on it for months, and then it was with a coding guru from Sound Aesthetics Sampling, and he worked on it some more. And basically, Black Friday weekend just happened to be when I finally had everything I needed to upload it - the visuals, the manual, the demos, YouTube videos, etc…
And I just couldn’t wait.
And it was the worst time because of course every other sample library developer on the planet was also competing for the attention of all of us who buy sample libraries. Plink 2 was, of course, quite simply blown out of the water.
Lesson 2 - I’m a daydream believer
In my head, with each new release, I’ve thought - people will really like this. This will set the VI community on fire! I walk my dog and I daydream and I get carried away. Before I know it, I’m twenty years from now telling people how it all started. Of course I realise it doesn’t work like this. All I can do is learn with each new release, try and improve and make better sample libraries each time - but in my head each new release might be ‘the one’, like Spitfire’s original Albion was ‘the one’.
Lesson 3 - Don’t ask YouTubers to do anything for you
Marketing! I know nothing. I had this idea that if I Tweeted to all the YouTubers I like they’d pick up on Plink 2 and say ‘Hey guys, check out this cool new product.’
So I tweeted BoBeats, Cuckoo, Christian Henson, and Cabinet of Curiosities and said ‘Hey, What do you think of Plink?’.
There was a deafening silence.
Apart from BoBeats… Bo Beats Tweeted in reply - ‘No opinion on it really’.
Now, I’m not sure whether to put this down to cultural or language difference, but his Tweet sounded harsh to me - and for a couple of hours I was hurt. I had in mind to send all kinds of responses. I even considered taking a picture of my todger and Tweeting back to him, ‘What do you think of this then?’
I didn’t. Probably for the best. In the end I tweeted - ‘Fair enough’ and added a smiley face. The next day, however, I was still mulling it over and while shopping in IKEA, I took a picture of a pepper pot and Tweeted ‘Hey Bo - Any opinions on this then?’ He tweeted back about 20 minutes later - ’10/10 Must Buy’.
For some reason I felt better about it then.
Lesson 4 - Numbers CAN lie
I was briefly elated when I saw that one of my YouTube videos for Plink was getting (for me) quite a lot of views. But I was brought down again because I wasn’t getting many likes and not a single comment.
I thought, how can so many people watch it and not react?
It wasn’t until I realised that Plink is also some kind of software to do with writing code for games. So most of these views, I’m thinking, are misdirects and the vast majority of viewers are scratching their heads looking at a plinky sample library, probably thinking what is this, before clicking off after 20 seconds.
Either that or it’s a shit video.
Now what?
So, what is my ‘take home’ from these lessons?
I think it is that I shouldn’t try to rush things or expect anything. That way, hopefully, I can just enjoy what I do.
I’m writing this with my cat, Dolly, sitting on my lap. She’s purring, and snuffling about, and isn’t too fussed about anything. She takes life as it comes. She eats when she’s hungry, sleeps when she’s tired, goes out when she feels like it. She doesn’t appear to have any self-pity or want much from life. She does what she does. She just is.
I’m going to try and be more like Dolly.
Happy trails, OT.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
Lesson 1 - Timing is crucial
Have you ever known you shouldn’t do something and done it anyway? Like when you know your going to cut your hand if you try to take the stone out of an avocado with the sharpest knife you own and you go ahead regardless? Well, that’s what I did when I released Plink 2 on Black Friday weekend. I knew I shouldn’t do it. I knew, even as a pressed the send button that I shouldn’t do it.
And yet I did it.
Why?
I think I was just plain eager. I’ve been working on it for months, and then it was with a coding guru from Sound Aesthetics Sampling, and he worked on it some more. And basically, Black Friday weekend just happened to be when I finally had everything I needed to upload it - the visuals, the manual, the demos, YouTube videos, etc…
And I just couldn’t wait.
And it was the worst time because of course every other sample library developer on the planet was also competing for the attention of all of us who buy sample libraries. Plink 2 was, of course, quite simply blown out of the water.
Lesson 2 - I’m a daydream believer
In my head, with each new release, I’ve thought - people will really like this. This will set the VI community on fire! I walk my dog and I daydream and I get carried away. Before I know it, I’m twenty years from now telling people how it all started. Of course I realise it doesn’t work like this. All I can do is learn with each new release, try and improve and make better sample libraries each time - but in my head each new release might be ‘the one’, like Spitfire’s original Albion was ‘the one’.
Lesson 3 - Don’t ask YouTubers to do anything for you
Marketing! I know nothing. I had this idea that if I Tweeted to all the YouTubers I like they’d pick up on Plink 2 and say ‘Hey guys, check out this cool new product.’
So I tweeted BoBeats, Cuckoo, Christian Henson, and Cabinet of Curiosities and said ‘Hey, What do you think of Plink?’.
There was a deafening silence.
Apart from BoBeats… Bo Beats Tweeted in reply - ‘No opinion on it really’.
Now, I’m not sure whether to put this down to cultural or language difference, but his Tweet sounded harsh to me - and for a couple of hours I was hurt. I had in mind to send all kinds of responses. I even considered taking a picture of my todger and Tweeting back to him, ‘What do you think of this then?’
I didn’t. Probably for the best. In the end I tweeted - ‘Fair enough’ and added a smiley face. The next day, however, I was still mulling it over and while shopping in IKEA, I took a picture of a pepper pot and Tweeted ‘Hey Bo - Any opinions on this then?’ He tweeted back about 20 minutes later - ’10/10 Must Buy’.
For some reason I felt better about it then.
Lesson 4 - Numbers CAN lie
I was briefly elated when I saw that one of my YouTube videos for Plink was getting (for me) quite a lot of views. But I was brought down again because I wasn’t getting many likes and not a single comment.
I thought, how can so many people watch it and not react?
It wasn’t until I realised that Plink is also some kind of software to do with writing code for games. So most of these views, I’m thinking, are misdirects and the vast majority of viewers are scratching their heads looking at a plinky sample library, probably thinking what is this, before clicking off after 20 seconds.
Either that or it’s a shit video.
Now what?
So, what is my ‘take home’ from these lessons?
I think it is that I shouldn’t try to rush things or expect anything. That way, hopefully, I can just enjoy what I do.
I’m writing this with my cat, Dolly, sitting on my lap. She’s purring, and snuffling about, and isn’t too fussed about anything. She takes life as it comes. She eats when she’s hungry, sleeps when she’s tired, goes out when she feels like it. She doesn’t appear to have any self-pity or want much from life. She does what she does. She just is.
I’m going to try and be more like Dolly.
Happy trails, OT.