A shadow was unquestionably cast across the film by tragic events last week in Colorado. But while it became an unexpected stage for terrible events, The Dark Knight Rises itself is also a cultural object from artists we care about, and as musicians and sound designers, we value every chance to express ourselves.
Composer Hans Zimmer and synth sound designer Howard Scarr are today releasing some of their work in a unique piece of software. It’s simultaneously a work of engineering – one of the most sophisticated software instruments available, Zebra2, and sound designs for that tool – and a work of art. You get the original patches used in scores for The Dark Knight and sequel The Dark Knight Rises. Berlin-based developer Urs Heckman offers up that combination of software and sounds in a tool release that’s part sound design master class. You can use it as a textbook in sound design and patch creation with the software, explore sounds from the film, or take this as a starting point to produce your own very different works of sonic creation.
Specs:
- 400+ sounds by Hans Zimmer and Howard Scarr
- Hans Zimmerʼs custom Zebra2 update is included
- Windows or Mac VST 2.4, Mac AU
- $99 or €89 including VAT in the EU
Available for download right now. The updater takes your existing Zebra2 installation and updates to the Hans Zimmer edition, ZebraHZ. (Hey, is there something like that that works on my studio? Or maybe a Hans Zimmerizer ray gun.)
As for the instrument itself:
- Diva filters – analogue models ported from u-heʼs other top synth
- Four polyphonic compressors, one for each lane in the patching grid
- Two extra modulation mappers
- Custom GUI
