Sorry Alan and Team,
I love the content, but in my view the packaging is an complete over kill and arrogantly demanding on shelf space and for me extremely unhelpful. Possibly it could be argued that an all cardboard solution is more eco-friendly in some way, I don't know, it just feels so wasteful. I would love to chuck the box and cardboard into my re-cycling bin but haven't got a suitable and sensible 3 disk DVD case - I will now have to go and buy one.
My previous orders from Keyfax, for example "Sound Advice" and "S90 Under Control" have come in sensible standard cases - I cannot understand why you chose this is a very silly box IMHO.
Again congratulations on the content - fantastic.
Alan Smith
Thanks for your comments. We'd prefer you liked everything of course but better you like the content and not the other way around!
Just to explain, the reason we went for a bigger box is mainly that we wanted the package to reflect that this is a 10-hour series shot on video, based on a lifetime of experience. There are a lot of DVDs out there which, without wishing to criticize them directly, are simply real time screen captures and a voice-over. We wanted to differentiate between that type of production and this project.
The packaging let us put a lot of information on the back, plus it enables it to stand out in stores, which is simply the reality of the world we live in. We felt that the box also sits nicely on a studio bookshelf and so takes up less space than, say, the box that Cubase or other DAW software might come in, or about the same as any 'book' or piece of reference material.
Thanks for making the time to post tho and hope this might offer some 'reasonings' by behind our decisions.
Thank you for taking the time to reply.
I understand and agree with the need, desire and your justification for differentiating – I agree with you, it is an elevation of production quality which deserves mirroring in the external packaging. Your reply would have completely satisfied me and I would have stopped there. However, your reference to Cubase and DAW packaging warrants an additional response I’m afraid – sorry… I don’t mean to harp on, and I acknowledge it is after all a very minor point in the scheme of things.
Yes all my previous physical deliveries of Cubase came in a large cardboard box – C5 was huge as I recall, each box of which has now (hopefully!) been recycled into something else and does not take space in my shelves. The Cubase books now “sit nicely” on my shelves and do not get crushed by the number of books I’ve already jammed in (will yours?), and the four Cubase 5 CDs are in a nice small convenient fold out case not much bigger than the CDs themselves - lovely. My propellerhead Reason 3 also has a similar small 3 disk fold out “jewel case”.
I think contrary to your use of Cubase and DAWs as an example, the Cubase 5 Packaging illustrates that you can go large and bold on the outside packaging and still have sensible convenient internal packaging. You could have done similar, but I appreciate this would cost slightly more, but proportionally a minor amount and would, as you said, emphasise quality.
At this point I apologise again, because I am not an eco-warrior and don’t want to sound like one or a pedantic SOB that you often meet on the Web these days. For me - content scores 1000 points, packaging minus 1, a personal thing perhaps, but I just think the packaging could be better.
Congratulations again to Alan and the team for this inspired project which I’m sure will be greatly appreciated by a broad audience. A wonderful piece of work, which I will enjoy watching time and time again.
Alan Smith.