Hans Zimmer has appeared on musician, producer and YouTuber Rick Beato's channel to take part in a wide-ranging, almost two-hour interview in promotion of Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert.
Diamond in the Desert is a concert film and documentary that weaves footage of two Dubai shows from the Hans Zimmer Live Tour together with candid conversations with a varied list of collaborators that includes Billie Eilish, Christopher Nolan and Pharrell Williams.
In the Beato interview, Zimmer digs deep into his creative process, sharing anecdotes around his work on films like Inception and Dune and recounting how, after years of struggle, he eventually overcame stage fright - with a little help from Paul McCartney.
Perhaps the most intriguing insight, however, arrives when Zimmer claims that 90% of his work is done using a single software instrument: u-he ZebraHZ. A spin-off from u-he's widely beloved Zebra 2 synth, ZebraHZ is Hans Zimmer's custom-built version of the instrument, featuring a bank of presets - named The Dark Zebra - designed by Zimmer and used in films such as The Dark Knight.
"I was one of the first people to really get into computers and music," Zimmer tells Beato. "But there came a point where there's a new operating system every few months. I just gave up. I just went: 'I need to concentrate on my music'.
"So I started to subtract things out of my life, and I started getting very good at the things that I kept. For instance, software synthesizers. 90% of what I do is done on one software synth. I've been working with that thing for so many years now, and I still haven't run out of ideas.
"What is that? That's u-he Zebra, the Dark Zebra HZ. It's the Hans Zimmer model. I suddenly get an idea that needs six resonating filters, and he's going: 'why do you guys need this?' Well, I can't explain it, but when you hear it, you'll see why!"
Zimmer goes on to highlight another synth plugin that features heavily in his work - a plugin that also happens to bear his initials - Synapse Audio's The Legend HZ, a virtual analogue synth based on the Minimoog. Zimmer's version of The Legend bolsters the plugin's specs with additional oscillators, expanded polyphony and a fixed filter bank based on his own vintage Moog Modular 914.
The Legend replaces the Minimoog's ADS envelope, which lacked a dedicated Release control, with a more familiar ADSR version. "It's basically a Minimoog, with one important improvement" says Zimmer. "You don't have to do that switch for the release, you actually have a release; a proper release. But it sounds as good as the real thing."
Being the world's most celebrated film composer, you'd expect that Zimmer wouldn't have to plump for software emulations of expensive hardware synths. As it turns out, he's got "a few of the real things" around the studio, too.
"I can shut my eyes, and I can just go up to them, and I'm at home," adds Zimmer. "What makes them sound great is that I'm so familiar with them. I'm not a big analogue versus digital guy - if it sounds good, it sounds good."
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