I wish I knew what sounds were to Ring but from a previous exchange I had with him on that subject I think your somewhere in the ball park and unfortunately that mentality is a sure fire way to loose sales. I hear what you say in your comparison with paint, it's the same for me though we do need a lot of variety otherwise our shows would be boring and we wouldn't get business but we have to choose a range we can stock from the huge range available as we can't stock it all.
However we're not talking about people painting houses, roofs, fences, cars etc or lighting up the night sky, we're talking about model railroaders and sound to a model railroader is now in the same category as the correct detail applied off the shelf to a model for a specific railroad. While you are somewhat correct that adding new sounds isn't going to generate more sales from the crowd that already owns the system absolutely the size and quality of your sound library is a major factor in the make or break decision for someone to go with the system in the first place. Every time someone brings up RP on a forum somewhere the variety and quality of the sounds is bought up as a factor. Even right now there's a debate going on over at MRH over wireless control. RP was bought up as usual and sound was bought up as a factor.
Why is LokSound so popular? 1, You can create your own sounds including the prime mover AND share them, and 2, the size of the sound library, which in cases includes multiple versions of the same base prime mover, because the 645E3 in xxx loco sounds different than the 645E3 in yyy loco. Ring couldn't be stuffed when I suggested he be a bit more descriptive with his sound names.
- Tim