Squids and Co in LA right now. We're doing a session with Neil Peart today! It's more than just me sampling but yes we are sampling his drum kit too! I will reveal more about the project when I am able to. I will post some pics as we go to give you the fly on the wall experience if you're interested.

Here's the specs of his kit which apparently you can buy yourself from DW. There are some new things in it like a 23" bass drum... it's a crazy looking kit! Photos coming.

*DW Collector's Series All-Maple Aztec Red Lacquer Specialty kit with gold leaf Snakes & Arrows Graphic and Black Nickel Hardware:

7x8" rack - VLT w/ 6 ply reinforcing rings
7x10" rack - VLT w/ 6 ply rings
8x12" rack - VLT w/ 6 ply rings
9x13" rack - VLT w/ 3 ply rings
12x15" floor - VLT w/ 3 ply rings
13x15" floor
16x16" floor
16x18" floor
(2) 6.5x14" snare - VLT
3.5x13" snare - VLT
(2) 6.5x14" Edge snare
16x22" kick

*Roland drums w/ matching DW shells:
(7) 6x10" electronic drums
(2) 5x12" electronic drums
(2) 12x12 electronic kick drums

Whoa!!! That kit will take more than just a few hours to sample

All day and all night.... I am uploading pictures now!

How's the Custer Dome Rainman?

I'm not jealous of many people, but you've definitely got me here. He's probably my favorite drummer. Damn you.

hey! Undamn me man. That's not cool!

jk

Aww, ok. 'POOF' You're undamnned

Cool thanks.

A few photos uploaded so far at www.myspace.com/sonicreality - just the kit

Cool! Any chance of partnering with Toontracks to do a set for EZDrummer?

jeffn1
Last edited by jeffn1 on Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:41 am; edited 2 times in total

Wow, wow, just wow.

Well Squids,
Even though you totally ignore my emails, congratulations anyway. I'm sure I will be a customer, what ever you release from these sessions

Check this out, i just discovered this last night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d3CwzGWSuI

You should get that tenor player's # from Neil and sample us up a couple of his licks too !!!

That and get his Beavis and Butthead shirt!

I don't intentionally ignore anyone's emails. But I do sometimes get busy and generally speaking the longer the email sometimes the more chance I can accidentally skip it thinking I will get to it later and then forget. I go through maybe a hundred emails a day so please forgive me on that. Much better to talk on forums about music stuff so maybe questions one person has are the same interest to another and one answer can be of use to several people... I like that better than emailing each person mainly because of time.

Regarding EZ Drummer... I am all for doing kits in that as well as Superior. I have no problem with that whatsoever. To me, Sonic Reality "samples everything". The software that is used just depends on what suits the material AND what people like to use! If you like EZ Drummer and you like Sonic Reality drum samples then why not make that happen? Same thing for BFD or Battery or anything else. If there's a market for samples we're there! That's what we do. We're not trying to pretend to be a software company or anything... we make sounds! We partner up with anyone that has cool technology and a good thing going.

So... I am at The Foo Fighters' studio right now. We just listened back to the tracks with Neil. HOLY S#$#*(%*#T!!!!!!!! There is this SEISMIC floor tom in his set that is the most massive boom! Wow. Explosive! Can you imagine playing Neil's kit? I can't WAIT until this is mapped. But, that is just one part of this session we did. There's more to it than that... very cool. Nick Raskulinecz who I think did a phenominal job producing the last Rush album is co-producing this particular project with me (his studio is the Foo one... he mixed a bunch of Foo records) and it's really amazing that Neil and everyone are up for it! Very exciting.

But seriously... these drum tracks are outrageous. Nick has Allen Sides' Ocean Way monitors (they make studio monitors at Ocean Way for remote studios... they're like $60k a pair and Dr. Dre has a whole WALL of them... these are the ones we have in the NAMM SR booth and they're monsterous). Anyway, even on the Genelecs and Pro Recs it sounds huge but on the big OW speakers it is just big n' beautiful. I also played them the track I played keys on with Phil Collins going to TOWN on the toms. I've never heard it this loud but it's PUMMELS you. A barrage of noises. Quite aggressive. I think Genesis fans are gonna like that... although not ALL Genesis fans but let's say... fans of older Genesis and Gabriel "Security/Passion" era stuff... meets... something else that is a total surprise when you hear it! Unexpected stuff. There's this little Home By The Sea kind of moment too where it's mostly me (I even snuck in my Synclav voice samples underneath and I don't think anyone noticed what I did but this is my way of channeling Tony Banks... on another track I tried to sneak in an Arp ProSoloist but it got axed by the producer... oh well, I try. I DID successfully get a Mellotron Violin and Choir though).

I talk about Phil in the Neil thread and Neil in the Phil thread. It's kind of like a "good luck finding what he was saying about the bla bla" thing. But that makes it more fun maybe... anyway, I AM writing to you guys WHILE I am in the studio. I'm listening to some cool multitrack of what I think is Foo Fighters song. Sounds nice. Kind of mellow and then gets really huge... wow. February Stars I think it is called. Just listening to the raw tracks... shit! This is awesome. I'll post some pics of this too. It's great that all these artists love what we do and invite us over to hang out like this... we love it. Pizza's here.

He's a big Family Guy fan too.

If his Wiki-page is anything to go by, Neil has some very cool influences (very much like my own)

Having said that, Rush weren't big where I'm from....... Which track is the go-to track?

(speakin' of the Foo-ies, "Statues" is an instant classic IMHO.... LOVE that track)

Tell him I said "buttscratcha? buttscratcha..." then