Ocean Way Drums is coming!

[Squids]

I was responding to a post in another thread about Ocean Way when I thought it'd be nice to start a new thread just about Ocean Way Drums. Ocean Way Drums is a collaboration between Ocean Way Recording Studios and Sonic Reality. You can read about Ocean Way the studio here: http://www.oceanwayrecording.com
What an amazing history. Sinatra, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole all recorded there years ago and it is to this day one of the best and most loved studios in the world.

I will post links to specific pages about Ocean Way Drums soon. This is preliminary forum talk if anyone has any questions or just wants to hear some background from me.

Ocean Way Drums is as high end as it gets for drums in terms of the recording techniques involved, the audio quality and resolution, the particularly rare content, the programming and of course the price (it is the most expensive sampled drum product). It was even harder to do and more expensive than recording an orchestra. Why? More days in the studio, a studio that might have to turn down Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney or the Rolling Stones just to block out the time to record this deluxe sample collection in Studio B. Almost everyday there is a major recording act and producer working at Ocean Way whether it is Dr Dre (who has his 100 input SSL studio AT Ocean Way so a lot of his records are done in one building, the same building where Michael Jackson also recorded Thriller) or Rush who I met while they were mixing in Studio D to Jon Brion, Fiona Apple, Beck, Dido, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, Green Day... Jack Joselph Puig has a room in Ocean Way with his Focusrite Console (one of two in the world, there's a famous picture of it on the cover of Mix) where he does all of his records like Goo Goo Dolls' Iris and they did the Alanis Uninvited track there (one of her best imo) from City of Angels, Jack engineered Jellyfish back in the day, Black Crowes, T-Bone Burnette records at Ocean Way which is Elvis Costello, Wallflowers, Counting Crowes... and the list goes on. I mean on and on and on!

That's just scratching the surface. Allen Sides who owns Ocean Way is like a walking encyclopedia of knowledge and has mind blowing experience in the recording field. Not only does he write books on microphones for Mix but he has probably the best vintage microphone collection in the world. In the world! On Ocean Way Drums there wasn't a mic used that was newer than 1968! You and I could only DREAM of having access to mics like this... hand picked tube mics etc. It's crazy to have access to this from a man who has engineered/mixed over 500 albums in his day. He's worked on over 1,000! From Phil Collins to just recently doing Mary J Blidge... so, to get THESE guys to record your drums at this studio and cherry picking different drum kits that were used on different albums recorded there over the years... well, I can't believe we pulled it off! It's a dream. I'm a recording engineer myself and have recorded most of the Sonic Reality samples (apart from things like Miroslav Philharmonik which was recorded by Miroslav Vitous). I know what I am doing and I use great studios all over the world, great gear sometimes I produce the session and hire a great engineer to help. For instance, we hired Dennis McCay to record some of our orchestral sounds because he recorded Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Supertramp Paris, Brand X, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola and a bunch of great fusion records. So, we've always looked for special situations, access to studios (we once went into the Hit Factory in NYC late at night on the orchestral stage set of Scent of a Woman) and other things we don't even mention. But, even still, this is a whole other level. It's like having these guys working on your record, especially the way it was done with really well organized presets and tons of mic options (more than usual). You'll see.

Here's what we have coming. Mp3 demos, a new brochure which will also be on line, an incredible video of an Ocean Way Studio tour with Allen Sides talking about the project, a pre-order on www.esoundz.com for the plug-in which will be coming out in October and whoever pre-orders it will get an early Kontakt library "teaser" with a few kits for free shipped out at the time of the pre-order. Pre-orders will start in a week or so! The plug-in is a Kontakt Player instrument because we needed streaming. The kits are rather large. The whole library, well there are three different size versions but the full size one is over 80 gigs.

More information coming... but we've been quiet about it for a change. That's because we know people are waiting patiently for Sonik Instruments (SampleMoog, Studiophonik, SampleTron), Studio ProFiles and some other fun stuff. Ironically, The Sonik Instruments will be released soon too and so will the Studio ProFiles. By soon I mean all in this year! September through December will be full of new products that have taken us years to make. We hope you like them!

[Bobby Hull]

Hey Dave,
Thanks for info. And thanks for mentioning Jon Brion. IMHO, he is the Lennon & McCartney of the new millenium and hardly anyone knows about him. And Brand X!!! Whatever happened to the incredible Percy Jones?

[Antonis]

U met RUSH?!!!

[stephenpaulharper]

Wow, this sounds great. But Kontakt player usually = bad news for edrummers. Please tell me this thing doesn't have the terrible mod wheel to change the hi hats deal killer.

Yeah Bobby, Jon Brion is the man - just a stellar musician, producer, player - I mean he uses an Optigan, FFS - how cool is that? All that Fiona stuff with him on it is exquisite, IMHO. Good way to see him in action is on the Neil Finn DVD "Sessions at west 54th."

Percy Jones plays in a band called Tunnels. They've played here in ATL several times - I think they're based in NYC. MIDI Vibes, drums and bass is the line-up, one show they had a guitarist as well. Really good group, but a little Noodle Jazz for my tastes.

And Jellyfish - another unheralded brilliant group. Had the good fortune to see them live as well. Never saw a guy who could drum and sing at the same time so well. Like a Proggy Beatles - fantastic stuff.

Steve

[Bobby Hull]

Hey Algodon,

IMHO, Neil Finn was the Lennon & McCartney of the 90s. I'm not surprised to see him teaming up with Jon Brion.
I'll have to check out Jellyfish. And thanks for the updates on Percy. Whatever happened to the drummer, Phil Collins?

[stephenpaulharper]

Hey Algodon,

IMHO, Neil Finn was the Lennon & McCartney of the 90s. I'm not surprised to see him teaming up with Jon Brion.
I'll have to check out Jellyfish. And thanks for the updates on Percy. Whatever happened to the drummer, Phil Collins?

Man, don't get me started on the whole Split Enz family tree or we'll be here all night. If I had to pick a successor to L&M, I'm afraid I'd have to go with Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding from XTC. but that's just my very subjective opinion.

I could tell you what I think happened to Phil, but not until Dave gives me the lowdown on these drums.

Steve

[Rycast]

Over 80GB... For drums?! Wow. Just, wow.

Hmm... That would be fine for my 1TB desktop HDD array... But certainly not my 160GB laptop HDD.

I think I'd rather go with Studiophonik, myself. Whatever happened to Studiophonik, anyway?

[Cordelia]

This sounds interesting. Any info on what kits? Any vintage (50s and 60s) kits (Ludwig)? Or will this be a more modern sound?

[Bobby Hull]

Hey Algodon,

You are spot on. Partridge and Moulding were the L & M of the late 70s and 80s. And Apple Venus and Wasp Star are absolutely stunning, unheralded masterpieces. I had tickets for the last tour when the breakdown happened. Other than Brand X, I think Phil Collins was an extra in A Hard Day's Night.
Which brings me to why I love Sampletank so much. The sounds sit in the mix as though they were recorded on some old analogue console with Norman Smith working the controls. Bless you, bless you all of you pretty girls.

[Squids]

U met RUSH?!!!

Yes. I made friends with Alex Lifeson. He's such a nice guy. So we email a bit back and forth about IK guitar software. He really REALLY wants the Stomp IO. In fact, I am in contact with a number of guitarists (especially touring guitarists) who want to get some of the very first ones when they are available (which is going to happen finally not that long from now). I also made good friends with their record label and their engineer Richard who I may work with on a sample library at some point. I talked to Geddy for a bit as well and he was into the idea of replacing his hardware rig with software so I got him Ampeg SVX and I think he's thrilled about it. Alex was already using it and loves all of it. I DIDN'T get to talk to Neil though. He was around but kind of introverted. The guy has been through a lot in life. I feel for him. He's so brilliant too as a writer and musician.

There was a cool moment earlier in the day that I missed but others saw in our studio room (Sonic Reality shares a studio room, more like a demo room really, at Ocean Way called Studio C which is right next to Studio D where they mixed the new Rush album). Apparently Vinnie Colaiuta met Neil Peart for the first time because they were both there at the same time (there are a number of studio rooms at that particular facility and then Dr. Dre has a room at the one in the Valley). So, it was the two drummers admiring each other's work. Must have been cool to see two of the best drummers in the world meet for the first time and express that to each other. There was a really cool moment for me though because I never met Vinnie before and he walked into the C room where there is a big SR sign and he says to me "Sonic Reality? I LOVE Sonic Reality! I use their refills for Reason." and then I introduced myself to him. He was also very nice. In case anyone wants a visual to all of these stories just go to our myspace page. There's a picture with Vinnie there and even some pictures of the Rush mix sessions... not with them in it because I didn't want to interrupt them but there are some backstage at their show when they came to town. http://www.myspace.com/sonicreality

[Squids]

Over 80GB... For drums?! Wow. Just, wow.

Hmm... That would be fine for my 1TB desktop HDD array... But certainly not my 160GB laptop HDD.

I think I'd rather go with Studiophonik, myself. Whatever happened to Studiophonik, anyway?

Studiophonik is part of the Sonik Instruments Series with SR and IK (based on SampleTank 2.5). First, ST2.5 is coming! This reads all of the Sonik Instruments and other SampleTank-based modules. Then comes SampleMoog which will be here in a month. Shortly after that we'll be releasing Studiophonik and SampleTron. Studiophonik will be much more laptop friendly than Ocean Way Drums. In fact, the approach is completely different. In Studiophonik you have a massive variety of different brand drums and they have all of the studio effects inside the module for convenience (as well as processed presets). The kits are large for SampleTank (between 200-400 megs each) but they're not like Ocean Way which requires streaming (kits that are 2-4 gigs in size).

Of course, it's also completely different sessions, different material all together. So I imagine both would be nice to have for a power user. It's this way for me. I go to SPK for material that has a particular character that I like and now that I have Ocean Way Drums I go to that for just sheer shocking power and fidelity or the refined recording and mixing of Allen Sides and Steven Miller with that Ocean Way Studio B sound. For me personally, I know what I want from SPK because I recorded most of those drums for a particular reason (like to get a Bonham sound or a Ringo sound or a Stewart Copeland, Phil Collins etc. ). At the same time, Allen's recorded Phil for several albums and did remixes of Face Value and Hello I Must Be Going (also a 5.1 mix that hasn't been released). So, he made some presets for Ocean Way Drums that give you the Phil Collins sound from an engineering stand point (there's an AMS RMX reverb channel in there which is a big part of it).

My approach to the PC sound was to record a Premier kit with one sided heads over at Kevin Gilbert's old studio called Lawnmower (now called Mower Studios) and I did it with Nick D'Virgilio from Spock's Beard, TFF and he played with Genesis on Calling All Stations. That's got one of this classic late 70's sounds to it. I even sampled timbales and big rotos. But, even with both these two things (my sessions and Allen's mixes) I am still after getting more of those type of sounds so we have plans to go into Genesis' own studio called The Farm after the tour is over and record either Simon Collins (Phil's son who I am producing an album with right now), Nick D'Virgilio (who is dying to go back to that studio again) or possibly (but don't hold your breath) Phil himself playing a Gretsch kit in the famous "stone room" which is another part of that big tom sound. It's rare to have a room like that to record in plus it is even MORE rare to be able to do a session at this studio because it isn't normally booked to the outside public. But, I've made good friends with Nick Davis (their producer/engineer who offered to record this sample session with me) and he, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford are so thrilled with our products that they've offered us this rare opportunity! To be honest, I do it for my own personal enjoyment just working with these legendary musicians who I grew up listening to and admiring... and of course I personally want these sounds to have for my productions. But, that passion I have for the this stuff usually translates to what other people out there would love to have too. How ELSE are you going to have access to sample recordings made in these places by these people? I feel like I am on a mission to capture it for myself and anyone else who appreciates such things. I know I am not the only one. This is a great opportunity to improve the variety and professional sound of your own musical productions.

So, Ocean Way and Studio ProFiles are all about that mission. To give anyone the power of production at the highest level. The level that usually costs the big bucks, big label deals and connections to get.

[Squids]

This sounds interesting. Any info on what kits? Any vintage (50s and 60s) kits (Ludwig)? Or will this be a more modern sound?

Allen and Steven purposely didn't want to do this product according to what kit was what. They wanted to do it by the sound. So, what they did was assemble drum kits they've recorded over the years (this took almost a year to do alone btw because they had to have kits shipped from different drummers and storage places) and went by the sound they produced. They could be vintage or modern, this brand or that and it didn't matter to them. They knew exactly the kind of sounds they were going for. So, it's a different approach. I'd say it's probably half and half vintage and more modern. However, the sound is very clear and punchy, not the lofi or muffled vintage sound. For that Studiophonik is ideal. But for the kind of drums that any of the bands that record at Ocean Way would get then of course Ocean Way Drums is the premium option! Think Radiohead's latest, Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls "Iris", Jellyfish "Spilt Milk", Fiona Apple's "When The Pawn", Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Rolling Stones... the quality and sonic character of drums you hear on albums from these people is what you can expect from Ocean Way Drums. There's a REASON why these bands spend up to $5,000 per day just to record in one of the studio rooms at Ocean Way. The gear, the mics, the room and the engineers... it's the top of the top!

[drenndogg]

Where's the Ocean Way release date? I have been looking forward to this ever since I first saw the sonicstate video in Jan. Audio samples? Something? Anything? Please!!!!

[Squids]

Where's the Ocean Way release date? I have been looking forward to this ever since I first saw the sonicstate video in Jan. Audio samples? Something? Anything? Please!!!!

Well, it's done! It is in beta right now. Coming in the next 1-3 weeks we'll have updated information on line, screen shots, a new video done by Allen Sides at Ocean Way, audio demos and possibly even a downloadable kit for purchase (Kontakt sound only, not plug-in). We may release a special edition of it that is library only (no plug-in K2 player) for a limited time in the beginning and if we do then that will be available really soon! If not then maybe just a downloadable kit. I will keep you posted.

The I-Map kits are really awesome and the V-Drum map kits are out of this world! It has the most responsive V-Drum sounds ever made. The toms alt, the hi hat responds to the V-Drum hi hat better than anything else, the ride has different positions switching via midi CC and so does the snare crossfading from edge to center. What's cool is that you can also play the V-Drum map from any midi keyboard as well and use midi controllers to do these crossfades. It's a different concept. I-Map you have each articulation on a different key. With the V-Map you have some things "stacked" on the same midi note and then you use a midi controller to go between center and edge positions. The cool thing about this is that you get a ton of extra variations that are the mix between the two. It's less discrete than I-Map but it offers something else that is expressive and fun!

[zai]

80G! I'm hoping to wait a little more to "upgrade" my 2 firewire external (160G) until Christmas....

With so many things in store, I just can't wait to try out a couple of these "new" releases. I just need to find time to play!

One unrelated question...I heard that there's something "special" for users that own both ST2.5 and SS2? What is it?

Zai