Ocean Way Drums is coming!

[Squids]

Yeah AT Jimi Hendrix is a gem for those who appreciate the gear that was modeled.

So, on the whole OWD library version thing... I am not sure if we're going to do that for the whole collection. First it's in Kontakt 2 with a Kontakt Player so you can run it as a plug-in or within Kontakt 2 or 3 if you already have it. Then maybe we'll do it or part of it in some other formats.

One bit of good news is that we're thinking about offering one stellar drum kit from Ocean Way as a reasonably priced download where for a limited time the cost you pay for it can be used TOWARD the Gold and Platinum versions (and maybe 50% of it toward the Silver if you wanted to get that one). A nice way to test drive for interest in the entire library but also if you are on a budget and you want at least ONE amazing drum kit recorded at Ocean Way and packed with mixable channels and presets then this is a nice rare opportunity for around a hundred bucks or so. I'll let you know if this ends up happening. No official word yet.

[beergeek]

Yeah AT Jimi Hendrix is a gem for those who appreciate the gear that was modeled.

From the press and everyone else I know that owns or has heard it...it's a guitarists dream. It's interesting to me that AT2 didn't generate this much interest/press. Oh, you could say it's the Jimi thing but you and I know it's about the sound. They just modeled it better this go round.

So, on the whole OWD library version thing... I am not sure if we're going to do that for the whole collection. First it's in Kontakt 2 with a Kontakt Player so you can run it as a plug-in or within Kontakt 2 or 3 if you already have it. Then maybe we'll do it or part of it in some other formats.

It would be nice to have the kits in ST2 format but to be honest, I'll prolly just control them with Jamstix Have you checked out J2?

One bit of good news is that we're thinking about offering one stellar drum kit from Ocean Way as a reasonably priced download where for a limited time the cost you pay for it can be used TOWARD the Gold and Platinum versions (and maybe 50% of it toward the Silver if you wanted to get that one). A nice way to test drive for interest in the entire library but also if you are on a budget and you want at least ONE amazing drum kit recorded at Ocean Way and packed with mixable channels and presets then this is a nice rare opportunity for around a hundred bucks or so. I'll let you know if this ends up happening. No official word yet.

That all sounds great dude...but WTF...we should be talking trons

[Squids]

The trons are coming don't worry. SampleMoog is done so that's gonna be ready real soon. We're crankin'!

[beergeek]

Sorry for hijacking the thread dude...the geek was at a brewpub last night

Ironic that I'm more hyped about the trons than the Moogs, eh?

[Squids]

Sorry for hijacking the thread dude...the geek was at a brewpub last night

Ironic that I'm more hyped about the trons than the Moogs, eh?

Yes. Although the Moog sounds are incredible! It sounds so good with all of the ST engine goodies inside. Plus it has been modified to be more Moog-like.

[Squids]

There's something like 1,500 samples per snare in Ocean Way Drums! The Platinum Edition is over 120 Gigabytes!!!! Can you believe it? 80 Gigs of 96K and 40 Gigs of 48K. 38 Drum Kits (19 kits each with snare on and snare off versions, each kit is around 3-5 gigs in size). It will ship on a 10,000 RPM Firewire 800 or eSata Hard Drive. You realize that if it didn't that would be close to 70 DVDs????? Or let's put it this way (just for fun) that would have been 240 CDs!!!!

The Gold Edition is on around 22 DVDs and is 40 Gigabytes and just 48K (although I personally use the 48K kits myself rather than the 96k... but it sure is nice to have them for that audiofile in you!).

More news coming and also video clips at Ocean Way Studios. It's the most mind bending studio gear footage you've ever seen!

[Squids]

[drenndogg]

dave,
what about some video of owd in performance? i really wanna see how these things integrate with the vdrums. thanks.

[Squids]

dave,
what about some video of owd in performance? i really wanna see how these things integrate with the vdrums. thanks.

V-drum demos we'll do after AES. I might do that at Ocean Way with a drummer like Nick D'Virgilio. But, I am doing an I-Map video demo right now actually so that will be up soon.

[drenndogg]

nice. sounds like a lot happening at AES for the drummers...DFHS 2.0, OWD, maybe BFD 2.0? keep those videos coming...i'm a sucker for demos and it looks like there's gonna be a lot of competition this holiday season!!

[Squids]

nice. sounds like a lot happening at AES for the drummers...DFHS 2.0, OWD, maybe BFD 2.0? keep those videos coming...i'm a sucker for demos and it looks like there's gonna be a lot of competition this holiday season!!

I guess they're competition. To me, Ocean Way is Ocean Way. None of them except one was recorded by Allen Sides with HIS gear at this particular studio. It has a certain sound that is unique and then also the way it was programmed. The technology part is Kontakt and it is being pushed to the limit with this... scripts, DFD, switching... but, I am sure those other products are great too! Just different. To me, I look at BFD like another sample player and at some point Sonic Reality will be doing sounds for it as well. As far as the sounds that come with BFD, there are some very good kits. It's not I-Map or even as detailed for the V-Drum but it is still really cool. DFHS I am not sure about. EZ Drummer seems cool though so I would think the bigger one would be too. I like that other thing they came out with, the drumtracker. I am very curious to play with that one.

Well, again, I focus on the content itself and if you want THIS content, these specific sounds there's only one place to get it.

I am getting ready to upload a home made video to youtube. It's what we call "Sonic Reality TV". Finally, videos on a regular basis showing everything you ever wanted to see from SR and more. The video style is hand held camcorder ala youtube and reality tv. Nothing fancy but it gets right to the point and its live, its raw and its real. I hope you like it!

[drenndogg]

Well, I hope OWD is all that I wish for. To be perfectly honest, I've been more of a toontrack guy myself. I have both BFD and DFHS and the samples from toontrack always "felt" better to me. I dabble mostly on the smoother, acoustic funk side of things so i really enjoy libraries that sound organic. BFD has always been a little too "airy" and big rock sounding for me. Toontrack custom and vintage has been the most useful to me so far-even EZDrummer I think lends itself mostly to heavier stuff. more than anything, I long for that ultimate VI that just flat out sounds like a drumkit. i want my drum sounds to be a part of the rhythm section, not jutting out in the front. i hope OWD will offer this up; i've always been left a little wanting with the other stuff. i hope great gear=warm sounds; i want something that sits well in a style of music that does not demand 1176s with "all buttons in" across all the drum busses. i love the dynamics of an acoustic drumkit, and i'm still waiting for the perfect answer. nothing has ever been good enough to convince this acoustic player to invest in a v-drum or similar set. i've been patiently watching for OWD, although still pretty interested to see what comes out of the toontrack labs. those guys seem to have more of a grasp on "playable" libraries than BFD, in my opinion.

[Squids]

Well, again, there's two aspects to consider, the sampler player and the content (meaning the actual samples). The recorded samples, the kit someone used, the player will all have a subjective quality about it that will appeal to different people. I don't know if there ever can be ONE answer for everyone since each person has their own tastes. Ocean Way Drums are incredible but they're not the only drum kits we're sampling at Sonic Reality. We have drum kits in our Studio ProFile series that cover well known studio drummers to popular styles and sounds (from Bonhamesque and Ringo-like to Jerry Marotta's kit that he used with Peter Gabriel). There's also Danny Gottlieb's cymbal library including ones he's played with Pat Metheny and even some that belonged to Mel Louis, Joe Morello, Don Lemond and other great jazz players (the ride cymbal from Brubeck's Take Five is in there too... really rare stuff). So, who knows who will like what? It's all about preference. For me, I like all of them which is why I "collect" these samples for my own production use and everyone else benefits from this crazy passion I have for drum sounds.

Now, from a technical side of things, we really went the extra mile on V-Drum programming so the way it responds to V-Drums is more advanced than anything currently out there. Also, none of those programs have I-Map (hey I wish they all did) but that's been our scheme for mapping for over 10 years and for keyboard drumming (which is what I like to do) I think it offers a lot more expression than the mapping of all of the other drum products. Check out the video I am about to post on youtube. I don't think I could play those other products the way their mapped the same way. Not with all of these nuances like ghost notes, rolls and alternate positioning spread across the keyboard in a consistent way from kit to kit.

You could say that between the way it was recorded, the way it is mixed in the module with presets not made by us but BY the engineers themselves, having the raw mics to mix as options as well as processed channels(with the WARM gear of tube mics, vintage compressors and eqs and AMS reverbs tweaked by the engineers) -AND- the way it was mapped makes it a more advanced product than any other drum software. But other products have cool features too so in the end it comes down to how it sounds and feels when you play it. What you can get out of it sonically.

Ocean Way Drums is geared a little bit toward rock, pop and alternative. It's not so much of a jazz kit collection although it can be great for certain jazz music (the demos that Steve Miller made, who has done a lot of jazz records in his day, are a bit more jazzy than the ones I'll be doing which are more funk, fusion and progrock). But, there are no brushes or hot rods. It's all stick kits and nothing too esoteric in the way of extra percussion either. You've got 3 and 4 tom sets but the sounds are diverse from tight and delicate to slamming huge in your face. You can adjust it how you like pretty easily and save back kits tailored to your taste. I show a little bit about the dry to ambient presets in the video which I am going to upload in a sec here... I'll post a link. Hard to tell audio quality from the video because this was just the mic on the camera but it is a compressed little video anyway. However you can still get a good picture of the expression in the mapping and the preset variations.

Here's the thing... some drummers looking for a particular thing will have to try it out for themselves to see if they fall in love with it... especially someone who is staying acoustic until they are convinced to get a V-Drum kit! But, if anyone HAS a V-Drum Kit -OR- if they are a keyboardist or producer, engineer, songwriter who want the SOUND of Ocean Way for their music then this is something POWERFUL to have on hand. While I have tons of drum samples that I've recorded myself, now that Ocean Way Drums is done I am finding that it has some of my favorite kits to play ever. Of course it requires my fastest desktop working hard to play it but it is so worth it! The fidelity is just astounding. I even set it up in 5.1 surround in my studio with the room coming out the back speakers and WOW it was just stunning! VERY VERY inspiring.

[Squids]

[glokraw]

When I was a kid, I heard the Jimi Hendrix version of All Along the Watchtower, and I had to get an electric guitar. A couple years later, someone loaned me a few Laura Nyro albums, and I had to learn to play the piano. Years later, in an Amiga magazine, there was a picture of a softsynth running in linux, and the quest for linux and software synthesizers began. But to this day, I cannot think of one single percussion related part, song, instrument, or innovation, that made me think, I must have this, or learn to play that. I can hear the music I mentioned in my head, but I don't hear the percussion, and that is sometimes a sign of great arrangement, that the ryhym section creates a flowing river on which the music is carried to its conclusion. While this product certainly has the potential of being truly superior, most of the time, it will only be the truck that delivers the goods, and if the musical goods are excellent, who will remember the truck? Maybe someone can recommend some reggae, cuban, african, latin etc tracks where the drums aren't buried by the rock and roll, or some jazz maybe where a percussionist masterfully rises above the mix as an instumentalist, and not just a vehicle...hey, I just focussed in on drums I can remember!!! the Gipsy Kings Live CD, the use of rimshots and flams, as accents and fills between vocal and guitar leads, yeah!
Any others?
EDIT, a second memory: the 'scottish or welsh highland' drumming in the score of the movie 'The Shipping News' really was thematic in it's presence, of a man driving himself forward, out of obscurity! Great movie...