Ocean Way Drums is coming!

[Squids]

Whether the drums are a feature in the song or the crucial beat driving it not calling attention to itself it still plays an important part. Drums are often the perceived "fidelity" of your track too since they have the most diverse frequency range of any instrument (from lows of kicks to highs of cymbals). The drums almost always are a crucial part of production and often times it is the quality of the drums specifically that can make a track sound profesional or like a demo (especially when people record their own acoustic kits on cheap boards and mics with phase issues on top).

But, tracks where the drums call attention to themselves are plenty anyway. I was just listening to Carter smack the kit with Dave Matthews Band. Listen to the song "Grey Street". It's awesome. But, then there's Neil Peart with Rush to listen to the drums pop out at you or classic 70's funk, disco, rock... Beatles Come Together fill is a RIFF practically, Tomorrow Never Knows... or how about almost EVERY Hip Hop song that's based around the beat? How about jazz? Wicked drummers always reminding you of how cool drums are... I mean, some country, pop and other styles have more subdued drum tracks that don't call attention to themselves but even then they are still important to have a certain character of sound or fidelity.

Bottom line is that one way or another it's necessary to either pay studio time somewhere with a great engineer and fantastic gear, acoustics and instruments to get an acoustic drum track for your song -OR- use samples. So, if you're gonna use samples because you can use them over and over costing you much less in the end then it's a question then of WHICH samples and why? When you have an opportunity to get the room, the mics, the gear and the expertise of a studio like Ocean Way preserved in samples it's an easier decision... at least for me when I've been working on music. I couldn't afford to record at Ocean Way for my music. It's around $5,000 per day and that's not with guys that have done over 500 albums to their credit. So, if someone else made Ocean Way Drums I'd buy it to have that quality sound for my productions.

You want to know who instantly want to buy Ocean Way Drums sight unseen? People that record at Ocean Way (ironically). I'm totally serious! When I was there I had people walking into the studio room we were in asking when they could buy it. But, this is because they know the value of it since the pay thousands of dollars every day to record there for that sound (and it's booked up so there's a waiting list to even get in!)

I am not sure I understood fully the point of the previous post but I offer some thoughts in general then for the value perception of drum tracks and samples.

[glokraw]

Thanx for replying, I'll check out Grey Street/Dave Mathews. It's always easy to learn something new at this forum. Phase and fidelity and how they reveal the quality differences between demo, and pro releases, is worth learning more about. Still, ages of top 40 lists, hip-hop revolution, and decades of distortion and fx leave me with few percussion highlights to ponder,
any more recomendations of peoples favorites much appreciated, our libraries are full of CDs to check out! Currently, I'm layering a stereo balimba, lowered two octaves, with a jazz drumkit, playing bass and drums at once, quite rythmically challenged, but the imap feature of IK products sounds great, is that part of this new Ocean Way release?
Should be easier to play mapping instruments to the specific keys I use most efficiently

[glokraw]

Thanx for replying, I'll check out Grey Street/Dave Mathews. It's always easy to learn something new at this forum. Phase and fidelity and how they reveal the quality differences between demo, and pro releases, is worth learning more about. Still, ages of top 40 lists, hip-hop revolution, and decades of distortion and fx leave me with few percussion highlights to ponder,
any more recomendations of peoples favorites much appreciated, our libraries are full of CDs to check out! Currently, I'm layering a stereo balimba, lowered two octaves, with a jazz drumkit, playing bass and drums at once, quite rythmically challenged, but the imap feature of IK products sounds great, is that part of this new Ocean Way release?
Should be easier to play mapping instruments to the specific keys I use most efficiently

Went back to read the whole thread, and some others, if your kits are separated similar to latin, carribean, oriental, 60s jazz, 70s rock-brand xxxxkit, of your initial 38 kits, if folks could get to choose individual ones for $100 +- and later receive the platinum at 12th or whatever purchase, that would be affordable, to me, at least.

In a blind listening test, how do the Ocean Way sounds fare, when they get bumped down to itunes 128 bitrate mp3s, compared to the finished track before conversion? I make 320 VBR mp3s, and when heard with AKG K240 headphones, they sound good to me (I'm not a studio engineer!)

[Squids]

Yes, they have both I-Map (an expanded version, the most powerful one we've done so far) and V-Drum maps for those with the top of the line V-Drum set up.

As far as cherry picking one kit for $100 each we MAY do that for ONE kit just because it's a nice taste (and boy would that actually be a fantastic way to afford just one of these because it is so useful over and over and over... but it isn't just up to me. I have to talk to my partners at Ocean Way and see if this is ok. It might not be as easy as I think from a technical standpoint too so I will let everyone know.)

However, the good news is that Sonic Reality IS going to have high end drum kits for download very soon ranging from $25-100. Like I said, Ocean Way is our biggest but it is even still scratching the surface of the drums we have in our archives that are to be released. We just prioritized it because... well, it's a rare opportunity we couldn't resist!

As far as your final song's bit rate and mp3... let's put it this way. Any original song from an album might sound better in the studio than it sounds on a 16 bit CD in end and certainly better than mp3s but it's the quality and character of the original music that comes through as much as possible as those things happen. In other words, you'll hear the same quality degredation of your music using any drum samples as you would converting any of your favorite albums to the same mp3 bit rate.


Guys, I stayed up until the wee hours to do that video! Did you watch it? What do you think? Cool?

[NorthSouth]

Guys, I stayed up until the wee hours to do that video! Did you watch it? What do you think? Cool?

A couple of things...
Where's the nearest bank i can rob.
V Drums demo with Nick !

Bring it on !

[glokraw]

Guys, I stayed up until the wee hours to do that video! Did you watch it? What do you think? Cool?

A couple of things...
Where's the nearest bank i can rob.
V Drums demo with Nick !

Bring it on !

The line forms at the left. Limit $2000 per robber.

[glokraw]

Yes, they have both I-Map (an expanded version, the most powerful one we've done so far) and V-Drum maps for those with the top of the line V-Drum set up.


As far as your final song's bit rate and mp3... let's put it this way. Any original song from an album might sound better in the studio than it sounds on a 16 bit CD in end and certainly better than mp3s but it's the quality and character of the original music that comes through as much as possible as those things happen. In other words, you'll hear the same quality degredation of your music using any drum samples as you would converting any of your favorite albums to the same mp3 bit rate.


Guys, I stayed up until the wee hours to do that video! Did you watch it? What do you think? Cool?

Thanx for your patience, and the clear explanations!

[andywright67]

What's the scoop on the release date? + I think I read somewhere and even posted about this pack (or another) being released in BFD format?

P.s. Any scoops from AES on new SR gear?

[NorthSouth]

Guys, I stayed up until the wee hours to do that video! Did you watch it? What do you think? Cool?

A couple of things...
Where's the nearest bank i can rob.
V Drums demo with Nick !

Bring it on !

The line forms at the left. Limit $2000 per robber.

LOL
Ah, that's just fine then, thanks for the directions, as that amount covers it nicely. (even some cash left for Ocean Way Drums part 2 )
Hope to see some more demos soon and a quick release.
Demos or no demos btw, this package can only rock, no doubt about it!

[Reverend Rhythm]

Cool videos!

[Squids]

What's the scoop on the release date? + I think I read somewhere and even posted about this pack (or another) being released in BFD format?

P.s. Any scoops from AES on new SR gear?

Sonic Reality is doing a bunch of stuff for BFD. Not sure yet if we'll do Ocean Way for it but even if we do it is impossible for it to have the same features as this plug-in version. But, there are benefits to a BFD version such as a more simplified version regarding the mics and mapping.

[andywright67]

Any hints as to what you're doing and when we'll see it?

[Squids]

AES was cool. I'll be uploading some pics soon. Ocean Way Drums was a hit (no pun intended). Seriously, it was sounding really good on those Ocean Way speakers! But I am jamming on it in my studio now and it is so much fun. I will do a proper video on it over at Ocean Way in LA (going to see Genesis as well this week) but I am telling you these stereo C12 directs that Allen came up with is unfreakin' believable! Watch the videos on youtube where you see the drum miking they did. It's sick! But the results are like nothing I've heard. I'll do some new demos where you can really hear it's subtle nuances and also some balls to the wall rock drumming too! I just did this thing with Kit #5 that was SLAMMIN!!!!!! I mean it was like Alex Valen or something. Crazy! I am so glad I have this now for my music in addition to everything else that's coming. Hopefully you will too!

[glokraw]

AES was cool. I'll be uploading some pics soon. Ocean Way Drums was a hit (no pun intended). Seriously, it was sounding really good on those Ocean Way speakers! But I am jamming on it in my studio now and it is so much fun. I will do a proper video on it over at Ocean Way in LA (going to see Genesis as well this week) but I am telling you these stereo C12 directs that Allen came up with is unfreakin' believable! Watch the videos on youtube where you see the drum miking they did. It's sick! But the results are like nothing I've heard. I'll do some new demos where you can really hear it's subtle nuances and also some balls to the wall rock drumming too! I just did this thing with Kit #5 that was SLAMMIN!!!!!! I mean it was like Alex Valen or something. Crazy! I am so glad I have this now for my music in addition to everything else that's coming. Hopefully you will too!

You might want to prepare for a bunch of 'drool damaged computer keyboard'
claims, if you persist with posting such provocative information, let alone pics and movies!

[Squids]

Check it out. Omar Hakim was LOVING Ocean Way Drums. We're setting it up at his studio with V-Drums. He's in the midst of working on an album there. Cool pic from AES with Omar, Squids, Allen Sides and Steven Miller at the GCPro booth.



These guys make me look short... but actually am 6ft.