Ultimate Studio Drums Group Buy VITAL INFO THREAD

[Reverend Rhythm]

Okay I have the coupon info part 1 which includes what you can use it on for OWD and EpiK DrumS. The Drum Masters 2 Coupons will come a little later and run through the end of February (so two weeks longer if that helps).

Important note about coupons: They cannot be used at the same time as any other promo or discount system such as epointz, membership discounts... if you have epointz and use the coupon the epointz will stay in your account to be used on something else (you can still earn more epointz with a referral though). Your membership discount is bypassed and it is the amount below taken off the price you'd see if you weren't logged in (to avoid confusion, that's all you have to do to see). So it is off "street price" or "base price" which is what we call it. However, that means it is even MORE of a discount off the MSRP than the street price already is in the first place... bottom line is that it equates to some really nice discounts for everybody in the group buy.

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Pre-requirements to use these coupons: Purchase of regular Ultimate Studio Drums GB or the Paypal Version

What you can use the coupon codes on for special discounts only for those that joined this group buy. They will expire February 15th, 2010:

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Ocean Way Drums Gold


Coupon Code: USDOWDG


Product links:

Boxed Version: http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=1837

Download Version: http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2766

$149. off coupon (taken off non-login base price)


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Ocean Way Drums Silver


Coupon Code: USDOWDS

Product links:

Download Version: http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2765

Boxed Version: http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2585


$99 off coupon


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Ocean Way Drums DL Edition


Coupon Code: USDOWDL


Product links:

http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2586

http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2753


$49 off coupon


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Ocean Way Drums Platinum

Product link: http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=1849

Coupon Code: USDOWDP

$300 off coupon

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EpiK DrumS HD


Product link: http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=4116

Coupon Code: USDEPIK

$99 off coupon

NOTE about this one. Not only are we going to do $99 instead of just $50 off like we said before but purchases of this product between now and February 14th come with the Infinite Hard Drive for free (normally $150 more).

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Part 2 will include Drum Masters 2 coupons coming later. The product will go on pre-order starting next week. Availability of EpiK DrumS HD and Drum Masters 2 range will be in January (or possibly sooner but not later).

Whew! You can't say we don't try to please!

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Edit, by DarkStar
Link to Squids' original post (December 16):
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... &start=929

[Squids]

I think it would help if we bumped our threads the more time.

I just bumped mine over at Motunation, with a modified version of Squids' post with regards of all we are getting in this Group Buy in an easy to follow list. Here is that list:

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For $99, here is what you will be getting so far (and there may be more):

(1) 28 STm kits (21 have all unique samples, 7 have unique snares and some other unique kit pieces but also share with other kits, marked with an X below):

Ocean Way® Drum Kit 1 Dry
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 2 Medium
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 4 Dry
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 4 Ambient
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 5 Medium
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 6 Ambient
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 8 Dry
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 9 Dry
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 10 Dry
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 10 Medium * Bonus
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 10 Ambient
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 12 Dry
Ocean Way® Drum Kit 13 Medium

Drum Masters 2 NDV ST Gretsch® Kit
Drum Masters 2 NDV ST Premier® Kit (Direct)
Drum Masters 2 NDV ST Premier® Kit (Ambient)
Drum Masters 2 Collins Kit X
Drum Masters 2 Duke Kit X
Drum Masters 2 Doctor Nirvana Kit X
Drum Masters 2 NDV ST Blasticks Kit
Drum Masters 2 JB Tama® Brush Kit
Drum Masters 2 JB Session Sonor® Kit
Drum Masters 2 JB Sensitone™ Kit X
Drum Masters 2 JB Danger Ogletree Kit X
Drum Masters 2 JB Supraphonic™ Kit X
Drum Masters 2 JB Brady Deep X
Drum Masters 2 Bonhm Ludwig® Kit
Drum Masters 2 Stairway Levee Kit

And all these kits have multiple velocity layers and round robin scripting, which is easily controllable by the user, PLUS scripting to allow easy reassignment of notes for use with V-drum kits.

(2) Plus, you can have the Jazz STm kit if you don't need the Infinite Player (only if you already have Infinite Player).

(3) You can also choose either EZ Player Pro or a Drum Masters MT kit (a multitrack version of one of the STm kits in this GB) and

(4) as ANOTHER bonus for reaching 500 you can have yet another Drum Masters Multitrack Kit.

(5) 50 Hybrid kits (mixing and matching kit pieces from the above kits).

(6) An artist signature snare bonus which I believe is going to be the Steve Gadd snare. That will be integrated into the hybrid kits.

(7) Impulse Responses -- Convolution ambience from various world class studios these drums have been recorded in.

(8 ) 150 ODD GROOVES (and a special upgrade offer for full Odd Groove titles exclusive to this group buy!)

(9) SquidiMidi Files (those are iMap midi files made by Squids. They are being edited now so the exact number is not yet known.

(10) Mp3s demos of each of the kits for easy auditioning of the default kit sounds.

(11) Some serious discount coupons for other eSoundz products. These coupons allow you to save, in many cases, as much as the value of the whole GB:

EpiK DrumS HD - A Ken Scott Collection
Ocean Way Drums DL Edition
Ocean Way Drums Silver
Ocean Way Drums Gold
Ocean Way Drums Platinum
Drum Masters 2 Multitrack
Drum Masters 2 Multitrack Platinum Edition
Drum Masters 2 Signature Kits Vol. 1 (Stm kits with famous artists)
Drum Masters 2 Signature Kits Vol. 2 (Stm kits with artists & styles)

So my friends. I am not sure why anyone would want to pass up on this offer. We're talking about Up to 82 kits for just $99 plus a whole heap of extras. If it reaches 600 there will be even more goodies added... so today and tomorrow are the days to act if you are interested in this crazy deal.

You can join here and thank me later:
http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?Prod ... ode=USDKVR

[Squids]

Yes, and I might include a few bonus kit pieces from some other kits in there too from Drum Masters to round it out. Some of the stuff we did in Nashville would be nice. We'll spice it up. The Hybrid Kits may have some additional samples that aren't in the main ones just for even more variety of sounds. Don't worry. I'm going to do that even if we don't hit 600 but if we do? Great! Good for you. 600 = more. At this rate you may just do it!

Squids,

I really like the idea of being able to swap out drum and cymbal pieces from various kits. I don't know what your plans are, but I think that would be a cool way to add on to these kits in the future too. For instance, the Danny Gotlieb cymbal collection you've mentioned or a snare drum collection or a deep toms collection or roto toms (that would be great!) -- is that how you plan that how you've planned this to work? I think it would be a really great way for users to get just the samples they want in a kit -- really, just like the way we drummers put together our own kits (e.g., choosing the right snares and cymbals to get the combination we like).

Is it relatively simple for the average user to swap out/add in kit pieces from various kits on his/her own?

- eDrummist

Yes, that is what the Drum Masters Signature Kit Series is about. The MAIN Drum Masters 2 Multitrack series is about Kits and Audio Grooves with engineer/mixing mic channels. But the Drum Masters Signature Kit Series with these "STm" kits (which are stereo kit pieces but the kits are multichannel - just without discrete mics per kit piece) are for people that want kits to play with midi either from the keyboard or e-Drum set up they have and with EASE they can customize and make their own kits or use the vast amount of patches that come with each collection (like the 80+ that come with this GB bundle for example).

Here's a sneak peek at what's going to be in the Drum Masters 2 Signature Drum Kits Series and each one of this will be something people who join this group buy can upgrade to for a nice discount:

DM2 Signature Kits Vol. 1 - this has the STm kits of the original DM artists such as Danny Gottlieb, Jerry Marotta, Steve Gadd, Bill Bruford, John Blackwell, Nick D'Virgilio and Ed Greene... but with DM2 features. It includs some previously unreleased Gadd and Bruford kit content that's pretty good and of course all of it has the new scripts/features.


DM2 Signature Kits Vol. 2 - this one has STm kits that are mostly of previously unreleased samples. It includes signature kits and snares like the Stewart Copeland Tama (and Octobans!), Dennis Chambers Pearl, Dave Weckl Yamaha, Steve Gadd Yamaha (which comes with this GB as the bonus) plus some MORE Blackwell and Nick D'Virglio stuff, some GREAT all new Bonham style kits including the Moby Dick HANDS style kit and other cool stuff. Ringo kits and more.


DM2 Signature Snares Vol. 1 I don't have the final list but these are going to be ALL snares. It will be out in February/March or sooner if possible. It will have snare brands like Pearl, Sonor, Tempest, Fibes, DW, Ludwig, Grestch, Rogers, Slingerland, Tama and others. It will also have some more artist snares. I don't know if Manu Katche's will make it onto this volume or the NEXT volume of snares but that one was sampled as well. Oh yeah, we mean business.

Then besides that we have the Danny Gottlieb Cymbal library which we may split up into individual Signature Cymbal titles or a hats one and a ride and crash one... not sure yet. But that's coming and it has an ubelievable variety of hats and cymbals including some famous ones he used on Jazz records and cymbals of Joe Morello, Don Lemond and Mel Lewis - jazz legends. I did a post about it earlier but... who knows where that is now! Lost in cyberness.

Then there's going to be either a volume just for kicks or kicks AND toms together - more likely. That too will include a lot of different brands and a full set of Rotos (the hi AND low ones) plus more.

All of these additional libraries of individual Snares, Cymbals and Kicks/Toms are new unreleased material for the Infinite Player. So you can customize until the cows come home. It really is like having a collection of vintage and custom/rare drums and cymbals to make any sort of "hybrid kit" you want. We'll teach everyone how to do it but it is so easy it's ridiculous. You just load a multi kit and then click the "X" of the kit piece you don't want and then go to the Kontakt/IP instruments folder and load in the kit piece you DO want and then save back the multi. Couldn't be easier. So it's going to be quite INFINITE (more infinite the more kit pieces you have to swap).

So, now, so people understand why I STRESS that this Group Buy is a MUST HAVE. If what I just wrote appeals to you then PLEASE understand that to have OCEAN WAY DRUM kit pieces in this is a ONE TIME DEAL! After this limited lifespan of this Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle is over we will NO LONGER be able to sell you OWD kits for the Infinite Player to mix and match with all of these other kits. It's not my choice. We got permission to do this once is all. So don't miss it and regret it later. We won't be in the position to do anything about it. I don't know when we will officially have to stop making it available at all but I am pretty sure it won't be any longer than 5 months from now if that. Fair warning on that one and I only say it because to have Ocean Way Drums kit pieces to mix and match with Drum Masters Signature kits is REALLY great. It expands the flavors for Hyrbid Kits SO much more. Many of you will see soon what I mean. But even conceptually it's got to be exciting. Think about it. A hat from this, a tom from that, a kick and snare of this brand or that... a lot of material to play with to get your own unique sounds.

[Squids]

Motown stuff we have a bunch of and there's a nice Motown style kit in Signature Drum Kits Vol. 2 coming out (being in this group buy will get you a $99 off coupon toward that title... essentially making this GB FREE if you look at it that way). (snip)
http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2763

Awesome and awesomer!

As for Keltner... well, I am doing some drums in the style of Steely Dan. Not sure if we'll have him or Rick Marotta (Jerry's brother btw) or some other guys (we already have Steve Gadd and Ed Greene on Signature Kits Vol. 1 coming out). But Keltner is great too. I sat in on a session with him once. I drove Patrick Warren there who was doing keys. Not sure the artist. Tony Berg was producing and it was at The Complex which is a really cool studio in West LA. Nice to meet Jim Keltner. What a talent.

Cool story, must have been fun. Signature Kit 1 you say? I believe I'm on board with that! Or the EpiK or the, geeze, what a selection over there!

EpiK DrumS is really amazing. However it is at the other extreme in that just TWO kits from it are larger than this entire Group Buy of 28+ kits (80+ kit patches). Just the kits alone in it are over 110 gigabytes in size and it's not downloadable. Plus they take some power to run. But man they are just incredible recreations of multitrack drum sessions and kits in the style of David Bowie (with the original drummer Woody), Mahavishnu Orchestra (with the original drummer - Cobham!), Missing Persons (Bozzio!), Dixie Dregs (Rod Morgenstein!) and Supertramp (Bob Siebenberg) and all of it is recorded with the original equipment from the 60's and 70's by the producer/engineer who recorded those albums in the first place, Ken Scott. Also included are a 60's Downbeat "Ringo" style kit with tea towels just like they did back then and also a "Nigel Olsen" style kit from 70's Elton John records. Ken recorded Rocket Man, Daniel, Mad Man Across the Water and other classics. It doesn't get any more authentic than that. http://www.epikdrums.com

However, I have some good news for people that want individual drummers. We will be releasing "Drummer Packs" with STm kits and stereo audio grooves in Rex, Apple Loops and Wave (as well as Infinite Player mapped) with the following drummers, including the EpiK drummers:

Jerry Marotta
Ed Greene
Nick D'Virgilio
Bill Bruford
John Blackwell
Danny Gottlieb
Steve Gadd

(those are all from the Drum Masters 1 series but there's now kits for Gadd and Bruford and they all have the STm Drum Masters 2 scripts, the grooves now come in both Rex AND Apple Loops, Acidized Wave - the RAW comes with it for free). This will be released next month.

By late February/March time we'll release Drummer Packs for:

Bill Cobham
Terry Bozzio
Bob Siebenberg
Woody Woodmansey
Rod Morgenstein

The Neil Peart Drum Library is not yet planned as an STm/Groove Drummer Pack yet. Still working things out with record labels on that one but cross your fingers. The kit itself will be released in discrete multitrack for Infinite Player and BFD2 in the next month or two. It's almost done.

[Squids]

Q&A from the other thread:

1)...What I want are amazing drum sounds/kits. How many does this come with? It sounds like I can't have the Ludwig kit as I will need the player, though I already have Kontakt.

You'll have about 81 kits unless you choose EZ Player Pro then you'd have 80 kits.

2) I have Kontakt and Battery. How much better is this than what those two offer out of the box for what I'm after?...

Better is a subjective term. But these are more elaborate in features and this has the unique sound of these great studios like Ocean Way Recording (where artists like Radiohead, Green Day, Paul McCartney, Kanye West, Eric Clapton, Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, Beck, Rolling Stones, Fiona Apple, Rush, Dido, Michael Jackson, Eminem, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Elton John, Ray Charles, Bonnie Rait, Elvis Costello and... oh I think you get the idea!) or the sound of drummer's kits such as John Blackwell (drummer for Prince, Diddy, Justin Timberlake) or Nick D'Virgilio (drummer for Tears for Fears, Genesis, Spock's Beard) or Steve Gadd signature Yamaha snare or drums in the style of John Bonham of Led Zeppelin... Kontakt and Battery don't come with that so that's why third party sound companies like Sonic Reality do that work and use formats like Kontakt for their products. We'd have done it in Battery but Kontakt gives us more capability to have custom features that we program into our "Infinite Player" which is an expandable library that resides inside Kontakt.

3) Why should I get this as opposed to BFD or one of the other competitors? Or just buying some drum sounds for Kontakt/Battery?

These are drum sounds for Kontakt first of all. It's just that it comes with a library authorization for it to run inside Kontakt or Kontakt Player (and Kontakt Player for those that don't have Kontakt is free). As far as getting this as opposed to BFD... price would be a good reason. There are a LOT of great drum products out there these days and BFD2 is certainly one of them. But the difference between this and all of the other products on the market for drums - the biggest difference - is that this is the only one that has THESE sounds. If you like what you hear, if you like getting over 80 kits (made from 24 sampled kits and additional kit pieces all with built-in effects and convolution impulse responses from great studios around the world), if you like the price of $99, if you like that it is downloadable so no shipping cost... then this one's for you!

The beautiful thing about drum virtual instruments is that they're not mutually exclusive. That means that just because you get this doesn't mean you can't at some point also get BFD2 or something else. And Visa Versa, if one owns BFD or SD or anything else they shouldn't deprive themselves of this if the like the sounds. Nothing wrong with having more than one virtual instrument for drums. More variety. More material to inspire. If you had to get just one and this is your first one at least you get some REALLY good bang for the buck with this one. It may be all you need or you can expand it too with other sounds from us.

[Squids]

what's a hybrid kit?

Well, as I was posting earlier with the kit details, you have 21 kits that have their own kick, snare, toms, hi hat, ride, crashes and sometimes chinas and splashes too. Then you have 7 more kits that have unique snares and some unique kit pieces but then they also share with kit pieces from the 21 kits ... mainly from the Drum Masters kits - like the Collins kit which shares between the Premier and Gretsch kits, two kits Phil Collins used to use, along with a separate Ayotte snare for instance that happens to be FATTER and lower than the snares that are normally with the NDV Premier or Gretsch kits. Same thing for the Duke kit but that one has a special snare from Ross Garfield the Drum Doctor. The Nirvana Tama kit has the actual snare used on Nirvana's Nevermind album along with some Tama Star Classic Toms and various other kit pieces borrowed from the other Drum Masters kits of that 21. So those 7 are semi-hybrid kits.

But then there's those 50 patches we call bonus "Hybrid Kits". Those mostly don't have any unique samples of their own - they are patches that reference the different kit pieces of the 21+7 Stm kits that DO have a variety of kicks, snares, toms, hats etc that can be swapped out and combined to make NEW kits... what we call "Hybrid Kits". The other thing these Hybrid Kits have is built-in effects processing so they sound like an album right out of the box. The 21+7 main STm kits do too but they're more natural acoustic sounding than the Hybrid Kits which are more for Metal, Hard Rock, Pop, Hip Hop and other styles that really integrate effects as part of the production style.

[Squids]

Well you guys are getting closer to 600 so there is a chance you'll get it. The prize this time will be TWO more STm kits. I am not sure yet whether we can do another OWD Kit or not but if we can it will likely be Kit 11 since that was requested. The other kit will be the Chicago Gretsch kit from Drum Masters and if we don't end up doing the OWD kit 11 then it'll be another kit from the John Blackwell session - a Tama kit. But, let's see. Maybe if you hit 650 you can have all three.

[Squids]

I keep seeing the "STm" acronym being thrown around, but I don't actually see a definition for it anywhere. Can someone help a brother out and tell me what that means?

STm is the name for the new enhanced Stereo kits. You don't see it yet because it was dubbed that part way through the Group Buy when trying to explain the new Stereo/Quasi Multichannel kits. There was a great post on that oh about a hundred pages or so back...

The short version answer is that the kits are STEREO kit pieces (no discrete mic mixing like the Multitrack kits) but the kit pieces come as multichannel mixable kick, snare, toms, hats etc. at the bottom like this:



Then there are still some separate multichannel elements to mix in such as convolution reverb rooms with impulses from various studios these drums were recorded in and other famous studios around the world, echo chambers etc.

[Squids]

DELIVERY STAGES AND PROCESS - PHASE I

Okay it seems we have to do this in phases of delivery. For bandwidth purposes we have to split the content out in several phases plus it is going to take a little more time to get some of the extras integrated in the best way so...

The good news is that I don't think we're going to skew who gets it first. That will be up to YOU if you can hold off and wait to download. Since we don't know who anxiously must get started we're going to try just make the first phase available to everyone in the GB starting first thing tomorrow (or even possibly late tonight after midnight since we'll be pulling some late shifts on this one).

So, what is in Phase 1? The following:

1) Everyone will get an Infinite Player Installer and a Kontakt Player 3.5 Installer in their user area. (If you want Kontakt Player 4 which also works with it you can download it right now from NI).

NOTE: This is just to make sure everyone has it but you still MUST choose Infinite Player in the next step to get the SERIAL NUMBER to activate it (otherwise the sounds will run in demo mode which is 30 minutes per session then it times out and you have to restart).

2) Everyone in the GB will get a Redeem Code to use here: www.downloadablesoundz.com/redeem.php Where you will enter that code and it will take you to a page where you can CHOOSE between the Infinite Player SERIAL -OR- if you already have an ACTIVATED Infinite Player (meaning you had a serial before and activated it with NI's service center from a previous purchase) then you can alternatively choose an STm Ludwig Jazz kit.

NOTE: Both of these - the serial or the Jazz kit - will be put into your DownloadableSoundz.com user's area instead of esoundz. This is the place where we can do individual and multi-choice downloads... we can't do it the same way on esoundz. You'll need to link your esoundz account to a Downloadablesoundz account and all you have to do is go into your esoundz member's area and check the box to link your account to DownloadableSoundz.com. Then you can use your SAME login data there. We DO apologize for that extra step but this is to accommodate the people that already have Infinite Player and we want to make them happy too!

3) The custom Ocean Way Drum kits for Infinite Player. We'll start everyone off with these to play with in this Phase 1. There will be 13 different kit sample zips to download and 1 zip that will have the patches for them all. Each download I believe is no more than a gig in size on average (if that helps anyone). These will be in your ESOUNDZ member's area in MY DOWNLOADS.

4) The 150 ODD GROOVES from Per are ready so they will also be in your esoundz downloads in your member's area.

That's what is in PHASE 1. Next post I will give you an idea of what will be in phase 2 and I think some of you will be happy with new news there.

[Squids]

DELIVERY STAGES AND PROCESS - PHASES II & III

After we see how the servers handle hundreds of people downloading Phase 1 content over New Years (we're told by our server company and AT&T that this is a very high traffic time for some reason) we will make Phase 2 available which will include:


1) The Drum Masters 2 STm kits (also available as individual downloads of samples and patches separately - we're trying to make each one sized so it is easiest for everyone)

2) Steve Gadd Signature Snare Bonus

3) TWO more Bonus STm kits from Drum Masters Signature - the Tama kit from the Blackwell sessions and the Chicago Gretsch kit. But wait, didn't we say you had to hit 600 to get it? Don't worry. To make up for having to split this in phases you'll all get this anyway - even if we don't hit 600. So relax and sit back. If you want to watch and see if we hit 600 anyway but rest assured you got another prize already added to the pile.

-----------------------------------

Phase 3 will follow on Monday or Tuesday of next week with the following:

1) SquidiMidi (still working on that - I want to make it good for you guys. You have Odd Grooves to play with in the meantime).

2) 50+ Hybrid Kit Patches (might throw in some extra)

3) Convolution Ambience for Drums (we're going to see if we can make these unprotected and raw waves that you can try to use with other Convolution Reverbs but we make no claim how they will work as these were made for use with Kontakt... but I think this may allow some of you to do what you wanted to do with them. There are 25 different ambiences and a detailed list will be provided along with some info about the space etc. )

4) A SECOND Redeem Code for DownloadableSoundz that works the same way but this one will allow you to pick TWO out of the following choices (each are normally worth $50!):

- EZ Player Pro from Toontrack

- SR's Drum Masters 2: NDV Premier Discrete Multitrack Kit (with mic mixing per kit)

- SR's Drum Masters 2: NDV Gretsch Discrete Multitrack Kit (with mic mixing per kit)

- SR's Drum Masters 2: NDV Mapex Blasticks Discrete Multitrack Kit (with mic mixing per kit)

(We may also make the JB Sonor MT kit an option in this as well)

=====================

If by chance it does reach 650 though there will automatically be an additional OWD Kit (probably Kit 11 dry) added to everybody's esoundz download area automatically when it is available (we'd have to update it with the new scripts and everything and will only do that once we know it has reached 650). Because that IS going to be a fair amount of additional work (as if we don't have enough!) we are going to be strict about the number reaching 650 by midnight EST (Florida time) so in this case (unlike the other case where we're giving you the 600 bonus regardless), even if it hits 649 - sorry. 650 or more! Okay so we're back to edge of the seat anticipation again.

[Squids]

This email is going out now:

Thank you for participating in the Ultimate Studio Drums Group Buy! The turn out was massive with over 600 people joining in less than a month. Many extra sounds and bonuses were earned from the additional people joining beyond the expected 200. We are working hard through the holiday in order to start delivering the many downloadable items to so many people around the world. We have run into a few minor delays and hope to have the first phase of downloads ready this weekend. For up to date discussion please feel free to visit the forum thread: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... start=2130

Because we so much appreciate everyone's patience we have also included as an unexpected bonus a Yamaha C7 Deluxe Grand Piano for the Infinite Player.

Stay tuned for more news and forthcoming instructions on how to download the OWD Kits and Infinite Player (or Jazz Kit if you already own Infinite Player) as well as the bonus piano and phase 2 and 3 soon!

We thank you for your patience. It will be worth the wait!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sincerely,

The eSoundz Team

[Squids]

Okay... so, we ran into a minor "aesthetic" problem that we tried to work around and can't seem to. Apparently NI sent us an updated file that is messed up and the person we need to fix it is on VACATION until Monday. We didn't notice the problem because all of our computers have the development folders on them. So as a final test (this stuff is hot off the press) we noticed that the library image is missing in the latest info.nkx when installed. But it does have the latest GUI for the OWD and DM kits... what a dilemma. Granted this is just aesthetics not a functionality thing but it wasn't what we had in mind.

So right now it shows it like this:



and it is supposed to be this:



So, I guess what we're going to have to do is live with that for the weekend (not the biggest deal really) until some time next week where we can get a replacement of the Studio ProFiles_Info.nkx file that has that library image in it. Then you can swap it out to get that image how it is supposed to be there.

Really a minor thing because it doesn't affect performance or anything. Just an aesthetic. But it was a trade off. New GUI for OWD and DM and woops they left out the Infinite library image. In all fairness I did make the guy at NI RUSH before his vacation to do this for us and... well, what can we do? It's the holidays...

Anyway, on the good news side we're giving you all a $59 Deluxe Grand Piano for free for the Infinite Player. We will have the OWD kits and Infinite Player/Jazz Kit ready to download later tonight.

My suggestion is to download Kontakt Player 4 from NI now so you already have that part OR you can download Kontakt Player 3.5 from the support section of www.sonicreality.com

[DarkStar]

Drum Masters 2 iMAP
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... start=1170

This is the Drum Masters 2 iMap layout. Now remember this is designed for keyboardists as you have 70 different keys to trigger various articulations and extra keys (extras are what we used to call "Alts" but now that the main key can round robin the other notes are designated more for a non-round robin addition hit - and optional). It WOULD be nice if an e-Drum kit had 70 note triggers coming in but not yet... when they do though it is nice to know you have all of these performance articulations to trigger... and even now you can run all of these in custom map and map any of them to your pads so this is the overall menu of available performance samples and each of these can have round robin and multiple velocity layers. Pretty deep.

I'm off to bed. I'll explain more about this tomorrow.



By the way, the keys at the top that have the diagonal lines are not a standard part of the imap but if we have those performance articulations for those cymbals that is where they'd go in a "special" additional instrument using the "Custom Map" mode. That also makes it flexible for you to move around although you can also SWITCH a kit in any mode to another mode as well which is pretty darn cool... I'll have to show you how that works. It even works with key switching.

Oh, one last thing. You have 6 "slots" for toms which each have 3 keys for center, edge and rim (and each of those can round robin). You can assign any tom to any one of those positions on the keyboard. You also have 5 cymbal slots which are like cymbal stands waiting for you to put on a splash from Ocean Way or a China from Nick D'Virgilio. It's SUPER easy to customize your own kits with the kit pieces and that is one of the MOST fun things about a product like this which has Drum Masters 2 Signature kits bundled with Ocean Way Drums DL mix kits.

... and have a look at the OWD tutorial videos, over here: http://www.oceanwaydrums.net/videos.php


Toms and Cymbals Slots
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... start=1305

I was among those who were confused by the toms in Infinite Player when it first came out, not understanding why there were extra "positions" even though there were no drums loading into those slots. A lot of that initial confusion was a result of there not being an Infinite Player manual. I would hope that over the past year you have actually created an Infinite Player manual so that new users will be better able to understand how to load kits and adjust settings for optimum use. Kontakt can be a little overwhelming for a first time user.

Well, there's Kontakt itself which does have a manual (and we copied it into the Infinite Player manual). That covers basic functionality of how Kontakt works... not that it is the best manual in the world but we didn't write that. One of these days we might re-write that part and improve it though.

But then there's how we customize it with our proprietary scripts and the features of our sound products. Our goal is to vastly improve that so that people can get the most out of it. We listen and learn from our users and factor that into the next generation of products such as these Drum Masters 2 range products.

Sometimes as we do things someone in the team names something and we all get used to it. The positional toms was one of those. I don't know who named them that but it wasn't me. Maybe one of our coders and it was written into the code and applied to every kit so it would have been a big deal to change (as it just WAS right now). I really should have had them change it earlier but it occurred to me while I was talking about it to people that just a simple word change like that can make such a huge difference.

So, for anyone reading and wondering what I'm talking about, what I am referring to is the possible locations for any of the toms or cymbals to be placed. It's mostly for the finger drumming iMAP mode but can also apply to the others as well. You see, each tom or cymbal isn't just one note of samples but a scheme of notes with different performance articulations from edge to rim. So, to make your own set of up to 6 toms is SUPER easy with these selectable "slots". You simply load the tom instrument into the multi. Then select on the GUI which slot you want it to be in (that chooses where it will be mapped) and you can pitch and pan it differently too! So you can even take a Ringo-style 2 tom set and turn it into a 6 tom set just with pitching them differently and panning them.

Or you can load up some Roto toms in slots 1-3 and 2 rack toms and a floor tom on slots 4-6... or you could make a set of 6 floor toms if you wanted. So many possibilities, especially the more kits and kit pieces you have. ...

Sound Library location
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... start=1395

Thanks for the update Squids.

I have a couple of quick questions...

(1) You've been talking about this Group Buy package in a way that makes it seem as if this drum library is an integrated set which is separate from other sets. I know it is a unique set because it includes these Ocean Way drums. But once it is installed, isn't all of the content in this group buy going to be completely interchangeable with and housed in the same place as our existing IP drum content? For those of us who already have IP and some IP drum kits, we're just adding 28 new kits to our collection, right? (i.e. this package is not going to show up in Kontakt as a separate library, if my assumption is correct).

(2) Can you please remind me when those of us who have Drum Masters Gold edition will be able to get the update to the new versions with the script modifications?

The new versions are all in the patches which contain the scripts. So the free update for DM1 Silver, Gold & Platinum users can only happen when those patches are done. Since there were some final tweaks that had to be done with the positions/slots thing and the closed hi hat thing the updates will be available after we've completed that. As to when, that is tough to say but I'd say some time within the next couple of weeks or so. After this group buy at least.

As for the first question, all of this resides in the same place as your other Infinite Player content. So all of the NKX's go into your SAMPLES folder and if you own Drum Masters 1 Gold then you'll have some of them (like the NDV Gretsch and Premier kits for example) and you won't have a bunch of the new kit and kit piece NKX's so you'd add those to your samples folder. Then in your Multis folder will be it's own thing called "Ultimate Studio Drums" and within that will be three folders - a Drum Masters Signature GB folder (that's the group buy edition), an Ocean Way Drums DL IP folder (that's the Infinite Player version for this group buy of DL kits) and then a Hybrid Kits folder which will have kits that mix and match kit pieces between all of the various kit pieces. You'll also have those kit pieces in their own folder in the INSTRUMENTS for individual NKI's you can load (just like you do now with Drum Masters).

Now, remember that's just where they load from. You can resave them back to any folder you want. This is just to keep it separate and organized. But it IS within the same Infinite Player library. All of the Infinite Player titles (FX Tron, Cinema Sessions, EpiK DrumS, Drum Masters 2, Konstruction etc.) all go in this same place. Now you know why we call it "infinite"!

Advantages of the MT Kits
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... start=1395

Squids, other than mic mixing, what advantage(for some)or difference(for others like me)are there in the MT kits? For my needs (individual overall level adjustments with separate outs for each instrument is all I would need. So I would guess if I wanted to "tweak" some instrument as the snare with paying with the different mic set-ups, I could do that with the MT...right? Any other differences?

The only difference IS the mic mixing and also the ability to process individual mic channels with effects. But that is a big deal for those that want to work with drum kits the way you would in a multi-track drum session where you can get your own mix of dry to ambient or do certain production things like compressing certain mics and not others... all sorts of things which would be a whole other topic (multitrack drum production).

For me personally, I happen to like both. I like the speed and efficiency of just using this combo stereo/multichannel without mic mixing. If I was playing an e-Drum kit I would probably prefer these. If I was producing an album and creating a drum track for it then I might prefer the multi-track discrete mic mixing ones but both would still be handy.

There's even certain mixing advantages to both in the sense that the stereo kit pieces are kind of like "busses" and you can apply effects to the whole instrument! If one was to take these drums and want to do something heavily processed such as a lofi effect or distortion then it's probably better to use the special stereo kits than a full multitrack kit... but you know, it all depends on the session, the style of music and each person's needs are different. For my own use I like to have both. For most people's needs I think the special stereo with individual outputs for each drum type are a good common ground. For people that are wanting to dig into some engineering/production and/or are already advanced from experience with products like BFD and others that offer mic mixing, it's nice to have Multitrack kits.

Hope that helps you and anyone else wondering about it. Also, I think that these special stereo kits are a good place to start (and you certainly get some great variety in this package). But the fact that you all are getting at least one and maybe more Multitrack kits as a bonus in this group buy then you'll have a chance to see the difference first hand... and that's an even better way to know if it's for you.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... start=1440

Some clarifications to make sure any confusion is avoided...

DM1's ST (Stereo) kits were all routed to one stereo individual output. These kits in this group buy and the kits of DM2 Signature Series which we'll call "STm" kits (Stereo/multichannel) are routed to all 16 individual outputs for mixing that is more advanced than DM1. So it is less like the R8 that goes out one stereo output. DM2 kits still CAN go out one stereo output but you have the option of processing each drum separately inside the plug-in or your DAW now.

Regarding STm kits vs. MT kits they BOTH sound like they were recorded in Ocean Way (if it was recorded in Ocean Way) or whatever studio they were recorded in. That is not the difference. There is no "quality or realism" difference - or if there is it is not major. The main difference is the flexibility of sounds you can create with it. With Multitrack you still have the discrete microphones to blend to get different resulting mixes from bone dry to roomy ambience. You can also process each mic channel and all of that is a simulation of what would be done in a multitrack drum session for an album with live drums. The sound itself isn't more realistic but the things you can do - the process of production - is more like the real thing. Does that make more sense now? Think about it.

A LIVE drum session they'd have all of the mics up and record them to different tracks in ProTools. Then when you mix an album you'd blend the mics on the different channels of ProTools running each channel through whatever sort of EQ, Compression etc. to get the kind of sound that suits the track. So, having Multitrack Kits with the same individual mic channels (not to mention audio grooves which we also have - even more like the real thing since they are loops from actual multitrack drum sessions... doesn't get any more real than that!) gives you an accurate simulation of doing a live drum session. That is IDEAL for someone producing a song in their own studio and for variety you wouldn't get even if you had a deluxe studio with a live room.

But, yes the STm kits are useful for production as well more in the way people produce in DAWS these days with products like Battery or DrumCore etc. It's faster to work with, less intense on your computer power, easy to process and mangle into all sorts of new sounds that you might not get when using the Multitracks... and that is why I like to use both.

Realism in the Drum Kits
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... start=1455

Squids,

I realize that me and some others asked this before, but there hasn't been an answer on a critical question that me and some others need to know before joining the GB and I wanted to give it one more try.

Especially, when you're playing an electronic drum kit, the amount of layers and round robin samples makes a huge difference in realism. It's the reason why VSTs/sample libraries like Superior Drummer, Steven Slate or even ezDrummer (I could probably add BFD, AD and the full Ocean Way Drums, I just don't own them) drum kits sound so realistic and avoid the machine gun effect; simply put, that realism would not be possible without the layers and round robin samples. Consequently, this GB would be a "no-brainer" for me if I could really understand even one example of how many layers and round robin samples exist for a typical kit. It would also help the e-drummers considering this GB who are more experienced. Further, I think this info would help those less experienced edrummers avoid disappointment if these kits don't have enough velocity layers and round robin samples to compare with other products they are using.

Would it be possible for you to select one of the Ocean Way kits and one of the Drum Masters 2 kits as examples and share the amount of layers and round robin samples used? Heck, if even two kits that sound good have sufficient layers and round robin samples, I'm in.

Thanks,
eDrummist

Actually, I have answered this question particularly on the Vdrum forum where there are more e-drummists like yourself. I will try to give an even more thorough answer for you here.

There isn't just one simple answer. Not only is each kit different but each kit piece is different and each articulation is different and each ALT is different. The most important thing for e-Drummers is that with everything we did in this updated version of an existing product it was done with e-drummers in mind as much as finger drummers. So the bottom line is that THERE IS NO MACHINE GUN EFFECT. That was the main point of doing these powerful round robin scripts which are advanced in what they can do in many areas (also randomization options, trim per articulation and more).

I could take a kit and pick it apart and tell you roughly how many layers and alts it has per articulation of every kit piece just to get an idea I suppose but that doesn't mean that every other kit is going to have that same data. Plus that data includes velocities that are re-arranged in different order (similar to the way BFD does it) and all sorts of other things done to achieve what we want to achieve while working with samples that weren't originally done with this in mind. The ones that WERE done with a zillion layers vertically and horizontally (such as the Neil Peart Kit and EpiK DrumS) are many, many times larger not to mention many times more in cost. This, after all, is 25+ kits for $99.

In this product each kit is downloadable-sized (800-1.2gb each). Given that we don't use any data compression at all (I try to avoid that because the word "lossless" sounds good but something IS lost, whether you can hear it or not depends on both your ears or from sound to sound it can vary as well), the key here is that we made the most of what could be done with that kit size.

For example, the script itself which is the same script we're using for EpiK and Peart can handle up to 8 alternates per articulation. But to do a kit that had all 8 alts for every articulation would be MASSIVE... and anyway even if we did it would have to be a kit sampled with that intention... and there wouldn't be 25 of them for $99 either. So it's all relative. But the framework is there to do what we wanted to do which mainly was to vary it up for realism and avoid the machine gun effect which we have achieved with this.

So, the question is then how did we use that framework for these kits? The articulations that are important usually have at least 3-4 alts total in the round robin group of that articulation (EACH articulation can have its own Round Robin group in this script which is great!) and up to 7 or 8 in some cases. The priority articulations for alting would be the following:

Kick 1 & 2(I had a post about that in VDrums forum getting people's feedback and we have both single and double kick each with Alts).

Center Snare
Edge Snare
Rim Shot & Sidestick (to a lesser degree but it's usually there)
Main Tom (the Center/Edge for each tom)
Rim of the Tom (to a lesser degree but it's usually there)

Hi Hat Closed
Hi Hat Open
Other Hat Articulations - sometimes but not always.

Ride Center
Ride Bell

Crash, China or Splash Center - usually but not always
Crash, China or Splash Edge - usually but not always

Those are pretty much the only things that are triggered by an e-drum kit anyway. But keep in mind we have many MORE articulations spread across the keyboard in the iMap and many of those don't need to be round robining. For instance, the snare rolls in the iMap play better when played from the two keys. A hi hat choke is fine how it is etc.

But, here's what I have to say about it. It is comparable performance to other popular drum products you mentioned with a sound that is going to be unique and proprietary to us (in other words, no one else has the particular sounds recorded at Ocean Way or done in the same studios with the same drummers etc. as us). The quality and character of our sounds are also different so there are trade offs from kit to kit, product to product I'm sure and let's not forget that each person has their own subjective taste!

You speak about advanced e-Drummers who really want to know the specs and details to feel comfortable. I think if anyone isn't comfortable with what I wrote above then they should maybe not get this one. Perhaps they'd be happier with a title that was done with mega layers and alts in mind in the first place such as EpiK DrumS... granted it's $750 for 7 kits that each have so many samples they take over 2 minutes to load and it is not downloadable at all (the product is over 130 gigs and ships on a hard drive). But we do have that for the most advanced and particular about specs.

For us, in this bundle, to be able to combine sounds from different products that cost many times more, from artists and studios all over the world and make it all downloadable and just $99 of course there ARE going to be some compromises compared to other things done differently at other price points. But the kits here have at least enough alts and layers so they sound real and don't machine gun. Overall it's a bang for the buck deal with the variety of kits you get plus let's not forget the other bonuses and extras. If what you hear in the demos and the combination of features and content at $99 isn't a no-brainer then perhaps it's not for them.

DVD and HD options
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... start=2220

...
We may make a custom DVD option for people who prefer that to downloading. It costs a little bit more plus shipping but might be a good option for those that don't want to download. Also a preinstalled on hard drive option some time next week. More on that later. A had a few glasses of wine and I feel fine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[Jind]

I made this list over in the previous thread - hope it helps some when figuring out what they have left to download.

Seeing since I have not found a concise list of all the items to download with this Group Buy, I figured I'd make a list of what I think is included - please inform me if I'm missing anything or if I have things wrong. Hopefully this list will help others make sure they get it all downloaded.

Group Buy Checklist of Downloadable Items

Kontakt Free Player (vr. 3.5 or 4):

• Kontakt 3.5 included in Infinite Player In
  4.0 Download from Native Instruments

Choice of one of the following: (if you do not already own the Infinite Player Plug-In you must chose it)

• Infinite Player Plug-In + Kontakt Player 3.5
  STm Ludwig Jazz kit

From Ocean Way Drums:

• OWD Kit 1 Dry
  OWD Kit 2 Medium
  OWD Kit 4 Dry
  OWD Kit 4 Ambient
  OWD Kit 5 Medium
  OWD Kit 6 Ambient
  OWD Kit 8 Dry
  OWD Kit 9 Dry
  OWD Kit 10 Dry
  OWD Kit 10 Ambient
  OWD Kit 10 Medium (bonus) [#]
  OWD Kit 12 Dry
  OWD Kit 13 Medium

From the Drum Masters 2 Signature Drum Kit Series:

• Drum Masters 2 NDV ST Gretsch® Kit
  Drum Masters 2 NDV ST Premier® Kit (Dry)
  Drum Masters 2 NDV ST Premier® Kit (Ambient)
  Drum Masters 2 Collins Kit
  Drum Masters 2 Duke Kit
  Drum Masters 2 Doctor Nirvana Kit
  Drum Masters 2 NDV ST Blasticks Kit
  Drum Masters 2 JB Tama® Brush Kit
  Drum Masters 2 JB Session Sonor® Kit
  Drum Masters 2 JB Sensitone Kit
  Drum Masters 2 JB Danger Ogletree Kit
  Drum Masters 2 JB Supraphonic Kit
  Drum Masters 2 JB Brady Deep
  Drum Masters 2 Bonhm Ludwig® Kit
  Drum Masters 2 Stairway Levee Kit

Bonus Items:

Choice of TWO of the following:

• EZPlayer PRO
  SR's Drum Masters 2: NDV Premier Discrete Multitrack Kit
  SR's Drum Masters 2: NDV Gretsch Discrete Multitrack Kit
  SR's Drum Masters 2: NDV Mapex Blasticks Discrete Multitrack Kit
  SR's JB Sonor MT kit (confirmed)

Other Bonus Items:

• SquidiMidi
  50+ Hybrid Kit Patches
  150 Odd Grooves by oddgrooves.com [+]
  special upgrade pricing [+]
  Convolution Ambience for Drums
  Steve Gadd Signature Snare Bonus
  Deluxe Acoustic Piano for Infinite Player
  Drum Masters STm JB Tama kit
  Drum Masters STm Chicago Gretsch kit

-------------------
[#] [Edited in by DarkStar, info courtesy of lusername]
[+] [Edited in by DarkStar, info from Jind

[Squids]

The "Studio Profiles Infinite PLayer_info.nkx and nkc" will always be replaced every time there is a NEW library... such as EpiK DrumS for instance. That has new "Skins" (aka GUI aka Graphic User Interface backgrounds aka wallpapers...). These graphic files are "TGA" files which are like jpegs. But they're embedded within the NKX file just like samples are. So whenever - if ever - you try to load an Infinite Player patch and it searches specifically for a TGA file that means you don't have the LATEST "Studio Profiles Infinite Player_info.nkx" What we'll do to help with that since there are many different versions of libraries out now with various info.nkx's is this:

1. The new sounds you get will often come WITH the new info.nkx (that's short for Studio Profiles Infinite Player_info.nkx) and install automatically without you even having to think about it. That was SUPPOSED to be in the two OWD kits 1 and 2 so far. Someone forgot to put it in. Ehem. Anyway I've asked them to put it in tonight and it will also be in the other OWD kits. You don't even need to worry about this entire post if you're patient because this will update itself as you download and install more kits.

2. But... for the anxious, for the puzzled, for the GUI-less... we will always put the LATEST info.nkx into the SR support section. That way if you ever load a sound and it looks for a TGA you can just grab the latest one, replace what you've got and it'll find it.

The latest info.nkx has ALL of the cumulative graphics for all Infinite Player format libraries from Sonic Reality. However, at the moment the latest one is missing the Infinite Player library image. Just another little temporary hitch in trying to put together something like THIS so far and during the holidays. If you understand the handicaps we're dealing with you'd actually find that we're doing quite well considering the amount of people in this and what's involved.

Here at the moment is the latest one: http://www.sonicreality.com/squidscorne ... _Skins.zip