Sonic Reality

Squids · Post by **Squids** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:36 pm

Just a little news update here. Ocean Way Drums from Sonic Reality and Ocean Way Recording Studios was reviewed in the latest Keyboard magazine and won a KEY BUY award! Our first Key Buy award was for Interactive Drum Kits for the Akai back in 1998 or something like that. The reviews are going to start coming in from various mags and they're loving it! If you haven't checked out the new site then visit: www.oceanwaydrums.com and here's some quotes from the review: http://sonicreality.com/news1.php?nbr=2220

If you don't have this product yet then here's a link: http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=1837

There's nothing like it. Really. The fidelity is astounding! The flexibility with what you can do with the mixing is incredible. Go check it out!

andywright67 · Post by **andywright67** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:43 pm

Congrats on the award

I look forward to a review in sound on sound at some point. A tad outta my price range atm

stephenpaulharper · Post by **stephenpaulharper** » Wed May 28, 2008 4:19 am

andywright67 wrote:...a tad outta my price range atm...

Don't look here then:

http://www.sonivoxmi.com/ProductDetail. ... =CDBigBand

Cordelia · Post by **Cordelia** » Wed May 28, 2008 4:49 am

Can someone point me to a list of kits recorded for this set?
I see lots of information on mics, rooms, etc., but I haven't found a list of the drums that were used.
Thanks.

Cordelia · Post by **Cordelia** » Thu May 29, 2008 11:46 am

Bumping for a drum kit list...

stephenpaulharper · Post by **stephenpaulharper** » Thu May 29, 2008 4:54 pm

IIRC, Squids said that the drums used aren't listed, so that people will judge the sounds of each drum on its own merit, as opposed to expecting, say - a Black Beauty or Craviatto - to sound a particular way. I'm paraphrasing here.

Cheers.

Steve

Cordelia · Post by **Cordelia** » Thu May 29, 2008 9:01 pm

Ah, thanks algodon, that would explain the lack of information.
That's a bit confusing for me. It's an expensive library. I'd like to know that I'm not getting all new Sonar drums with pinstripe heads or something.
It's Ocean Way drums, so I was hoping for a big Hal Blaine kit or something. Some really great vintage kits.
Oh well.

jkleban · Post by **jkleban** » Sat May 31, 2008 1:40 am

I am no expert but I will say that I love OWD. I can't believe how good they sound and with the small bit of knowledge I have of KONTAKT, can't believe how much control you have in mixing these kits. I don't know what kind of drums they are but I can say that the kits sit so well within mixes that I didn't need to use any EQ or VERB on these babies. The only caveat I can add is that you shouldn't expect any extra exotic type of drums or cymbals. You just get the best sounding, basic kits but can easily add the extra stuff from other sample sets you may have.

I am glad to see that the "experts" are liking these as much as I do. Maybe I know a little bit more than I think.

They are expensive and just as my wife likes to say, "worth it".

Squids · Post by **Squids** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:18 am

The kits sampled on Ocean Way Drums are amazing. Some of them belong to some famous people but the producers Allen Sides and Steven Miller didn't want them or the brands mentioned because their approach on this was about the sound of the studio and their engineering. That's what makes it sound different than any other library even if the same "brand" drums were sampled by someone else. So, the big deal with it is that you get material that was recorded AND mixed at this particular studio which all of those bands come to record and mix. Radiohead, Green Day, Paul McCartney, Clapton, Beck, Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, Dr. Dre, Rolling Stones, Fiona Apple, Dido, Jon Brion, Jellyfish, Rush and the list goes on and on and on... the place is constantly booked so it was very difficult to take months away from a major artist like Clapton to do a sample project but they did it and we programmed it in Kontakt with our I-map and also for V-Drums. It even has mixes done by them also at Ocean Way which took a long time to do for EVERY kit element consistently and ALL of them done by Sides/Miller and none of them done by us. So you get the real deal engineer's work and that unique studio's sound.

If I were to describe the sound I'd say it is very diverse and very HI FIDELITY. We're talking crisp and punchy as opposed to vintage and gritty (which I also like). We're working on the Ken Scott Collection where the approach is more for a vintage sound with a lot of great dead sounding drums (that's the 60's and 70's drum sound Ken got with The Beatles, Bowie, Dixie Dregs, Mahavishnu Orchestra). Totally different approach and different sound.

Sonic Reality's MOTTO is "Sample Everything". With drums it can be all about what drums you sample or it can be how/what/who/where on the recording of it, it can be how they are set up, tuned, muffled or muted or treated in any way by someone like Ross Garfield the Drum Doctor who we used on getting sounds in the style of Phil Collins and John Bonham on the new to be released Drum Masters Gold Edition... it can be a lot of things. We give you guys the relevant information depending on the approach. I personally don't have a problem saying which drums and even like to most of the time because I'm curious about the gear too. But, in this case it was the producer's choice and since they want no biases based on brands or whose kits they used and want people to judge by the sound I respect it. It makes sense considering the proprietary miking techniques, that these are engineers who have worked on over 700 albums themselves and of course the unique sound and legacy of the studio. That ROOM sounds incredible. But I CAN tell you that these are ALL kits that have been used on albums recorded at Ocean Way and that alone tells you that they were prime choices and not something undesirable.

By the way, here's a link to the review: http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/ocea ... y-08/36027

Cordelia · Post by **Cordelia** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:30 am

Thanks for the reply, Squids.

Good luck with that project, I'll be looking forward to it.

Squids · Post by **Squids** » Sat May 31, 2008 2:30 pm

It all depends on what kind of sounds you're looking for. You may also like Drum Masters Gold Edition which is coming out sooner. That has multitrack kits from 5 drummers in both Kontakt and BFD2 format and in GM, I-Map and V-Drum mapping. Plus it has a vintage Leedy Kit and Gretsch that are tweaked to sound Bonham-esque and Collins-esque. They were recorded at my old bandmate's studio in Pasadena (Kevin Gilbert's Lawnmower Studio which had a great room!). There's also some extra kits and snares on there from the sessions. Plus there are a bunch of stereo kits from the Silver Edition that are also included (and that includes 3 more drummers: Steve Gadd, Bill Bruford and Bun E. Carlos).

Besides that we have Studio ProFiles Classic Rock which has the exact spec Beatles and Bonham kits plus some general Gretsch and Ludwig vintage kits and various things... a Floyd style kit, Hendrix, Stones... that one is also coming out relatively soon and downloadable bits and pieces of that and the Motown drum kit will be available in I-Map Kontakt format as early as next week! We're releasing something called "RingBeats" which are multitrack Beatlesque grooves as well as the drum kit (a good old Ludwig Oyster Pearl that even says THE BEATLES on the head!). Those are downloadable smaller versions from the full Classic Rock collection... I say "small" but they're close to 1 gig each unzipped.

Anyway, those are all different flavors and we keep going and going and going...sampling everything. But, I stress that none of it replaces what Ocean Way Drums is sonically. It is not something that can be duplicated by anyone else because of its unique character sound and proprietary miking/recording/mixing techniques that are always going to be something that's only in Ocean Way Drums and nowhere else. Plus it has THEIR ears on it with their taste and these guys have engineered on over 700 albums between the two of them. Steven was just working with Dave Matthews Band (Carter rocks). There's a cool picture of me, Miller and Steve Lilywhite having sushi on our myspace page btw. Cool story behind that which I think I blogged there. Anyway, to me Ocean Way Drums is hard to resist for anyone looking for a top class studio sound that's album ready out of the box. Sure it is a higher price than other products of its kind but so is a tube or class A mic pre vs. a regular solid state one. You get the more expensive one for the sound! Same thing here.

stephenpaulharper · Post by **stephenpaulharper** » Sat May 31, 2008 3:20 pm

Squids could you reiterate which of these will be available in BFD2 format? Also, as for the downloads, is there a way to download just the kits without the grooves?

Thanks.

Steve

Squids · Post by **Squids** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 1:54 pm

algodon wrote:Squids could you reiterate which of these will be available in BFD2 format? Also, as for the downloads, is there a way to download just the kits without the grooves?

Thanks.

Steve

None of the Ocean Way Drum kits are planned for BFD at the moment. That could change though but it's not something anyone can be sure of at this time.

What I am sure of is that we will offer downloadable sized kits for BFD2 from the Studio ProFile series this Summer (maybe sooner than you think!). They will range in sizes and prices but be very affordable ($50-80 each). The artist kits will tend to be the higher priced ones. They are mapped in the BFD2 standard (so no I-Map for fans of that you'll have to stay in Kontakt). Although there will be a cross-grade (cheap) to be able to get both the Kontakt and BFD versions of the kit to have the best of both worlds... and all of that without needing to get the loops. Those will be sold separately as downloads.

bebop · Post by **bebop** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 2:22 pm

900 bucks, one demo, doesn't even work here...
Or is this the demo on the review site, that mostly demonstrate synths?
But yes if it says "it's all good" and "appropriate for Beatles covers", go buy it, it's a hit for sure!
...

...

stephenpaulharper · Post by **stephenpaulharper** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 7:06 pm

bebop wrote:900 bucks, one demo, doesn't even work here...
Or is this the demo on the review site, that mostly demonstrate synths?
But yes if it says "it's all good" and "appropriate for Beatles covers", go buy it, it's a hit for sure!

Sarcasm noted, but it really would be nice to have some better demos of OWD.

Never really understood companies posting mp3's when they've got the room for several 10MB .wav files. Especially for an expensive product that you can't demo. Sorry for the double-entendre.

I understand the difficulty in formatting OWD to BFD2 - Squids spoke of it over at gearslutz. One can always hope, and with some of the mapping things that were being talked about, I'm pretty sure I can work with it anyway.

But for now, I'd like to know more about which artists' kits will be in BFD2 and downloadable. Maybe start another thread?

Thanks.

Steve

Sonic Reality

KVR Audio

Ocean Way Drums Review!