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The first is from a MIDI keyboard using Sonic Reality's Extended IMAP layout, whereby each type of hit is assigned its own individual key. The bottom screen here shows the independent envelope controls for close and ambient mics, which provide yet another powerful way to mould the sound.You trigger all these samples in a two different ways.
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The top two screenshots show how you get access to level and pan controls for each individual mic signal in the setup, and there's some clever Kontakt scripting behind the scenes switching off any fully faded‑down samples to minimise the required polyphony. The interface of each Instrument can be switched to show numerous different controls, some of which are shown above. Separate kick‑drum and tom recordings were captured with and without the sympathetic rattling of the snare, something that makes a surprisingly large amount of difference. Multiple velocity levels (32, to be precise) have been used, as you'd expect, and all the drums and cymbals have alternate samples available to help avoid 'machine‑gunning' when playing repeated hits in rapid succession. Various drum performance techniques were recorded, including snare rolls, ghost notes, rimshots and side‑sticks various stages of hi‑hat open‑ness, closed‑ness, and, er, pedal‑ness and rolled and choked cymbals. So you not only get Allen's personal favourites from the Aladdin's Cave‑style mic locker, but also his own custom‑modified 'minimum signal path' recording console and a number of carefully modified rack classics from Neve, API, Urei and Fairchild. In collaboration with another highly‑respected engineer, Steven Miller, Allen has sourced 19 different custom drum kits (of unknown provenance, but apparently including some pieces courtesy of high‑profile recording artists), set them up in Ocean Way's near‑legendary Studio B drum-room, and then thrown a collection of the world's most sought‑after recording equipment at the problem of capturing their every nuance. The Multi loading here took a full minute to load on my machine because the multisampling is so detailed. If you're planning on much flipping between the different Ocean Way Drums kit Multis, then you'd best get used to this screen, because you're going to be seeing a lot of it.
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(More entry‑level Ocean Way Drums Silver and DL Edition products are also apparently in the works, too - and may well be available by the time you read this.) Both operate using a customised version of Native Instruments' widely‑used Kontakt Player virtual instrument, which is now compatible with most major sequencers. The product in question is Sonic Reality's Ocean Way Drums, a meticulously multisampled and multi‑miked selection of drum instruments that is available in two forms: the 40GB 24‑bit/48kHz Gold edition on six DVDs and the 80GB 24‑bit/96kHz Platinum HD edition on a 10,000rpm hard drive.
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There are few studios that enjoy the cachet of Ocean Way, and few engineers who can match the credits of the studio's owner Allen Sides, so surely only the most jaded of studio denizens could fail to take notice when both the studio and its head honcho became involved with the same software sound library. Is this the best drum sample library money can buy? Ocean Way Drums offers 19 drum kits, recorded in a world-famous studio by a world‑renowned engineer.
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