“It wasn’t enough for us as producer/engineers to say, ‘Here are the discrete mic channels and good luck,’ when we know a lot of artists also appreciate instant gratification,” says Ocean Way’s Allen Sides. “So we set out to take the drum sound of Ocean Way all the way to the end by providing the user with preset mixes from tight and dry to ambient and massive all just a few clicks away.”

“We wanted to make a drum kit plug-in that did for drums what the Vienna Symphony and Miroslav did for orchestral samples,” says Sonic Reality CEO Dave Kerzner. “To do this, we went to great lengths in production starting with one of the best studios in the world and bringing together top engineers, a great sounding room, the best audio gear around and the most expressive mapping layout, known as I-Map." With left and right stick hits and a range of different positions captured from the drums and cymbals, all within a smart layout across the keys that fits your hands, I-Map™ offers expressive possibilities for creating drum tracks.

Ocean Way Drums comes mapped for both the keyboard and for drum pads. It uses a proprietary mapping technique developed by Sonic Reality’s Dave Kerzner, which has more performance variations and articulations than any other drum product to date. Ocean Way Drums was also programmed for Roland’s top-of-the-line TD-20 V-Drums.

Both editions feature 19 Drum Kits recorded in Ocean Way’s famous Studio B, where artists like Radiohead, Beck, Green Day, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and countless others have recorded. It comes as both a 40GB sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt™ 3, as well as a Kontakt Player plug-in for Mac and PC with support for RTAS, VST, Audio Units and stand-alone, all in one package. It offers more control of the mix with up to 13 discrete mono or stereo microphone levels per drum, and also comes ready to go with 12 “mix presets” per kit made at Ocean Way by studio owner and Grammy-winning engineer Allen Sides and Steven Miller.

For more information, visit www.oceanwaydrums.com, and for a video demo of Ocean Way Drums, click here.

For more information on new products announced at Winter NAMM 2008, click here.

THE EASTWEST/QUANTUM LEAP COMPLETE COMPOSERS COLLECTION FOR KOMPAKT/KONTAKT NOW SHIPPING

NEUTRIK® INTRODUCES IP65 RATED OPTICALCON® AT NAB 2008

Register Today for Remix Hotel Miami 2008!
Remix Hotel Miami is heading to the National Hotel in South Beach March 27-30. Get all the latest news and updates at www.remixhotel.com, and don’t forget to register!

Talking House Records Presents Special SXSW Showcase Party
On March 15 at Bourbon Rocks in Austin, Texas, San Francisco's Talking House Records and the City of San Francisco will present "Best of the Bay," featuring performances by The Matches, Film School, Chuck Prophet and 18 other bands from San Francisco. The day party takes place from 12 noon until 6 p.m., and the evening showcase is from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. To R.S.V.P., click here.

Central Region AES Student Summit April 4-6
Webster University in St. Louis, Mo. will host the second annual Central Region AES Student Summit April 4-6, which will feature guest speakers Bob Heil, founder and president of Heil Sound Ltd., and top mastering engineer Bob Katz. The summit will offer panels, tutorials, demos, networking opportunities and more. Students may pre-register for $20. For more information and to register, go to www.webster.edu/aes.

Waves On Tour Presents Eddie Kramer
Waves' "Studio Classics Collection Experience" is an educational tour that is visiting cities across the U.S. during March, April and May. Renowned producer/engineer Eddie Kramer and Waves product specialists are presenting lectures and demonstrations of Waves' Studio Classics Collection plug-in bundle, which comprises Waves' SSL 4000, V-Series and API Collections. For the latest tour updates, click here.

Mix Nashville 2008
Join the editors of Mix on May 20-21, 2008 for an intensive look at Nashville, the hottest recording market in the country today. The place where studio meets live. Where country reigns and rock and blues come to play. Where churches and clubs sit side by side, both pumping out quality sound. Two days of studio, live, songwriting, production. Two days of networking, demos, education and performance. Be sure to visit Mix's special Nashville event page at http://mixonline.com/ms/nashville08.

With that in mind, when the player is shifting ranges radically and you feel your lack of center becoming a sonic distraction, momentarily rein in the drifting part by automating the panner in your DAW. For example, let's say that the solo is played mostly in the middle section of the instrument but the player reaches out to the left for the occasional low accent note. This is where automated panning can lessen the sensation that the instrument is unnaturally large in the mix.

For starters, find the position where the stereo image sounds good overall and write that throughout the track as a foundation. Then with the left and right panner in auto-touch—meaning if you let go, it will revert to the previously written foundation pass—go through the tune and pull in the image when it gets too far afield. Your panning alteration could be just one side if it sticks out, or both if the player goes wide with both hands. Remember that if you're too emphatic in your moves, it will sound distracting. By writing the panning in this way, you will give yourself the best possible balance for your instrument in the mix: The image will be wider when the part is more centered, and centered when the part is leaning more to the left or right. —Kevin Becka

Publishers phase out piracy protection on audio books