For the first time Rik Emmett of the classic Canadian rock power trio Triumph sang and played guitar in a unique “virtual collaboration” with a member of another legendary Canadian rock power trio, Rush. Rik performed as a guest artist with fantasy rock band “Sonic Elements” on a cover of the song “Red Barchetta” which features drums performed by legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart via a music software sample library called “Neil Peart Drums” by Sonic Reality. Dave Kerzner, CEO and founder of Sonic Reality, put together a unique music project called “Sonic Elements” where various singers and musicians of progressive rock perform and record along with sampled musical elements from the music software Sonic Reality creates for musicians.

“At Sonic Reality we record (aka “sample”) the sounds of musical instruments and drum grooves so that musicians can use these deluxe sound elements in their own music on the computer or mobile devices.” says Kerzner “I created the Sonic Elements music project to not only show what these inspiring Sonic Reality sounds are like in musical context but to also explore giving songs an alternate reality with different fantasy combinations of musicians and authentic sounds.”

A premium example of such a fantasy rock scenario is “Red Barchetta” featuring Rik Emmett which is another take on the classic Rush song with new life brought to it by Rik’s passionate performance and interpretation.

Listen to an audio clip preview of Red Barchetta featuring Rik Emmett:

http://soundcloud.com/sonicelements/red-barchetta-feat-rick-emmett

Here’s what Rik Emmett had to say about the project:
“It was such a great day in the studio, jamming out to Neil’s incredible tracks, getting to play virtual ‘basement band’ and laying down my versions of Geddy & Alex parts. I felt like I had been transported back to 1980 for an afternoon. ‘Red Barchetta’ is one of my absolute fave RUSH songs… like an exciting, Ray Bradbury-esque SF short story, told by a progressive rock band… so to get a crack at it, with the actual drum takes that Neil performed, was an ‘artistic’ challenge – almost like accepting a dare.” Says Emmett “This is like “Rock Band” for the seriously, deeply committed.”

The full release of the song “Red Barchetta” by Sonic Elements featuring Rik Emmett is coming in Q1, 2012 and is part of a larger collection of songs with Sonic Elements and other guest artists performing with Neil Peart Drums by Sonic Reality.

You can follow progress on the Sonic Elements project including upcoming video clips with Rik Emmett here:

http://www.facebook.com/sonicelements

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/sonicelementschannel

Sonic Reality and Neil Peart Drums: https://www.sonicreality.com/products/neil-peart-drums/

Rik Emmett: http://www.rikemmett.com

Press Contact: marketing@sonicreality.com

About the Sonic Elements project and Neil Peart Drums:

Dave Kerzner of the music software company Sonic Reality has headed up a unique “virtual fantasy rock band” called “Sonic Elements” combining the sounds and performances captured in Sonic Reality music software and sound library products such as Neil Peart Drums with performances of guest musicians like Rik Emmett on classic covers like “Red Barchetta” by Rush. Collaborating through the use of the sample library “Neil Peart Drums” which was performed by legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart and recorded by top producer Nick Raskulinecz is something that any musician who owns the product can do. Neil’s digitally recreated DW® Snakes and Arrows drum kit in software or soon to be released audio grooves to play along to or loops can be used in any recording software on the Mac, PC or iPad™. To celebrate that concept Sonic Elements have been working up an entire Rush tribute album as well as original songs all built around Neil Peart Drums with various guest guitarists, bass players and vocalists including Rik Emmett (Triumph), Billy Sherwood (Yes, Circa), John Wesley (Porcupine Tree, Marillion) and many other classic and progressive rock musicians.

Infinite Workstation Gold

(January 14, 2011  Sunrise, Florida) Sonic Reality sound development company is announcing the release of a powerful virtual instrument plug-in/Kontakt-based sample library bundle called “Infinite Workstation Gold”. It features a massive selection of multi-sampled instruments ranging from pianos, vintage keyboards, guitars and bass to a complete orchestra, vocal pads and world instruments. With 3,000 sounds and over 12 gigabytes of sample content “Infinite Workstation Gold” is designed with the songwriter/composer or producer in mind. It’s a ‘one-stop shop’ for all sound needs in any style of music from Hip Hop to Rock to Classical and more.

From over 15 years Sonic Reality has created many of the “workstation” sounds heard in software and hardware products such as IK Multimedia’s Sonik Synth, SampleTron, SampleMoog, SampleTank and Philharmonik, Propellerheads’ Reason and SR’s Sonic Refills, Steinberg’s Cubase and HALion One, Native Instruments’ Bandstand and Kontakt, Yamaha’s Motif, Roland’s JV and S Series, Clavia’s Wave, Alesis’s QS Series and many others. Now for the first time the best variety of “fully expanded” workstation sounds are available together as a bundle in NI’s Kontakt format. While it’s a sample library for Kontakt and Komplete users it also works as it’s own virtual instrument plug-in for ProTools, Cubase, Logic and other DAWS as well as stand alone for Mac and PC. This is because it comes with Sonic Reality’s “Infinite Player” license that allows the encrypted sounds of this collection to work inside NI’s FREE “Kontakt Player” which is also included in the bundle.

“While SR also creates multi-gigabyte collections focusing on a handful of deluxe individual instruments at a time for the high end sample users” says Sonic Reality CEO Dave Kerzner “we know that any composer also wants fast-loading sounds with a wide variety for quick flow of creativity and powerful sequencing. The Infinite Workstation covers that area really well.”

Sonic Reality has taken its legacy “Sonik Capsule” series and over the years has expanded the original 5 titles to 15 “Kapsules” for Kontakt format. The Infinite Workstation Gold is a bundle of all 15 Kapsule titles plus additional content such as large-sized “OmniSoundz” GM set, 300 meg grand piano and bonus sounds from other “Kontakt/Infinite Player Family” sound collections by Sonic Reality.

The following Kapsule titles and bonus sounds are included:

Orchestral Brass Kapsule

984MB/128 Sounds

Orchestral Strings Kapsule

1.75 GB/219 Sounds

Orchestral Percussion Kapsule

790 MB/102 Sounds

Orchestral Woodwinds Kapsule

1.19 GB/165 Sounds

Orchestral Ensembles Kapsule

677MB/40 Sounds

Tron Kapsule

567MB/54 Sounds

Vintage Kapsule

630MB/279 Sounds

Vocal Kapsule

785MB/49 Sounds

World Instrument Kapsule

454MB/82 Sounds

Acoustic Guitar Kapsule

476MB/72 Sounds

Bass Kapsule

310MB/104 Sounds

Electric Guitar Kapsule

453MB/72 Sounds

Electronic Drums Kapsule

403MB/464 Sounds

Studio Drums Kapsule

510MB/723 Sounds

Omnisoundz 2 GM Collection

1.06GB/133 Sounds

Deluxe Grand Piano C7

300MB

Infinite Foundation Collection which features select sounds from Sonic Reality’s Drum Masters Series, Cinema Sessions, Serafine FX Tron and more.

All together the Infinite Workstation Gold offers a significant savings of over 65% off as a bundle all 15 titles plus additional sounds. With an original value of over $1,200. the budget-conscious price of the Infinite Workstation Gold package is only $299. (Estimated Street Price) making it ideal for any musician, songwriter or producer at any level. It includes the top quality meat and potatoes sounds used in today’s music in one all-inclusive package. From acoustic drums to 808 and 909 electronic drums, fat analog synth pads to rich textured vocal pads, legendary solo and ensemble string sections, brass, woodwinds, acoustic and electric guitars, exotic world instruments and percussion plus some of the best rare vintage keyboards, guitars and bass sounds ever sampled.

Price: $399. MSRP ($299 Estimated Street Price)

Availability:  January, 2011 (DL Download version)

Infinite Workstation Gold will immediately be available from Sonic Reality’s e-commerce outlet http://www.esoundz.com as well as from all Sonic Reality dealers and distributors world-wide in Q1, 2011.

For more information please visit: https://www.sonicreality.com

For press kit images visit the PRESS section of the Sonic Reality website.

Contact: sonicpress@sonicreality.com

About Sonic Reality:

Sonic Reality is a sound development company founded by producer Dave Kerzner in the mid-90’s. Over the years Sonic Reality (aka “SR) has created some of the most popular multi-sampled and loop sounds heard in music via hardware keyboards, sound modules, virtual instruments and software sample libraries. For over 15 years Sonic Reality has created many of the “workstation” sounds heard in products such as IK Multimedia’s Sonik Synth, SampleTron, SampleMoog, SampleTank and Philharmonik, Propellerheads’ Reason and SR’s Sonic Refills, Steinberg’s Cubase and HALion One, Native Instruments’ Bandstand and Kontakt, Yamaha’s Motif, Roland’s JV and S Series, Clavia’s Wave, Alesis’s QS Series and many others.

RAW Hip Hop Diamond Loop Collection

(January 14, 2011  Sunrise, Florida) Sonic Reality sound development company is announcing the immediate release of “RAW Hip Hop Diamond” a massive loop bundle of over 4,000 Hip Hop style grooves in Rex2, Apple Loops and Acidized Wave formats (12,000 loops total between all 3 included formats). Featuring the latest R.A.W. series loops including many new titles that have not been available in a bundle before, this power pack saves over 60% off the regular price for all 9 Hip Hop and R&B style titles.

Complete with song construction kits, record scratches, vocal beatboxing, 808’s, 909’s, strings, dirty drum grooves, booming bass lines, keys, guitars, vocal licks and more the RAW Hip Hop Diamond collection is like a “Loop Workstation” compatible with any DAW or sampler on the market today. With over 12 gigabytes of fresh loops the R.A.W. Hip Hop Diamond bundle is a powerhouse for Hip Hop production.

R.A.W. Hip Hop Diamond bundle includes the following 9 loop collections:

Modern Hip Hop 1

945MB/ 17 Loop Sets/482 Grooves (1,446 Loops Total in 3 Formats)

Modern Hip Hop 2

1.38GB/24 Loop Sets/477 Grooves (1,431 Loops Total in 3 Formats)

Old Skool Hip Hop

948MB/44 Loop Sets/500 Grooves (1,500 Loops Total in 3 Formats)

Hip Hop Dirty South

2.42GB/24 Loop Sets/555 Grooves (1,665 Loops Total in 3 Formats)

Chi Town Hip Hop

1.14GB/10 Loop Sets/419 Grooves (1,257 Loops Total in 3 Formats)

Reggaeton

178MB/4 Loop Sets/161 Grooves (483 Loops Total in 3 Formats)

Modern R&B

2.76GB/22 Loop Sets/500 Grooves (1,500 Loops Total in 3 Formats)

Trip Hop

2.64 GB/28 Loop Sets/492 Grooves (1,476 Loops Total in 3 Formats)

Urban Grooves

1.16GB/19 Loop Sets/593 Grooves (1,446 Loops Total in 3 Formats)

Price: $199. MSRP ($159 Estimated Street Price)

Availability:  January, 2011 (DL Download version)

R.A.W. Hip Hop Diamond Loop Collection will immediately be available from Sonic Reality’s e-commerce outlet http://www.esoundz.com as well as from all Sonic Reality dealers and distributors world-wide in Q1, 2011.

For more information please visit: http://www.sonicreality.com

For press kit images visit the PRESS section of the Sonic Reality website.

Contact: sonicpress@sonicreality.com

About Sonic Reality:

Sonic Reality is a sound development company founded by producer Dave Kerzner in the mid-90’s. Over the years Sonic Reality (aka “SR) has created some of the most popular multi-sampled and loop sounds heard in music via hardware keyboards, sound modules, virtual instruments and software sample libraries. For over 15 years Sonic Reality has created many of the “workstation” sounds heard in products such as IK Multimedia’s Sonik Synth, SampleTron, SampleMoog, SampleTank and Philharmonik, Propellerheads’ Reason and SR’s Sonic Refills, Steinberg’s Cubase and HALion One, Native Instruments’ Bandstand and Kontakt, Yamaha’s Motif, Roland’s JV and S Series, Clavia’s Wave, Alesis’s QS Series and many others.

06.01.2010

Chance to Enter to Win the Electronic Musician/Indaba Music Digital Mixtape Contest

Sonic Reality partners with Electronic Musician and Indaba Music for the Digital Mixtape Contest, here are quotes from the press release:

“Indaba Music is the online home for musicians worldwide. Sign up now to join remix contests, collaborate with others, share your music, learn from masters, and manage your musical life. Get started now, it’s free! EM Presents: Digital Mixtape Vol. 1 – Sonic Reality, one of the premier creators of pre-made loops, and Electronic Musician magazine, one of the world’s premier resources for the home recording musician, wants you to help compile a digital mixtape to be released through Electronic Musician. For this contest, Sonic Reality is providing you with a collection of samples from their R.A.W. loops pack. Enter your most compelling original composition using at least one of the provided Sonic Reality R.A.W. Loops. Your song could be one of 10 submissions to make this digital mixtape, to be distributed online by Electronic Musician. Don’t be afraid to step outside of the box for this one, we’re looking for the best and most compelling submissions. Take these amazing loops and be creative! R.A.W. Platinum Special Offer: As a special bonus for the month of June all participants in the contest and all members of Sonic Reality’s affiliate e-store “esoundz” can get an incredible $250 off the price of the massive R.A.W. Platinum Edition featuring over 50,000 loops in Rex, Apple Loops in Wave spanning a large range of music styles. The discount is available now by using the coupon code RAWPLAT when ordering from esoundz here. Submissions are Due by June 24, 2010 at 3:00 PM MDT. Voting Ends June 24, 2010 at 3:00 PM MDT.” – Indaba Music

Read the full article here

04.21.2010

DrummerTracks is demonstrated on YouTube

A creative video and audio demo from MSI’s main songwriter/performer.

Showing off what one can do with the grooves of the upcoming Ken Scott DrummerTracks and the recently released EpiK DrumS – A Ken Scott Collection virtual instrument, Jimmy Urine, the front man and main songwriter of the band Mindless Self Indulgence (MSI) takes us on a trip through creating an “MSI Track” using the grooves of Woody Woodmansey from David Bowie’s Spiders from Mars. While you have faithful recreations of classic album drum tracks in both the DrummerTracks song length grooves as well as the stereo and multitrack Rex grooves of EpiK DrumS – A Ken Scott Collection, as you can see and hear there’s an unlimited range of other styles that can be created with them besides that of the original context that it came from. From Classic Rock to Fusion to Hip Hop, Electronic, R&B and more, it’s like lifting the vintage drum grooves off of timeless records and being able to create any music you want. Jimmy shows us a great example of how he would use these grooves in his style of music creation.

Watch the user demonstration here:

You can listen to the full audio track here:

04.20.2010

DrummerTracks Provide “Instant Gratification for Sketching Songs Quickly- These Rock!”

Music Connection Magazine and Gear Lust reviewer, Barry Rudolph, reviewed Sonic Reality’s new DrummerTracks, and had these quotes to share:

“For instant gratification and making up song sketches quickly, these Rock! I should think you’d want all ten albums–why limit yourself?…For drum tracks with even more live feeling, each collection includes a folder of two to four Bonus Live Tracks–drums played live not to a click track. A lot of the LZ Grooves are compressed viciously and Levee Beat is way over the top. B Grooves are a dryer and tighter sound that follows those Liverpool songs well. In the Funk Soul album the Bonus Live Tracks folder has Stacks of Soul–a drum track that sounds lifted from the ’70′s hit record and black exploitation movie Shaft. I found lots to like in all these albums of drum tracks and they are just fun to play and play along with–the most important things for me. Lastly, Sonic Reality also has an app for the iPhone® that includes 10 songs from the DrummerTracks™ range for only $1.99, The interface has speed control, count in and instant endings.” – Barry Rudolph, Music Connection

Read the full article here

04.08.2010

Music Connection reviews the new Serafine FX Tron by Sonic Reality for the Infinite Player powered by Kontakt

Barry Rudolph’s Report for Music Connection features his review of the newly released FX Tron sound effects workstation created by famous sound effects designer Frank Serafine and Sonic Reality, here are quotes from the article:

“Called FX Tron, it is a sound effects workstation that comes with a wide range of sound effects for film, TV, games, radio, music or any multimedia project. I loaded up FX Tron into my Pro Tools rig and was presented with preconfigured groups of related sound effects called Multis (multi-samples) ready to be “preformed” to picture (if you like)–using a USB/MIDI keyboard. If you have not used a Kontakt-based player before, know that each sample in a Multi has a mixer, can be truncated, altered in pitch and time to fit and processed through a set of a synth-like filters and more. Individual samples are also available to be layered, processed, and manipulated in any way you like. I also found the search ability of the Infinite Player essential for locating just the right noise for adding sound effects to picture–this feature will save hours of hunting and auditioning. FX Tron shapes up to be one of those “how did I ever get along without it” products and it is a must-have for any composer, media producer, post production house, DJ or music creator looking for film quality sound effects for their music or media productions.“ – Barry Rudolph, Music Connection

Read the full article here

04.05.2010

Ken Scott discusses EpiK DrumS: A Ken Scott Collection and the future of music recording

Elianne Halbersberg’s Report for Planet Ill features Ken Scott discussing his collaboration with Sonic Reality to create EpiK DrumS: A Ken Scott Collection, here are quotes from the article:

“As today’s producers, engineers and home-recording musicians increasingly turn toward technology to create their beats, Scott has teamed up with Sonic Reality and released the ultimate in drum software: A Ken Scott Collection — EpiK DrumS, the first in a series. EpiK DrumS features original drummers recreating their distinctive styles and making them available for use “as is,” as well as for applications and a learning tool. Planet Ill spoke with Ken Scott about EpiK DrumS, the art of recording real drums, and the future of production and technology. When asked how he got involved with Sonic Reality and the EpiK DrumS project, Scott replied, ‘I was asked so many times over the years how to get this sound and that sound, and originally there was an easy answer, but time has gone by and the gear that was used then has been thrown to the back and it’s harder to get those sounds without it. I worked on a sample project [Fab Four Virtual Instrument] a couple of years ago and it was a blast. It seemed a good way to get those sounds to people. I hooked up with Dave Kerzner and Sonic Reality and then five drummers I had worked with in the past: Bill Cobham, Bob Siebenberg, Terry Bozzio, Woody Woodmansey and Rod Morgenstein. I specifically picked them because each had a very distinctive sound and each a totally different style from the others. The result is A Ken Scott Collection – EpiK DrumS, which can either be totally played or programmed by the user, or the grooves can be pieced together. Or even a little of each.’” – Elianne Halbersberg, Planet Ill

Read the full article here

04.01.2010

Rock Royalty Ken Scott Records EpiK DrumS: Interview from UAudio.com

Here are quotes from the interview with Ken Scott about the recording of EpiK DrumS: A Ken Scott Collection, from the Universal Audio website:

“Scott had his start in the ‘60s working as a tape op at Abbey Road Studios and from there went on to engineer and produce timeless songs, such as “I Am The Walrus,” “Rocket Man,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Walk on the Wild Side,” and many others. Scott keeps busy these days with EpiK DrumS–A Ken Scott Collection, a virtual drum and groove instrument from Sonic Reality in which Scott recorded and mixed samples by his favorite drummers: Bill Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra), Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons), Woody Woodmansey (Bowie’s Spiders from Mars), Bob Siebenberg (Supertramp) and Rod Morgenstein (Dixie Dregs). This collection is so large that it comes on a hard drive. I used a Trident A-Range board with every one of these drummers. So that was the logical desk to use. Then it was trying to match up the studio that had the A-Range with the acoustics of the room that we originally recorded in. Then it was finding the mics. That was easy–costly [laughs], but we found them. And then it was on to the drums themselves. Some were easy. Terry Bozzio, one of the drummers, he still had basically the original kit that we used back in the early ’80s when I recorded him with Missing Persons. Some of the others, like for Bill Cobham, were really hard to find, because he used Plexiglas Fibes drums, who are now out of business, and it was very hard, because he used so many toms back then…we managed to patch something together, most of which is Fibes. A couple of others we had to throw in, but they matched up perfectly. I started off having them play along with the records that I’d done with them, to match up the sounds. Once I was happy with that, we just had them play the ` grooves from the records. Then once we’d got those, it was, ‘OK guys, now play whatever you want to.’ And that’s what they did. One of the things that will be happening with EpiK DrumS is called A Ken Scott Collection: EpiK DrumS. The reason it’s “a” Ken Scott collection is that we do eventually want to have “the” Ken Scott collection, which would cover lots of different instrumentation, not just drums. So the next thing that we will be doing will be all basses. And once again, it will be a similar situation, where it will be six bass players that I’ve worked with in the past very successfully, and recreating their sounds as well.” – Marsha Vdovin, Universal Audio Webzine

Read the full article here

03.29.2010

Mickie blogs about Sonic Reality’s release of 10 DrummerTracks

Mickie’s Blog for Mickie’s Zoo Blog announces and discusses DrummerTracks by Sonic Reality and the release of ten new titles, here are quotes from her blog:

“Sonic Reality, co-creators of premium sampled drum products have released 10 brand new “DrummerTracks™” titles for guitarists, bassists, keyboardists, songwriters and other musicians who want to play along with professional “album quality” drum and percussion backing tracks. Designed for songwriting inspiration, practice, play-along performance and fun, DrummerTracks™ offer the same high-quality drum sounds that Sonic Reality is known for in a simple easy-format that anyone can use…Sonic Reality is releasing two different versions of DrummerTracks titles: Pro Wave and Standard MP3 Editions. The Pro Wave Edition titles have full CD quality WAVE files that can work in any media player, DAW or recorder/player. They come with the license to create commercially released music using the included DrummerTracks of that title. Pro Wave Edition DrummerTracks titles include 10 drum songs that lock to tempo plus additional bonus “live” tracks with natural drift and loose human feel. The Standard MP3 Edition titles come with 10 high-quality compressed MP3 format drum songs with no additional bonus tracks. Offered at a lower price, they come with a recreational-use license only and do not include the professional commercial use license that comes with the Pro Wave Editions. DrummerTracks Standard MP3 Editions are ideal for use with iPod®, iPhone®, iPad® and any MP3 player. It is as simple to use as pressing the play button on the player and jamming along with your musical instrument anywhere you go. For on-going official and unofficial “user demo” videos and contests, please follow DrummerTracks on Twitter and Facebook, and please visit the YouTube channel.” – Mickie, Mickie’s Zoo Blog

Read the full article here