Steven Slate Drums 4.0

[Grandescape]

Is there a option to upgrade from SSD 4 ex to platinum or did I missed something? I have been testing ex and it's great.

[PaulRain]

if I'm not mistaken you must wait till the end of february when all discouted upgrades from 3.5 expire then there will be an "upgrade" feature in the ssd online store.

[Grandescape]

Originally Posted by PaulRain

if I'm not mistaken you must wait till the end of february when all discouted upgrades from 3.5 expire then there will be an "upgrade" feature in the ssd online store.

Then i´ll wait. Thank you.

[cavern]

ETA on the first 4.0 update?
Not pushing,just checking in.

[Ivorydom]

Hey Steven,

Two things keep me from using it right now and I find me going back to the Kontakt version instead:
Dedicated crash cymbal channel
Midi mapping

Are these included in the update?

[zeljkom]

Originally Posted by Ivorydom

Hey Steven,


Dedicated crash cymbal channel


Are these included in the update?

+1.

[The MPCist]

[Steven Slate]

Hi guys.. You can easily adjust crash levels right now. Go to construct page, hit any of the crashes, and then adjust their mic levels to the overhead and room channels.

The crashes, just as in a real kit, are heard in the overhead and room mics. There is no spot mic. So in the mixer, the only thing I could think of is adding crash channels when you hit BLEED LEVELS, because there should NOT be a fader for them.

The update is done, we are testing it now in private beta, and will release it very soon.

There is a LOT of cool stuff coming for SSD4. Potential users should also take note that we have brand new global servers which will cut international download speeds in half. But mainly, we are working with several top drummers to expand and improve the groove library.

More news soon,

Steven

[Clonkified]

Great to hear Steven - does this update fix the Vienna Ensemble Pro issues? I'm still itching to buy the upgrade from 3.5 Platinum once VEP integration works.

[AshleySmith06]

Originally Posted by Clonkified

Great to hear Steven - does this update fix the Vienna Ensemble Pro issues? I'm still itching to buy the upgrade from 3.5 Platinum once VEP integration works.

No dice as yet with support for VEPro I'm afraid (as of 1.0.7 and test builds for VSL). Working progress.

[Ivorydom]

Originally Posted by Steven Slate

Hi guys.. You can easily adjust crash levels right now. Go to construct page, hit any of the crashes, and then adjust their mic levels to the overhead and room channels.

The crashes, just as in a real kit, are heard in the overhead and room mics. There is no spot mic. So in the mixer, the only thing I could think of is adding crash channels when you hit BLEED LEVELS, because there should NOT be a fader for them.

The update is done, we are testing it now in private beta, and will release it very soon.

There is a LOT of cool stuff coming for SSD4. Potential users should also take note that we have brand new global servers which will cut international download speeds in half. But mainly, we are working with several top drummers to expand and improve the groove library.

More news soon,

Steven

This is clear thanks Steve. However I still cannot understand why there should be a dedicated channel for the rides or the China (!!!) cymbal and not for the crash. I am sure it can be implemented.

Another question I have been having:

Is there any way to make the Platinum kits sound the SAME in SSD4 like they did in SSD3.5?

Sometimes I load the same kit both in SSD4 and in Kontakt and the Kontakt version sounds much beefier. I have found the reason about that. It's because the Room mics are mixed much lower. With some tweaking you can get almost to the same result as 3.5 (except maybe for the limiter in the snare). But I would expect to be able to get identical sound in SSD4, since the kits are the same.

I know it's small things , but I find myself using the Kontakt version unless I want to use some of the new kits. Which is a shame.

[Dave.R]

Originally Posted by Steven Slate

But mainly, we are working with several top drummers to expand and improve the groove library.

[skiltrip]

I'm hoping there are some stability fixes in the new update.

[icebox]

Originally Posted by skiltrip

I'm hoping there are some stability fixes in the new update.

+1. Also Steven, the midi world is in dire need of straight ahead, NO FILLS, 4 and 8 bar long midi. Boom, Ka, Boom Boom Ka. Pleeeeease.

[Steven Slate]

Originally Posted by Ivorydom

This is clear thanks Steve. However I still cannot understand why there should be a dedicated channel for the rides or the China (!!!) cymbal and not for the crash. I am sure it can be implemented.

Another question I have been having:

Is there any way to make the Platinum kits sound the SAME in SSD4 like they did in SSD3.5?

Sometimes I load the same kit both in SSD4 and in Kontakt and the Kontakt version sounds much beefier. I have found the reason about that. It's because the Room mics are mixed much lower. With some tweaking you can get almost to the same result as 3.5 (except maybe for the limiter in the snare). But I would expect to be able to get identical sound in SSD4, since the kits are the same.

I know it's small things , but I find myself using the Kontakt version unless I want to use some of the new kits. Which is a shame.

I found that I could get a bit more body from the China by adding a spot mic, so therefore it does have the spot mic fader in the MIXER, as does the ride. With the crashes, I didn't find that adding a spot mic added anything that I liked, so it was kept off.

For SSD 3.5 Classic vs 4.0 Classic, indeed the room bleed is a bit higher.. I'll make sure to lower it more like the 3.5 for a future update. I think the cymbals in 4.0 alone make the newer classic kits much more realistic.

Originally Posted by skiltrip

I'm hoping there are some stability fixes in the new update.

Yes there is.. mainly some major RAM updates and fixes.

Originally Posted by icebox

+1. Also Steven, the midi world is in dire need of straight ahead, NO FILLS, 4 and 8 bar long midi. Boom, Ka, Boom Boom Ka. Pleeeeease.

Jerry Lyons is about to start a thread at our SSD forum Steven Slate Drums • Index page where he will ask for suggestions on new MIDI grooves that he will be recording this week. Please throw some comments his way!

Cheers,
Steven

[Ivorydom]

Originally Posted by Steven Slate

I found that I could get a bit more body from the China by adding a spot mic, so therefore it does have the spot mic fader in the MIXER, as does the ride. With the crashes, I didn't find that adding a spot mic added anything that I liked, so it was kept off.

For SSD 3.5 Classic vs 4.0 Classic, indeed the room bleed is a bit higher.. I'll make sure to lower it more like the 3.5 for a future update. I think the cymbals in 4.0 alone make the newer classic kits much more realistic.


Cheers,
Steven

Ok, that's fair enough. Although I would appreciate some basic level metering in the mixer channels in the future

Actually, in SSD4 I have to raise the level of the Room mics in order to make it sound more like v3.5. it seems that in the Kontakt version the room mics are mixed at a higher level.

And yes, that would be sweet, because sometimes backwards compatibility is important

[clasam]

Stupid question alert!

I'm trying to record Slate's groove player...I hear the groove during recording, but nothing during playback!

Works fine when recording with the built in Virtual MIDI keyboard, however.

Any thoughts?

[dino321]

Hey Steven what did you do to the Classic kits? They sound waaaaaay better! I never used the toms and kicks in 3.5 because I found them mushy and boomy but now they are crisp and articulate with much better detail. I'm as happy with them as I am with the Deluxe kits.

[patchesprescott]

I have gotten all the drum sounds to work with the kit construction EXCEPT the smallest tom. No sounds will load for that drum. I am not sure if one of the downloaded libraries is exclusively dedicated to the smallest tom..? Maybe for some reason that one didn't load onto my hard drive.

Also, the only grooves that are showing up in the drum sampler are the 001 Deluxe Grooves with the Alternative (44 111), Indie Rock (44 125), and Country Rock (68 075).

I put all the grooves in the same library as the rest of my drum library. Should I not have done this?
When I open the drum library folder, it looks like the grooves are still within their own respective folders. Is this why they are not showing up?

Can anyone advise!

[GPl]

Check out THIS youtube video for setting up folders for your midi grooves.

[Steven Slate]

I've been knee deep working on the SSD4 Player and the results will be pleasing! Check your emails later today, as I'm gonna send out a newsletter with more info.

Cheers,
Steven

[skiltrip]

Originally Posted by Steven Slate

I've been knee deep working on the SSD4 Player and the results will be pleasing! Check your emails later today, as I'm gonna send out a newsletter with more info.

Cheers,
Steven

Good to hear. I just did a clean wipe/install of Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro, and I won't be re-installing SSD4 until the new updated version is released.

[Webb]

So how does one move the GUI window? I'm on PT 10 and cannot move the plug-in window at all. Is that normal?

Also, on the Construct Kit window, are the boxes next to the picture of the kit supposed to populate when loading a preset kit? Everything plays fine, but the only box that shows is snare. All the others say "empty".

[PapaSon]

With the platinum version, is there a way to get a dry, snare sound without the room? Same goes for kick. I need a Motown type sound, not heavy metal. Please help.

[Steven Slate]

Sure, just turn of the room mics. There are some preset kits perfect for that type of sound in Deluxe Vintage and also the Dan Steel kit would work great for Motown.

For PT10 window issues, support will be able to diagnose the issue.

Cheers,
Steven

[skiltrip]

What's with the chokes? I just used Rock Kit 1 in a song. I've got cymbal chokes at the end. The MIDI message chokes sound terrible. Unusable really. Why aren't there actual sampled chokes? I THINK Kontakt and SD 3.5 had them. Because I had used 3.5 in this same session a few months ago and the chokes sounded great.

What's the deal here?

[PaulRain]

installed the new version of SSD 4..... are we sure the RAM issues ahve been solved?
I had a couple of crashes yesterday evening, could be something else though

[shatz]

No crashes yet with new update on windows 7 64 bit in pro tools 10 native. Seems the CPU was drastically reduced. I opened a session we were working on before to record some more tracks, and for some reason in this particular session the ssd player was giving me pro tools errors but now is running flawlessly. And this is with everything set to high in the settings tab.

[Jayrawk]

Anyone having luck locking io maps?

[thefyn]

Originally Posted by icebox

+1. Also Steven, the midi world is in dire need of straight ahead, NO FILLS, 4 and 8 bar long midi. Boom, Ka, Boom Boom Ka. Pleeeeease.

haha for real. Just 8 variations of one beat would be lush, and 4 rolls over 4 and 8 bars would be lusher.