Steven Slate Drums 4.0

[RiKi]

It's time for an Update Steven

[yairhol]

Anyone know anything about Steven Slate Drums 4?

[PRPS]

Originally Posted by Jason Washburn

Looking foward to see and hear more from the SSD4 product too.

agreed

[lxm]

I dont understand why these libs dont have mapping. The most BASIC thing that is needed for MIDI drums.

IE. AD or NI drums.

[Steven Slate]

SSD4 got mapping. Easy easy mapping editor. Map map map, save your own custom mappings, trade mappings with your friends, talk to your mappings, debate your mappings...

I think you get the idea.

Cheers,
Steven

[lxm]

AK YA! Now I can buy your stuff! Im a hand.....sonic type player.

[Ivorydom]

SSD Platinum user here. Is the release of SSD 4.0 still far away? :-)

[PRPS]

Originally Posted by Ivorydom

SSD Platinum user here. Is the release of SSD 4.0 still far away? :-)

I might be wrong but i think it's in beta testing at the moment

Posted via the Gearslutz iPhone app

[mitch_the_bitch]

I use the SSD 3.5 version a lot.. and I love the kits.... very useful for layering.

But what I always missed are good sounding OH's.... don't get me wrong... I'm a big fan of Slate products... but the cymbals are sounding awful in the 3.5 version.... hope 4.0 will also improve on that issue.

[Mr XY]

Originally Posted by mitch_the_bitch

I use the SSD 3.5 version a lot.. and I love the kits.... very useful for layering.

But what I always missed are good sounding OH's.... don't get me wrong... I'm a big fan of Slate products... but the cymbals are sounding awful in the 3.5 version.... hope 4.0 will also improve on that issue.

Absolutely agree with this - big fan of the kit sounds - but the cymbals - especially the crashes sound pretty bad - always thought it was odd.

[Norrie]

I cant wait for the release date

[oceantracks]

Originally Posted by NashvilleDan

My biggest gripe with SSD 3.5 would definately have to be the cymbals/overheads/room mic situation. Listening to countless multitracks of great Nashville session drummers playing great sounding kits, the biggest thing missing from the digital drum realm is the energy, spacialness and flavor provided by multiple room mics/thicker crashes and rides, bleeding of certain drums into other microphones, and overall room vibe.

I have found SSD 3.5 to be very useable in my world of pop/rock/country recordings, primarily by starting with the Old Zep kit (which is most realistic to my ears) turning them down quite a bit and blending with the realist sounding kick/snare SSD has to offer, as well as some careful panning of room mics to add space, I have got myself a really, REALLY great sounding believable studio kit.

My hopes are that when 4.0 comes out, the primary focus is placed on user interface (multi/out/mixer) and realness, and believability of the kits themselves. Even with the best programming out there, you can only make it as real as it sounds.

Dan

Dan this is why I like Superior, for the room and bleed control, unfortunately they don't seem to know how to give us kick samples like SSD has. I often combine the two. Plus the cymbals I find are far...well..superior.

TH

[mitch_the_bitch]

I agree with the cymbals in Superior.... Superior has the best sounding cymbals, OH's and rooms of all similar products in my opinion. Kits on Superior are not processed like SSD... that's why they doesn't sound similar. They are completely natural sounding.

[yairhol]

Originally Posted by mitch_the_bitch

I agree with the cymbals in Superior.... Superior has the best sounding cymbals, OH's and rooms of all similar products in my opinion. Kits on Superior are not processed like SSD... that's why they doesn't sound similar. They are completely natural sounding.

The whole purpose of SSD is the processed "mix ready" sound.

[Norrie]

Originally Posted by yairhol

The whole purpose of SSD is the processed "mix ready" sound.

Agreed but I hear SSD4 Will change all that

[musicianof1]

I thought there were going to be at least some some audio demos posted way back in the beginning of the year. Did I miss them or did they ever come to fruition?

[Steven Slate]

Here is another Deluxe Kit teaser with no processing except the room mics have a bit of compression.. All the cymbals are custom Soultone Turkish cymbals..

http://soundcloud.com/docrobert/ssd4teaser

[oceantracks]

Yeah I'm still not feeling the love on those crashes....

[oceantracks]

Originally Posted by mitch_the_bitch

I agree with the cymbals in Superior.... Superior has the best sounding cymbals, OH's and rooms of all similar products in my opinion. Kits on Superior are not processed like SSD... that's why they doesn't sound similar. They are completely natural sounding.

Yes...but they still don't have strong kick drum samples. No matter what you do to them they still don't have the "ummph" of some of Steven's. They all have a kind of paper like sound to them that I don't like or hear much on real records. Increasing the SUB in the mix helps, but it's still the basic samples.

Also, they don't seem to have any lower tuned snares, which I hear a lot on records, though I do find their Ludwig to be good on so many things it almost makes up for it.

I wonder sometimes if Superior has just stopped production on kits, there's been nothing really new in awhile, and they let bugs go own FOREVER with no updates.

[chrisso]

Which Toontrack products do you own?
Which bugs that go on forever are you talking about?

[Steven Slate]

We have a lot of variety of crashes from the Soultone line.. any drummer who has played Soultone will certainly chime in that they are really fantastic sounding.

Cheers,
Steven

[musicianof1]

Originally Posted by Steven Slate

Here is another Deluxe Kit teaser with no processing except the room mics have a bit of compression.. All the cymbals are custom Soultone Turkish cymbals..

http://soundcloud.com/docrobert/ssd4teaser

As an avid user of Superior, BFD 2 and Mixosaurus, I think SSD 4 sounds awesome. Cymbals and all!

[yairhol]

Steven,
Is there a release date for SSD 4?

[Leechlife]

Hi

did you notice steven is never really commenting on any release date or time frame.
I think I saw on some presentation a guess for somewhen in September, if they get their act together, but being in the software dev buisness myself, the chance of that happening is quite low, unless their coffee supply is extremely good (and coffee in the USA just sucks, ... ), so, ...

so any good hope is somewhen before Christmas.

I am really waiting for it. I don't care to much for new sounds, but really hate the non existing custom mapping. That sucks so badly. I am not in the mood for writing some KONTAKT scripts. I wanna have fun, not work .

so bring it on, where is the bloody SSD4, in that pace we will see bfd3 before ssd4 4 , and the fx guys are extremely slow in getting something new out, ...
Small teams and large code bases don't match, ...

cheers

[bryan k]

Rumor has it, .......that SSD4 is already in Private Beta testing.

I also recall hearing Steve say "were hoping for a Fall/September" release (at a recent music workshop showing off SSD4)

[musicianof1]

It is definitely in the beta testing stage. I heard the release would likely be early September but that is always subject to change.

[oceantracks]

Originally Posted by chrisso

Which Toontrack products do you own?
Which bugs that go on forever are you talking about?

Own the basic kit that comes with Superior and have heard all the demos for the other kits.

One particularly nasty bug that they know about and have done nothing to fix is when you go to BOUNCE within SD....if you dare to create a new folder for the drums bounce while in the dialog the program crashes. Been going on for ages.

Also wish it was much easier to substitute kit pieces, as many have requested. But I still think it's the best overall drum program out there.

TH

[mitch_the_bitch]

Originally Posted by Steven Slate

Here is another Deluxe Kit teaser with no processing except the room mics have a bit of compression.. All the cymbals are custom Soultone Turkish cymbals..

http://soundcloud.com/docrobert/ssd4teaser

I really hate to say.. but I still don't like the crashes neither... :( The rest like hh and ride improved though! Kit as always... for me no other choice!

[WarrenBeat]

Originally Posted by Steven Slate

We have a lot of variety of crashes from the Soultone line.. any drummer who has played Soultone will certainly chime in that they are really fantastic sounding.

Cheers,
Steven

I've bought SD Trigger EX today, amazing stuff Steven, I think it totally kills Drumagog. I'm waiting for those deluxe expansion kits.

[chrisso]

Originally Posted by oceantracks

Own the basic kit that comes with Superior and have heard all the demos for the other kits.

Avatar has the thinnest sounds IMO.
My own 'The Classic' (ezx) focused on fat kicks and low tuned snares.
It was recently on sale for $39 and works perfectly in Superior.
Also, Platinum 'Evil Drums' has fat kicks, and incidentally sounds pretty different to most other SDX's.
There have been several updates to the Superior software. As you claim one bug has not been addressed, it doesn't really tally with your post that bugs (plural) go on forever unaddressed.