Steven Slate Drum Samples... Demo MP3s Posted

[LaLaFaV]

I think the "hard" hits would be more appropriate for that particular song. The quieter sections especially, because of the dynamics of the cymbals. The ride is being hit in a mellow sort of way and this makes the "cracks" sound odd to me.

[Bang]

Originally Posted by gm5k

started using my SS samples today for the first time. these are easily the best samples ive ever had the pleasure of using. before this i had been using the Reason Refill Drumkit...still am for cymbals and hihat, but not for long right?

Yes there will be a Reason Refill kits mapping... Glad you dig the samps.

We have some great surprises coming out.. new sample sets, cymbals, mappings, new and old pros revealing themselves... and of course, free for all current users.

[Bang]

briefcase, try snare 4, 6, or 8. The sample you used for that song is too heavy and aggressive, you need to choose a more vintagey sample imo. Also, for most of that song, as the manual says, it needs the hards more then the cracks. I would hardly think a drummer would be rim cracking for that kind of music, so eliminate the cracks or adjust the velocity in drumagog. I honestly think this mix will sound amazing with the right sample and the right velocity tweaking, send me some tracks if you have problems and I'll help you with it. Its going to sound great, I promise.

[Animus]

Bang, did you get to meet our esteemed moderator over at the Nuendo forums?

[Bang]

Oh you mean Fredo? Its all good, thats a great forum over there.

Anyway, we'll be posting a lot of awesome new audio demos soon, some replacement drums, some programmed stuff with the new cymbals! These things program so realistically and smoothly, can't wait to show it off.

[briefcasemanx]

I thought I read in the manual that you usually used the cracks more than the hards, but maybe you're mixing different styles of music where that would be appropriate more often. Also do you think it's weird that I would prefer the group 2 gogs, the 2nd to last hardest hits, for this song? It seems like the group 2 is edging out the group 3(hards) a little bit. I'm gonna do 2 mixdowns and compare on other speakers though.

Also I think adding unprocessed samples would cut some of the negative chatter, as well as make the set EVEN MORE versatile.

[Bang]

Hey man. If it sounds good, it is good. To my ears, the song you posted would work best using the HARD as the highest velocity since the original drum isn't that poppy or aggressive.

I use the cracks most of the time, but the example you posted the drummer wasn't "cracking" his snare so the cracks didn't fit in.


As for unprocessed, if someone wants a raw track, just use the original raw track you got! Why replace then?

I'm happy to say our drums are ready for the finished mix, and they have found fans with many people including some guys I really look up to like Mike Shipley and Steve MacMillan.

Briefcase, give it some more time and play with them a bit more, I think you'll get the knack, adjust your velocity zones in Drumagog according to the original sound of the snare. And really, if you find yourself stuck, email me and we'll give you an ftp to send me some wavs and I'll help you out personally. I promise we'll get it kick ass sounding, just a few tweaks with the replacement is all that is needed.

[moogman]

Originally Posted by Bang

We have plans to make a cymbal pack and then map for:

Kontakt2
GigaStudio
Halion
Battery
SampleTank2
Cakewalk Session Drummer
anything else???

Digidesign's upcoming "Structure," perhaps?

[Steve MacMillan]

Originally Posted by moogman

Digidesign's upcoming "Structure," perhaps?

Logic EXS would be good.

[Bang]

We're going to experiment on how well EXS opens the Kontakt format. Apparently, a lot of the software samps will open each others formats. We'll see if it works well, we'll be testing all weekend. If not, we'll do a custom map for EXS.

Basically, the way this thing will work with the samplers is this:

There will be an audition setup where all the kicks and snares will be lined up, and then all the cymbals and toms, with a simple switch to go from Z1-3. This way you'll get a good idea of the drums and which ones you'll like for that particular mix. And then we'll have about 25 kits in GM with various samples for certain musical genres. You'll obviously be able to swap out drums and customize.

Lots of cool news coming out, great to see Steve MacMillan here as well, truely an amazing talent!

[Steve MacMillan]

We're going to experiment on how well EXS opens the Kontakt format. Apparently, a lot of the software samps will open each others formats. We'll see if it works well, we'll be testing all weekend. If not, we'll do a custom map for EXS.

Hi Steven,

I'm mixing a project where I'm using your Kick2 Z2 to enhance my kick and its really working great.

Last I checked, it worked the other way around. Kontakt 2 will open EXS patches, but I don't believe the EXS will open Kontakt. The EXS will import Akai, Giga, & Sample Cell though.

STeve

[TheSweetener]

Originally Posted by moogman

Digidesign's upcoming "Structure," perhaps?

...and Linplug RMIV

[Bang]

Originally Posted by Steve MacMillan

Hi Steven,

I'm mixing a project where I'm using your Kick2 Z2 to enhance my kick and its really working great.

Last I checked, it worked the other way around. Kontakt 2 will open EXS patches, but I don't believe the EXS will open Kontakt. The EXS will import Akai, Giga, & Sample Cell though.

STeve

We have Giga almost fully mapped minus some more cymbals, we'll have to experiment opening that in EXS to see how it works. Kick2 is one of my favorites, and like you said, it augments really nicely adding a good snap to the original drums. I also just did a mix for a pop/rock group where I used it 100% for replacement and the drummer was loving it, along with snare 1A.

[DAWgEAR]

Re: Bang's offer to briefcase ... now that's some customer service! Dude, you rock!

[GPl]

Steve, did yiu get a chance to check into Stylus RMX? That's the only sampler I use. Mostly do live drums but it would be cool if we could get your samples working with groove control in RMX.

[wolffy]

The groove control in RMX works with chopped up loops, not individual samples. So you would have to program a loop yourself, use Recycle to make it a rex loop, use the RMX rex converter, then load it into RMX. RMX can trigger individual slices/samples, but that's what normal samplers are for. In other words, if I were Steve I wouldn't see much point in providing his samples in RMX format. Is it even possible to create a sample library in RMX format?

[GPl]

Originally Posted by wolffy

The groove control in RMX works with chopped up loops, not individual samples. So you would have to program a loop yourself, use Recycle to make it a rex loop, use the RMX rex converter, then load it into RMX. RMX can trigger individual slices/samples, but that's what normal samplers are for. In other words, if I were Steve I wouldn't see much point in providing his samples in RMX format. Is it even possible to create a sample library in RMX format?

That's a good point! I would say forget about my query on RMX.

[Jake 2.0]

Cannot wait for the sampler mappings. you are gonna rule the world steven slate! lol

[Benmrx]

So, I broke down and placed an order about an hour ago

I got one of the last WAV. only disc specials for $100, so I feel pretty good about the purchase. I know I won't be getting any of the upgrades, but I don't use drumagog (I prefer either tab to transient or the Kenny Gioia method), and I've got some pretty nice cymbals to work with already. I usually just use my own samples to enhance the kick and snare, but for the project I'm currently working on, my samples are a bit too "pretty", and aren't really fitting the project very well.

Here's my question for either Steven or from anyone that has some experience with the disc.

I read on one of the other topics for the slate drums that there are also some snare rolls on the disc, in addition to the regular "hits". Is this true?

Here's a couple quotes from that topic

I haven't even started going thru the snare rolls on the disc yet. How are you guys using these for rolls? Or are you using the regular hits and pasting them for the rolls

and this was the response from Steven Slate (AKA, Bang)

Andrew, when I see an actual buzz roll like part, I just paste the rolls onto an adjacent two tracks and match them to the original rolls. I will even chop up the rolls and use them as ghost rolls between hits. Once you get used to it, it doesn't take more then ten minutes to do a whole 3:30 song

I can't find any info anywhere on their site saying the disc includes rolls? Are there rolls for each of the different snares? Are there rolls that also implement the "Z" system????

[Bang]

Hey man, congrats, you got the last wav only disc.

There are some great buzzrolls in each sample set. And yes they are sampled in the Z system in each room ambience. They will especially be useful when we release the sampler mappings. For manual use, I just paste them where needed, they work great. If you listen to the audio demo called ROCK BALLAD FULL MIX on the site you can hear subtle snare rolls between hits where I pasted them. Here it is:

www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate4.mp3

[Benmrx]

AWSOME! I'm Soooo glad I made that purchase first thing this morning. I saw it last night while reading up on the disc, and figured that the WAV. only disc would be perfect for me. And I figured those cheaper discs would be sold out soon.

So, I listened to the demo on that link, and I can hear what your talking about, as far as placing those ghost rolls between hits (sounded quite nice btw), but I was more talking about actual snare rolls, where the drummer might do a roll for the entire length of a bar.

How long are those "buzz roll" samples?
Do you think they would work for a long snare roll part?

[Bang]

The rolls are pretty long, if you went back forth from the left right samples you'd have a real buzz roll. Basically we had Jerry and Joel do buzz rolls but told them to axe one hand.. so you got the real deal. For programming they rule.

[Benmrx]

You're the man.

OK, one last question, I swear......I guess I'll find out when I get the disc, but I just can't wait.

Are there any flam hits on the snares? Where the drummer hits the snare with both sticks, but just slightly off from each other?

[Bang]

Good news is that you don't need to have premade flams because using drumagog or even doing it manually, you can create flams. A flam is just two really close hits that slightly overlap, you can literally try this now with the wav pack, put a snare on a track, then overlap it with another so the first snare's peak is still there. Whammo. Flam city. Drumagog will recreate this automatically if the there is a flam on the source.

[Benmrx]

Right on, that's how I've done it in the past as far as overlapping the hits. I just had to ask, because the drummer I just got done tracking flams the snare ALOT....too much if you ask me, but I had a hard enough time getting him to lay off the cymbals.

Thanks again for the info. Can't wait for the disc to get here.

[lydpik]

Hey Stephen

How about some more toms? It's pretty rare that the drummers I have in my studio "only" have 3 toms or less.

Thats the only disappointing I got when I received the CD a few weeks ago.

Keep up the good work-!!

[Bang]

Yeah when the newest version comes out (which again, free for all users), you'll see that along with the sampler stuff and cymbals, there will be at least 4 new snares, a few new kicks, and then a 4 tom rock set, 10, 12, 14, 16. Its all going to be CUSTOM made drums made for drummer Adrian Ost of Powerman 5000 who will also be doing the hitting. Let me tell you, the drums sound out of this planet.

FOR NOW, put the 14 inch birch tom into the Maple set so you have 10, 12, 14, 16. I should put that in the manual. Even though they are different shells, it would be hard to believe that a music listener would say "something was weird about that tom fill.. its almost as if the shell material of the third tom was different" Its a workaround but it'll work till the update.

[lydpik]

Originally Posted by Bang

Yeah when the newest version comes out (which again, free for all users), you'll see that along with the sampler stuff and cymbals, there will be at least 4 new snares, a few new kicks, and then a 4 tom rock set, 10, 12, 14, 16. Its all going to be CUSTOM made drums made for drummer Adrian Ost of Powerman 5000 who will also be doing the hitting. Let me tell you, the drums sound out of this planet.

FOR NOW, put the 14 inch birch tom into the Maple set so you have 10, 12, 14, 16. I should put that in the manual. Even though they are different shells, it would be hard to believe that a music listener would say "something was weird about that tom fill.. its almost as if the shell material of the third tom was different" Its a workaround but it'll work till the update.

Great, That's what I was hoping to hear!

Good idea about using the 14 inch birch tom... I also thought about pitching the 16 inch tom a fifth note down, that could also work. I've done that with my samples in the past, just to get them to tune better with the acoustic toms. With a good pitch plugin e.g the Soundshifter from Waves, it sounds pretty authentic to me.

Any release date for the new version yet?

[Jason Poulin]

I've nuked a few stereo drum tracks through a pair of Distressors for that smashy smacky wacky effect...

I'm about to start mixing with these samples now... and I just can't wait to put it all together.

F**K YEA!!!!





Jason

[briefcasemanx]

Originally Posted by Bang

Yeah when the newest version comes out (which again, free for all users), you'll see that along with the sampler stuff and cymbals, there will be at least 4 new snares, a few new kicks, and then a 4 tom rock set, 10, 12, 14, 16. Its all going to be CUSTOM made drums made for drummer Adrian Ost of Powerman 5000 who will also be doing the hitting. Let me tell you, the drums sound out of this planet.

FOR NOW, put the 14 inch birch tom into the Maple set so you have 10, 12, 14, 16. I should put that in the manual. Even though they are different shells, it would be hard to believe that a music listener would say "something was weird about that tom fill.. its almost as if the shell material of the third tom was different" Its a workaround but it'll work till the update.

Whoa, that sounds awesome, even more!!

Oh, and if we did that FTP thing, how would you want the files? like a stereo mix file minus the snare, and then the snare file separated? I don't think I'll have time to use your advice before this song needs to be done for the ummm....."client", but it would be cool to see how you did your drumagog settings.