Steven Slate Drum Samples... Demo MP3s Posted

[Bang]

Hey man, I just quickly wanted to make clear that the ONLY demos that there IS artificial verb on is, according to the demo numbers on the website.. demo 1, 6, and 7. EVERY OTHER demo uses Z2 samples which have a "built in" little burst of compressed room ambience for a very big and natural sound.

Now to answer your question, if I am using Z1 samples which do not have a lot of ambience on them, and I want some more verb, I'll use a Lexicon PCM 70, and not a specific patch, but it'll probably be a chamber of some sort. AND I always eq the top end of it on the return channels. But most of the time if I want ambience, I'll just use the Z2 part of the sample set, it sounds bigger.

I actually modeled my Z2 room ambience somewhat on the Lexi sound. I found that simply compressing and eqing the room mics sounded natural, but didn't quite deliver in a mix. So I experimented with various modulation and subtle distortion to add a unique thickness to the compressed ambience, and the result is a larger then life sound that really stays dimensional and punchy even in thick mixes.

Last, I wanted to say that while my demos are replacing the drums 100% to show off their sounds, a lot of my beta testers and now actual users, have been saying how beautifully the samples ENHANCE the original drums when using the samples to AUGMENT rather then replace. Overall, the feedback has been great and I'm really glad that so many people are enjoying the sounds. I will soon have a section on the website for USER mp3s, which should be fun to hear.

[RoundBadge]

Originally Posted by Bang

RoundBadge this sounds awesome, not just the drums, the whole mix is great. Good stuff, glad you are liking the disc. Can you tell us which of the samples you used if you recall?

Krid, as Jason said, I use the RMS 755 on my two mix a lot. Its like a hifi SSL comp, its great.

Thanks..it's an ITB quickie ref.
It'll go through a console later
Kick - #9 [Z1]
Snare-#8 [Z1]

thumbsup

[six_wax]

I'd love to hear some more samples... Kinda feel like I've only heard a couple kicks & snares, which is a bit much to plunk down 2 c-notes for...

fwiw, I'm not just griping: I'm seriously in the market to buy; Just want to be able to make sure I'm getting my money's worth. THanks!

[Bang]

I'll post a bunch more examples tomorrow. There are a ton of different sounds. To get an idea, look at www.stevenslatedrums.com/drumindex.html

Now multiply each of those by 3, and some 4, since each sample is put into various room ambiences and some gear changes. Six, is there a particular type of sound you are looking to hear? Let me know, and chances are, I'll provide you with a demo.

Initial user reports are saying that problems occur because of the difficulty of choosing from the many sounds you do get. I for one can tell you that when choosing the few samples for the demos, I was going back and forth between a bunch of favorites.

[six_wax]

Well, I'm a little uneasy because
1) the volume of samples seems pretty limited, though the tonal quality is surely there!
2) there doesn't seem to be any multi-sampling --essentially a single "money-shot" hit per sound
3) it's about twice the price of what I would expect to pay for this sort of product

Put that all together, and I pretty much want to hear it all before I plunk down the cash. You might consider doing a "buffet-style" demo of the sounds cycling every 2 bars in a simple beat. (You could do this over a synth pad or bassline to insure that nobody would try to scrape your hard work from the demo!)

Just my $.02... I'm still anxious to hear more.

fwiw, you obvisously put a great deal of work into this, and everything I've heard sounds great!

[Bang]

Originally Posted by six_wax

Well, I'm a little uneasy because
1) the volume of samples seems pretty limited, though the tonal quality is surely there!
2) there doesn't seem to be any multi-sampling --essentially a single "money-shot" hit per sound
3) it's about twice the price of what I would expect to pay for this sort of product

1. I feel like a broken record here, but the samples are multi velocity, and this is audible on the buildups of more then one of the demos. Furthermore, this is rock music. 95% of the hits SHOULD be the hardest velocity hits. Thats how it should sound, thats how the original drummer hit, and when Drumagog replaces the original hits, it replaces them with the hard velocity hits.

2. There is multisampling. There is 4 to 6 money shots per velocity, I have said this before if you read through the post you will find it more then once, and it is VERY audible in the demos. No two hits in the same velocity sound exactly the same.

3. There is no "this sort of product" out there. If there was, I wouldn't have spent a year doing this thing. I'm a mixer, its what I do for a living. I get tracks all the time where the drums needs some samples. So tried everything out there. Nothing sounded pro. Really. So what you get from this disc are some of the best sounding drum hits, READY to be put in a mix, processed with 20,000 dollars of the best of new and vintage gear, with huge transient smack and fatness to die for. Like i've said a lot in this post, they are mulitsampled, multi velocity, and EACH SAMPLE SET HAS 3 ROOM CHOICES.

With "other drum products" you can pay 100 dollars or MORE for about two, maybe three drum kits. With Steven Slate drums, you have about 14 drum kits and endless mixed combinations, from hard metal stuff, to pop rock, to rock, to slow thuddy ballad stuff.. its all there. The fact that I'm giving away all these amazing sounds, the same sounds that I've sold to some of the top mixers in the country who have used these sounds on platinum records, for $199, is quite a bargain imnsho.

Six wax, I don't mean to sound harsh if it has come across like that, but many of the things you have said have been addressed more then once in this thread. I will say this, I see that you are in LA, and I invite you to come to the studio whenever you so desire, and I will play every sample on the disc for you, and show you each velocity and multisample. In fact, bring a session on PT or Nuendo and we'll get something you can take home.

[six_wax]

Apologies for having missed some info that was in the thread already, and thanks for the lengthy reply...

[six_wax]

And now back to our program...

I'm mostly interested in the Pop-styled snares. Since it's tricky to sort out a snare that'll meld with what's coming through the overheads, a little variety is key. If you're able to throw a demo of the different snares up, that'd be great.

Again, I am very much in the market to buy...

Thanks!

[Bang]

Ask and though shall receive six wax!! NEW DEMO!!!

This one has THREE very different kick/snare sounds, AS WELL as the original tracks, and has a bit more dynamics to it.

www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate14.mp3

starts out with mellow snare 4 and thuddy kick 6, then to the originals, then goes to snare 9 with its amazing crack and kick 8 with it punchy roundness, then ends with kick 5 the metal kick and snare 10 the fatty smacker!! Throughout the demo, birch toms are used for tom replacement.

six, you can also go to the page and check out the pop rock demo, it has another snare, snare 7, which is a cracky maple that has been used in quite a lot of pop mixes.

[Jason Poulin]

Originally Posted by six_wax

And now back to our program...

I'm mostly interested in the Pop-styled snares. Since it's tricky to sort out a snare that'll meld with what's coming through the overheads, a little variety is key. If you're able to throw a demo of the different snares up, that'd be great.

Again, I am very much in the market to buy...

Thanks!

Roundbadge posted a somewhat poppy tune using the samples.

worth checking out dude

and $200 for processed samples using the list of gear that Steve mentioned above is well worth it. These are ready to serve into your mix with probably very minor adjustments to do... if any. (according to Steve, and I'll be able to testify myself once recieving the disc)

This is a product I've been needing for a while now.

This frees up a lot of my high end outboard gear and plus, we have a tiny drum room that is just crying for bigness.


so, this purchase was really a no brainer on my end. A unique way to look at sampling. (You'll probably see a lot more of this )





Jason

[Bang]

In honor of the three new kick ass demos posted with drummer Jerry Lyons, there is a GEARSLUTZ GROUP BUY on the drum sample disc that can offer a potential 25% off, it starts today and is being organized by gearslutter George Necola. Before we get into that, lets have a listen to the new demos, which are also posted at www.stevenslatedrums.com:

Rock/Hard Rock Jerry Lyons
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate16.mp3

Pop/Rock Jerry Lyons
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate17.mp3

SPEED METAL!! Jerry Lyons
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate18.mp3

You can find out about the Gearslutz group buy at;
www.stevenslatedrums.com/groupbuy.html

or PM George Necola

[Screwdio]

Definitely diggin the samples...and the group buy offer. Could you give an approximate time line or date for the GOG release...?

[Jason Poulin]

Shit!


I jumped on this offer too early and missed the group buy







come on Steve, hook me up.





Jason

[Bang]

GOG CD is about 1/3rd the way done. We're really trying to get it moving fast. We're also going to get right on top of the cymbal expansion/sampler GM kits.

As for this group buy, I told Mark that its going to piss off all the customers who bought before the group buy.. I once bought a plugin the day before a group buy started and I know I was pretty pissed... but Jason think of it like this... because you and so many others were quick to go for the disc, it allowed us to be able to offer the group buy and discounts, so basically everyone who gets a discount should thank you.

I'm really digging the new Jerry Lyons demos. I definitely recommend when preparing a track for triggering, filter out the lows (unless its a kick of course) and eq the midrange to enhance the transient, this way the trigger plugin will work more accurately. Just a quick tip there...

[LaLaFaV]

Yeah, me too. Just bought mine yesterday.

Originally Posted by Jason Poulin

Shit!


I jumped on this offer too early and missed the group buy







come on Steve, hook me up.





Jason

[Jason Poulin]

No worries Steve,

I've always wanted samples that would free up my outboard gear.

And ---- I don't have the flavours of vintage pultecs, or neves, or SSL's or DBX's. let alone a nice sized drum room.

So.. yea, I'm really happy to have these. And the price is cool.


Hoping for a second volume of samples in the futur.


Jason

[Bang]

Few announcements....

Anyone who has purchased the disc since Dec 30th, PM your info to George Necola so you can get some cash back via the group buy.

We are very close to being done with a GOG version, free to call current customers.

We are in the process of doing a huge cymbal library, again free to all current customers, but more importantly, this will be for our new sampler formats, which are being worked on right now.

New USER DEMOS coming soon...

[Reg]

Got the samples today and quickly did a test using Drummagog across the kick and snare of EZDrummer. Awsome sounds is what I heard comming from these samples. EZDrummer has a very good sound on there own, but when shoved in a dense mix they somewhat sound weak and lack punch. Steven samples took care of this in a big way, not a small difference, a large one. Tomorow my son a I are going to strap these sounds to his new CD of his band that he and his wife are producing. I have no doubt these samples will do the same here. The drummer in his band is not afraid of hitting the skins so it should be good. Thanks for the hard work Steven. I have being playing with sample sounds for some time now. In my opinion I dont think you will find better samples anywhere. These will save your butt someday or some poor drummer's butt for that matter. For the money, it's a no brainer. All the best.

[Daunt]

Steven, I have a request for you. Please make some impulses of your drum room. It would be cool to get the OH's in the "same room" with the samples!

[Bang]

Interesting idea. Problem is, the room sound is from my old Bang Recording Room in Boston. Good news is, that we are searching for a room that is close to the sound of the old room to do the cymbal pack in, so we'll see if we can impulse the room as well.

Reg thanks for the great review!

[flam-jam]

i am waiting for my disc to arrive.

since the gog disc is not ready yet. what is the best way to get these samples in drumagog for now.

[Jason Poulin]

I just recieved the CD yesterday...

Today... my first listen.


I can't review this 100% yet since I've only had about an hour to fiddle with em.


I am currently working on a very dense nu-metal tracking... During a quick mix, I replaced the kick and snare completely with Steve's samples for fun just to test em out.

I loaded 4 different hits of the snare (one snare type) in Drumagog. Although I haven't tried the different velocities yet, just demo-ing them on there own, it sounds like they have very good dynamics and when needed, you can have hits from soft to very hard.

I did the same with the kicks as well.



Immediately after loading the samples, I did a quick level adjustment and instantly, I had mondo in your face drums! A-la- C.L.A style!! Oh yea.. I am not kidding, I am actually excited.

So... I strapped an RMS 755 accross the mix buss, pulling about -3db @4:1 ratio with attack @10 and release on slowest. This mix was on fire and no shit I had shivers.

I'm anxious to try them with other comps as well...


These are mixed drums, ready to server with no need of tweaking. I did add a slight reverb from the UAD 140 Plate and some from the KSP-8.

This is just a matter of prefference though...


the Z1 are simply amazing!!! and the Z2's is a nice room and I can see where these are going to fit in my agenda.


I can't go too much into details yet, but after the short period of time fooling around with the samples, I'm perfectly content with the quality and quantity.

At that, I am curious to hear what the cymbal expansion pack will bring to the table. If it's anything like the drums, it's going to f***ing rock!!!

two thumbs up Steve

Thanks




Jason

[Jason Poulin]

Just got back from the studio after a long night of tracking,

I added the Z2's while doing vox overdubs.



These are compressed rooms added and just sound huuuuuge!


I've got my new flavour.





will keep you posted as I go.





Jason

[Bang]

can't wait to hear some of the mixes Jason. The beauty of the Z2s is that retain all the punch of the Z1 while adding that huge 3D ambience. Fun to play around with for sure.

[Ozzy]

Got mine yesterday!

Really impressed with how quick they arrived, considering Im the other side of the world!

Had a quick play, sounds great, just what the doctor ordered! Oh and the toms sound amazing, loving the maple set in Z1 for metal.

Will put together a rough mix of something im working on to show them off here!

Thanks steven and Mark for a great product!

Oz
(Oliver Craggs)

[Bang]

Cool Ozzy! For metal, my favorite snares are 9 and 9A, 2, and 7 for a more shelly crack. Oh and 5 is great too for that chunkier metal crack.

[RKrizman]

Originally Posted by six_wax

I'd love to hear some more samples... Kinda feel like I've only heard a couple kicks & snares, which is a bit much to plunk down 2 c-notes for...

I too felt there wasn't much variety in the snares, and not a lot of dynamics, but maybe would attribute it to the same extreme compression on every sample. I'm curious as to what these might sound like with less compression, with more crack and ring and less splat. Just my opinion and my own taste, fwiw. Love the kicks, however.

-R

[Bang]

Hey Rick. There is a ton of variety in the snares. Listen to the first snare on demo 1B, very low and thuddy and long. Now listen to the snare on the Jerry Lyons speed metal. Very high, cracky, with some great ring (even more evident in demo6 where the same snare is used). Now listen to the very first demo Hard Rock 1, a fat and tight snappy snare. And now to Rock/Pop Mix demo, its a very woody sounding maple snare with some great crack. And thats just 4 of the 14 snares. What kind of monitors are you listening on, out of curiousity? Six Wax's post was before we had most of the demos posted and I believe he since changed his thoughts on the variety and even bought the disc. Also, there is NO extreme compression on the samples at all, just tasteful compression. These samples are big, and will stay big in a mix. Many of the top mixers have been using some of the prototypes for the past year and the transients stay sharp, even on FM radio. Your request for cracky with ring is especially evident on Snare 1, which has TONS of ring and crack and will be featured in the next demo.

As for dynamics, did you hear the 20 hit buildup on the Jerry Lyons first demo? This alone should show the natural velocities. And as for the rest of the bulk of audio demos, if the original drummer is whaling the drums, the sample will be the same. These are real world examples from real mixes. Thats what makes this thing unique. However, if you want the dynamics, you can have it. Just start with original drum tracks that have it. I want to make sure you are clear Rick, that these are not programmed drums, they are real drum hits being replaced. Therefore dynamics are from the source. Every sample set is multi velocity and multi hit.

[RKrizman]

Originally Posted by Bang

What kind of monitors are you listening on, out of curiousity?

S3-A and LSR 28.

Yes, technically I hear the differences between the snares, but to me they all have a similar coloration which sounds liike a sort of splatty compression (Distressor?) and high end tweak. Certainly great for certain applications.

I'll go further to say that I'm not yet totally down with the whole Drumagog thing yet--yes, it can fix a lame snare, but you're still stuck with snare as "found object" rather than musical performance. (It works beter for me with kicks, because kick drum usually requires less of a nuanced performance.) It's not enough to get a halfway convincing 16th note crescendo. What about all the ruffs and ghost notes and hitting on different parts of the drum etc.

-R

[Bang]

The only common thing I hear in the snares is bigness and punchiness. There are some splatty snares, but then there are some really thuddy ones and woody ones as well. Below I posted a long ringy one. I just went through the top velocity of all the snares and I just don't hear the similar color which you speak of. Its very possible your just hearing the little bit of VCA mixbuss comp that is on the demos, or you're just hearing the fat transient punch.

Furthermore, NONE of the samples went through the same chain. Depending on the sound, I would use certain gear. But I didn't just stick a distressor on 2:1 and throw the snares in it like a conveyer belt.

If you're not into drumagog and drum replacement, this isnt the product for you. If you mix a variety of different styles of music from pop to metal and you want a virtual drum locker of world class drums to help augment or replace the sounds with very little to no tweaking, it is for you.

As for ghosts and rolls, no they are not easy when doing replacement and take time.. BUT if you listen to "Rock Ballad Demo 4" you'll hear that it is possible and sounds good.

Here is another new demo of some kick (Z2) snare (Z1) and tom (Z1s) samples, I love the long decaying ring on this snare.

www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate19.mp3