Steven Slate Drum Samples... Demo MP3s Posted

[YellowMatter]

12/21/06

www.stevenslatedrums.com audio demos at the site and posted below

"Introducing Steven Slate Drums, the most complete, best sounding drum sample CD you will ever hear, from Yellow Matter Entertainment. Made with the mixer in mind, the sample disc contains many unique features not found in any other drum sample discs.

First and foremost is the sound. Steven has sold drum samples to some of the country's top mixers. His samples are big, fat, and punchy sounding. The samples have been thoroughly tweaked and tested in actual mixes within various musical styles. Where many drum sample discs are very raw and unprocessed, Steven Slate drum samples have been eq'd and compressed with precision so that you can put them in a mix and simply throw the fader up. Little to no tweaking is necessary, the work has been done, the sound is already there.

Another unique feature is Z system. Every single drum sample set is processed in one of three ambient spaces. For instance, Z1 mono sets are sampled so that there is slight amount of close ambient micing creating a three dimensional, airy, punchy, natural drum tone. Zone 2 sets are stereo samples, and have heavily compressed far room mics mixed in with closer mics, and the result is a larger then life, deep and fat sound that has great dimension even in thick rock mixes. Zone 3 mono sets are very dry and are not processed with any ambient mics, creating a sound that is ultra punchy and “in your face”. These sets are great with most punk and speed metal mixing.

On many sample CDs, a particular drum is sampled with one sound. However, any drummer knows that different sounds can be had from a drum by tuning the drum at certain tensions, by dampening and undampening the drum, by using different drum heads, or by tightening and loosing the snares. Steven Slate Drums makes use of all these wonderful sounds, and many of the drums are sampled with different tunings, different heads, and different dampenings. For instance, a pop rock song will probably require a low tuned, long decaying, non ringing snare drum sound. A hard rock tune might require a high tuned, quick decaying, open sounding snare drum with a touch of natural shell ring.

As any pro audio engineer knows, running audio through various different gear can create subtle to obvious sonic differences. Some of the samples on Steven Slate Drums were processed through different eq's and compressors, yielding a similar sound with a slightly different quality which may suit certain mixes better. For instance, by using a different compression chain, Steven could change the sound of the initial transient from ultra tight and punchy, to ultra splatty with more decay sound and body. You can read about EVERY drum sample set by going to www.stevenslatedrums.com and clicking on drum index."

audio demos:

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


Live Drum Loop, kick and snare 100% replaced, "all purpose rock"
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate9.mp3

Mellow Live Drum Loop, kick snare and toms 100% with 3 sets of kick/snare
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate14.mp3

Z2 ambient samples:
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate7.mp3

Z1 natural samples:
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate8.mp3

Live Drum Loop, kick and snare 100% replaced, "dirty rock"
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate2.mp3

Live Drum Loop, kick and snare 100% replaced, "metal rock"
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate3.mp3

FullMix, Slow Rock Ballad, kick/toms and snare 100% replaced
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate4.mp3

FullMix, Pop Rock, kick/toms and snare 100% replaced
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate5.mp3

FullMix, Hard Rock, kick/toms and snare 100% replaced
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate6.mp3

technical specs:
24bit 44.1khz mono and stereo samples (Z1 and Z3 mono, Z2 stereo)
multi hits, multi velocities

On sale now for $199 limited time introductory offer.
Happy Holidays, get yourself an early present! Cheers

Mark

[Slaytex]

The samples don't sound that bad but the placement of them is pretty bad, especially in the last .mp3 file:
(FullMix, Hard Rock, kick/toms and snare 100% replaced
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/stevenslate6.mp3)

They are way off in timing or way too on the grid. I wonder if the samples were cut tight as they are playing a touch late.
Anyway good luck.

[Bang]

The samples are cut 100% right at the transient. What you are hearing in that last sample is the drummer's playing. I could have run it through beat detective but the point of the demo is the sound, and in that respect, this thing is a winner. A very popular mixer here in LA was commenting on how much he loved that snare sample [the one in demo6], which is Snare 3. People are so used to quantizing everything and making things so exact. My opinion is its just rock n roll. Having said that, keep the autotune on Ashley Simpson.

Here is another full mix from IN ENDING using yet another kick and snare set.. this is a mastered song and is loud..

http://www.yellowmatterrecords.com/s...heMasterMS.mp3

[audiomichael]

The samples sound pretty great to me. thumbsup

The set seems a little pricey though. There are several other compreshensive libraries with sample players that can be had for the same price. I'm not complaining, just providing a bit of feedback.

[Slaytex]

Originally Posted by Bang

The samples are cut 100% right at the transient. What you are hearing in that last sample is the drummer's playing. I could have run it through beat detective but the point of the demo is the sound, and in that respect, this thing is a winner.

Steve, yes the samples are cool and I love your mixes, but I would hate to have someone find themselves not interested due to hearing what I heard in the demo. I hate to sound like an ass, but I would personally take more time and make this demonstration the best it can be for the sake of making more sales.
I wish you the best and I'm sure this will work out great for you. Take care and keep making more great music.

[YellowMatter]

Originally Posted by audiomichael

The samples sound pretty great to me. thumbsup

The set seems a little pricey though. There are several other compreshensive libraries with sample players that can be had for the same price. I'm not complaining, just providing a bit of feedback.

Few things. Given the Z system, every sample is sampled in 3 different room zones. So you are getting a ton of sounds on this thing. But more importantly, before I put any money into this project, I listened to almost all of these drum libraries. Alone some of them sound decent, but in a mix, I found them to sound tiny. Steven's hits sound big, even in the heavy rock mixes. Many of our beta testers have multiple drum libraries, and they are all telling us in terms of useable drum sounds for real world mixes, nothing is holding up against the slate samples. I was so excited to hear the final product, that I transferred some of my old band's mixes (on 2inch from 1984!) to Nuendo so I could mix them with the new drums. It was a trip.

As for the posted demos, we have lots more coming. But I think they sound great as they are. I'm not a drummer but I have good timing and they seemed fine to me, certainly not off to the point where they would turn someone off, but maybe I'm so blown away by the sounds that I'm not hearing it.
Mark

[RoundBadge]

Done deal..they sound great..

..This coming from a guy who has 25 snares and 2 gigs worth of samples from everbody in town.

I'm pickin em up today. thumbsup

[krid]

Originally Posted by YellowMatter

Few things. Given the Z system, every sample is sampled in 3 different room zones. So you are getting a ton of sounds on this thing.

How many samples (kick, snare) do you get with this library ?

[Bang]

Hey krid, you can read all about the drum samples at
www.stevenslatedrums.com/drumindex.html

Basically, including the different dampenings and tunings and gear chain changes, there is 14 snare sounds x 3 spaces (to sum the Z system up, Z1 is natural with a little ambience, Z2 has heavily compressed ambience mixed in making it bigger and deeper sounding, and Z3 is dry). There are all kinds of snares from tight and punchy, to ringy and wet, to low and thuddy, to high and cracky. I think it covers just about any drum sound you would want in pop, rock, and metal.

There are 12 kicks, some with double Z1 sets that have some different compression chains. Again, sampled in the three ambient spaces. And we have low and thuddy kicks, high and punchy metal kick such as that in example 3, and big and boomy felty kicks. We'll soon have some samples with our big felty vintage kicks as well. I think we covered a lot of bases with the kicks, I love the sounds.

There are two sets of toms, one birch and one maple, sampled in the three spaces. They are both great all purpose rock toms and can fit pretty much any style of music. I should say the tom hits at the end of the drum loop samples are NOT from the disc and were not replaced. All together including the spaces, there are 96 sample sets on the disc btw.

I'll be working on more real world mix examples for all to hear soon. But I can assure everyone, if you buy this sample set and throw these drums in a session, you will be happy. They sound great in a mix. And the drumagog GOG disc is a free update for anyone who buys the wav disc. Wow that sounded sales pitchy. I'll stop now.

[Jason Poulin]

well,


you got me sold.




thumbs up Steve!


Plus, I feel very well giving my buisness to an involved member on Gearslutz.



Jason

[chriscoleman]

Do you have anything in store for the lazy non-sample-mapper like me?

[Bang]

Hey Chris, all the demos above used Drumagog for the sound replacing. Thats definitely the way to go for drum replacement. Once you really learn the ins and outs of Drumagog, there is a LOT you can do.

At some point, we are going to arrange for the hits to work with various samplers, but for now, its intended purpose is replacing and augmenting hits in actual mix purposes.

[RoundBadge]

Originally Posted by Jason Poulin

Plus, I feel very well giving my buisness to an involved member on Gearslutz.

thumbsup thumbsup

[chriscoleman]

Originally Posted by Bang

Hey Chris, all the demos above used Drumagog for the sound replacing. Thats definitely the way to go for drum replacement. Once you really learn the ins and outs of Drumagog, there is a LOT you can do.

At some point, we are going to arrange for the hits to work with various samplers, but for now, its intended purpose is replacing and augmenting hits in actual mix purposes.

That's all well and good - but I'm talking about drum track creation, not replacement. Maybe you could befriend the good folks at Fxpansion and make an expansion pack for BFD. Long shot, but would be pretty sweet.

[YellowMatter]

Chris, while we have not had any official talks with anyone yet, making Steven Slate Drums as part of an expansion pack to one or more of the popular drum sampler systems is definitely on our list. We also plan to have Steven sample some of the most popular cymbals in his Z room systems so that complete kit sounds can be had from scratch. This again will all be free updates for anyone who has bought the disc. My way of thinking is, once you buy with us, you have our product, all versions of it.

However, the first priority is getting more audio demos out so that everyone can hear all the sounds on this thing! My favorite snare changes everytime I hear a new one in a different mix. And if you haven't heard the kicks with a sub, you need to. They go down DEEP!

Mark

[Mannie]

Sounds great!

So, it seems these samples are raw wavs, and are not formatted or mapped for any particular sampler?

I didn't see any information to indicate the contrary.

[GPl]

Hey Bang, REAL nice job

[Bang]

Originally Posted by Mannie

Sounds great!

So, it seems these samples are raw wavs, and are not formatted or mapped for any particular sampler?

I didn't see any information to indicate the contrary.

Yes the initial release is raw wav format, with many other formats to follow. And I will try my best to maintain the FREE upgrade to any other format, such as GOG Drumagog format, due out in about two weeks. Thanks for the great words thus far, a year and a half past its original due date, its great to have this thing out!

[Andrew07]

Sounds great man, just ordered mine thumbsup

[Jayson]

yeah these are increadible samples...

already placed my order as well!

Thanks!

[chriscoleman]

Originally Posted by Bang

Yes the initial release is raw wav format, with many other formats to follow. And I will try my best to maintain the FREE upgrade to any other format, such as GOG Drumagog format, due out in about two weeks. Thanks for the great words thus far, a year and a half past its original due date, its great to have this thing out!

Cool - Reason ReFill would be pretty sweet...

[audiomichael]

Originally Posted by YellowMatter

Few things. Given the Z system, every sample is sampled in 3 different room zones. So you are getting a ton of sounds on this thing. But more importantly, before I put any money into this project, I listened to almost all of these drum libraries. Alone some of them sound decent, but in a mix, I found them to sound tiny. Steven's hits sound big, even in the heavy rock mixes. Many of our beta testers have multiple drum libraries, and they are all telling us in terms of useable drum sounds for real world mixes, nothing is holding up against the slate samples. I was so excited to hear the final product, that I transferred some of my old band's mixes (on 2inch from 1984!) to Nuendo so I could mix them with the new drums. It was a trip.

Mark

Fair enough. Like I said. They sound really good. thumbsup

[YellowMatter]

Cool! At my office I have a little Cubase setup. I'm running the same drum loop thats in the first three demos and I've been trying different kicks and snares on it and I found a sweet combo, its kick 6 and snare 4. I ran the whole loop through some 1176 plugins to pump it, and it sounds freaking awesome! Super thick. Every time I play around with the disc I get new favorite sounds.

As for Reason and any other sampler, please send me ideas to support@stevenslatedrums.com

We haven't picked any specific sample formats so its really up to user demand. Hopefully we'll be able to do the few most popular formats. Steven being a mixer didn't quite see the potential in making the kit into a sampler format so the drums can be programed from scratch until one of the beta testers did just that (I'll have to ask him how he did it, might have been Mach 5) and sent us the track. We were all floored. Completely natural sounding drum tracks with no drummer. What a genius plan. The money for the sample disc will surely be less then the money it takes to bail your drummer out of jail each week!
Mark

[bof]

Lovely! How many velocity layers per instrument?

[Bang]

The snares have five layers including rolls, kick and toms have three layers. In each layer there is 4-6 hits. With drumagog's dynamic tracking, this is the perfect way to do it. We tried more layers but it didn't make a huge difference at all, and was more tedious to use. One of the "biggies" who bought some of the prototype samples told me he only uses two hits from the hardest velocities on everything... I usually have two tracks for samples, one for hard hits only, and then for fills and and buildups or small hits, I'll cut the original track and put those sections on a new track and use the lower velocity samples on those. Both get routed out to the same channel on my board so its easy to control once its set up.

I'm working on a metal track demo right now, full mix. The metal samples are really killer on this thing, especially the metal kick, kick5. It took me a month to get that thing just "right". I'll also have another hard rock demo, and some new solo drum loops. Thanks very much for everyone's kind words, and I hope these samples help make your kickass mixes even more kickass.

[DAWgEAR]

Originally Posted by Bang

Basically, including the different dampenings and tunings and gear chain changes, there is 14 snare sounds x 3 spaces (to sum the Z system up, Z1 is natural with a little ambience, Z2 has heavily compressed ambience mixed in making it bigger and deeper sounding, and Z3 is dry).

The snares have five layers including rolls, kick and toms have three layers. In each layer there is 4-6 hits.

Taking the snares as an example, am I correct in inferring that there are 14x3=42 different basic snare "flavors" and, within each one of these "flavors", there are approximately from 5x4=20 to 5X6=30 different samples, so that one could have between 20 and 30 velocity layers for the snare?

The one thing that would prevent me from buying this would be if you only get a handful or less of snare hits for each basic flavor. I wouldn't expect nor need BFD style velocity layers, but at least 10 or so to avoid the repetitive machine gun effect ...

[Reg]

Steve,

On the mastered mp3 you posted (which I find sounds great btw), did you add any other comps on the replaced samples?

Such as parallel compression? Or drum buss compression?


Reg

[Bang]

Originally Posted by DAWgEAR

Taking the snares as an example, am I correct in inferring that there are 14x3=42 different basic snare "flavors" and, within each one of these "flavors", there are approximately from 5x4=20 to 5X6=30 different samples, so that one could have between 20 and 30 velocity layers for the snare?

The one thing that would prevent me from buying this would be if you only get a handful or less of snare hits for each basic flavor. I wouldn't expect nor need BFD style velocity layers, but at least 10 or so to avoid the repetitive machine gun effect ...

Not quite. Let me give an example with snares. There are 14 different snares sampled in three ambient spaces. In each of the three different sounding ambient spaces, there are 5 velocity zones including rolls. In EACH of these velocity zones, there are 4-6 hits. Given Drumagog's dynamic tracking, more then 5 velocities, even on snare, didn't sound any different. We A/B'd a 10 velocity snare buildup using dynamic tracking/4velocities and then with 10 velocities. They sounded identical. The snares velocites are CRACK, HARD, MEDIUM, SOFT, and ROLLS. And with that, you can pretty much do anything with Drumagog dynamic tracking and random sampling. There is NO machine gun affect, at all. I wouldn't put the disc out if there was. I personally only use either Crack or Hard hits depending on the song, and then will cut pieces off the original track and make a new fader for soft hits when needed, like in buildups and snare fills. Hope this helps.

To sum up using the sample disc: You have a mix. You look at the drum index, pick three or four samples that you think will sound good. Pick the best one for the mix. Then try out the different Z spaces, pick the best space (knowing that the Z2 ambient samples are in stereo), and then press play and bring the faders up. Instant fat drums. It really works.

[Bang]

Originally Posted by Reg

Steve,

On the mastered mp3 you posted (which I find sounds great btw), did you add any other comps on the replaced samples?

Such as parallel compression? Or drum buss compression?


Reg

There is NO further compression on any of the samples. None. Thats an advantage to this thing. About a year ago I was using the prototypes of these samples, yet I hadn't processed them with all that much compression or eq, so they sounded great, BUT I had to eq and compress them to make them sit. For this sample disc, I APPLIED that exact eq and compression to each one, so now, I just load the sample and throw the fader up. Its awesome, and makes me work quicker. However, you should know, that for that mastered song that you refer to, I DID use about 3-4db of buss compression with the RMS compressor. In the drum sample manual that comes with the disc, there is a tips section where I discuss buss compression, and give my settings and such. Buss compression really helps to get drums even more smacking. Enjoy the disc Reg, I'm at the office now and yours just went out.

[noiseflaw]

Whoa!

just herad that last full mix - those are great drum sounds, they sound big.

I will check the site and price.

Well done.