Any users of Slate SSD4 & Superior Drummer in DP 8

[James Steele]

James, which three kits did you get with AD2 and how do you compare the sound to SSD4?

AD2 includes 3 ADpaks (when you get the full version, not the upgrade): Fairfax 1, Fairfax 2 and Black Velvet. I don't know that anything is remarkably better than Slate. I just like having more choices. I also had the SSD4 SE or whatever the less expensive version is I think, so I may not have ALL the kits. It's just a matter of taste I guess. Also AD2's UI seems a bit more refined to me than SSD4.

[dewdman42]

AD2 definitely has more software capability in terms of providing FX and a mixer. SSD4 has the sound baked into the samples. That's what makes it easy, but having more kits is how you get more variations. I'm not sure of the differences between SE and Platinum. I have Platinum of course. I will say also, that SSD4 is perhaps more oriented to rock music, though another friend of mine that does smooth jazz went apes over SSD4 too, so go figure.

The thing is, Steven Slate himself is a very talented drum producer so the baked in samples are just already there and baked in with very high end compressors and stuff like that. AD2 must come with some cool mixer setups, which you can then tweak to exactly what you want, so that's an advantage, but what you don't get is Steven Slate's engineering genius nor the high end signal processing through expensive analog gear. You would get AD2's idea of some FX plugins applied for similar results. I agree the AD2 software is just slicker software in general, its a nice UI, I like it a lot better then SD2 also. But I will say SSD4 works fine for me, I haven't had any issues with it.

In the past Steven Slate used to write some articles on his forum for how to process drums, including taking SSD4 and running through still more FX processing to get even more stuff out of it.. His articles were very enlightening. His company has grown a lot since then and he doesn't have time to do that anymore.

I think there are some presets available from Toontrack that were created by Steven Slate also to use with the SD2 mixer and/or EZMix or something like that, and certainly some of the other hot engineers that Slate has used to produce expansion packs for SSD4, they also made mixer packs for Toontrack.

[monkey man]

... Not to throw a monkey wrench into things...

I've always been a tool, but now I feel like a spanner.

Things definitely are lookin' up! Thank you, James.

[cbergm7210]

I bought the AD2 deal James was referring to and I have to say what a very intuitive and great sounding drum VI it is. These guys did a really great job.

(I own and use frequently SD2, EZ Drummer 2, Slate, NI)

[dewdman42]

did you get the same drumkits?

[cbergm7210]

did you get the same drumkits?

You bet.

I dialed up a preset and set it how I liked it and it sounded identical to the kit I already had done for a final mix that included all of my favorite drum processing. It got the job done much quicker in other words. That's worth gold any time. (And I'm picky about drum mixes.)

[dewdman42]

hmm, looks like the sale is over now. guess I missed it. if ya snooze ya loose

[cbergm7210]

hmm, looks like the sale is over now. guess I missed it. if ya snooze ya loose

Yes, bummer. It was a steal at under $80.

[dewdman42]

I was kind of waffling around on it, but yea $79 for a few kits, totally worth it. I probably should have grabbed it. I was initially a bit overwhelmed when I went to the site and saw so many different kits to choose from, I was like, yikes, which one is the one I would want? Didn't have time to dig any deeper at the time.

I'm pretty darn happy with SSD4, so its cool. What was enticing me about AD2 is the mixer environment with FX and stuff it provides for processing the drum sounds. Sounds fun to be able to tweak a bit. As you said, time is gold. That's why I got SSD4, its similar concept in terms of already engineered sounds, but the difference is its more baked into the samples, so not really as tweakable. But it does provide a lot of variation in various kits, so it works anyway. But ultimately as long as its providing "the sound" and I can focus on writing drum parts rather then trying to make the snare snarl...its all good. I'm with you on that. I have been intrigued by Addictive Drums for years, I like their GUI and I have seen numerous posts from James talking it up... Maybe some day I will finally end up with it...

[cbergm7210]

I was kind of waffling around on it, but yea $79 for a few kits, totally worth it. I probably should have grabbed it. I was initially a bit overwhelmed when I went to the site and saw so many different kits to choose from, I was like, yikes, which one is the one I would want? Didn't have time to dig any deeper at the time.

I'm pretty darn happy with SSD4, so its cool. What was enticing me about AD2 is the mixer environment with FX and stuff it provides for processing the drum sounds. Sounds fun to be able to tweak a bit. As you said, time is gold. That's why I got SSD4, its similar concept in terms of already engineered sounds, but the difference is its more baked into the samples, so not really as tweakable. But it does provide a lot of variation in various kits, so it works anyway. But ultimately as long as its providing "the sound" and I can focus on writing drum parts rather then trying to make the snare snarl...its all good. I'm with you on that. I have been intrigued by Addictive Drums for years, I like their GUI and I have seen numerous posts from James talking it up... Maybe some day I will finally end up with it...

Yes, they did a great job on the sounds, but also on the ease which you can tweak things. Everything is within close reach from compression to verb to ADSR to whatever. Working with drum VI's for a couple of decades this one was instantly easy to use to get great results. (Never thought I'd see a competitor in this studio to Toontrack...but here it is.)

[dewdman42]

Another drum product worth mentioning for the OP, especially now that its actually on OSX, is Jamstix. I've been a very loyal user of this product for a number of years. Before I was actually using Wine to use it on my mac. But now they have a mac version too. It has its own rather extensive drum sample library, with expansion packs and so forth and its EXTREMELY affordable compared to the other products mentioned so far, and actually sounds pretty decent. It doesn't have nearly the mixing capabilities of these other products with different mic positions and all that, and doesn't provide that perfect produced sound either, but in a sense it has a very real and raw sound... Its super affordable. But the main interest in this product for me is the drum player AI it has...nothing else quite like it out there.

I also should mention, SSD4 Platinum is currently on sale also, $149.

[James Steele]

I also should mention, SSD4 Platinum is currently on sale also, $149.

Link? I have SSD4 SE or LE or whatever the heck they call their lower version of SSD4. Be cool if there's an upgrade charge that's not exorbitant.

[James Steele]

I bought the AD2 deal James was referring to and I have to say what a very intuitive and great sounding drum VI it is. These guys did a really great job.

(I own and use frequently SD2, EZ Drummer 2, Slate, NI)

Really glad you also like it. Things are so subjective, that as much as I like something myself, I'm hesitant to really *sell* it and say "You HAVE to have this! It's great!" for fear that someone may do so on my recommendation and then be unhappy and blame me!

[BobK]

Things are so subjective, that as much as I like something myself, I'm hesitant to really *sell* it and say "You HAVE to have this! It's great!" for fear that someone may do so on my recommendation and then be unhappy and blame me!

Totally get it - I'm this way too. Sometimes I include so many caveats that I start sounding like I don't really like whatever it is I'm recommending.

[cbergm7210]

I bought the AD2 deal James was referring to and I have to say what a very intuitive and great sounding drum VI it is. These guys did a really great job.

(I own and use frequently SD2, EZ Drummer 2, Slate, NI)

Really glad you also like it. Things are so subjective, that as much as I like something myself, I'm hesitant to really *sell* it and say "You HAVE to have this! It's great!" for fear that someone may do so on my recommendation and then be unhappy and blame me!

As someone who grinds it out every day in the studio, you nailed this one.