Steven Slate vs Superior drums DFH

[GuitardedMark]

I'm looking to buy a new drum program for Reaper.

-I'm completely uninterested in loops.

-I want to be able to enter each beat individually on a midi editor.

-I'm only going to be using this program for metal.

-I'm on a budget

So what are your guys' thoughts? Superior Drummer with Drums From Hell or Steven Slate Drums (SSD)?

 

[GuitardedMark]

anyone? I've searched on a lot of other forums for this and ultimatemetal.com has some good stuff but its all pretty vague and I wasnt able to apply that info to my situation and make a decision. HELP!

 

[kcearl]

I have superior but only with the kit it came with....

It sounds excellent but for some reason its not as "filling" as say my Abbey Road kit I have in kontakt...Ive adjusted things like bleed but to get a fuller sound takes a bit more work..

The effects that come with it are sonalksis and are top notch...but when you are using a DAW you generally mix down the drums onto separate tracks so they don't get used as often as they should

If I had an electronic drum kit (and could play them) I think its an excellent option as it sounds so realistic, but I use an MPD and I use it less and less...so even though I got it for a great price Im using the kontakt kits more and more

Never tried Stephen Slate but I think you'd be foolish to ignore XLNs Addictive and BFD2 eco, especially if you are on a budget

this is Abbey Road 70s in Kontakt (it works in the free player)...not really for this songs genre but they rock and listen to the cymbal samples...I didn't process the cymbals at all except for some overall drum compression

forgot to say theres an extra kick sample under there if you are wondering why it sounds so boomy

 

[dintymoore]

The snare sounds real good on that one kc.

I don't know Superior Drummer but have a basic SSD sound set... the drums are very good... the cymbals have the same problem every cymbal sample I've ever heard has - ugly. I think everyone records cymbal sample three times as loud as they should, and it ends up sounding like the drummer used metal tipped sticks!

I find that I need to seriously roll the top off of kick samples to get the ratio of impact to oomph the way I want. Stock is way too much beater "click".

This was done with the SSD drums (there's some bad snare flams):
http://musicmusicmusic.cn/ssd.html

 

[GuitardedMark]

Will I able to step edit (i think thats what its called) in reaper with SSD? I want to be able to click each beat in to create my own patterns.

 

[mattr]

+1 vote for SSD from me

To be honest, they're all good. I'd happily use SD2, Addictive Drums, etc.

And yup, you would be able to "step edit" in Reaper... its just basic MIDI editing.

Here's my example of SSD in use...
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9259228

 

[GuitardedMark]

Thanks matt! It's funny i've actually asked this question on 3 different forums now including the reaper forums, this one, and ultimatemetal. You the first one to answer the question I've heard some people say things about drumagog being the best "replacer". What do they mean by "replacer" and is manually editing each beat in called "step editing"?

 

[kcearl]

Thanks matt! It's funny i've actually asked this question on 3 different forums now including the reaper forums, this one, and ultimatemetal. You the first one to answer the question I've heard some people say things about drumagog being the best "replacer". What do they mean by "replacer" and is manually editing each beat in called "step editing"?

if you had say a loop or have a drum track from a client and the kick wasnt great you'd use a drum replacer to basically replace it with a new sample..


Quite a few commercial tracks beef up the drum tracks with samples...I was reading about the production of quite a well known band the other week and their mixing engineer was using kick samples from EZ drummer on their track to completely replace a kick during the chorus...so it just shows you


Hardly worth splashing out for us hobbiests though

 

[dintymoore]

... What do they mean by "replacer"...

I think they're talking about when you have a recorded live drum track and you want to replace parts of the kit, like the kick for instance, with drum samples.

...is manually editing each beat in called "step editing"?

Yes. You can do that with any DAW program I've ever seen. It doesn't have anything to do with SSD or the samples, it's the program like Cubase or whatever you use... they will all work like that.

 

[GuitardedMark]

Thanks guys! I've read a lot of stuff where people compare SSD/kontact with superior drummer and their sequencer. How is kontact affiliated with SSD? Isn't kontact just a stand alone sampler?

 

[kcearl]

Thanks guys! I've read a lot of stuff where people compare SSD/kontact with superior drummer and their sequencer. How is kontact affiliated with SSD? Isn't kontact just a stand alone sampler?

Doesnt SSD use a Kontakt player engine?

its just part of the programme and not something different


Kontakt is a separate sample player...my Abbey Road drums are played in Kontakt, completely different from the player with SSD....

SD2 comes in its own mixer/programme...no difference really, you still just load up a VSTi in your DAW with either