Slate Digital's 'Trigger'

stevieg11

stevieg11

New member
Does anyone use this bit of software?

From the video on their website it looks pretty sweet. I've used drumagog before and didn't really reckon much to it, but this has really caught my eye.

I'm just wondering why this may seem so good and yet rivals such as the aforementioned drumagog are a much more well known bit of drum replacement gear.

products - Slate Digital
 
All the time. Love it.

I have the Trigger Platinum, with the Deluxe samples. I tried the early version of Drumagog, and was not impressed at all. SS Trigger is easy to use, and is great for triggering samples of the actual kit you are using.
 
I'm currently trying to find a reason not to get it. Just wish they had a trial version available rather than just a £140 (approx) purchase.
 
Trigger is well-worth it in my opinion. I got lucky and found the basic version on sale last year for $49 USD.

You can use the provided samples, you can add other libraries from Slate Digital, you can even use your own samples... maybe you have a kick sample you love... Trigger lets you use it.

Recently I had a problem where I mixed a song that provided a 'drum bus stem'... sucked but kick, toms, and cymbals were all provided in a single track. I multed this with three instances of Trigger and was able to use its controls to build my own separate kick, toms, and cymbals tracks. Absolutely AMAZING!
 
Sounds like a life saver in that case!

I found the demo download and have that at the moment and using it for a few mixing jobs I'm doing from live recordings. The pay off from these bands will be enough for me to buy the full thing so I can't wait for that!

A few weeks yet before I get the money from them though, I reckon.
 
The Platunum+deluxe stuff is way more versatile for me than the EX samples, but that is kinda how he makes money. :)
 
Which drum sample pack does the Platinum version come with?

I'm getting confused with how it's worded. As far as I can see, it comes with a Steven Slate sample pack but then they sell even more of his packs on there as add-ons.
 
Yes, the 'Platinum' sample pack is different from the 'Deluxe'. I am not sure if you can get the add-on stuff without Plat. It is the Deluxe stuff that I use the most now.
 
I would personally recommend it as well. It's definitely worth it, I've used drumagog in the past, but I like Trigger so much better. Plus, the software that comes with trigger to make your own tci files is really simple to use. I bought the Platinum version of it about 2 years ago and don't regret it at all!
 
Really outstanding drum replacment that will actually enhance the drum sound on any style of mix. Features like variable hybrid option of live and sampled drum tracks really is awesome! Dynamics are also beautifully captured a lot better than I thought it would be able to before I got it..

Most Slate products really are great. (-:
 
I just wish that Trigger in its full feature capacity, would allow the use of other than Slate samples. :(
As it is, you have to use the Slate samples to get the most of Trigger...otherwise for use with other libraries you have to create MIDI grooves and than apply them to your non-Slate samples/player (like EZD and SD).
I already have a tone of samples with my EZD & SD libraries...and I don't want to abandon them just to use Trigger with its full feature set.
 




I did both of these tracks with Addictive Drums and Slate Trigger. My drummer played through a Roland TD 9 V Kit. I used the MIDI to get a solid foundation via AD, dumped the audio (snare, kick, hat, toms, overheads, and rooms) and used ST to layer the snare and kick.
 
That sounds pretty good.

So....how are you triggering AD samples with ST?
I thought ST will only trigger its own samples....?
Or....did you use ST to create a MIDI track, and then used that to trigger AD samples....or am I understanding correctly that you first did a MIDI track with the Roland to trigger AD samplers....than you added/layered more samples with ST...?

I would like ot hear how well ST can create a MIDI track from an recorded drum track....then take that MIDI into some player and trigger samples to create a new audio drum track.
I keep looking at ST since Audio Deluxe has the full version for like $109, which is crazy cheap...though you gotta drop another $40 to get the STUPID iLok, which I don't use for any of my other software.
Still...even for $150 total, it would be nice, 'cuz I have some old drum tracks that were played well, but I don't like the sound of the drums as much...so ST would be great to use for new audio tracks, but I want to use my Toontrack Superior Drummer samples, not the ST samples...well, maybe a combination of both which ever sounds best.
I'm just not sure how well ST can generate a believable MIDI drum track for me to use with Superior Drummer.....?

I may just spend the $150 and find out for myself! :D

Jimmys69 is the Slate king around here....he uses that a lot for drum track work that he does for other people, right Jim?
 
It is not necessarily about the samples man. Though they sound way more realistic to me than the others that I have worked with (EZD and ADD). With SS Trigger, you can also create your own samples and use them via Trigger. With the 'Trigger Instrument' program you can use multiple samples that are triggered by different velocities. The ones you record yourself.

I recently purchased SSD4 drum program (which does not require ILOK). The natural sound of the drums and especially the cymbals, have driven me to forget about wasting my time with the other drum programs I have (EZD-AD). Not promoting anything. I could care less about supporting a particular company. It just sounds more realistic to me. I record live drums way more than I program them.. Therefore, SS Trigger Platinum Deluxe (more like $450) is what I use to 'enhance' the drums that I have been given to make sound good. Trust me, in a situation of poor recording room or bad recording techniques or mics, this is invaluable. If the drums sound like crap in a heavy rock type of recording, you can bet the whole project will sound like complete crap.

Anyway, I am not sure there was a direct question here.
 
I just reread the post.

SS Trigger reads audio tracks and created a sample trigger from that. It can either send a MIDI note from the trigger or use whatever sample is in the library. Either the ones you purchased, or you can freely create your own with the 'Instrument Editor' that comes with it.

You can record a live snare of your own. Record it 127 times with different live hits. Trigger will send those samples based on the velocity of the hit you give it. This equates to a more realistic performance. Then you can record the same drum with side stick, rim shot, whatever, and assign that to another trigger instance. In other words, you can sample your whole live kit, and use the triggers as enhancements of the actual kit you are using, without the bleed from overheads compromising the amount of EQ you can get away with making the toms or snare fit a mix.

This is absolutely not what I typically use it for. Just expressing you how one could.

In basic form for me, I can just pull up a similar sounding drum, tune it close to the one I have recorded, and the samples it sends back that accent the live track, are both clean sounding and also natural sounding in relation to the track that was sent to it. It is not just a higher or lower volume of the same sample like many MIDI drum programs. I think that is the point that is lost when looking for a good drum program and why they do not sound natural.

I hope this makes sense. I am not the 'King' of anything. But I make damn sure the drums recorded in my studio sound as good as possible. Without that, it all sounds like ass IMO...
 
Last edited:
miroslav said:
That sounds pretty good.

So....how are you triggering AD samples with ST?
I thought ST will only trigger its own samples....?
Or....did you use ST to create a MIDI track, and then used that to trigger AD samples....or am I understanding correctly that you first did a MIDI track with the Roland to trigger AD samplers....than you added/layered more samples with ST...?
Click to expand...

I just record a MIDI track directly from the V Kit. Once that is edited nicely, I put together a nice kit in AD as my "foundation". There is a function in AD that lets you route each drum to an aux thus allowing you to print each one separately to an audio track in Pro Tools. I then use the audio of the drum I want to "replace" to trigger the samples in ST. Once I find the one(s) I like, I print those too.

In the mixing stage, I just blend to taste. Sometimes getting rid of things I thought I liked and maybe going back to AD or ST to get more.

The cool thing about AD is that they treat it like a real mic'd up drum kit. Once I get snare I like, I make sure to print a copy of both the top and bottom mic so I can blend in PT. Same goes the head and beater of the kick drum.

So in a nutshell, I use MIDI to trigger my AD samples and audio to trigger my ST samples. Hope that helped.
 
bdam123 said:
So in a nutshell, I use MIDI to trigger my AD samples and audio to trigger my ST samples. Hope that helped.
Click to expand...

Have you used ST on a recorded drum kit track to then create a MIDI file from...?
I'm just curious how well ST reads the audio to generate an accurate MIDI that can then be used for other sample players (like AD or SD)?

In your case, you're starting with a MIDI track.
 
jimmys69 said:
Anyway, I am not sure there was a direct question here.
Click to expand...

What I was asking was....how well does ST generate a MIDI track from an audio drum kit track so that you can import the MIDI track into the DAW and use it to trigger samples from other players/libraries besides ST?

It seems most guys just use ST for everything...which makes it easy since you don't need to create a MIDI track, you just go directly from ST to the samples...but then you're restricted only to ST samples.
I emailed them about the abilty to import samples from other programs like Drumagog can do....and they said they didn't offer that because of liscencing issues....but i think they just want you to stick with Steven Slate products. I mean, how does Drumagog do it...?

I don't really want to create all of my own samples, though I do have a bunch of snares and some nice cymbals that I might want sample eventually.

The drums in Superior Drummer and SD packs sound quite real and quite good. The basic EZ drums are not that outstanding....though EZ expansion packs are pretty good, depending on which ones you get.
I'm not against using the ST samples too if I ever get ST, I just really would only get ST in order to generate accurate MIDI tracks from existing audio drum kit tracks to then use with my EZ/SD library.

Oh...like I said, Audio Deluxe has both SSD4 and ST Platinum for $109 each.
It's kinda odd that they don't require iLok for SSD4 but do for ST.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top