SSD 5 Questions

[MustangMartigan]

I want decent VI drum software n noticed Slate SSD5 is on sale for $99 until the end of today, the 30th.

How does it compare to other drum VI's in terms of the samples per drum? I think the term is round robin, maybe (picked up that lingo on here). I briefly went thru all the kit sound bites, and tried the one kit in the demo, n it seems pretty solid.

I play alot of different rock styles, straight driving rock, blues/rock, heavy rock, acoustic stuff.

I'm not very knowledgeable in this area. My ideal situation would be an actual mic'd drum kit, but that ain't in the cards right now, so the drum VI will have to do for the demos I'm making.

Thanks.

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[Dewdman42]

They have a free version. Grab that and try it. That' a great price frankly I think its a no brainer. I wish SS would add more features to the software to catch up to the competition but for that price, and for the kind of music you're talking about doing, I think you will like it.

 

[MustangMartigan]

They have a free version. Grab that and try it. That' a great price frankly I think its a no brainer. I wish SS would add more features to the software to catch up to the competition but for that price, and for the kind of music you're talking about doing, I think you will like it.

Damn, totally blew it ans missed the sale. Any suggestion on a different brand around; is there any VI that equals or comes close the SSD5 at the 99 price point or less?

I have the SSD5 demo, but the included kit doesn't get me where i wanna be.

 

[X-Bassist]

I have SSD4 and Addictive Drums and far prefer the latter. They regularly have half price sales where you can get AD2 and your choice of a few kits for $99. Even SSD5 is far too basic, some triggered samples, compared to all that you can do in AD2 and Superior Drums. Both keep adding new kits and at half price sales that are about $40 to add a new kit with many preset sounds. Add midi grooves from places like groove monkey or platinum samples where they use real players unquantized, and the manipulation of those grooves (change dynamics, feel, solo instruments before drag and dropping midi) and you’ve got a groove machine that can be manipulated much more than something like Kontakt or SSD. These engines were made for drums and drum midi manipulation.

 

[nickmurraymusic]

I love SSD 5! my favorite MIDI drums.

 

[MustangMartigan]

I have SSD4 and Addictive Drums and far prefer the latter. They regularly have half price sales where you can get AD2 and your choice of a few kits for $99. Even SSD5 is far too basic, some triggered samples, compared to all that you can do in AD2 and Superior Drums. Both keep adding new kits and at half price sales that are about $40 to add a new kit with many preset sounds. Add midi grooves from places like groove monkey or platinum samples where they use real players unquantized, and the manipulation of those grooves (change dynamics, feel, solo instruments before drag and dropping midi) and you’ve got a groove machine that can be manipulated much more than something like Kontakt or SSD. These engines were made for drums and drum midi manipulation.

I don't think I need an insane amount of options. Kit wise SSD5 absolutely slays AD2 by like 47 kits.. just counting what comes stock.

Are the samples per drum way higher with AD2?

 

[X-Bassist]

I don't think I need an insane amount of options. Kit wise SSD5 absolutely slays AD2 by like 47 kits.. just counting what comes stock.

Are the samples per drum way higher with AD2?

I would go by your ears. If you like the kits in SSD5, then go for it. Originally I liked SSD4 because of the rock kits, there is one that sounds like Led Zeppelin in particular, but I don’t use t much because the interface is so basic and the sounds are not extensively sampled. Some kits have one snare sample for example, but I would assume all this has been improved in SSD5.

As far as AD2’s samples, here’s an excerpt from an interview with the creator:

“AD2 uses multiple velocity layers and ‘Alternating Samples’ (as we call it). The number of layers depends on the sound. Some sounds change timbre a lot between soft and hard hits, and to capture that you need more layers. Snare is usually 16 layers, Kick is 12. There are usually about four to eight alternating samples in each layer. The exception here is intentional ‘one-shot’ or drum machine-type sounds, where there might be only a single sample. AD2 also lets you control how many velocity layers you want to use, and if you want Alternating Samples on or off – because sometimes you want that expensive snare to sound like a vintage drum machine!”

For me even without the extensive sampling I like the ability to manipulate the kits, layout, and midi grooves right in the interface, it’s even got full mixing with eq, compression, and fx on every piece of the kit. The output sounds fully mixed out of the box (unlike Superior drums) but it can be “unmixed” and samples can be output “raw” by simply turning off the processing (most modules have an on/off switch for easy comparison). There’s just so much you can do with it. It’s left my other Kontakt drums (of which I have many) and SSD4 in the dust.