STEVEN SLATE DRUMS 1.5 ELITE MIXER SERIES DEMO MP3s

[Shy]

I must say I don't understand your pricing, nor the structure of your demos in which by the way you need much less talking, done by someone else.
The "blues" demo pretty much convinced me to consider buying. But you have 24 snares, 18 kicks and 4 tom sets, and I just can't justify paying almost 300 bucks for that much content. A drum library is not nearly as complicated to produce as a detailed percussion library, and yet your product costs more than a percussion library I have that's so detailed it's mind boggling. I'm not convinced by multiple room enviroments, ambience samples, etc. Those are standard nowadays and not very complicated or special. I'm not interested in the limited $100 package. If in the future the price of the complete package is reduced to $150, $180 max, I'd most probably get it.
Just my thoughts. Not to complain, but to offer some perspective.

[StevenSlate]

Shy, thanks for taking the time to listen. I'm sorry if you don't think the pricing is to your taste, but I think it is extremely fair, if not a bargain for what you get. The top mixers in the country use these samples on a lot of top artists, and the sounds were tweaked to perfection and this was a lot of work to produce. The demos explain the many features and different sample sets (in which a voiceover is needed), and we've had a lot of success with them. Producing a drum collection is so far away from the word easy that its not worth debating. Believe me on that one.

The Elite Mixer package is a professional package full of amazing sound drum hits. We've been told that it pays for itself within days. You do not simply get raw hits, you get mix ready drum samples tracked to two inch and tweaked with 40,000 dollars worth of drool worthy gear like rare Pultecs, Neves, API's... and it doesn't hurt that the Elite Mixer hits were beta tested by the best ears in the business.

Check out new records mixed by Ross Hogarth, Jeff Juliano, Jay Baumgarder, and Mike Shipley to hear our stuff in action.


www.stevenslatedrums.com
Thanks,
Joel
Yellow Matter

[Shy]

I'm sure it's been very hard to produce that library. No doubt about it. I know basically what a huge amount of problems you have to avoid and/or dynamically fix, how very complicated it is to achieve accurate and desired results as well as to satisfy many needs.

The fact remains though, that many well known, successful and also "industry standard" audio production software products that have had many more (and I mean many, as in 50 times more) combined work hours invested on them, cost about the same or less. Not necessarily sample library products, but ones like effect processors, synthesizers, etc, which are the result of many years of ongoing development. A product which is a final, done product with no further changes needed/possible in it other than possible minor fixes like a drum sample library which does offer much, but not that much content, and may very well to most customers lose its value over time far more than other kinds of products (there's a limit to how much you can reuse the same drum samples), I believe should cost less, that's all. Nothing against your pricing specifically.

To me, a half of your price seems fair enough, and I'd also consider a third of it fair. Opinions vary of course, but I believe many more people would be able to call it affordable and that it would benefit both sides. My fairness calculator is based on production costs and time + lasting value + amount of usefulness, and not on what well known people use or are involved with the making of the product. I could bring some examples of products which so many well known professionals use, that have had so much work invested on them it's astonishing, which cost the same or less. I won't though .

To make it clear, by no means am I claiming anyone shouldn't get your sample library. It seems to be of the highest possible quality in its field, and whoever wants to pay for it/finds the price justifiable, should definitely get it. I have absolutely no problem with that, and only wish success to Steven Slate and co. I'm just pointing out my views as I believe they are important and could make a positive impact on all sides, and I hope everyone understands that.

[Slate]

Hi Shy, thanks for the in depth response.

Before working here I had owned and tried out a lot of drum libraries and they simply don't compare to Steven's sound in my biased opinion. You get a lot of quality for the money, the same way that you pay more for a Lexicon reverb box then you would a Behringer, even though by now they use the same converters and such.. its the quality of the code.. just like in this case, its the quality of the samples themselves. There is quite a buzz now about the product and its quality, especially here in Hollywood where its super competitive. Furthermore, with the Elite package, it'll be hard to run out of sounds with 24 snares, 18 kicks, and 4 tom sets. A very high tier mixer phoned me on Thursday telling me he used a different snare on every track of an album he just mixed. He was quite thrilled.

To justify a price drop, we'd need a decrease in sales. In reality, Steven just hired two new shipping guys because I can't keep up with the daily orders!

I hope you can at some point get a chance to get the samples because they really do sound awesome. The Z4s alone are worth the price of the whole box. We get reports from guys who record drums in small dead rooms telling us the Z4s make it sound like they recorded at the RECORD PLANT. Either way, all the best, and thanks for the comments.
Joel
www.stevenslatedrums.com

[Shy]

Thanks for the response, Joel. It's good to hear you're doing so well .

[Slate]

Hey guys, check out this new R&B Funk demo Steven just made, it uses Elite Mixer KICK 16, Elite Mixer Snare 16, and Snare 16's Z4 real room ambience sample as well. The Elite Mixer Edition was custom made for and beta tested by some of the world's top mixers:

R&B Funk
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/elitemixer4.mp3

other demos:

blues
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/elitemixer3.mp3

hard rock
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/elitemixer2.mp3


Joel
www.stevenslatedrums.com

[Teksonik]

How about a few demo Samples to download and try for ourselves? Demo songs are fine but being able to hear just a few samples in our own environment would help to better judge the quality. I've got a few gigs of drum samples already but there's always room for more.

[StevenSlate]

Steven is making a free snare sample right now for people to try, its a high pitched reggae style snare but it sounds awesome.

But if you snoop around forums like gearslutz where Steven has a lot of users, you can read a lot of reviews. Also, please not that there is no additional processing of the samples on all the audio demos so what you hear is what you get.

Finally, listen to new mixes done by some of the mixers featured on our page to hear how the samples sound on the radio, as thats obviously an important media to hear drums on.

Newest demos:
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/elitemixer2.mp3

www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/elitemixer3.mp3

www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/elitemixer4.mp3

www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo/twilight.mp3

Joel
Yellow Matter

[Teksonik]

Do you always refer to yourself in the third person? Like I said Mp3 demos are one thing but nothing like getting your hands on a few samples and seeing how they sound in your own particular setup. Reviews mean nothing to me and I could care less about name dropping. Looking forward to the snare.

[Killvehicle]

Do you always refer to yourself in the third person?

Reviews mean nothing to me and I could care less about name dropping. Looking forward to the snare.

haha Although I think this is one of "Stevens" fanboy/coworkers..

Yeah the name dropping is annoying.. 9 times out 10 this "great" producer is great at making everyone he produces sound the same..

[Slate]

yeah I got to sign off as Joel, sorry bout that, this isn't Steven, its "fanboy" Joel, aka head of support for Yellow Matter Ent.

And I'd say the great producers who use our products are far from cookie cutter mixers.

Like I said Teksonik, we'll have some freebies available to try. I think you'll really like them.

I'm with you, I don't trust reviews either and need to work with something in order to like it, so thats why I was very vocal about getting some free stuff out there for people to try. The reggae snare is almost done.

Joel

www.stevenslatedrums.com

[Slate]

new customer demos, you gotta hear these, they sound great:

First Wayne Baird, artist Julie Downs:

www.stevenslatedrums.com/customers/wayne1.mp3

www.stevenslatedrums.com/customers/wayne2.mp3

and then JSSRECORDING artist UNORTHODOX:

www.stevenslatedrums.com/customers/Takeuhome.mov

Joel
www.stevenslatedrums.com
new PROJECT PACK AVAILABLE $99 bucks!