How do You like steven Slate drums 4.0?

[AjD]

Battery sounds interesting, but I'm really set on getting something that will emulate all the room mics and provide realistic bleed on everything else. My main experience is in micing/mixing acoustic drums, so the whole virtual drum emulator thing (started a few years ago by Toontrack I think?) really appeals to me.

It's nice to hear that SSD has a bunch of period kits. I like that a lot. It's the main reason I'm attracted to the product (plus the flexible routing to DAW). Assuming those samples sound great, that is. I'm still worried they'll sound too "big" in a mix. It's hard to tell from the song samples provided on Slate's Web site. Sometimes drums need to sound small/vintage/boxy/narrow/delicate/etc. But can any drum emulator do all that (yet)?

I'll say it again - I sure wish SSD had a working demo.

Aj

P.S. Agree with you about the Zep kit. It's great marketing I suppose. But that sound is so recognizable; it immediately sounds like a copycat thing to me, unless it's used very creatively in a totally different context (hard to do).

[SWAN808]

...

[BERFAB]

The promised groove library is still very small. I'm not sure what the hold up is, but just a couple of weeks back Steven Slate sent an email around saying that major upgrades and grooves were coming. Since then, nothing.
. . .
Fortunately for me, Groovemonkee is supporting SSD4 now, and my entire Groovemonkee folder of midi files is now directly accessible in the SSD4 player.

YMMV of course.

Cheers
-B

I have to make a correction and give an update here. The latest Recording Magazine is out this week, and there is a very nice review of SSD4. I actually learned a few things I didn't know about the program. But more importantly, the review actually talked about features that I didn't know existed.

Turns out the reason I didn't know this is that I am running version 1.07, and the latest version is 1.086. I went to my account page on the SSD site, and the update is there, along with a very nice collection of new (and free for users) grooves that essentially bumps out the current groove library to 4 separate collections (instead of one). There's some great stuff in there, and most popular genres are covered.

The latest official release still does not include the promised mapping presets, but there is a beta also available on the account page (v. 1.093) that includes a collection of mapping presets. I have not tested these yet, but I CAN report that the latest version of the SSD4 sampler is rock solid (Cubase 6.5 running Win 7 x64) and is a lot of fun to use.

I know Mr. Slate is awfully busy, but it must be said that he clearly tries to give good service by personally answering emails and replying to boards such as KVR, Gearsluts, etc. This is why I found it surprising that I didn't get a follow up email with the announcement of the official latest release. A small oversight, certainly, given the big picture here, but still, future releases should stay on top of this for existing customers.'

I hope others find this helpful.

Cheers
-B