Recording - June 2012 - 46
B Y PA U L V N U K J R .
1a
1b
Steven Slate Drums 4
A program whose name is synonymous with “drum library” gets a great makeover
We have looked at quite a variety of Steven Slate products over the past few years, both in the areas of hardware (the Dragon dynamics processor, reviewed August 2011, and the Fox preamp, reviewed March 2012) and software (Trigger drum replacement software, reviewed April 2011, and Virtual Console Collection, reviewed December 2011). But today we’re going back to the product that started it all: Steven Slate Drums! Back in the day, Steven got his start producing drum sample collections for some of the industry’s biggest artists and studios. Eventually this led to the birth of the Steven Slate Drums lineup (“SSD”). Originally, SSD was a sample collection for use in third-party samplers and eventually a Kontakt hosted instrument. Now, with version 4, SSD becomes a full VSTi groove instrument with its own newly designed, custom playback engine. Download, install, first look SSD4 is available in two versions, Platinum ($249) and a smaller EX version ($99), and each comes boxed or as a download. I received the download version of SSD Platinum. Its 19 GB library comes as nine .rar files plus an installer file. Uncompress the library, choose where it will live on your computer, run the installer, set the program path to said library folder, and installation is complete. Copy protection is handled through a downloadable authorization file, which must be placed in your SSD4 library folder and then also linked to. SSD4 runs in your DAW of choice as a VST instrument and has no standalone mode. It has a single-window GUI with six selectable pages; see the screenshots for some examples. Choose, build, edit It starts with the Construct Kit page, where you can choose your weapons from one of the 100 included kit presets, or you can audition kit pieces and build your own drum kit piece by piece, in either a cell layout or kit view. See Figure 1. Page two, Edit Instrument, is where you adjust the tuning, panning, velocity curves, and more for each kit piece. More interestingly, each drum piece has its
46
RECORDING JUNE 2012
own ADSR curve (like those in Trigger) that allows you to tailor the hit and decay of each drum, even down to different curves for the different mics used on each drum when applicable. Certain drums, such as snare and hi-hat, include additional sample layers like side stick, rim shots and such, or half-open, quarter-open, closed and more for the hats, and you can control each layer’s volume individually as well as its MIDI mapping. Mix The Mixer window (Figure 2) is your standard collection of fader, solo, mute and phase controls for each kit piece as well as overhead and room channels. Two additional mixer pages are available to control each kit piece’s level in the room and overhead buss, and you can add your own custom buss channels. An interesting design decision in SSD4 is to have crash cymbals only present in the overhead and room mic faders. A bold move, but more logical than you might think: when was the last time you spot-miked each of your crashes? (If you did, you’re working too hard...) One exception to this is specialty cymbals such as splashes and china cymbals, which do have their individual channels for more precise level adjustment. Grooves In the Groove page (Figure 3) are four libraries of MIDI grooves: Two by Jerry Lyons, one each by Glen Sobule and Simply Deluxe.
Recording - June 2012
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2012
Recording - June 2012
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
Finale 2012 As A Tool For Sample Playback
Mark De Clive-Lowe
Applied Acoustics Systems Chromaphone.
Reviewed and Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 2.0.
Toontrack EZkeys Grand Piano
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 6: Introduction to Microphones—Part Three (From Proximity To Plosives)
Recording’s Showcase Of Sounds
Steven Slate Drums 4.0.
Sample Magic Electro and Hed Kandi: Disco House Samples
MOTU MachFive3
Reviewed and Revisited: audiobro LA Scoring Strings 2.0.
Milab DC-96B and DC-96C Condenser Microphones
Sennheiser MK 4 Condenser Microphone
Olympus LS-20M and LS-100 Portable Recorders
Readers’ Tapes
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - June 2012 - Recording - June 2012
Recording - June 2012 - Cover2
Recording - June 2012 - 1
Recording - June 2012 - 2
Recording - June 2012 - 3
Recording - June 2012 - Fade In
Recording - June 2012 - 5
Recording - June 2012 - Contents
Recording - June 2012 - 7
Recording - June 2012 - Talkback
Recording - June 2012 - 9
Recording - June 2012 - Fast Forward
Recording - June 2012 - 11
Recording - June 2012 - Finale 2012 As A Tool For Sample Playback
Recording - June 2012 - 13
Recording - June 2012 - 14
Recording - June 2012 - 15
Recording - June 2012 - 16
Recording - June 2012 - 17
Recording - June 2012 - 18
Recording - June 2012 - 19
Recording - June 2012 - Mark De Clive-Lowe
Recording - June 2012 - 21
Recording - June 2012 - 22
Recording - June 2012 - 23
Recording - June 2012 - Applied Acoustics Systems Chromaphone.
Recording - June 2012 - 25
Recording - June 2012 - Reviewed and Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 2.0.
Recording - June 2012 - 27
Recording - June 2012 - 28
Recording - June 2012 - 29
Recording - June 2012 - Toontrack EZkeys Grand Piano
Recording - June 2012 - 31
Recording - June 2012 - 32
Recording - June 2012 - 33
Recording - June 2012 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 6: Introduction to Microphones—Part Three (From Proximity To Plosives)
Recording - June 2012 - 35
Recording - June 2012 - 36
Recording - June 2012 - 37
Recording - June 2012 - Recording’s Showcase Of Sounds
Recording - June 2012 - 39
Recording - June 2012 - 40
Recording - June 2012 - 41
Recording - June 2012 - 42
Recording - June 2012 - 43
Recording - June 2012 - 44
Recording - June 2012 - 45
Recording - June 2012 - Steven Slate Drums 4.0.
Recording - June 2012 - 47
Recording - June 2012 - Sample Magic Electro and Hed Kandi: Disco House Samples
Recording - June 2012 - 49
Recording - June 2012 - MOTU MachFive3
Recording - June 2012 - 51
Recording - June 2012 - Reviewed and Revisited: audiobro LA Scoring Strings 2.0.
Recording - June 2012 - 53
Recording - June 2012 - Milab DC-96B and DC-96C Condenser Microphones
Recording - June 2012 - 55
Recording - June 2012 - Sennheiser MK 4 Condenser Microphone
Recording - June 2012 - 57
Recording - June 2012 - 58
Recording - June 2012 - 59
Recording - June 2012 - 60
Recording - June 2012 - 61
Recording - June 2012 - Olympus LS-20M and LS-100 Portable Recorders
Recording - June 2012 - 63
Recording - June 2012 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - June 2012 - Advertiser Index
Recording - June 2012 - 66
Recording - June 2012 - 67
Recording - June 2012 - 68
Recording - June 2012 - 69
Recording - June 2012 - 70
Recording - June 2012 - 71
Recording - June 2012 - Fade Out
Recording - June 2012 - Cover3
Recording - June 2012 - Cover4
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