AeternusEternus
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- Oct 8, 2008
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Sick of Slate
- Thread starter AaronDylan
- Start date
P-E
Munchkin
AD Chaos
MGTOW
- Aug 3, 2009
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Aaron Smith
Envisage Audio
AaronDylan, good to see a new dude here who appreciates the art of recording drums, or at least the art of creating unique samples. I've always hated the idea of relying heavily on some publicly available samples in order to achieve some level of success with recording. It's definitely not going to make a bad engineer legitimately successful, but having clean drum sounds to work with, with no understanding as to how such drum sounds could actually come into existence, is just lame to me. And I definitely have my go-to samples, which I love, but it's stuff I recorded and processed myself, so it's unique to me.
Anyway, just a word of encouragement, since hardly anyone around here (especially newbies) seems to ever be interested in "major level engineering skill" as you put it.
Anyway, just a word of encouragement, since hardly anyone around here (especially newbies) seems to ever be interested in "major level engineering skill" as you put it.
Word Aaron. Finally somebody got my point.
Ok making any kind of sample fit in a mix is a mixing skill that has to be trained well.
What was and still is pissing me of is that really a lot of bands in this genre are almost having a identical snare sound because of slate samples.
I don´t own the slate sample package and was thinking of getting it so many times because their so good from the start!
but then i just tried a few things with my own samples and i got great results so in the end i could save some money.
It actually just freaks me and other people here out that you can say: hey this engineer used slate samples!
And it´s sad that you don´t think about the snare sound as an mistery like i used to when i heard songs that had slate on them but i didn´t know what that was at that time!
if i hear them now it´s kinda like meh this guy used slate..
I have been feeling the same way for a while too. It is getting boring hearing the same old sounds all the time. The question is are people using Slate drums only because they struggle to record real drums and make them work in a mix or do they use Slate samples because it is the most cost effective option for any given scenario?
Honestly, I think it is probably a combination of things. I really hope that someone who calls themselves an engineer would love playing with microphones and drums all day to get the perfect sound for a record. Sure it can be tedious to spend a ton of time doing that but it is so much more rewarding as an engineer than just loading up a sample replacement plugin on a poorly recorded drum track and calling it your recording even though it is a bunch of pre made samples. Then again, not all people have budgets to spend an entire day getting drum sounds. They just need a finished product quickly. But at the end of the day, samples are tools that we have at our disposal to get the job done and make good music.
Genius Gone Insane
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Vinny
Member
LydonB- Epic. +1
AaronDylan- The problem I have, is that you are saying that "world class engineers shouldn't rely on commercial samples."
So does that make Chris Lord-Algae, the greatest rock engineer of our time (in my opinion) not a "world class engineer"? Because he uses commercial samples.
I'll give you my view on the subject-
Slate is popular because the genre that "relies upon" Slate samples is popular. Face it- They are amazing sounding samples. Probably the best you can get for $150-$300.
So why not use the best you can get to create the best mix possible?
I agree an engineer needs to push his won boundaries, which includes NOT relying on what you did in the past, but rather moving forward and coming up with new ideas and methods.
BUT- For the VAST majority of us that can't afford to build a prestigious drum booth and a $100,000 mixing console, we use the best of what is available to us.
AaronDylan- The problem I have, is that you are saying that "world class engineers shouldn't rely on commercial samples."
So does that make Chris Lord-Algae, the greatest rock engineer of our time (in my opinion) not a "world class engineer"? Because he uses commercial samples.
I'll give you my view on the subject-
Slate is popular because the genre that "relies upon" Slate samples is popular. Face it- They are amazing sounding samples. Probably the best you can get for $150-$300.
So why not use the best you can get to create the best mix possible?
I agree an engineer needs to push his won boundaries, which includes NOT relying on what you did in the past, but rather moving forward and coming up with new ideas and methods.
BUT- For the VAST majority of us that can't afford to build a prestigious drum booth and a $100,000 mixing console, we use the best of what is available to us.
I liked Steven Slate Drums when it was underground. 3.5 is for scene kids. I still have the 1.0 disc in vinyl.
I liked Line6 from the Amp Farm era. After PODxt they´ve sold out.
I liked Joey Sturgis when he was recording 7DA, now he´s just so mainstream.
I like LSD Drums, you´ve probably haven´t heard of... Oh, wait, damn. It´s hard to be a hipster AE.
But seriously, use whatever you think it sounds best. I just hope you don´t find yourself mixing something that would obviously sound better with SSD, and refusing to use it for ego reasons. I´m tired of dudes that want wicked guitar rhythms but refuse to use EMG pickups for whatever reason, even when you A/B the results in front of them. Don´t be embarrassed by using what is good. 808 is alive and still kickin.
I liked Line6 from the Amp Farm era. After PODxt they´ve sold out.
I liked Joey Sturgis when he was recording 7DA, now he´s just so mainstream.
I like LSD Drums, you´ve probably haven´t heard of... Oh, wait, damn. It´s hard to be a hipster AE.
But seriously, use whatever you think it sounds best. I just hope you don´t find yourself mixing something that would obviously sound better with SSD, and refusing to use it for ego reasons. I´m tired of dudes that want wicked guitar rhythms but refuse to use EMG pickups for whatever reason, even when you A/B the results in front of them. Don´t be embarrassed by using what is good. 808 is alive and still kickin.
egan.
daylightdies.com
Eh, slate samples sound good and I think that your bass player likes "that sound" in general and wouldn't care if you used something else that sounded that good.
As a burgeoning old person I do feel that the ease with which people can approximate commercial sounds these days --without any regard for learning the craft and w/o having to endure years of shitty mixes -- is ultimately destructive for both engineering and musicianship. However, just like the supposed loudness wars, there is no sense in complaining. Lead by example.
As a burgeoning old person I do feel that the ease with which people can approximate commercial sounds these days --without any regard for learning the craft and w/o having to endure years of shitty mixes -- is ultimately destructive for both engineering and musicianship. However, just like the supposed loudness wars, there is no sense in complaining. Lead by example.
