Slate Digital TRIGGER Drum Replacer - Now Available

[arv_foh]

Steven, given your track record, I could make the same assumption about you having never run a digital audio company.

I was really just nitpicking at that point, but I still haven't received any kind of e-mail about the update. I don't like having to check forums to see if the products I use has been updated - Slate Digital isn't Steinberg!

I don't get why you have to constantly berate Slate over the littlest shit, how many companies do you see going out to forums and implementing features that the customers want in their products in future updates? Half of this thread is just you bitching at him.

 

[JeffTD]

I don't get why you have to constantly berate Slate over the littlest shit, how many companies do you see going out to forums and implementing features that the customers want in their products in future updates? Half of this thread is just you bitching at him.

Because statements like this:

email is being generated.. When PT8 came out, it wasn't blasted to the HD userbase for two months. Relaaaaaxxx.. You won't have to check forums for updates.

Make me want to hold him to a higher standard. I'm a paying customer - if he wants to run a business like Avid, then by all means - do it. There's a reason that company has not seen a dime of my money and it is mostly due to their absolutely horribly shitty business practices.

Justifying lack of e-mail updates with a "that's how Avid does it" approach is deplorable, at best, and if a company is going to take our money, we ought to hold them to a high standard.

 

[xFkx]

I don't get why you have to constantly berate Slate over the littlest shit, how many companies do you see going out to forums and implementing features that the customers want in their products in future updates? Half of this thread is just you bitching at him.

Yeah, I have the same impression. Relax man, nobody is perfect and Steven and his team are doing a bloody good job so far.

 

[Slate]

Jeff, what is wrong brother? Lack of email updates? We released 1.5 on Friday, an email goes out in a few minutes. Relax. I mean dude, you're here all the time anyway and you obviously were made aware of the release regardless of the email.

Having said that, your precious email will arrive in a few moments. Carry on...

Back to the topic, make sure to send your TRIGGER requests to Alex via a support ticket so we can try to include them in the next updates. I think there are some really good ideas on here.

steven

 

[Ermz]

Jeff, whilst you make some good points just bear in mind that the company is obviously very new to the audio DSP thing. I think after they get their teething issues sorted out they will be able to make more realistic projections in the future. I know your qualm is with all the promises that aren't fulfilled, but at least the guys genuinely want to bring out some of the best tools of their type out there, and IMO the most important thing is that they're succeeding there. To me it's a bit like Peter Molyneaux, who gets so excited about his own game developments that he can't help but blurt it out everywhere, and then subsequently the public end up holding him to this unrealistic uber-standard that there is absolutely no way to live up to and his titles semi-bomb as a result. I doubt Slate plug-ins will bomb, but there is certainly a similar sort of public outcry going on

 

[Slate]

What exactly are the promises that I haven't fulfilled? I'd like to think I've gone above and beyond with the dsp plugins we've released.. TRIGGER has just won two awards and is being called the new standard. We've already had two major updates and have imparted numerous user requests, some that came as the result of the CEO of the company (heyyy nowww) participating in the discussion here. I don't mean to toot my own horn here.. but I don't see many other companies taking requests at the sneap forum.

FG-X is already being used in some of the top mastering houses in the world by guys like Ted Jensen and Dave McNair, and is delivering the cleanest way to get loud that the industry has seen. Sure it took a while to release, but most people are saying it was worth the wait. I posted a great new demo in the FG-X thread btw..


Anyway, I hope all of the Slate tools, including the good ole SSD, is helping you all make great music.

Steven

 

[Ermz]

I think it's mostly the release dates that people got riled up about, Steven. The projected dates and delays, especially in regards to the Trigger Instrument Maker not launching with Trigger itself.

Once again it never really bothered me, but I can see why some people may have been upset. I don't think many are saying that they aren't great tools, because they certainly are. It's just that the launch could have gone a little smoother. It's one thing to have a really excellent product, but the customer base need a degree of confidence about when they will receive the product and how solidly it will run as part of their set-up. For instance, if I were to have been prepping a record around the time Trigger came out and planned to use it, I would have realized too late that it wasn't possible to use 3rd party multi-samples and I would've had to revert back to Drumtracker/Drumagog in the last moment, potentially causing some heartache. Of course that wasn't the case, but I could see why under such a circumstance a user could become disgruntled.

The thing is, you don't need to feel obligated to promise us release dates if they are looking doubtful or ambitious. None of us are entitled to progress updates. They can create a situation such as the Trigger launch where the product is rushed for release before its integral Instrument Maker is included as part of the package. So if there was no ambitious release date, there would be no expectation on behalf of the user base, which would ultimately mean you won't have to rush anything for release. Ultimately means less impatience and less pandering to appease pricks like us

I'm sure everyone appreciates the direct developer input on these threads, I certainly do! I hope you continue to do it in spite of the adversity!

 

[JeffTD]

Ermz pretty much sums it up.

My complaints have consistently been with: 1. promised deadlines not being met, 2. promised features not being included off the bat, and us not being told about a delay until we specifically ask about it, 3. not being notified of changes to a deadline/price/product until they're implemented or we ask specifically, and 4. a near perpetual teething stage of the business (server issues, downloads not working, getting envelopes of burned DVD's without a box, getting boxes with new labels stickered onto old boxes, print-out/stick-on DVD labels, etc...). Some of these things have been rectified - some have not.

Regardless of how often I spend on this forum (and let's not forget that you didn't even announce it here - you announced it on GS and then Adam brought it over here), I shouldn't have to rely on word-of-mouth to get my updates. If that were the case for every plugin and program I ran, I'd never have time to actually use the damn things.

Maybe I'm bitching; maybe I'm being the squeaky wheel hoping to get grease. I was a beta tester for 3.5 and indirectly for the Instrument Editor, after all.

 

[Slate]

Jeff, you don't have to rely on word of mouth, because as you probably know by now by checking your email today, we have email blasts, and have been doing so for five years. We took an extra three weeks with the Instrument Maker.. now you got it, and its powerful as hell. Most of the other things you mention have been changed years ago. I hope you make great music with my stuff, cheers,

 

[Kazrog]

Software launches seldom go smoothly. I've definitely had my share of unpleasant surprises at the time of Recabinet update launches, and (unfortunately) there's no better "test" than releasing something to your customers. Even if it's "just a pack of IRs," there's a lot of potential things to get wrong, especially on the server/delivery end. No amount of tools or expertise will allow you to foresee all ends.

Thankfully, assuming a fix is relatively easy to figure out on the dev side, software (whether it's music software or server-side code) can be updated instantly and problems can be fixed. I think most people are used to this. Most of my customers have been extremely cool with these things, and we've always released patches within less than 24 hours of a bug being discovered.

If you're running a mission-critical production environment, you should never depend on 1.0 software to get the job done. Wait for the maintenance updates to roll in, then proceed with caution. Nobody I know who does work professionally expects that some new mystery piece of software is going to fit in perfectly with their production in progress.

 

[gabriel g.]

Instrument maker ist great!!!

But steven, for lasy guys like me one update would be PERFECT:
Would it be possible for the instrument maker, to cut every imported sample to perfectly fit the phase-accurasy?

I made my own snare with Ryans Orange-County samples and when I blend it with the real snare track I got some flamming effects, because the samples werent perfectly cut.

Cheers

 

[avrinder]

I would love to see those tutorial vids (for Logic if possible) on Trigger & Instrument Maker. I feel dumb, but I'm not quite "getting" Instrument Maker. It's my first time building different velocities for a sample. I've been busy otherwise, but watching a tutorial would build my confidence, and make me want to practice using this awesome combo (trigger+instrument maker)

 

[gabriel g.]

I´m on logic and it is so easy you wont need any tutorial at all!!!!

The instrument maker is a stand alone app.
Just open it.

Everything inside the instrument maker:
-go with the browser to the place your drumsamples are.
-When you see the wav files put them via drag and drop in the different layers.
-velocity 127 is the max 1 is the mininum.
-Make tables for each velocity you need+rows for the different samples in the velocity
-Safe the file
-open it in logic with the trigger plugin
-DONE

 

[GeertSamuel]

I don't understand all the bitching.
Slate & his company have been more then helpfull to us all, giving updates we need, and asking our input to actually tweak trigger in getting in perfect.
As soon as Adobe or any other company has a problem, and you get back to them with that...their answer is in the line of: FUCK OFF...we update our software when we feel like it.

 

[JeffTD]

Finding that in Instrument Editor 1.2 a lot of samples, when previewing, emit a decently loud pop or scratch when they stop playing - the sound is most definitely not in the original samples, though. Maybe some kind of 5ms auto fade-out could be implemented to stop this?

 

[greyskull]

heres my thoughts after really using trigger in the trenches... Just used it on an One 12 track and another Album and b sides (16 songs!!) worth of material so i REALLY got into it....

Im using several instances of trigger to trigger a blend I made of slate snares, the room mics, and my own samples, 3 or 4 Instances per kick/snare. On snare its 99.99% flawless... SOO good in keeping dynamics. However on buildups (and we're talking INSANELY quiet to full bore here) It doesn't quite catch all the hits even with all the automation, input boosting in the world... but thats okay; I Guess..... All the samples from separate instances lined up wonderfully.

Kicks however seem to be a bit less smooth. There were several instances of Trigger 'doing a drumagog' and having the sample just plain out, not phase aligned, not sample aligned; just way way out. This was more prevelant on fast double kick sections. and also, even with the same settings, the different instances of trigger were occasionally out with each other, but the one that was out most often, was not theone with samples I had made myself, but the one with slate samples.... odd.

So in general? pretty fucking awesome. Instrument maker is easy as hell. But i think just to ensure not having to go through and check every sample is lined up, I'm going to be triggering Trigger Via Midi Using Massey Dtm, it just works for me, and means that i know that every hit will work not matter how many instances i use, and i have more control over the velocity of hits when and where i want it. In fact on the really quiet sections, i actually had to draw in the midi and send to trigger.

But on the whole, I'm going to say, AWESOME software, best drum replacer i've ever used, and I'm sure in future it'll get better as it's updated....
but i'll still be triggering it with midi.

 

[Slate]

greyskull, send the track to my support guys and I promise you they'll send you settings that will smooth out any issues. They are literally 100% success rate on this.. they've found settings for some insanely complicated tracks. I can assure you with a proper original track and the right settings, Trigger is phase accurate. Also, make sure you are using 1.5.

Thanks for the review.

 

[Josh Burgess]

Finding that in Instrument Editor 1.2 a lot of samples, when previewing, emit a decently loud pop or scratch when they stop playing - the sound is most definitely not in the original samples, though. Maybe some kind of 5ms auto fade-out could be implemented to stop this?

Some people are having that problem with Trigger itself too. some kind of buffer problem...

 

[arv_foh]

After using Trigger on my latest project I'm pretty sure that I'm never going to touch ApTrigga again

 

[Trevoire520]

I can understand some people's frustrations at release date's, bug's etc. But unfortunately this kinda stuff can happen, especially with small companies such as Slate.

Though the upside of this can be seen here, feature's are being implemented DIRECTLY from suggestions in this very thread! And very quickly too. This level of engagement and communication with the end user is fantastic and I challenge anyone to tell me another company that's this involved with it's user base.
The only thing I know of that's come close is Allen & Heath's design of the ZED R24 which had alot of input from a thread on Gearslutz.