Slate EX Test

[Morgan C]

I got Slate EX a couple of days ago, here's what I'm with so far.

The kicks are really bad solo'd, I'm sorry, but when you blend them they turn godly. I love this kick.
Room sounds are amazing.
Not sure why we have to pan the cymbals.. and I'm sure thats the only reason they never sound as 'real' as other software. The actual sounds are great.
Toms are amazing.
Snares have this permanent Slateyness that I can't seem to get rid of. This is blending 4 snares with a fuckload of processing, because I can't stand the usual Slate snare (or any Slate snare I've ever heard) :S

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/324723/SlateTest1.mp3

PS: AMG is amazing. The snare, apart from the blast beat, is all max velocity. The kick is almost all the same velocity too. Very nice.

 

[G1]

for the blast beat how hard did you have the velocity hits ?

 

[Morgan C]

No idea, sorry, and can't see without opening up Sonar which will take ages (I had 4 kontak's set up..). Low enough to make it sound good. Manual varying of velocities though, by about max 10. Its got a lot of lowend on the blast though, cos regular hits are rimshots which ahve less lowend. Needs automation.

 

[PostMortem1666]

Snares have this permanent Slateyness that I can't seem to get rid of. This is blending 4 snares with a fuckload of processing, because I can't stand the usual Slate snare (or any Slate snare I've ever heard) :S

Yeah I completely agree with you. Your snare has that slate sound to it but it isn't TOO bad. Everything else sounds great.

 

[Teddyboy]

The only thing that sounds weird to me is the overheads. It's not the way they're played,but their sound. I don't have Slate drums yet so I don't know if that's how they sound normally or something went wrong in the mix. Also I think you should lower them. Toms-kicks are super,snare velocities are good (amg seems to be great) and snare sound is not bad (the way you described it made me think it would have been really bad and it's not),so why not blend the sneap snare for a better original mix sound match?

 

[CatharsisStudios]

the snare sound good.. i think i personally despise it

 

[fin]

Awesome man! One of the best Slate sounds I've heard. Did you do any processing outside Kontatk? Wanna Share the preset?

 

[Morgan C]

Awesome man! One of the best Slate sounds I've heard. Did you do any processing outside Kontatk? Wanna Share the preset?

Thanks.
Yes, the Kontakt plugins are shit. Mostly on the snare though.
No. This is after 2 days with the pack. I'm sure I can do much better, and I'm sure you can too.

 

[GarethSE]

Actually sounds really good dude, despite our "discussions" about Slate drums.
You've retained all the sorta... Nice parts of the slate sound but viciously gotten rid of the rest, muchos respect. Really like the mega scooped snare, sounds fucking gorgeous, got a nice THWACK to it.
If you added some 200hz that puppy would fucking scream, but I know you hate any tubbiness on your drums, so whatevs. Infact my only real complaint is that it all sounds a tad thin. You need to thicken these out man, they're begging for some tub in all honesty.

 

[Morgan C]

Here it is in a quick mix. Note I suck at dialing guitar tones, really bad.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/324723/SlateLostElement.mp3

As I thought, the snare just doesn't hold up in a mix. Surprisingly it didn't get murdered in mastering, but any more 200hz on that and it starts distorting like crazy. I need to get some better sustain on it. Toms still have that Slateyness to them, but I'm fucking in love with this kick drum.

 

[Jaymz]

Which kicks did you blend?

 

[kass]

Here it is in a quick mix. Note I suck at dialing guitar tones, really bad.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/324723/SlateLostElement.mp3

As I thought, the snare just doesn't hold up in a mix. Surprisingly it didn't get murdered in mastering, but any more 200hz on that and it starts distorting like crazy. I need to get some better sustain on it. Toms still have that Slateyness to them, but I'm fucking in love with this kick drum.

i think you have the guitars a bit too loud there anyway.

 

[Rex Rocker]

I'm curious about the kicks as well. It sounds pretty good!

I like your snare, but I think it could use a bit more thump to it.

 

[Erkan]

Here it is in a quick mix. Note I suck at dialing guitar tones, really bad.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/324723/SlateLostElement.mp3

As I thought, the snare just doesn't hold up in a mix. Surprisingly it didn't get murdered in mastering, but any more 200hz on that and it starts distorting like crazy. I need to get some better sustain on it. Toms still have that Slateyness to them, but I'm fucking in love with this kick drum.

The guitare are WAY too loud, what have you done!? :O

There is something strange about the OH... it just sounds like there is an extreme amount of distortion going on in there. Did you use any exciter/saturation plugin on the OH? If so, get rid of it or lower it... sounds fucked up

Other than that.. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the drums in general but I think that's because I'm so tired of slate drums since there have been a million clips posted with them already so far.

 

[Morgan C]

The guitare are WAY too loud, what have you done!? :O

There is something strange about the OH... it just sounds like there is an extreme amount of distortion going on in there. Did you use any exciter/saturation plugin on the OH? If so, get rid of it or lower it... sounds fucked up

Other than that.. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the drums in general but I think that's because I'm so tired of slate drums since there have been a million clips posted with them already so far.

I don't know why but I always mix guitars too loud. I can NEVER get them right unless there are vocals in the mix, they need to be the last thing I bring up otherwise I always mess up the volume and the high end.

OHs have like a 2db boost in the highend but nothing apart from that? A compressor taking off a few dBs.

I know there have been a million Slate clips, but I had hoped I'd gotten away from the traditional Slate sound ><
I have definitely improved on the snare, went through my library and found some really toneful samples which I combined with this. Not totally happy yet though, will post an update later on.

 

[MetalMiller]

Your drumsound is always one of the best in this forum... But where did you get dandelium di´s? Or am i wrong?

 

[Morgan C]

Your drumsound is always one of the best in this forum... But where did you get dandelium di´s? Or am i wrong?

Wow thanks man! I do think drums are my strong point, probably cos I was a drummer long before I got into this, so I know exactly waht I like and don't. Whereas guitars I'm very happy just palm them off to Ryan or Greg and be done with it

And yeh its Dandy's DI's. He posted a whole song (all instruments, no vox) in one of his threads.

Final update for now. Kind of a pingy, Lamb of God snare. Not totally what I was going for (I dig it when you can hear tone in the snare but not necessarily this high pitched, more Blackwater Park, Dark Passion Play).
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/324723/SlateLostElementPing.mp3

 

[kass]

drowning out the drums

 

[AerialThesis]

I personally dislike the reverb on the sample and the toms sound is really, really synthetic. that crash has some ugly high end harmonics. You should add some velocity randomising and fine tuning randomising too so the performance would sound a bit realistic. The kick and snare sounds great i agree, but personally i don't like that stereo effect on the kick.