slate SSD3.0/3.5 users - let's share some knowledge!

[Fragle]

hey folks,

i think it would be cool to have a database with lotsa different production techniques/workflow things regarding the slate standalone player, whether it's ssd3 or 3.5!

like, your favorite samples/choices for blending, favorite cymbals for this and that style, stuff like busing cymbals and the room together and treating those to make the kit sound larger (as desribed by the man himself in another thread here)....anything basically.

there are actually a few things i'm wondering about:
1st, how much post processing do you guys tend to apply to the kits? that is, will you heavily compress and eq e.g. the kicks to really make it sound larger that life, or is it more about chosing the best sample(s) for the projects, and maybe doing some slight adjustments here and there to make it sit with the track?
also, talking snare sounds, what do you feel is the best way of getting more natural sounding snares with ssd3? they seem to be geared towards the processed side of things, like sneap/richardson and the likes. i wonder if anyone stumbled upon a way to get more natural sounding kits - i'm mostly thinking for death metal, along the lines of behemoth the apostasy here.

it's the snares i struggle with most it seems....they either disappear/get eaten by the guitars, or cut through but then sound too overprocessed.
also, as there is no dedicated overhead channel like on additive drums e.g., it's sorta difficult to get a real and live sounding kit. obviously all individual instruments sound great, but at times it doesn't quite seem to have that full kit image.....i'm loving new TBDM or beneath the massacre for that part.
i'm fooling around with the room sounds as of right now, but it's not quite there. anyone got some pointers?


on the production tricks side - i've really had a lot of success with mildly compressing the drum bus, ssl comp works great here! usually it's slowest attack, auto release, 4:1 ratio and taking off around 2-3db max. seems to glue the kit together really well and is a step in the right direction regarding the full kit thing.
i'm really enjoying kick 5 with one of the less metal kicks blended in....i think it was kick 1a or something.
as for snares the jimmy snare seems to be quite cool for those natural blasts, but it's not quite there.....any better choice?


sorry for the longish post, but let's try to make this thread an epic reference for all things ssd player related!

 

[Fragle]

guys....90 views and no reply yet!

anyways, i just found that blending in the room track just right, aside from heavily compressing it, really helps with getting a defined kit sound. to get that pro kit ambience, add a quality reverb impulse to the drum bus.

 

[Pxz]

Do you add the reverb impulse the entire kit?i like to add it in the whole kit besides the cymbals.What impulses are you using? i like the free bricasti m7 a lot ¡¡

 

[C_F_H_13]

Still havn't cracked the code on these samples with metal yet. Hard Rock/Pop Rock They slay, but metal I can't keep them from getting buried or turning into a "thud" instead of a crack...

Any ideas would be sweet.

 

[Fragle]

well with kicks you really need to ease up on the sublows for those faster metal styles, but i'm sure you already knew that.
other than that, right now it seems to me as if less is more should be the way to go....that is, don't go crazy with eq and compression. it sounds better at first, but for some reason it tends to disappear in a mix real fast. i found that doing some adjustments in the lows to get the kick to sit with the bass, and maybe some slight (halb a db) tweaks in the attack/click areas to balance it with the guitars is usually enough.

as for snares, well i have to say that i'm about as clueless as you.....they already sound pretty processed so it's really difficult to get a natural vibe back, which is ever so important with blast heavy music.
but on the other hand, i have yet to find a drum program that really shines at metal snares....addictive drums especially sucks hard in that respect.

 

[Slate]

if you want more crack with 3.5, bypass the limiter effect on the snare insert in Kontakt, this should make it stupid punchy.. The crackier snares are Green, ToneDef, Snare7, Chili, Snare5, Snare15...

www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo2/ssdmetal.mp3

Keep in mind that the SSD snares are in a lot of current metal productions, the master himself Andy Sneap has been using them as well as Colin Richardson, Jay Baumgardner, and some other heavy mixers. You just got to keep them ABOVE the guitars (like, turn those guitar faders down) and tailor the top end for the mix. The faster the song, the more sublows have to go bye bye from the kicks.

As for overhead, keep in mind as soon as you hit that OVERHEAD button, its adding in at a nice level to add some great 3D depth.. The room SENDS on each channel are VERY sensitive, carefully adjust them to get the overall ambient space that you want.

And don't be afraid to send the whole drum buss to some compressors and give the whole lot of them some more tone and character.

Hope this helps.

 

[mintcheerios]

I usually add a little bit of compression on the snare and EQ the highs on the kick to taste. They usually fit in pretty well for me.

Hey Slate, is that LE to Platinum upgrade deal still on the way? I've been loving the LE stuff and now I want more.

 

[Slate]

oh yeah, its coming.. I promise. Just keep checking that email.

 

[s34nsm411]

does anybody have a 3.5 drum map for cubase? some of the hits changed from 3 to 3.5 and it makes me want to claw my eyes out

 

[Slate]

I think snare5 and some other snare, and then kick5 and 15.. simple low shelf on cymbals and some compression. Snare5 (3.5 its the all american kit) is cracky as hell.. I just did a new song with it, I'll post it soon.

 

[Fragle]

digging up the thread

i wonder if anyone has some advice how to make blast beats sound more natural?

seems to me as if the technique used for blasting is just way different from regular strokes, and hence produces very different sounds....

any pointers how to work around it?

 

[A Midnight Requiem]

digging up the thread

i wonder if anyone has some advice how to make blast beats sound more natural?

seems to me as if the technique used for blasting is just way different from regular strokes, and hence produces very different sounds....

any pointers how to work around it?

Usually just lowering the velocity of all the snare hits does it for me. Especially on the euro blasts (cymbal and snare alternating), since drummers naturally hit the snare softer on blasts than they would on a backbeat.

Also I find the ride cymbal is the main perpetrator of fake sounding blasts. Varying the velocities on the ride helps a lot too, and also adding some bell hits in occasionally.

If changing velocities makes the snare or ride too quiet, you can just turn down the "velocity" knob in the SSD player. Hope that helps.

 

[Rex Rocker]

I'm really liking Snare 3 P myself.

I also like Kick 5, but I have to use the tune function on Kontakt to tune it up a little, and make a narrow cut at 1.2Hz to get rid of a bit of the loose splatty sound. I'm still not 100% sold on this kick, but I haven't really experimented all that much with the kicks.


I'm really liking the snares compared to Addictive Drums, which I used before, because I feel that they doesn't need a whole of EQ to sound good in a mix. If it doesn't work with some minor EQ fine-tuning, grab a different snare sample, and repeat.


This is what I've gotten so far: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/315457/SharynSSD.mp3 (sorry, no bass)