Steven Slate Drums 4.0 is here!!!

Yes, very nice but, Do I need them? ;)

There are a couple of unanswered questions. Will the "Ryan Air" iLok factor bump the prices up by another $60? I can see no mention of iLok on the website. What are the system requirments of the player, is it 64 bit?

Also is there really a lot new here, apart from haveing to have yet another player? I have EX and a few expansions, it looks like if I did decide to buy Platinum I would be just as well using the crossgrade option.

From the email I got about the upgrade from Steven Slate Drums....

This is a holiday prerelease, and therefore, there will be a few updates coming within the next two weeks:
- 64bit versions
- Complete Groove Library


So it appears that this is an interim release and we have to wait a bit for a 64 bit version. That seems really lame to me. Since the upgrade offer is valid till January 20th I don't see any reason to jump on this till they get a proper release done. I am going to wait on this one for sure.


Ken

My email said

upgrades expire February 28th 2012, crossgrades Expire February 1st 2012

Tempting if only for the fact that it no longer requires the Kontakt Player. Haven't found much info about their own player though. Anyone tried it yet? Thoughts?

cant wait for the day when ilok is a thing of the past,it drives me away from buying software that needs an ilok,imo,its another wasted port,another thing to have problems with.and if you ahave a dedicated enough following users will support it no matter what.

Still trying to decide if $149 is worth it since I have EX and all 5 of the original expansion packs. I realize that means I'll never see any updates.

Norrie, what is the advantage of the new player over Kontakt (besides NOT being in Kontakt)?

Just read on the Steven Slate forums that SSD 4 player does NOT do host sync!!! How is this even possible???? This just makes it completely unuseable to me. Wow is all I can say. No standalone player either. Yikes! I am speechless. Glad I didn't take a flyer on this at this point.

Ken

Actually there are times when I use Host Sync. When I'm cutting a new track and I want a quick and easy 'drum machine'. (Wish they'd get the forum software updated, I would have edited my post but would have had to load another browser to do it.)

For those who purchased the audiomidi no-brainer version of Steven Slate's EX no-brainer a couple/few years ago, there is a very attractive crossgrade price of $49.99 over at audiomidi.com.  Here is the link: http://www.audiomidi.com/Products/yem_ssd4ex-nbcg/

This is ONLY for those who already own the no-brainer version(you will no if you got it).  For just under $50 this is a good way to get Slate's SSD4-EX.  Even with some of the negatives about the so-called premature release date, I figure it has to be worth $50.

There is no standalone which is a bummer.  If on windows, try something like Savihost.  The new deluxe kits are pretty good.  I think generally it's a good product.  The number of kits included is the selling point.  

It is almost hard to believe that I will not upgrade this stuff but I just really don't want to spend the time debugging a product that sounds like it is still in alpha testing. The more I use stuff in the Kontakt environment the less I like it so it really is a complete pity that his stuff is not more stable. I love the sound of the drum kits but no host sync is a complete showstopper for me.  If it were just 32 bits with 64 bit to come I could live with that although that just blows my mind also. How someone in 2011 (now 2012) could develop a 32 bit only app when you are targeting more than ProTools is just completely beyond me. That speaks volumes of a really screwed up development effort.

Ken

Hi Folks.

Sorry about the sync issue with the midi grooves, its fixed and will arrive in next update along with the MIDI GROOVE pack. Other than that, I'm really happy with SSD4 in terms of a V1 Release.  I'm sorry if anyone here has had to wait for any support during the holiday.

SSD4 is really a completely new animal from the previous Kontakt version. The new Deluxe kits are unprocessed but still recorded with extremely fine tuned technique, with about four times the sample layering. I tried to cover about every genre from Jazz to Metal to House and Hip Hop. 

The SSD4 Player is meant to be a drum instrument with lightening fast workflow and a simple and elegant design that allows you to make quality drums sounds without hassle.  I think it meets these goals. It also plays very well on edrums.

If anyone has any questions regarding SSD4, SSD4 and Sonar, or has any other kind of questions for me, I'll watch this thread or you can hit me up at slate@stevenslate.com

Cheers,
Steven

Steven Slate


Hi Folks.

Sorry about the sync issue with the midi grooves, its fixed and will arrive in next update along with the MIDI GROOVE pack. Other than that, I'm really happy with SSD4 in terms of a V1 Release.  I'm sorry if anyone here has had to wait for any support during the holiday.

Cheers,
Steven

Hey, Steven, thanks for chiming in here.  I purchased SSD4 EX for a less-than-no-brainer coupon price with the idea that this was a holiday special pre-release, and I did not expect it to have everything perfected just yet.  And, I have not been disappointed, as the sounds are excellent, and the new interface shows a lot of promise (and is free from having to use Kontakt). 
 
I did see an option somewhere (on installation, maybe?  Don't remember) for 64-bit vs. 32-bit, and I checked the 64-bit option since that's the platform I am working on.  I loaded SSD4 into a project, set up my library location and license file location, but I didn't think to check to see if it loaded via BitBridge or not - I will have to check that when I get home tonight.  But, I had no problems loading the VST whatsoever.

The only thing I puzzled over was trying to set up a kit using external samples in the new interface ... is there any documentation/video out there to demonstrate how it's done?
 
Thanks for a great product - I think SSD4 is going to be fun to use, and I am looking forward to the updates!

OK...I've got my crossgrade coupon code but now it looks like no matter if I order it from Steven's site or AudioMidi...it's a "download only" product.  Surely this has to be 30 or 40 gigs big (although I can't find a complete size anywhere either).  Has anyone purchased and downloaded this yet and if so, what's the story????