Steven Slate Drums - any recommendations?

I have Superior Drummer 2, standard Avatar samples, and would like to get better sounds, esp for snare, kick, and toms. 
I can get an expansion kit, like the Rock Warehouse, but not really sure what that would sound like till it's in my song...  and that's $107 for just that exp kit. In comparison, the whole Steven Slate 4.0 is $99 right now...    apparently 100 kits...  very good reviews.
 
But..., not too sure I want to spend the time to get into a new drum program either...  Does the Slate 4.0 come with an equivalent interface / GUI sorta like SD2 has?  (and I can just insert it as a soft synth like SD2, can paste in / run midi tracks, etc ?)
 
At this point I'm less of a tinkerer... really want something that sounds great and is dead simple to use, with a minimum of fuss.
Any suggestions or recommendations ? 

I have SSD 4 (the light version) and never use it.
The interface is very poor in my opinion, especially compared to Superior Drummer 2.
 
For me there is only one drum VST I would seriously recommend and that's FXpansions BFD3.
If you want something simpler and easier to use and that sounds like none of the others then I would suggest BFD Eco which is superb value for money and very simple to use.
 
You could of course get EZdrummer since you already own SD2 but if you want something that sounds different then this might not be your best option. BFD Eco will probably be on sale over the Xmas and new year period, last year it could be got for and absurd $19 (It retails for £69 or $105)
 
It's always hard to envisage how a kit is going to sound in your song until you actually hear it in your song and that for me, is why I like to be able to have the freedom to shape the raw sounds in the way that suits me because I can spend more time going through preset after preset and just getting frustrated than I do in creating my own sounds and presets.
 
By the way, that's NOT, 100 different kits in SSD 4, it's just 100 presets. May only be the one kit?
I could make 100 presets with one single kit quite easily.
 
Given that BFD3 has 7 different kits and is 59GB in the new BFDLAC format and 167GB in .WAV format, I hate to think how big the SSD4 would be if it were 100 separate kits. It would either be about 500GB or they would be very lacking in detail and sound pretty bad.
 
Steve

Hoenerbr
http://audiodeluxe.com/products/steven-slate-drums-platinum-blackbird-cla-expansion-pack-bundle
 
Create an account on Audiodeluxe and you can get SSD4 Platinum and 2 Exp Paks (CHris Lorde Alge and Blackbird)
for $165.00
You cant beat that! Remember that SSD4 is a Drum Sample engine. You cant create beats with it. You can play all you midi through it and create drum maps so you can play your SD2 patterns on it. I think it come with default maps for SD2
Hope this helps you!

Drum Sample engine?    Sorry, newb to this, what does that mean to me?  How would I go about using it if there is no way to drag and drop beats into my songs ?  Can you get a bit detailed here, please, for the newb?

And do you not have Addictive Drums? It comes free with the higher tier versions of Sonar. It's not as awesome as BFD3 (though I still don't own BFD3 but it does certainly look to be the best of the best) but will probably suit your needs just fine. With the right kit choices you can get some soooper nice sounds from it. Lots of presets for instant happiness but I prefer to get into the kit/sound tweaking tools which are probably the best thing about it.
 
Still SERIOUSLY want BFD3 though. That stuff looks brilliant. 300 boners I do not have though.
 
Cheers.
 

I have SSD4 and the Chris Lord Alge expansion. I've also got Superior Drummer and BFD Eco. For out of the box sounds for rock, it's hard to beat SSD4 especially the CLA. I think the kicks and snares with SSD4 are better than Superior, at least to me. As far as all the presets in SSD4, they do sound fairly similar , but there are some variations.
 
The GUI isn't hard to learn and there are a few grooves that come with it but not many. I usually record my own with a set of Edrums and edit that anyway.

twaddle
For me there is only one drum VST I would seriously recommend and that's FXpansions BFD3.
If you want something simpler and easier to use and that sounds like none of the others then I would suggest BFD Eco which is superb value for money and very simple to use.

 
Interesting. A friend of mine and I both agreed that BFD Eco is an unusable piece of garbage when we tested its presets. They sounded very poor to our ears. So maybe I wouldn't like BFD3 so much. The ones I find very good sound-wise are SSD4 (EX), Abbeyroad Drummer series and Studio Drummer. But the kits take a long time to load and the interface isn't very good, so my current favorite is AD2. It doesn't sound as great as the other ones (but usable if edited/processed properly), but the interface is very easy to use and kits load fast.

BFD3 is currently $99 at GuitarCenter.com.
 
I own SSD4 Plat and Superior Drummer 2 (w/ Rock Warehouse, Metal Foundry, Metal Machinery) and I use the Made of Metal EZX in SD2. I have very much preferred SD2 for it's overall capabilities. SSD4 is way too processed and has too much of what I would call THAT "Slate Sound". Good drum sounds, just too processed to have THAT sound.
 
I'm considering buying BFD3 at Guitar Center as I've heard lots of great things about it. I'm curious as to how long it's on sale for. Christmas time funds are uhhhh....yeah lol

Vern C
BFD3 is currently $99 at GuitarCenter.com.
 
I'm considering buying BFD3 at Guitar Center as I've heard lots of great things about it. I'm curious as to how long it's on sale for. Christmas time funds are uhhhh....yeah lol

That's absurdly cheap, I just went and had to check it out and you're right.
I would check there's not a mistake on the site and that's actually the upgrade price as it's normally on sale for around  $349.
 
Unlike most of the other drum vst's you can actually download a demo of BFD3 from the fxpansion site and try before you buy.
 
Steve

scook
I doubt it is a mistake. Musicians Friend (another GC Company) recently sold the full BFD3 boxed version $99. I believe they are eliminating their stock of boxes.

So that's $250 less than the RRP, that's a hell of a deal.
 
Steve

twaddle

scook
I doubt it is a mistake. Musicians Friend (another GC Company) recently sold the full BFD3 boxed version $99. I believe they are eliminating their stock of boxes.

So that's $250 less than the RRP, that's a hell of a deal.
 
Steve

That is why I bought it. It is the same price I paid for Superior Drummer 2 a few years ago. I have not considered the Slate plug-ins (although I am sure they are very nice).

Interesting. A friend of mine and I both agreed that BFD Eco is an unusable piece of garbage when we tested its presets. They sounded very poor to our ears. So maybe I wouldn't like BFD3 so much.

 
I wouldn't be so derogatory as to call any of the drum vst's "unusable pieces garbage" it just depends what you're looking for. I hardly ever use presets or drum loops so sounding great straight out of the box has never been my biggest concern because I wanted to learn to mix drums myself and BFD Eco, BFD2 and now BFD3 are extremely good at giving the user the raw unprocessed recordings, a fantastic mixer with really high quality effects that make it one of the most creatively versatile and full featured drum vst's out there.
 
You should try the demo of BFD3 which you can get from the fxpansion site but since you seem preset driven you might be right, it just ain't for you.
 
Steve

twaddle

Interesting. A friend of mine and I both agreed that BFD Eco is an unusable piece of garbage when we tested its presets. They sounded very poor to our ears. So maybe I wouldn't like BFD3 so much.

 
I wouldn't be so derogatory as to call any of the drum vst's "unusable pieces garbage" it just depends what you're looking for. I hardly ever use presets or drum loops so sounding great straight out of the box has never been my biggest concern because I wanted to learn to mix drums myself and BFD Eco, BFD2 and now BFD3 are extremely good at giving the user the raw unprocessed recordings, a fantastic mixer with really high quality effects that make it one of the most creatively versatile and full featured drum vst's out there.

 
Well, but that's how I felt, and I try to be honest when I provide opinions. The presets that sounded very poor to my ears and the reduced number of velocity layers which caused a machine-gun effect made the product totally unusable for me. I even re-installed it some months later and checked the sounds again, but I really didn't see any value in the product and removed it from my system for good. But it's just my experience.
 
I think presets are very important. If I was to develop and sell a VST instrument, I'd create great-sounding presets that would appeal to consumers.

Dan,
 
I could make an argument that if a band were making an album and they were going for a particular sound throughout; they might indeed settle on on drum VST as golden for them.

Beepster
The "engine" term is used to describe the program that takes samples and spit them back out in a useable way to your DAW or whatever else you are outputting it to.
 

So....   can you insert it as a soft synth like Superior Drummer?  

Chevy

Beepster
The "engine" term is used to describe the program that takes samples and spit them back out in a useable way to your DAW or whatever else you are outputting it to.
 

So....   can you insert it as a soft synth like Superior Drummer?  

If it's a VSTi then yes. I know that's probably confusing as well but VSTi means it can be used inside a "host" DAW (like AD2, Superior Drummer, BFD, etc).
 
The only reason I am noting the difference is because I believe technically hardware drum units can be described as having an internal engine and there are probably standalone drum programs that cannot be inserted into a DAW (like ones specifically for live use but I don't know for sure).
 
Any drum program that can be inserted into a DAW project will say so in it's product details. Probably really hard (if not impossible) to find a drum program that CAN'T be used in a DAW these days.
 
 
Cheers.