Steven Slate Drums or Superior Drummer 3

deakle

Experienced
I am looking for a drum plug in and am considering Steven Slate Drums Trigger 2 and Superior Drummer 3. Significant price difference between the 2, SD 3 is more than twice the cost of Slate. I just do home recording so I am just looking for something with a relatively easy user interface and realistic sounding. I will be using it with Logic Pro X. Logic has some really good drums, just wondering if either of the above 2 would be worth it? Mostly geared towards rock, metal and blues. I am looking for users' thoughts on both. I really appreciate the help.
 
They're not really comparable, which accounts for the price difference. EZDrummer2 is probably more what you're looking for. Personally, I'd recommend EZDrummer2 over SSD for the arranging, searching, expandability features. Get an expansion or 2 and you'd be set.
 
I use SD 3. It's great but like GlennO said, EZDrummer2 is probably what you're looking for. I haven't used SSD myself. SD3 would probably be overkill for what you want but it's a great product.
 
I have Steven Slate Drums 5 and Superior Drummer 3, but primarily use Superior Drummer 3 (Trigger is something completely different - that's for replacing a previously recorded drum track with samples, rather than programming a drum track from scratch).

IMO, Steven Slate Drums has one of the most maddeningly unusable UIs I have ever experienced in music software. It's so bad that, at least for me, it kinda canceled out the quality of the drum kits, which are "pre-mixed" to more or less sound like a finished, professionally produced drum track right out of the box. Also, FWIW, I find SSD's cymbal samples to be lacking - they don't sound as lush or full as a professionally recorded drum track should sound, especially not the hi-hats.

On the flip side, Superior Drummer 3's UI is much more user friendly, and it's much more intuitive to tweak drum sounds to match your preferences, and the cymbal samples are much more convincing. But, their pre-mixed drum kits are just a lot further from the sound I want out of drums than Steven Slate out of the box, for whatever reason, so I've pretty much had to cobble together my own custom kits.
 
I agree with the others in saying that EZ Drummer is probably your best bet. They even have a trial version you can get. I think Slate's interface is downright awful but the sounds are decent. But if you're not in love with Slate's sounds then EZD is a better buy. Toontrack has sales on EZX expansions all the time and you can often find people selling their unwanted licenses on KVR Audio's forum as well.
 
Yeah I have had both since their infancy. Toontrack continues to improve with their usability. SSD while they sound good gets very little use due to the mouse clicking required.
 
Check out addictive drums too. SD3 is great but was overkill. AD2 has a great interface and a very nice search functionality. You can program in a kick and/or a snare and ask AD2 to show you grooves that are similar. This is a great way to look for grooves, since I usually want the kick or snare locked in to my guitar riff. But want a professional sounding groove with that constraint.
 
AD2 has a great interface and a very nice search functionality. You can program in a kick and/or a snare and ask AD2 to show you grooves that are similar. This is a great way to look for grooves, since I usually want the kick or snare locked in to my guitar riff. But want a professional sounding groove with that constraint.
EZ drummer 2 has this feature also. Great feature
 
Trigger is for using an existing drum and placing a sample over it. What you are after is SSD5, excellent product, have used Slate drums for years and been very happy. I also have Addictive drums, only pull that out occasionally just for something different.
 
I have Steven Slated Drums Platinum 4. I didn't get 5 because of the dreaded (for me) Ilok.
4 is great but takes a little work to do the mapping, for me anyway. I also have addictive drums 2 but don't use it much. No special reason.
I like the sounds in Slate drum 4 a lot. But ez drummer 2 is so muh easier for what I use it for.
 
Bumpity bump. Looking to drop some $$ on a Drum Suite VST Software Bundle Thingamajob!

Roland V drums via MIDI into Reaper on Windows 10 is my setup.
 
Since you play drums, the user interface features of Toontrack probably don't matter as much. However, Toontrack is still at the top when it comes to variety of add-on drum libraries. One option to consider: get EZDrummer to see if you like Toontrack, then graduate to SD3 if you feel you want a more sophisticated mixing experience. That way you don't lose your investment in your EZDrummer library when you advance beyond EZDrummer. There are a lot of great choices these days.
 
I'd recommend IK Multimedia's MODO Drum. If you buy it right now you will get 24 free items from this page that are the same price or below EDIT.. well not the hardware but the software. You can buy the hardware as an entry point to get the free items though including MODO Drum.
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/25gb/
 
Thanks for the recommendations! :)

The Terry Date add on pack was the only reason I was thinking of the Steven Slate Drum software.
Massive fan of his production style and the drum sounds he was able to get the records he produced.
 
If you sre triggering from e-drums Superior Drummer 3 is hard to beat. I would not recommend MODO Drums for triggering from an e-kit. Really odd implementation on the way cymbals are done, and I could not find a way to make them anywhere near as usable as Superior Drummer.
 
If you sre triggering from e-drums Superior Drummer 3 is hard to beat. I would not recommend MODO Drums for triggering from an e-kit. Really odd implementation on the way cymbals are done, and I could not find a way to make them anywhere near as usable as Superior Drummer.

Thanks. Since I am new to this any potential snafus I can avert based on the
experience of others is SO appreciated. :)
 
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