Best Budget Drums - Steven Slate vs EZ vs KitCore

[partyofone]

OK guys I'm getting ready to demo some songs and need a good v drum plug. I've heard them all just about and am leaning towards a few. I'm trying to stay under $200. Here's the good news though... Steve Slate LE is on sale for $150 through end of month. EZ Drummer has $50 mail in Rebate through end of month making it $100.My main concerns are1) Ease of use2) Sound3) Price4) Inclusion of grooves as I do NOT want to program from scratchI HATE programming drums and have considered just hiring a real one as my friend does session work. My concerns with that are:1) Every song I demo will require an expense as opposed to a one time investment in a plug-in.2) Little changes and tweaks will be harder using drummer. However, I want to ultimately pitch these songs to labels and producers in hopes of re-recording everything in a top notch studio so it doesn't necessarily have to be PERFECT. And the nominees are...1) EZ drummer - Sounds very nice, easy to use, includes tons of grooves and fills.2) KitCore - Inexpensive, sounds nice, easy, inclusion of grooves.3) Steve Slate - Sounds IN-CRED-I-BLE!!! Includes grooves but I can't get any info on how they work and it may not be as easy to use as other two.The demos of Steven Slate make me wet my pants and what I could do is use grooves from GrooveMonkey.com which are very reasonable but this method won't be nearly as easy the other two. However the trade off is incredible drums!I know there are some EZ users on here and any thoughts are appreciated! If you think I need to bite the bullet and hire tell me that too ha ha!P.S. I did some more digging and found more discussions on similar VS topics..http://taxi.proboards.com/index.cgi?act ... 849&page=1

[aimusic]

Hey Patrick,I use BFD2.0 myself and the samples are amazing. The only thing I can say be weary of is that the online demo's for these vstis are mixed and mastered by TOP CLASS engineers so for us regular joe's, it's really difficult for us to achieve those kind of sounds... I s'pose it's just an art to learn.I think most drum samplers these days come with MIDI grooves in them to muck around with.Wish you luck with finding your ideal sampler.Take CareB

[partyofone]

Thanks B! Yeah I agree BFD sounds really good too! I didn't notice one quite as cheap so that's the only reason I didn't include in my list. The thing with Steve Slate drums is that they sound slamming, polished, and mixed right out of the box which is very enticing to me!Oh and also Drums on Demand seem like a nice sounding and very simple idea. However I'm not wild about audio loops considering the tempo and tweak limitations. Part of me thinks for my purposes maybe it would be the simplest though! Argh.. also just listened to the Backbeats collection for Stylus.. sounds nice too.. but I'd have to buy Sylus.

[partyofone]

OK I think I've narrowed to Steven or EZ. Both sound damn good... but everything I've read sound like Slate works in the mix great right off the bat and the grooves are in song format which will make it easier for me.Also I heard Bill say fills in EZ were lacking a bit.

[chriscarter]

I recently picked up Addictive Drums and have been using it in production (though nothing that's released yet). It's a VERY impressive program. It has the ability to work very simply like EZ, but gives you the option to get nearly as complicated as BFD. The sounds are great. It does have a lot of loops, but honestly, I've played with them VERY little as I have no use for them. I think I just saw it on sale for $99 (half price) at Musicians Friend. At that price it's an absolute no-brainer.

[partyofone]

Oh my god Chris thanks for the heads up! I messed with the demo of that and it DOES sound great... that deal is incredible and puts it in the running now! Man... now I've got some more listening to do!!

[partyofone]

OK after listening to EZ and AD back to back I'll have to say that AD is fatter and punchier overall especially the snares. EZ is nice but more a tighter, crisp sound. My ears prefer AD although I dropping them into a mix is another thing...

[matto]

If you can get Addictive Drums for $99 I wouldn't even think twice about it honestly, I use it all the time and find it strikes the perfect balance between ease of use, flexibility and sound quality.

[partyofone]

Hey Matto thanks for the vote and your opinion, I appreciate that!Yeah it really sounds great!

[Mark Kaufman]

[swearing under his breath]Patrick, stop thinking. Addictive drums at $99. I have EZ Drummer and like it, but I don't think you'll find anyone who says it's better than Addictive Drums.Dang it, dang it, dang it...I cannot get them. Just did my taxes, I owe, I owe, and it's off the net I go, and I just bought a reverb unit and a pre-amp...otherwise I would pull the trigger immediately.Do it, Patrick! You won't wish you hadn't.