Best Budget Drums - Steven Slate vs EZ vs KitCore

[bigbluebarry]

Yep, I do love SD 2.0... but I know a guy who once said "you can never have too many options for drums" so I'm gonna be buying me a copy of AD since it's under $100!!! But I'm also gonna get the new expansion pack for SD too! Thank you income tax refund - Big Blue

[jonathanm]

4/27 was the backorder date on my receipt. Either way, it's worth the wait. I'm using the free demo with SONAR also. I usually drag/drop the pattern to SONAR also, just so I can tweak and also control changes from pattern A to pattern B easier.

[jonathanm]

Sweetwater has excellent service because they are very personal about it. I've had the same salesman assigned to me for 3 years. He's excellent. He can answer tech questions, give suggestions on equipment based on personal experience, and he calls to check how things are going 2 or 3 times a year. Pretty incredible in this day of impersonal customer service. I try to give them every bit of business I can. (But I did buy AD from musiciansfriend this time...after the Sweetwater guy suggested I buy it because there was no way they could match that price. )

[jonathanm]

Apr 16, 2009, 2:15pm, ceedub wrote:I bought AD this week for $100.Dude, you got ripped off....paid $0.05 too much!

[ceedub]

Apr 16, 2009, 4:01pm, jmeraz wrote:Apr 16, 2009, 2:15pm, ceedub wrote:I bought AD this week for $100.Dude, you got ripped off....paid $0.05 too much! I bet the kid who works at the music store pocketed the nickel.

[partyofone]

Yeah I'm excited to get the SSD tomorrow but also a little bummed that I didn't get AD. Always next spring I guess. I would've loved to have the free cocktail kit expansion that came with EZ Drummer also. Sometimes we do web site projects that call for 50s lounge music and that would've been perfect!

[andreh]

Hey All-I just picked up a copy of Addictive Drums from the local Guitar Center. I like it a lot for its flexibility and built-in effects (minus internal sidechain options ), and its sounds are nice too...very well-balanced.However, I find its cymbals to be somewhat harsh-sounding (but with more presence) compared to those in EZ drummer. EZ also has a tighter, punchier, and somewhat more convincing sound to my ears, but offers little in the way of variety - unless you pop for the expansion kits which are supposed to sound great. I'd love to have the EZ kits inside AD's plug-in!I have Superior Drummer 2.0 on the way; looking forward to putting it through its paces.I listened to the Steve Slate demo's (all 40 kits) and they do sound more "radio-ready" than the other options on the table...they'd be great for super-produced pop or rock tracks. However, it might be difficult (or impossible) to get a more relaxed, less produced sound out of them since the samples themselves have been pre-processed AFAIK. This could limit them in many styles...jazz, light rock, indie rock/pop, reggae, etc. Anyone have the Steve Slate drums who can comment?André

[mazz]

Apr 20, 2009, 10:36am, andreh wrote:Hey All-I just picked up a copy of Addictive Drums from the local Guitar Center. I like it a lot for its flexibility and built-in effects (minus internal sidechain options ), and its sounds are nice too...very well-balanced.However, I find its cymbals to be somewhat harsh-sounding (but with more presence) than those in EZ drummer. EZ also has a tighter, punchier, and somewhat more convincing sound to my ears, but offers little in the way of variety - unless you pop for the expansion kits which are supposed to sound great. I'd love to have the EZ kits inside AD's plug-in!I have Superior Drummer 2.0 on the way; looking forward to putting it through its paces.I listened to the Steve Slate demo's (all 40 kits) and they do sound more "radio-ready" than the other options on the table...they'd be great for super-produced pop or rock tracks. However, it might be difficult (or impossible) to get a more relaxed, less produced sound out of them since the samples themselves have been pre-processed AFAIK. This could limit them in many styles...jazz, light rock, indie rock/pop, reggae, etc. Anyone have the Steve Slate drums who can comment?AndréYou're gonna love Superior Drummer!! The kit that comes with it, plus the extra mics and more flexible mixer are just really great.Plus it will load the EZ drummer expansion packs!!Drums, baby!!Mazz

[partyofone]

Hey guys just got the SSD this week... have barely got to mess with it but install went smoothly and the sounds are really great. As Andreh mentioned above they are radio-ready which will work for probably 80% of what I do but I did have a concern regarding some of the web game music I do in other genres like jazz. For that I suspect I may need something else. FWIW Steven mentioned there are you room sounds you can tweak between. One is more processed with compression, EQ, etc and one is a raw unprocessed sound. The plug-in itself is not as slick or all-inclusive as EZ and AD but it has some nice features like switching between the NRG studio room and the SSD room and also turning overheads off/on. For me consideringA) I'm not a great drum mixer B) I write mostly pop/rock I decided the trade off of getting the radio-ready sound for somewhat less flexibility was worth it. However I'm starting to believe what Chuck said about not having too many drum options. I see another VSTi in my future but this seems like it will work wonders for my pop/rock demos. I'll report back once I've put it through the paces on some mixes.

[partyofone]

OK so getting down to some programming with SSD on new demos... one thing I'm not liking is the lack of built in file browser. Auditioning fills and such is cumbersome at best. I'm hoping the results in my mix will make it all worth it!