Hmmm Thinking whether I should grab slate drums for 149 or upgrade to AD2 for 79 ? Thoughts?

 

My 2 cents neither..

Ezdrummer 2 is fantastic for songwriting and has all the others beat for that reason.
After using EZ for awhile I would never be without it.

If you are stuck on those 2 choices my advice is watch videos on them and then decide.

There is so much information and reviews out there.

 

EZ 1 was already good.
EZ 2 is a gem : mixing elements from different banks, easy drum pattern finding, amazing choice and producers (Andy Sneap to name one) and more.
EZ drummer is my fav too, and i tried them all.
EZ2 can complement your previous AD.

Slate, to me, is less "entertaining", expansive in the long run.

If you like AD, upgrading to AD2 will permit to use your expansions. With another product, you start from scratch.
To me, Slate products are just overhyped and overpriced in the long run. Kind of "you see, i use an Avalon ?" attitude.

AD2 or EZ2 ;)

 

beside the fact that the GUI may be not your taste, the AD2 had new potential in term of groove ultra tweakable as you like, new processing & fx algos, this is a real beats, and so on … . my 2cc …

 

Hello, I've never used any of the Slate stuff so I guess I won't be able to directly answer your question. I can say however, that I really, really like Addictive Drums 2. Much better than AD1. I prefer it to the ez/Superior Drummer Stuff too, but that may be because I don't really use any of the more "advanced" features that they offer as I'm not a serious composer. As far as being able to get a good sound quickly, in my opinion, I think Addictive 2 is great. Happy Holidays!

 

I have both, but there is something very special about AD2, it's not just the great sound you get from the drums, its the gui. it is both intuitive and inspiring. Where as Slate Drums takes me a while to set up overheads and busses, AD2 takes a few seconds leaving me to spend time on what is important.

Something I forgot to mention. I keep AD1 around too, as there are times when I fancy a change and even though the kits are virtually identical I can STILL get the sounds to differ greatly.

 

EZ is great but may I suggest BFD 3... Just Drums!!!!!

 

None of them : I would recommend that you look at Superior Drummer or BFD which are IMHO in a different league.

 

Speaking from personal experience…with ALL of the drum programs mentioned here and thensome (sans Mixasaurus) and considering I've been programming drums for years I'll weigh in with my two cents on all of them to hopefully give you some valuable insight…

DISCLAIMER: I'm a purest and I tend to lean toward more organic, real life drum sounds that I can alter if need be, so it depends on what you are personally looking for.

Addictive Drums 2 - A lot of praise for this around the net, personally I'm not the biggest fan, probally the least used of all that I own. AD is the type of software with a bunch of presets, so if you're the type that doesn't want to figit with mixing and processing drums in a normal sense, this may be a good solution. I find that these are too processed sounding, and subtle nuances are missing. If you're a metal guy, you will surely find something in their add on packs, and there are a bunch. If you went this route, I'd do the "choose your own content" option and browse through them all. I think there are some good sounds in the two fairfax kits, a good all around kit in the United Pop ADpak and some useable stuff in the Rock/Pop paks. I think AD excels most in the Rock/Metal genres.

EZdrummer2 - Is a major step up from the original EZdrummer, and is especially convenient for resource footprint and composing purposes. The new samples are fairly organic, and more realistic and there are a lot of options for tweaking/combining different pieces of the two kits; custom and vintage. If you're the type thats looking for an easy interface to build drum tracks without doing a lot of surgery yourself, EZdrummer2 is great. Sonically, it sounds convincing by itself, but in my personal opinion it has a "thin" quality in the soup of things I can't put my finger on, particularly when pushed at the final mix stages and just lacks punch obtained when micing a real drum kit. I say "thin" in comparison to some of the other drum VSTi's.

Superior Drummer 2 - Probably the most authentic in terms of real world drum nuances (snare rattle, mic bleed, etc.) My personal opinion is the Custom/Vintage SDX is the most authentic sounding (though lacking a great room sound) and there are plenty of expansions for this as well. Summed out and mixed properly, I've had really good results with it. Not a fan of most of the cymbals and hi-hats with it though, again missing some meat and weight. The midi expansions are endless, and some are fantastic.

BFD 3 - Massive library. I was over-the-moon about getting this when it first came out, but have since lost interest. It's definately got more mojo and nuances/realism. GUI is tweakable till your hearts content, if you are a tweaker you'll have fun with it. The setup for the grooves is pretty intuitive. Tons of expansions, but the for the price of the software and the expansions, any of the the previously mentioned would be a better choice in my humble opinion. I'd put BFD3 on the same par as superior drummer.

Slate - I think most people that are sour on this is because they equate it to the original steven slate drums for Kontakt, but for the price, it's a no brainer. The GUI is pretty primative, but if you don't care about geeking out with novice people who know nothing about music production over the sleek look of buttons, and easy midi groove library functionality, you can do anything you need to do with it. You can't even compare what slate offers now to the old Kontakt samples, it's night and day. The platinum will give you all the original classic slate stuff from 3.5 (which is very processed and not very nuanced - I don't even use these) but also the DELUXE kits which have some very good sounds. The "money" with the slate stuff is in the expansions though, particularly the CLA expansion and most of all the Blackbird expansion. A tweaked slate blackbird kit is my go-to for production these days, I only swap snares and kicks most of the time. The sampled room and chamber from Blackbird here in Nashville is incredible. Go to the site and check out the Blackbird Expansion (specifically kit 6 and 8) and the CLA Expansions (kit 2 and 8.) Basically CLA for metal/rock and Blackbird for everything else and you probably won't want for much else. Fair warning, they will require some mixing, but if authentic meat is what you want in your drums, this is it. I'm actually really surprised there isn't more of a sale right now, he tends to slash things major around christmas, wait till today or tomorrow (christmas day) and check the site to see if there are any last minute sales.

No…I don't work for Slate, I just have been through every drum library on the market practically, play with great drummers regularly on the road and in the studio and have always longed for as REAL as possible when it comes to software based drums at home. I own and have used all of these extensively, but ever since the blackbird expansion came out, I rarely open the others, with the exception of Superior Drummer as it has it's own sound. If it were my money (and it has been time and time again) I'd go with Slate and either get the EX and one of the expansions, or save for those two expansions later. If not, Superior Drummer gets my vote as a close 2nd.

Hope this helps, happy holidays.