The facts that we all can see and prove, contradict such a claim!
1-3/4 of all Trap production of the last 10 years in the U.S contains some sort of snare, kick, 808, flute, guitar, piano, or hi-hat from a sample maker. Be it Cymatics, Unison, ADSR, Loopmasters, King Loops, Splice, and recently ARCADE (which is full of "samples").
2- There are countless videos on YouTube where the producers show which sample they use for a commercial track. Some of them can be seen from the Genius.com series (and many other YT series) where the producers show how they came up with a popular track. At this point, it's not even a secret or something taboo: Urban producers (which at this point are also tied up to the larger Pop genre) USE samples. In the EDM world, a very good amount of kick and percussion loops come from Vengeance, Loopmasters, reFX Nexus expansions, which by the way carry a similar disclaimer to many other samples packs I know of: "You do not acquire ownership rights to any Content or document obtained through the Site". Yet, that hasn't stopped anyone from using Nexus in their released tracks. Too many tracks done almost entirely with Nexus to list them.
3- MOST, and we must be precise on this keyword: MOST! Yes, most producers know that they have to either manipulate the sample or use it as a bed under other more prominent sounds in the mix.
4- Most, again most producers don't use an entire sample pack (and the ones who do, have to be under 1% and stupid as hell man!). Most knows this by now, it's all about picking this one sound or another, manipulating it and off you go. Just like you said yourself, a lot of producers don't necessarily use the samples as-is. Just like you, some replay and change the key/chords or transpose and whatever else. I do the exact same! Even just throwing an RC-20 (or other sound mangling plugin) on a sample now can destroy it enough from the original!
5- The claim that "label managers" are not accepting a track with samples taken from a sample pack on it, is NOT a thing! If you heard that or experience it yourself, I'll be sure to debate that it is an isolated situation. Not sure where you are located, but in the U.S. I've yet to ever hear that from any label manager or anywhere I've been in the States. But then again, the proof of the contrary already exists: A good majority of all tracks being played in the genre of Hip-Hop/Trap, Pop, R&B, Dancehall, Afrobeat, Reggaeton contains one sample or another for this to even start being a reality anyway!
Man, think about it: Loopmasters and Output (Arcade) alone have almost all the known producers using them. If this was really a thing then the last 100 urban tracks would have never seen the light of the day man.

The samples that are harder for labels to accept in today's world of production are the ones when a producer samples from a previously released track, as for example a sample of a 70's disco track that needs clearance. This was a trend heavily from Hip-Hop (then after R&B) in the U.S. from the '80s to about mid-2000s. However, things started to shift when the labels and artists whose songs were used went full scale with the suits. From that point, it became mandatory to clear those tracks with those types of samples.

 

Last edited: Nov 13, 2021

BTW, I wonder if all that firestorm is because the packs are from the man we call Steven Slate?

 

hey could you also email slate digital to get a clear answer based on your comments

 

They already gave clear answer. Samples are royalty-free and you are allow to use them in any kind of production.

 

Hummm ... I don't know ... It's shady: Why is it never clearly stated on the policy that the samplepacks are royality free? What should I expect from them in case my song composed with their samples starts to generate income? Slate's attitude has always been like a used car salesman
Yes, I also wrote to customer support asking them to explain this contradiction between what they say on the website and what they write on the policy: I think they will answer me on Monday
We'll see

 

thanks!! we all learn from this so its very good to solve any unclear statements! cheers!

 

These royalty free samples are part of marketing, so you can attract visitors to your website and then fish your data. Usually these are old samples that can no longer be sold and are then monetized differently by means of data collection and customer base expansion.

 

And that's an industry-wide marketing formula, nothing out of the ordinary. I'm baffled by why it all become a huge situation for those Slate's samples. Every sample maker sends out a few free packs here and there to entice new sales. Plugin and DAW developers drop the price every now and then to get more sales, man. The most "data" usually gathered in such an offer is an email address. Again, pretty standard!

There's a thread only because those packs are from Slate. There would be a thread if they were also from Vengeance or Studiolinkedvst. Cymatics use to get the same treatment. (People seem to have eased up on them lately. Or have they? haha). But the fact is, there are a gazillion royalty-free samples pack offered over the years, nearly every day, by all sorts of sample makers, and all of a sudden only these packs from Slate are "shady" and giving this thread a hard time to figure if a person can use them?

FYI, those packs are not "old" or sound old. They are on par with let's say a current Big Fish Audio, Black Octopus, Simgomakers, or Producer Loops packs.

 

Anybody check any of their samples out yet? How do they sound? Never heard a Slate sample pack before.

 

Google Search - Samples WAV - Result: 13.800.000

 

Thanks, was asking if someone heard their Slate samples yet and think they are worth the download time.

 

They have preview tracks for every pack on their website and soundcloud. Why just don't check?

 

Idk, things around Slate can be wonky and I don't always trust demos because they make them sound great so they don't always reflect the product fairly. But a sample pack from someone trusted is something you know that's good ahead of time.

Was wondering why he would release them all for free. I'm about to check the demos though.

 

You are scaring me. "ROYALTY FREE" on every sample pack. Is there way to be more clear?

Explain what contradiction? For the software it means that you are paying for ability to use their technology which is their property. For samples mostly the same story. Samples are their property. You are allow to use them with the only one restriction: You are not allow to rename damn folder into something like "Mr. Pingles Drums" and sell as your own property.

Why Epic Games/Ubisoft/EA/Steam gives you games for free? It's the part of the marketing.

 

Yes but marketing comes in bursts and pieces. Slate just gave up his lot for nothing. Totally unlike Slate when his products are pretty expensive, made me raise an eyebrow. I think that's pretty badass of him though.

I like this new Teletubby Sun Slate, not old competing with promotional decibal noise over at Namm Slate.

 

This is exactly what I would like to read on an agreement policy. Unfortunately, this sentence is not present in the slate agreement

 

Guys you are all doing EXTRA for no reason here. No reason at all!
You don't even need to listen to demos, you can straight download some of them (from the sister site).

My dude, why does any other sample maker give anything for free? Well, there can be quite a few reasons: Because they can, because they want to, because they feel like it, because they are trying to promote for you to buy something else. In the case of Slate to more likely buy a subscription... because... because... Then again, that's totally voluntary. How many times does anybody come out and explain in detail why they give anything away? They just give it away man and IF you want to take it then you do!

Come on now! All that "trust" talk is extra There are a gazillion samples released from folks with no name at all; a bunch of them on the sister site with hundreds of views but none of those posts have even one comment under them. Slate FTW cause he got us talking. He always does.

I bet the O.P made the thread knowing he will get those reactions. It's called GASLIGHTING! And, he surely succeeded

 

I've seen smaller packs from artists who aren't as well known with more hit than miss when compared to large sample packs with mostly filler. It wasn't a shot at Slate or his work ethics.

I was just asking if anyone knew what his samples were like because I didn't want to sit through downloading a large free pack and being disappointed like I have when I've bought them before based on just a demo which sold me.

I understand marketing for sales and I like some of his plugins, just never tried any of his sample packs. Wasn't hating though. I like Slate Digital.

 

I love your vision, it's really romantic: free email, free accounts, free storage, free samples, free hosting, free this, free that, free the other, everything is free for our happiness.
But that's not how business works, companies are not charities, they are trying to make a profit.
If it's free, you're probably the product