Slate Release SSD5 – The Ultimate Virtual Drum Instrument?

In the past 10 years or so, Steven Slate created an audio empire made of top notch plugins and high end studio gear, but for those who have been around longer than tht will remember Slate being only a synonim for quality drum samples, the Steven Slate Drums.

15 years after the launch of the first version, Slate is now introducint SSD5, their new flagship virtual drum instrument.

According to the company, SSD5 has been built from the ground up and, among other thing, it adds a new state-of-the-art drum physically-modeled playback algorithm that recreates the sound of real drum parts (supposedly a big improvement over the classic round robin technique implemented by modern sample players).

Users will have much more control over the sound design of their drums, thanks to a new ADSR section. Producers in a hurry can also count on a more intuitive interface and a big grooves library, with more than 1000 new grooves!

What’s New

• New Deluxe 2 drum library with more than 50 new instruments including 10 new kicks, 10 new snares, and even a few percussion instruments. All the drums are unique and have two stereo room layers each
• New SSD5 physically modeled drum playback algorithm ensures that each drum part sounds extremely natural, authentic, and real
• Classic Slate Drums, Deluxe 1 Drums, and ALL Expansion pack drums (CLA, Blackbird, etc) have been re-done using the new SSD5 physically modeled drum playback algorithm
• New GUI with a better layout and better functionality. Easy to understand and navigate, even without the manual.
• Using Drum Kit view, or Pads/Cells View you can now load up to 32 drum instruments simultaneously along with up to 32 user one-shots.
• Super powerful and easy routing to your DAW with AUX channels, routing manager, and routing presets.
• Group selection of mixer strips to adjust parameters of different mics simultaneously
• New solo/mute logic in Mixer with hotkeys for instant un-solo and unmute.
• Phase now can be flipped not only on selected mics but also on a whole instrument. Gives you the possibility to flip all mics in the instrument, but, for instance, subsequently flip the close mics
• Reworked mapping. Everything in the kit preset is easily mappable and remappable plus there is an input converter to load mapping presets for popular formats
• New groove library with more than 1000 new grooves. Grooves are unique and come in a lot of styles played by great drummers. New grooves are played by the new groove player, where you can adjust the dynamics and speed of grooves and ‘drag and drop’ modified grooves into your DAW
• Drums audition has been greatly improved. Audition just by clicking on a drum instrument
• Now you can change the balance of direct mics vs ambient mics for sample audition in the browser
• Master volume for plugin output added
• Resampling quality is improved
• Retina support added
• New shaping section. ADSR, where you can adjust A, D and R curves and S volume. Allows you to emulate transient shapers and compressors. Also gives endless possibilities for sound design

Price and Availability

SSD5 is debuting at $149 until November 30th when it goes to its normal price of $179. To order SSD5 and learn more about the upgrade path, please visit the Slate Digital website.