Steven Slate Drums 4 - Do I need Trigger too?

[JoshERTW]

I'm looking into purchasing SSD4, but wondering if I also need to purchase Trigger? I would mainly be using it for replacement, but probably creating some grooves from scratch too. Cubase 6 has a very powerful and easy to use hitpoint calculator, which you can then use to convert hitpoints to midi - takes like 30 seconds.

If I wanted to get SSD4 to replace recorded drums, would I have to buy Trigger separately, or does SSD4 come with something built in to do this? Would it even be worthwhile given the ease of use of the Cubase 6 midi replacer (I've only used it a few times but it already feels intuitive and awesome)?

[willj]

I know this can only come off as sounding dickish , but its really NOT meant to be, - you cant find out from sweetwater if ssd4 does replacement?

[Rob K]

You said it yourself, Cubase has the built in hitpoint calculator which generally works brilliantly, although you might need to go through each track and check for extra/missed hits. I have Trigger and I still use Cubase's hitpoint detection for getting MIDI out of a drum track.

So I would say no, it's probably not worth getting Trigger if you already have SSD4 & Cubase. That said, if the drums contain a lot of very fast stuff - flams etc. then Cubase may not cut it.

You could alternatively go for this: ProTrig Professional Drum Trigger Plug-in by Centipeak Inc - I've used it in the past with great success, it's cheaper than buying Trigger and paying for the samples again!

[JoshERTW]

I know this can only come off as sounding dickish , but its really NOT meant to be, - you cant find out from sweetwater if ssd4 does replacement?

Never contacted them or purchased anything there as I'm not from the US.

[willj]

You dont need to contact them there OR purchase anything from there. You just go to the website and find your product, and you can find out anything you want about it. Software & Plug-ins | Sweetwater.com

[acidfrost]

I have both and they're 2 different tools (with the same library or almost). Trigger is to replace drum parts: Kick, Snare, Toms, from a prerecorded drums. No cymbals. It can take midi in so you can trigger from midi also but it's made for replacing, and triggers from an audio file usually.
SSD4 is a sampler. It's to create drums from scratch. Midi creation. it can't replace recorded drums, unless you do it manually hit by hit in midi, or with a tool like you mentioned. It's only "triggered" by midi.
Both are great but are 2 different beasts.

[JoshERTW]

You dont need to contact them there OR purchase anything from there. You just go to the website and find your product, and you can find out anything you want about it. Software & Plug-ins | Sweetwater.com

Cool stuff - I did check their info on SSD4 and it didn't say anything about triggering samples.

Acid - thanks for the comparison, that clears it up a bit.

[brandondrury]

A big thing for me when layering samples is phase coherence. If I have a snare drum close mic that I want in there and then I blend in a sample, it needs to be dead on. I'm awaiting my iLok2 so I can use my Slate Digital review products so I can't say anything about the quality of either SSD4 or Trigger. However, I know that MIDI is often indequate for my needs in the layering department. This is why both Drumagog and Trigger rely on their own triggering by default.

If budget is tight, just use the Cubase functionality through SSD4. If phase-coherent layering is necessary, you'll eventually want Trigger.

How big of issue is this to you? That depends on if having a snare here or there drifting out of phase is a big deal. On a tight budget I imagine it could be dealt with. In 1981 or whatever it was when they developed MIDI they got A LOT right. I wish they would have improved the precision of the timing.

I know this can only come off as sounding dickish , but its really NOT meant to be,

Another way of saying that is like this:

(?)
Trigger @ Musician's Friend --- Trigger @ ZZounds.com --- Trigger @ Ebay.com --- Trigger @ Amazon --- Trigger @ B&H

(?)
Slate Digital Drums @ Musician's Friend --- Slate Digital Drums @ ZZounds.com --- Slate Digital Drums @ Ebay.com --- Slate Digital Drums @ Amazon --- Slate Digital Drums @ B&H