Does Steven Slate Drums 5.5 Work Well With Electronic Drums?

Today I'm reviewing Steven Slate Drums 5.5 from the perspective of an electronic drummer.
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[@KlausPercussion]

I just love your channel! Awesome work! Today i did my first recording with my Vdrums. I love the Steven Slate Plugin!

[@dembluz1777]

Great video Justin, thanx for the info on this product.

[@EasyHeat]

I have an old 90's Mapex Mars series shell pack very similar to your Sonar kit. Really wanting to convert it to digital, and I just want to say thanks Justin, as your content has really helped me plan that process out overall without potentially going way over budget. Currently using an Alesis Trigger IO with software and a cheap part build 4 piece mesh kit that I've tinkered with over a few years. You channel really has been invaluable for answering questions and guiding my purchases wisely on my limited budget! Thanks again!

[@kingslaphappy1533]

Great job on this and fine drumming!

[@nullbaby]

Great format and great drumming!

[@bobbyjones2112]

I’m gonna say it again! I’m so impressed with your playing! 😁🥁🤘🏻

[@biekanez1]

A great review Justin, I also own Steven Slate drums but I prefer using Addictive Drums and SD3😎👍✌️

[@66meikou]

Nice review and a nice finish out-take Justin.

[@Ttommydrums]

Justin, you knocked it out of the park again my friend. Thank you for your research and sharing with us. Tom Pollock

[@pangyre]

Great review. Thanks.

[@SWATTECHNOLOGIES]

Very informative thank you. Been using SSD for a while, thew free version. I use it mostly for rock, then add compression/EQ/Gate in my DAW. Works well. Not so much for ballads or dance. I use Studio One Impact and some oddball stuff to fill in the rest.

[@bobbyjones2112]

Damn your getting really good! Great chops! Well done!

[@65Drums]

Thanks Robert!

[@crazyclownstudioaudio3122]

great video thanks 👍👍👍

[@ZaxDrumsandGolf]

As always great review Justin!! And your drumming is really freakin good too!!

[@65Drums]

Thanks! The secret is to record 2.5 hours of playing, and pick the best 5 minutes lol

[@ZaxDrumsandGolf]

@@65Drums Got ya lol!!

[@yorickdevries3056]

Ssd5.5 and expensions are on sale right now. €99 for ssd and €49 for the expensions. so I got CLA,, Blackbird and Terry date together for less than €150. I like them, they are absolutly great for this price. Veryyy happy. I got unlimited drums to mix with my Edrum! Crazy what's possible with edrum this times. And it keeps getting better!

[@str1897]

Would love to see you do the same video on Mixwave or Get Good Drums !

[@arenare2896]

Your drumming style is fluid, precise and appears effortless-- inspiring to watch. QUESTION: what are your preferred IEMs and are they the ones seen in this and your other vids? Much obliged.

[@ryaizu9273]

I personally use SSD 5.5 for my e-kit and it’s great

[@basspartout]

Before EZdrummer 3, Steven Slate Drums 5.5 was the best working drum plugin for my TD17 KVX, especially for the HiHat, and I was using it all the time. Now EZdrummer 3 has a great selection of presets to choose from and it works perfectly with the TD17. Very fun to play and the sounds are fantastic for a great variety of styles.

[@trevorbelmont4633]

out of the box which one sound better? SSD5.5 vs EZD3? the later is more expensive right? tons of expansion packs to download that would be costly in the end. Also does EZD3 hav edit and mix function like the SSD5.5?

[@landonp629]

@@trevorbelmont4633 EZD3 is still a better buy in my opinion. Yes it has expansions, but you don't need to buy them anymore than you do with Slate. The kits included are amazing, feature plenty of options for any genre - can be less processed sounding than Slate (or more processed - you have presets in every kit to select this). EZD3 works standalone, which is great for edrum kit and latency. EZD3 has mixing options for the different mic positions - and frankly the mix options are as good or better than Slate. The high0hat feature is tons better in EZD3 as well. In my opinion, Slate is a fine kit - more so if you are programming drums for radio or CD-ready tracks rather than playing edrums, where Toontrack really excels.

[@ttommyschannel1149]

Justin, thank you so much for sharing your hard work and research. I’m looking for some really great cymbal sounds for my Yamaha DTX Multi 12 and have been wondering if this might be the way to go. Kind Regards, Tom Pollock

[@65Drums]

This has solid cymbal sounds, EZdrummer 3 sounds a tad better to me, but it just depends on what you want or need the cymbals to sound like

[@imral3]

As always, your vids are both entertaining and informative. I'm a newb drummer using an Alesis Surge and SSD5.5 free but, can't figure out how to have SSD5 up and running while also playing along with youtube. I've gotten it to "work" (aka make noise) using WASAPI shared but, there is a noticeable delay. Is there some other setting or program I need? Thanks everyone!

[@ThisMichaelBrown]

Thanks!

[@mjulio71]

It's basically a matter of budget. It can be a cheap upgrade from your low, even mid-price module. But once you can put in the extra $100, a comparison is unimaginable. Already had EZD 2 for a while when I tried a free version of Steven Slate... got rid of it the day after. As you mention, now the EZD 3's fast and logical setup functions are a dream - you're playing and recording within 5 minutes after download.

[@geekless]

Hey Justin, can really see the improvement in your playing!

[@65Drums]

I'm working on it lol, don't think I'll every catch up to those instagram drummers though ;)

[@geekless]

@@65Drums Don't compare yourself to those drummers! From a gear-head point of view, you're killing it 👌

[@shahfacekillah]

You're doing God's work here with this channel.

[@bojang6475]

I'm thinking about buying the new evens low volume drum heads and cymbals, can you do a video on this I would be interested in what you think.

[@Derfen81]

Wow love it. You should give away a ssd5 for a contest to show off thier sets. Then u could hav a second video just for showing the best sets ur viewers have

[@Derfen81]

I don’t know how to telegram lol

[@matthewfischer3312]

I love the sounds on the demo version, but couldn’t get the hi hat transitions to work well with my TD-11. I’m currently thinking about going for ezdrummer 3 instead.

[@laszlozoltan5021]

hope this is not too late for you mathew but ez3 does the job- very very nicely with dtx700

[@darkslide6459]

Nice video! Are you mad a video how to play e drums whit the computer?

[@paulcunningham5959]

Hi Justin, love the videos. I'm converting an acoustic kit this weekend and I have a Simmons Titan 50. I guess I'm wondering why people keep buying $2000 modules and then end up using these plug-ins? Wouldn't be a lot cheaper and similar result to just buy one of these plug-ins and maybe a drummin10 to get more trigger inputs and just run it through my Titan 50? I have a Macbook Pro and an 8-channel mixer with bluetooth that I can use. Thanks for all the informative videos on edrums.

[@ianhinrichsendrummer2113]

It's amazing that the top manufacturers can't put drum sounds like these into their modules. Most of the Roland modules need a lot of work to build up a decent sounding kit. Luckily it is possible. I'm not really into having to carry around a laptop as well and ipad just doesn't cut it, as most of these are for windows only. The ones for ipad are OK but not as good as EZ drummer /Superior drummer, so I persevere with my TD11 module and build my own kits.

[@TreeCraftbyAndrew]

Had to watch this cos I can’t get my new ssd5 plugin to show in waveform 😆

[@trevorbelmont4633]

Can you also add description and sample for what Velocity Dynamics and Range control in the software do to your sound? do all VST have this function?

[@scottyg5403]

Excellent video!Thanks! My question is Which plug-in would you recommend for someone who is new to this technology?

[@montz6743]

He uses easy drummer 3

[@tkelly830]

Justin, where do I search for a preset for my Roland TD-07? I plan on buying SSD 5.5 in a couple months. This is my first time ever using software like this so I'm hoping there's a preset. Thanks

[@mypetdrgn]

Appreciate the review. I have a huge aversion to Steven Slate products because of an ignorant customer service reply I received years ago. I say ignorant because the tech replying was obviously unaware of the DAW I'm using which has taken PT to task. That said, there are plenty of great companies our there offering the same and better product which I goto with much better customer service. Maybe just my experience, but I don't spend my money with this outfit.

[@jabencarter88]

What hardware do you need to hook up an existing Roland electronic kit to a laptop?

[@andrewndrums]

Hey Justin, I know you commented on the functionality of the hi hat triggering in SSD5 not being that great. I am experiencing problems with the open to close functionality myself. Just wondering if it is even possible to fix through midi mapping on SSD5? I’ve attempted to re assign functions with no luck. I currently have a TD-17 module. Thanks for your great content as always!

[@joshhemenway6719]

I have EZDrummer 2 and 3. Also Ugritone. Using aD5. I cannot get hi hat open and close to function.

[@maxalrnielsen5682]

Have you build your e drums in the shells of acoustic ones?

[@ibizaamigos]

Hi i'm just curious will i be able to export the samples and put them on a usb stick so i can put them on my roland hpd-20? Also what bit rate are the samples? Thanks

[@mapex311]

How do you get it to work with acoustic drums. Use triggers and hit midi learn, then hit the drum with the trigger?

[@cSounds49]

How was the latency compared to, for example, a decent Roland or Yamaha module? Could you notice it at all?

[@mecdrum7]

I can’t get my MacBook 10.11.6 working with Steven slate . Is there something I can do to work with ss5.5?

[@tjgr1969]

How stable is this kind of (laptop) setup for a live gig Justin?

[@codersexpo1580]

How does SSD5.5 stack up to Superior Drummer (SD)? Also, can the sounds be accessed through SD, I imagine so since they are SDX.

[@drumsofviolence]

Do I need any other software on my pc to use SS 5.5 ?

[@tinypizzas]

Ssd isn't detecting my td17kvx kit. I click learn and it doesn't do anything when I hit the drum. I can see reaper detecting the midi notes but ssd isn't working. Anyone have td17kvx input mapping for SSD?

[@edrumsense]

The sounds are the best of the industry for mixing. I can't recal exactly the Kick and the Snare Sample Set, I believe is "Snare 10" but those two samples are the most used ons all over the industry to enhance the Recorded Acoustic Drums in almost any Genere from professional Pop or Metal bands (And I am talking about Veeery famous bands). Steven Slates is a very well known guy in the music industry, he is a magnific Producer. The problem is that the interface doesn't offer even a 1/4 of the flexibility you get from any of the toontrack software. Steven Slates is more oriented for Mixing and Drum replacement in acoustic recording, even the technique used to record mix and tigger the sounds is best suited for mixing rather than playing, and that is where Tootrack Shines, despite it's hiper Gnere-Focused libraries. Now, If you learn how to mix decently well you can mix ANYTHING with Steven slate Drums, but you will need a ton of tools from the DAW itself

[@edrumsense]

Go an check the metallica Kits... and you will be nuts how precice the sound is, it's exaclty the same used in the Black Album

[@65Drums]

Well said, basically sums up my thoughts on it too

[@edrumsense]

Gosh!... my englis is so so broken xD I hope that what I wrote makes sense 🙂

[@b.d.charles-nb2vg]

New learning drummer(bassist for over 30yrs)...and I habe a Simmons Titan 50 kit ...which VST is going to sound and be able to work with the best for the buck out there right now ...SSD5 is 79.00 bucks now ...BFD3 is 50 bucks ....and EZ3 is 179 .....and what about Hertz?????

[@kauaichefservice995]

I’ve been using ssd5 for a couple years with my Roland T7. I love the sounds, but the manual is confusing regarding the mapping and the company sponsored tutorials are worse than nothing. All they needed to do was provide a detailed explanatory video and I would be happy. The video they did sponsor on mapping was a minute and a half long and did not cover how to add an extra Tom (yes I have 5 Tom). I somehow got it working after days of fumbling around, and am happy with the sounds, but I’m afraid to touch anything cause I still have basically no idea how it works or how I made it work.

[@tjhessmon4327]

A couple of points 1- Stephen Slate plus Reaper = 119 + 60 = $179, so its the same price as EZ drummer 3 The expansion packs for SSD 5 are 60 to 100 each, and for EZ drummer they are 88 each. You can get the expansions on sale from time to time However, in the long run, both of the programs, essentially cost the same

[@joeyrutheal]

You actually dont have to buy reaper lol. When the sixty days is up nothing happens, but of course its better to actually support the devs

[@johndef5075]

Can an ipad run this? Or do I need a full computer?

[@niceliciousk]

Hey Justin I just wanna ask, I've seen u play on other electric kits in your studio but I don't see them again. Do you buy them or borrow them?

[@65Drums]

If I buy a whole drum set, I always review it. But that isn't very often because I'd be broke within a month doing that. Occasionally a company will just give me a drum set to keep. But usually, if Roland/EFNOTE/Yamaha/Gewa will mail me a drum set, I play it for 30 days and mail it back. So it just depends on the company and what they feel like doing. It's expensive to give away a drum set to a KZbinr, but it's also expensive to pay return shipping rates and process a used kit.

[@packat78]

i'm sure has been asked before. you converty accoustic drums to edrums?

[@charliesdrumshed9328]

Sounds great I have superior drummer 3 this sounds great how do you think Steven skate stacks up

[@65Drums]

SD3 is better for sure, it's my daily driver. But Steven Slate is a third of the price

[@jamessullenriot]

I got it on a Black Friday deal and I think it was $60. For $60 I would say it was well worth it and then some.

[@65Drums]

Oh yeah at that price, it's an absolute steal

[@tinypizzas]

@@65Drums someone is impersonating you on here in telegram

[@65Drums]

@@tinypizzas It's not just me. This is a youtube wide problem effecting thousands of channels

[@tinypizzas]

@@65Drums I almost fell for it too.

[@tinypizzas]

@@65Drums can you offer any insight on the problem I'm having with ssd? I wrote a comment on this video already about it. Thank you

[@ChrissieCaulfield]

Did you get cymbal choke to work in it? I have a Roland TD-07 and I eventiall had to write a Max pre-processor to make choking work with SSD5

[@65Drums]

I could choke my cymbals using my TD30, and a TD30 MIDI Map preset

[@BFedie518]

I followed this really easy video and got them working with my TD-17 kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqrIiZunbs9jos0

[@JorgeParagliding]

@@65Drums Interesting, I have a TD-50 and could not get it to choke with the TD-30 Preset on PT. I am using Logic but have yet to load SSD5.5 as I have been using EZD3. I'm gonna give it another try and see if I might have set it up wrong.

[@fsmgallagher]

Try to enable the option key aftertouch, in MIDI settings.

[@fsmgallagher]

Ps: I use Cakewalk DAW. Don't know if the name is the same in other DAWs

[@Josh_da_drummer]

The probelm I am havging is that I have a donner ded 200, I have a midi not setting but on the software where i=d says Midi learn: hit midi note and I hit the bas drum pedal NOTHING HAPPENS

[@jasonwright4144]

I just bought an alesis nitro mesh kit to trigger slate drums in reaper but man oh man am I running into input latency issues. Any suggestions?

[@nathangraham1557]

Dunno if you worked this out but it has to do with 2 things. Your output codec and your output method. Make sure you are using the most efficient codec (asio normally) and make sure you're sound output device low latency. Don't use Bluetooth headphones where you can use an audio interface or 3.5 in. That's the hyper short version Incase you haven't fixed it

[@jasonwright4144]

@@nathangraham1557 thanks for getting back with me B). I just used an audio jack splitter to hear the module while the track im recording slate drums onto is silent. worked like a charm :)

[@Andyw1228]

When you play you have in ear phones which seem to be wireless? But no Bluetooth I assume, because Bluetooth has big latency.

[@sezjames2472]

I prefer the sound of ssd, but the playability of it with a e kit with digital ride/snare and hi hats is terrible out the box . Superior Drummer worked out the box. I still can't get ssd to trigger my digital hi hat properly and I've tried alsorts of configs and sent alsorts of messages. Its not good with digital e kits. There is a video on KZbin somewhere where someone sussed it out I need to dig it out

[@PepuDrummer527]

I personally think that EZ Drummer or Superior Drummer will always be the king on these VST Drums.

[@Rhythmic1]

I've had SSDS5.5 for over three years and I still have no idea how to trigger any of the kits or sounds with my TD-50. If it was an actual physical object instead of software I'd have thrown it out the window and driven over it with my car long ago.

[@fVNzO]

I really don't like the cymbal sounds on SSD5. I think that's by far the weakest link of the package. Otherwise the drums are pretty good. But toontrack seems to just be the better option for edrums, be it sd3 or ezd3.

[@purevanillacookie9977]

Hi

[@richie7782]

0.59 Rocket Queen

[@emanuelelionello9826]

yo when drum tour

[@65Drums]

You mean a tour of what parts and pieces make up my drum set?

[@emanuelelionello9826]

@@65Drums yess

[@billmaries]

I'm a fan of slate but it doesn't work well with Roland digital drums espeicially the hi hats. Feels like its got maybe 4 types of velocity maybe over sd which has more like 3 times that, sd worked out the box a bit better as the guy says ssd isn't very intuative for settings adjustment. The actual sounds of the cymbs is better on ssd however, where as I felt like the snares on sd sounded less triggery and real. Ssd is way loads easier for production I think however. I'd like to see them update it for digital drums in the future.

[@65Drums]

Yeah I agree with everything you said. Right now it just feels like Toontrack has a stranglehold on the plugins-edrums market with EZD3 and SD3

[@diiegopc]

Something to consider is that SSD 5.5 works on a computer with a AMD Radeon proccesor, while EZdrummer does not.

[@Casaestudioflorez]

EZ Drummer 3 is better than SSD5 IMO. I hope to deal a great discount on black friday.

[@65Drums]

No I think EZD3 is better

[@Casaestudioflorez]

@@65Drums si, eso trato de decir, disculpa el mal inglés

[@danepaulstewart8464]

Good to know. All of it…

[@BFedie518]

You ever make a purchase, then a few weeks later spot a review of it from someone whose opinion you trust? I was a bit nervous when starting this video lol.

[@65Drums]

Lol I get it, but gotta trust your gut. If you bought it and enjoy it doesn't matter what random people like me on the internet think :)

[@BFedie518]

@@65Drums True. I didn't think you were gonna call it crap or anything (if you did, my own experience would win out). I was more worried about "SSD5.5 is fine but [other program] is better in every way and bakes you cookies." The "better" program being at least 40% more expensive alleviates that.

[@bshshs-eq7fn]

slate sounds the best but the hi hats react terrible to digital drums for example a roland vh14. superior drummer is more musical thats for sure. When was the last update for this software?

[@gridironghost5887]

Hard pass for live shows. Nothing like a hard freeze on the laptop because of the ilok software required to run it in another software (DAW). Also not worth it for the few sounds that are not over compressed and over processed. Too many things to go wrong, SSD requires 1) the plugin 2) ilok software 3) DAW

[@65Drums]

I complained about iLok to my rep at Steven Slate. He claims it's being phased out and replaced with something else, which is why I didn't mention it in the review. I agree hardware is always safer than a laptop running a plugin. But I worked as a stagehand, and let me tell you, laptops in live shows are here to stay. All the drummers I worked with had a macbook running ableton or whatever.

[@JuanJacinto]

I know this video is one year old but I still have a question. What about latency? Is it better, worse or same as Superior Drummer or EZdrummer? I have a top of the line M2, 32GB, going through a TD-12 just to use as a controller, but I still get latency to a level that makes it unplayable for me. It's almost not perceivable for most, but I feel it a lot when playing and makes me not want to use it for playing but only for post production.

[@65Drums]

You computer and interface is more important when it comes to latency. It's not the program.

[@cleverdood]

The ‘super popular’ you mention is my biggest con. Mostly because if you listen to any modern rock/prog/metal, they all use the same sounds. They do sound good though.

[@65Drums]

Yeah that's what I'm saying too. If you need super unique underground sounds, this ain't it. But if you need album tested sounds that just work and sound good, this does that.

[@redhorsereincarnated5040]

The velocity past medium is not really working well on your kit. Everything sounds the same. After a certain velocity all the snare hits sound the same. You prolly need to adjust that for your kit. I have the free version that I use for song writing. I click all the hits in on the piano roll and I can get much more variety to the sound than your getting here, even at higher velocities.

[@djkevinkelly]

I'm so tired of these horrible videos that don't show you how to actually set up this thing. I have literally been trying for 2 months to get my Alesis surge kit to work with Reaper and SSD5. I cannot tell you how many videos and things I have read that supposedly shows you how to set this up. Nothing is working. I'm getting super pissed off!!!!

[@nathanreddent2427]

I got on sale for $49 Best plugin deal I’ve gotten so far.