So I have Slate Platinum 4 and am running Logic Pro X and I love the sounds. My questions are:
1. Do you all separate the final drum tracks to individual tracks?
2. Do you set up Aux tracks for each channel in Slate to correspond to a channel in your DAW?
3. Do you do separate compression/EQ on each drum with plug in's or is that already done to the sound samples Slate uses? What I mean is I know certain frequencies can be EQ'd out of toms so that when they are hit in a fill at the same time as the kick, the mix can get muddied.
4. Do you render the midi tracks to audio?
Thanks. I have been watching vids on mixing as I would REALLY like to get my recordings to go from "Good Demo" quality to "Semi-Pro" given the confines of the tools at my disposal.
?'s on mixing Virtual Drums - Slate
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?'s on mixing Virtual Drums - Slate
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Re: ?'s on mixing Virtual Drums - Slate
I mainly use Superior, but sometimes use Slate samples really low in the mix to craft slightly different sounds. I have light versions (or whatever they call them) of both Slate 3.5 and 4.0, but I mainly use 3.5 and I don't use any of the cymbals (just kick, toms, and snare), so some of my information about its capabilities may be off. But here's my approach:
1. Yes, I set things up so that I have control over each microphone separately (Overhead L and R, Snare bottom, Snare top, Room L and R, Tom 1, 2, 3, etc.) (Like I said, I don't use Slate for cymbals, but I'm pretty sure I remember being able to control the actual overhead and room mics...I might be wrong though)
2. No, because it gets WAY too resource intensive to do that if you have a full mix going on. I bounce down each mic/track separately as a new audio file, then start a new session (without calling up Slate) and just import those audio tracks and then mix everything like I had recorded the kit in real life. Since I do that, I make sure to turn off the "Room" and "Overhead" settings on the snare, kick, and toms in the Slate options for each drum since I'll have my room and overhead mics as separate tracks anyway. That way those tracks are just close mics.
3. Slate stuff has TONS of processing already done to it (I think the only thing they don't do is artificial reverb, but there's definitely lots of EQ and compression on them). That's my least favorite thing about it and why I only use it as supplements low in a mix. You can still do some of your own EQ and compression (I recommend taming their high mids and lower treble a bit...all the drums seem to have a very artificial sound to their attack that I can't stand), but you don't necessarily NEED to since they already tried to make them "mix ready". Basically, you'll have a balanced drum mix if you don't do anything to them, and you probably won't have to worry much about the clarity and frequency balance of them. But you could probably personalize your sound (and maybe improve it, depending on what you're going for) by doing some of your own processing. Slate is cool for just throwing together stuff really quick and having it pretty much good to go, but it's not much of a learning tool because of that.
4. Yeah, that's happening automatically if you're bouncing down each track. I still save the session with the MIDI file and Slate on it though, in case I need to go back and edit the MIDI file and rebounce later.
1. Yes, I set things up so that I have control over each microphone separately (Overhead L and R, Snare bottom, Snare top, Room L and R, Tom 1, 2, 3, etc.) (Like I said, I don't use Slate for cymbals, but I'm pretty sure I remember being able to control the actual overhead and room mics...I might be wrong though)
2. No, because it gets WAY too resource intensive to do that if you have a full mix going on. I bounce down each mic/track separately as a new audio file, then start a new session (without calling up Slate) and just import those audio tracks and then mix everything like I had recorded the kit in real life. Since I do that, I make sure to turn off the "Room" and "Overhead" settings on the snare, kick, and toms in the Slate options for each drum since I'll have my room and overhead mics as separate tracks anyway. That way those tracks are just close mics.
3. Slate stuff has TONS of processing already done to it (I think the only thing they don't do is artificial reverb, but there's definitely lots of EQ and compression on them). That's my least favorite thing about it and why I only use it as supplements low in a mix. You can still do some of your own EQ and compression (I recommend taming their high mids and lower treble a bit...all the drums seem to have a very artificial sound to their attack that I can't stand), but you don't necessarily NEED to since they already tried to make them "mix ready". Basically, you'll have a balanced drum mix if you don't do anything to them, and you probably won't have to worry much about the clarity and frequency balance of them. But you could probably personalize your sound (and maybe improve it, depending on what you're going for) by doing some of your own processing. Slate is cool for just throwing together stuff really quick and having it pretty much good to go, but it's not much of a learning tool because of that.
4. Yeah, that's happening automatically if you're bouncing down each track. I still save the session with the MIDI file and Slate on it though, in case I need to go back and edit the MIDI file and rebounce later.