What's up in the world of cinematic percussion? Looking for specific recommendation...

[NoamL]

Hey all,

I just got onboarded onto a project that has a lot of swashbuckling, militaristic writing with blocky string+brass orchestrations. Think like the first three Pirates scores. I'm well covered for str/brs but need a new perc library. Hopefully not something that will take me 4 days to learn the ins and outs and setup a template. The snare drum is fairly important in the score, but I also need to cover the whole range of "widescreen cinematic perc" from top to bottom not just traditional orchestral perc. Also, it's all organic and real - no "hybrid" or "trailer" sounding stuff.

Some of the options I'm considering

Cinesamples Drums Of War $100
Soundiron A.P.E. $200
Project Sam True Strike 2 $250
Native Instruments Action Strikes $300
Heavyocity Damage $300
Spitfire HZ01 $520

Let me know your thoughts on these libraries or any I might have missed.

Thanks in advance!!

[Luciano Storti]

I can only speak for True Strike 2 and Action Strikes. I've written a fair amount of the music you're talking about, and between those two I would pick Action Strikes. There's a large collection of instruments and ensembles and it generally sounds quite good. If you need more punch, you can dial it in with the compression, close/room mics, or slap a transient designer on there. The included patterns are great for quick use, and the single hits complement the patterns well for custom figures.

TS2 is more of a specialized library. There are some great patches in there but the focus is clearly on ethnic, and some of it is covered by Action Strikes. So if you're looking to buy just one, I'd go with AS, but they actually complement each other quite well. Maybe someone else will have thoughts on the others on the list, I'd be curious myself.

[chillbot]

I have all those.... I find HZ to be the most useful and Drums of War to be the least useful... not surprising, I guess you get what you pay for? I do like DOW but I kept consolidating until now it's just stacked up as one giant patch in my template. The different mics in HZ sound drastically different from each other so you can really create the sound you want, and no I don't think it takes long to figure out. There's a "bucket ensemble" in HZ that I love using effectively instead of a snare... it's "snare-ish". Gives your big drums some high-end pop, good for the style you're talking about.

Damage will sound too trailer/hybrid for you. If you want to keep more organic there's some great stuff in Ethno World as well. I'm not sure you can buy it anymore but Nine Volt Audio's Taikos are just fantastic, my favorite.

[Guy Rowland]

I'm a little confused there - if you need traditional orchestral AND big hits, very few on that list really quality. One that does and I think is under-rated is AudioBro's LADD. It can get tricksy if you go into the real guts of it, but for basic use it's pretty straightforward. Its probably the broadest range of anything out there in that it covers classic orchestral and ethnic stuff. Then there's the new VSL Synchron series - very expensive, mind, doesn't yet have the big ethnic stuff and I often find VSL pretty complex. Action Strikes is great for getting fast patterns going and has a good range of sounds if it's BIG you're after, less so for more subtle stuff. HZ01 is lovely but esoteric, it doesn't really have basic anything but has some fantastic more unusual colours - I guess their regular orchestral percussion does for all the routine stuff. Damage is at the sound-design end of things. Haven't tried the Soundiron or PS libraries, though have some PS freebies from days of yore which sound very good - again though TS2 is on the sound design end of things I think.

[NoamL]

Thanks for the thoughts so far! Listening back to some of the existing score I think I can narrow it down a bit more for you guys -

1. Definitely a lot of big, thuddy "War drums" - not taikos - I suppose "Transformers" is a good reference as well as Pirates
2. Some eth perc - Asian not African
3. Trad orch perc is limited to snare (featured), timpani and piatti - I don't need any bells or keyboards

I'm probably going to go with HZ01 at this point

[Jaap]

Maybe hook up with a East West cloud subscription and use some stuff from Stormdrum 2 and 3 and the Hollywood Percussions? That should cover your needs probably and don't have to invest a ton of money and you can cancel the subscription when the project is done (you are allowed to use the content you created commercially after cancellation)

[byzantium]

Hi NoamL, have you looked at cineperc? The timpani, snares and bass drums are all fantastic in my view. Maybe less baked-in reverb than Spitfire, but I don't have Spitfire so I can't compare esp re mic positions etc. Unfortunately cineperc has become ridiculously expensive now that you can't buy the three constituent parts (core, aux and epic) separately, as you could before (I just have core). Yes Damage may sound too hybrid-y.

[Lawrence]

I use Soundirons's APE, EW SD 2 and Impact Soundwork's Rhapsody Orchestral Percussion.
Damage has some big ethnic hits as well as those trailer drum loops.

[Guy Rowland]

Yes, HZ01 would suit that list quite well then I think. I really like the snare, but it's a very unusual sound that's hard to describe, it's not a normal snare at all - check that out from the walkthroughs first to make sure that'll be ok for you.

[Thomas Mavian]

If it is something like Transformers you're after, don't overlook this: https://www.heavyocity.com/product/ms-ensembledrums/

[Farkle]

I have all those.... I find HZ to be the most useful and Drums of War to be the least useful... not surprising, I guess you get what you pay for? I do like DOW but I kept consolidating until now it's just stacked up as one giant patch in my template. The different mics in HZ sound drastically different from each other so you can really create the sound you want, and no I don't think it takes long to figure out. There's a "bucket ensemble" in HZ that I love using effectively instead of a snare... it's "snare-ish". Gives your big drums some high-end pop, good for the style you're talking about.

Damage will sound too trailer/hybrid for you. If you want to keep more organic there's some great stuff in Ethno World as well. I'm not sure you can buy it anymore but Nine Volt Audio's Taikos are just fantastic, my favorite.

Hah, funny enough, Chillbot, I just talked about 9 Volt Audio's Taikos for NoamL in VI Control. It's one of my "secret weapons"... the original Taiko (I don't have that sequel, Taiko 2). But the original has a large, round, but present punchiness that is just great.

I like Drums of War 2, but part of why I like them is that they feel more organic, and sit in the mix better. Drums of War 1 is good for layering, but Action Strikes has supplanted it in my template.

Mike

[RobS]

I have Rhapsody Orch. Perc. and like them but they're very natural and need to be hyped to make them "cinematic". Also, Sonivox cinematic percussion, has a lot of useful ethnic percussions, in addition to regular orchestral timpani, tubular bells and snares...

[NoamL]

Wow the Heavyocity ensembles sound seriously impressive. The ability to move individual hits around the soundstage is cool too. Thanks for bringing this to my attention Thomas!

[Thomas Mavian]

You're most welcome, glad you liked it. Check out the Ethnic Ensembles as well, not as "powerful" but they work very well together.