That category includes Evolution Series World Percussion, a 204GB library which features big African drums and orchestral percussion but no Japanese taiko drums, and Quantum Leap’s 84.7GB Stormdrum 3, which has an excellent set of taikos in its huge instrumentation, but no orchestral percussion. Virtual Studio Technology and its acronym VST refer to an interface standard for connecting audio synthesizer and effect plugins to audio editors and hard-disk recording systems.
Soniccouture's quest for the exotic, the unique, the esoteric, and the downright weird and quirky brings us to our latest obsession, the Hang, a relatively new instrument that's hand-built in Switzerland and is difficult to get hold of-the wait to purchase one can be up to two years long. The Hang is a steel, disk-shaped, harmonically tuned percussion instrument that's played with the hands. It's incredibly sensitive and dynamic; the entire disk resonates at a central frequency as your hands move around the edge, teasing the notes out. There are two types of Hang: the Mk 1 and the Mk 2. The Mk 1 had 8 notes around the Ding (the top side of the Hang). These were available in 45 different tunings, and PANArt produced nearly 4000 of them.
The Mk 2 is basically the same shape but has a brass coating on the top and around the rim. The Mk 2 comes in only five different tunings and has only seven notes around the Ding. It is a sturdier design, stays in tune better over time, and has a slightly longer and purer ring. We have recorded an example of each Hang for this sampled instrument. The Soniccouture Pan Drum instruments feature over 1000 samples per drum, with up to 21 velocity layers.
We've sampled six different areas of the drum (called Gu, Ding, Outer Ding, Tone-Field Centre, Tone-Field Edge, and in-between the Tone-Field). Each area was sampled being played by finger, slap and knuckle. Each hit has up to three alternate round-robin versions, to ensure there is no 'machine-gun' effect. Hang is a trademark of PANArt Hangbau AG, Bern, Switzerland.
As mentioned elsewhere, ‘cinematic percussion’ is a crowded field; to draw meaningful comparisons with Hans Zimmer’s Percussion Volume 1 we need to discount smaller, loop–based, construction kit titles and concentrate on large, pro–level single–hit collections recorded from multiple mic positions. That category includes Evolution Series World Percussion, a 204GB library which features big African drums and orchestral percussion but no Japanese taiko drums, and Quantum Leap’s 84.7GB Stormdrum 3, which has an excellent set of taikos in its huge instrumentation, but no orchestral percussion. Cinesamples CinePerc Epic (9GB) covers the big world–music drum ensemble sound, but to add Zimmer’s trademark orchestral percussion you’d also need to buy the separate 50GB CinePerc Core library. Spitfire Audio Hans Zimmer Percussion Volume 1 £479 £399 pros. A truly thunderous, bombastic and definitive ‘cinematic percussion’ collection produced by the man who invented the genre.
Features four leading percussionists and five top mix engineers. Drips with Air Studios’ rich natural reverb. Beautifully resonant quiet hits make a great contrast with the explosive loud wallops. Cons.
Lacks smaller, more subtle hand percussion instruments — but who needs ’em! Summary The ‘real deal’ cinematic percussion library produced by Hans Zimmer in conjunction with Spitfire Audio. A great, authentic and highly dynamic collection of immensely powerful ethnic drum ensembles (including Japanese taikos), orchestral drums and percussion, recorded in Air Studios and remixed by five leading engineers.
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