The Virtual Percussionist
If you’re a studio engineer, producer, or just an avid music listener, you know that virtual instruments are becoming more and more common in professional recordings. They’re also growing in popularity among amateurs who want to bring their recording game to the next level. Virtual instruments have become so commonplace in modern music because they’re incredibly useful for musicians and media composers. With the help of virtual percussion plugins, you can bring your song from average to exceptional. Whether you’re looking to spice up the sound of your scores or add some extra zest to your solo project, these plugins will give you everything you need for high-quality music production.
What is Orchestral Percussion?
Orchestral percussion refers to all the instruments that are played by percussionists in an orchestra. It’s a large category that includes many different drums, cymbals, gongs, timbales, and other percussion instruments. Orchestral percussion is often accompanied by other orchestral instruments, but it can be used in isolation as a background sound effect or in a hybrid trailer track. Orchestral percussion is often used in film scores and other music that needs a large sound. It can also be combined with other instruments to create more complex sounds and more interesting music. The percussion section of an orchestra often includes a wide variety of different instruments, and each of these instruments creates its own unique sound or musical lines. Some of the most common percussion instruments are timpani, snare drums, cymbals, and gongs but for the modern composer sometimes big, bold well produced libraries are needed.
Finding the Right Percussion Plugin
When you’re looking for a virtual percussion plugin, the most important thing to keep in mind is its sound quality. You want to find a plugin that sounds as authentic as possible, while still maintaining a high level of clarity. The more authentic the sound, the more professional your music will sound, also if it’s recorded in a great room or space you’ll find less need to add a reverb plugin. You also want to make sure the instrument plugin fits well into your mix. A poorly-mixed virtual percussion plugin can disrupt the flow of your song and throw off the sound of the entire track.
With all this in mind, there are a few things you can do to find the right percussion plugin. First, look at the plugin’s features and sound libraries. Find out what kind of sounds you can expect to find in the plugin, and make sure those sounds fit the genre of music you’re producing. Do you want to write straight up concert music, film music, trailer music or media music for TV? Next, check out some reviews of the plugin. If possible, find reviews from people who use the plugin in the same genre as you, even better would be to sign up to be musi (become a member below), get in touch and ask the expert (that’s me, Darren, by the way!). This will give you a better idea of how the plugin works in a professional setting.
Things to look for in a virtual percussion plugin
Authentic Sound – When you’re looking for a plugin, make sure it sounds authentic. To make sure the plugin’s sound is as authentic as possible, find out where the samples were recorded. You want to look for samples that were recorded in an actual orchestra setting, not in a studio. If possible, find a plugin that uses samples from real orchestral percussion instruments. This will give your music a more authentic sound, which can help your listeners feel like they’ve been transported to a concert hall.
Sample Amount – You also want to make sure that the plugin you’re using has plenty of samples. Ideally, you’ll want to find a plugin with at least around 100 different samples. A more extensive sample set will give you more musical flexibility, which can help your music sound even better.
Sound Quality – The sound quality of your percussion plugin can have a huge impact on the quality of your music. Virtual percussion plugins have come a long way in recent years, but you still need to make sure your plugin has a high sound quality. You can usually tell the quality of a plugin by checking out its reviews and listening to demos. If there aren’t many reviews of the plugin, or if the reviews are mixed, you might want to keep looking.
Untuned vs Tuned – Also consider if you are looking for non-tuned percussion such as drums, toms (yes I know you tune them but stick with me!), cymbals and even hybrid electronic and real percussive hits, which is used for trailer music vs tuned percussion like Xylophones, marimba’s, Celesta’s and even pianos!
4 of the best orchestral percussion plugins
There are a ton of great options out there for virtual percussion plugins. To help you find the perfect plugin for your music, be musi has put together a list of four great options.
Orchestral Tools – Tom Holkenborg’s Percussion
This percussion plugin includes over 60 instruments, including instruments from his own collection used in his biggest films scores, Tupans, Surdos, Drums, Taye Toms, and more. It’s also compatible with a wide variety of DAWs, including Reaper, Reason, Logic, Ableton, and more. With so many different instruments focussed on big drums and hits, you can do just about anything with this plugin in terms of programming big hybrid style trailer percussion.
It’s ideal for anyone producing everything from orchestral music to modern pop as well. One thing I love about this library is that the dynamic layers are spread across the keyboard. This means instead of two keys representing left and right hands all the velocity layers run from low keys to high key. This means you can quickly create amazing dynamics. It’s a unique feature that I love and have used it when sampling my own instruments.
As of writing this the library can be purchased for 299€ or individual instruments can be bought separately for around 60€ each.
Cinesamples – CinePerc
This plugin doesn’t come cheap it is the ultimate all in one orchestral percussion intstrument. The plugin is designed to make it easy to mix and match different percussion instruments and works with both paid and free versions of Kontakt. The plugin comes loaded with over 100 instruments, including a wide variety of drums and cymbals for orchestra; it it is separated into categories including Orchestral, Melodic, Woods, Metals, Ethnic and Big Percussion. With so many instruments, this plugin is great for anyone who likes to experiment with orchestral music and have the full orchestral percussion pallet at their fingertips. It’s also a good choice for any series film or media composer.
This CinePerc doesn’t come cheap though and is geared toward the pro end of the market. Currently it’s up for $749
Spitfire Audio – Hammers
I can’t really do an orchestral percussion guide without mentioning Spitfire Audio, the main focus of Spitfire is orchestral tools for the jobbing composer, their experience and development of quality orchestral instrument software goes back many years, so they know a thing or two about how to produce good libraries. Hammers is their latest percussion offering and like Orchestral Tools they enlisted the help of a Hollywood heavyweight. This plugin library is “an explosive collection of drums and percussion. Created with acclaimed film composer Charlie Clouser (Saw, Resident Evil: Extinction, Nine Inch Nails), Hammers offers over 1,000 cinematic sounds spanning over 50 different drums, including detailed hits, ensembles, performance loops, and genre-bending warps.” it has 50 drums, sounds, 10 mic positions (something Spitfire excel at). It’s also compatible with a wide variety of DAWs, making it a good choice for anyone who uses a number of different music production software and wants to create big, impactful percussion parts. This plugin is not for the faint hearted and is the perfect choice if you want your percussion to make an impact! It has a simple interface and plenty of different instruments to choose from.
It’s in a similar price bracket to Tom Holkenborg’s Percussion… um no surprise there :), it comes in at £249
Heavyocity – Damage 2
This percussion plugin started it all when it comes to big, bold and bombastic drums. It’s a little different to the others, it’s geared towards hybrid scoring really. That said it should be the staple for any serious media composer or producer. It includes over 864 loops, was recorded at Skywalker Sound and “Damage 2 is brimming with over 40,000 samples and 60 GB’s of pure, percussive inspiration, ranging from 72″ gran casas and massive bass drums, to toms and a myriad of struck found sounds. We even rolled and recorded a dumpster onto the world-class scoring stage at Skywalker Sound.”
With so many different instruments, this plugin is great for anyone looking to add some extra ‘MASSIVE, EPIC, BRUTAL’ flavour to their compositions. It’s also easy to use, making it a good choice for all levels. This percussion plugin is designed to sound as realistic, making it ideal for composers and musicians who are looking for a high level of authenticity.
It’s not cheap at $399 but is an investment library for any buddy hybrid composer looking to get into film or trailer music.
Make Your Own
Don’t forget adding your own unique spin on percussion plugins can come in the form of your own creations. Logic Pro X’s Quick Sampler and Sampler are powerful tools to make your own instruments. All you need is a microphone, doesn’t matter on the quality, and something to whack! In my studio I have a selection of Djembes, which I’ve deep sampled using Logic Pro X’s Sampler. You can create round robins as well as easily grouping different velocity layers to achieve dynamics as good as expensive libraries. The advantage of doing this is you create a sound no one else has.
If you don’t want to get deep into sampling the Quick Sampler is an excellent choice for the creation of percussive sounds on the fly. I’ve put a microphone up against my acoustic guitar, hit it once, dropped the audio file recording into Logic’s Quick Sampler, quick mess around with the filter and distortion dials and instant low-end, unique sounding sub kick!
You can learn about the Quick Sampler by watching my Quick Sampler Plugin Tutorials
Make your own instruments: Watch My Quick Sampler Video Series By Clicking Below
Conclusion
Orchestral percussion is a large category that includes many different instruments. When you’re looking for a virtual percussion plugin, make sure you find one that sounds authentic. With the help of virtual percussion plugins, it’s easy to take your music to the next level.
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