Having boosted your percussion programming productivity with our recent collection of essential tips and techniques, here we’re revealing 7 of our favourite virtual instruments with which to bring your rhythmic ideas to life…

Quantum Leap Stormdrum 3

Running in East West’s nifty Play ROMpler engine, Quantum Leap’s ambitious instrument is built on a whopping 90GB of multisamples captured from the esoteric hand percussion collections of Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and Remo drums founder Remo Belli. As that massive footprint implies, there’s a huge amount of instrumentation to discover here, with highlights including a broad selection of individual and ensemble taiko and other drums (big and small), two berimbaus and all manner of shakers, blocks and metalwork. The level of detail in each patch is staggering, too, with every articulation you could reasonably hope for covered, and round robins keeping things sounding realistic. A set of unsurprisingly excellent tempo-synced performance loops by Mickey Hart seals the deal on this creative musicological powerhouse.

Spitfire Audio Hans Zimmer Percussion

It’ll come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his work that legendary Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer’s collaboration with Brit soundware specialists Spitfire takes the notion of ‘epic percussion’ to the limits in terms of scale and drama. Loading in the full version of Native Instruments’ Kontakt sampler or the free Kontakt Player, HZP comprises separate Timpani and Percussion libraries, the first dedicated to kettle drums, the second putting a larger-than-life 16-part ensemble of drums and metals at your fingertips, including taikos, surdos, dhols, bass drums, snare drums and tamtams. These can be loaded together in a single patch containing all the main articulations, or individually if you need every articulation for any one element. Each articulation in the 48.5GB soundbank consists of up to six dynamic layers and nine round robins, while the interface enables mixing of Close, Room and Surround mic channels.

When it comes to spectacular, supersized rhythm beds and high-impact cinematics, Zimmer’s big-budget percussive arsenal takes some beating.

In Session Audio Shimmer Shake Strike

This cheery Kontakt Player library presents a wealth of options for constructing your own simple or complex ‘top’ percussion parts, complete with onboard sequencing. Three parallel playback engines each host your choice of Shimmer (five tambourines, or ten with the optional Expansion pack), Shake (12 or 24; egg shaker, cabasa, sleigh bells, caxixi, pill bottle, etc) and/or Strike (33; cowbells, agogos, triangles, bottles, guiros, etc) instruments, all beautifully realised through a well thought-out set of articulations that includes forward and backward shakes, twists and accents, and those all-important incidental noises that “glue everything together”. The sequencer takes a rather unusual slider-based approach to pattern programming but nonetheless makes stringing articulations into lifelike ensemble performances a breeze; and there’s more than enough processing and effects built into the scripted Kontakt interface to tackle all your tone-shaping needs.

If acoustic percussion is something you find yourself calling on with any sort of regularity, Shimmer Shake Strike is nothing short of essential.

Auddict PercX Pro

Bringing together sequencing and playback of MIDI loops with one-shot triggering, PercX Pro places no creative limits on what you can do with its kaleidoscopic 9GB sample library. Dual playback engines each comprise a ’kit’ of up to eight tracks, each track housing any of over 500 multisampled percussion instruments – you name it, it’s probably here – all engineered towards a generally cinematic sound. Every instrument boasts up to 127 round robins and eight velocity layers, and, crucially, comes with a MIDI sequence that can be manipulated in exquisite detail in a very capable multitrack MIDI editor, or re-recorded entirely by switching over to the real-time-triggering Manual mode. It’s this empowering multitrack loop recording and sequencing functionality that sets PercX apart, but there’s also plenty of modulation and effects processing to explore, not to mention the cavernous depths of the sample bank itself. A genuine one-stop shop for intricately layered, screen-ready percussion mixes.

Evolution Series World Percussion Core 2.0

The second generation of Evolution Series’ acclaimed percussion library wrangles 111 instruments from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America into a set of straightforward scripted Kontakt Player patches. The 45GB sample bank takes in everything from congas, bongos, pandeiro, djembes and talking drum to darabuka, tabla, Gamelan set, a full untuned orchestral section and more, all captured with up to ten round robins and velocity layers apiece, from four mic positions (Close, Overhead, Room and Far). The numerous articulations within each instrument are quick to manage and unload/load in the Mapping screen, a ton of key-mappable MIDI grooves is also included for rhythmic authenticity, and a collection of Kontakt Multis rack up multiple related patches as expected (all four congas as a set, for example), as well as providing instant ensemble inspiration with a raft of more expansive combinations.

Although its immediacy and operational simplicity are definite selling points, the main draws with World Percussion Core 2.0 are its stunning multisamples and unmatched playability.

Wavesfactory Sharine

The big story with this 312MB library of multisampled shakers and tambourines for Kontakt (full version only) is the ‘pre-roll’ feature incorporated into its integrated step sequencer. This precedes the main on-beat ‘hit’ of the shaken instrument with the subtle but absolutely integral sound of it moving towards that point in between the beats, ensuring amazing realism without compromising the timing of the groove. The sequencer itself couldn’t be easier to program and includes a Swing parameter, while the complete roster of articulations on offer for triggering encompasses forward and backwards movements, hits, stick strikes and numerous rolls for each instrument, with four velocity layers and seven round robins. Impressively, you can layer up as many of Sharine’s eight shakers and four tambourines at once as you see fit, and for mixing, you get Close, Mid and Far mic channels and a Master output channel, each with its own bank of standard Kontakt effects.

Covering a diversity of shakeable hand percussion bases, and with a compelling USP in the pre-roll function, Sharine makes for a worthy contender to Shimmer Shake Strike, and at a considerably lower price.

Indiginus Audio Brio

One of the most affordable entrants in our round-up, Brio prioritises creativity and fun factor over extensive multisampling and the pursuit of flawless realism, but makes a great fit for dance and pop producers looking to embellish their beats with a bit of tasteful Latin percussion. The 1GB sample library serves up congas, bongos, timbales, djembe and 12 hand percussion items, and is accessed via two separate Kontakt instruments (full version only, alas, not Kontakt Player). Sequencer is an eight-track drum machine-style interface for sequencing the instruments as a group, while Ensemble simply maps all their articulations up the keyboard for live play and recording/sequencing in the host DAW. Within both instruments, multiple mic channels and four effects modules are handled in their own dedicated pages, and despite its garish appearance, the GUI works very well – we particularly like the articulation indicators.

Ultimately, while Brio might not stand as the last word in hyper-detailed globe-trotting percussion design, it certainly sounds more than good enough in the mix, is a blast to work with, and represents fantastic VFM.

What’s your virtual percussion weapon on choice? Tell us all about it in the comments.