on test

Spitfire Audio

Hans Zimmer Percussion Volume 1

Sample Library
The cinematic
supremo enlists the
best of British in
agrand percussive
collaboration.
Dave Stewart

nyone who feels the current craze

for sampled cinematic percussion
is getting out of hand should spare
athought for the man who invented the
genre: Hans Zimmer, the affable German
expopster who scaled the Hollywood
heights with scores for (deep breath) Rain
Man, Thelma & Louise, The Lion King,
Crimson Tide, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down,

28

Pearl Harbour, Hannibal, The Last Samurai,

The Da Vinci Code, the Pirates Of The
Caribbean series, Inception, The Dark Knight
Rises, The Lone Ranger, 12 Years ASlave and
many other movies. Hailed in scoring circles
as the man who made orchestras cool
again, Zimmer now has over 100 film scores
and innumerable awards under his belt and is
recognised as aleading industry figure.
Mr Zimmers wheeze of combining ethnic
drums with orchestral percussion has been
much copied, with the result that there are
now more socalled cinematic percussion
libraries on sale than you can shake astick
at. Unphased by the slew of imitators, the
originator has entered the ring and released
his own massive sampled percussion
collection, the difference being that, in
the words of acoproducer, This is not an
imitation this is the real deal. The Hans
Zimmer Percussion library is acollaboration
between the composer and British company

March 2014 / w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m

Spitfire Audios specially designed Kontakt

GUI displays photos of the currently
loaded instruments.

Spitfire Audio, who share his love of epic,

widescreen sounds; 3D landscapes, as
Zimmer calls them.
Spitfires Christian Henson explains:
Ithink theres akindred spirit there... weve
had afew chats with Hans, and went over
and visited him in LA last year. We felt he
was anatural partner because were doing
very similar things to him at Air Studios.
Igot aphone call just before Christmas 2012
and Hans expressed an interest in doing
apercussion library with Spitfire. We were
delighted, and the enthusiasm was instant:
Hans said, Do you want to do it?, Iwas
like, Yeah!, and Hans said, Announce it
now! Ididnt even clear it with Paul (Spitfire
codirector Paul Thomson), Ijust went
straight up on the Internet and announced
it. Ithink we have asimilar kind of approach

 certainly an enthusiasm for sampling, and

what it does for our work.

Voluminous Breakdown
Hans Zimmer Percussion Volume 1
(HZ01 for short) contains percussion
ensembles recorded from multiple listening
perspectives at Air Studios, London.
Due later in 2014, Volume 2 will feature
latterday Led Zeppelin drummer Jason
Bonham mercilessly clobbering his kit at
the Newman Scoring Stage of Twentieth
Century Fox Studios, Los Angeles, as well as
electronic modular drum sounds created by
Zimmer. Volume 3 will return to Air Studios
to provide solo versions of the instruments
used in Volume 1s ensembles. The library is
formatted for Kontakt 4 and up, and will run
on the free Kontakt Player.
An unusual feature is that this librarys
contents have been remixed by no less
than five leading sound engineers: two of
them (Air Studios chief engineer Geoff
Foster and Alan Meyerson, renowned
scoring mixer based at Remote Control
Studios in California), are longtime Zimmer
collaborators; the others are the brilliant

UK pop producer Steve Lipson, producer/

engineer Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL),
and of course Hans Zimmer himself, whose
acute ear for sound has been amajor factor
in his success as ascreen composer.
Due to its large data size, HZ01 will be
released in stages, the first of which (Artists
Elements) contains patches featuring three
listening perspectives created by Messrs.
Zimmer, Foster and Meyerson. This initial
94.3GB release will be followed by Steve
Lipsons and Junkie XLs mixes, more drums
and mikings, and stereo and 5.1 surround
mixes created by the five engineers. The
additional material will be issued in aseries
of free updates which may be available by
the time you read this. HZ01 is download
only, so be prepared for some hefty data
transfer sessions!

The Z Team
Like his former alumnus Trevor Horn (with
whom he worked in the late 70s synthpop
outfit the Buggles), Hans Zimmer thinks
big. For his Man Of Steel score he created
awall of sound by assembling 12 of LAs
top session drummers in alarge studio

Spitfire Audio Hans

Zimmer Percussion
Volume 1 479
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 agreat
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. Agreat, 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. Why buy
the copy when you can have the original?

w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m / March 2014

29

on test
S p i t f i r e A u d i o H a n s Z i m m e r P e r c u ss i o n

Ninety-six microphones were used during the

sampling sessions.

and instructing them to pound out simple

unison grooves (probably the easiest gig
any of them had that year). Videos of the
session are instructive: anatural collaborator,
Zimmer visibly enjoys interacting with
the musicians, and is receptive to
their suggestions.
In the same spirit, the production team
hired four of the UKs top percussionists
for the project. Collectively boasting
astaggering number of major film
soundtrack and album credits, Paul Clarvis,
Stephen Henderson, Gary Kettel and Frank
Ricotti have played with everyone from
Pierre Boulez to the Pet Shop Boys, and
their film soundtrack appearances span
the Bond, Bourne and Batman eras. Clarvis
headed the biggest troupe of drummers
ever assembled in the UK for the 2012
Olympics opening ceremony, while Kettel
played on David Fanshawes African Sanctus
(1974), atremendous, seminal work one can
imagine may been astylistic inspiration for
the young Hans Zimmer.

Unleash Hell
Aficionados of the Hans Zimmer school
of percussion will know what to expect
from this library: big, bombastic ethnic
and orchestral drum hits, laced with
dramatic strikes from piatti hand cymbals
and outsize tam tam gongs. The Low
Booms patch combines orchestral bass
drums, Japanese taikos and Brazilian surdo
drums in amassivesounding ensemble
which more than lives up to its name.
Played at six dynamics, the Low Booms
pack the elemental and emotional force of

30

athunderstorm; quiet strokes rumble and

resound in the distance, while hard hits
threaten to blow the roof off. As Iwrite,
the UK is being lashed by violent storms,
and these big drums are the perfect
musical accompaniment.
As well as hard and soft beater
articulations, there are clacky rim and
shell hits played by drumsticks and Puilli
(Hawaiian split bamboo sticks). The latter
make agreat, thin, whippy thrashing noise.
If you combine the Low Booms hard beater,
soft beater and Puilli sticks sustained rolls,
it sounds like ahailstorm on Mars. The drum
samples dont include played crescendo or
diminuendo drum rolls, but you can create
your own ultradynamic swells and fades
simply by playing astraight sustained roll
and pushing the mod wheel up and down!
Air Studios has aMinstrels Gallery
where failed XFactor contestants gather
every evening to earn acrust, listlessly
plucking their lutes and viols while Simon
Cowell and the judges gorge themselves
on amedieval feast in the Great Hall below.
(OK Im joking, but you have to admit its
afair analogy of todays music business.)
Spitfire took advantage of the gallerys
unusual small space within abig space
acoustic to record aset of Low Boom
Gallery hits, featuring the same drum
combo described above. This can be layered
with the hallrecorded Low Booms patch to
truly monstrous effect.
The producers also used the gallery to
record aset of orchestral and marching
bass drums: extremely forceful when played
loud, they also perform lovely resonant,

The Kontakt advanced display screen gives

fine control over microphone levels and sample
roundrobin behaviour.

portentous quiet hits. Though offering

only asmall number of articulations, the
sharp attack of the librarys surdo drums
(a Brazilian bass drum used in samba
bands) is well suited to fast note passages,
and by applying the mod wheel to their
ferocioussounding rolls you can do avery
good imitation of atube train emerging
from atunnel.

Taiko No Prisoners
Since Hans Zimmer pioneered the use of
Japanese taiko drums in film scores, its no

March 2014 / w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m

Air Studios reverberant hall acoustic is captured

by HZ01s room and surround mic positions,
while athird, close miking provides definition
and detail.

surprise to find them included here. Though

essentially an ensembles library, HZ01
includes solo versions of three taikos, the
largest of which is a60inch monster with
an amazing bottom end. Ahigherpitched,
20inch drum sounds more tuneful and
will work well for fast licks, while the third
taiko has adeeper, more resonant tone; all
perform booming hard beater strokes and
excellent, clacky shell hits which go off like
agunshot in Airs reverberant acoustic. The
Taiko Ensemble patch features the three
drums performing unison hits and rolls,

the loud versions of which sound powerful

enough to have dislodged plaster from the
studios ceiling.
Other large ethnic drums include the
Argentine bombo legero (doesnt he
play up front for Manchester City?), which
combines asatisfying thud with anice body
resonance, African dun dun (whose wallop
has been somewhat deadened by placing
anewspaper on the skin) and the bright,
clattering Indian Dhol drum associated
with Bhangra music. For amore Middle
Eastern flavour, you can try the Tombek
(aka Dumbek) goblet drums, played with
the hands but still explosive. The octave
of pitched Boobams (tuned, longbodied

bongos) samples would work well in more

experimental scores.
No percussion library of this type would
be complete without orchestral snare drums.
HZ01s snare ensemble is very highpitched;
personally Iwould have preferred adeeper
snare sound, but their bright, cutting
tone provides agreat contrast to the
deep, booming sonorities of the larger
drums. To subtly demilitarise the timbre
of the snare ensemble, Spitfire included
aplayer whacking asteel bucket, which
certainly shifts the ear wax. The bucket
trick has been used again with the librarys
clangourous darabuka ensemble (which
plays only straight hits). The musical effect is,
unsurprisingly, extremely strident.

Timps & Metals

In afabulous buy one, get one free offer,
we get two timpani players playing in
unison, mapped chromatically over one and
ahalf octaves from C1 to F2. The timp duos
fabulous soft beater hits sound absolutely
stunning in the large space, and their louder
hits positively drip with cinematic splendour.
An interesting variation is the Timpani hot

For this project the

producers took full
advantage of the
Air Studios gallerys
unusual acoustics.

rods performances,
asomewhat left-field,
oildrumlike texture
which can be used
to play fast, skittering
rhythm patterns.
The librarys Metals
section houses more
traditional orchestral
timbres: apiatti hand
cymbals ensemble
performs those big, climactic crashes that
pepper media composers battle scene
cues. The piatti are limited to ahandful of
hits, but theyre good ones. Given the tam
tam gongs capacity for sonic mayhem, Ive
often bemoaned the lack of power of some
sampled specimens, but not in this case:
this tam tams loudest hits will part your hair,
and its played crescendo rolls are truly scary.
Though not so deafening, its quiet strokes

are also wonderfully menacing.

Caving in to pressure from the
blacksmiths lobby, aset of anvils also
gets alook in, but rather than the
earsplitting racket Ifeared, they play
some quite melodious, flammy chimes
which sound abit like handbells. (Can
we have achromatic mapping, please?)
Much has been written about the vices
of session percussionists, and here they

w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m / March 2014

31

on test
S p i t f i r e A u d i o H a n s Z i m m e r P e r c u ss i o n

are shockingly on display in the form of

aset of industrial crusher vices which are
brazenly crashed in tandem with the steel
bucket, creating athoroughly unmusical
noise designed to offend all rightminded,
respectable citizens.
Also included in this section is alarge,
metalframed gong drum; this highly
resonant instrument is one of the most
explosive drums in the library, and its
blasting loud rolls sound like an avalanche.
If youd like to hear how Hans Zimmer uses
percussion in his scores, check out his theme
for the TV boxing series The Contender,
which features exactly the kind of big,
thunderous drums youll find in sampled
form in this library.

In anod to this quiet is the new loud

philosophy, Spitfire have built anew
dynamic response control into the Kontakt
GUI: when turned anticlockwise, it turns
quiet samples up in level to match the
volume of louder hits, which is very handy
when finetuning dynamics. The new front
panel Boom and Crack controls do
exactly what it says on the tin, while the
Pitch dial creates extreme detune settings
which can transform atimpani into abiscuit
tin, and vice versa. Ah, the wonders of
modern science...
HZ01s articulation mapping system is,
as far as possible, duplicated across the
different instruments, which means you
dont have to learn adifferent keyboard
layout for every sound. It also enables you to
create massive layered drum setups simply
by copying your MIDI sequence data from
one ensemble to another. Christian Hensons
excellent How to program epic drums
tutorial video (which Itrust will still be
viewable on YouTube by the time you read
this) shows how quick and musically effective
this process can be.

Airial Perspectives

Punch Cog

Editing at sample level is made simple by Spitfire

Audios ingenious Punch Cog facility.

HZ01s patches contain close, room

and surround listening perspectives. As
mentioned earlier, additional mikings will
be available in afree update, but for my
purposes these three are quite sufficient: the
close miking gives all the punch, definition
and detail you could want, while the room
and surround positions give you the big
Air Studios sound prized by Zimmer and
the producers.
Since 96 microphones were used on the
session, the remixers had alot of options
when creating their listening perspectives.
Being apop guy, Ifound Hans Zimmers
patches to be the most effective theyre
consistently fiercer and more in your face
than Foster and Meyersons contributions,
but the latter two engineers subtle and
skilful microphone blendings may appeal
more to classical listeners.

General Points
Reflecting Zimmers love of (as Christian
Henson puts it) taking recordings of quiet
things and making them unusually loud,
particular attention has been paid to softer
dynamics in this project. The composer
himself points out that the subtle bloom
of asoftly struck percussion instrument
developing in an acoustic space is often lost
in alive orchestral setting, and sampling is
the perfect way of bringing out these subtle,
often beautiful undertones.

32

Spitfire Audio take the view that minor

tuning imperfections, squeaks, breath
noises and so on are desirable human
artifacts which can help liven up asampled

The Easy Tweaks dynamic response, pitch and

tone controls is anew feature implemented for
this library.

arrangement. However, they are also aware

that hearing the same squeak over and over
again can be quite annoying. With this in
mind, Spitfire collaborator Blake Robinson
developed anew feature called Punch Cog
(named after the punch in method used to
correct notes back in the day) which aims to
give you the best of both worlds.
To use this feature, you load the Punch
Cog version of the patch you want to edit
and cycle through the round-robin variations
of anote until you hear the sample you
dont like. Click on the small cog icon on
the GUI, select Tweak last played note and
asubmenu opens, inviting you to adjust
the tuning, volume, release trigger level
or sample start of the offending sample,
or to skip it altogether. You can save your
tweaks so they take effect every time you
use the patch, or remove them to restore

March 2014 / w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m

Alternatives
As mentioned elsewhere, cinematic
percussion is acrowded field; to draw
meaningful comparisons with Hans Zimmers
Percussion Volume 1 we need to discount
smaller, loopbased, construction kit
titles and concentrate on large, prolevel
singlehit collections recorded from multiple
mic positions.
That category includes Evolution Series
World Percussion, a204GB library which
features big African drums and orchestral
percussion but no Japanese taiko drums,
and Quantum Leaps 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 worldmusic drum ensemble sound,
but to add Zimmers trademark orchestral
percussion youd also need to buy the
separate 50GB CinePerc Core library.

the patch to its original state.

This cool facility is also implemented in
Spitfires Albion and BML range. Though
its more likely to be useful for pitched
instruments than untuned percussion,
Isuccessfully used it to remove one slightly
understrength bombo ensemble hit from
the round-robin chain, and was impressed
by how much easier the procedure was
than fiddling about in Kontakts rather
intimidating sample edit windows.

Conclusion
Spitfire Audios first commercial release was
the 25GB Spitfire Percussion in 2010. Over
the last four years sampling projects have
proliferated beyond anyones expectation,
and the Londonbased company now have
around 20 titles in their catalogue. Hans
Zimmer Percussion may turn out to be their
greatest mission yet. If nothing else, its
good to know that we live in an era where
aSpitfire and aGerman can be in the same
vicinity without shots being exchanged.
Its apretty safe bet that this library will
be successful, and the key to its success is
that it uses exactly the same ingredients
as aHollywood film scoring session:
abig, worldfamous sound stage, leading
players, great instruments and ateam of
eminent producers and engineers. HZ01
may not include every playing style under
the sun, and it has no licks or phrases.
But by replicating the brilliant sound and
instrumentation choices that have propelled
Hans Zimmer to the top of the pile, it gives
other musicians the chance to add the
definitive cinematic percussion sound to
their arrangements.
478.80 including VAT.
WW www.spitfireaudio.com

Mix with the best!

Besides the excellent interviews and fascinating,
indepth recording and mixing articles, Ican
always depend on Sound On Sound for
complete, unbiased reviews of the latest
proaudio gear.
Bob Clearmountain, engineer, producer and
mixer, Grammy Award winner (Bruce Springsteen,
The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, INXS)

As aprofessional Iadmire Sound On Sound

as one of the most trusted and credible
sources of inspiration and information.
Jack Joseph Puig, mixer, producer, Grammy
Award winner (Rolling Stones, U2, Mary J
Blige, Black Eyed Peas)

The Worlds Best Recording Technology Magazine

This article was originally published

in Sound On Sound magazine,

March 2014 edition

follow us
on Twitter
find us on
Facebook
go to the SOS
YouTube channel
visit the
SOS forum

Subscribe and Save Money!

Visit our subscriptions page at www.soundonsound.com/subscribe
for more information on the Sound On Sound App go to: www.soundonsound.com/app
Sound On Sound, Media House, Trafalgar Way, Bar Hill, Cambridge, CB23 8SQ, United Kingdom
Email: subscribe@soundonsound.com Tel: +44 (0) 1954 789888 Fax: +44 (0) 1954 789895

All contents copyright SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2014. All rights reserved.
The contents of this article are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden
without the prior written consent of the Publishers. Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited
nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the publishers.