Hello Composers, Mike here! =)
Are you looking for an all-in-on package of Orchestral Percussion Instruments, with extreme attention to detail, superb quality audio recordings, and wonderful customizability?
Then you might want to check out Orchestral Percussion SDX.
Today I want to share my review of Orchestral Percussion SDX, which is an expansion module to Superior Drummer 3. After testing this for a couple of days, here is is my impression and personal opinion:
My Overall Impression: Orchestral Percussion SDX is my new go-to package of orchestral percussion. I love the clean and scalable interface, the quick and easy workflow, the customizability, the range of instruments, the MIDI grooves, the sound design and layering tools. Even the clearly organized drum mappings is something I lacked in so many other orchestral percussion libraries. In short: I love Orchestral Percussion SDX!
The Sound of Orchestral Percussion SDX
Let’s start by checking out Toontrack’s great video overview showing the product and demonstrating many of the sounds.
As you can see, and hear, Orchestral Percussion SDX is truly massive. Let’s sum up the main specifications and features:
- More than 120 individual instruments
- Recorded at the same studio as the Superior Drummer 3 core sound library
- A complete immersive experience
- Playback in stereo up to 11-channel surround systems
- Sampled with extreme attention to detail and articulation
- Optional tools available for selected instruments
- A comprehensive collection of MIDI
- Comes as a factory bundle including two SDX configurations
My Favorite things
1. The Sound
Recorded in the same studio as Superior Drummer, which is arguably one of the best and most sound-proofed big recording spaces in the world: Galaxy Studios. This means that they could record very clean and high quality recordings even at soft and low volumes (ppp). And it truly shows in the end result. The dynamic range and detail in the sound is excellent!
2. The Range
The range of instruments do you get with Orchestral Percussion SDX is incredibly impressive. Over 120 instruments, and many with variations of mallets/hit types. It is so vast that they organized it into 2 separate libraries, each with its own interface.
Volume 1 is the standard orchestral percussion, from bass drum to timpani, taikos, snares, toms, cymbals, gongs etc. Volume 2 is the auxiliary percussion like bongos, shakers, wood blocks, chimes..and yes…of course the mighty triangle! =)
3. The Workflow
If you are used to working with Superior Drummer 3, you will appreciate that Orchestral Percussion SDX shares the same interface and workflow. Clean design, quick and easy to work with, scalable interface (thank you Toontrack!), MIDI grooves that you can drag-and-drop etc.
The workflow of Superior Drummer 3, with any modules such as this one, is one of the main reasons I will choose this over Kontakt libraries of orchestral percussion.
4. The Customizability
I can only sum this up in one word: Wow! You can do so much to design and shape the overall sound of your percussion mix. From the obvious things like mixing mic positions, to switching out drums, beaters/mallets, using different types of hits, layering for sound design, and even create your own chain of different effects available right in the user interface, per instrument. Great fun, and super powerful!
5. The MIDI Grooves
First: I personally record, write and program all my main percussion parts myself. Meaning I don’t like to use already made percussion grooves as my main drum beat for each song section. However, it is so convenient to have some types of performances as MIDI grooves if those are what you want to add to your composition anyway.
What do I mean? Well for me this means things like: drum rolls, cymbal swells, complex fills, shakers etc. Things that are kind of hard to record and program, but if you know you want that kind of performance I don’t believe this is cheating. And their amazing browser includes a search function so you can find the perfect groove to add to your composition.
Learn More about Orchestral Percussion SDX
Do you want to learn more about Orchestral Percussion SDX, and find out if this would be a great addition to your music composer tool box?