# Percussion comparison: Damage 2 / Hans Zimmer Percussion Professional / Stormdrum 3



## JyTy

As many of you here I got Damage 2 and got instantly inspired by the amazing library. It really delivers a massive punch in the face!

So I created this video from a couple of more heavy-hitting libraries that I own just to kinda hear what kind of "ground" they cover:

Damage 2
Hans Zimmer Percussion Professional (HZ & JXL mixes)
Stormdrum 3


I hope you find this short video interesting 

Best,
J.T.


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## PuerAzaelis

I like EW but then I am prejudiced in favor


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## Artemi

thanks for the comparison, was wondering how damage 2 differs from HZ

I feel like damage 2 is more punchy and upfront, and Hans Zimmer perc is just unprocessed
maybe you can achieve similar results with HZ by compressing it

I hear lack of RR in Stormdrum3


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## JyTy

PuerAzaelis said:


> I like EW but then I am prejudiced in favor



Yep, it is a good library indeed! I think it sits nicely in the middle, has some great sounds but if needed the Dragon Ens can deliver quite a punch as well!


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## JyTy

Artemi said:


> thanks for the comparison, was wondering how damage 2 differs from HZ
> 
> I feel like damage 2 is more punchy and upfront, and Hans Zimmer perc is just unprocessed
> maybe you can achieve similar results with HZ by compressing it
> 
> I hear lack of RR in Stormdrum3



I don't think you can even compare them by thinking of the libraries in the same way, that is what I wanted to demonstrate here... Sure I guess with a good amount of processing you can make HZ sound much more brutal but I would rather go to Damage for that  HZ is still my favorite percussion library for the things I do ...

SD3 requires a bit more work yep and the lack or RRs makes it sound a bit more generic at times, but it is still packed with a lot of interesting sounds that can come in handy!


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## Greg

Nice overview! I still love Strikeforce. Its so easy to get a nice wide epic sound. But the real winner is to buy and use them all at the same time :D


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## Ricgus3

I noticed there was a Room mic on the JXL but not on the HZ mixes. Is there a reason why you left out the room mic and only used the close mic on the HZ mix? They do sound alot more dry than the JXL. I only own Standard HZ perc so i don't have access myself to the JXL mixes


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## jononotbono

Greg said:


> Nice overview! I still love Strikeforce. Its so easy to get a nice wide epic sound. But the real winner is to buy and use them all at the same time :D



I love Strikeforce as well. Damage 2 is incredible but it doesn’t mean it’s going to replace so many other amazing Perc libraries.


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## JyTy

Ricgus3 said:


> I noticed there was a Room mic on the JXL but not on the HZ mixes. Is there a reason why you left out the room mic and only used the close mic on the HZ mix? They do sound alot more dry than the JXL. I only own Standard HZ perc so i don't have access myself to the JXL mixes



I used patches as they are out of the box, didn't change a thing (including mic positions). JXL mixes have a very different quality than HZ mixes, wouldn't necessarily say drier just different. It is my prefered choice for the lib, just using them (JXL mixes) in combination with HZ Strings and I get some very nice sounds from it!


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## Ricgus3

Thanks for answering


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## easyrider

I’m teetering on buying HZ percussion for £152 right now...do I miss much not getting the pro version?


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## jononotbono

easyrider said:


> I’m teetering on buying HZ percussion for £152 right one....do I miss much not getting the pro version?



The Pro version is definitely worth it. You get all the mixes from different composers and engineers and they do sound very different. Many people (including myself) love the JXL Mixes as they are hyper real (larger than life, EQed to cut through mixes all that stuff).. but then to be honest HZ’s mixes are as well (just in a different way).

You can always upgrade from The standard version at a later date though so it’s not like there is pressure to buy it and now Spitfire have regular sales on everything then I don’t feel like there’s a rush to buy anything anymore (unless I need something for a job or a pitch etc).


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## Kevinside

I am a fan of Stormdrum 2 and 3...but HZ Percussion has more dynamc layers... You can tweak EWs attempt, but HZ Percussion brings mixing perspectives out of the box...


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## JyTy

jononotbono said:


> The Pro version is definitely worth it. You get all the mixes from different composers and engineers and they do sound very different. Many people (including myself) love the JXL Mixes as they are hyper real (larger than life, EQed to cut through mixes all that stuff).. but then to be honest HZ’s mixes are as well (just in a different way).
> 
> You can always upgrade from The standard version at a later date though so it’s not like there is pressure to buy it and now Spitfire have regular sales on everything then I don’t feel like there’s a rush to buy anything anymore (unless I need something for a job or a pitch etc).



Agree with the above! I think HZ Perc is great even as a regular version... depends on how you approach things, but you are missing out a bit by not going pro either way. If you like to make your own sounds you get additional mic positions to play with in Pro, if you like to get sound out of the box then you are missing out on some great mixes you get in the Pro version (like the JXL one that everybody here including me love!)

But like @jononotbono said. Start with regular version and if you see that it works for you, upgrade it in the next sale... there will be plenty more chances next year I guess


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## jononotbono

It’s a great perc library. I always love using it. I’m also glad I have other ones.


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## Virtual Virgin

I am going to be "that guy" and say I think these libraries are junk food. 
You will get much more mileage in working your craft by using percussion that is closer to the fidelity of actual performances and not pre-hyped "turn it up to 11" out-of-the box EPIC TRAILER MUSIC BRO. 
My 2¢


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## Artemi

Virtual Virgin said:


> I am going to be "that guy" and say I think these libraries are junk food.
> You will get much more mileage in working your craft by using percussion that is closer to the fidelity of actual performances and not pre-hyped "turn it up to 11" out-of-the box EPIC TRAILER MUSIC BRO.
> My 2¢


like what for example?


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## Virtual Virgin

Artemi said:


> like what for example?


The Orchestral SDX from Toontrack, and even better I would say the Synchron Percussion from VSL.


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## Dave Connor

I’ve never even bothered to listen to any of the other mixes in HZ Percussion. Not that they wouldn’t be useful, it’s just that the sound of Hans’ mixes are natural and beautiful. If you can imagine, I often think the timpani is the best sampled instrument I own.


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## easyrider

Virtual Virgin said:


> I am going to be "that guy" and say I think these libraries are junk food.
> You will get much more mileage in working your craft by using percussion that is closer to the fidelity of actual performances and not pre-hyped "turn it up to 11" out-of-the box EPIC TRAILER MUSIC BRO.
> My 2¢


HZ perc can do quiet....


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## DovesGoWest

easyrider said:


> I’m teetering on buying HZ percussion for £152 right now...do I miss much not getting the pro version?


Where from at that price?


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## easyrider

DovesGoWest said:


> Where from at that price?



Spitfire...as part of the collections...I have other libraries so the my price reflects that.


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## DovesGoWest

easyrider said:


> Spitfire...as part of the collections...I have other libraries so the my price reflects that.


Ahhhhh thought I’d missed something lol


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## Virtual Virgin

easyrider said:


> HZ perc can do quiet....



This is actually still exemplifying my point.
The "quiet" here is not quiet in the mix. He is using timpanies in a mix relationship which is very hyped.
This sounds very far from what those instruments would sound like in a real live performance together in a real space.
The raw samples themselves are already processed in a way which is designed for impact/trailer music. 
The issue with this is that you can always hype-up natural recordings with good fidelity as needed.
You cannot reverse this process (convincingly anyway).
This is a dimension of palette that you will lose when using these samples.


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## José Herring

Very nice comparison. I was surprised at how well SD3 held up in comparison. I quite liked it a lot. 

HZ percussion is amazing. Sounds very musical in comparison to the others. Kind of weird but there's some real musically in that. 

D2 is great. I came here to rule out getting another library after getting hammers but now I'm interested in HZ and D2. Thanks for that!

I have SD3 but took it out of my template. It's going back in. I never gave it a fair shake. I was disappointed after I got it that it didn't come with mic positions which to me is an odd oversight. But, it doesn't really appear to need any mic positions. It just sounds great. In the past EW has made up for lack of rr with an insane amount of dynamic layers so the instruments would be playable and more consistent imo.


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## jtnyc

Artemi said:


> I hear lack of RR in Stormdrum3


This is a problem for sure! Some very well recorded drums in this package, but they really dropped the ball on RR's and velocity layers. It's baffling to me that they would go through all of the trouble to create such a diverse huge package and then skimp like that. It's the same with SD 2, Ra and Silk... For this reason I pretty much stay away from EW these days. I do get some use out of these libraries now and then and there are some beautifully recorded samples there, but there is often a lack of realism once you start playing / programming them.


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## sumskilz

JyTy said:


> SD3 requires a bit more work yep and the lack or RRs makes it sound a bit more generic at times, but it is still packed with a lot of interesting sounds that can come in handy!


According to the manual, it has 4 to 8 round robins for most instruments. I haven't used it much, because I just tried it out on a month long composer cloud subscription, but based on the numbers they're claiming, it doesn't seem like it's at all lacking in that department.


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## sumskilz

José Herring said:


> I have SD3 but took it out of my template. It's going back in. I never gave it a fair shake. I was disappointed after I got it that it didn't come with mic positions which to me is an odd oversight. But, it doesn't really appear to need any mic positions. It just sounds great.


It does have mic positions though, 5 of them. If I remember correctly, there is an icon on the mixer channel that you click on to access them all. By default, they're collapsed into one channel.


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## JyTy

The general problem I notice is that some people (not everybody, a lot of you here know what you are talking about, much more than me, so don't jump on me  ) that complain over libraries don't even dive deep into some of the libraries, or they are just echoing something they've read somewhere (but don't even have the library) or saying things like "It doesn't work like Kontakt so I will not even bother" or UI doesn't make sense without reading the manual  ... and this then sheds a bit of a bad light on some libraries that don't deserve it.

Stormdrum 3 is still an excellent Perc library, It has different mics, it has (some) RR patches and it has a lot of varied great sounding percussion/drum sets in there, I still think EW subscription is a steal for the money (EW people please ignore this, pricing is just fine! :D). But as always it all depends on what you need ... but it is good stuff!


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