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Another quest for recommendations for orchestral percussion library.

What do you mean by portamento in the context of timpani? Are you referring to the pitch fluctuation that one gets from rolling to different points of the head and/or adjusting pressure?
 
What do you mean by portamento in the context of timpani? Are you referring to the pitch fluctuation that one gets from rolling to different points of the head and/or adjusting pressure?


it's an effect created by pressing down on the head to increase tension(thus the pitch)

you can do that with almost any drum head
 
I still want to believe it's a mic + software for easy creation (and distribution) of your own samples.
Something like izotope spire but with a whole software backend behind it.
Continuing from there they will delve into the hardware realm.

Give me Henson signature midi faders just for the giggles. Do it.
 
In the context of timpani it's simply changing the tuning of the drum with the pedal.

100% honest I had no idea timpani's had pedals, just assumed it's the same trick drummers use by for instance pressing on a snare drum with 1 hand to raise the pitch. Just like if you over-clamp a hi hat it does a "pitch bend". Drummer's perspective, I know very little about how orchestral percussion is performed outside of what it looks like on video haha
 
Just picked up Cinesample's Cineperc complete yesterday on sale for $419, down from regular price of $699. It's been around for some time but still a fantastic offering. There is so much great content. The Timps are superb. 100 GB download. Absolutely worth the price.
 
I didn't realize Cineperc is so big! I'm happy with what I've got so don't need more, but this might be a good option for someone who doesn't yet have coverage. Is it also strong on chromatic percussion? I seem to recall they have separate libraries for some of that stuff.
 
I still haven't figured out that series, but I have had less and less time for lengthy investigations of curious products as the year has progressed. I have yet to figure out how to get an adequate number of articulations in that series, or how to dial out the cavernous ambience that seems stuck in place even when I think I've defeated the reverb.

I have just assumed that I haven't had proper time to study them in depth yet. But it does make me wonder if I did the right thing in spending the extra bucks to upgrade all the way to the new uber collection for Komplete this time around. Maybe I'll eventually have an "aha" moment and then move it into my main template.
 
I didn't realize Cineperc is so big! I'm happy with what I've got so don't need more, but this might be a good option for someone who doesn't yet have coverage. Is it also strong on chromatic percussion? I seem to recall they have separate libraries for some of that stuff.
It does have a decent amount for chromatic percussion including glocks, tubular bells, chimes, gongs, concert cymbals, etc. I have other libraries such as Soniccouture's Grand Marimba and Orange Tree Vibraphone (more on the jazz side), but Cinesamples does a great job with so many categories it's hard to remember what's in it. Seriously, it's an amazing amount of great sounding content. There are also ethnic drums included but I have that covered with dedicated libraries.
 

Much more extensive than I realized, after clicking on each category tab for full content listings. Possibly the most comprehensive percussion library on the market.

I somehow had missed this product before, not realizing (as it is marketed as a bundle of four products) that it is different from CineLegacy Percussion.

There's enough in here that it bears my review (but not in the middle of trying to buy a home!). I have substandard offerings for quite a few percussion instruments -- especially the disappointing SampleTank 4 MAX (whose miking choices I disagree with strongly).
 
As always, the answer isn't necessarily another library. That seems to be a basic theme of my posts recently, whether it's a library, a computer, a plug-in...

1. You can get a very good timp gliss with old-fashioned pitchbend. Actually, that's probably the single thing pitchbend does most realistically.

2. EQ and exciters can do a *lot* for percussion (among other instruments, but we're talking about percussion).

Recently I needed an orchestral-ish snare - that is, one that had the close-up brightness of a drumset snare but the subtlety of an orchestral one. They all sounded too dark except the one in Vir2 Elite Orchestral Percussion, which also "plays" really well from my BopPad perc controller... but it has a small room sound that wasn't working for me.

Okay, I'll admit that the first thing I reached for is an exotic plug-in: Zynaptic Unveil, an amazing de-reverbing plug-in. It does the job very well, but the nature of its process is that it has a lot of latency, i.e. it's a post-production processor intended for clean-up rather than a real-time snare-with-room-I-don't-like remover.

But ignore that. What I ended up using is VSL's magnificent exciter on another snare. I don't even remember which one it was - the point is that the exciter totally transformed it. You can do the same sort of thing with EQ.
 
Nick, what do you use for pitch bend? I have always found the ones on keyboards to be ergonomically poor in terms of tactile feedback and fine resolution, but the one on my Minimoog Voyager is better than most. This might be an odd application for a Wind Controller (or for some, a Breath Controller)? It never occurred to me to try my Yamaha WX5 on Timpani!

Zynaptic Unveil is an awesome tool. Believe it or not, I have found it useful for removing unwanted club ambience and resonance from quick-and-dirty live two-mic Zoom recordings of my jazz combo's gigs! I should try it on some of my overly-wet libraries.

I have VSL's Vienna Suite and am surprised how little-known these plug-ins are. Ever since they were first released, they have been my primary go-to's for most basic tasks, and the Exciter is a hidden gem in that suite as it doesn't seem as artifact-prone as most in that category. I upgraded to the Pro version of the suite when it became available.

I guess I need to get more in the habit of using some of these tools during the initial creative phase as it can affect choices and usability of sound sources, vs. thinking of them strictly as mix-level production tools.
 
I use the pitch bend on my Kurzweil K2500, Mark, although to be honest it's not something I use all that often. But I also have an EWI, which has a pitch plate, so why not?

We're kindred souls when it comes to Vienna Suite, especially the exciter, which is the most transparent one I've used. I used Zynaptic to remove glass walls and a hard desk from an interview in a conference room. It worked spectacularly well.
 
You know, I've never really stopped to ask whether the pitch wheel is ergonomic - for one because I don't use it all that often, but mainly because I set the bend range if necessary.

It's a spring-loaded wheel, not particularly hard to control, not really any different from the one on my Yamaha VL1 keyboard or old Kurzweil K250.

I can count the number of times I've done a timp gliss with it on my nose.
 
Haha, that's funny. I used to have Kurzweil keys and they did have better-than-average controllers plus an awesome width-of-keyboard ribbon strip. But yeah, timpani glissandos aren't something you'd use as often, as, say, melodic downward or upwards chromatic Orchestra Hit. 🤣
 
Yeah, the big ribbon controller is cool. The little one is hard to control, although its pressure sensing is useful.
 
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