Library Spotlight - PercX

[Cory Pelizzari]

Check it out here: https://www.auddict.com/percx

 

[kelexys]

You're the first to point out some of the cons of this program Nice review! Is it possible to insert your own samples and play them with PercX?
What would you consider as an alternative, with the same kind of features and sound quality?

 

[Cory Pelizzari]

You're the first to point out some of the cons of this program Nice review! What would you consider as an alternative, with the same kind of features and sound quality?

When it comes to cinematic percussion I usually recommend things like Strikeforce and Apocalypse Percussion. You can check out my recommendations page on my site and see if you like the look of anything there:

RECOMMENDED LIBRARIES

This is the gallery for Kontakt instruments I recommend to composers. Only libraries featuring a specific style of instruments are featured here, not all-in-one collections or eclectic packages. ...

www.solonoidstudio.com

The closest thing will probably be Heavyocity's Master Sessions libraries (not much instrument content though), Sonuscore's Action Strikes, Audiobro's LA Drama Drums and my personal favourite, Damage (which nearly everyone uses).

 

[sostenuto]

When it comes to cinematic percussion I usually recommend things like Strikeforce and Apocalypse Percussion. You can check out my recommendations page on my site and see if you like the look of anything there:

RECOMMENDED LIBRARIES

This is the gallery for Kontakt instruments I recommend to composers. Only libraries featuring a specific style of instruments are featured here, not all-in-one collections or eclectic packages. ...

www.solonoidstudio.com

The closest thing will probably be Heavyocity's Master Sessions libraries (not much instrument content though), Sonuscore's Action Strikes, Audiobro's LA Drama Drums and my personal favourite, Damage (which nearly everyone uses).

Your review and this post are soooo helpful for pianist /organist (moi) ….. always struggling with Percussion needs and choices !!
Have LADD, StylusRMX, Damage, Action Strikes, Drum Fury, and could not sort PercX in terms of true addition, or duplication /overlap.
Personal perc naivete left me in doubt until your succinct video.
Many thanks for instructive help !

 

[jneebz]

Thanks for the review. Wonder if @Auddict would be willing to hop in to this thread and address some of the shortcomings you mention here.

 

[Cory Pelizzari]

Thanks for the review. Wonder if @Auddict would be willing to hop in to this thread and address some of the shortcomings you mention here.

I doubt Auddict would even consider improving on the shortcomings, considering it would require a whole new set of sampling sessions. Thus the limitations of using loops for sample sources.

 

[Nemoy]

Check it out here: https://www.auddict.com/percx

Thank you for covering this PercX library, Cory. I appreciate your thorough no-nonsense and honest input that really empowers consumers and hobbyists with real facts and information so that they can make informed decisions. It's getting harder to find actual coverage and real honest reviews that don't try to hide or leave out things (intentional or not). I applaud you for that and you have much of my respect. I for one don't have the kind of money to plunk down on just any library that may sound "good" and look innovative. Your coverage and detailed reviews are very helpful in this regard and I personally feel you are a great asset to the VI community here. So many devs market their product as being the best or groundbreaking upon release and only show you or talk about the highlights of the library and even edit their videos in such a way to circumnavigate you from seeing or hearing any shortcomings.

 

[kelexys]

Check it out here: https://www.auddict.com/percx

Would you buy it, at the reduced price for the moment, just for the sounds? Are they worth the $150?

 

[Cory Pelizzari]

Would you buy it, at the reduced price for the moment, just for the sounds? Are they worth the $150?

I did buy it, but just the $100 version and picked the Traditional volume for the expansion you get with the core version. If you don't mind spending an extra 50 bucks though I'd say go for it. There are some neat sounds in the other expansions.

 

[DarkestShadow]

You're my favorite reviewer for sure!
I'm also surprised that barely anyone else mentioned the inconsistent RR's and dynamics. Funny, lack of RR's seem to a trend with percussion libraries lately haha.
I personally am pretty happy with PercX (full) so far. Some really great sounds... I felt like my percussion arsenal was lacking and PercX rectified that for little cost for now. Also a good range... from traditional and organic to trailerish banging stuff (with some layering).
Except that one of the patches has a sluggish round robin, a note that always comes in a little bit too late - especially apparent when layering it with other tighter drums. Guess I'll just mail them about it. Should actually be easy to fix - just some silence in the beginning that needs to be removed.

 

[KarlHeinz]

Really impressive and helpful

 

[Cory Pelizzari]

Except that one of the patches has a sluggish round robin, a note that always comes in a little bit too late - especially apparent when layering it with other tighter drums.

You can tighten the note by dragging the little 'skip' rectangle to the left of the velocity images up for instruments that have pre-transients.

 

[kgdrum]

Thank you for posting this,a really interesting review!

 

[DarkestShadow]

You can tighten the note by dragging the little 'skip' rectangle to the left of the velocity images up for instruments that have pre-transients.

Oh great, thanks for the info!

 

[2chris]

Thanks for the solid review. I wasn’t interested in this and your review didn’t hurt it, but it certainly didn’t help it. I don’t understand developers on drum samples cutting corners on round robins. It’s simply the easiest type of instrument to get them for. It seems lazy to cut corners there.

If I’m using a loop rather than programming my own rhythm, I really like Regroover Pro. If allows you to pull sounds out almost like the loop is multitimbral. I’d imagine this library would benefit from its use.

 

[Cory Pelizzari]

Thanks for the solid review. I wasn’t interested in this and your review didn’t hurt it, but it certainly didn’t help it. I don’t understand developers on drum samples cutting corners on round robins. It’s simply the easiest type of instrument to get them for. It seems lazy to cut corners there.

If I’m using a loop rather than programming my own rhythm, I really like Regroover Pro. If allows you to pull sounds out almost like the loop is multitimbral. I’d imagine this library would benefit from its use.

Yeah some developers hit a point where they settle with "just good enough" to cover themselves if the library doesn't sell as well as they thought. There are some developers who'll go the extra mile just because they can and because they want the library to stand up to their own discrimination - some good examples are Julien Tauban from Loops de la Creme, Alex Wallbank from Cinematic Studio Series and James and Dan from Soniccouture just to name a few.

 

[2chris]

Yeah some developers hit a point where they settle with "just good enough" to cover themselves if the library doesn't sell as well as they thought. There are some developers who'll go the extra mile just because they can and because they want the library to stand up to their own discrimination - some good examples are Julien Tauban from Loops de la Creme, Alex Wallbank from Cinematic Studio Series and James and Dan from Soniccouture just to name a few.

I don’t know Loops de la Creme, but I’m a huge fan of Soniccouture and Cinematic Studio. We need people to be honest like you because as libraries become more expensive and so many devs are making them, many have no demo system or honest reviews. I can tell the review copy folks that play nice because they usually don’t have a consistent method of review, they don’t talk about how they use it in their work, and instead do quick play throughs focussing on positives. Even in being real, nothing you said is in any way offensive, but is instead a verifiable fact.

I think 8dio and Spitfire are the perfect examples of a company needing more reviews like yours. They make great stuff, and they make some meh stuff. It’s so hard to tell which will be which, or if where it’s a let down is only trivial to the point it’s hardly material. Soundiron is a company getting better and better, and I think the allure with them is how cheap many of their small libraries are. I kind of hope spitfire and orchestral tools goes down that route where we can get smaller $30-$200 type libraries that are excellent.

 

[Cory Pelizzari]

I don’t know Loops de la Creme, but I’m a huge fan of Soniccouture and Cinematic Studio. We need people to be honest like you because as libraries become more expensive and so many devs are making them, many have no demo system or honest reviews. I can tell the review copy folks that play nice because they usually don’t have a consistent method of review, they don’t talk about how they use it in their work, and instead do quick play throughs focussing on positives. Even in being real, nothing you said is in any way offensive, but is instead a verifiable fact.

I think 8dio and Spitfire are the perfect examples of a company needing more reviews like yours. They make great stuff, and they make some meh stuff. It’s so hard to tell which will be which, or if where it’s a let down is only trivial to the point it’s hardly material. Soundiron is a company getting better and better, and I think the allure with them is how cheap many of their small libraries are. I kind of hope spitfire and orchestral tools goes down that route where we can get smaller $30-$200 type libraries that are excellent.

The faults you mention are precisely why companies like 8Dio and Spitfire don't give me or content creators like me NFRs... They bank on pre-release marketing rather than practical reference and criticism. It's a general rule to rely on marketing and curated quotes rather than uncontrolled opinion and example when it comes to being a "company" that has "consumers" rather than a developer that has tools.

I'm not very vocal about this particular subject (right now... but I have a video planned) but I am 100% dead against pre-orders for sample libraries and I don't tolerate it in the slightest. It's where "customers" become "consumers" to the devs and/or marketing team and it's straight up capitalism and I'm not afraid to say it. Which makes me all the more grateful for respectable devs who put out composer tools with no strings or hype attached.

 

[AndyP]

It's where "customers" become "consumers" to the devs and/or marketing team and it's straight up capitalism and I'm not afraid to say it. Which makes me all the more grateful for respectable devs who put out composer tools with no strings or hype attached.

Thx, best explanation I`ve heard so far!

 

[2chris]

The faults you mention are precisely why companies like 8Dio and Spitfire don't give me or content creators like me NFRs... They bank on pre-release marketing rather than practical reference and criticism. It's a general rule to rely on marketing and curated quotes rather than uncontrolled opinion and example when it comes to being a "company" that has "consumers" rather than a developer that has tools.

I'm not very vocal about this particular subject (right now... but I have a video planned) but I am 100% dead against pre-orders for sample libraries and I don't tolerate it in the slightest. It's where "customers" become "consumers" to the devs and/or marketing team and it's straight up capitalism and I'm not afraid to say it. Which makes me all the more grateful for respectable devs who put out composer tools with no strings or hype attached.

I think you're correct, this is beyond passion projects - these are large businesses embracing consumerism and the dream of being a creative as a job. We do need devs like Spitfire, OT, Heavyocity, 8DIO, etc because they are the ones really pushing the envelope. There aren't a line of Alex Wallbank type people that can take on huge companies by hitting above their weight.

Spitfire at least has people like Christen Henson (and others) driving their own community with interesting content and ideas beyond merely selling products. The interviews they've done have been excellent, and I've learned a lot from people they have interviewed. While it definitely helps sales (it's absolutely marketing to their products and credibility), I think part of that is genuine - and it does provide value to the community. Yes, there are independent companies that push things forward, and often provide better value, but rarely better overall quality on a whole, and if it is better, it's usually doing a small number of things better. These big name libraries like BBC, HZ, JXL, etc are a symptom of the project based nature of coming up with cues on a time-line. If you're making money, and a library is rough around the edges in places - do you really care that much if that library helped you solve a problem?

The tougher part is the hobbyist or new person trying to break into the industry who is getting pushed out to some degree by larger developers budgets blowing up, and being forced to take risks on what to buy when the stakes are high. That's where your reviews are super helpful. I think pre-orders are more a symptom of the market than the developers themselves. The fact that people line up to pre-order tells you what you need to know. They feel the products fall into a certain range of quality that the consumer is willing to forgo the risk for a discount. I think the discount is the key, because without an incentive, who is really doing a pre-order? It's not like they are running out of product.

There was a funny thread within Spitfire BBC talking about a sample tail mistake where you could hearing singing. For the amount of recording time Paul Thompson quoted (which I believe), it would be a full time job for roughly four people just to review and trim samples for quality control for 6 months+. They needed pre-orders for overhead, because to do what they are doing, you have to feed the beast. To work with HZ? To put out so many walkthroughs and new products. To have OT work with JXL? This trend will only get worse as the content gets more expensive and elaborate to the point the "consumer" expects more and more with each release. It will be a good topic to discuss, because I think it's going to intensify in the industry rather than just be a handful of huge companies using such aggressive sales tactics.

 

[Sample Fuel]

As a composer and developer I have no problems pointing out good products regardless if they compete with something we make or not.....we don't have any percussion instruments but as a composer I think this is a very useful great sounding instrument as an addition to what I already have...which is many of the libraries already mentioned in other posts.

This would not be my recommendation as your only percussion library but I find it a great addition....quick and easy to use and sounds great....priced reasonable especially on sale. The review is fairly positive but I think the developer deserves some positive remarks since this was obviously a lot of work in a saturated area and in the end it is a good tool to add to my arsenal. This isn't a must have but a thumbs up is deserved.