Skip to content
AudioNewsRoom – ANR AudioNewsRoom – ANR

AudioNewsRoom (ANR) is a music technology blog with news, reviews and exclusive interviews.

  • About
  • SW Reviews
  • HW Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Advertise
  • Contact us
AudioNewsRoom – ANR
AudioNewsRoom – ANR

AudioNewsRoom (ANR) is a music technology blog with news, reviews and exclusive interviews.

Percussion Swarm Review – Textural Percussions From Spitfire Audio

Andy Dollerson, May 21, 2020May 24, 2020


This Spitfire Audio library is a partner with the other Swarm libraries, (mandolin, harp, marimba, and orchestral). They are primarily textural libraries, creating long, slow, pointillistic pad-type textures, and this one is no exception.

It’s a big old library of almost 60gb of quality percussion samples recorded at Air Studios. I’m not sure how many percussionists were hired for the gig, but it looks like they recorded three at once, and they drew from a stable of experts in the field, with decades of film/tv sessions between them.

A simple alphabet list of instruments pops up in your Kontakt browser when you open the library. The selection is mainly tuned percussion from your western orchestral tuned percussion (Glock, Xylophone, Marimba), through other cultures (Kalimba, Angklung) to more contemporary tuned percussive sounds (glass glockenspiels and handbell carousel). The element that gives this library a unique take on percussive sound, is the techniques the players used to record the sounds. With the years of experience sessioning film music, they know some unusual methods to create ear-catching timbres. They applied some of these to the library to great effect. A plethora of different sticks, soft, hard, short, metal, wood, Also bows and fingers all add up to some great patches. There are some untuned hand percussion patches in there, to complement the tuned instruments.

Within each instrument is a smattering of articulations set up in the usual Spitfire Orchestral GUI template. They represent three different overarching’ styles’ of articulation – each instrument having varying versions of the style with various techniques used depending on the instrument. The three overall styles are – ‘Cloud,” Swarm’ and’ Short’. Cloud is an arrhythmic pointillistic repetition of the played notes. Swarm is slightly less pointillistic, and with a clear swell to the sound. Short is, as you guessed, short single hits, somewhat loosely hit between the three players.

There is a fourth sonic option in the library, which is based on their Mercury synth engine, and takes the original samples and processes them digitally into more electronic sounds with organic elements. Some lovely granular pads and drawn-out drum sounds in this folder. I love the hybrid blend of acoustic and digital, and pads like these bring so much life to electronic music.

There is a deep stereo image and depth component to this library, with a TON of different mic positions. Plus, there’s a close panning folder, which gives each instrument further mix placement options, where you can zoom up close to one of the original players and have their particular playing style be upfront in the mix.

The sounds are as ever, gorgeously recorded by Spitfire’s team. Couldn’t find any issues in this library. Quite a few of the articulations are quite quiet – some of them are fingers drumming on a surface. I was pleased to hear no noise level in these recordings, and you can turn them up quite a way with no issues.

Conclusion

This is a great little library, and, with its fairly calm overall demeanour, it is a good contrasting companion for something like the epic Hans Zimmer Percussion library. Swarm percussion focuses on tuned percussion, but there are some unique untuned drums in there too. There are a lot of chimes, bells, metals, and tonal woods from all different cultures from standard western orchestral instruments such as glockenspiels, marimbas, xylophones, to the more exotic kalimbas, Angklungs, Damarus, Rammanas.

The tonal and timbral range in this library is impressive. The instrumentation combined with the playing techniques make for unusual sounds that stick out to the ear. The combination of instruments and technique make for very organic sounding textures. For someone wanting ear-catching textures this library is well worth the look.

Percussion Swarm is available for $349 and more info here.


DISCLOSURE: Our posts may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we receive a commission.


YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

software reviews cinematicfilm composerKontaktLibrarypercussionPercussion Swarm reviewpercussionssamplessound-designSpitfire Audio

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Our Picks

Vermona synths, fx and Eurorack modules

Follow Us On

Instagram YouTube Twitter Facebook

Recent Posts

  • Keystep Pro Chroma New from ArturiaNew Arturia Keystep Pro Chroma Plus Big Firmware Update
  • iRig Stream Mic Pro Review: A Versatile One-Stop Solution
  • PlugSearch 3: The Ultimate Tool To Search Plugins In Logic Pro?
  • Chase Bliss Lossy pedalNew Chase Bliss Lossy Pedal: Imperfect Digital Nostalgia
  • Teenage Engineering’s EP-133 K.O. II: A Compelling Coming-Of-Age Pocket Operator
©2023 AudioNewsRoom – ANR | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT