This blog post is about Sensory Percussion version 1 and does not apply to the latest version 2 software included in the EVANS Hybrid Sensory Percussion bundle.
All of the videos embedded in this article are performed on mesh drums heads, and all of the sounds come directly from Sensory Percussion (no sound from room mics).
Realistic Kits in Sensory Percussion
Sensory Percussion's unique and unprecedented method of timbre identification makes it a revolutionary technological advancement in acoustic drum replication. It's the only system that allows for a one-to-one relationship between your physical drum (mesh or acoustic) and a virtual drum in the software. Sensory Percussion also covers the widest possible range of gestures, from rim shots, cross sticks, to even stick shots and the shell of the drum. Something no other system is capable of.
This level of fidelity means when you play quiet hits on the edge of your physical drum head, Sensory Percussion will trigger the edge pad which is set up to trigger low velocity samples from the edge of a virtual drum. If you slam a rimshot on the center, Sensory Percussion will trigger the rimshot-center pad which will play one of the highest velocity samples of a virtual drum.
The result is an electronic drum that actually plays like real acoustic drums. In every sense.
If you are a Sensory Percussionist, go download the collections from the Sunhouse Downloads page for free! You won't need to install any of the other packs for the collections to link properly to the right samples - the installers have all of the necessary samples (but won't duplicate any samples you might already have).
Gathering all the kits
Did you know that the Sensory Percussion sound library contains over 80 of these extremely realistic kits, each mapped with hundreds of samples?
Up till now, these detailed kits were scattered across our 17 sound packs. But with the release of Acoustic Collection 1 and 2, we've put them all in one place, ready to be dragged and dropped into your working kits and sets.
And with these collections we took the opportunity to update some of the older acoustic kits to take advantage of new features in the software. So they both sound and feel even more realistic!
These collections will be updated with the release of any new packs that contain acoustic kits.
The Kits
The realistic kits from different packs throughout our library are included in their original form as the first kits in each collection. They are:
Acoustic Collection 1
- sol seco
- sol seco 2
- Radical Fright
- Power Consortium
- crisp apples
- Serotonin Famine
- Eidolon Age
- Denbora
- primordial denbora
- Ganzfeld Acoustic
- C&C Kit 1
- C&C Damped
- Primordial Sol Acoustic
- Sol Denbora Acoustic
- Brass Ganz Acoustic
Acoustic Collection 2
- doubleDrums1
- doubleDrums2
- Black Cat Cymbals
- Cassette Cat
- Black Cat Congas
- field kit
- bronze disease
- green of grey
- Fungicide
- C&C Cassette
- Field Wobbly Acoustic
And the individual drums that make up those kits are categorized in kits labeled by instrument type (for you to drag & drop into new kits of your design).
Collection 1 includes all of the realistic kits from the packs: Sol Seco, Primordial Breakbeat, and Ganzfeld Effect. Collection 2 includes all of the realistic kits from the packs: Black Cat and Gordian Plexus.
Collection 1:
15 snares
- PB Snare 1
- PB Snare 2
- PB Snare 1 damped
- PB Snare 1b
- PB Snares Off
- PB Snare 2 damped
- Denbora Snare
- ganzfeld snare
- sol seco snare
- sol seco muted brass snare
- Sol Seco Damped Snare
- damped muted brass
- sol seco brass snare
- CC Snare Kit 1
- CC Snare Damped
12 toms
- sol seco rack
- sol seco floor
- PB Tom 1
- PB Vibey Tom
- PB DistoPhaz Tom
- Denbora Floor 1
- ganzfeld soft floor
- ganzfeld floor
- CC Rack Kit 1
- CC Floor Kit 1
- CC Rack Damped
- CC Floor Damped
12 kicks
- sol seco kick
- sol seco pitched kick
- PB Kick
- PB Kick Closed
- PB Kick 2
- PB Kick 2 Open
- Denbora Kick
- ganzfeld kick
- CC Kick Kit 1
- CC Kick Damped
- CC Kick Kit pitched
- CC Kick Damped pitched
8 hi-hats & cymbals
- PB Hi-Hat Tight
- PB hat
- PB FX Hi-Hat
- Denbora Hat
- PB Delay Hat
- PB hat pitched
- PB Ride
- PB Ride-pitched
Collection 2:
12 snares
- black cat snare 1
- Cassette Snare
- Cassette Snare Damped
- black cat damped snare
- field snare
- verdigris snare
- verdigris snare-hot-rods
- verdigris damped hot rods
- damped verdigris
- CC Cassette snare
- double snare 1
- double snare 2
6 toms
- black cat tom
- black cat FX tom
- Field FX Tom
- CC Cassette floor
- double tom
- double tom-pitched
7 kicks
- black cat kick
- Cassette Cat Kick
- verdigris tom kick
- verdigris floor kick
- CC Cassette Kick
- double kick
- double kick pitched
9 hi-hats & cymbals
- Black Cat hi-hat
- Black Cat loose hi-hat
- black cat ride
- black cat ride FX
- verdigris hi-hat-1
- verdigris_hi-hat-2
- Cassette HH
- double hat
- double hat pitched
The Recording Process
Over the years we have devised and standardized a method for making these virtual drums as accurate as possible. The process starts with a recording session where we mic up a great sounding drum or cymbal.
We then record at least three velocities with five or more hits per velocity per gesture.
For snares and toms the gestures are: Center, Edge, Rimshot Center, Rimshot Edge, Damped, Cross stick, Stick shot, Rim tip, Rim shoulder, and (sometimes) Shell. For kick drums the gestures are: Open, Closed, Rim tip, Rim shoulder, and (sometimes) Shell and Hardware. For cymbals/hi-hat those are often: Bell stick tip, Bell stick shoulder, inner bow, outer bow, edge stick shoulder, and edge stick shaft.
So the center zone of a virtual drum might have samples titled as follows:
snare_center_v1-1.wav, snare_center_v1-2.wav, snare_center_v1-3.wav, snare_center_v1-4.wav, snare_center_v1-5.wav, snare_center_v2-1.wav, snare_center_v2-2.wav, snare_center_v2-3.wav, snare_center_v2-4.wav, snare_center_v2-5.wav, snare_center_v3-1.wav, snare_center_v3-2.wav, snare_center_v3-3.wav, snare_center_v3-4.wav, snare_center_v3-5.wav.
The “V” stands for velocity (1 is low and 3 is high), and every other active zone will have a similar list of samples. As you can, we quickly get into the hundreds of samples for each drum!
Building the drums/kits
After the samples have been recorded and edited, we drop them into three different samplers (depending on their recorded velocity level).
The first sampler contains low velocity samples and the velocity I/O is set so that it only responds to very low velocity hits -- the sampler is set to “random” playback and its entire purpose is to randomize buzz rolls, so that when you buzz it doesn't hang on one sample and sound unnatural like a machine gun.
The second sampler contains all of the samples organized from lowest velocity to highest velocity - it responds to quiet, medium, and loud velocity hits (linearly due to a velocity controller assigned to the sample playback control).
The third sampler contains only high velocity samplers and is setup to only respond to very high velocity hits -- the sampler is randomized and its purpose is to randomize your highest velocity hits so that you don't trigger the same sample every single time you hit the drum at maximum velocity.
For drums we preserved the one-to-one relationship between timbral gestures (e.g., stick-shots on your sensored drum trigger stick-shots in the software). But for cymbals/hi-hats we picked the most sensible gesture. Center/edge hits on your sensored drum often trigger hits on the inner/outer bow of the cymbal while rimshots may trigger crashes or loose hi-hat sounds, and hits on the rim may trigger cymbal bell sounds.
More Acoustic Drums and More Collections
Be sure to tag us on social media with anything you create using these realistic virtual instruments! These collections will be updated whenever we release new realistic drum set instruments (and we will be soon!). Also keep an eye out for our upcoming Hand Drum virtual instrument collection.
