Sensory Percussion 2 is here and with it, a new library of sounds and preset kits ready for you to play, explore, and create with.
But what exactly is the Core Sound Library?
It's the sounds and sets that are included with Sensory Percussion right out of the box (no extra download or additional install required). It consists of six packs of 128 sets and 2,747 raw samples across a range of genres and instruments.
The Core Library is ever-evoling; we plan on addubg bew sets (as well as improvements to older sets) with each update to the software.
The Packs
The Sensory Percussion 2 library was designed with this goal in mind: upgrade the best 50 kits from Sensory Percussion V1 and then build approximately 50 all new kits/sets from scratch. So that's what you'll find in the V2 library. The 100+ sets are separated into these six packs:
Acoustic Drums - The most responsive acoustic drum presets ever produced, this pack contains highly detailed sets built from meticulously sampled acoustic drums, cymbals, and percussion instruments.
Chord Sequences - 20 sets of immersive chord progressions with unique, but easy-to-use timbre controls. The pack consists of mostly velocity-thresholded progressions, but includes some sets that make use of other means of sonic control.
Electric Drum Kits - What if E-Drums were as responsive as acoustic drums? With an intuitive network of timbre & velocity assignments combined with some classic Sensory Percussion blends, these sets are just that!
Electro Melodic - Sensory Percussion allows the drummer to expand beyond the limited role of timekeeper and into the realm of tonality. From lush synth swells to pitchy plucks, these sets take full advantage of our tonal controls, creating melody and harmony that respond to the nuances of your playing
Patterns - Sequences inside of sequences inside of sequences, these sets' embedded patterns can be unlocked by your playing. Create complex patterns and interesting polymeters simply by playing the drums steadily. Or you can break free from pre-ordained patterns by inserting your own rhythmic ideas!
Worldly Sounds - Kitchen sounds, coins, keys, crunchy, earthy delights! The sets in this pack bring these sounds to life. With this pack, we're reclaiming the term “world music” to mean any sound from planet earth (which is pretty much all of the sounds).
The Sets
The kits in V1 were limited to 4 fixed drum channels, two send channels, and a main channel. But even with those limitations, there was a lot you could build with Sensory V1, as V1 users can vouch! But with the new paradigm of Sensory Percussion 2, though, there are no channel limitations, which means you can build vast sets and organize them however you want.
The sets in the Core Library are typically built to be controlled by 3-7 virtual inputs (powered by your sensors) and then there are several audio bus layers in every Core Library preset.
The Play Pages
Sensory Percussion 2 allows you to create “top level” macros, which are visible in the Play View and are ways to quickly manipulate your sounds with either: mouse clicks, Sensory Percussion assignments (i.e., timbre, velocity, speed, envelope, LFO), or MIDI input.
You'll notice these Play view macros follow a pattern in Core Library sets, and this is to maintain continuity between sets in the Core Library. With some exception, the top level macros are arranged in this order:
Squash(knob) - Controls “Threshold,” “Ratio,” “Makeup,” and “Dry/wet” parameters of compressors mapped to each layer of the set, creating a pumping, squashy sound. Delay (knob) - Controls a send to a delay audio bus layer (the kind of delay varies from set to set) Disto (knob) - Controls a send to a distortion/fuzz audio bus layer Reverb (knob) - Controls a send to a reverb audio bus layer (the kind of reverb chamber varies from set to set) Mods (knob) - Controls a send to a modulation FX audio bus layer (chorus, flanger, or phaser, depending on the set) NY Compression (knob) - Controls a send to a parallel compression audio bus layer (with an EQ attenuating the midrange frequencies). reset FX (button) - Resets all of the set level macros to their default value.
After those standardized macros, there are often set specific macros that include useful controls.
The Samples
The sets and samples are royalty free, which means that you can use them onstage and in your recordings: you just can't release them as part of a sound pack.
The samples were almost all recorded in-house at Sunhouse HQ and carefully crafted for use specifically in Sensory Percussion V1 and V2 presets. You can drag and drop them from the Library panel directly onto the edit page.
The samples are organized into the following top-level folders in the build/samples tab of the library panel:
Drum Machines - One-shot drum hits from classic drum machines. These sounds provide the raw material for much of the Electric Drum Kits pack. Big booming kicks, 808-style snares, Linn Drum claps, and all kinds of snaps and hats.
Percussion Section - Drum hits from acoustic drum sources: marching drums, kicks, snares, toms, hi-hats, cymbals, hand drums, you name it! The sub-folder titled “Detailed” contains the raw samples that make up the Acoustic Drums presets. Feel free to check it out, but be warned there are A LOT of detailed samples and sub-folders in there, and you might be better off dragging and dropping pre-mapped drum pad controllers from the Acoustic Drums pack in the library.
Tonal Instruments - A vast array of tonal samples for you to control harmonically and melodically with Sensory Percussion (those pair perfectly with the note controller). There's a huge variety of sound sources in this folder. Electric keys, synths, violin plucks, oud sounds, harp, and flute, just to name a few. It's a truly eclectic collection of tonal goodness.
Worldly Sounds - Found sounds from the world: coins, keys, typewriter clacks, kitchen sounds, ice sounds, shovels into earth, rocks on branches. World music from the actual world.
The goal of the Sensory Percussion 2 Core Sound Library is to provide you with a useful tool-kit for artistic expression, with every component accessible in just a few clicks. Whether you're playing the presets, mixing and matching layers, or building new sets from raw samples, the Core Library packs are there to help you on your musical journey.
