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.
Pareidolia is inpsired by the human tendency to perceive patterns in everything, whether it's an animal in a cloud formation, a face in a wall outlet, or a religious figure on a piece of toast. The word pareidolia means "the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus."
This well-rounded, but lightweight pack includes:
- 18 new Sensory Percussion kits.
- 117 original samples
- 49 drum mappings that you can drag & drop into your working kits.
- Unique and classic drum machine sounds designed here at Sunhouse HQ to be brought to live with expressive Sensory Percussion mappings.
- Four chord progressions that are paradigmatic of previous Sunhouse chord progressions, and have a longer sustain than most chords from preceding packs. These are mapped to velocity-thresholded samplers.
- Sounds from ten bright melodic synth leads, keyboards, or pads that are mapped to extremely responsive melodic virtual drums with mind-bending patterns.
If you're a Sensory Percussionist, get the Pareidolia pack!
The Recording Process
The sounds of Pareidolia were generated entirely from electronic sources. The chords, melodic notes, and drum machine sounds were recorded at Sunhouse HQ in the late winter months of 2021, and early 2022.
Many of the sounds were created by melding and tweaking classic patches from a Roland JV 1080 and a Korg TR-Rack, but none of the sounds were generated exclusively from either module. Each sound was created by carefully blending patches, and then further editing the timbres and/or adding soft-synth timbres to the composite sound.
In many cases, the sounds were then sent through a vintage 1987 Realistic-Stereo Console for a little extra harmonic distortion.
The Kits
The Pareidolia set is arranged so that the two chord kits lead the pack, followed by the six expressive E-drum kits, then the melody-garden-arpeggiated-pattern-kits, and finally the four-voice harmonic kits.
Like all other kits in the Sunhouse Library, the Pareidolia kits are arranged such that:
Drum 1 is mostly snare drum sounds.
Drums 2 and 3 are mostly tom/percussion/hi-hat/cymbal/melodic/harmonic/chord-sequence/specialFX sounds.
Drum 4 is mostly kick sounds.
The Chord Kits: Pareidolia Chords and Hyrdra Chords
These two kits both have a velocity-thresholded chord progression mapped to Drum 3. Velocity-thresholded chord kits are a favorite of many Sensory Percussionists because they allow you to play percussive sounds quietly until you strike the drum hard to release a chord in the cycle.
The chord sequences for this pack were recorded so that they could be synced up like they are in these kits. If you play either the center or the edge of the chord drum, you will release a different chord, but it will always sound good in the sequence. In this way, you can change up the progression you are cycling through by simply striking the center or edge. The edge chords are less stable, often higher pitched variations of their center chord counterpart.
The Expressive E-Kits: Pareidolia Control, Parei E kit 1, Parei E kit 2, Parei Earthy Kit, Octodolia, OscarParei, and Mimetolith
These kits are made up of drum machine sounds that have been brought to life by a network of blends, timbre controllers, velocity controllers, envelope controllers, and speed controllers. These kits flex the power of Sensory Percussion to make virtual electronic drums that are as responsive as acoustic drums.
The Melody-Garden-Arpeggiated-Pattern Kits: Moon Rabbit Arp 1, Moon Rabbit Arp 2, Moon Rabbit Arp 3, Moon Rabbit Arp 4, Hydra Rabbit Arp, hydraDolia Arp, Parei Kick Cycle
These kits have pareidoliac melodic patterns blended and controlled across Drum 2 and/or Drum 3. In an expressive way that is only possible with Sensory Percussion, these arpeggiated melodic drums sing patterns that are modulated by the timbre, velocity, and speed of your playing.
The Four-Voice Harmony Kits: Dolia 4vc, Hydra 4v
These kinds of Four-Voice harmonic kits have become staples of Sunhouse packs. They work with a network of four independent melodic samplers, each with a scale controlled by timbre and low note samplers are velocity-thresholded. This allows you to get a chord if you strike the drum hard, but a melody on low velocity hits. The chord and/or melody changes depending on where you hit the drum.
