Introducing Sensory Percussion 2.2

May 14, 2024

news

Sensory Percussion 2.2 is out now. There’s a lot that’s new under the hood, plus plenty of tweaks that make working in SP quicker and easier. Watch the rundown video to see all the new features/improvements in action, and then read on for more detailed descriptions of each one.

Hit Detection 2.0

A screenshot of the training page with new parameters

This update brings some major improvements to our underlying hit detection and tracking algorithms. This is the secret sauce of Sensory Percussion that's able to detect and track your playing to control up to 10 zones with a single sensor. This update brings big improvements to dynamic feel and sensitivity -- buzz rolls and ghost notes feel better and you’re able to better access the full dynamic range of your drums. As an added bonus, these changes bring big improvements to dealing with cross-talk between drums.

Additionally, we added some new controls to the training page so you can really dial in your particular setup. What’s new? You can now give the Input Gain a boost, which can be useful if for whatever reason your setup is not quite getting enough signal into the software. You can also now adjust the gain balance between the rims and head of your drum so you can get the velocity feel back to normal. This is particularly useful if you're using rubber on your rims to make them less noisy.

Sensory Percussion 2 VST for Ableton

A screenshot of the Sensory Percussion 2 plugin inside of Ableton

Perhaps the biggest new feature of 2.2 is the inclusion of the Sensory Percussion 2 Plugin. This VST3 plugin is tuned for Ableton Live, which has the most flexibility for plugin inputs (allowing access to all the EVANS Portal’s inputs), but it’s also possible to use up two sensors in other DAWs.

The plugin also comes with an Ableton Live Template file, which makes recording and editing the output of Sensory Percussion 2 a breeze. The biggest game-changer in terms of recording is that the plugin allows you to change the sounds you're controlling as many times as you like AFTER you've already recorded your take. The process goes like this:

Record your performance
Run the performance through the Sensory Percussion 2 plugin to trigger your sounds (you can record the output while you play)
Go back into the plugin, change your sounds as drastically as you like
Run the same performance back through and record a totally new output track

Multi-band EQ Effect Module

An image of with colorful yellow and blue gradients with the text 2.2

We know, it’s long overdue. But we wanted to make sure we got this right. And we think we did! This new MBEQ unit has up to 8 filter bands that are fully customizable with assignable parameters. Which means you can do things like assigning velocity to control the “Q” ratio of a specific filter band with your playing.

MBEQ opens up new sound design possibilities, like making assignments on the resonance of a specific filter band. This example uses a speed assignment, so the faster you play, the wider the affected frequency.

Modulate Your Modulation

You can now drag a modulator onto a parameter of another modulator. In this example, a velocity modulator is dragged onto the rate of an LFO modulator, which is moving the pitch of a module up and down a given scale. The harder you hit, the faster it oscillates!

This one is for all the modular synth heads out there. Modulators are objects that you can drop onto a parameter in order to control that parameter. You may have noticed that modulators have their own parameters, but these unfortunately aren't assignable...until now that is! That's right; you can now modulate your modulation, which opens the door to a lot of exciting sound design possibilities.

Collect & Save

This is a new option in the File menu that’s super helpful if you want to send someone a session that contains samples from outside of the Sensory Percussion library. Choosing “Collect and Save session…” from the file menu will automatically create a folder that contains your .sp2 and your samples/images. Share this folder with someone and they’ll be able to open the session and play your sounds right away!

Now that’s nice

2.2 has a bunch of smaller improvements that just make using Sensory Percussion easier and more fun.

A new look for collapsed layers

A screenshot of a collapsed layer with the new controls visible

We took some time to make collapsed layers more useful. Instead of just showing you the title of the layer, you can now adjust the volume, change filters, or mute the layer. Small AND useful.

Add modules

You can now access all the available modules directly from the submodules section of any module or from the blank layer area. This provides a big workflow speed boost.

App Scaling

A screenshot showing the same set at two different zoom levels: one at 50% and one at 150%

You can now adjust the zoom/density of the app from the settings page. So if you’re connecting your computer to a 4k monitor, you can zoom in to actually see the details of your set. Or if you have a 12-inch laptop, you can zoom out to see more than half a layer.

Group/Ungroup

This new keyboard shortcut (⌘-G/shift-⌘-G) and right-click option lets you quickly group objects in a controller or un-group them. Un-grouping essentially removes a module from anywhere in your layer while keeping everything above and below it in tact. Another workflow win.

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