Timbale/Latin Percussion Virtual Instrument Recommendation

[pacificm]

I'm interested in obtaining a good virtual instrument plug-in for Timbale/Latin Percussion instruments.

Please let me know if you have any recommendations of a good plug-in for these instruments.

Thank you!

[mikehalloran]

UVI Percussion Store has only one set of timbales but has about 150 other percussion instruments.

http://www.uvi.net/en/drums-percussion/ ... store.html

Here's the list

http://cdn.waycom.net/media/universsons ... preset.pdf

UVI has a free sample player or you can open it in MachFive if you have it.

[rnappi]

HandHeldSound's Flyinghand Percussion is nice:
http://handheldsound.com/instruments/fhp/

rich

[mhschmieder]

I just bought the UVI product last night using a loyalty voucher, and the audio demos sound great, as well as some cherry-picked single-hit trials last night after installation.

I had ignored this product in the past, as it is listed as a sound series volume, so I had assumed it was redundant for owners of MachFive and/or Ethno. But after downloading its user manual, I noticed that there's a LOT in it that isn't covered elsewhere, even if possibly SOME of its content was borrowed for some more generalized collections.

Other than that, I have a lot of latin percussion as it's one of my areas of special interest in composing and arranging, but so far I keep coming back to BFD's Percussion add-on, which I spent a considerable amount of time tweaking for ideal pitch, resonance, etc.

The UVI library also has timbalitos, which are only found elsewhere in MOTU Ethno so may have drawn from the UVI Percussion Store given the rarity of the smaller timbales in sampling libraries.

According to my annotation of sound sources, the following libraries have timbales, but I have to throw out the caveat that I am so happy with BFD that I haven't spent much time (if any, in some cases) comparing them and thus also don't even remember if some of them were Xmas freebies:

Orange Tree Samples Timbales
Addictive Drums: Session Percussion
Vir2 World Impact Percussion
Flying Hand Percussion
BFD Percussion
Vir2 Elite Orchestral Percussion
Native Instruments Cuba (part of Komplete)
Quantum Leap Stormdrum
MOTU Ethno
Kontakt Factory Library: World Percussion

As for Latin Percussion in general, that is WAY too broad of a topic to cover lightly, without more details. For instance, the Brasilians have their own instruments that are used almost nowhere else and which until recently had hardly been sampled.

I have an extensive sound source annotation document that I have kept up-to-date for over a decade now. When I have the chance, I even list the libraries in rough descending order of quality or utility, but of course sometimes this is a contextual decision vs. an absolute.

[pacificm]

Thanks for your great reply. I currently am using Spectrasonics RMX https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/stylusrmx.php. I was also considering SONiVOX Afrocuban Percussion http://sonivoxmi.com/products/details/a ... patibility. Any thoughts on how these measure up in comparison to the ones you mentioned?

[mhschmieder]

Not even in the same ballpark. Very crude and lo-fi; they sound like what you'd get on a hardware ROMpler. Well, I can't say about the RMX as I have never gotten around to doing much with that product as it is primarily audio loop based and I really don't work that way. But based on the content provider, I suspect it too is mid-90's vintage and derived from an old Akai hardware sample library.

[mhschmieder]

Another thing to be aware of is the number of available articulations, if you really want a realistic sound beyond just a couple of slap tones or hits.

With timbales, congas, and bongos, don't forget that each has its "preferred" size of cowbell to go with it. You'll even hear some cowbells referred to as "bongo bell", "salsa bell", etc.

I put together specific BFD presets that match the proper bell to the kit, with separate presets for congas, bongos, and timbales.

Don't forget that latin drums that are almost always paired (vs. congas and others that more often come in 3's, 4',s, or even 5's), use the terminology "hembra" and "macho", which (counter-intuitively for some) refer respectively to the larger and the smaller of the two heads. The higher pitch one is more assertive and I guess thus considered more masculine?

[Tonio]

With timbales, congas, and bongos, don't forget that each has its "preferred" size of cowbell to go with it. You'll even hear some cowbells referred to as "bongo bell", "salsa bell", etc.

Depends on the rhythm style/type too- if going for traditional performance

[guitardood]

I've been using Toontrack's Latin Percussion EZX and think it is pretty cool. Works in Superior and EzDrummer.

https://www.toontrack.com/product/latin-percussion-ezx/

[pacificm]

I'm interested in finding out more about the Toontrack EZ Drummer 2 Latin Percussion pack. I'm wondering how the quality of the sounds in this Latin Percussion pack measure up to those in the other packages mentioned above.

Are the Toontrack latin percussion samples on parr with the others mentioned above - about the same - better or not as good? Any feedback on the quality of the sound samples?

I'm interested in knowing if there are qualitative differences between the samples in these different packages. Is there one sample package that is definitely, qualitatively higher than the rest? If so, which might that be?

Thanks!

[mhschmieder]

I have the Toontrack product but it doesn't show up in my list of timbal sources, so maybe I didn't do as thorough a job as I thought of annotating its contents?

Actually, it might be because there are no user manuals for those EZ kits, unless they're hidden on the website (they aren't part of the installation).

I just now opened that kit to see what's in it, and a timbales pair does show up in the snare slots. The visuals show them as being copper vs. brass or bronze, which is a bit unusual.

The overall kit sounds a bit effected to me, but I haven't spent much time with EZ Drummer or Superior still, so don't know if they use baked-in reverb-y samples or not.

As far as I can tell, there are only two articulations in the EZ Drummer expansion (head and side stick); whereas BFD Percussion has four articulations (unmapped side stick, surprisingly, but it has drag, flam, hit, and rim shot).

I'll look into this in more depth when I get to finalizing the timbales tracks on my album (soon, I hope), as BFD uses 13" and 14" Slingerland steel timbales and doesn't provide other brands like it does with its bongos and congas. I've been happy with it in production, but might prefer the EZ kit (not sure what brand they sampled).

In terms of sampling depth, the timbales pair in BFD Percussion takes up roughly 600 to 800 MB of disc space each. That's a lot, but BFD samples a gazillion velocity layers (partly why I love it so much).

[mhschmieder]

Oh, I see that you can right-click to find out more details about each kit piece, just like you USED to be able to do in BFD before v3 (and why I got out of that habit, unfortunately).

Everything is from Meinl, who are a German company that manufacturers in Thailand at the same plant just about everyone else uses, but I have been more impressed by that brand than any other in recent years (they continue to make huge strides forward at a rapid rate).

Years ago LP was all there was (in most areas). The main bongos in BFD Percussion are LP bongos. They don't sound authentically afro-cuban but are usable. The ones in EZ Drummer Latin Percussion are based on the more traditional style and do sound authentic for music where that matters more. But of course, not enough articulations, alas... I kept hoping for an SDX kit for Latin Percussion.

I do like the congas in BFD Percussion quite a bit though, as they offer both Meinl and Gon Bops.

[mhschmieder]

I just took a look at the Meinl website, and they now offer 17 different models of timbales! Surely that is a record in the industry? So many materials, finishes, and levels of pricing!

I don't see a copper set, but the bronze set looks almost like copper, and is their main non-signature high-end set, so may be what Toontrack sampled. But of course this is an old library, so who knows.

At any rate, I think Toontrack bothered to spend money on quality kit to record, uniformly across-the-board, whereas fxpansion was a bit more inconsistent and probably just gathered up pieces that were conveniently available at the studio or amongst friends?

Even so, the BFD Percussion library is by far the most extensive of any single library out there, so is still a good place to start if you have any version of BFD and if you find a good price on it.

I'm starting to lean towards the EZX kit for timbales and bongos, but I need to first find out if there are enough articulations, as I use three or four per kit piece when I do latin work, and BFD supports that.

I'll also be evaluating some of the single-purpose libraries when I finish my piano tracking and switch over to drum and percussion mode. Quite a few have come out or been purchased since I first tracked everything in BFD Percussion.

[dewdman42]

Check out Jamstix/Jamcussion: http://www.rayzoon.com/jamcussion.html

[Guitar Gaz]

I've been using Toontrack's Latin Percussion EZX and think it is pretty cool. Works in Superior and EzDrummer.

https://www.toontrack.com/product/latin-percussion-ezx/

I agree - it's good and works for me.