Review: Hans Zimmer Percussion – Professional Kontakt Library

If you were, like me, a little confused at first about Spitfire Audio releasing another Hans Zimmer Percussion Library, don’t worry, I totally understand. The thing is, they didn’t really, and yet, they did, and it is actually quite good and worth considering. Let me explain what actually happened.

What is “Hans Zimmer Percussion (Professional)”?

So what this really is, is somewhat like a big reboot of the “Hans Zimmer Percussion” Series, with new Interface, and some better options for us to decide if all we need are Hans’s mixes, or if we want all extra goodies from Junkie XL, Alan Meyerson, Steve Lipson and Geoff Foster.

Not something I need to think about for very long, but there is another reason why you might not have to think about it either. And that’s because if you own HZ1 and HZ3 already, “Hans Zimmer Percussion” and/or “Hans Zimmer Percussion Professional” will be free for you.

Yep! That’s right, the awesome chaps from Spitfire are making this a free upgrade for all owners of HZ1 and HZ3, and if you only own one of them they will give you a special upgrade price. And that is incredibly nice of them since obviously, a lot of work went into making this upgrade.

So basically “Hans Zimmer Percussion” is a consolidation of HZ1 and HZ3 and “Hans Zimmer Percussion Professional” includes all the extra mic-positions, mixes etc. Also, both libraries come with a brand new Interface, that really is the best I have seen so far for cinematic percussion. But more on that later.

Regarding the Sample material, it is the exact same material as in HZ1 and HZ3, and both of those libraries will only stay available for a very short time. I do however feel like this new interface makes working with this amazing material quite a bit more accessible and also way more fun.

Also, the new version is NKS-Ready and since I absolutely love the NI-Kontrol S Keyboards I can only see this as a very welcome update. If you would like a more in detail review of the sound of this library or it’s general features feel free to check out my previous review of HZ1-3 here.

So what about this new Interface?

If you’ve read any of my other reviews of Spitfire Audio Libraries, you know I really enjoy their simple but powerful approach to Interfaces. With this new Interface, they stick to that principle too. The Interface is extremely clean and provides a complete overview of all important parameters at a glance.

Since there is a pretty large amount of different instruments in the main patch, and each of them has several performances, it was a very handy feature that they now included a “midi select” option for Instruments and hits. Also, in case you are not happy, with the custom mapping, an “unmapped” patch comes with the presets and the interface makes mapping it, just the way you want it to be, incredibly easy.

All main Features you are used to from the previous versions are of course still there too.

If you would like to know the exact details of how the new interface or the”Kickstart Engine” work, the Spitfire Audio support team have put together a really handy video, over here at the bottom of the page, that explains everything really well. And if you are still confused or have more questions about this new iteration of the ultimate cinematic percussion library, just head over to Spitfires FAQ section where they have all the answers ready for you.

Conclusion

This upgrade makes a lot of sense. If you already own HZ1 and HZ3 it’s, of course, a no-brainer, since it’s free for you, but even if not, this provides a great opportunity to get you handy on the percussion sound of one of the most revolutionary composers of his time.

The “response” control puts on of his signature sounds, the quiet that is loud, in our hands and either upgrade price or intro price are great deals. As I mentioned in my previous review, there is nothing I know that sounds like this, and I would, of course, go for the package with the extras and additional mixes. But even if that is outside of your budgeting plans, I can very much recommend this to everyone who writes professional grade cinematic music with percussion and wants some new colors on his pallet.

This Library is vast, so it takes little time getting to know it, but afterward, it feels alive under your fingers and provides a ton of subtlety and control.