Product details
The ultimate cinematic drum sample library
Spitfire Audio joins forces with the biggest name in film scoring to produce the ultimate drum sample library for cinematic percussion. Featuring the ensembles and solo instruments used by Oscar-winning Hans Zimmer in his blockbuster scores, we’ve drawn on his years of creativity and studio experimentation to give you all you need to create epic drum composition. From tombeks to taikos, playing from whisperingly quiet to thunderously loud, we’ve worked with Hans’ Grammy award-winning team to capture the highest quality recordings, featuring the same players in Lyndhurst Hall at AIR Studios, London, where Hans records his biggest scores, all mixed and produced by the man himself.
The Professional edition also includes additional mixes by producer royalty Junkie XL, Geoff Foster, Alan Meyerson and Steve Lipson, including CPU-friendly stereo mixes and 10 individual microphone positions.
Ensemble and solo instruments
Additional mixes
Kontakt Player
Walkthrough
14:22
Comparing Mixes
7:19
Produced by the master of film scoring
Hans Zimmer is one of the most successful, influential and prolific film composers of his generation. Having won countless awards including Oscars, his scores for films including Gladiator, Inception, Interstellar, The Dark Knight and Dunkirk he is considered one of the greatest living film composers. Hans has defined not only a compositional style, but also a production approach and sonic innovation that has influenced a generation of composers.
Made in close collaboration with Hans Zimmer and his team of Grammy-winning engineers, musicians and technicians, we present Hans Zimmer’s expert, authorised take on cinematic percussion production. Herein lies not an emulation or synthesis of his approach, but a recreation; the same world class studio, musicians, instruments, signal chain and engineers, overseen in every detail by Hans himself with the same attention to detail and perfection, coupled with Spitfire’s pioneering technology designed to offer you ultimate creative customisation.
London ensembles and solos
Hans Zimmer Percussion combines the output from two extraordinary recording blocks. Material from the “London Ensembles” block features four of Hans’ go-to percussionists – Frank Ricotti, Gary Kettel, Stephen Henderson, Paul Clarvis – performing a variety of instruments and styles, in what is essentially a distillation of over a decade’s worth of musical experimentation and innovation.
This includes his classic selection of drum ensembles and key solo instruments:
Low Booms, Low Boom Gallery, Taiko Ensemble, Tamtam Ensemble, Boobams Ensemble, Hi Taiko Solo, Low Taiko Solo, Large Taiko Solo, Bass Drum Gallery, Gong Drum Gallery Solo, Surdu Ensemble, Dohl Ensemble, Tombek Ensemble, Bombo Ensemble, Buckets & Snares Ensemble, Buckets & Crushers Ensemble, Bucket Top & Darbuka, Paper Djun, Piatti, Anvils, Timpani Ensemble. Instruments played by Paul Clarvis include: Bucket, Snare, Crusher, Paper Djun, Tombek, Dohl, Darbuka, Surdu.
The remainder of the library features long term Hans collaborator and percussion legend, Paul Clarvis (Spectre, The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, Star Wars) who plays a beautiful selection of solo instruments that offer added bite, detail, focus, clarity and nuance to this epic series. Hans loves the quiet layers more than any other so as well as the bitey thunder you’d expect, there are lower layers that offer up the potential for engaging delicate drum programming to help tick your cues along.
The blockbuster sound
As per many of Hans’ scores, this library is recorded in Lyndhurst Hall at AIR Studios, London, via an impressive signal chain: 96 rarefied microphones into Neve Montserrat preamps, into the world’s biggest Neve 88R desk (which was exhaustively re-gained at every dynamic layer for optimum signal quality), via a dual chain to HDX and Prism converters running at 192k. We have recorded the drums and articulations each with up to 9 round robins and 6 dynamic layers per hit; there’s well over 30 TB of raw material from these sessions alone.
The Professional edition
This library includes mixes by the following A-List composers, producers and engineers:
Hans Zimmer* –Dunkirk, The Lion King, Interstellar, Inception, Dark Knight
Junkie XL – Mad Max: Fury Road, Deadpool, Batman v Superman
Geoff Foster – Bjork, Life Of Pi, Dunkirk, Nocturnal Animals, Gone Girl
Alan Meyerson – Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Interstellar
Steve Lipson – Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Annie Lennox, Pharrell Williams – (5 Grammy wins and multiple nominations)
Across all instruments
*Hans Zimmer: Artist Elements: Close Perspective, Room Perspective, Surround (Far) Perspective
Alan Meyerson: Artist Elements: Close Perspective, Room Perspective, Surround (Far) Perspective
Geoff Foster: Artist Elements: Close Mics, Tree Mics, Outrigger (Wide) Mics, Surround (Far) Mics; Additional Mics: Bottle Mics, Mid Mics, Gallery Mics, Overheads Cardioid, Mid PZM, Ambient Pair
Across the ensemble content only
Stereo mixes by Hans Zimmer, Alan Meyerson, Geoff Foster, Junkie XL and Steve Lipson
Junkie XL: Artist Elements: Close Perspective, Room Perspective, Surround (Far) Perspective
*These mixes are included in the standard edition of Hans Zimmer Percussion
Kickstart engine
This interface is built especially for our percussive libraries to make it easy to map sounds to any connected MIDI interface. It also includes the microphone mixer and available feature controllers.
Kickstart 2
An additional kickstart interface for the timpani allowing you to play the full range of these instruments in a separate patch.
What’s included
Taiko ensemble
- Ensemble – Hit
- Ensemble – Roll
- High – Hit
- High – Roll
- High – Puilli Hit
- High – Rim Hit
- Low – Hit
- Low – Roll
- Low – Rim Hit
- Low – Puilli Hit
- Large – Hit
- Large – Roll
- Large – Rim Hit
- Large – Puilli Hit
Paper djun
- Ensemble – Hit
- Ensemble – Roll
- Solo – Hit **
- Solo – Hit (alt) **
- Solo – Roll **
Bombo ensemble
- Hard Hit
- Hard Roll
- Soft Hit
- Soft Roll
- Hand Hit
- Hand Roll
- Finger Roll
- Flam
Surdo ensemble
- Ensemble – Hit
- Ensemble – Roll
- Solo – Hit **
- Solo – Roll **
Low boom
- Hard Hit
- Hard Roll
- Soft Hit
- Soft Roll
- Rim Hit
- Rim Roll
- Puilli Hit
- Puilli Roll
Low boom gallery
- Hard Hit
- Hard Roll
- Soft Hit
- Soft Roll
- Rim Hit
- Puilli Hit
Bass drum gallery
- Hard Hit
- Hard Roll
- Soft Hit
- Soft Roll
- Rim Hit
- Puilli Hit
Gong drum
- Hard Hit
- Hard Roll
- Soft Hit
- Soft Roll
- Rim Hit
- Puilli Hit
- Alt Hit
Dhol ensemble
- Ensemble – Stick Hit
- Ensemble – Hand Hit
- Solo – Hand Hit **
- Solo – Hand Top **
- Solo – Hand Bottom **
- Solo – Stick Hit **
- Solo – Stick Top **
- Solo – Stick Bottom **
Darbuka
- Hit **
- Fist **
- Slap **
- Tap **
Snare
- Hit **
- Flam **
- Roll **
Tombek ensemble
- Ensemble – Hit
- Ensemble – Slap
- Ensemble – Tap
- Solo – Hit **
- Solo – Slap **
- Solo – Tap **
Boobam
- Random Hit
- Random Rod
- Beater Hit – F3
- Beater Hit – G3
- Beater Hit – A3
- Beater Hit – B3
- Beater Hit – C4
- Rod Hit – F3
- Rod Hit – G3
- Rod Hit – A3
- Rod Hit – B3
- Rod Hit – C4
- Hand Hit – F3
- Hand Hit – G3
- Hand Hit – A3
- Hand Hit – B3
- Hand Hit – C4
- Hand Hit – D4
- Hand Hit – E4
- Hand Hit – F4
Buckets
- Solo – Hit **
- Solo – Flam **
- Solo – Roll **
- + Snares Ens – Hit
- + Snares Ens – Flams
- + Snares Ens – Roll
- + Crushers Ens – Hit
- + Crushers Ens – Roll
- + Darbuca Ens – Hit
- + Darbuca Solo – Hit **
- + Darbuca Solo – Hit (alt) **
Tamtam
- Hit
- Scrape
- Scrape (long)
- Scrape (Choke)
- Scrape (Spatial)
- Roll
- Roll (Spatial)
- Roll (Inverse)
Metal
- Piattis – Hit
- Piattis – Choked Hit
- Anvils – Hit
- Crusher – Hit **
- Crusher – Roll **
Timpani
- Hard Stick Hit
- Soft Stick Hit
- Rod Stick Hit
- Hard Stick Roll
- Soft Stick Roll
- Rod Stick Roll
** Not present for Junkie XL, Steve Lipson or stereo mixes
Mics & mixes
Across all instruments
Hans Zimmer artist elements
- HZ Close Perspective
- HZ Room Perspective
- HZ Surround (Far) Perspective
Alan Meyerson artist elements
- AM Close Perspective
- AM Room Perspective
- AM Surround (Far) Perspective
Geoff foster artist elements
- GF Close Mics
- GF Tree Mics
- GF Outrigger (Wide) Mics
- GF Surround (Far) Mics
Additional mics
- Bottle Mics Stereo
- Mid Mics
- Gallery Mics
- Overheads Cardioid
- Mid PZM
- Ambient Pair
Across the ensemble content only (HZ01)
Stereo mixes
- HZ Stereo Mix
- AM Stereo Mix
- GF Stereo Mix
- JXL Stereo Mix
- SL Stereo Mix
Junkie XL artist elements
- JXL Close Perspective
- JXL Room Perspective
- JXL Surround (Far) Perspective
Simon Vale –
Absolutely blown away by the quality and depth of the percussion sounds in this library, a game-changer for my compositions. Would highly recommend to any filmmaker or composer looking to elevate their work!
Tessa Vale –
The percussion sounds in this library are incredibly realistic and easy to use, definitely worth the investment for any composer.
Olivia West –
I was blown away by the realistic sound quality of this percussion library – definitely a game-changer for my compositions.
Beckett Moon –
This percussion library packs a punch – easy to use, realistic sounds, perfect for cinematic scoring. Would highly recommend for producers and composers.
Aurora Rivers –
I was blown away by the quality and versatility of this percussion library. Definitely a must-have for any composer looking to elevate their sound.