Percussive AdventuresEast West's Percussive Adventures ($399.95) is a rare treat: a four-disc sample collection in Akai and audio formats that is thoughtfully conceived, well performed, carefully produced, and thoroughly documented. The brainchild of film and TV composer Christopher Page, Percussive Adventures offers 95 multilayered percussion-oriented beds that are intended specifically for film, video, and multimedia composers. If you're looking for a standard assortment of drum-set grooves to use in your next hip-hop or funk project, this is definitely not the place to look. Percussive Adventures offers an array of richly crafted soundscapes that showcase the creative skills of percussion wizards Kim Edmundson, Tony Humecke, Jorge Patrono, and Kurt Wortman.
Some tracks are only a few seconds long, but most of them range from about 20 to 45 seconds, so you can easily generate extended beds without using too many loops. Many tracks include long reverb tails at the end that have a smooth, natural-sounding finish. Moods range from somber and portentous to light and humorous; tension levels go from new-age mellow to high-tech, high-anxiety.
Most of the disc set's tracks appear in the Chase/Sneak/Tension/Mystery & Suspense category, whose 64 tracks offer atmospheric, evocative beds that conjure up dark moods of foreboding danger or dramatic tension and suspense. They're so effective, you may break into a cold sweat just listening to them.
These selections feature a colorful assortment of timpani, tablas, bongos, congas, snares, toms, and kick drums along with bowls, cymbals, gongs, waterphones, shakers, and various percussion "toys." Synthesized sounds and samples provide additional color.
Movie MagicPercussive Adventures excels at capturing the cinematic ambience that most of us have come to expect in film scores. In fact, it uses the names of famous movies to identify tracks and help you focus on each mood and style - a clever device. For example, Independence Day features a full complement of tom-toms and tablas producing a powerful, driving, rhythmic pulse with accents that are perfect for a high-energy chase scene. The Fugitive offers another kind of fast-moving pulse, this time with a Korg Wavedrum and high-pitched metallic effects. Patriot Games combines rapid, breathy percussion with tambourine and echoing accents. And the creepy Alien track emanates an ominous low pulse with heavy reverb, chord clusters, high percussive accents, and blasts of steam. A surprising collection of sounds - including an eerie bowed gong and a processed ocarina - contributes unusual colors and textures to the other tracks as well.
Most of the selections are packed with creative potential and may give you the perfect tool for breaking through a stubborn case of composer's block. If you already know what you want, Percussive Adventures can provide a solid and appropriately atmospheric foundation on which to build your orchestrations. Just add melodies, riffs, or harmonic accents and you're well on your way.
The remaining categories include Ethnic (16 tracks that suggest locales such as Asia, Africa, and South America), Military & Special Ops (8 tracks emphasizing snare and bass drum parts), and Comedic & Cartoons (7 tracks with lots of boings, splats, whistles, and other funny sounds). At the end of the CD, two additional tracks contain handy percussive accents and an assortment of wonderful echo trails.
Getting OrganizedFrom an organizational standpoint, the Percussive Adventures set is a pleasure to work with. The first disc is an audio CD that includes all of the multilayered tracks in the collection. The second disc provides the same tracks in Akai S1000/2000/3000 format. The audio CD allows you to audition the various tracks with your CD player, so you don't have to load tracks into your sampler just to listen to them. This saves production time and energy, and lets you import tracks directly from the audio CD into an audio-editing program for processing or layering.
The third and fourth discs include the individual layers and solo samples from each track (in Akai format), so you can add elements to the original track or build your own versions by juggling parts from one or more tracks. A click track is provided (on MIDI note 96), letting you easily synchronize layers and samples when necessary.
A Good BookThe documentation is exemplary: each track listing includes a brief description, along with the track's duration in seconds and the tempo its bpm. Film and video composers will appreciate that the tempos are also listed in frames per beat (at frame rates of 24, 25, and 30 fps). In addition, the last two Akai CD-ROMs list each sample's size in megabytes and indicate the multisample key ranges.
If you don't have an Akai sampler, you can purchase Percussive Adventures as a two-disc set of audio CDs ($149.95), with the complete tracks on the first disc and many of the individual parts on the second. In either format, this is a well-produced and valuable resource for adding some compelling drama (or comedy) to scores.