Best Orchestral Percussion VST Libraries (Top List)

VST & Plugins
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Best Orchestral/Cinematic Percussion VST Library?

Best%20Orchestral%20Percussion%20VST%20Libraries
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Are you looking for orchestral and cinematic percussion libraries? Anything from authentic and dynamic to epic and processed. While “Best” is of course always subjective, here is a complete top list (based on input from fellow composers):

Best Orchestral Percussion VST Libraries

Things You should Consider

  • Natural vs Processed Sound
  • Sound Quality & Consistency
  • Sound Character & Tone
  • Dynamic Levels & Round Robins
  • Instruments & Articulations
  • Presets & Variation
  • User Interface & Features
  • Playability & Performance
  • Microphone & Mixing

Your Input is Wanted!

Do you have experience on any of these products? Do you have suggestions on products you think could make this top list?

Share your thoughts, perspective, and join the discussion in the thread below! :slight_smile:

Sincerely,
Mikael Baggström
Founder of Professional Composers

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there is some interresting percussion library from 8dio epic taiko and epic dhol that give an exotic flavor to the percussuion
from eastwest there is also percussive adventure 1 and 2 but it is drum loop in a lot of different style not really percussion library

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I should put something from 8dio in the top list, but I have no personal experience with them, and I rarely see them discussed for percussion. I’ve heard that epic taiko and dhols is nice, and I know Arn used those in his Cinematic Music Essentials course, so I guess I can put them in the list. Thanks for the suggestion. :slight_smile:

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  • Damage is considered still as one of the best ever produced drum libraries ever, even until today, it’s still fresh, which speaks for itself. You can barely use it for classical compositions, but for cinematic and epic trailer stuff, it’s a “must have” tool without a question.

  • Symphony Series is awesome. Super well recorded sound, extremely natural sounding and so many ways, articulations, RR to play with. I love it.

  • 8Dio has Aura Percussion, which I do have, I like the extremely clean sound of it. They’ve put a new feature, which already exists in other libraries as well, call “Random” ? whatever Trolls call it, but there is a feature to create your own loops and FX too. But as I said before, 8Dio’s libraries are overpriced not only in my opinion as well. You don’t get a lot of content, but still have to pay hundreds of bucks. I only bought them when the libs were at special prices, and in your account you can see, how much they would actually cost. I have invested like 3000$, or even more now, in reality I have spend less of course. In my opinion 8Dio is better in making the traditional instruments, like stings, brass etc.

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I love Damage, and still use it as one of my main percussion tools. But I am hoping they might come out with something new in the percussion field soon, Heavyocity is my favorite sample library developer. Everything they do becomes amazing! :smile:

Symphony series percussion does not get talked about much by composers, but the demos I watched it was very big and full of articulations etc.

Yeah I would probably not go to 8dio for percussion first either.

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I know Heavyocity drum ensemble. This is great. For orchestral music, I use True Strikes by Project Sam. sometimes I also use waves files from Cinesamples. Personally, I do not think East West is good. I do not like it. Sorry. I’m always looking for the right VST library. I look to soundiron and to 8Dio Taiko.

My favorite is LADD from audiobro

Greetings
Klaus Ferretti

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