REQ: Spitfire Audio HZ01 Percussion London - Junkie XL Mixes Update

Hans Zimmer Perc London
Four percussion legends and long term collaborators with Hans play the definitive anthology of percussion instruments and styles developed over ten years of blockbuster score making. Volume 1 includes this 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 Solo, 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. Sample Library for Full Version of Kontakt .

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 Hans Zimmer in his blockbuster scores, we’ve drawn upon his years of creativity and studio experimentation to compile all you need to for epic drum composition. From tombeks to taikos, playing from whisper quiet to thunderously loud, we’ve worked alongside Hans' Grammy award-winning team, including engineer Geoff Foster, to capture the highest quality recordings in the same studio (The Hall at AIR) with the same players, all mixed and produced by the man himself.





The Mics and Mixes

While Spitfire Audio has a list of additional mixes/mic options that will be available for free to existing users in the future, the HZ libraries are already industry leaders in these respects. I cannot emphasize enough just what a big deal the options are, both from a composer perspective and from my background as a mixing engineer.

Let’s look at HZ01 for starters. The library is divided into several folders: Additional Mics, Artist Elements, Stereo Mixes and Steve Lipson Mix. First of all, let me say that there is no “filler” – every single one of these folders contains extremely high quality audio material and the variety of colors available is unlike any other library I have ever worked with. I simply cannot give enough kudos here. I feel like I’m still discovering new sonic colors even after having used the library for a long time and taking the time to audition every one of them is something I doubt most users will even have time for. This is not a library I foresee people “outgrowing” from a mixing perspective anytime soon.

At the same time, the Steve Lipson Mix and Stereo Mixes folders provide instant gratification and a variety of colors. You get four different stereo mixes from four different people for each of the patches in the percussion ensemble, each of which will emphasize very different parts of the percussion section. There are mixes by Hans Zimmer, Alan Meyerson, Geoff Foster and Steve Lipsom and switching between them can totally change the feel of your composition. You can just pick one up and be ready to go at once without having to deal with mic balancing at all. Three of the mixes are included in the “Stereo Mixes” patch for each instrument, while Steve Lipsom’s is in a separate patch.

On the other hand, I took things a step further by routing a different stereo pair out of Kontakt for each stereo mix on every instrument, and then sent each of those outputs to a different aux in my DAW. Once I had that setup in my template, I could easily switch between the four different mixes for every instrument in my template at once by soloing one aux at a time. Honestly, I was blown away by the four different colors I could get without changing the MIDI data, switching patches or even dealing with individual mics at all. If you can’t find a great starting point in one of these four mixes I’m honestly not sure what you’re looking for. And yet there’s still heaps more detail available in Additional Mics and Artist Elements folders.

The Artist Elements folder is grouped into sub-folders by person: Alan Meryson, Geoff Foster, Hans Zimmer and JXL (Tom Holkenborg, also known as Junkie XL). The mics available vary depending on which person you choose. For Alan Meyerson and Hans Zimmer you get Close, Room and Surround. For Geoff Foster you get Close, Tree, Surround and Outrigger. For JXL you get JXL Close, JXL Room, JXL Full and JXL Air. By contrast, the Additional Mics folder uses one set of patches, all with the same mics: Bottle Mic, Mid Field, Gallery, Overheads, Pair and Piezo Tree. The user is completely spoilt for choice – there wasn’t a single time where I thought “man I wish I had X mic so I could do Y”. Once again, I simply cannot give enough kudos here.

For HZ03, there are no Stereo Mixes or Steve Lipsom Mixes. The Artist Elements include options from Alan Meyerson, Geoff Foster and Hans Zimmer and the mic options remain largely similar to HZ01 (save for the occasional small name differences like Tree vs Room for the same mic).

HZ02 is organized a bit differently. The Artist Elements folder still contains sub-folders for different people (Alan Meyerson, Geoff Foster and Hans Zimmer). The Hans Zimmer folder is actually just for the modular synth percussion patch. The Alan Meyerson and Geoff Foster folders contain three more sub-folders, one for each of the recording locations: Cathedral Drums, Fox Drums and Sony Drums.