Greetings!
My name is Ian Vargo, I'm from The Pro Audio Files and masteringinthebox.com, and today
I'm going to be introducing you to LA Modern Percussion — a new sample library from Audio
Ollie, in partnership with Performance Samples.
This is an absolute monster of a sample library, made in collaboration with Alan Meyerson — legendary
engineer and score mixer who has worked on films including Gladiator, Dunkirk, Deadpool,
and many, many more.
It consists of over 25 gigabytes worth of hard hitting, meticulously captured instruments,
recorded at the Warner Brothers Eastwood stage in Burbank using Alan's very own setup and
methods.
Before we dive deep, let's have a listen to something I created after only a couple of
hours of playing around with LA Modern Percussion.
[song]
So as I mentioned, I've only spent a couple of hours with this, but I can tell, if you're
a composer and you need to nail that larger than life, epic percussion sound in your scores,
LA Modern Percussion definitely fits the bill.
It's relatively easy to get the hang of, especially if you're already familiar with using Kontakt.
So let's show you how to get started once you have the LA Modern Percussion library
downloaded.
I'm working in Pro Tools here, and I have created a stereo instrument track.
On that track, I inserted an instance of Kontakt.
Make sure that you have a Finder window available that shows the LA Modern Percussion library.
Then, very simply, just make sure that you can see the quick load option here in Kontakt.
Go back to the root folder, click and drag.
Make sure it's in there.
Click and drag.
Right there.
You've got to give it a minute.
Got a lot of information in that folder.
Just another second and it will show up.
Now in that folder, you've got everything you need.
All of the different instruments, bass drums, ensembles, taiko, and you are ready to go.
You can click on one of these and it will load.
Now, I'd like to show you the three main types of mapping styles that LA Modern Percussion
features, meaning how the different samples are laid out on the keyboard.
Firstly are those that lay velocities out chromatically on the piano roll.
So the lower the key you play, the quieter the original sample is triggered.
[drums]
This can take some getting used to, but once you're practiced, if in fact you're playing
your parts on a MIDI keyboard, it's a lot of fun, and can achieve really realistic sounding
results.
Here's a performance that I quickly drew onto an instrument track using the pencil tool.
You'll notice that the higher the note that is drawn in, the higher the velocity of the
sample that is triggered.
This method doesn't just trigger the same sample over and over again at different volumes,
but rather triggers recordings of actual percussionists who played their instruments over, and over
again, at a very wide range of velocities.
Because of this, LA Modern Percussion is an extremely realistic and dynamic collection
of instruments.
Let's listen.
[mix]
The next type of mapping style is one that allows you to trigger higher velocity samples
by actually playing the keys harder.
[drums]
What's helpful here is all odd velocities are on the left key, and even numbered ones
are on the right key, so I can play two fingered similar to how a percussionist would play
with two hands, without triggering the same sample on one key.
The result is a really humanistic, natural sounding performance.
This is a different flavor, and might be better suited to someone that feels more comfortable
playing this way.
Both of the aforementioned types of patches are really useful and can achieve excellent
results.
Here we see a performance made this way.
Let's toggle over to see the velocity.
If you have a note, or several that aren't sitting quite right, you can of course, edit
the velocity after the fact.
Let's listen to it.
[drums]
The third type of patch are these loop based patches.
So we have real percussionists playing real instruments, and by pressing different keys,
we can trigger different loops.
Let's check out a part I created using this method.
[percussion]
Now that I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with the different patch types, let's take
a look at the mixer section.
One of the brilliant things about this library is it was recorded so comprehensively using
Alan Meyerson's techniques.
We have so many microphone options.
Close mics, overheads, different rooms, ambient mics, the sonic possibilities seem virtually
endless.
Let's play back a performance I made an experiment with the different mics.
[percussion, adjusting mixer]
These modulation and advanced sections are really helpful as well.
The modulation section allows you to alter the envelopes of your sounds with great detail,
and the advanced section allows for fine tuning, transposition, how the instrument responds
to your playing, and other neat controls.
These both go pretty deep, so I strongly recommend checking out the LA Modern Percussion walkthrough
on Audio Ollie's YouTube.
I would like to cover the effects tab.
We have very serviceable equalization, compression, and saturation sections.
Let's play back a performance I created and experiment with these.
[percussion]
Let's hear everything together again, and this time, I will add in additional melodic
layers I created using some other virtual instruments of mine, and then I'll solo some
of the individual elements.
[music]
It's not been long, but I've had a lovely time using this instrument.
It's relatively easy to use, has super deep controls, sounds fantastic, and perhaps most
importantly, I found it really inspiring to play.
It felt like an instrument from the second I started playing my MIDI keyboard.
So great job, Audio Ollie.
This is an amazing tool for composers.
This has been Ian Vargo with The Pro Audio Files and masteringinthebox.com.
Thanks!