Recording - January 2016 - 38

Soundware Showcase
Spitfire Audio HZ Percussion
by Jon Hillman

Quick-think of three film composers. If the first name that popped into your head
was John Williams, then I'm almost certain the next name in your list is Hans Zimmer.
And based on the multitude of copycats out there in film and games, it's safe to say
he's one of the most influential composers of our time. But what is so special about his
music? While this is a complex question, part of the answer is undoubtedly the pulse
of his music, the percussion. The expressive language of his scores largely revolves
around innovative percussive elements, enough so that I'm confident I could identify
each score by those elements alone.
This is what makes the HZ Percussion collection by Spitfire Audio incredibly interesting-precisely because you can not only sound like Hans, but that you can think like
him. On offer in these libraries is a huge palette of percussive timbre and texture-it's
highly unlikely that you've even heard of all the instruments contained within, let alone
actually heard them. That being said, Spitfire has made sure that everything is accessible, playable, and tweakable with a huge range of variation. HZ Percussion allows
you to be truly imaginative with your scores' rhythm and movement, and we should
expect nothing less from a collaboration with Hans Zimmer.
There are three libraries in the series. HZ01 London Ensembles is a collection of ensemble and solo percussion instruments, and HZ03 London Soloists adds further solo performances by Frank Ricotti, all recorded in Air Studios in London by Geoff Foster. HZ02 Los
Angeles features Jason Bonham on his DW Vistalite kit, recorded at several LA studios.

Name that instrument
Timpani, tamtam, piatti, taiko; all fairly common percussive instruments/groups you
probably know well. But what about tombek, surdu, bombo, or paper djun? I'd guess
I'm not the only composer who had to look up at least one of these. And let's say you
are aware of every instrument captured in these libraries-there's no way you've
heard them like this. After all, anyone can bang on things, but making beautiful
sounds is a something else entirely.
Much like Mr. Zimmer's music, we can be sure that the breadth of HZ Percussion has
little to do with Spitfire showing off, and everything to do with the pursuit of percussive
color. With so much at your disposal, though, you will need to spend time getting to
know each instrument, just as a painter develops his palette. And while multiple similar
instruments are grouped together into handy patches to support your exploration, you
will be selecting a single instrument per patch/Kontakt instance; to layer or build complex setups you'll be relying on Kontakt or your DAW preset tools.The time you spend
getting to know HZ Percussion will be significant, but the results are well worth it.
When playing the instruments, the range of timbre found between lowest and highest
velocity and round-robin samples takes advantage of true-to-life percussive dynamics in a
way that few libraries do. If you've ever sat in front of a nice cymbal and experimented for a
38

RECORDING January 2016

few hours, you know what I'm talking
about; what you hit it with, where you hit
it, how often, all of these things reveal a
musical depth most people are unaware
of. Browsing through HZ Percussion feels
like that kind of exploration, where the
instruments feel responsive and alive. This
should be a requisite for any instrument
in your collection, physical or virtual,
especially when it comes to developing
the literal pulse of your music.
And don't go thinking this is all too
fancy for you; HZ02 Los Angeles is like
steak and potatoes amongst the foie gras
and caviar of the rest of the collection.
Here, you have Jason Bonham playing a
massive drum kit set in three different
famous scoring stages, with sticks, brushes, and more, miked and mixed by some
of the best engineers around. Finely crafted but very straightforward, it is, in one
word, epic. And I realize I'm a little late
to the party, but I've only just recently
started layering traditional kits under
more typical orchestral percussion. HZ02
was tailor-made for this purpose, and it'll
be the first instrument I bring up the next
time a client drops the 'e' word.

Use your imagination
Each library in this collection has a
category called Artist Elements. This is
a great place to start your exploration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2016