Ensemblia 2 Percussive Review by Cinematique Instruments
One of the first virtual instruments that trigger an emotional response within me was a piano from Cinematique Instruments. Since then I got familiar with the instruments from this fine boutique company which has a standing for unique and unprecedented instrument libraries well made for sound designers and film composers.
Now a new Ensemblia library has been released focusing on all kinds of percussive instruments and sounds. Let’s take a look at Ensemblia 2 Percussive a percussive library that includes over 200 recorded instruments. Cinematique Instruments did send a review copy with no strings attached.
Installation
Ensemblia 2 Percussive is Kontakt 5 Player compatible and supports Native Instruments NKS format. It is compatible with Maschine and Komplete Kontrol S-Series keyboards.
Sound
Ensemblia 2 Percussive with its more than 200 percussive instruments this library offers a wide tone range from the recorded orchestral and world percussion to regular drum sounds as well as domestic, glitch and electronic sounds. If you do have the first version this one has been produced as an evolution and is an upgrade and worth to obtain as well.
The included sounds are made of metal, wood, skin percussive “instruments”, glitches, harmonic and human sounds including 25 snares, 24 big drums, 27 toms and ethnic drums, 29 cymbals, 15 shakers, gongs and singing bowls. In combination with the multi beat engine this compete package is focusing on helping the composer or professional sound designer to come up with unique percussion tracks to support the main score.
When it comes to the beat making machine Ensemblia 2 Percussive appears with over 600 pre-made beats which are easily selectable via a file browser (see above).
With this library, you can produce excellent harmonic percussive tracks and rhythmic patterns. The included persuasive arranger will create new and helpful phrases on the fly.
The sounds of the recorded instrument are natural and allow you to perform perfect percussive tracks. The included reverb is superb, I did enjoy the resulting sound of the percs. The perfect experience of Ensemblia 2 Percussive comes from its acoustic tones and its remarkably usable orchestral arsenal of instruments.
There is the master percussive patch which I used a lot, you also receive 10 additional Kontakt patches. These are single instruments patches are grouped and are of great value.
My overall experience with the sound was very positive, some low-end drums have been very punchy and massive, the more synthetic drums sounded like nothing I have heard before and all sounds would fit into the bigger picture.
The beats and sequences are inspiring and you get some included effects to change the results. Many will use external plugins made by Audio Damage, KILOHEARTS, Goodhertz, or if you are more into sound design Enforcer by BoomLibrary.
User interface & Usability
The UI is designed in a sometimes complex way. Some elements are small and you need overall some time to be quick with this interface. I would position it as a very powerful UI that can do a lot of things for the composer if you are looking for the empowerment to do so. Some sections are smartly hiding if you are wanting something easy to play with and do spend time on the UI.
Many instruments are velocity sensitive and you get different results based on you use your keyboard.
Rating: Five out of five stars
Ensemblia 2 Percussive offers a widespread palette of percussive sounds that are inspiring to use and sound amazing. This is another gem made by Cinematique Instruments.
