>UVI are back again with another sample-based Soundbank. As with their previous outings, this can be used within their (premium) Falcon instrument or (free) Workstation host. Although the name ‘Percussion Factory’ spells out the remit here, the subtitle ‘Creative Rhythm Designer’ provides more of a clue as to the broader intent.
The main instrument screen gives a good overview of things. The 500+ presets are selected from the drop-down menu, with the eight percussion instruments that make up the sound element of the current preset shown below. Above each is a simple diagrammatic representation of its pattern (and it’s good to see multiple length patterns supported here). At the bottom are six controls for adjusting global parameters in real-time. These allow you to alter step length, dynamics, simplify patterns, apply swing, and tweak reverb and tonal balance, and are surprisingly effective if you want to work quickly and avoid diving into the other pages. Keyboard mapping is shown along the lower section of the window, with keys available for triggering individual sounds, ‘per-part’ sequences or the single ‘all-parts’ pattern. Initially I wondered why there wasn’t a way to have multiple patterns triggering the full gamut of sounds – these are often multiple pattern slots spread across the keyboard in other rhythm-based plugins.
However ‘Decimate’, the aforementioned control, (which I initially thought might be a distortion/bit-crushing effect) does a good job of altering pattern complexity to suit different sections of a track. For the terminally lazy there is also the ‘magic wand’ button for generating new presets. This is far more than a simple randomisation control, with each successive press delivering a new sound set and very usable pattern. It even names each new pattern. I stopped when I got to the creatively named ‘Chubby Car Enthusiast’!
So, even if you don’t delve any further there’s a lot to like, but there is plenty on
