Native Instruments - Action Strikes
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Prologue
No need to introduce Native Instruments, the company behind legendary Kontakt, Maschine, Traktor, Kore, Battery, Absynth, and more.
What is quite interesting though that their libraries, at least for the most part, are not that good as their competitiors'. There are few that are actually quite good, like The Giant. But most including me would agree that their pianos are sort of 'lifeless'.

Introduction
Action Strikes belongs mostly to the not-quite-useful-in-most-situations-but-exceptionally-excellent-in-one-particular category. It's as the title suggests, Action drums, mainly serve as cinematic percussion.

Performance
The library itself is divided into three main categories, Ensemble, Hits and Instrument. For what is inside, it's surprisingly small, only 3.5GB
Most of the content is looped, but single hits are there as well.

Fig. 1 - Ensemble, main screen
To make more sense this time, I'll try to explain it in numbers:
1 - Used drumset (or drum group)
2 - Rythms, accessible through keyswitches
3 - Global rythm group
4 - Rythm for each keyswitch
5 - Those keyswitches change the defined rythm
6 - Instrument mixes
7 - Low percussion
8 - Mid percussion
9 - High percussion
10 - Single hits

Dynamics of the loops is controlled through mod-wheel, which is great, as it puts you in charge of volume. The pitch bend acts like Expression, secondary volume.
There are loads of rythms to choose from, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8 and 9/8, with 8th, tripled 8th or 16th time signature.



Fig. 2 - Ensemble mixer
Ens & Mixer screen brings up knobs and faders to adjust the sound to your liking


Fig. 3 - Hits
Hits patch is maybe a little more conservative. In this one, you'll find only single hits. Modwheel now functions as velocity limiter, on its lowest setting, no amount of keyboard bashing will trigger loud samples, while on its highest value, the instruments shine with their full dynamic range.
I am yet again, taken aback by the size of the library and what's inside.
There are 12 hit sets, each one consisting of 36 instrument ensembles & solos, recorded in 10 round robins and 6 velocity layers. Wow!


Fig. 4 - Instrument patch
65 instruments in 32 loop configurations.
Yellow keys mark the single hits, green licks and blue the loops.
Two mic positions were recorded, crossfading between those two is easy, using the appropriate slider.

That's it for the performance chapter.
Sound Specifics

The sound reminds me of ProjectSAM, the instrument are always loud and projecting. But in this library, one could count it as advantage, remember, we're talking drums here
I do count it as advantage, the sound is big and even overwhelming at times, just what would you expect from cinematic percussion library.
For airy passages use something Spitfire Percussion Redux or Evolution Series World Percussion.


Drawbacks & Recommendations
NI libs are very stable. This one is not exception, however

• Ensembles are CPU intensive, though nothing really bad.

Highlights in a nutshell

• Loads of RR and vel. layers
• Very small in size
• Rythm variability
• Ease of use

Original Product Video

Auxiliary & Demonstrational Video

[media][Thursday][/media]


Conclusion

NI proved me wrong, not all their libraries are lifeless. Action Strikes is an amazing small package of cinematic percussion loops and single hits, recorded in many alterations. All drums inside are powerful and ready to transform your tracks into hunt, suspense or action.
The sound is big, not quite dynamic or airy, but that's how it should be with cinematic perc.
Overall, perfect lib for big booming cinematic sound, but nothing much else.
But hey, for that size, you can't go wrong!

Reviewer's rating:
8 out of 10 stars

 

I really like the background they used and the interface, also I'm glad to hear this is worth the download. Thanks again for another amazing review Andrew, already linked on AudioZ.

 

It's a nice product, It's especially useful for those situations where you've already made a full percussions track but you still need that little "extra" something, it can really fill some space in the track without being overpowering

 

They had me at Dark City.

 

...being "Alcatraz" or "Prophet", huh?

 

Thank you Andrew for another fine review

 

Andrew, again a great review.

Besides: why did you not give the last 2 stars to the product?