Native Instruments True Strike Tension

Native Instruments’ True Strike Tension is the latest in the ever growing collection of KORE SoundPacks.

This new expansion brings a collection of percussive sounds for cinematic scores to KORE. The title of this SoundPack may ring a bell if you’re familiar with ProjectSAM.

The renowned cinematic sampling house ProjectSAM, worked in partnership with NI on this KORE SOUNDPACK, handpicking the samples from their acclaimed True Strike 2 library. This KORE SOUNDPACK offers a selection of impressive percussive sounds from all over the world designed to heighten the dramatic tension of any scene. Utilizing Kore’s KONTAKT engine, TRUE STRIKE TENSION allows for sophisticated real-time sound manipulation that will keep your audience on the edge of their seats.

True Strike Tension features

  • 10 kits constructed from 1 GB of samples from ProjectSAM’s True Strike 2 library.
  • 30 ready-to-use sounds for tense, percussive soundtrack productions (each sound features a variety of drum, metal and noise samples, all of them followed by dedicated effect units).
  • 3 kits that let you access the sample pool in a more systematic way:
    • SAM Drums contains all drum sounds.
    • SAM Metal holds all metallic samples.
    • SAM FX is a collection of all effect samples.

True Strike Tension’s kits consist of various percussive instruments like the Okedo-Daiko, Log Drum, Octaban and Gran Casa.

Each of the 10 kits has 3 flavors for a total of 30 KoreSounds.

  1. Flavor A — the basic “clean” kits with only some reverb and delay effects to the samples in order to allow spatial enhancements.
  2. Flavor B — adds filter effects and additional Lo-Fi, Drive and Phaser effects for manipulating the frequency spectrum.
  3. Flavor C — utilizes the GUITAR RIG engine for generating distortion and overdrive. This is where things can really get crazy!

True Strike Tension is available as a download for $79 USD / 69 EUR.

So what do I think?

True Strike Tension pretty much blew me away. Really. I’m not sure how this SoundPack compares to True Strike 2 but to me it looks like great advertising for ProjectSAM’s product.

Although the instruments in True Strike Tension are probably most useful for film or game soundtracks, each of the kits has tremendous potential for anything that needs dramatic percussion. The sounds are very expressive and it’s just as easy to create an intimate suspenseful atmosphere as it is to tear things up with massive drum beats.

Make sure to check the audio demos on the True Strike Tension product page. I’m pretty sure you’ll be impressed.

More information: Native Instruments