ProjectSAM releases Lineage Percussion FREE for Kontakt Player

ProjectSAM has given us some very good orchestral freebies in the past, including a Lineage Percussion Kit as part of The Free Orchestra 2 collection.

This time around, ProjectSAM has released a free version of the full Lineage Percussion Pro library (three versions are available: Pro, Core, and Free).

On paper, the gap between the Free and Pro versions is massive.

Lineage Percussion Free gives us ten instruments with a few articulations, while the Pro version has 70 instruments with hundreds of articulations.

But that’s not unusual for a freebie; it’s some of the unexpected features of this freebie that make the difference.

Starting at the beginning, the ten available instruments are:

You also get two kits, a kit builder, and a taste of some Pro features.

We almost don’t need to mention the sound quality, which is a strange thing to say, but ProjectSAM always delivers in that regard, and we’ve heard enough great-sounding orchestral freebies to know you don’t need to pay a small fortune for awesome sounds.

What is worth focusing on is the less expected features, like the three microphone positions: Close, Stage, and Ambient.

The interface allows you to move the current instrument around the stage, simultaneously adjusting microphone mixes and pan settings.

Whether you’re recording a single instrument or a kit, having every sound exactly where you want it at this stage is great.

Another noteworthy and unexpected feature is Adaptive Sync. You can adjust crescendos and rolls by number of beats or seconds to ensure any particular impact starts and ends where you want it to.

Adaptive Sync is very useful as it’s rare that you’d ever want to drag like Questlove in orchestral or cinematic percussion, and when you try to shoehorn sounds that don’t fit perfectly, it can get sloppy fast.

Lineage Percussion Free requires Kontakt Player, which is available for macOS (13 or later) and Windows (10/11).

As far as orchestral percussion goes, this library overdelivers as a freebie and is right at home in professional projects.

You might want to try it alongside something like LUX Orchestral Strings Elements by Sonuscore (also for the free Kontakt Player).