Native Instruments Action Strikes review

Project-ready cinematic percussion sounds

  • £249
  • €299
  • $299
Reviews
By
published
The sample library has 12 hefty percussion ensembles, used in three Kontakt instruments

MusicRadar Verdict

For impressive instant results, this is hard to beat, particularly for soundtracking.

Pros

  • +

    Cinematic sounds in a boiled-down package. Easy to use.

Cons

  • -

    Those after intricacy and flexibility should look elsewhere.

MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.

The sequel to Native Instrument's acclaimed Action Strings, Action Strikes applies the same "instant mix-ready patterns" approach to percussion.

"Like Action Strings before it, Action Strikes sounds bombastic, vibrant and resoundingly cinematic"

The sample library has 12 hefty percussion ensembles (Taiko Invasion, Heroic Drums, etc), used in three Kontakt instruments.

In Ensemble, 105 preset rhythms with five variations per ensemble are strung together via keyswitching, with dynamics controlled by the mod wheel and some instrumentation control available in the ability to freely combine the Low, Mid and High sections from up to three ensembles.

The other two instruments - Instrument and Hits - offer single-instrument loops and banks of multisampled one-shots respectively.

Like Action Strings before it, Action Strikes sounds bombastic, vibrant and resoundingly cinematic. If you need intricate control over your drum and cymbal sounds, there are far more flexible options, but for impressive instant results, this is hard to beat, particularly for soundtracking.

Computer Music
Computer Music

Computer Music magazine is the world’s best selling publication dedicated solely to making great music with your Mac or PC computer. Each issue it brings its lucky readers the best in cutting-edge tutorials, need-to-know, expert software reviews and even all the tools you actually need to make great music today, courtesy of our legendary CM Plugin Suite.