About Session Percussionist
Session Percussionist enables you to play a percussion ensemble consisting of up to five players using your MIDI keyboard.
Session Percussionist provides you with a percussion ensemble containing up to five players. You can load entire ensembles including instruments and patterns for every player, and change instruments and patterns for each player individually. Each player has its own color throughout the interface: red, green, blue, yellow, magenta for player 1 to 5, respectively. Advanced pages let you precisely adjust patterns and mixer settings for each player.
Playing Session Percussionist
Each player has a dedicated octave on your MIDI keyboard: The octave starting with C1 controls player 1, the octave starting with C2 controls player 2, etc. In addition, the lower octave starting with C0 triggers all instruments together.
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Each octave is split as follows:
Keys C to E trigger five different rhythmic patterns.
Keys F to A trigger single hits (or notes) in up to five different articulations.
Keys A♯ and B trigger up to two different rolls.
Note
On NI keyboards equipped with Light Guide, the keyboard mirrors the colors used in the ensemble: The lower global octave is mint, the pattern keys for each player use the player’s color, and the remaining keys are plum. For instruments that include less than five articulations or only one roll, the inactive keys are off.
Available instruments
The five players in Session Percussionist can be used with 58 different instruments, containing recordings of single percussion instruments along with dedicated patterns. Each instrument is provided with four different mixer settings called variations and labeled A to D. Browsing instruments and their variations is done in the Instrument Browser.
The instruments are grouped in 16 categories according to the type of instrument:
Agogo Bells
Bar Chimes
Bongos
Cabasa
Cajon
Claves
Congas
Cowbell
Djembe
Finger Snaps
Hand Claps
Shaker
Tambourine
Triangle
Vibra Slap
Woodblock