ABOUT STREZOV SAMPLING

STREZOV SAMPLING © is a division of STREZOV MUSIC PRODUCTIONS LTD – a company created by

George Strezov – orchestrator, composer and orchestra/choir contractor in Sofia, Bulgaria.

DISCLAIMER / PHILOSOPHY
We would like to note that, in our pursuit for more lively and natural samples, we tend to avoid a
few things that are considered commonplace. We used some normalization on the samples of
“Thunder”, but tried to keep the depth of the instrument dynamics. We embrace candid, lively
samples that include some natural imperfections.

ABOUT THUNDER X3M

THUNDER X3M is a product which took all three previous editions of our epic percussion range and
brought new life to the sample material by implementing an exciting and powerful engine that
allows the user to manipulate the sample material. This, along with fresh and unique new sample
content, opens vast musical possibilities for the working composer. 

The concept behind the whole THUNDER series was to create unique instrument combinations – on-
set mixture between timpani and toms, between Bulgarian tupans and snare drums. The series was
held in high regard and we continued to experiment with THUNDER 2 and 3, introducing a large 15-
man percussion ensemble for the third version. 

The reason we went back to the scripting is simple – we were not happy with the library and we felt
it wasn’t living up to its full potential. As working composers ourselves, we needed features which
will optimize our workflow – pitch control of the percussion and transient controls to name a few.
The new sample content not only has ensemble patches, but also tons of solo percussion –
excellent for giving your rhythms definition. 

Our main idea was to record epic film percussion. The library has multiple dynamic layers (from
very soft ppp to blasting ffff) and has multiple round-robins (meaning that each instrument has
unique samples which get changed every time you press a key). 

And after all these years, the series takes the next step and becomes available to a bigger part of
the community by joining the ranks of the NKS-compatible libraries!

THE X3M ENGINE

The concept behind the new X3M engine is quite simple – it is made out of 12 zones which you
assign different patches to. After setting up the template of your choosing just plug in and play –
nothing else needed! 

When you load up THUNDER X3M , you automatically load all samples inside your “Samples”
directory. However, the instruments are built in such a way which actually keeps all samples
purged, unless you load them up in a zone. This means that not only do you have a single patch
with all types of percussion you might need - you also have a patch which is optimized and does
not hurt your RAM!

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Q : H o w d o e s i t w o r k ?

When you open the patch the main settings you need are displayed here:

Q: How do I load instruments? 

Click on any zone (marked Z-1, Z-2, Z-3, …, Z-12) and then navigate through the list of categories and

instruments; try and choose one that works well for you just by clicking on it - that way the

instrument gets loaded into the selected z o n e .

All 12 keyboard zones are using different color markers to allow for easier navigation and

playability. Not only that – when you start editing a zone, its color will change to purple. We did this

to avoid confusion and to give you a clear view of what you are currently e d i t i n g .

The Reset RR function is also available to you as a keyswitch located on A-1, marked in p u r p l e .  

The patches also have global microphone control.

By default, you have all three microphone positions turned ON - “Close”, “Decca” and “Hall”. If you’d

like to, you can turn each of the microphones on or off, solo or mute them, and also adjust the

stereo spread of each, by clicking on and dragging the symbol on the right of the microphone

position’s name.

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 SOUND SHAPING AND SOUND DESIGN OPTIONS

You have all 12 zones displayed on the page and you have several controls at your disposal for
shaping the sound of all the different instruments in your current template:

EQ

A three-band EQ giving you the opportunity to boost or cut low, middle or high frequencies of the
instruments. 

AMP.FX

Transient Attack Knob & Transient Sustain Knob – transient attack and sustain work like a
compressor; the attack amps up the beginning of the wave file, while the sustain can increase or
decrease the sample tail. These are just PERFECT for getting even punchier sound!

Saturation Knob – a simple, but extremely effective tool to add little saturation/drive to some of the
harmonics of the sound, or to take out some of the harshness. 

WAVESHAPE

Pitch Knob – allows you to adjust the pitch of the samples. Really useful to load a single instrument
twice and then change the pitch of one of the zones. You can load up any instrument of your
choosing into two zones, then decrese the pitch of zone 2 all the way to the left. Play them together
and now you have an even thicker sound!

Offset – moves the starting point of the instrument samples up to 100 ms from their original
position. Whenever you adjust the offset, a bit of an attack curve gets added automatically in order
to smoothen the start. The higher the value / position of the button, the smoother the curve. 

Release – it shortens or extends the release of each played instrument.

Align – One new functionality, first introduced in Percussion Essentials X3M, is the Align tool at the
GUI’s bottom right corner. This can be used to align and change the phase between the close and
far microphones. Naturally the recording from the hall mics has a few ms of delay due to the
bigger distance between the mics and the source of the sound. However, with the Align tool, you’re
able to compensate for this delay and change the character of the sound by adjusting the phase.
Apart from all of these modifications, you have the option to adjust the overall volume, mic volume
and panning for each individual zone. An additional functionality of all new X3M libraries is the
”Select RR” function. This function allows you to deactivate any of the RRs for a particular
instrument included in the library, by simply clicking on the RR’s number in the top right corner of
the GUI. This gives you the liberty to shape the sound per your taste and needs.

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Last, but not least - the engine has some really useful controls: 

NEW – initializes the template – just like the button CLEAR, but applied to all zones.

LOAD/SAVE – you have the possibility to make your own presets and to save them with just a few
clicks! 

HELP – a built-in ‘’help’’ file. Just click on it, and brief explanations of all the library’s controls will
light up and help you get through.

RESET RR – resets all Round-robins for the zone you’ve currently selected (this function is also
available as a keyswitch, located on A-1)

Also, there are two additional buttons at the bottom right corner – DISCARD (reverts all changes
you have made to the default values) and CLEAR (removes all samples and settings from the
zone).You also have EQ control (three knobs for high, mid and low frequencies) and individual
volume control for the current zone.

PATCH LIST

In your “Instruments” folder, you will find a total of 9 patches. “Thunder X3M” is a blank template of
the engine, ready for you to play around with (including rolls in multiple dynamic layers,
controllable via CC#1). And there are 8 more patches preloaded with all of the library’s major
sections (and their respective naming hints to their best use cases):

• All Clacks 

• Epic Metals 

• Ethnic Percussion 

• High Ensembles 

• Low Ensembles 

• Solo Percussion 

• Sound Design Percussion 

• Toms 

As we previously pointed out, “THUNDER X3M” is all about instrument combinations. It is important to
point out that these combinations were not made during post-production – everything was
recorded that way. For us, the ensemble is what makes the music and what makes the samples (a
good example of that could be our Storm Choir series). When playing really different and
unorthodox instruments together, the entire sound of the percussion changes, the players behave
differently and think differently. As a result we have something really special and unheard before.
Here is a detailed list of all samples included:

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 Instrument list

Thunder X3M

Instrument Name Dyn RR Details

Low Ensembles

The Brute 4 5 low taiko (mallets) and gran casa (hands);

Elder Titan 1 7 13 7 timpani, 3 bass drums and 5 floor toms, recorded with mallets (ML)

Elder Titan 2 7 13 7 timpani, 3 bass drums and 5 floor toms, recorded with sticks (ST)

Elder Titan 3 7 13 7 timpani, 3 bass drums and 5 floor toms, recorded with brushes (BR)

2 concert bass drums, 1 detuned kick drum, 3 detuned timpani and shouts;

King Kong 1 1 10
the shouts are a part of the recording, they are not added afterwards

2 concert bass drums, 1 detuned kick drum, 3 detuned timpani and shouts;

King Kong 2 1 11
the shouts are a part of the recording, they are not added afterwards

The Kraken 4 10 2 concert bass drums and 1 detuned kick drum (huge sticks), 3 detuned timpani (hard mallets)

The Mandarin 4 10 2 concert bass drums (huge sticks) and 4 wooden clacks

Camel Safari 10 8 2 concert bass drums (mallets), 2 detuned timpani (sticks), 4 bulgarian tupans (sticks)

2 concert bass drums (mallets), 2 detuned timpani (mallets),

The Hulk 10 8
1 kick drum (played with a mallet), 3 low toms (mallets);

High Ensembles

x ,

F ists O f F ury
si detuned timpani (sticks), solo taiko (hard sticks)
3 5
2 floor toms (mallets); Two Toms – two floor toms (sticks)

Two Toms 4 6 two floor toms (sticks);

A rmada 7 12 15 snares (sticks);

P irate Ship 10 8 8 different snares (sticks);

F ist F ighter 4 10 2 concert bass drums, 1 detuned kick drum, 3 floor toms – played with hands;

W arrior 4 10 2 floor toms, 1 taiko

Click Clackers 1 10 8 4 tupans (sticks), 2 concert bass drums (sticks), 2 detuned timpani (sticks) – all of them : rimshots

Click Clackers 2 10 8 8 toms, detuned (sticks) – all of them : rimshots

Down Rider 10 8 4 tupans ( 'b eater ' ), 3 high toms (sticks), 1 mid tom (sticks)

b uka + b ourine ,

v ish
3 bulgarian tupans (sticks), 1 dar (hands stick), snare drum with tam (sticks)
Der 10 8
1 floor tom, 1 concert bass drum (mallet), 1 snare drum (sticks);

G reater Beasts 1 10 8 8 toms, normal tuning (sticks);

G reater Beasts 2 10 8 8 toms, detuned on set (sticks);

Mountain King 10 8 2 timpani, 1 concert bass drum, 2 snares, 3 toms (all of them with brushes)

V oy v oda 1 10 8 3 tupans (small sticks), 2 floor toms (sticks), 2 concert bass drums (mallets), 1 snare drum (sticks)

E th ic
n Ensembles

Bendir 4 solo Turkish bendir, played with mallets;

j
Ca on 1 4 6 j
solo ca on, played with mallets

j
Ca on 2 4 6 j
solo ca on, played with hands

W ooden Sticks 3 6 two sticks, played by one player;

Kali 5 13 com b ination of 5 tam b ourines, 6 d emj b es and 4 dar b ukas

Mum b ai Chase 1 4 13 15 large water j ugs, recorded with brushes (BR);

Mum b ai Chase 2 2 13 15 large water j ugs, recorded with hands (H)

Mum b ai Chase 3 4 13 15 large water j ugs, recorded with sticks (ST);

The Cartel 5 13 4 cajons, 6 djembes, 1 gran casa, 4 darbukas;

Urban Warriors 1 4 13 basins and buckets, recorded with mallets (ML)

Urban Warriors 2 4 13 basins and buckets, recorded with sticks (ST)

Jungle Chase 3 10 6 toms (rimshots);

Samurai 4 10 6 custom made wooden stick clacks;

Voyvoda 2 10 8 3 tupans (small sticks), 2 floor toms (sticks), 2 concert bass drums (mallets), 1 mid tom (sticks)

Solo Percussion

Taiko 1 5 8 low taiko, flammed hits

Taiko 2 5 8 low taiko hits;

Taiko 3 5 8 mid taiko hits;

Taiko 4 3 8 high taiko hits;

Taiko 5 3 8 taiko rimshots;

Thor's Hammer 1 4 “Mahler hammer” on wood;

Casa 1 4 6 concert bass drum inside a case, sticks;

Casa 2 3 6 concert bass drum with hands (H);

Casa 3 3 6 concert bass drum with mallets (ML);

Casa 4 4 6 concert bass drum with sticks (ST);

Kick 1 4 6 drum k it k ick, p layed with mallets (ML);

Kick 2 4 6 drum k it k ick, p layed with sticks (ST);

Kick RI M 3 6 drum k it k ick, p layed on the rim;

Tom 1 - 12' 4 6 12” tom, p layed with mallet (ML);

Tom 2 - 12' 3 6 12” tom, p layed with sticks (ML);

Tom 3 – 14' 4 6 14” tom, p layed with mallet (ML);

Tom 4 – 14' 4 6 14” tom, p layed with sticks (ML);

Tom 5 – 16' 4 6 16” tom, p layed with mallet (ML);

Tom 6 – 16' 4 6 16” tom, p layed with sticks (ML);

Ep ic M e t a ls

A nvil 1 1 anvil p layed with a hammer

A nvil 2 1 2 anvil p layed with a hammer

A nvil 3 1 2 anvil p layed with a hammer

A nvil 4 1 2 anvil p layed with a hammer

A nvil 5 1 2 anvil p layed with a hammer

Lightning 1 8 two anvils, being hit with another anvil

Thrall 1 1 8 anvil, being hit with a metal chain;

Thrall 2 1 2 multiple anvils, being hit with a hammer;

Uruk - Hai 1 4 metal anvil, thrown on top o f p ile o anvils;

f

Thunderbolt 1 1 15 an e nsemble o f v arious metals – big “anvil” sound;

Metal F reak 1 8 5 small anvils (hammers);

G ates Of Hell 1 1 5 metal gates, p layed with hammers;

G ates Of Hell 2 1 5 detuned metal gates, p layed with hammers;

Sound Design Percussion
processed samples of hits on enormous sheets of metal;

Balrog 1 10 ensemble hits with hammers and large drumsticks.

Dragon 1 15 2 concert bass drums (mallets), 2 detuned toms (large sticks), 2 “anvils” (hammers);

King Kong 3 1 10 processed off-beat hits of 2 concert bass drums, 1 detuned kick drum, 3 detuned timpani and shouts;

King Kong 4 1 11 processed hits of 2 concert bass drums, 1 detuned kick drum, 3 detuned timpani and shouts;

Mammuthus 4 10 processed low booms

Steampunk 4 10 processed high clacks

Thunderbolt 2 1 15 processed metal hits;

Werewolf 4 10 processed toms;

Rolls

Armada Roll 4 Rolls

Elder Titan 1 Roll 4 1 Rolls

Elder Titan 2 Roll 4 1 Rolls

Elder Titan 3 Roll 4 1 Rolls

Kali Roll 4 1 Rolls

Mumbai Chase 1 Roll 4 1 Rolls

Mumbai Chase 2 Roll 4 1 Rolls

Mumbai Chase 3 Roll 4 1 Rolls

The Cartel Roll 4 1 Rolls

Urban warrior 1 roll 4 1 Rolls

Urban warrior 2 roll 4 1 Rolls

 INSTALLATION / SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Available for download directly via Native Access.

Powered by Native Instruments’ free Kontakt Player v6.7.1 or higher.

Full /paid/ retail Kontakt supported but not required

Approx. 11GB Hard drive space (~5.5GB for the archived files and ~5.5 GB for the unzipped library)

Internet access

Min. of 2GB RAM

For detailed setup instructions, please follow the link below:

MANUAL SETUP INSTRUCTIONS

LICENSE AGREEMENT
When you purchase a product from “Strezov Sampling”, you obtain a unique download link

for sound samples, loops and/or software from www.strezov-sampling.com.

However, we should point out that you ARE NOT obtaining ownership of the sound samples—you

are purchasing only a valid license to use our products in your musical compositions—whether or
not they are released commercially.

You agree to the full Terms and Conditions on our site.

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 CREDITS

Instrument Programming & Scripting

Alexander Koev

Sample Editing

Plamen Penchev

Art & Brand Direction

Lyubomir Iliev • Boyan Yordanov

GUI Design

Alexander Koev • Lyubomir Iliev • Boyan Yordanov

Recording Engineer

Plamen Penchev

Sample mapping

Alexander Kostov

Marketing and PR

Robin Birner

• • •

Contracting by Four For Music Ltd. with the amazing musicians of

Sofia Session Studio, led by the brilliant percussionist Nikola Petrov!

• • •

Instrument rental

Nikola Petrov

Kiril Petrov

Dobri Paliev

• • •

Contracting

Four For Music Ltd

SOFIA SESSION ORCHESTRA

Thank you!

George Strezov