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Percussion brings motion, urgency, and texture to music production—whether you are building epic cinematic scores, laying down organic Latin grooves, or adding subtle shaker and tambourine accents to a pop production. Unlike standard kit drums, percussion spans a massive range of instruments, from massive orchestral timpani and tuned marimbas to world instruments like djembes, cajons, and hand drums.
This guide highlights the finest free percussion sample libraries for Native Instruments Kontakt, covering cinematic hits, world/ethnic instruments, and auxiliary studio percussion.
(Note: Looking for full acoustic drum kits, rock/pop drum sets, or electronic drum machines? Check out our dedicated guide to the Best Free Kontakt Drum Libraries.)
Lineage Percussion Pro (Free Selection) (ProjectSAM)
Format: Kontakt Player
This is a cut-down version of the paid library, but it sounds great. It includes snare drums, congas, toms, roto toms, Kashishi, cymbals, and a “melodic ensemble.” I had a blast playing around with it.
SoundProps Darbuka (SoundProps)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
It sounds very good. If you’re looking for a darbuka, you found it!
Hunter’s Percussion – World (Pianobook / Hunter Rogerson)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
A collection of high quality sampled percussion instruments — djembe, conga, bongo, udu and the taiko family (o daiko, taiko, shime daiko).
Audio Demo: https://soundcloud.com/user-612298561/plague?in=audioinc/sets/hunters-percussion-world
Hunter’s Percussion – Orchestral (Pianobook / Hunter Rogerson)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
A collection of snares, toms, bass drum, and concert chimes that were deeply sampled with three mic positions from one of my favorite samplists on Pianobook.
Audio Demo: https://soundcloud.com/hew-wagner/the-viking-hunters?in=audioinc/sets/hunters-percussion-orchestral
Free Dhol Ensemble (Sonuscore)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
A collection of dhol drum samples (a double-sided barrel drum played with a bare hand). Beautifully recorded. It’s a simple percussion instrument that sounds great.
The New Cajon (8Dio)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
Includes Cajon and Bongo articulations. Check out the bank labelled “Bongos 4.” They sound really good.
Audio Demo: https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/14805775
Fruit Shake (In Session Audio)
Format: Kontakt Player
Contains four shakers. Very nicely recorded.
Video Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMmIYoArVTc
Snaps, Claps, Slaps, Stomps & Shouts (Red Room Audio / Impact Soundworks)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
I have a bunch of sample libraries of snaps, claps and stomps, but I most often use this one. It’s epic!
Heritage Percussion (Impact Soundworks)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
A very nice percussion library featuring 13 heirloom hand percussion instruments: shakers, claves, rattles, djembe and more.
Taiko (Prismasounds)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
A nice sounding taiko drum instrument with some added features including an arpeggiator.
Thunder X3M Taiko Freebie (Strezov Sampling)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
Another free taiko drum, but this one has more room and more of an epic, cinematic sound to it than the Prismasounds library.
Cajon (Pianobook)
Format: Kontakt (full version)
This is an excellent cajon sample library recorded using two microphones (front, centered on the upper rim; back, towards the sound hole) and including bass, mid and slap samples for each hand and 8 round-robins for each hit.