Hears The Rubs: Free Experimental Percussion for Kontakt
Organic friction mallets, cinematic drones, aggressive textures and unusual sound-design tools in one free instrument.
Hears The Rubs by Justin Trieger is a free experimental instrument built from recordings of friction mallets, also known as superball mallets, performed across a variety of percussion instruments.
The result is far removed from a conventional percussion library. Hears The Rubs can generate subtle resonances, evolving drones, strange organic movement and huge cinematic bursts of sound.
From Friction Mallets to Cinematic Sound Design
The original recordings were created using friction mallets rubbed across percussion instruments to produce resonances that can range from delicate ambience to extremely aggressive and explosive sounds.
Justin Trieger recorded the material in the percussion studios of the New World Symphony and selected some of the most distinctive results for the library.
Rather than simply mapping the raw recordings across the keyboard, Hears The Rubs combines them with heavily manipulated versions, making the instrument particularly useful for cinematic composition, horror scoring, experimental electronic music and sound design.
The Mangle Control
One of the most interesting features is the large Mangle control positioned at the center of the interface.
Each dry recording is paired with a heavily processed version of the same sound. The Mangle control lets you crossfade between these two personalities, moving from relatively organic percussion to much more extreme textures.
This makes it possible to create evolving drones, transitions, impacts and atmospheric layers without constantly changing presets or loading additional effects.
Built-In Sound Shaping
The Kontakt interface gives producers direct access to several useful parameters including pitch, low-pass filtering, stereo width, pan, attack, release and reverb.
An additional effects section provides further processing possibilities, making Hears The Rubs much more than a simple collection of sampled percussion hits.
The library works especially well when you need movement and texture rather than a traditional rhythmic percussion part.
Ideal for Cinematic and Experimental Production
- Cinematic music
- Horror and suspense
- Trailer production
- Dark ambient
- Experimental electronic music
- Drones and atmospheres
- Transitions and impacts
- Sound design
Kontakt and Decent Sampler Versions
Hears The Rubs is available for both Kontakt and Decent Sampler, giving producers two ways to explore the library.
The Kontakt version received an update on May 13, 2026 to correct an issue affecting the Mangle control.
Hears The Rubs at a Glance
Creator: Justin Trieger
Formats: Kontakt / Decent Sampler
Type: Experimental percussion and cinematic sound design
Sound sources: Friction mallets / superball mallets
Price: Free
Final Thoughts
Hears The Rubs is an excellent example of how unusual acoustic recordings can become a genuinely creative virtual instrument. The combination of friction mallets, organic resonances, processed layers and the Mangle system gives composers a palette that feels much less predictable than another conventional percussion library. For cinematic, ambient and experimental producers, it is well worth adding to the collection.
