Welcome to Music Nation. We are thrilled this week to take a loser look at Bassam Ayoub’s Arabic Percussion. This is a no-frills sample player that is light on resources, loads in a flash and promises authentic Arabic percussion.
Updated October 2025
This is a no-frills straight forward sample player that is light on resources and loads in a flash Arabic Percussion requires the brand new Engine Player from Engine Audio.
Arabic Percussion Collection by Engine Audio
$199 USD
AAX Native, AU, Engine Player, Mac, Standalone, VST3, Win Download Size: 612 MB
Check the price on Best Service
The New Engine Player
The Engine Player uses a simple grid-style browser that makes finding pre-installed instruments a breeze, with a single settings button for loading new libraries as you purchase them. At the moment, Arabic Percussion is the only library I have for the platform, but it looks great in a neat square GUI with well-laid-out and intuitive controls.
The entire interface is scalable up to 140% and offers a handful of global functions such as a limiter, master volume, tuning, and buffer options.
Installing new libraries is a little more hands-on compared to Native Instruments’ Kontakt. You’ll need to manually move the sample data into the correct folder and then activate the library using a simple code response. I actually miss the days before Native Access when Kontakt setup was this simple.
The Library
Arabic Percussion has a distinct Middle Eastern aesthetic, as you might expect, with attractive Arabic-style insignia and detailed, high-resolution illustrations of each instrument.
The main display is surrounded by four clear dials for volume, pan, reverb level, and reverb type. At the very center, you’ll find the articulations currently loaded with their assigned key note positions.
Arabic Percussion includes 8 authentic-sounding instruments, some with alternative recordings, totalling 13 individual percussion variations. While the quality is excellent and the focus is very specific to the Arabic percussion genre, $199 does feel a little expensive for the limited number of instruments provided.
The play range is divided between individual samples from C0 to D3, and pre-made grooves and phrases in the C7–C9 range. Unfortunately, that’s well outside the standard 88-note piano range, meaning you’ll either need to trigger them manually or transpose your keyboard. Oddly, there is no way to move these key ranges, leaving a large unused gap that could have been put to better use.
The one-shot samples are all clearly color-coded, with on-screen indicators showing exactly which samples you are triggering. It’s all very clear and logically arranged.
Since the Engine Player itself is quite basic, there are no options to purge samples, load custom arrangements, or alter MIDI channels. This makes the library harder to integrate into a larger orchestral template.
The Sound
I don’t have much hands-on experience with the real instruments included in this collection, but it’s clear the recordings are highly detailed and professionally captured.
The instruments sound rich and authentic, with an immediately immersive character. The looped phrases, performed by Bassam Ayoub himself, have a natural and musical feel. Adding your own hits with the one-shot samples brings extra character and uniqueness.
We’ve seen a similar system in products like Native Instruments’ Action Strikes and Best Service’s Celtic Era 2 and Dark Era. It’s a simple way for even ham-fisted keyboard drummers like me to create convincing and dynamic percussion lines.
Unfortunately, MIDI performances cannot be exported, which is disappointing. Key switching is the only way to use the included grooves effectively within your project.
That said, the consistency across the samples is excellent. They not only sound like they were recorded in the same space, but the clever use of reverb gives them a cohesive and natural blend. Even when swapping between different reverb algorithms, the continuity between instruments remains strong—something I’ve often criticized in other percussion libraries.
Conclusion
Bassam Ayoub’s Arabic Percussion is a well-recorded collection of focused instruments presented in a clean and easy-to-use system. The workflow is clear, the GUI provides helpful feedback, and it’s a joy to play in real time.
That said, I remain a little stuck on the price. Yes, it’s a niche product, and one of the few in this particular market, but $199 USD for 8 instruments does feel steep. If you see it on sale for under $100, I would say grab it!
Still, the sound quality and attention to detail are second to none. For anyone in need of authentic Middle Eastern percussion, this library delivers.
The new Engine Player platform also impressed me with its minimal DSP usage, though its limited MIDI implementation holds it back from being a true professional template tool—at least for now.
All in all, this is a fun, great-sounding collection and a solid introduction to the Engine Player ecosystem. I can easily imagine a series of percussion libraries building on this platform, as the design really lends itself to quick library swapping on the fly.
Loads of fun, and definitely worth a look if you’re in the market for authentic percussion samples.
Visit Best Service for full details and purchasing options.
$199 USD.
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