Have been looking at Indiginus and their libraries again.  Brio Percussion Ensemble recently caught my attention.  Does anyone use it?  How does it compare to Jamcussion or NI's Cuba?

Can't comment on the NI library, although I'd love to hear from someone who has experience with it. From what I gather, it's really a different animal entirely from the other two. Not just a percussion library, it also has piano, bass and trumpet. I passed on it because it has no tambourines or egg shakers. 6 guiros, though!
 
Jamcussion has a wider assortment of instruments than Brio, e.g. multiple shaker and tambourine types. I've never used Jamstix to automate percussion rhythms, and would like to hear from anyone who's done that.
 
Brio is just a sequencer (actually multiple sequencers, one for each instrument) while Jamstix, of course, actually generates patterns on its own. Brio's pretty easy to program, though, if you've ever used a Kontakt-based sequencer before.
 
I like Brio, but truthfully, I haven't used it much. But then, I haven't used Jamstix for a while, either. I'm still looking for the ultimate hand percussion instrument. At this point, I don't believe it exists yet.
 
You might also have a listen to Shimmer 'n Shake from Nine Volt Audio, although it's just shakers and tambourines, no cajon, bongo, conga etc., no built-in sequencer (lots of loops though) and no alternate microphone options. Not really in the same league as JS and Brio, but best in its class AFAIK.
 

While I love Jamstix for its drum pattern creation, I have to say I get a little pissed when I try to use Jamcussion. The included percussion sounds are excellent, but I didn't buy it for sounds, I bought it to help me create percussion parts with realistic feel, which Jamstix excels at for drums.

The problem I have with Jamcussion is that the patterms it creates are limited to South American and African styles, which is great if that's the feel you're going for. However if you're looking, say, to put down a simple shaker on a funk track, or just have a tambourine shaking away on a rock number, there doesn't appear to be any obvious way to do that. With Jamstix I find that I can usually adjust the brain settings to get what I want, but it just seems less configurable in Jamcussion. I also find it hard to configure the percussion "kit" for MIDI out so that you only have one or two instruments going. In addition, the manual is crap. There's definitely not as much effort gone into it as Jamstix in these respects. However I'm sure someone cleverer than me has managed to work through these problems. I got the impression from the Rayzoon forums that it's something which doesn't get worked on a lot.

I have Jamcussion, the original percussion library from DFH Superior, and Brio. I also have a ton of small percussion libraries from SoundIron, 8Dio, Flying Hands, and others.
 
They are all different tools. Only two, Jamstix and Brio, have pattern tools. Jamstix creates some really cool percussion patterns, somewhat limited as described above, but that hasn't been a problem for me yet. Brio is more of a pattern sequencer, which can also be really cool. I use them both about equally. The nice thing about Brio is that I can also just use the sounds, and they are lovely.
 
I really like Brio!

I also have Brio & Jamcussion.......JC will take a bit of time to learn given the complexity of Jamstix. On the other hand, Brio is easy/peasy to use in getting good results quickly.......price is excellent too. I like all the Indegenus tools.  
 

Thanks to all of you.  This is very helpful.  
 
I do own Jamcussion, NI Cuba, and Toontrack's Latin Percussion' like discussed here, they are three different animals.  My interest in Brio is only because I stumbled across it while looking at their Solid State Symphony (which I am about to purchase).  I already own a couple of Indiginus guitar products, but never paid any attention to Brio.  It does look like an easy to use step sequencer for percussion instruments.  Indiginus makes such nice, affordable products that I suspect Brio would be decent. I just have not read much about Brio.  So the posts you are making are helpful.

Brio is great and moron proof. NI Cuba is, as stated above, a whole nother thang.

Last year I reviewed Brio for SoundBytes here. 
 

Thanks Bitflipper.  I somehow had not seen your review.  It is helpful.

Here's another one you might want to take a look at: Percussao do Brasil from Sonokinetic.
 
On the surface it appears similar to Brio, but IMO it's really not in the same league. No sequencer, for example. It's got a different set of instruments than Brio (e.g. no cajon, one of my favorites). But it does sound great, and it's inexpensive (50 EUR).