DREAM KIT : ZENITH

Imagine a parallel universe where drums are synths and the performances are waveforms in that synth.

This instrument is a long held dream for me. I first came up with it when I was refinishing my early 80's Gretsch kit in 2015, I noticed the sounds of the individual component parts and thought what if I chromatically tuned everything and it would sort of be like a synth? The idea of having the opposite to the nature of drums, tuned and sustaining sounded like a cool concept.

It then became a task to try and get something musical out of each part, every sound you hear in the demos is from the instrument from drums to esoteric sound design, synths and everything in between:

• 120 Waveforms : 120 unique performances derived from drums.
• Nuts and bolts, Lugs, Tuning Rods, Floor Tom Legs, Shells, Heads, Drums, Toms, Snares, Cymbals, Pedals and Stands, Percussion, Rims, Conceptual ideas/granular processing and custom instruments.
• Deeply multisampled with up to 38 velocity layers, multiple round robins to interesting one shots and everything in between.
• Stretched and tuned across 5 octaves.
• Recorded and re-amped at Otterhead Studios giving Close, Overhead and Room on everything.
• Windows 11 VST3.
• Mac OS VST3 / AU / AAX (intel & silicon).
• 16.7gb on download (handled by pulse downloader).
• 21.7gb space required, ssd recommended.
• 1000+ Custom presets.
• 42,000 samples.

$199.

{See video at top of page}

They say there's a fine line between madness and genius. Dream Kit: Zenith sits very comfortably on the genius side.

SOUND ON SOUND October 2025.