Majetone release Dream Kit: Zenith

Majetone have recently announced the launch of a new virtual instrument that offers a new take on drums, reimagining the drum kit as a fully chromatic, synthesizer-style sound source. Designed and built by producer and engineer James Yates, Dream Kit: Zenith combines meticulous multisampling with analogue synth-inspired features, resulting in an inspiring and deeply tactile instrument.

Born from its creator’s decades-long obsession with playing drums, building custom drums and sound design, Dream Kit: Zenith is said to be far from your typical drum plug-in. Majetone say that it takes the entire anatomy of a drum kit and repurposes it into an expressive instrument that’s playable across five octaves. It’s not just the drums themselves that have been sampled, either, with a wealth of component parts such as lugs, shells, hoops, squeaky pedals and more all making an appearance!

120 Waveforms: 120 unique performances derived from drums. Captures nuts and bolts, lugs, tuning rods, floor tom legs, shells, heads, drums, toms, snares, cymbals, pedals and stands, percussion, rims and conceptual ideas/granular processing. Deeply multisampled with up to 38 velocity layers, multiple round robins, interesting one-shots and everything in between. Stretched and tuned across five octaves Recorded and re-amped at Otterhead Studios with Close, Overhead and Room mic options for all sources.

“The goal was to treat every part of a drum kit like a musical note, not just a percussive hit. I wanted to see what would happen if I treated those sounds as waveforms in a synth. Tuning and re-amping them into a real space, giving the impression of being both real and not real at the same time. Then it became a game of opposites — going against the nature of a drum from staccato to legato or incorporating performance techniques and embracing, in places, chaos, often leading to unexpected beauty not often associated with the drum kit. This instrument represents a decade of experimentation and four years of development. I hope it demonstrates my deep love for drums and that you love it as much as I do.” - James Yates, Founder, Majetone

Compatibility

Dream Kit: Zenith is supported on macOS and Windows systems, and is available as a VST3 or AU plug-in.