Moonkits

Moonkits: a mission to explore the softer side of the drumkit

Brushes, but not only for Jazz. Also rods, mallets, tea sticks: anything that mellows the attack and allows the texture to sing out. Moonkits was intentionally recorded with extra detail at low velocites, because not every track is rock'n'roll. You don't need to smash the kit hard. Just great touch and feel.

Moonkits was recorded at Konk Studios in North London, founded, and still owned by, Ray Davies of The Kinks. The room harbours a fantastic drum sound, as heard on records by The Stones Roses, Massive Attack, The Fall, Blur, Depeche Mode, Portishead, Al Green, The Cure, Artic Monkeys, The Kinks and about a million others. The custom Neve console (with 1095 EQs) was bought from Utopia studios in 1974 and was used to record The Wall by Pink Floyd among many other classic records.

The Kontakt Instrument

• The Drum Kit Panel - The control hub for Moonkits. Choose kit pieces, edit mic channels, mix your groove.

• The Mixer - The Mixer opens in the Drum window to enable a fast work-flow. Each kit piece has its own mixer channel, with a fully featured channel strip to shape the sound. Overhead, Rear + Room mics can routed to a seperate mix bus or stay within the individual drum's channel. Each channel can be sent to a seperate Kontakt output in your DAW for additional mixing.

• Beat Tools: Euclidean Beats - Euclidean Beats is a revolutionary way of generating drum patterns; simpler than it first looks. Set any number of hits and any number of steps per track, and Euclid will space it all out equally for you. Generate creative grooves you never imagined within seconds - you can't put a step wrong.

• Beat Tools: Beat Shifter - A 6 track step-sequencer with a difference - each track can be programmed to shift its notes as the beat plays, creating new beats as the patterns evolves. Sounds can be set to move a lot, stay completely still, or move incrementally while never losing their musical timing.

• Beat Tools: Poly Beats - Poly Beats is a new kind of drum sequencer from Soniccouture. Each track divides the bar into arbitrary subdivisions, or polyrhythms. Since each track can be set completely different from each other, polyrhythms can quickly sound very strange and unnatural. Definitely for the left-field.

Kits + Grooves Preview

• Moonkits features 80 preset kits mixed and ready to go.
• Each kit has its own groove, set up and ready to drag and drop as MIDI.
• Slot it straight in, or jump off  into new directions.

The Studio Moonkits

• MOONKIT 1 | ADAM'S ODDITY KIT - Kick: Yamaha Maple 18, Snare: Pearl Sensitone 13, TOM: Leedy 15 Snare drum, Floor Tom: Stratford Besson 18 Kick, Zildjian 13 Remix Jungle Hat, Zildjian 22 Constantinople Ride, Zildjian 18" Breakbeat ride

• MOONKIT 2 | ROGERS HOLIDAY - Kick: Rogers 20, Snare: Ludwig Acrolite, TOM: Rogers 12, Floor Tom: Rogers 16, Zildjian Avedis 15 Hat, Zildjian 22 Avedis Ride

• MOONKIT 3 | GRETSCH 1954 - Kick: Gretsch 20, Snare: Gretsch 14, TOM: Gretsch 12, Floor Tom: Gretsch 16, Zildjian New Beats 1970 14 Hat, Zildjian 22 Kerope Ride

• MOONKIT 4 | LUDWIG SUPER CLASSICS - Kick: Ludwig 22, Snare: Ludwig 400, TOM: Ludwig 13, Floor Tom: Ludwig 16, Zildjian K14 Dry Hats, Zildjian 21 Special Dry Ride, Cymbal & Gong Co 20 crash Ride

• MOONKIT 5 | TEA & TIMBALES KIT - Kick: Slingerland 24, Snare: Ludwig Acrolite Teatowel, TOM: LP Brass Timbales, Floor Tom: LP Brass Timbales, Sabian 10 MiniHats, Zildjian K Dark Ride

Requires KONTAKT 6 or KONTAKT 6 PLAYER version 6.1 or later