HypnoSapien (aka Patrick Petro) loved the Zendrum, the cult-hit, ultra-sensitive, boutique drum controller. But he wanted something compact with a specific configuration. He writes:

Check out the new Zendrum ZAP desktop midi percussion controller, the first truly professional level instrument of its kind. I contacted Zendrum about custom building this particular model for me with this particular pad configuration. They loved it and made it a full production model.

The results: a Zendrum that costs less than the other models (US$999 list) and fits into tight spaces.

Of course, cool as this hardware may be, it’s easily upstaged by the ridiculously dexterous finger-drumming chops of Maestro Petro, as seen in this demo video:

As Patrick says, “Good stuff! My ZAP is my monome 256’s new best friend. Mmm…wood.”

Actually, that’s not a bad coupling at all — one of my criticisms of monome way back before all the Web buzz when it was released was that its buttons lack velocity sensitivity. With monome handling button-pressing duties and ZAP responding more as an instrument, your fingers should be very happy indeed.

Zendrum ZAP Product Page [Zendrum Catalog]