Audiaire Zenith £69 PC MAC

Pulled from the heart of the Zone synth, this open-ended multitrack MIDI sequencer helps bring your hardware and software synths to life

One of the best features of Audiaire’s Zone synth (9/10, 265) is its brilliant sequencer, which not only generates note patterns, but also automates almost every one of its parameters. The company’s new plugin, Zenith, is that entire system extracted and repurposed as a VST/AU instrument able to output static, sequenced and modulated MIDI note, Continuous Controller (CC) and SysEx data to any plugin or hardware device capable of receiving it.

Zen’ garden

As with any plugin that outputs MIDI, setting Zenith up involves a bit of inter-track routing, the specifics of which will depend on your DAW, but are by no means difficult to negotiate. Logic Pro X is an exception to this, loading Zenith as a MIDI FX plugin directly on the target track. It’s also worth noting that it won’t work at all with Reason or any VST3-only host. Zenith’s GUI comprises an array of note sequencing tools (see All the right notes…) and six Macro knobs on the left; a contextual Settings panel, four LFOs and an Envelope generator on the right; and the sequencer in the bottom half of the centre section.

Above the sequencer is a blank (by default) ‘controller grid’ of 24 square slots into which knobs and sliders (vertical and horizontal) are freely instantiated in any combination. These are then assigned MIDI CCs and response characteristics (Slew) in the contextual Settings panel. This straightforward interface enables custom MIDI control panels to be built in minutes, and presets for a wide range of hardware and software synths are onboard, along with matching MIDI mapping templates for those plugins that support them. These include Xfer Records Serum, Spectrasonics Omnisphere and many instruments and effects by Arturia, u-he and D16. Assignment of controllers to other devices is done using the usual MIDI learn or manual CC entry methods.