Patchblocks developing suite of affordable, portable synths and drum machines
Published
Mon, Apr 3, 2017, 09:51
Words
Share
A Kickstarter has been launched to fund minijam studio.
Patchblocks has launched a Kickstarter to fund minijam studio, a set of portable electronic instruments.
minijam studio is aimed at users seeking the hands-on playability of hardware in a compact package for a low price. Its four modules are available for a pledge of £130 and are about the size of a smartphone. Each module runs on rechargeable batteries and requires no additional software to function.
The tek.drum is a drum machine containing eight instruments with four parameters each. These can be sequenced across 16 steps and stored in eight chainable patterns, resulting in a maximum sequence length of 128 steps. Automation can be recorded as parameter locks, which can then be stored with sequence data into a flash drive.
tek.waves is a wavetable synthesiser with 16 automatable parameters. It has four banks of wavetables, an arpeggiator and a two-octave keyboard with selectable scales. Like the tek.drum, it has a global delay effect and patterns can be stored to flash. The set is rounded out by a resonant, multi-mode, two-pole analogue filter and .hub, a three channel audio mixer that also functions as a recorder. It has sync trigger output for each channel, meaning the set can be synced with other hardware.
If successfully funded, minijam studio will ship to backers in September 2017.
Listen to audio examples of minijam studio.
Watch a walkthrough of the tek.drum.