It’s a shame they wasted all that saved width with those huge black panels.
The idea is very interesting though
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That is what is done with the various acoustic narrow key piano versions as well, at the present time.
It’s an interim solution. The cost for the redesign of the instrument chassis part would get added to the upfront expenditure. You can bet if a large enough market develops for this sort of thing, that that adaptation will happen too.
Plus i fully expect Medeli will OEM-sell a narrow key keybed as well, at least eventually. Then other instrument and controller makers could engineer and make various other systems as well.
Yet another potentially large marketplace this can sell into is for young students ( and their teachers ).
Now will a company like Fatar respond with their own version ? And is there going to be a synth or organ key version ?
And influencers ? I see that Nahre Sol just did a short video on reduced width acoustic piano keyboards :
EDIT : Typos.
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I’ve been interested in one of these for a long time.
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Some interesting synths being developed :
Echon 6 from Morphor
( thread )
Groc ODD-1 from Oddment Audio
( thread )
Drop from Neuzeit Instruments
( thread )
Uranograph from Clank
( thread )
Wiggler from Sound Workshop
( web-site )
drumDING from Vermona
( thread )
Hexdrums from Erica
( thread )
Beat Friend from Audio Computer
( thread )
Magnolia from Frap Tools
( thread )
Terrain from Conductive Labs
( thread )
ADDED : Of the above that will be at Machina Bristronica at the end of September will be the :
Echon 6, drumDING, Hexdrums, Beat Friend, and Magnolia.
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Pushpin Groovebox. ( Strange that i couldn’t find anything on this on the forum. )
Will be at Machina Bristronica 2025 ( thread ) later this month. I have a hunch this is about to be at a full release. They were at Machina Bristronica 2024, but it wasn’t complete then.
You need an old Push 2, a Raspberry Pi 5, an audio interface. You can then optionally add Elektron gear to that. It’s open source software.
Features
- Eight synth tracks (one instance of Surge XT per track)
- Dynamic instrument routing directly from the Ableton Push 2 for effect chains, sends and master effects
- Overwitch support built in for Elektron Overbridge 2 compatible devices
- Designed to be used without a laptop on a Raspberry Pi 5
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I met the people/person behind this one at the last Machina Bristronica. It looked like an interesting project.
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This is very interesting. And I do have an old Push 2!
Rune 1 from Zlorb
A bit of a mystery ( at least to me ).
This was shown at Knobcon last weekend. Thanks to Cat Synth who plays right along with this presentation.
On the exhibitors list there is a Zlob Modular.
I don’t think this is from them. There is no Zlorb, but there is a Scoopy Scoop Labs which is apparently who makes this.
The hardware to audio connection wasn’t the best in the video, so you can’t judge. In principle this has a lot of interesting possibilities, but hard to know from the info so far. The link in the comments is to a web-site that seems unimplemented.
Anyone here that can work out any of the mystery here, that would be appreciated.
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Dreamcatcher from Frequency Factory
A very early prototype and it sounds really good ( to me ) despite the recording quality. This has both a granular and wavetable engine that processes off the same sample plus an FM synth, with a comb filter, and various other additional filters and effects.
Another video by Cat Synth from Knobcon 2025.
The second half of this video gets wonderfully weird. Keep in mind they just got started on creating this prototype, so this will just grow from here.
There is a website, but this one is also unimplemented at the moment.
I need to keep an eye on this !
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The Greenwaves Ondes Martenot sort of synth / controller from IdioTech. This is still in prototype form.
This looks like a very nice implementation of this with some good flexibility.
The voice control, and added keyboard, chording and controller features are all good additions.
Another Ondes Martenot Type Device
I did a thread before on the Therevox.
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Hum…. I smell G.A.S.
This seems right up my alley to control all manner of monosynths, but the space on top could also be used nicely just with the synths own output and the usual CDR/weirdness chain.
Its mostly a numbers game now, if the price is right (meaning bellow 500€) I will not resist.
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This one fits in with a few other touch controlled multichannel CV devices that have shown up
just this year.
Along with Trails from Bela ( post ), Elfo from Enjoy ( post ), and Caress of Stars from Arcane Devices ( post ) – i am going to add kHarper from Error Instruments and This Is Not Rocket Science.
kHarper comes from a combination of the word ‘harp’ and ‘Karplus Strong’. While the touch interface is simple – four position “string” areas on the panel with a color LED background – it also has four voices of a digital Karplus Strong oscillator, with physical modeling from a choice of nine styles. There is also CV control output, as well as CV and MIDI input.
Final touches are being made to this system, and i understand that TINRS will show it at Machina Bristronica this coming weekend.
The similarity and differences with these four devices provides opportunity to merge them into potential combinations that are greater than the sum of the parts.
Check out how this sounds, and let us know what you think.
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I’m already intrigued even though I’m not really looking towards a modular synth setup. Considering the prominent instrument featured in music I like, and the synthesis type this is centered around, it could be one of the perfect synths out there for me if I hadn’t bought the DN2.
The Kodamo INFINI is still in the works. ( thread )
At one time it looked like this, but i expect it is very different now, three and a half years later.
Will it even be a keyboard ?
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PWM is remaking a very close hardware copy of the original OSCar synth. This will be a limited run, and is a legitimate, rights owned, version.
Announce at Machina Bristronica 2025
No images available yet. Available in 2026 ( fingers crossed, it’s still very early. )
Original OSCar from Oxford Synthesiser Company
I expect this to be very well done, and will be a tribute to Chris Huggett.
( Thread )
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Zerua Nahasi new granular synth from SBRK Devices.
Shown at Machina Bristronica 2025
Detail in the Granular HW thread
Due out late this year or early next.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From this article in CDM the CEO of Sequential, David Gibbons, referencing the poly-aftertouch keybed used in the Fourm, says :
“We’ve already started the design of another instrument that will use the same keyboard, because we feel like this is something to invest in and keep moving forward with.”
Sequential Fourm
One might suppose this new thing will also be at a similar price point ( $1000 ) and size. It might be an entirely new thing, but you might reasonably suppose it having a strong influence from another Sequential product.
I’ll take a wild guess, based mostly on my own wishes, that it is a digital synth similar to the now defunct Prophet X.
Would that sell ?
What would you expect and like ??
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
At the end of the video in this post on the CPM DF-8 Matt Hodson announces that Stylophone will announce at NAMM 2026 another product in their CPM line. Anyone want to speculate on what that might be.
CPM DF-8
ADDED LATER : It’s the Stylophone On-The-Fly performance sequencer.
( Thread )
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infiniteposse posted this a few weeks back, and i want to draw some attention to it here.
Kinotone is a newer startup based in Minneapolis, with a few quite interesting pedals, including Ghosts, a spectral synth pedal just making its way onto the market.
This keyboard / arpeggiator / sequencer will get into beta testing for them soon, and hit the market sometime next year, fingers crossed. It looks like it will be very much like the Buchla, it resembles. I would suppose colors may vary to the production units.
ADDED : Right at the end of February 2026, Kinotone, sent out an update, on their plans for 2026. Nothing too much new, except they will be working on this product, so it is still active and in progress. Cool !
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I’m still really looking forward to the Crum 2.
The original is already super fun but the followup seems to improve on it in a ton of ways, plus so many extra connections.
Just hope I can afford it 
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MÕNAI very early prototype – portable multiengine polysynth from startup Void9 was shown at Audio Developers Conference In Bristol.
It is being discussed in it’s own thread
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Leak in the Diosynth manual ( the Diosynth ships to customers in less than a month so it also is still technically GIP ) :
The Leviasynth is an 8-oscillator algorithmic synthesizer.
So it’s real, and in development, and …
See this post.
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