Bastl Kalimba: A quirky synth disguised as a thumb piano
▼ Summary
– The Bastl Kalimba is primarily a synthesizer played like a kalimba, using touch-sensitive tines to trigger physical modeling and FM synthesis.
– It offers a wide range of synth sounds and built-in effects, including delay, reverb, distortion, bit crushing, tape emulation, and a multi-mode filter.
– The device includes a looper with time-stretching and reverse features, as well as touchpads that enable note glides and timbral effects like Soil and Wind.
– Bastl Instruments, an established company, is running a Kickstarter campaign for the first batch after three years of development.
– The campaign gauges interest before potential mass production, and the company has a track record of delivering niche music gear.
Make no mistake, the Bastl Kalimba is a synthesizer disguised as a thumb piano. The tines themselves produce very little acoustic sound. While an internal microphone can be blended in for a touch of natural texture, the core of the instrument is driven by a synth engine combining physical modeling and FM synthesis. Those tines are actually touch- and velocity-sensitive triggers. And although it can approximate a real kalimba, it is far more sonically flexible, offering features exclusive to the synth world.
The sonic palette extends from plucks to pads, and the onboard effects cover more than just basic spatial tools like delay and reverb. You also get distortion, bit crushing, and even tape emulation. A multi-mode high- and low-pass filter and a simple arpeggiator round out the core sound-shaping capabilities.
What truly sets it apart, however, are the looper and touch points. The looper supports time-stretching, can be played in reverse, and allows you to rerecord through the effects for destructive sound design. A row of touchpads on the front panel enable note glides and let you alter the timbre using effects Bastl calls Soil and Wind. These effects unlock the Kalimba’s built-in accelerometer for further real-time manipulation. Two programmable touch points on the top can be assigned to nearly any parameter, from a simple pitch bend to controlling the size of the reverb.
Bastl is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for the first production batch. Normally, this is where we offer caveats about crowdfunded products. But Bastl Instruments is a well-established company with a proven track record of delivering quirky, high-quality gear at scale. The company describes the Kalimba as “one of the most challenging” products it has ever created, and the three-plus years of development suggest this is more about gauging interest before committing to mass production than a risky gamble. We have reached out to Bastl for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
(Source: The Verge)
