The market for kid-friendly synths is booming, it would seem.. You might remember hearing about the Tembo, a beginner synthesizer and sequencer made entirely of wood that smashed its Kickstarter goal by nearly 20x, with over £700,000 pledged when we covered the story last month.
Now, we’re here to share a similar Kickstarter success story in the entry-level synth space, as Banan-a-Synth – a synthesizer shaped like a banana – has already vastly exceeded its pledge goal in just days. At the time of writing, the project has raised £34,301 of funding, compared to its £2,967 goal, with 674 backers.
Touted as a “pocket-sized sound machine and musical science lab”, the Banan-a-Synth from MicroKits lets you use electricity to play notes and control effects.
At its heart, there’s a custom sound engine with 12 different instrument sounds, eight built-in sound effects – and even four-note polyphony for chords – and comes with a pack of alligator clips so you can turn all manner of conductive objects into instruments you can play.
Onboard instruments include guitar and bass sounds, synths, brass and a number of other miscellaneous instruments. Meanwhile, the eight onboard sound effects are: Pitch Bend, Vibrato, Octave Up, Low Pass, High Pass, 8-bit Arpeggio, Chorus and Delay.
The device also includes an analogue conductivity sensor for effect control – so the harder you press the sensor, the stronger the sound effect.
As you might hope from a banana-shaped synthesizer, the Banan-a-Synth is completely portable, powered by two AA batteries and boasting a built-in speaker and headphone jack. The unit can also be powered via USB-C.
“Yes, it’s a banana shaped synthesizer. It’s also a synthesizer that turns bananas and other conductive objects into musical keys you can play,” says Dave of MicroKits.
“This is both a pocket sized sound machine and a musical science lab that lets you use electricity to play notes and control effects. Whether you’re a STEM student or pro musician, there’s so much to explore with the Banan-a-Synth.”
At present, there’s a Kickstarter Special tier available, with which customers can back the project for $60 and get the Banan-a-Synth plus 10 alligator clips for experimenting with real-world conductive objects.
For an in-depth rundown of the Banan-a-Synth project, head over to Kickstarter.
Sam is the Associate News Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Thoroughly immersed in music culture for the majority of his life, Sam has played guitar for 20 years, studied music technology and production at university, and also written for the likes of MusicRadar, Guitar World, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer.
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