Little Music Blog

June 9, 2026

Tembo Turns Beat-Making Into a Board Game

Musical Beings made a wooden drum machine where you build beats by placing little magnets on a grid. It looks like a toy, but it plays like a real ins...

June 1, 2026

Gotharman Zaturn Zero: A Modular System Folded Into a Box

The Gotharman Zaturn Zero is a redesigned hybrid synthesizer and groovebox from Denmark. It packs a 76-module patchable engine, a choice of analog fil...

Dubreq Stylophone S-1: The Pocket Synth That Never Quite Went Away

History

May 26, 2026

Dubreq Stylophone S-1: The Pocket Synth That Never Quite Went Away

The story of the Dubreq Stylophone, from a repaired toy piano in 1967 to the modern S-1. A look at how a tiny stylus-played synth charmed David Bowie ...

May 23, 2026

Teenage Engineering EP-136 K.O. Sidekick: A Pocket Mixer That Snaps Onto Your Sampler

Teenage Engineering has released the EP-136 K.O. Sidekick, a slim two-channel stereo mixer that doubles as an effects box, sequencer, and USB audio in...

May 21, 2026

Terraphones Nymira: A Synth Built Around the Circle of Fifths

The Terraphones Nymira is a standalone synthesizer that maps the circle of fifths onto a physical interface. With three sound engines, a walnut body t...

May 17, 2026

The Drumboy Grows Up - and It Looks Like a Proper Groovebox Now

Randomwaves takes their tiny open-source drum machine, gives it tactile buttons, eight rotary knobs, a 5.3-inch screen and a battery, and turns it int...

May 14, 2026

Neutral Labs Queen Elmyra - An 8-Voice Drone Synth With Real Tubes and 96 Patch Points

Neutral Labs has taken its small Elmyra 2 drone synth and scaled it up into a desktop instrument with eight voices, up to 24 wavetable oscillators, an...

May 11, 2026

Bastl Kalimba: A Hybrid Thumb Piano with FM and Physical Modelling Inside

Bastl Instruments has unveiled the Kalimba, a fully portable hybrid instrument with a built-in speaker, USB-C rechargeable battery, and 12 touch- and ...

May 7, 2026

Sonicware deconstruct MINIMAL: A Pocket Groovebox Built for Hypnotic Techno

Sonicware has unveiled the deconstruct MINIMAL, a battery-powered groovebox aimed at minimal techno and house. It packs a 9-track drum machine, a 4-tr...

May 4, 2026

Michigan Synth Works MSW-820 - A Classic Mono Voice With a 16-Mode Filter Twist

Michigan Synth Works follows up the MSW-810 with a fader-driven two-oscillator analogue monosynth that pairs Roland-style voicing with a 16-mode Cavem...