When synthesizers first became popular in the Late Jurassic 1970s, musicians needed a solid knowledge of how they worked in order to play them, mostly because they looked like this (or worse, this).
Today's synthesizers are often far simpler -- just open Garageband -- but if you've ever been called a phony because you can't tell an oscillator from a sequencer, get ready to praise the electro-gods. New York tech startup littleBits and veteran synth company Korg just released this tiny, toy-like Synth Kit that will let anybody – even a kid – not only figure out how a synthesizer works but build and play one of their own. Think about it as a rewind to the basics, a hooked-on-phonics for synths.
The DIY synth (below) is just the latest maker set created by littleBits. Originally founded by corporate finance consultant Ayah Bdeir five years ago, littleBits manufactures tiny, candy-colored circuitry doodads that connect like Legos or Tinkertoys via a set of magnets (plus a power signal and ground). The sets allow anybody, of any age, to understand and develop rudimentary mechanical systems like a goofy jack-o-lantern upgrade or a news-reporting helicopter.
"The idea is we want people to understand the technology around them, because it runs our lives," Bdeir tells WIRED of the technology, which – surprise! – is all open-source. “littleBits break down technology into very basic parts, and bring the power of electronics to everyone.”
The basic circuitry sets have been on the market for two years now, but this year (beginning with a foray into design with a Museum of Modern Art partnership in April), Bdeir and her company are beginning to explore “field after field where technology is dominating.” Adding music pieces, she says, was a goal from the company's inception. “Now music is a field full of apps and software and devices and equipment you have to study with booklets. It’s become far less accessible; there are layers and layers that separate people from the actual technology that powers the instrument."
The Synth Kit that just hit the market originated a year ago, at a TED conference where Bdeir and comedian/musician Reggie Watts met backstage after giving talks, and started discussing the idea of littleBits musical instruments. Watts became the user-friendly "muse" for the product’s development, advising the team – which ended up including a delegation of engineers and product developers from the Japan-based company Korg – on how to construct the perfect beginner set.
As promised, the set makes it immediately clear how a synth works: the keyboard produces tones -- or sine waves, depending on how technical you want to get -- which the oscillator and delay then warp; the filter and envelope add tone and color to the notes. You can build tones and repeating riffs with the sequencer, and if you're feeling as bold as Watts in the video above, even plug in an amplifier through the speaker piece's headphone jack.
The best part? The blocks can be interchanged like no other synthesizer (since unless you’re Keith Emerson, most synths are assembled in a specifically functional order), and you can add them to existing littleBits pieces to create your own elaborate instruments, including keytars (below) and turntables.
"Synthesizers are quite simple when you break them down," says Tatsuya Takahashi, the hardware engineer at Korg who worked with developers at littleBits to build the kit. "Technologically, it's just like the Monotron we've been developing recently, or like Korg models from 1978."
Takahashi and the team spent about nine months working on the set, molding it to produce the right sound, with the right amount of power for such a tiny system. Bdeir and Takahashi both agree that a smallish power supply is the only real limitation of the product; you can otherwise keep building and attaching new pieces infinitely with other littleBits circuitry like pressure or light sensors. Bdeir and Takahashi say they'll be producing expansion sets (like the ones that already exist for the basic littleBits sets) for the synth kit itself in the coming months — including a microphone.
"You can do some crazy, unconventional things you couldn't do with a normal synth, like putting a delay module before the oscillator, or an oscillator before the sequencer," Takahashi says. "I haven't actually reached a limit as to how far out you can go with the bits."
