5 Synthesizers and Drum Machines That Belong in a Museum: Art Gear!
Exit through the gift shop with visually inspiring gear from SOMA, Playtronica, Dato and more!
Tired of the same old synth? Want a drum machine whose look is as inspiring as its sound? Here are five synthesizers and drum machines that belong in a museum.
Five Synthesizers and Drum Machines That Belong in a Museum
Synthesizers and Drum Machines That Belong in a Museum
Often, with musical instruments and other music production gear, form follows function. With a synthesizer, for example, you need a keyboard and knobs to adjust parameters. While there’s some room to play with the finer points of the design of the instrument – the color, the shape of the knobs – most manufacturers won’t stray too far from a basic piano-like shape.
But what if you throw these rules out the window and design something in a unique way from the ground up? That’s what we’re here to talk about today.
All five of the synthesizers, drum machines (and one sequencer) featured here break with tradition – and in really aesthetically pleasing ways. These instruments inspire not only in their sound or functionality, but also in appearance. They are works of art in their own right, the kind of products you might find in the gift store at a museum of modern art.
These are five synthesizers and drum machines that belong in a museum.
Synthesizers and Drum Machines That Belong in a Museum: Dato DUO
Let’s start our visit to the museum of unique instruments with the Dato DUO. This 2019 synthesizer has a unique approach: it’s made for two people to play at the same time. Accordingly, it has a dual-facing design that lets two musicians work with it simultaneously. It’s also made with young people and inexperienced musicians in mind, so it’s accessible and intuitive.
One side of the DUO is the synthesizer. A digital monophonic instrument, it’s got two oscillators with saw and pulse plus variable pulse width, a 2-pole lowpass filter with resonance, two drum pads for mashing out kicks and snares, and delay and bitcrusher effects. On the flip side is the eight-step circular sequencer and two-octave keyboard. It conforms to minor pentatonic so you can never hit a bum note.
Synthesizers and Drum Machines That Belong in a Museum: Making Sound Machines Plinky 12
One of the most interesting instruments to debut at Superbooth this year was the trio of Plinky 12 devices from Making Sound Machines. The three – all 12-inches square like vinyl records – look like something from a science fiction movie, like the kinds of products we thought we’d all be interacting with by the year 2026. And hey, look, now we can!
Plinky 12 offers a base and three different touchscreen panels called Blocks, Chords, and Toadstep. They’re sold separately but you only have to buy the base once. Chords lets you play harmonically and melodically, Blocks features a six-string-style play surface and sequencer, and Toadstep turns Plinky 12 into a four-track MIDI/CV sequencer and groovebox.
Making Sound Machines is shooting for a summer 2026 release for the three Plinkies. Visit the company site to get on the mailing list.
Synthesizers and Drum Machines That Belong in a Museum: Musical Beings Tembo
Drum machines are made of metal and plastic, right? Not this one. Tembo from Musical Beings is a new kind of rhythm machine that combines a wooden, chess-like box with magnetic pieces and lots of digital sounds inside. The result is a drum machine that you interact with physically.
The wooden Tembo offers a 16-step sequencer (stack two magnets to double the steps), sampling and looping, effects and modulation, and onboard speakers. I love this idea because it instantly makes rhythm creation into a visual and tactile thing. I wasn’t the only person impressed, as Tembo hit $2,000,000 in funding for its Kickstarter campaign!
Tembo will cost $550 when it’s released in early 2027.
Synthesizers and Drum Machines That Belong in a Museum: Playtronica Orbita
Staying with the tactile theme, here’s Orbita, a physical sequencer from Playtronica, a company that knows a thing or two about unusual and unique devices. Orbita is like a turntable but instead of playing records, you place colorful magnets on the rotating platter. These are read as notes and changed into MIDI information, and you can use Orbita to control a synthesizer or drum machine just like you would with a traditional sequencer.
Interestingly, Orbita allows for four simultaneous melodic and rhythmic loops. It works with DAWs like Ableton, FL Studio and Logic but also comes with its own synthesizer, which lives in your web browser. You can control the speed of rotation with a knob.
As with Tembo, Orbita makes it easy to understand how sequencing works. The fact that it’s not only visual but also kinetic is great for people who learn in non-auditory ways. Kids will love it.
Synthesizers and Drum Machines That Belong in a Museum: SOMA Enigma
SOMA is a master when it comes to unusual synthesizers and other devices. One of the company’s latest is Enigma, an occult-leaning synthesizer that looks like a cross between a board game and something you might see in a Hammer Horror film.
The sound is controlled by the user placing metallic objects on the surface. Position and movement affect the sound. A sensor-based interface responds to the placement of the objects and creates sound, with eight different touch sensors that allow switching between operating states. Enigma also offers MIDI and CV for some level of control.
SOMA is shooting for a mid-summer release for Enigma. It will cost €590. If you can’t wait, check out some of the other museum-worthy instruments the company offers.
More Information
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