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The Bastl Kalimba is a wild synth that thinks it’s a thumb piano
Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech Entertainment Close Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Entertainment Gadgets Close Gadgets Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Gadgets The Bastl Kalimba is a wild synth that thinks it’s a thumb piano Pluck it, touch it, tap it, or tilt it. Pluck it, touch it, tap it, or tilt it. by Terrence O'Brien Close Terrence O'Brien Weekend Editor Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Terrence O'Brien May 10, 2026, 8:42 PM UTC Link Share Gift It’s already raised over $700,000 on Kickstarter. Image: Bastl Terrence O'Brien Close Terrence O'Brien Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Terrence O'Brien is the Verge’s weekend editor. He has over 18 years of experience, including 10 years as managing editor at Engadget. Make no mistake, the Bastl Kalimba is a synthesizer, you just play it like a kalimba. Its tines don’t really make much sound. There is an internal mic that you can blend in for a little acoustic spice, but it’s mostly driven by the synth engine that combines physical modeling and FM. The tines are actually touch and velocity-sensitive triggers. And, while it can sound somewhat like a real kalimba, it’s a lot more sonically versatile and offers features you can only find on a synth. Beyond the synth sounds that range from pluck to pads, there are also built-in effects covering basic spatial effects like delay and reverb, as well as distortion, bit crushing, and even tape emulation. There’s also a multi-mode high- and low-pass filter, a simple arpeggiator. More interesting, though, are the looper and touch points that add unique effects. The looper has time-stretching features, can be reversed, and rerecorded through the effects for destructive processing. A series of touchpads on the front enable note glides and alter the timbre using effects that Bastl calls Soil and Wind. Those effects unlock the Kalimba’s accelerometer for further timbral manipulation. There are also two programmable touch points on the top that can be assigned to almost any parameter, from simple pitch bends to the size of the reverb. Bastl is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for the first batch of Kalimbas. Normally, this is where you get the caveats about crowdfunded products. But Bastl Instruments is a well-established company with a long track record of delivering oddball music gear at scale. The company called it “one of the most challenging” products it has ever created, and it spent more than three years in development, so it’s possible that Bastl is gauging interest before committing to mass production. We’ve reached out to Bastl for comment and will update if we hear back. Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Terrence O'Brien Close Terrence O'Brien Weekend Editor Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Terrence O'Brien Entertainment Close Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Entertainment Gadgets Close Gadgets Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Gadgets Music Close Music Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Music News Close News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All News Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech Most Popular Most Popular Someone out-Trumped the Trump phone Google Fitbit Air preorders come with a second band for free Writers are fleeing the Substack Tax Netflix may have finally figured out games Vivo’s X300 Ultra has the best cameras in any phone The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Advertiser Content From This is the title for the native ad
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