Unique and Weird Gear

Stylophone

The Stylophone is another old invention made by Brian Jarvis in 1967. It consists of a metal keyboard made of a printed circuit board and played by touching it with a stylus—each note being connected to a voltage-controlled oscillator via a different-value resistor—thus closing a circuit.

At first, it was mainly sold as a children’s toy but a lot of legendary musicians such as John Lennon, Kraftwerk, and David Bowie started incorporating it into their music. There is actually a David Bowie Limited Edition Stylophone sold right now!

The company Dübreq now makes brand-new Stylophones and there are a couple of options to choose from.

Dato DUO

DUO by Dato is a modern instrument made to be played by two people at the same time. On one side there is the synthesizer and on the other side the sequencer.

It is playful, looks great and you can also connect it to your other gear. But most of all, it is fun! And as the creators of the instrument say "we designed the DUO to be enjoyed by kids aged 3 to 99 and up — that includes you!”

Make Noise - Strega

A collaboration between Eurorack Module Manufacturers Make Noise and the legend Alessandro Cortini - lead keyboardist in Nine Inch Nails, Strega is a semi-modular highly experimental audio processor and sound generator. It is certainly unique and able to produce crazy sounds and also operates as an effect unit with its weird delay.

As Make Noise state on the website: “Strega is an audio alchemical experiment“

Definitely not for everyone. but for sure something that will help you explore new sonic territories!

SOMA - Ether V2

Ok, so this is something a bit hard to explain. ETHER is a wide-band receiver that makes it possible to perceive the electromagnetic landscape around you.

ETHER is a kind of anti-radio. Instead of being tuned to a specific radio station, it receives all the interference and radiation that a traditional radio tries to eliminate in order to create a clean signal. It captures the radio waves “as is” from hertz to gigahertz because it doesn’t contain the tuned input circuit that filters out all frequencies except the narrow band of a specific station. This allows ETHER to perceive the invisible electromagnetic landscape that humans created unintentionally, making possible live electromagnetic field listening and recording.

In a few words, Ether is a pocket-size piece of equipment to carry around with you and record electromagnetic sounds from your surroundings. It is essentially a drone, a noise generator that reacts to your environment. Got it?

Casio CT-S1000V

CT-S1000V is a very recent release by Casio and it’s one of the weirdest releases in a long time. It is a Vocal Synthesis synthesizer, meaning you can speak or type your lyrics into the free Lyric Creator app for iOS/Android, transfer them to the CT-S1000V, and play the keys to hear your words through it.

You can choose from multiple vocalist models, and adjust age, vibrato, portamento, and other parameters in real-time. It can produce choirs, robotic sounds, vocoder-like textures, and more.

Some say it’s the Miku of synths, but I feel it’s a completely fresh idea that, in the right hands, can be awesome!

SOMA - LYRA 8

SOMA Laboratory is by far the most experimental but also commercially successful company right now. All of its products are unique and innovative providing something new to the table.

LYRA 8 is probably their most successful release and there’s a good reason for that. LYRA-8 is based on eight generators, which will be referred to as voices. Their design is not like a traditional subtractive synthesis VCO. Instead of having a linear or logarithmic dependency on control voltage, they resemble the tone generators in old electric organs. Hence the use of the term “voices” instead of “VCOs”.

It features touch plates instead of keys and every touch plate triggers a different oscillator. You can tune each oscillator separately to create scales or experiment to your liking. It also features a lofi delay and a distortion to beef up its sound.

LYRA is very popular among ambient, noise, musicians since it’s the absolute drone machine.

Critter & Guitari - Organelle

A bit more straightforward but unique in a different way the Organelle by Critter & Guitari is a synthesizer, an effects unit, a drum machine, and even an alarm clock!

It is referenced as a Music Computer since it’s an open-source mini-computer where users can upload any patches they want or even create their own using the music programming environment called Pure Data. There is a big community on Patch Storage website with more than 500 patches made for the Organelle.

It looks extremely cute and it can as flexible as you want it to be!

Check Price on PlantWave Website

PlantWave aka MIDI Sprout

This is my favorite item on our list! PlantWave, formerly known as MIDI Sprout is one of a kind little piece of music gear.

It is a device that translates your plants’ electricity into notes. That means you can use your plants as a band member and have them play their own beautiful melodies.

So how does it work? You attach the electrodes on the leaves of your plants and then PlantWave transforms the information into MIDI that you can use for your synthesizers. Plant-based electronic music is the future!

Otamatone

The undisputed king of weirdness. Otamatone is basically a toy-synthesizer that is so weird that got viral very quickly.

Its body is shaped like an eighth note with sound emerging from a "mouth" on the notehead. It requires two hands to play: while one hand holds and squeezes the "head", the other hand controls the pitch of the tune by placing the finger on a ribbon controller on the stem; a higher position on the stem creates a lower sound.

Made in Japan, Otamatone is so cute you need it in your life. It may not be something really useful in the studio but it will certainly bring a smile to your face every time you look at it or play with it!