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Polyend is a brand that likes to keep us guessing. Fresh off the back of unveiling its AI-assisted effect pedals at NAMM, the Polish company has now unveiled a top-end hybrid analogue-digital drum machine that looks set to rival the likes of Roland’s TR-1000 and Elektron’s Analog RYTM.
Housed in an aluminium body reminiscent of Polyend’s Synth or Play hardware, Drums is an eight-track drum machine that combines analogue, digital and sample-based sound generation.
Its four analogue voices are based on modern SSI chips that produce two VCOs, an additional noise source and a third digital oscillator that can be used for creating layered sounds or set up for frequency modulation. Each analogue voice also packs a multimode VCF and envelope-controlled VCA.
The remaining voices can make use of a variety of digital synthesis engines or samples. According to Polyend, options include “more than forty instruments, each with its own sub-mode mutations, giving users hundreds of sound options to choose from.” These digital tracks also have acces to eight individual LFOs to provide modulation.
For sequencing, Drums makes use of what Polyend calls its “most intuitive sequencing system so far.” This involves a combination of fills, probability, micro-timing, parameter locks, pattern chaining, generative tools and multiple track play modes. Drums can also save and recall up-to 64 patterns, 64 drum kits and 48 song arrangements.
The drum machine also has an ‘XOY’ fader, which allows users to fluidly morph between two versions of a drum kit during performances. There’s also a broad selection of effects, available as sends, inserts or part of the master chain. Effects can be sequenced per-track making, in the words of Polyend, “effects part of the rhythm rather than something added only at the end of the signal chain.”
“Drums is a return to the fundamentals that defined Polyend from the beginning,” says Polyend CEO Piotr Raczyński. “We wanted to build the drum machine we would want to use and own ourselves. Something uncompromising in sound, materials, and workflow. Like our earliest instruments, Drums is made in small batches, with close attention to every detail, and built to stay relevant for decades.”
Drums is available for reservation now via a refundable $500 deposit, with the first run of units due to ship in around three or four months. The retail price will be €/$2,699, and Polyend says there will be quantities available at launch.
Sound the synth kalimba klaxon!
After three long years of development, Bastl Instruments today launched Kalimba – a typically quirky hybrid synth/instrument that resembles – you guessed it – a kalimba, complete with playable tines.
To operate, Kalimba relies on tiny microphones, touch sensors and an accelerometer to yield all manner of expressive sounds. All of which are housed within a physical design that is inspired by the traditional kalimba, tines and all.
There seems to be a theme emerging at this year’s show, of prioritised expression and more traditional-instrument based-routes into exploring sound, and the handheld Kalimba is no exception. “Treat it like an acoustic instrument, it will answer like one” Bastl say.
Playing the tines at varying intensities excite the internal physical modelling and FM engines, thanks to the instrument’s internal microphones. The internal accelerometer acts as both an exciter for the physical modelling engine and also filters the left and right channels of the FM engine, as the device is physically rotated.
Honestly, it looks incredibly fun to us. We’ll bring you a demo as soon as we can.
Between the likes of Akai Sample, Teenage Engineering’s KO II and Casio’s forthcoming sampler, we’re living in something of a golden age of portable samplers. 1010music claims that its newly-updated Blackbox 2 sampler is “heir to its own portable sampler throne.”
If that’s true, it faces some Westeros-levels of rivalry. Let battle commence.
Whoever comes out on top in the Game of Thrones Affordable Samplers, 1010’s latest has a lot going for it.
Like its predecessor, the Blackbox 2 is a portable, touchscreen-equipped instrument that houses a self-contained sampling workstation within a compact, rugged device. However, for version 2 1010 has significantly reworked the interface, adding a larger touchscreen and new layout that promises an improved workflow.
The central feature of this new look Blackbox is its four-inch hi-res colour touchscreen, which is used as the primary interface for sequencing and sample editing. A bank of four multi-use rotaries sit directly above the screen while a bank of transport and navigation buttons are placed below.
Blackbox 2 is a four-track workstation that can load up-to four one-shot, loop, slicer or multisample instruments, with the one-shot and loop instruments capable of supporting 16 samples per-patch. Blackbox 2 expands the song-creation features of the original, introducing new launch, scene, song, mixing and effect screens for editing various elements of the composition.
Unlike its predecessor, which required an external power source, Blackbox 2 contains its own rechargeable battery, allowing for 3hrs of fully portable use. It also adds USB-C host and device ports capable of transmitting multichannel USB audio and MIDI.
Blackbox 2 is scheduled to arrive in July, priced at $649.
This one-button synth could be the wildest idea to come out of Superbooth 2026
We last heard from boutique synth-makers Cyma Forma back in 2024, when the Parisian tinkerers unveiled ALT, a quirky analogue “soundscape synthesizer” with a Synthi-style pin matrix and patch-modulating light sensors.
Just in time for Superbooth, Cyma Forma has returned with its second instrument, another three-letter marvel that takes an even more innovative approach to sound design: RND (pronounced “Random”).
Undoubtedly the most minimalist synth we’ve ever come across, RND is a compact box with an interface made up of a single button. That’s it. No keys, no knobs, no faders, and no display, just one button that generates a randomized musical idea with every press.
Plinky 12 is an expressive touch synthesizer available with three swappable faceplates for “different kinds of musical thinking”
German developer Making Sound Machines has announced Plinky 12, a trio of touch-focused instruments with swappable faceplates, each of which makes use of the same core hardware design and a shared synth engine.
Plinky 12 is, essentially, a single instrument, although its interchangeable panels allow it to function in a multitude of different ways. According to its developer, this concept means that “it can become different instruments built for different kinds of musical thinking”.
Cre8audio Programm is a CV and MIDI sequencer that blends playability and algorithmic generation
Cre8audio has unveiled Programm, a MIDI and CV sequencer designed to bridge “the gap between human performance and algorithmic generation.”
Programm has 12 sequencer tracks that can be used in a mix and match fashion across its analogue and MIDI outputs.
There are four monophonic melodic tracks, which can be used as distinct sequencers when output via MIDI, or via two sets of analogue pitch, CV and gate outputs. These are joined by eight percussive sequencer tracks, each of which has its own analogue trigger output.
Programm is designed to be used both for precise programming and for generating randomised ideas. Each step can be configured via pitch, gate length, ratcheting, CV/CC, note offset, and step condition parameters.
Each sequence can have its own individual length up-to 64 steps. The device can save 64 patterns as well 32 multi-pattern songs.
The melodic sequencer tracks can be used in four modes – mono, chord, arp, and chip, which combines the chord and arp functions. The sequencer can make use of key and scale functionality, as well as six groove modes that Cre8audio says “expand far beyond classic swing”.
