Casio’s expressive guitar strap controller was inspired by a chopstick case

Surprise! Casio has something unexpected — Dimension Shifter, a spring-powered expressive wireless controller that attaches to your guitar strap. And it was the invention of one employee, inspired by his kid’s school-lunch retracting chopstick and cutlery case.

KORG’s phase8 “acoustic synthesizer” is now a product for sale

The experimental electromechanical 8-voice instrument, after a long gestation period at KORG Berlin’s skunkworks R&D, is now going public. That means this unique set of sequenced steel resonators is making its way off the laboratory table and into the wild.

Peter Kirn - January 22, 2026

Bastl’s Kastle 2 and Citadel Eurorack are now DIY kits, open source platforms

It started with Kastle 2, Bastl Instruments’ cute and clever handheld. It could be a multi-effect, a sample player, a synth. Then Citadel modules came along and did those things in Eurorack. Now, Bastl’s got a surprise: you can buy these as DIY kits, and a big chunk of the Raspberry Pi-powered platforms are being released as open source. Here are all the details.

Peter Kirn - January 21, 2026

ANIMEVOX by castpixel is a free retro anime-style sound fx generator

Peter Kirn - January 18, 2026

ENDOGEN: a deep experimental exploratorium of lowercase synthesis

Peter Kirn - January 15, 2026

Watch as a telephone is transformed into a DIY analog drum machine

Peter Kirn - January 9, 2026

What’s new in the DIY world of Music Thing’s Workshop System

Peter Kirn - January 7, 2026

Compassion through algorithms: live coding Algorave giving to Palestinians

Peter Kirn - December 5, 2025

Lethelium, a 24-string instrument fashioned from a bicycle wheel

Peter Kirn - December 2, 2025

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