What is this darling product, you ask? It’s a build-it- yourself/do-it-yourself (DIY) miniature eight-bit, polyphonic, digital music synthesizer kit. Derived
squarely from the circuitry roots that are deeply
entrenched in the pioneering work of American
synthesizer maestro, John Simonton of PAiA fame, and the
legendary analog 1980s Pro-One synthesizer from
Sequential Circuits, this offering from Zeppelin Design
Labs is much more than just a kit. This is a piece of
American synthesizer music history (see Figure 1) that has
been garnished with a little bit of Arduino on top.
Sounding more like an overpriced coffee drink, this
Zeppelin Design Labs synthesizer kit is called the
Macchiato Mini Synth, and it’s priced at the mouth-
Looking for a way to jump-start your boy band or girl band venture with a
little techno-pop vibe? Or, maybe you’re just looking for a way to inject some
synthesized sound into your next online video without resorting to an app for
that. Do the kids want to learn about electronics, but they want to build
something from My Generation and not yours?
Well, the answer to these requirements can be met with a kit from Zeppelin
Design Labs. Remarkably, the same kit addresses all three of these peculiar
requests. Glen van Alkemade and Brach Siemens are the “Twin Sons of
Different Mothers” brains behind Zeppelin Design Labs in Chicago, IL. What
they’ve created is nothing short of brilliant.
Big Band Sound
from the Palm of
Your
Hand
By Dave Prochnow
50 September 2017
An inexpensive
kit that delivers
a wealth of
polyphonic
sound.
Review
