Minichord: This pocket-sized Omnichord-inspired synth is the cutest thing everLove the Omnichord but find its near-$1000 price tag a little too intimidating? You might want to turn your attention to the Minichord – a compact, open-source Omnichord-inspired synthesizer that promises a wealth of musical possibilities.
Creator Benjamin Poilve describes the Minichord as a “pocket-sized instrument that allows anybody to create nice sounding chord progressions”, born from his love for easy to use/not keyboard-based synthesizers and the Audio library of PJRC (manufacturer of teensy 4.0).

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The Minichord features 21 main chord buttons, divided into 7 columns of 3 buttons as well as 1 ‘sharp’ button on the top left corner. Each column of the main chord buttons is associated with a note of the C Major scale, indicated by the letter on the first row of buttons.
As shown in the demo video, basic chords are easily selected by choosing single buttons while more complex chords can be built by selecting multiple buttons at once.
“I wanted to give the possibility to create a ‘slash chord’ (where the root of a chord is replaced by a different note) as it is something that is commonly used in guitar chord progressions,” says Poilve. “Of course, the exterior design is a respectful nod to the Omnichord, but the synthesis capability and customisability are much greater and derive from my interest in analogue synthesizers.”
The other side of the Minichord features a touch zone which is divided into 12 different sections stacked vertically. You can strum notes by sweeping your finger across all sections or pick them individually. Notes can also be held by keeping the contact with the section.
Under the hood, the Minichord boasts a full subtractive synth engine with 12 presets, all of which can be replaced with your own custom ones. Users can also share presets with each other. Poilve explains that due to the physical limitations of the device, he decided to create an interface to edit the internal parameters from a computer instead.
“To do that, I used MIDI Sysex signals, because those signals are compatible with webMIDI. That means that all the internal parameters of the device are user-configurable live simply by connecting the minichord to a computer and opening a webpage!”
Power wise, a full charge (under 3 hours) will offer up to 8 hours of playtime. Charging is done through the mini USB jack available on the bottom right of the device.
That said, the Minichord isn’t in production just yet — though that could become a reality if there’s enough support for the project.

Learn more at the Minichord website.
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