The market for kid-friendly synths is booming, it would seem.. You might remember hearing about the Tembo, a beginner synthesizer and sequencer made entirely of wood that smashed its Kickstarter goal by nearly 20x, with over £700,000 pledged when we covered the story last month.

Now, we’re here to share a similar Kickstarter success story in the entry-level synth space, as Banan-a-Synth – a synthesizer shaped like a banana – has already vastly exceeded its pledge goal in just days. At the time of writing, the project has raised £34,301 of funding, compared to its £2,967 goal, with 674 backers.

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Touted as a “pocket-sized sound machine and musical science lab”, the Banan-a-Synth from MicroKits lets you use electricity to play notes and control effects.

At its heart, there’s a custom sound engine with 12 different instrument sounds, eight built-in sound effects – and even four-note polyphony for chords – and comes with a pack of alligator clips so you can turn all manner of conductive objects into instruments you can play.

Onboard instruments include guitar and bass sounds, synths, brass and a number of other miscellaneous instruments. Meanwhile, the eight onboard sound effects are: Pitch Bend, Vibrato, Octave Up, Low Pass, High Pass, 8-bit Arpeggio, Chorus and Delay.

The device also includes an analogue conductivity sensor for effect control – so the harder you press the sensor, the stronger the sound effect.

As you might hope from a banana-shaped synthesizer, the Banan-a-Synth is completely portable, powered by two AA batteries and boasting a built-in speaker and headphone jack. The unit can also be powered via USB-C.

“Yes, it’s a banana shaped synthesizer. It’s also a synthesizer that turns bananas and other conductive objects into musical keys you can play,” says Dave of MicroKits. 

“This is both a pocket sized sound machine and a musical science lab that lets you use electricity to play notes and control effects. Whether you’re a STEM student or pro musician, there’s so much to explore with the Banan-a-Synth.”

At present, there’s a Kickstarter Special tier available, with which customers can back the project for $60 and get the Banan-a-Synth plus 10 alligator clips for experimenting with real-world conductive objects.

For an in-depth rundown of the Banan-a-Synth project, head over to Kickstarter.

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