The Bastl Kalimba is a wild synth that thinks it’s a hand piano

Make no mistake, a Bastl Kalimba with a synthesizer, you just play like a kalimba. His writings don’t make much sense. There’s an internal mic that you can add a little spice to, but it’s powered by a synth engine that combines physical and FM sounds. The flutes are touch sensitive and speed sensitive. And, while it may sound like a real kalimba, it’s more versatile and offers the kind of texture you’d find on a synth.

Beyond sounds that range from pluck to pads, there are also built-ins that cover spatial effects such as delay and vocals, as well as distortion, micro-shredding, and tape emulation. There are also multi-mode filters for high and low, a simple arpeggiator.

The most interesting thing, however, is the looper and touch points that add special effects. The looper has a time-stretching feature, can be edited, and re-recorded through destructive effects. Multiple touchpads on the front allow the pen to open and adjust timbre using what Bastl calls Earth and Wind. This effect activates the Kalimba’s accelerometer for timbral manipulation. There are also two points of coordination on the surface that can be assigned to almost any part, from simple curves to the size of words.

Bastl is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for the first group of Kalimbas. Often times, this is where you get an alert for a high income product. But Bastl Instruments is a well-established company with a long history of providing unique musical instruments on a grand scale. The company called it “one of the most complex products” it has ever built, and it took more than three years to develop, so it’s possible that Bastl is testing interest rates before going into production. We’ve reached out to Bastl for a response and will update if we hear back.