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

Make no mistake, the Bastl Kalimba is a synthesizer, you just play it like a kalimba. Its tines don’t really make much sound. There is an internal mic that you can blend in for a little acoustic spice, but it’s mostly driven by the synth engine that combines physical modeling and FM. The tines are actually touch and velocity-sensitive triggers. And, while it can sound somewhat like a real kalimba, it’s a lot more sonically versatile and offers features you can only find on a synth.

Beyond the synth sounds that range from pluck to pads, there are also built-in effects covering basic spatial effects like delay and reverb, as well as distortion, bit crushing, and even tape emulation. There’s also a multi-mode high- and low-pass filter, a simple arpeggiator.

More interesting, though, are the looper and touch points that add unique effects. The looper has time-stretching features, can be reversed, and rerecorded through the effects for destructive processing. A series of touchpads on the front enable note glides and alter the timbre using effects that Bastl calls Soil and Wind. Those effects unlock the Kalimba’s accelerometer for further timbral manipulation. There are also two programmable touch points on the top that can be assigned to almost any parameter, from simple pitch bends to the size of the reverb.

Bastl is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for the first batch of Kalimbas. Normally, this is where you get the caveats about crowdfunded products. But Bastl Instruments is a well-established company with a long track record of delivering oddball music gear at scale. The company called it “one of the most challenging” products it has ever created, and it spent more than three years in development, so it’s possible that Bastl is gauging interest before committing to mass production. We’ve reached out to Bastl for comment and will update if we hear back.