A colourful GrooveBox and Synthesizer for children to enjoy
US-based Playtime Engineering has just announced two brand new music-making machines for kids.
Overview of Playtime Engineering
Playtime Engineering was created to bring the fun of electronic music and synthesizers to everyone, especially kids.
Co-Founder Troy Sheets has a lifelong passion for electronic music and product design. Troy was fortunate enough to have his first electronic music studio at the age of 15, which included a DX100 synthesizer, drum machine and a 4-track cassette recorder. He has continued to produce music, perform live sets and design custom synthesizers since then. Troy has also enjoyed a 25-year engineering career in the Silicon Valley. Using both his synthesizer and product design experience, Troy pursued his dream of creating a product that had all of the fun of synthesis, with none of the complexity.
After spending a few years researching concepts and designing prototypes, Troy, along with his partner Kate, created Playtime Engineering in 2018 and launched their first product, the Blipblox Synth.
Since then, Playtime Engineering’s products continue to introduce thousands of kids and adults alike to the joy of synthesis and electronic music production.
First up, the easy-to-use and exciting SK2 synthesizer with a bunch of new features.
Although it appears to be very identical to the original, it features 400 built-in melodies with video game pop & classical music riff samples available, wavetable synthesis running in 16 oscillator schemes, resonant multi-mode filters, finishing with a stereo delay.
Playtime have also completely redesigned the LED light show to keep the youngsters entertained.
The synthesizer supports MIDI in, 6.3mm audio out and is suitable from 3 years old.
The second new toy is the Blipbox myTracks which is the front runner of the two.
It’s a Fisher-Price-style MPC groovebox that comes with a 5×5 grid of playable pads for launching both samples and sequences.
myTracks also has 48 ready-to-use built-in instrument sounds, a drum track, and 4 instrument tracks that can be used to create songs, as well as a built-in microphone that allows the youngsters to capture samples within the device that can subsequently be played back like on an MPC.
Although it is designed to operate as a standalone, both of these new Blipblox devices have a built-in speaker and can run on batteries, you can also connect myTracks to your computer through USB-C and adjust the sounds and sequences.
At first look, there are two bright & fun musical instruments for children with a great, enjoyable concept but you will not find these in the middle aisle at Lidl or Aldi.
The SK2 will be available in November 2022 with a price tag of $199 and the myTracks will be available in early 2023 with a price tag of $249.
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