Mitxela: The World's Smallest MIDI Synthesiser?
Compact synths have enjoyed rising popularity over the past few years, but no manufacturer has taken minimisation as far as inventor and software specialist Tim Alex Jacobs. Back in 2015, he introduced a dwarf MIDI synth whose circuitry he squeezed into the end of a MIDI DIN cable and added a small piezo speaker. A year later, Jacobs replaced the DIN connector with a USB-A port, and the latest evolution of this model is an even smaller version equipped with a modern USB-C port with a circuit board and a piezoelectric transducer.
"To be clear, no one is competing with me. No one is vying for the title of smallest and worst MIDI synthesiser. But that isn't going to stop me," says the inventor and adds: "You might be thinking that this is utterly pointless, and you'd be right. There is no device we can plug it into, no phone or tablet or laptop that doesn't already have a speaker. There were no USB-C hosts that couldn't already run a software synthesiser. The only thing it can do is a monophonic square wave." If you're interested in this project from a purely technical point of view, you can find more detailed information, including drawings and plans, on Jacobs' Mitxel website.
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