Making electronic music with synthesizer for toddlers
Software engineer Alastair Roberts builds Alma, a 3D printed synthesizer for toddlers that lets young users produce and play child-friendly electronic music. Complete with an onboard sound module and a built-in speaker, the musical toy can play sounds without connecting to a computer or external equipment. The design includes several control knobs for tempo, volume, scale, pitch, and instrument type, allowing the young users to change how the loop behaves. There’s an OLED screen on the front that gives visual feedback, and it also displays a small animated panda to help the young DJs understand when and what kind of notes are playing.
The small box comes with four sliders, each of which controls one note in a four-step loop. When a slider is moved up, the pitch becomes higher, and when it is moved down, the pitch becomes lower. The loop repeats continuously, so the user can move the sliders at any time to change the sound. The internal electronics are mounted on a custom printed circuit board, and the outer shell is 3D printed. These parts form the complete body of the synthesizer for toddlers, colored in pink to make producing child-friendly electronic music more playful.
all images courtesy of Alastair Roberts
Hand-building child-friendly musical toy from scratch
The device’s idea came from a Montessori activity board Alastair Roberts received earlier. The board had switches, knobs, and lights, and this reminded the software engineer of the layout of electronic musical instruments. He, then, decided to try building a version that produced sound and allowed creative play, but since he had no hardware experience, making the synth was also a chance for him to learn microcontrollers, PCB design, and 3D printing.
The designer then learned computer-aided design to create the synthesizer for toddlers and turn it into a child-friendly device for producing electronic music. His friend had helped print the parts before he fully assembled them and used hand-wired parts on a printed circuit board. He also added an OLED screen with a dancing panda to project the information about the notes, and in the final version, the fully functional electronic music synthesizer for toddlers features a 3D printed body powered by AA batteries. Aside from gifting it to his daughter, the engineer has plans to produce a small batch of the device units, as well as upgrade them with a more powerful microcontroller.
the shell of the device is 3D printed
there’s a small OLED screen with a dancing panda to show the information about the notes played
the child-friendly musical toy comes with four colorful sliders
the device is powered by three AA batteries
view of the custom printed circuit board inside
project info:
name: Alma
engineer: Alastair Roberts
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