Ive been wanting to dabble with digital music production. All software ive tried has so many menus and buttons and switches I get overwhelmed.
While looking up instruments on amazon I came across these pocket synthesizers called stylophones and similar like theremin that entry for about 40-50$.
These seem like cool little gadgets to toy around with and maybe get a foot in the door to learn how to do digital music production. Does anyone have experience with these things? Are they worth messing with?
I have an old mixer for my condenser microphone that plugs into laptop I think I can plug aux line in from these mini synths to the mixer.
I would suggest the Korg Volca line over something like these if you want some hands on hardware for an introduction, they will be a lot more versatile. That said, it doesn’t matter what you use to make music as long as you’re expressing yourself and having fun, toy or not. The stylophone was used on lots of commercial recordings most notably by David Bowie.
The stylophone is probably not a very good choice if you actually want to make a musical track, it’s quite a bit limited.
Also, please don’t assume that hardware is simpler than plugins. A lot of hardware has plenty of menu diving or arcane shortcuts due to the limited hardware controls, tiny (or absent) screens etc. You should be looking at “one knob per function” devices.
If you just want to explore a bit and make tracks, get a groovebox l. If you are looking to dive into synthesis and a bit of sound design, look at the Arturia Microfreak.
Stylophones are novelty toys. Sure you can use them for a specific lofi sound but if you’re looking to produce more “serious” music spend your money elsewhere.
