The Suzuki Omnichord has a good couple of years. In 2023, it made headlines when Damon Albarn revealed that he used one of its presets as the basis for Gorillaz track Clint Eastwood, and then a long-awaited new version, the Omnichord OM-108, was released a few months ago.
Which brings us to the Minichord: not an Omnichord, per se, but certainly an instrument that appears to have been inspired by one. Featuring both basic chord selectors and further buttons that enable you to add flavour to them (major, minor, seventh, etc) it certainly takes some design cues from Suzuki’s classic. You even get an Omnichord-style sensor bar that enables you to play individual notes from the chord or arpeggios.
Inside there’s a full subtractive synth engine, and space for 12 presets. Editing can be handled by connecting the Minichord to a computer over USB and opening up the web-based interface. Presets can also be shared between users.
The Minichord is completely open source, and if you have the requisite electronics skills, you can head to its website and find out how to build one. If it proves popular - as we suspect it might - there’s also a chance that it could go into production.
