Playtime Engineering’s new toy synthesiser looks like a Bop It on steroids

Playtime Engineering has designed a new “toy” synthesiser called the Blipbox After Dark ($179) that should allow even the most casual users to create wondrous digital jazz. Described as an advanced synthesiser that’s “accessible for all ages,” the After Dark can produce professional-level sounds and beats using a pretty robust feature set that includes over 300 preloaded melodies, a resonant multi-mode filter, and a built-in drum machine with over 100 pitch-shifting drum samples. Those melodies can be tweaked and warped using the After Dark’s onboard sequencer, oscillator, filter, and amplifier – which are all controlled via a series of chunky plastic knobs. You can even connect the After Dark to other hardware thanks to a 5-pin MIDI input and 1/4in Stereo Audio Out, but perhaps its best to master the basics before opening your very own production studio.

Chris Kerr Contributor, Stuff.tv

About

I’m a freelance games and technology journalist currently mashing my keyboard in the name of fine institutions like Stuff, where you'll usually find me waxing lyrical about the latest mobile morsels. I've also been known to cook up some decidedly delicious reviews from time to time, and was once dubbed 'the games industry's answer to Nigella Lawson' by someone probably somewhere.

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Video games, computing, smartphones, home entertainment, lamps