Ototo is an experimental PCB based synthesizer from design and invention studio Dentaku, which is designed for people who don’t know how to program or code. And the idea is that you can use this to turn virtually anything into a musical instrument. Your imagination is the only limit.
Ototo allows you to combine sensors, inputs and touchpads and easily create your own electronic musical instrument. You can make a drum kit out of some saucepans or an origami that sings when touched. Ototo is designed to let anyone unpack a kit and interact with sound however they want to, no soldering or coding required.
Ototo means little brother in Japanese.
On a printed circuit board the size of a cassette tape, this little square of plastic has a speaker, a headphone jack, four sensors, and 12 inputs whichlet’s you trigger notes using your fingers or crocodile-clip wires.
“We wanted to leave the possibilities of what people could do with Ototo to be as broad as possible,”
“What we’ve found is that people quickly move to using extra materials and sensors and just experiment with different combinations to create their own sound interactions.”
Here are some examples that the creators have made. One uses a windmill to create music, and one uses an actual clementine. Pretty interesting
They plan to put it up for preorder soon, and you can get an email when they do by signing up on their website.
Printing technology has been forging ahead rapidly and developments will soon make it
possible to manufacture all sorts of sophisticated, smaller and cheaper electronic and communication products.
During World War II, Eisler was interned in England for being an illegal alien. Check out for great tips for choosing
a manufacturer of printed circuit boards, right now.