The Bastl Kalimba has raised over $700,000 on Kickstarter, and it is not a kalimba. It is a synthesizer built into the form factor of a thumb piano. The tines produce almost no acoustic sound on their own. They are touch and velocity-sensitive triggers feeding a hybrid physical modeling and FM synthesis engine.
An internal microphone can blend in acoustic texture, but the core sound is entirely synthetic, spanning plucks, pads, delay, reverb, and distortion. That range is the point. This instrument does things no real kalimba can do, while remaining playable by anyone who has ever touched a thumb piano.
The full piece at The Verge goes deeper on how the synthesis engine actually behaves under the tines, which is where the interesting engineering decisions live. If you care about how physical modeling and FM interact in a constrained form factor, that section is worth your time.
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