Dübreq Stylophone Stylosette Puts a Stylophone in a Fun Cassette-Style Package
The Stylophone Stylosette looks like a cassette – and also suspiciously like another product…
Dübreq Stylophone Stylosette
What the? Dübreq seems to have snuck out a new instrument. It’s called the Stylophone Stylosette, it looks like a cassette, and it’s really hard to find any information on it. Although it appears to already be in some stores, there’s only a YouTube short promoting it. It’s not even officially on the company website yet. Very strange.
The instrument itself is also kind of a head-scratcher. It looks like a cassette but it’s actually a mini-synth, with a single-octave capacitive keyboard. Play the keys and you get that familiar tweezy Stylophone sound. It’s also got an octave button to extend the keyboard range to three octaves plus vibrato and delay. And yes, there’s no stylus. So less of a Stylophone and more of a Touchophone?
It takes two AAA batteries and has an onboard speaker plus a headphone jack.
Stem Learning
The most interesting aspect of the Stylophone Stylosette isn’t shown in the video but it is mentioned in the description. Apparently it comes with clips, which you can connect to an expansion port to trigger sounds using conductive objects, like fruits, vegetables, or spoons, as the company suggests, or even another Stylosette. That sounds cool.
You’re also able to “change the speed, depth and delay with the screwdriver accessory to customize your sound,” the description says.
This Looks Familiar
In the video comments section, two people pointed out that the Stylophone Stylosette is very similar to the MicroKits Synth-a-Sette, a DIY kit of a mini-synth in a cassette format with capacitive keys, octave switch, vibrato, and the ability to trigger it with capacitive objects.
“Everything from the design to the plastic case to the ability to attach conductive objects is exactly the same. Even the name is a near ripoff,” said a commenter.
Dübreq replied the following to the comment:
“There have been quite a few cassette formatted synthesizers over the years, as well as lots of kit banana/fruit type synthesizers. Many have taken inspiration from the Stylophone (including the one mentioned – one octave keyboard, with tuning control, octave switch and vibrato).
“So we’ve been wanting to create our own official Stylophone cassette version for quite a while now to fit into a standard cassette case. Stylophone – Cassette – Stylosette.
“There’s customizable delay, adjustable vibrato and an expansion port that also works with a sequencer. You can also create a master slave function to drive 2 Stylosettes at once. So there’s much more than just conductive objects.”
I thought for sure that Dübreq had licensed the Synth-a-Sette and rebadged it but judging from the company’s comment, that doesn’t seem to be the case. What do you think?
Stylophone Stylosette Price and Availability
Dübreq Stylophone Stylosette is available now at various retailers for around $39.95.
More Information
- Dübreq Stylophone Stylosette product page
- All about Stylophone
- All about synthesizers