The Bastl Kalimba is an instrument that has the potential to be the coolest synth of 2026: a physical modeling FM synth in the form of a Kalimba. Bastl send me an instrument ahead of their Kickstarter to play with. It's running an early firmware, which has its own fun quirks.
Pick this up at an estate sale. It grabbed my attention because it says R.F. Signal Generator and was wondering if there is a way that I can get some sounds out of it.
I’ve been working on a set of virtual instruments inspired by nuclear instrumentation modules (NIM) and other lab equipment, and recently started reworking the visual design to lean fully into that direction.
These run in VCV Rack (a modular synth environment), but the goal here isn’t to mimic typical synth UI. It’s to treat them more like pieces of test equipment that happen to make sound. In this case, they also interface with real analog hardware behind the scenes (and that's a longer story).
The design process started with vintage telecom gear, but NIM turned out to be a better fit: sharp, functional, unapologetically "scientific instrument." I leaned into that, while still trying to keep things usable as musical controls rather than pure visual homage.
A few of the details came directly from that world:
One element I spent some time on was the turn-counting dial. On real hardware, these show position mechanically for precise adjustment. Here, I replicated that with a 7-segment display embedded in the knob itself. One full turn corresponds to an octave change, so it behaves more like calibrated equipment than a typical synth control.
I also tried adding LED glow/pulsing effects to the displays. It looked interesting, but in practice it was distracting, so I cut it. Might come back as an optional setting.
Curious if there are other details from this kind of hardware I should consider lifting. There are a few more modules to rework in this style, so additional ideas would be useful.
I’m planning out building a bit of an experimental sound studio in my new place in Boston, MA.
First step was an analog mixing desk to serve as the centerpiece. I came across this Teac Model 5 with expander, outboard EQ, Submixer, patchbay, and desk locally for a good price and jumped on it.
The last two photos are how it came to me. You can’t really see but it was gunked up and sticky. My guess is years in a smoking environment because it felt like a similar residue to the inside of a smoker’s car. Plus previous owner had painted the side plated black and red.
I dissected everything. Scrubbed it, cleaned electronics with deoxit, and removed that old paint. Every function works smoothly now! Currently working through calibration with the manual I had printed.
So far I’ve only finished the main board. Expander will come next.
The beginning plan is to integrate with my euro rack and Marantz cassette decks followed by a couple of Reel to Reels set up similar to Hainbach’s Miniature Analog Experimetal Studio Video
And here is a video using it alone as a no-input instrument.
I picked up these three beauties (among other things) in Halle recently. These are passive thirds bandpass filters used in measurement wagon of the East German railway. They are heavy and loaded with coils, so I hope they sound good. That they are split up into three frequency ranges makes me think I can use them like a fixed filterbank. I have not had the time to see if they work yet sadly.
I want to use the standard setup:
DAW OUT → tape machine → record to tape → back into the interface (DAW IN).
As you can see in the picture, the seller included 6.3 mm to DIN adapters, but I honestly have no clue if they’ll work for what I’m trying to do. Some people say I need RCA instead, so now I’m confused 😅
I also don’t fully understand the cabling:
Do I run a Y-split TRS cable into the DIN adapter, or just a single TRS cable per adapter?
Could someone maybe link me the exact cables I need for this setup?
And regarding the inputs/outputs on the machine:
Am I correct that I should use the “Radio” input and the “Verstärker” output?
This whole DIN/tape machine world is pretty confusing to me right now. I even asked ChatGPT already, but it somehow made it even more complicated and started hallucinating stuff 😂
Thanks a lot guys, really appreciate the help. Hope you all have a creative day 🙏
So, i i have a uher report 4400 and 4200 stereo and both give me the same problem. I put a md21 in micro I and another in MicroII and micro II is very distorted and low in volume.
I made the cables hot to din 3, ground and cold to din 2. It cant be the machines right?! Same problem?! So im sure its te pin out for micro II.
Or how do i make a 360 recording with two MD21's because i know you can also make a stereo recording with 1 din input.
Pls help! Haha.
https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/rec/uher/report/files/uher\_4200\_4400\_supp.pdf
I'm not good at technical reading. But maybe this'll help. Also, does it hurt to run the machine without C3? This one is for speed control right? But without it the speeds still seem good.
Cheers