I’ve seen a lot of cool hardware for making music over the last couple of years, but none of it is quite as focused on the pure joy of playing an instrument like the Tembo.
It looks like a beautiful handmade Checkers set, and it is indeed made of wood. But it’s really a sampler, drum machine, and step sequencer designed for composing and performing.
The analog toy design is intentionally approachable. Boston, Massachusetts-based outfit Musical Beings hopes the Tembo will intrigue kids as well as professionals of all ages, and the company will support the device with interactive lessons and gamified challenges. The team also avoided adding a screen, and instead enabled more tactile interactions than you’d get with similar machines.
Tembo: A New Musical Instrument for Playful Music Making
Okay, but what can it really do? The gameboard-like top panel of the Tembo is a 16-step sequencer grid. You can assign sounds to each row and then drop magnets onto the grid to create beats and melodic loops. Stacking two magnets in one spot gives you two 16th notes, and flipping a magnet upside down shifts it to the off-beat. That ingenious mechanism is unlike any other modern sequencer I can think of.
There are eight sample packs on board to choose from, with five sounds each. Each channel can hold two switchable samples. You can find more kits in the Tembo content library, and of course you can load up your own.
Here’s where things get interesting for more experienced musicians. You can plug in any instrument, like a guitar or keyboard, and sample it for your compositions. There’s also an in-built mic to capture sounds, as well as effects that you can apply to your samples. If you like what you’re making, you can record your session at the press of a button.
Musical Beings
The Tembo can do all this on its own: you don’t have to connect it to a computer or even to an external sound system. It’s got full-range speakers powered by a Class-D amp, so you can hear all the noise you’re making straight from the machine.
Musical Beings
Now, if you want to get serious, you can pair the Tembo with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) like Logic Pro or Reaper for advanced recording sessions. To that end, the device supports dual USB-MIDI with external clock sync, and it features a headphone jack and USB audio output.
The Tembo also has Wi-Fi for syncing the device’s content with the cloud and receiving updates; Bluetooth allows for data transfer from the app’s content library – but not audio output, as that would add latency. It’ll come with a replaceable battery that lasts three hours per charge, and you also can run it while plugged in.
As a guitar player, I have instruments lying around the house out of their cases, so I can reach for any of them and simply play when inspiration strikes – without necessarily committing to recording something. I love that the Tembo allows you to mess with it in the same way, without having to fire up an entire rig at a desk. The learning curve that makes this approachable for novices is an added bonus.
Musical Designs
Musical Beings is crowdfunding the Tembo on Kickstarter, where it’s currently discounted to US$369, down from its expected retail price of $550. Adding on a custom carrying case brings your pledge to $449.
All crowdfunding campaigns carry an element of risk, and this is Musical Beings’ first product – so you’ll want to keep that in mind if you choose to back this campaign. For what it’s worth, the team has detailed the Tembo’s development going back to 2024, and is closing on a million dollars in funding from more than 2,300 backers.
Musical Beings
If all goes to plan, orders are slated to ship worldwide in January 2027, and delivery costs will be calculated once the campaign ends.
Add this to the growing list of incredible music-making gadgetry we’ve seen recently, from this tone-replicating effects pedal to Roli’s AI-driven piano coach that watches you play and guides you in real time, to this modular guitar that lets you swap electronic components for different sounds in seconds.
Find the Tembo on Kickstarter.
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