Bliptronic 5000: the low-cost Tenori-on?

The Bliptronic 5000 is here to light up your Christmas.
The Bliptronic 5000 is here to light up your Christmas.

Yamaha's more affordable Tenori-on Orange may be arriving just in time for Christmas, but it's still not exactly cheap. If you're looking for a grid-based synth that does fall within a realistic budget, though, you should consider ThinkGeek's Bliptronic 5000.

Billed as an LED synthesizer, it certainly owes a debt of design gratitude to the Tenori-on, being based on an 8x8 matrix of light up buttons. Music is made in a pattern-based fashion, and the built-in sounds are of a retro nature.

Control dials enable you to pick your instrument type, adjust the tempo (the range is 60-160bpm), set the volume and turn looping on or off. There's a built-in speaker (plus line-out and headphones sockets) and multiple Bliptronics can be linked together. The fly in the ointment is the lack of a MIDI Out.

The good news, though, is that the Bliptronic 5000 is available now for just $49.99. Check out the video below for a demo.

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.