Dato Synthesizer DJ —  Dato DUO, an instrument for two. A gritty sounding synthesizer paired with a flashy sequencer. For kids aged 3 – 99 and up!

The Dato DUO is designed to have fun making music, together! While one player plays a melody on the sequencer side, the other creates its sound and adds percussion on the synthesizer side. By carefully controlling the possible parameters, we designed the DUO so you can’t do anything wrong. The result may be as clean or noisy as you want it to be, but it’ll never be out of tune. If you want to know how it sounds watch our video again – we recorded the soundtrack directly from the output of one Dato DUO.

This is the circular sequencer. It loops the last eight notes that you play. There are further buttons and knobs to change the melody on the fly. You can turn notes on and off, speed up the sequence, play notes at random or change the pitch.

This is the synthesizer. Two large sliders control the two digital oscillators and the filter-cutoff frequency, with basic envelope controls to shape the sound. We’ve added two touch pads – one for percussive bursts of noise and the other for an aggressive bit crusher effect.

What else can you do with the Dato DUO?

The DUO has no screens and menus, so it’s impossible to get lost in settings or presets. What you see is what you get. That doesn’t mean you can’t make serious music with it though. The Duo has plenty of power and potential for musicians, and it feels right at home with most other music gear. You can hook it up to external effects like guitar pedals. We’ve also added a sync input and output, so the DUO plays very well with gear like the Korg Volca or Pocket Operators. Full-size MIDI ports are included as well.

 Specifications

• 2 oscillators: 1 pulse (variable width) and 1 sawtooth
• Digital low pass filter with resonance
• Amp envelope (note length and release time)
• Sample rate reductor
• Noise-based percussion synthesizer

Sequencer

• 8-step circular sequencer
• Pentatonic keyboard. Two octaves

Inputs and outputs

• Audio out capable of driving headphones
• Sync input and output, compatible with Korg Volca, Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators
• MIDI IN and MIDI OUT on full-size DIN connectors
• Internal speaker
• Micro USB for power and firmware update. 5V, 2A max.

The synthesizer generates sound digitally and has a nice gritty 12-bit sound. We’re using Paul Stoffregen’s awesome Audio Library for Teensy as the basis for our synthesizer.