Teenage Engineering’s Latest Musical Toy is a $2,000 Collection of Singing Wooden Dolls

It’s now all however not possible to foretell what Teenage Engineering’s subsequent musical contraption will probably be. As the corporate has began to increase its design prowess to different merchandise, just like the Playdate handheld, it appears extra snug getting experimental with its personal {hardware}, as is obvious by this collection of wooden dolls that may ‘sing’ individually, or as half of a bigger, costly choir.

The final main launch from Teenage Engineering was the PO-80 Record Factory: a really non-digital music toy that may really be used to chop and produce five-inch, lo-fi vinyl information. Before that, it was a six-channel handheld mixer referred to as the TX-6 with an impressively small footprint however an sadly hefty $1,200 price ticket. There’s no denying that Teenage Engineering’s proficient designers are having enjoyable and churning out the sort of {hardware} they wish to play with, however we’re left scratching our heads as to who these singing wood dolls are for.

According to Teenage Engineering, the gathering of dolls was “inspired by teenage engineering’s first project, the absolut choir from 2007, an art installation made up of 22 wooden dolls of varying sizes…” You can discover a handful of movies of the unique set up nonetheless on-line, and whereas most of the designs have been faithfully carried over to this new assortment, every wood doll, produced from strong Beech, now solely stands about 10-inches tall, so it’s simpler to crowd them onto a desk for a efficiency.

The particular person doll designs are based mostly on “different cultures and characters from across the world” and every one has a barely completely different sound and synthesized vocal vary. From left to proper there’s Gisela (mezzo soprano), Leila (soprano), Miki (tenor), Bogdan (bass), Hatshepsut (mezzo soprano), Ivana (alto), and Carlo (baritone). While every one can carry out individually via a built-in speaker, two to 16 of the dolls could be linked wirelessly over Bluetooth and carry out as a full a cappella choir. Users can select present musical compositions for a efficiency, from “baroque to folk,” or play the choir stay via a MIDI keyboard or the Teenage Engineering OP–1 area and OP–Z devices.

The battery for every doll is rated at about 4 hours of efficiency. Each doll additionally options an accelerometer, permitting playback to be managed by easy faucets and quantity changes to be made by tilting every doll left or proper. As musical toys go, these sound most fascinating with all the assortment at your disposal, however with a price ticket of $249 every, that’s virtually a $2,000 funding to assemble all of them collectively for a efficiency.