Musical Beings has launched Tembo, a digital sampler and sequencer that presents the user with a unique and very analogue interface

Tembo is a step sequencer with a difference. Instead of setting up sequences of beats and notes in a digital grid, the new player from Musical Beings rewrites the rules of electronic music-making to create a device that’s both educational and an encouragement to try out new approaches.

Resembling a board game, Tembo uses magnetic wooden counters as markers on a grid, with each one standing for a note or beat. The physical act of forming a bassline or a beat brings the process to life, as does the ease of shifting counters around to produce instant variations.

As a result, Tembo offers the kind of intuitive experience that a conventional sequencer just can’t match, making it both a natural educational tool and a powerful ideas tool for the studio. In addition to the unusual interface, Tembo includes a microphone for on-the-spot sampling, line-in for recording instruments, MIDI out and onboard effects, as well as a starter library of percussion samples.

Musical Beings was co-founded by Ayal Rosenberg, building on a project he created as a creative tech student at NYU to create an empowering electronic instrument for children. ‘We’ve been playing and making music our whole lives as amateurs. But we never felt truly good at it or highly musical,’ Rosenberg explains. ‘We want to change this. We want everyone to feel musical, especially the youngest musicians.’

Inspired by the thoughts of five-time Grammy-winner and music teacher Victor Wooten, who advocated treating musical education as if it were akin to learning to speak. Through hundreds of prototypes, working alongside teachers and students, Tembo came together with warmth and approachability at its core.

‘If you search for step sequencers or drum machines, they look complex and intimidating, even if they are also beautiful. They are metal and black, and they lack the aesthetics of something inviting,’ says Rosenberg. ‘We chose to make Tembo out of wood to get people feeling natural next to it. This is something I want to keep on the dining table, because it’s inviting and pleasant to look at. Wood integrates naturally into any room.’