Alma is the 3D-printed, battery-powered synth for toddlers

Software engineer Alastair Roberts’ toddler synthesizer, Alma, is a small, easy-to-use music box that lets young children create simple electronic loops.

His reason for creating it? “My daughter received a Montessori activity board full of switches and LEDs for her first birthday. Watching her twist knobs and flip the switches reminded me of the control surface of a synth, and I wondered if I could build a musical version - something simple, tactile, and creative that didn’t require holding down buttons to keep the sound going.”

Its main controls are four sliders, each tied to one note in a repeating pattern. Moving a slider up raises the pitch; moving it down lowers it. Because the loop plays nonstop, kids hear changes the moment they touch the sliders.

A set of knobs lets them adjust tempo, volume, musical scale, pitch, and instrument sound. Everything runs on an onboard sound module with a built-in speaker, so the device works on its own without any cables or extra equipment.

An OLED screen sits on the front, showing which notes are playing and displaying a small animation of a dancing panda to help children follow along—a simple interface to be understood and enjoyed by young users.

Inside the unit is a custom circuit board that holds all the electronics in one place. The outer shell is 3D printed, giving Roberts freedom to shape and size the enclosure around the components.

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Apparently, Roberts learned hardware as he went. “I started the project with a 15-year-old Arduino Inventors Kit and only a vague idea about how to use it,” he recalls.

Adding the small synth module was a turning point: “Its inner workings remain a mystery to me but it does what I need it to and I was happy reduce the amount of time to get a functioning prototype into my daughter’s hands.”

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After sending his first circuit board design for fabrication, he wrote, “It blows my mind that this is possible.” With the final version now working reliably, he plans to explore small-batch production and update the device with a more powerful microcontroller.

“If anyone reading this has experience bringing small-run hardware to market, I’d love to hear from you,” he states.

Read the entire story behind Alma on Alastair Roberts’ blog here.