Playtime Engineering’s new toy synthesiser looks like a Bop It on steroids

Playtime Engineering has designed a new “toy” synthesiser called the Blipbox After Dark ($179) that should allow even the most casual users to create wondrous digital jazz. Described as an advanced synthesiser that’s “accessible for all ages,” the After Dark can produce professional-level sounds and beats using a pretty robust feature set that includes over 300 preloaded melodies, a resonant multi-mode filter, and a built-in drum machine with over 100 pitch-shifting drum samples. Those melodies can be tweaked and warped using the After Dark’s onboard sequencer, oscillator, filter, and amplifier – which are all controlled via a series of chunky plastic knobs. You can even connect the After Dark to other hardware thanks to a 5-pin MIDI input and 1/4in Stereo Audio Out, but perhaps its best to master the basics before opening your very own production studio.