Dubreq Stylophone has released the Stylosette, a new “cassette synthesizer’ that builds on the classic Stylophone stylus instrument design – and a knockoff of the Synth-a-Sette portable synth.
Details are still to come at their site, but the Stylosette is showing up on Amazon already, and Dubreq has shared preview videos, embedded below:
Features:
- Mini Stylophone Keyboard – The Stylosette delivers the classic Stylophone sound and more.
- Easy to play – This retro cassette-style synthesizer is played by sliding your finger along the touch-sensitive metal surface. Each segment on the surface plays a different note. Add vibrato and delay, and change octaves with ease.
- Play anywhere – touch keyboard cassette features a built-in speaker, delay effects, vibrato, and a three octave range, without the need for a stylus.
- Very portable – At just over 10cm wide, the Stylosette is pocket-sized and portable. It runs on 2 x AAA batteries and features a built-in speaker and headphone jack – so you can play it everywhere you go. Batteries, cables and accessories are included.
- STEM learning – You can use the expansion port and clips to trigger sounds using conductive objects such as fruits, vegetables or spoons. You can also change the speed, depth and delay with the screwdriver accessory to customize your sound.
Here’s a review, via Tiger Arcade:
Pricing and Availability:
The Stylosette is available now for $39.95 USD.
Update: We revised this post to categorize the Stylosette as a knockoff of the Synth-a-Sette. While Dubreq does not explicilty market the Stylosette as an alternative to the Synth-a-Sette, the Stylosette appears to copy the Synth-a-Sette design, is named similarly, and is named similarly.
Hey Dubreq, where’s the CPM DS-2 Analog Drone Synthesiser you announced a year ago?
Lo & behold, just had the email saying it’ll be shipping in January!
Remember when you guys covered the Synth-a-Sette last year? https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2023/10/02/synth-a-sette-is-a-portable-analog-synth-that-you-can-play-with-bananas-beer-cans/
Looks and sounds mighty familiar, doesn’t it?
Post updated.
Where do you think this falls in terms of copies – Inspired by, clone, knockoff, etc?
It’s certainly a copy of sorts. I suppose it’s “legitimacy” rides on the relationship between the two manufacturers…agreements, licences, etc.
I have at least _some_ faith that Stylophone isn’t the type of company to do rip-off products.
Well, here is a comment they made on one of their videos about this thing, as a response to someone who mentioned that this is pretty much a copy of the “synth-a-sette”:
“There have been quite a few cassette formatted synthesizers over the years, as well as lots of kit banana/fruit type synthesizers. Many have taken inspiration from the Stylophone (including the one mentioned – one octave keyboard, with tuning control, octave switch and vibrato)
So we’ve been wanting to create our own official Stylophone cassette version for quite a while now to fit into a standard cassette case. Stylophone – Cassette – Stylosette
Theres customizable delay, adjustable vibrato and and expansion port that also works with a sequencer. You can also create a master slave function to drive 2 Stylosettes at once. So theres much more than just conductive objects.”
I mean, philosophically, this is interesting. You can’t copyright circuits per se, and looking at the circuit boards, the two have obvious differences. but for most end users, a “copy” comes down to look/feel, and I would disagree that the Synth-a-Sette has a lot of direct look/feel influence from the original Stylophone. It’s a different kind of interface, and the aesthetic of the cassette thing is very specific.
By that same measure, the Stylosette look/feel is incredibly derivative of the Synth-a-Sette. I’d agree that the delay on the Stylosette is a notable difference, but I don’t see the “expansion port” design as wildly different. I have both of them to compare now, as it’s cheap enough to look at both of these, and I can’t imagine using the port for anything substantially different than the same alligator clip routine you can do with the Synth-a-Sette. With the range of the Stylosette, it’s not like you could use it as a VCO or something, and I wouldn’t want to rely on a little battery powered gadget for that kind of work, anyway.
I think they’re being disingenuous with the “Official Stylophone cassette version” thing, though, because the defining feature of a Stylophone is having to use the hard-wired stylus, right? This isn’t a miniaturized-to-cassette version of the regular Stylophone.
Hi, this is David, the Founder/Inventor at MicroKits with the Synth-a-Sette. My company doesn’t have any of the agreements or licenses you were hoping for. I might have more to say later but right now I want to focus on having a great Christmas with my family.
David
We’ve reviewed this against your design and revised our post to categorize this as a ‘knockoff’ design. Knockoffs are essentially legal third-party copies of a product.
If you determine that the Stylosette design infringes on your design IP, please let us know via our feedback form and we will update or remove this post, as appropriate.
Very disappointing. Thank you and best of luck going forward, and my respect for Stylophone as a business is no longer what it was before this product release.
Knock off. Most definitely.
Certainly a knockoff product. The similarity of its design compared to the synth-a-sette is astounding. Definitely not a coincidence.
I got a Synth-a-Sette late last year. I guess they wanted to copy something that was working.
I know one of the guys who does some work for both not the guy in this video and I told him about this page and he said hes staying out of it but that Dubreq sent him this and I could post
You may have seen that we have been accused on some internet forums of copying another product with our latest product offering, the Stylosette Keys, which has a greater feature set and a completely different design and styling than this other product.
It should be noted that the other product is itself, feature wise and sonically, a copy of our original Stylophone which we have been making since 1969.
Anyone can see and hear that the other product is a Stylophone S1 model in a smaller cassette-sized format with a touch keyboard, apart from that, the other product works and sounds the same as our original Stylophone. It has the same feature set and controls, and it has the same oscillator sound, even the vibrato feature has been copied to sound the same as our original Stylophone, with exactly the same depth and speed. If the makers of the other product wanted to create an original instrument, there was plenty of opportunity to make things differently, but instead they chose to copy our original Stylophone.
We are just a small company and for many years the original Stylophone S1 model was our only product, it hurts our business when people copy it, and this is not the first time it has happened. With the Stylosette Keys we have evolved the original Stylophone concept into a new synthesizer product which we are proud of, and the cassette-style format and touch keys it has in common with the other product are not new or exclusive features. For example, we have had touch keys before on our synthesizer products, on our limited edition GEN R-8 synthesizer from five years ago, and musical gadgets styled as a cassette is not a first either, there is for example SIDPlayer+ and 8Bit Mixtape NEO to name a couple. For a long time we’ve thought it was a great idea to make a miniature Stylophone inspired by these in a cassette-style format and we have been working on that idea intermittently for several years, and we thought that now was the right time to bring this to market. We also have plans for further models in the Stylosette range but they are kept under wraps for now.
I understand you’re just a messenger, so this is isn’t directed at you, but yikes! That’s not a good look for Stylophone to be playing the victim here.
They claim the Stylosette “has a greater feature set and a completely different design and styling than this other product.”? The ONE extra feature it has is delay and no, it does not have a completely different design. That’s the issue, the designs are nearly identical.
Trying to argue that they themselves have been copied because the Synth-a-Sette “sounds the same” as the original Stylophone (it doesn’t by the way, I have both and while there is a similarity, there is a difference in the oscillator sound) is a real stretch. The Otamatone also uses a similar sound, as does the Korg Monotron (also a pocket synth). Throw a stick in a room full of pocket electronic instruments and chances are the one you hit will sound similar. Even old electronic toys have this sound. It’s a pretty simple electronic signal that’s been around for a long time, longer than the Stylophone from the late 60s.
They argue the vibrato function is the identical. That’s like saying you don’t like another company’s guitar pedal because they both make the guitar sound distorted.
The most obvious issue here – that MANY have brought up – is the nearly identical design, nearly identical packaging (with cassette case), and nearly identical STEM marketing angle of the product. The other cassette styled devices mentioned in their response don’t make much sense. The SIDPlayer is a music player, not a pocket synth with a touch keyboard, and the 8Bit Mixtape NEO – while somewhat cassette shaped – doesn’t have a touch keyboard, uses knobs that jut out, wouldn’t fit in a cassette case, and lacks the overt cassette details (toothed wheels) the Stylosette clearly lifted from the Synth-a-Sette.
And why does the Stylosette have the ability to attach conductive objects to it when no other Stylophone product does that? It’s because the Synth-a-Sette does that.
Did Stylophone out of the blue have the idea to create a cassette shaped pocket synth? Not likely. Did Stylophone get word of the Synth-a-Sette and want to copy its design in an attempt to emulate its viral success? It’s looking highly possible.
I would be absolutely fascinated to hear them explain their way out of this quote:
“the Stylosette Keys, which has a greater feature set and a completely different design and styling than this other product.”
Completely different design and styling is just a straight up lie. Remember kids, if you get caught, simply resort to gaslighting.
They have some valid points there, the synth-a-sette borrows a lot from the original stylophone with a stylus, I’ve got both and when you compare them over headphones they sound the same, it’s only the size and the keyboard that’s different.
While I appreciate the response (as opposed to complete silence on the subject) I personally feel that they are digging an ever-deepening reputational hole for themselves. There must be absurdly many ways they could have expanded on the Stylophone’s unique and clever interface (albeit, many decades old now). This blatant imitation of an existing product shows a distinct lack of respect for not only the innovations of others, but also their own reputation for developing and marketing interesting and unique instruments.
Very, very disappointing!
They sound same to me as well plus synthasette has an octave and vibrato switch which is same
surely if they wanted to make it sound different to the stylophone he could have done rather than copying the sound and he could have given it different features to the stylophone?
Stylophone. As in stylus.
You need an annoying little stick thing to play the Stylophone.
The Synth-a-Sette does not require a stylus. Therefore, cannot be considered in anyway, shape or form a copy of the Stylophone.
Dubreq, you are being rather foolish with your statements.
The best thing would’ve been to just say nothing as your looking very bad right now.
The copy-knockoff-ripoff debate aside, the choice of spokesperson is giving me MC-303 groovebox ad-vibes. “Hey kids, I’ve got this cowabunga new “phat drop” in the mail, and it’s like totally rad, dudes and dudettes. You wanna get with the now? Get with the ‘sette, b.”
At first glance he’s ticking all the boxes, it’s just boxes from fifteen years ago, and it comes across as a very desperate attempt to appear cool to “da youth”, entirely missing the mark.