Tembo

Imagine programming beats by simply sticking magnets on a wooden grid—no screens, no menus, just pure tactile joy that turns anyone into a beatmaker from the first try.

At its heart, Tembo runs a sample-based digital engine with 9 polyphonic voices across five drum channels and four loop channels, letting you load from eight curated packs rooted in real genres like Brazilian rhythms or Detroit hip-hop. The star is its 5-channel 16-step magnetic sequencer with clever sub-steps: one magnet hits the first sixteenth, two stack both, and flipping it targets the second for intricate grooves. Knobs handle tempo, swing, pattern length, time signature, plus per-channel pitch, volume, accent, and sends to onboard delay and reverb; mute buttons and a built-in mic or XLR/TRS combo input make real-time sampling effortless, while USB-C MIDI I/O, stereo outs, headphone jack with volume and limiter, internal Class D speaker, and rechargeable battery keep it portable and jam-ready in a sturdy wooden chassis.

As a prototype heading to Kickstarter, it's generating buzz for bridging kids, families, and pros—studio folks are already obsessed with its intuitive flow, though some note the tactile limits for ultra-complex patterns.