Listen to the world’s smallest and silliest MIDI synth ever created

The rise and importance of the synthesizer in the music landscape is a history that has been well recorded and heard, as inventors and artists continue to utilize the instrument across a wide variety of uses. Now one inventor has revealed the fruits of his own labor, crafting the worlds smallest MIDI synthesizer with some incredible sonic results.

Inventor Tim Alex Jacobs set about on his quest to build the worlds “smallest and silliest” USB-C synth a few years ago, looking to design a tool that was utterly useless but overall, intriguing and fun to craft. Built on a USB 1.1 Low Speed frequency, the tiny synthesizers only function is to produce a monophonic square wave.

“You might be thinking that this is utterly pointless, and you’d be right. There is no device we could plug this into that doesn’t already have a speaker. There are no USB-C hosts that couldn’t already run a software synthesizer […] The only thing it can do is a monophonic square wave.”

While major retailers and creators constantly look to improve upon synthesizers to help creators around the world, Jacobs crafted his tiny USB-C synthesizer purely for his own amusement and joy. In the short video uploaded to YouTube and featured below, the inventor walks viewers through his headspace and the process he followed in creating his tiny instrument. With each MIDI synthesizer only capable of one sound, Jacobs wisely made the creation easy to replicate, allowing him to plug four into a USB hub simultaneously in order to create a melody.

The final product is a very lo-fi, video game styled sound that is far more pleasing and enjoyable than many would have expected from such a limited invention. To review the full process of Jacobs’ journey, head over to the Mitxela website, where more details and close up images are shared of the entire design process.