A chord instrument · coming to Kickstarter
Tonic.
Twelve keys. Every chord in key.
Pick a key, press a button, hear the chord. Tonic turns twelve keys into every chord that belongs in your song, then lets you shape it, strum it and loop it. It plays its own sound or any synth in your DAW.
Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom, tap a key to play it, point at any part to see what it is. The looper is playing I – V – vi – IV in C. The white keys are scale degrees, so their caps carry numerals rather than note names; amber legends are the SHIFT functions.
The idea
Keys that are scale degrees, not notes.
On a piano, playing a chord means knowing which three notes to press and finding them fast. On Tonic the seven white keys are always the seven chords of your key: I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii°. Change the key or the mode and they follow. You can't play a wrong chord.
The five mint keys are the “spicy” ones: borrowed chords like ♭VI and ♭VII that film scores and the best pop choruses are made of. Hold FLIP to swap any chord between major and minor, for the major V in a minor key or a secondary dominant, without a theory lesson.
Shape, not just pick
One chord, a hundred ways to play it.
The chord you choose and the way it's played are separate controls, so the same progression can be a block-chord ballad, a strummed guitar part or a tempo-synced arpeggio.
Extension
Triad to ninth
Triad, 7th, 6th, add9, 9th, sus2, sus4. Every added note comes from your key, so the colour always fits.
Voicing
Inversions and drops
Root position to 4th inversion; close, drop-2, drop-3 or spread. The shapes a guitarist or a session pianist would reach for.
Spread
Block, strum, arpeggio
From all notes at once to 500 ms between them, up, down or alternating, free or locked to the tempo from 1/32 to 1/4.
Dice
Happy accidents
Every chord gets its own extension, inversion and voicing, rolled around your settings and voice-led so the progression still flows.
Change any of them while a chord is held and it morphs live: only the notes that differ change, the rest keep ringing.
Try it
Play it right here.
This is the instrument's chord logic, running in your browser with a simple synth. Press and hold the keys, change the key and mode, hold FLIP. Then try a I – V – vi – IV, or ♭VI – ♭VII – I.
Beyond one chord
From a progression to a whole song.
Looper
Four tracks, one transport
Record a progression after a one-bar count-in, overdub, undo, quantise. Each track has its own length, sound and MIDI channel. Loops store the chords you pressed, not audio, so change the key or the voicing and the whole loop follows.
Note mode
Melodies that can't miss
The keys switch to single notes of your scale, or to the tones of the chord that's playing, so you can jam a melody over your own loop.
Drums
A kit on any track
Turn a track into twelve synthesised 808/909-style drum pads: kick, snare, hats, clap, toms, rim, cowbell, shaker, crash. They send General MIDI notes too.
In the studio
A MIDI instrument first
Class-compliant USB MIDI with a channel per track, and a TRS MIDI out on the new board. It follows your DAW's clock, start, stop and song position, and the internal synth switches off when you want only MIDI.
Its own sound
Twelve voices, built in
Presets, a resonant filter with its own envelope, drive, ping-pong delay and a plate reverb. Each track gets its own sound and level.
Remembers
Pick up where you left off
Key, mode, every setting and all four loops survive a power-off. Plug it back in and press PLAY.
Design
Built like a keyboard you'd keep.
Mechanical key switches in an aluminium plate, walnut cheeks, and one board with nothing to come loose. The model above is the actual board, rev A, with every part on its real pin.
- Twenty-one mechanical keysMX-style switches with per-key LEDs: twelve chord keys and nine function keys, each one lit when it's playing.
- Two displays, two encodersOne screen for the chord, its numeral and its notes, one for the looper. A “play” encoder for how chords are played, a “sound” encoder for how they sound.
- The plate takes the playingThe switches clip into an aluminium top plate on six standoffs, so pressing a key never stresses a solder joint.
- A real audio brainAn Electrosmith Daisy Seed: a 480 MHz Arm Cortex-M7 with a 24-bit audio codec, the platform behind a lot of boutique Eurorack and pedals.
Under the hood
Designed in code, proven on a desk.
Everything that makes Tonicmusical lives in one portable C++ core: the harmony, the timing, the synth, the looper. It runs on a Mac with a keyboard standing in for the panel, under automated tests, and the very same code runs on the instrument. Nothing allocates or locks in the audio path, so it doesn't glitch.
| Keys | 7 chord keys (scale degrees), 5 borrowed-chord keys, 9 function keys |
|---|---|
| Controls | 2 push encoders (play, sound), volume |
| Displays | 2 × 0.96″ OLED: chord, looper |
| Harmony | 12 keys × 7 modes, 7 extensions, 5 inversions, 4 spacings |
| Sound | 12-voice synth, drum kit, filter, drive, delay, plate reverb |
|---|---|
| Looper | 4 tracks, count-in, overdub, undo, quantise, 6 time signatures |
| Connections | USB-C (power, USB MIDI), 3.5 mm audio out, 3.5 mm TRS MIDI out |
| Size | About 28 × 16 cm (prototype) |
Progress
Where Tonic is now.
Tonicplays today on a breadboard prototype: the chords, the sound, MIDI and the looper all run on the real hardware. What's left is turning it into something you can put on a desk and keep for years.
- The harmony engineModes, diatonic and borrowed chords, FLIP, seven extensions, inversions and drop voicings. Tested on every key, mode, button and extension combination.
- Sound, MIDI and timingA 12-voice synth with filter, drive, delay and reverb; USB MIDI recorded into Logic Pro; strum, tap tempo, sync and MIDI clock.
- Looper, tracks and drumsFour tracks on one transport, count-in, overdub and undo, quantise, note mode, and a synthesised 808/909-style kit.
- The real panel · nowRunning on a breadboard prototype today. The carrier board (rev A) is designed and routed, and ready to order with its switch plate.
- Enclosure and playtestingFirst boards in a case, in the hands of musicians and of people who've never played a chord.
- KickstarterOnce the design is proven. Register below and you'll hear before anyone else.
Register interest
Be first in line.
Leave your email and you'll get the occasional update as Tonic goes from prototype to product, and a heads-up before the Kickstarter launches, when the early-bird rewards go.
Tell us how you'd use it, too. It shapes what gets built first.
Questions
Good to know.
Do I need to know music theory?
No. Choose a key (or leave it in C), and every white key plays a chord that belongs in it. The numerals on the keys are there if you want to learn what you're playing, but you never need them.
Does it make sound on its own?
Yes. Tonic has its own 12-voice synth with a 3.5 mm audio output, a drum kit, delay and reverb. Every chord also goes out as MIDI, so it can play any synth in your DAW instead. You can switch the internal sound off when you do.
What does it connect to?
USB-C to a computer (class-compliant USB MIDI, no drivers), a 3.5 mm audio out, and on the new board a 3.5 mm TRS MIDI out for hardware synths. It follows your DAW's MIDI clock, start, stop and song position.
Is it a MIDI keyboard?
Not really. A keyboard gives you notes and leaves the chords to you. Tonic's keys are chords, already in key, already voiced. There's a note mode for melodies, but it's built for harmony first.
How much will it cost, and when?
Not decided yet: the price depends on the first production run. Register your interest and tell us what you'd pay; it genuinely helps.