Happy 2024! After a busy year, I’ve finally had a few moments to sit down and put together another Decent Sampler library!

My wife manages to find unusual, uncommon or unique instruments to give to me every year for Christmas. And this year was no exception: she managed to dig up an Electron ECHO Mini Piano.

I’d never heard of them before, but apparently they were a very popular electronic pocket keyboard toy made in the 1980s, and they have a wonderfully cheap and charming circuit-bent sound to them.
So I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a quick, quirky little library out of it to close out 2023.

There aren’t many bells and whistles to the instrument: I’ve pitch corrected the notes just a little (the warbly, out-of-tune sound is a huge part of the charm) and I’ve extended the range a couple of octaves above and below, also adding chromatic notes to the diatonic instrument.

I threw some attack, release, chorus, delay, reverb and tone controls onto it, just for fun. And there’s a toggle button to switch between monophonic (like the original instrument) and polyphonic settings.

Oh, and it comes in 3 colours: Blue, red and yellow. Just like the original. So enjoy!

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Recorded, designed, programmed and uploaded all in a long Christmas weekend in Dublin.