Make live music on the go: the mi Jam pocket synths

As a musician, I’m very fond of live music. It usually requires bulky instruments or equipment that’s not that portable (well, you can carry a musical instrument with you, but you can count the pocketable ones on your fingers).

B2 have added a new product line to their mi Jam series: the minis. They are four separate pocketable synthesizers, designed for playing alone or jamming along with your audio player. There’s a mixer, a drumkit, a keyboard and a synth guitar.

Read on for a bigger picture and for the juicy details.


All devices have built-in rhythms with tempo and volume control, for those who’ll want to play them stand-alone. There’s a line-in jack for connecting your mp3-player and jamming along with it. It has a standard 3,5mm output, so you can connect your headphones or portable speakers to it.

1. the keyboard model has several voices, and only 8 keys. It’s somewhat limited, but should definitely be a lot of fun.
2. the drumpad is like a standard drum machine, but without force sensors (so no matter how hard or lightly you press the key you’ll get the same sound). It has a snare drum, a bass drum, tom-tom and cymbals for your tapping pleasure.
3. the mixer has two ‘disc’ touchpad. You can allocate one of the preloaded sounds to each ‘plate’ and scratch freely in either direction.
4. last but not least, my personal favourite: the mini Guitar. It can play riffs and chords, and has a strum sensor. Just hold your finger on one of the notes/chords on the fretboard and strum up or down for chords or notes.

Here are the specifications, as given by the manufacturer:

1. simulated real instrument sounds
2. programmed rhythm backgrounds
3. attractive backlight (the chocolate craze, here too)
4. portable size
5. volume control
6. tempo control

The presentation page is pretty vague, probably so as to make you buy one. And the price isn’t high at all, at around $20 apiece.

Check the product page for a video. Found’em via technabob