The new Omnichord has finally broken cover with retro and modern sounds, keyboard/drum pad modes and MIDI Out

>It’s happening: Suzuki has confirmed that the new Omnichord, which it announced last year, will be called the OM-108, and will be released in July 2024.

The Omnichord has always been an instrument that’s been designed to be playable even by those with little or no music-making experience, and the OM-108 stays true to this philosophy. A set of chord selection buttons sits to the left, and a strummable touchstrip enables you to play them (as well as individual notes from the chords). There’s a definite ‘can’t go wrong’ vibe here, and you can choose the flavour of your chords with the major, minor and seventh buttons, also dialling in sus4 and add9 variations where appropriate.

The OM-108 uses analogue circuitry to emulate the sounds of the classic OM-84 models (you can actually start it up in a dedicated OM-84 mode and use its presets) but there are new tones, too. You can beef up your sound using the layering options, and the rhythm section has new drum beats.

If you’re more interested in playing melodies or basslines, you can turn the chord buttons into a playable keyboard (a handy overlay gives you a visual guide), and you can play the OM-108 as a drum pad, too. MIDI Out means you can also use this Omnichord as a creative controller for other gear.

While the news of a new Omnichord has attracted a lot of interest – it definitely has a certain kitsch appeal – it remains to be seen whether this will translate into sales. We suspect that this will largely depend on how much it eventually costs; the rumoured price is around $800; toppy for something that might end up only being used occasionally, but this hasn’t been confirmed.