Retro Thing

Tiny Chimera Analog Synthesizer

The Chimera bC16 miniature audio synthesizer resembles an alien dinner plate, complete with a serving of electro spaghetti. It can be powered by three internal 9V batteries and even offers a built-in headphone amplifier so you can patch together brilliant bleeps and bloops on the bus. You'll need a control voltage source (such as the upcoming Chimera SM16 analog step sequencer) to make anything approaching music.

Mystery designer BC has managed to pack a complete patchable analog monophonic synth - with VCO, LFO, ADSR envelope generator and noise and ring modulation - into a "CD sized" plastic case, and has the audacity to market his creation for a mere $229. The initial production run is almost sold out, but he's planning to introduce a $269 SM16 analog sequencer with MIDI and even a $299 pH303 bass line synthesizer at the end of January 2008.

The site is still heavily under construction, but it's worth a visit to see how things are progressing. [note to  budding entrepreneurs: Send us links to your site *after* pulling down the "coming soon" banners or you might get forgotten at the bottom of the RT inbox...]

Chimera Synthesis bC16 miniature patch synthesizer
Browse the bC16 manual [pdf]

related
Macbeth M5 'Pure Analog' Modular Synthesizer
The "Synth Module Of The Month Club"

The Year That Was

It’s been a tremendously fun year here on Retro Thing. Our little site served up 2,203,615 pages of content in 2007, which amazed us to no end. We were also stunned by the number of people who discovered Retro Thing via links to classic posts such as our ode to Orbitz soft drinks, Marx plastic presidents or a look at affordable record turntables that we published several years ago.

Another way to join in the fun is by adding your own words in the “comments” section of each post. We love it when we spark a long forgotten memory, and we also appreciate that our readers are a savvy group who don’t pull any punches. John responded to James' Top 20 Retro Cars list by declaring, "Those cars suck, you have extremely bad taste.  Why would you put a gremlin and a bug over a 57 bel air or 32 ford?"

Bohus was recently confronted by a expert when he mistakenly referred to a ceramic planter in the shape of a vintage phonograph as a Victrola, "Although the planter is an artist's interpretation of an early external horn disc phonograph and doesn't accurately resemble anything actually manufactured, it would be more properly referred to as a Victor."  We appreciate you keeping us on our toes.

Our site grows by word of mouth, so next time you read a post you like, how about emailing the link to a friend who might enjoy it too – or tell someone about our site next time the conversation drifts to records with animated cartoons built in or the Atari 2600.

Thanks to all of our sponsors for their help behind the scenes (don’t forget that if you’ve got a product that Retro Thing readers should know about, drop us a line!), the folks in the media who have interviewed us for stories, but most of all thanks to you out there for making it all worthwhile.

We're excited about what 2008 has to offer and hope you'll accompany us on the adventure - James & Bohus