MD-7 Pocket Synthesizer

An unreleased pocket synthesizer from Mach Devices, sold from the maker’s own Shopify storefront. Pre-sales are announced for late September 2026 (“development is still underway”); the listing shows HK$3,130 (roughly US$400) and both case options are marked sold out. Every claim below is the vendor’s own marketing copy — there is no hands-on review, no teardown, and no published synthesis-engine spec at all.

What the maker claims

• Haptic control. A FOC (field-oriented control) motor disc drives the main encoder, so the knob renders what it is editing: detents on snapped values, “virtual walls” at range limits, and different textures per parameter. The pitch is that you identify the parameter by feel and stop looking at the screen.
• Display. A 1.65” IPS panel at 273 PPI, tall aspect, for oscilloscope, envelope curves, patch names and parameter readouts. Wide viewing angle “even upside down mid-jam.” The UI shown is flagged as still in development.
• Ports. Three, described only as covering “every way to use them” with no dongles. The listing never says what they are.
• Case. Two build options: 3D-printed PETG or CNC aluminium — a hobby-fabrication choice offered as a product option.
• Open source. “Every line of code that runs your synth is public” — DSP engine, modulation matrix and sequencer, all promised on GitHub. The repository does not exist yet (“Github repository coming soon”).

Why it matters here

Two things are new for this spoke.

First, haptics as the interface argument. The corpus already sorts instruments by how you address them — keys, chord buttons (chord-synthesizer), an encoder wall (oxi-e16), a tracker grid. The MD-7 makes the feedback direction the pitch: the control surface pushes back. That is a claim about the knob, not about the sound, and it belongs next to modular-routing as another instance of character living somewhere other than the oscillator.

Second, it stakes out the open-source pocket hardware corner, alongside minichord and polyuanalog. But it does so on promise only. polyuanalog is MIT-licensed with the boards published; the MD-7’s openness is a bullet point with no code behind it yet — and the hermetic-alchemy-lab precedent in this spoke is exactly a case where an “open source” claim turned out to cover a thin layer, not the instrument.

T3, and thin even for T3: a first-party store page for a product that does not ship for another two months. Price, date and every spec should be re-checked at release; the missing engine description is the reason this page cannot say what kind of synth the MD-7 is.

Related

mach-devices · synthesizer · minichord · m-vave-fm-1 · hichord · polyuanalog · hermetic-alchemy-lab · modular-routing