REVIEW
OKAY Synth DIY Kit
FIELD TESThe OKAY Synth Kit is a
monophonic analogue small-
scale synthesizer. Produced by
Oskitone, a one-man operation out
of San Francisco, it comes in two
flavours: the electronics kit with an
included 3D printed enclosure, or a ‘bring your
own printer (BYOP)’ edition that includes the
electronics, but assumes that you will print the
enclosure yourself using the files and settings
available on Thingiverse. For the full experience,
the BYOP edition was built for this review.
Upon receiving your parcel from Oskitone, the
first thing that you’ll undoubtedly notice is the level
of detail and care in packaging of the components for
the electronics portion of the kit. The kit is made up
of four custom PCBs and each board is in a separate
bag with its corresponding components. Aiding in that
experience are the instructions that also arrive inside
the package in a lovely printed booklet; a rarity in this
increasingly digital world. The instructions are also
available online as a PDF on the Oskitone website.
The printing process for the enclosure went
smoothly following the provided settings. As long
as you’ve taken care in ensuring that your printer is
calibrated properly, then you should not have anyT
OKAY Synth DIY Kit
The OKAY synth
kit offers a
unique build
experience
with the added
bonus of being a
fully-functional
analogue synth
for all of your
8-bit and retro
music dreams.8 / 10
VERDICT
$40 oskitone.comissues with the prints. One unique aspect of the
printing process is that many of the parts print with
two colours utilising a colour changeover at some point
in the print. Oskitone has taken the time to put in the
layer height for each part where this occurs so that you
can easily achieve this effect. The design of the parts
is another place where the kit shines. You can tell that
many hours of CAD work are behind the final files that
you slice and load into your printer.
After your printer has cooled, it’s time to heat up
your soldering iron for the electronics portion of the
kit. It’s here that the assembly process becomes a bit
aloof. The instructions for each PCB assembly are quite
sparse and assume an intermediate level of electronics
knowledge. For most kits, this wouldn’t be an issue
but after coming from the detailed instructions for the
3D printing process it feels incomplete. Despite the
murky instructions, the design is compact, and the
components and PCBs are a nice quality.
The instructions come back up to the level seen
during the 3D printing stage for the final assembly.
The 3D printed parts go together well, and the PCBs
are spaced comfortably in the case. It’s after this that
the real fun begins. As a synthesizer, it’s a delight to
play around with. The tone is punchy, and the built-
in speaker offers a surprising amount of volume for
its dinky size.Above
The tiny, yet mighty,
OKAY synth. It can of
course be printed in
tamer colours if 80’s
ÅuVrLscLUts arLU»t
your taste
Left
A look inside the
OKAY synth. As you
can see, a lot of
thought has been put
into the design of the
case and PCBsBy Liz Clark @BlitzCityDIY