OtamatoneDeluxe Electronic Musical Instrument for Adults Portable Synthesizer Digital Electric Music from Japan by Cube/Maywa Denki Cool Stuff Gifts, Red [English Manual]

Works great, my son loves making crazy noise with it.

My kids love this thing. They have seen videos of this musical instrument, so they were so excited to get this and try it out. It is really cool and fun to play with. It is easy for any age to figure out and enjoy. My three year old likes it just as much as my husband. It is fun for someone who loves music and playing around with musical sounds. It is soft while also being durable and well made. I would recommend this product!

I'd seen these around the internet and I was curious. I got the "Deluxe" not really knowing what was different about it. It's quite a bit larger and comes with a strap as well as a "Deluxe" price. It also has a 5v power supply input and a line output (for long term recording sessions?).The hardest thing about getting it up and running was putting the batteries in. The battery cover is held on with a Philips screw that is actually slotted so you can use a coin to open it. I don't recommend this, but it works. Just use a screwdriver if you have one. After that, it's pretty easy to figure out. It took me a bit to realize that the "wah-wah" effect was pretty much negated by the chunk of foam that's stuffed in the mouth. Take that out.It's a pretty silly instrument, but fun. A great gift for someone who collects random music things (like me), aside from the price. Deluxe it may be, but the $80 price tag seems very steep for what you're really getting. After playing with this for a very short time, I can't imagine trying to play the smaller "regular" version with any sort of accuracy. For an adult, I'm sure switching from the regular to the deluxe would be a welcome change thanks to the longer fingerboard. If you're not especially interested in becoming an Otamatone virtuoso though, the regular version is half the price (which still seems steep).I ordered this expecting a plastic digital noisemaker, and that is pretty much what I got, so no real complaints there. I suppose this could be used as a "real" instrument, but it might take some imagination (in either production or listening) to make it not sound kind of cheesy. I know there are people that enjoy/collect "Japanesey" stuff, and this does not disappoint on that front, with both the packaging as and the concept itself. It will probably not surprise you though, to know that this is made in China.It is what it is and I expected nothing beyond that. It's cute and kind of fun, and the Deluxe offers a "grown-up" size for larger fingers. If you can look past the price, I'd say there's nothing else quite like it!

I was aware of the Otamatone, but had never played one. Wwhen it arrived, I was disappointed: the battery arrangement requires unscrewing an actual screw and loading three AA batteries into a drawer, then it has to be screwed back together again. And worse than that, the oscillator turned out to just be a sawtooth wave with no control of anything but pitch. So why the five star review?I'm recently retired and a lifelong serious multi-instrumentalist with a love of studio recording. Right off the bat from retirement, I'm recording two albums simultaneously. The second I put this thing into Ableton Live and put a ring modulator on it, I was instantly accessing those ancient Krautrock sounds...with a ribbon controller! So my initial disappointment turned into instant joy once I added effects. (With a ribbon controller!!!)But I'm weird and I know it. What about normal people? We had some visitors today: the leader of a band I'm in and two of his kids, age 6 and 11. The 11 year old is special needs and severely autistic. All three of them saw it sitting there and dove in (Dad first) without invitation from me. I can attest to the fact that this thing is a hit with anybody who picks it up--they won't want to put it down. I'd say between the smiles it generated today and my ring-modulated Echoplex mayhem I recorded yesterday, it's worth every penny. Recommended unless you dislike having fun.

The Otamatone is quite the fun toy (or genuine musical instrument, depending on your perspective) to play around with. There are plenty of videos online of people covering real songs with it, so it definitely can be done, but not without a fair bit of practice. I'm not a musician myself so I'm not able to play any songs with it, but it's still fun to mess around with.One thing I would like to see to really improve the deluxe version would be the inclusion of a marked fingerboard with notes but sadly, as it is, there isn't any guide or markings on the fingerboard to help you learn to play it.The Otamatone has three different pitches you can switch between and all of them are quite different from one another. It also gets fairly loud, but can be played at a quiet volume too if you prefer.My unit has a mouth that's a little bit crooked but that isn't a huge deal to me and sort of adds to the goofy charm of it. Overall, I like it and think it would make a fun gift for kids or any musicians with a sense of humor. Recommended.

We bought my daughter a smaller one around 10 years ago, it lasted most of that time but finally died. Then I saw this, bigger, louder. better all around, and knew that we needed to replace the one the stopped working. It is awesome, absolutely worth every penny, and truly is a fun instrument. It may be a novelty, but it still makes a good tune once you get used to how to use it.