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.