The Kawai School Rhythmer is an educational rhythm machine from the 1960s. wildchurch has put together a DIY recreation of this vintage machine. Here’s more from wildchurch:

This is my take on the (very rare) Kawai School Rhythmer…an educational rhythm machine from the 1960s. Rhythms are programmed by inserting pegs into a matrix sequencer – thereby offering a highly visual indication of how a rhythm is formed. Presumably, it helped children like myself to feel the ‘magic of beats’… I’ve never actually seen or heard a fully functioning original, so aside from the aesthetics being different, I’ve used some guess work to replicate the percussion sounds, as well as the functioning of the ‘Hyōshigi’ trigger – for my build, this works as a ‘fill’ switch when a pegs are inserted in the matrix. With no pegs inserted, this triggers the Hyōshigi voice alone.

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