Knobster — bare-board USB MIDI controller, eight knobs and four buttons
knobster

Knobster

Eight knobs. Four buttons. USB MIDI. Hackable.

8 KNOBS · 4 BUTTONS · USB-C · CLASS-COMPLIANT USB MIDI · PLUG & PLAY

$50 Pre-orders open
Pre-order — $50

Made to order in Kaohsiung · Batch 1 — 8 units · Worldwide shipping

Try it right nowno hardware needed

Hear it before it ships.

▶  Play the live demo A breakbeat, an acid bass, timed delays, and a glitch engine — synthesized in your browser. Drive it with the mouse. Then imagine both hands. Open /play → ⚙  Open the configurator Map every knob and button to your software — 22 presets from Ableton to lab rigs. Share layouts as links. Live-tests over Web MIDI. Open /configurator →

Both pages speak Knobster natively: plug one in and they follow it, driverless, in Chrome or Edge.

Why it feels like this

Knobster has things you can feel.

Eight sealed potentiometers. Four buttons. Class-compliant USB-C MIDI — plug it in and it is a MIDI device, nothing to install. A bare board, by design. Ships with an SDK, so the firmware is yours to reprogram. Made to order in Kaohsiung.

Eight sealed potentiometers, not encoders. The knob remembers exactly where you left it — there's no ambiguity, no "current value" hidden in software. Where you set it is where it is.

No case. On purpose.

The circuit is the instrument.

We built a 3D-printed enclosure, tested it against the bare board, and the board won. You're closer to the music when you can see the circuit doing it. Rubber feet underneath, solder mask everywhere else, NOT A TOY in silkscreen.

In the box

Plug in and play.

Two things you bring: a USB-C data cable (any one works), and your knobs. The pots are bare ø6 knurled shafts — by design. Standard push-on caps fit, so cap it however feels right under your fingers, or run them naked.

Yours to reprogram

Open firmware. Always a way back.

The firmware is open — MIT. Rewrite one file, midi.c, in C, or point an AI coding agent at the repo and let it do the work. Hold SW1 while you plug in to drop into the bootloader; the stock build reflashes over USB. The bootloader lives in ROM, so a bad flash can't lock you out.

SDK, AGENTS.md, and PROMPTS.md are live: github.com/ryanalexmartin/knobster-sdk

FAQ

Questions.

Does it need drivers?
No. It's class-compliant USB MIDI — plug it in and it's a MIDI device, nothing to install. The only code involved is if you want to write your own firmware, and we make that as easy as possible — see the SDK.
Mac, Windows, Linux, iPad?
All of them. iPad connects over USB-C.
Can I remap the knobs and buttons?
Yes, two ways. No code: the in-browser Configurator — presets, sharing, live MIDI testing. Full control: the open firmware and the SDK on GitHub.
Can I write my own firmware?
Yes. The firmware is open (MIT); the stock build reflashes over USB whenever you want it back.
Is the hardware open source?
The firmware is open (MIT). The board design is ours.
What if it breaks?
One year. We repair it or replace it.
Where does it ship from?
Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Made to order, shipped worldwide.
Downloads & docs

Everything the manual points to.

Manual PDF SDK open firmware Firmware + recovery Case design STEP · STL Configurator in-browser Live demo /play
The unit

A closer look.

Knobster board, angled
Knobster board, top-down
Knobster box
Demo

What it feels like.

60–90 seconds. Fingers on knobs. The DAW responding.

[ demo · 60–90s · click to play with sound ]
In the wild See all

Knobster in the wild.

Stage, studio, lab, classroom, anything else. Send us yours.

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