Lekholm Instruments, a Swedish company, introduced the Lekholm DM48 Digital Chromatic Harmonica. It is a 12-hole, 48 note, chromatic harmonica that has expressive control over any electronic instrument.
The Lekholm DM48 is a unique MIDI controller that finally gives harmonica players what piano players take for granted: the ability to play any sound imaginable, from realistic brass to deep electronic bass. With the DM48, harmonicists can practice silently, easily make sheet music, and instantly transpose to any key, thereby basically replacing a bag full of harmonicas.
Even non-harmonica players can appreciate it as a novel, innovative, and expressive way of controlling synthesizers. Each of the twelve holes can be assigned to any note, so that any scale can be easily played by sliding along the mouthpiece while varying the breath pressure.
The DM48 is a pure MIDI controller without onboard sound synthesis. Instead of reeds, it is based on twelve precision pressure sensors. It is highly configurable, including MIDI output on a single or multiple channels, mono-/polyphonic models and adjustable response curves. Breath pressure is transmitted as continuous MIDI CC messages at high rate.Together, this puts harmonica players in control of a world of synthetic sounds, silently at night or loud on stage without feedback.
First made available in 2017, the DM48 has now just been released in an updated version, representing what we consider to be its final mature form. The instrument can be purchased directly on the Lekholm Instruments website, where more information and demo videos can also be found. The price is 6400 SEK (Swedish Krona), which is approx. 670 USD, plus shipping.