Critter & Guitari has made a name for itself releasing quirky, highly musical devices like this one, and now the company is back with a multitrack recorder that prioritizes simplicity and ease of use. The 5 Moons also continues the company’s pristine track record of making visually distinct devices, due to its attractive wooden casing made entirely of pine.
Under the hood, you’ll find a powerful 48KHz 16-bit sampler and enough storage for about 20 hours of samples and compositions, via an 8GB microSD card. As the name suggests, this is a five-track device, but don’t let that dissuade you from making complex compositions with dozens of instruments, as you can easily bounce everything over and over again.
This musical block of wood doesn’t include a display of any kind, so everything is handled via the sliders and accompanying buttons, but the interface seems easy to use, with dedicated buttons for most tasks, such as bounces, loops and sound reading. The company says that 5 Moons is ideal for making simple closed loops and composing long-form pieces. Creating loops isn’t much of a mystery, but creating longer works requires a certain level of experience with various combinations of buttons and sliders.
To that end, you can easily send projects to your DAW of choice via a USB-C connection for the finishing touches, and this connection also powers the device. Transfers go both ways, as you can send projects from your computer to 5 Moons for additional processing, looping, and creative silliness. Critter & Guitari says that this feature is a great way to start a new single track or to “reimagine and remix” previous tracks.
You can run external instruments directly into the 5 Moons, such as the , thanks to a ⅛-inch mono input. The rear also includes a ⅛-inch mono output if you want to send the signal for external processing or speakers when playing live. Playing live with this thing should be great since it weighs just five ounces, although it doesn’t feature a built-in battery.
Critter & Guitari’s 5 Moons Multitrack Recorder is available now for $325.
