Neko puts real-time stem separation, amp modeling and recording in one pocket guitar rig

Neko is a pocket-size guitar workstation from the UAE-based Neko Engineering, built around a partnership with the Swiss company LALAL.AI. The device splits a track into guitar, bass, drums and vocal stems in real time, then lets a player mute a part, slow the song, loop a section or build a backing mix, without sending audio to a cloud service. LALAL.AI says it is the same separation engine that runs in its desktop app and VST plugin, reworked to fit the memory and processing limits of an embedded chip. Around that sit an amp modeler, an effects processor, a recorder, a USB audio interface, a tuner and a metronome.

The published specification lists a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a neural-processing unit, 4 GB of memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C, a 3 W speaker and about six hours of battery life. The guitar side runs Neural Amp Modeler A2 Full and connects to the TONE3000 tone library. Two wireless jacks, one for the guitar and one for the amp, are rated for about three hours; there are also standard 6.3 mm input and output sockets and headphone outputs. A Tabs Converter turns a separated guitar stem into tabs.

The Kickstarter campaign started on October 13, 2026. A $399 pledge compares with a planned $599 retail price, and shipping to backers begins in April 2027. The LALAL.AI integration was first shown at IBC 2026 in Amsterdam, and Neko won a Red Dot Award in the Design Concept category for 2026.

For guitarists, the draw is the consolidation: tone capture, stems, tab conversion and recording normally live in different devices or apps. It is still a crowdfunded product, so the delivery date and the final feature set are the makers' promises rather than shipping facts. If the on-device separation and the low-latency guitar path work as described, Neko could make rehearsal and song study considerably more portable.