I’ve been hanging out with with Teenage Engineering these days (at Norbergfestivalen), and they gave me a prototype of the PO-12. (Pocket Operator Twelve).
Honestly, it’s been such a busy, and noisy day, so I haven’t tried it properly, but I’ve heard it on a pretty big P.A. system.
This is the deal:
- It’s definitely a true TE machine. It’s real, and it’s working. They’re a bit delayed but they’re confident they’ll be shipping in ´15.
- They’re aiming for a $50 unit, and doing everything in their might to meet that goal, even skipping an enclosure.
- The sound is a mix of synthesis and samples. It sounds surprisingly full and lofi at the same time. Gret fun!
- The lead programmer said that the engines are like 4-5 rows of code per sound (!) Think 40k demo, if you know what I mean.
- The on board memory is measured in KB, and not in MB. = Pretty Lo Fi
- It’s got several effects. Currently high pass, low pass, stutter, bit crush and stuff. This, I’m told, will all change.
- The final version will have a simple screen.
- The sounds have two parameters, that can be live recorded per step.
- It has a sound input. For what it’ll be used, I have no idea.
Here’s a little teaser, but I’ve filmed their presentation too. Will edit it and release it later, tomorrow or something. It’s been a long day
@Kites the hang tag is probably for the demo version, but you never know. It’s for sure a strong signal as of the pricing of this machine. We’ll have to wait and see how the final version will look. But they reiterated several times that it’ll be a no case machine, so I guess the design stands.
I’m uploading a video right now of their unveiling. It’ll take 95 minutes or so to upload it, but I’m going to sleep now.
i like the teenage demos because they are often strange,fast,and weird…but you can hear your own potential to this machine and the amazing sounds.
the po 12 is a new way to create drums, (packed with the ParaLock features of the machinedrum) and man it’s reduced but gives a lot of potential! i like to explore things like a piece of wood and a knife. only imagination is the limit to this.
unlike the rhythm wolf these sounds are more special not a clone of what was there in the past time and gets refurbished to fit the market.
…and maybe the Input would work as a little little 8bit sampler.
I’m addicted to drum machines really don’t know why but I’ve been through more drum machines than any other type of instrument in my hobbyist career. So this is exciting… almost…
Unfortunately one of my other characteristics is a high amount of static electricity in my body which means I have a habit of frying circuit boards just by touching them. If I understand correctly this will be shipped exactly as it looks in the video i.e unprotected. If that’s the case I can’t really risk this - it would be dead within a week.
^hey @trash. look into Faraday cages. Essentially you can cover electronics in tin foil connected to ground and it should effectively shield your “abilities” from the electronics. Makes sure the cage touches no other connections as this deletes that part of the circuit.
moving past the hobo science- I really hope they package this in a metal calculator body. Like Texas Instruments of yore.
