PO-12 knobs behaviour

Pocket Operators
#1

Hi,
I enjoy my PO-12 very much, but there’s one thing that puzzles me, I’m not sure wether it’s a bug on mine or if it’s the normal behaviour of this machine.
When I start tweaking a sound with one of the knobs, the Operator seems to also take into account the position of the other knob (without me touching it). Has anyone noticed the same thing ?

#2

I just tried it a couple of times with the kick on mine like this:

  • Place some kicks
  • Enter play mode
  • Hold down write and turn both knobs all the way right, wait for at least one full cycle
  • Release write
  • Turn the B knob all the way to the left
  • Hold down write and turn the A knob slowly all the way to the left without touching the B knob

Worked as expected, only effecting the A parameter. For testing purposes I then held down write and wiggled the B encoder just a little bit and I could hear a distinct change in sound, so it’s pretty clear that it didn’t change before.

It might just be that your board is a bit wonky. IIRC those knobs are pots, not encoders. Hence if by some means (wonky board, maybe you accidentally touching something) the resistance changes enough it’ll pick up that that up as a parameter change.

#3

Thanks for your reply.
I just checked, doing everything you wrote and I think it worked perfectly. It only seems to do this weird thing when I play the sounds not in “write” mode, so this only seems to be a minor flaw.

#4

Are you in play mode or is the sequencer stopped?

#5

Both in play mode and stopped, but not when “write” is on.

#6

When you’re in play mode changing the parameters shouts do nothing as it will take the ones that are set on the steps. Try erasing a pattern. That will reset the parameter automation too. Then go to play mode without writing to any step. Press a key repeatedly and twiddle the parameter knobs to try and change the sound, it should have no effect.

When stopped both parameters knobs work independently for me. If yours really don’t that would seem like a bug to me. Again you might want to test that with the kick by repeatedly pressing it while turning both knobs all the way to the left. Then keep thumping that kick key while turning up B. You should hear the decay get longer. Once you’ve maxed out B slowly turn up A and you should should hear an increase in frequency.

#7

Thanks. Again it works as you described. The weird behaviour just happens when stopped, pressing a new sound and tweaking it for the first time, but in the end it’s not really a problem.