Hi everyone! I have a batch or so of Pocket Operators. I go in and out of using them. I find it hard to return to them and remember how they work. How do you deal with this? I have started taking some notes on basic start-up. Ideally I’d like to not feel like I’m starting from scratch on understanding their foibles.
A related question (but maybe I should make a separate topic) – how much of each Pocket Operator can actually be leaned from the included instructions? I have seen some videos and posts that indicate there are hidden features and functions on POs that aren’t in the main instruction page. That seems particularly headache inducing… esp. if your goal is to work towards a running basic knowledge of the litttle guys.
i love the POs - they are unique. i would say the manual is enough to get you going. not the quick start guide though, the pdf manual on the te website.
if you are specifically talking about the “metal series” 32, 33, 35 - then those have some undocumented features. the sonic charge website (developer for the 32 and 35 engine) has these undoc features pinned on their public forum for po 32/35.
for the 33, folks have posted online but i dont know of one central place.
whenever i take a break and go back i find i prefer to not know what im doing so i can be more free to just fiddle and be in the moment. but i know it can be frustrating in some way too.
I like to go back and use whatever might be lurking among the patterns on my POs and just use that long forgotten fragment as the seed for something new.
I know this post has long since been posted, but I’m new the TE world, but not to PO. My son has ASD, and had a person who was working with him that had a mega man PO, and OP1. She’d let him play on it as an incentive when he was doing his “tasks.” Oh, he would be a trained seal if you had that up on the chopping block! But, shew as not a good fit for my son, and so she AND her PO and OP1 had to go. I have spent years looking into an OP1, but for a then 4 yo, that was nuts. He’s almost ten now, and I still think it’s nuts. I’ve gotten him an Akai midi keyboard, and he’s always adapted to it, but it’s not an OP1. I only recently found the POs and how cheap they really are! So I grabbed two! The 14 since it was the “last one” and the 33 because it was the metal body. I wanted to compare the two.
Wow! I didn’t realize the difference would be so large. When you have two ASD boys who are not quite two years apart. That “he has what I want” becomes more drama inducing as the punches can come quicker! So with the 14 vs 33 it can be a bear. Butalsobecause they both offer such unique sounds and features they have their preferred! My older son, the one who is more familiar with TE’s tech likes the 14. He is like you guys, he hasn’t been around them in forfiveyears! And, he just got it, and yet, here I am the adult with the instruction manual. He picks it up, and where I’m struggling to “write” a song like was shown on the video on Amazon. He’s writing his own tune, and playing it. Showing me all sorts of tricks! He has no memories really of doing this before. Just that he has done all of this before!
He’s also like dead set on trying to get that Mega Man PO, as well as wanting to strive for that OP1 he played on. I feel he’s a “man” of big aspirations. But I figured I’d join this community to learn more about these instruments. And let him too learn what more he can do with them. As they were for him that I got them. He calms down more from the technical/machine sound of music than how most do with classical.