What would an TE/Elektron style instrument for visuals look like?

I keep thinking about how immediate Teenage Engineering instruments feel: sample something, sequence it, add motion and happy accidents, then perform it.

What would that philosophy look like if the medium were visuals instead of sound?

Not a full production or VJ environment—more like a compact visual sampler: capture or load short clips, chop them into playable parts, sequence them, and use simple modulation to create movement in real time.

Would you want something like that? And which TE-style ideas would matter most: a visual tape workflow, punch-in effects, motion sequencing, a grid of clips, a tiny screen with great constraints?

Curious how you’d imagine it. Sad that they removed this functionality from the OP-XY. I’ve built something that runs in a web browser, but the goal is to move to a compact groovebox setup. Here’s our demo: www.visuell.art. Only I don’t have any electronics know-how.

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this all sounds great to me. been thinking about similar stuff for a long time. personally i think the visual tape workflow is less important than the other things you mention. but something like this running on small affordable hardware/a rasp pi + midi controller would be amazing

some random thoughts in response to this:

  • ndi i/o would be a great addition
  • not sure hardware is the best choice for what you seem to want the instrument to be
  • currently looks similar to Lumen workflow, was that a reference?
  • can’t tell if generative AI was used to vibecode the app, if not wish the gui and website stood out more
  • would not want any ai or prompt based pattern gen added to the feature list i bought this
  • te friendly video sampling & performance platforms demonstrated with opz or popx for android would be a great starting point
  • a new desktop or mobile with presets for control with field line, EP series or legacy machines from te would gain instant attention from the community using those products to perform
  • not so interested in browser depedent software but they seem more popular now, so go for it
  • if you wanna learn more about simple hardware design try building gieskes small kits, like the * schele mixer
  • caution though cause video gear with modern standard i/o ports can be pricey even from diy makers…one example of high end vsynth + sampler / vj deck