Can You Upload Samples to Po 12

Fun-size sampling mayhem is the lodge of the day with the latest Pocket Operators.

Teenage Engineering'south latest three Pocket Operators push the format into new, more sophisticated territory with pulsate synthesis and sampling. Back in SOS December 2017 we reviewed the first of this new 'Metal' range , the PO-32 Tonic drum synth, which is a hardware condensation of Sonic Charge'southward Microtonic VST plug-in. Now we've got our hands on the PO-33 KO!: the first Pocket Operator sampler, offering 8 melodic sample voices and eight slice players. As well in our pockets is the PO-35 Speak, which is too a sampler but specialises in vocal sampling and voice synthesis.

They Ain't Heavy

Physically, the new POs appear identical to their predecessors, consisting of a phone-sized sliver of PCB with surface-mount screen and button grid on the forepart, and a battery clip and fold-out stand on the back. All delicate or static-sensitive components are housed safely behind the screen, but if you prefer a more than traditional feel y'all can add the Pro Case, which gives yous a safety crush and button caps. The height hanger section can be snapped off.

2 three.5mm jacks at the tiptop corners provide for sampling input and sound output. The ports tin be used for sync'ing multiple PO units or jam sync'ing to a click from another source, using i leg of the stereo connexion for sound and the other for sync. Both models also have modest (obviously) built-in mics and speakers, which are ideal for contained operation and general mucking about. This point was proven conclusively by the regular disappearance of the POs into my children'southward bedrooms, after which I'd find my audio slots filled with YouTube meme phrases and — I'grand truly lamentable to study — bodily emissions.

Like the other POs, much of the screen is taken up with cartoon animations that play along with your patterns, but text and numeric fields effectually the edges provide useful feedback about modes and parameters. This can be reassuring equally many functions are accessed with multi-push button combinations that you need to memorise.

I'thousand The Operator

Basic operation of the PO-33 and PO-35 will be familiar if yous've used any of the previous models, just otherwise takes a picayune getting used to. You work with one sound slot at a fourth dimension, chosen by property the Audio push and tapping one of the xvi number buttons. You lot tin then either play information technology freeform using the number buttons every bit notation/slice triggers, or you can step sequence information technology by entering Write mode and adding triggers within the 16-step sequence using the aforementioned buttons. Real-time design recording is likewise possible by holding down the Write push button while tapping out notes.

Patterns are selected for playback or editing with the dedicated Design button, again in combination with one of the 16 main grid buttons. When playing back, Design recall takes outcome at the end of the 16 steps. Yous tin can too queue up a chain of patterns to play dorsum in sequence past pressing several buttons in succession. This is a temporary performance group rather than a full-blown song mode.

During playback you can utilise momentary effects to the mixed output by holding the FX button and choosing from the FX pool via the grid. This is i of the most vivid features of the Pocket Operators, giving yous tons of existent-time performance variation. The KO! has a total complement of xv consequence types while Speak, slightly disappointingly, has seven, every bit eight of the effects slots on the latter are used for the playback sound engine modes. Rather than traditional audio processors, the performance furnishings are designed for breaking up patterns with interesting variations and builds. The carte du jour includes things like stutter, opposite, triplet shuffle and slow-down, etc.

Information technology'due south A Knockout

Let's look in a trivial more particular at the 2 models on exam. The KO! offers two different sample capture and playback modes. The kickoff eight audio slots play back a unmarried sample each. Recording is initiated to a slot past holding the Record button and relevant audio button, and you need to keep these held during recording. This is a simple and firsthand sampling method (every bit evidenced by the burps and worse of my progeny), simply tin be pretty awkward as you can't use merely a pollex. If yous need a hand free for generating the sound from some other source, yous'll demand to put the PO downwardly and hold the buttons with two fingers. There'south a total of 40 seconds of sample time available to share amidst the sixteen slots, and the remaining time counts down on the screen during recording. Audio quality has a bit of a grungy edge with quantisation noise (specially evident on tones); I estimated 12-fleck, but it's patently but 8-bit at 23.5kHz.

One time you lot take a sample you lot can offset its pitch with the first knob, effecting a simple speed alter rather than stretch. Slots 1-8 can be played back melodically from the buttons. Some Pocket Operators, including the Speak, allow yous to set a calibration for the buttons, but the KO! doesn't. Instead in that location's a unmarried fixed calibration that you can utilize aslope the master offset. This doesn't appear to be documented anywhere, merely I somewhen got the info care of Reddit. From the bottom-left corner the buttons play a minor scale but with both a natural and flat 7th, with the octave 2 buttons directly up. This allows you play a natural or harmonic minor scale, or a major scale depending on which button you start on. This is a chip restrictive (and the fact that information technology'south not explained was frustrating) but information technology's really pretty neat for fast and piece of cake melody creation.

The two knobs control the electric current sound and tin can be cycled through three different parameter sets by borer the FX push. The chief default controls are Pitch and Volume. The second manner controls the sound'southward filter. Knob A controls frequency and sweeps between a low-laissez passer to the left of the centre position and loftier-laissez passer to the right. Knob B controls Resonance. The tertiary mode is Trim, providing simple sample editing capability. A sets the sample start positions, and B is the length. A nice feature is that when moving these controls the sample volition trigger repeatedly to provide auditioning. Unfortunately the trim parameters can't exist parameter-locked/automated, or changed during playback, which would take been fun. I would have likewise loved to take seen a elementary A-D envelope to extend the scope of sample manipulation.

Sound Slots 9-sixteen are used for slicing longer samples, so tin exist used for storing and playing dorsum a ready of sounds for non-melodic sequencing, such as drum kits, effects, or fifty-fifty loops if y'all took the fourth dimension. Recording is the same: just hold Rec and i of the buttons. If you so play in a series of hits the KO! will automatically chop up the sample and assign slices to the buttons. It does this fairly successfully with short hits, just sounds with longer decays tend to become sliced on to several buttons. Each piece tin then be trimmed manually within the overall sample. When you lot switch to Write mode y'all tin sequence the last played slice, and then to create a blueprint from multiple slices you need to select one piece at a time, or record in real time. The whole slice group shares a unmarried vocalism, but the sound slots requite you a fast and simple way to create kits and drum parts.

Speak

15 of Speak's sound slots work forth similar lines to the melodic samples on the KO!: yous tape a sample in, trim it equally necessary and play it dorsum using the buttons like a keyboard. In this case, however, the 'keys' can be reallocated to dissimilar scales and root notes. More significantly, Speak does non just play back samples, it re-synthesizes them according to various voice communication synthesis modes. The results will be recognisable as your original sample for some types of audio like speech, singing or drum loops. Other sounds can become mangled in unpredictable ways!

Sonically, Speak is far from a one-trick pony. In that location are eight phonation modes on offer, which can exist assigned to each sound independently by belongings FX and tapping buttons 1-8. 'Neutral' gives you lot the closest event to your original sample, but is all the same significantly synthesized. 'Autotune' produces the classic pitch-quantising issue, which nosotros should all agree to cease using shortly. 'Retro' delivers an old-school Hawking-esque vocalisation synthesis. 'Dissonance' gives you lot a soft spooky racket shaping. 'Robot' introduces a harmonic pitched element to any sounds, and 'Fifth' is the same with added harmony. 'Vocoder' gives you a delicious classic vocoder sound with what sounds like a muddy harmonic carrier and probably sixteen filter bands. Finally, 'Synth' uses your sample to formant-filter a squarish-sounding synth voice.

Speak's knob modes share some similarities with the KO! but are actually quite dissimilar. There are no filters, just this is more than made up for with significantly more sample-manipulation capabilities. On the master command page, Pitch adjusts the pitch of the audio but doesn't touch speed. Knob B lets you adjust the formant characteristic independently of pitch. Speak's Trim function also works differently. First position is adjusted with knob A, but knob B changes playback speed instead of end position. This gives you a huge range of results from any sample. You can even turn the speed down to goose egg to freeze the position, then browse the sample with A to observe synth tones granular style. Even better, unlike on the KO!, the Trim controls tin can exist used during playback and recorded as automation.

Just wait, there's more than... The 16th sound slot on Speak holds a major bonus characteristic. Teenage Engineering take packed in a single voice of the PO-32 Tonic pulsate synth engine. When sound slot xvi is selected, you go sixteen drum sounds laid out beyond the buttons. The Microtonic pulsate engine is a genuine drum synth which doesn't use samples; each sound actually stores two unlike synth patches that yous can morph between using the B push. Speak fifty-fifty inherits the PO-32's genius power to load in new drum patches via audio data burst. If you have the Microtonic VST plug-in yous can create and save your own pulsate banks and transfer them to Speak.

Pocket Rockets

Speak is great fun, and I found it surprisingly useful. Information technology'south one of those brilliant random factors to have in the studio that you can use to throw something interesting into a track. You can mangle samples into little rhythmic oddities with the parameter automation, or turn anything into a new tone and melody. I used it to add engaging phrases or toplines to a couple of tracks, and each time it took no more than than a couple of minutes to do and fabricated a real contribution. On meridian of that, Speak's drum voice is the total PO-32 pulsate engine, with 1 quarter of its voices, allowing Speak to be used equally a stand-alone little beat maker.

KO! is mayhap the near ambitious Pocket Operator yet, a miniaturised performance sampler that really samples. I bought the instance for this one and it's come everywhere with me since. It's virtually like having a tiny cut-downwardly Digitakt in your pocket, merely the limited sampling quality, voice count and lack of envelopes means information technology'due south not likely to replace anyone'south grown-up beatbox. The real secret weapon, though, with all these POs is the performance effects. You might exist limited to 16 step patterns, but the effects let you improvise really bonkers and varied beats in a unmarried laissez passer that audio similar the result of hours of programming.

Alternatives

Korg's Volca Sample is also battery operated and small-scale if you have quite big pockets. It does more but it doesn't offer direct sampling.

Pros

• All-in-one seize with teeth-sized performance samplers.
• The performance furnishings are so skillful.
• Parameter automation.

Cons

• KO! has a fixed calibration for melodic samples.
• Need to keep two buttons held down while recording.
• Audio on the lo-fi side.

Summary

The starting time PO samplers are tiny bundles of inspiration in your pocket; great for generating ideas on the go and producing genuinely useful results fast.

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Source: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/teenage-engineering-po-33-ko-po-35-speak

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