There’s one thing of a theme operating by means of Teenage Engineering’s latest merchandise. That theme is you want extra money. The Area vary represents the Swedish firm’s most unique music making gear. So when its web site teased a brand new product with a colourful countdown, the wallets of Teenies all over the place braced for impression. As soon as that timer hit all zeros, the massive reveal turned out to be the EP-133 sampler. Or, to offer it its full identify, the EP-133 Okay.O. II 64MB Sampler Composer. The actual shock although, was that it each seemed cool and, at $299, was fairly priced.
Fadergate
The countdown was actually simply the beginning. Barely 24 hours after the Okay.O. II was revealed items began touchdown in consumers’ fingers. Inside days, YouTube was awash with first look movies and tutorials. Earlier than our assessment unit even confirmed up, a number of customers have been complaining that theirs had faulty faders. Sufficient people have been having this drawback that it rapidly turned referred to as “fadergate.” One courageous creator even took their unit aside and, probably, found the trigger — the inner pins have been bent and never making a connection. I requested Teenage Engineering in regards to the situation and can replace this story as soon as I hear again.
Some purchaser’s theorized that the problem could be attributable to the truth that the Okay.O. II ships with out the caps on its rotaries and fader. They arrive unfastened within the field to allow the packaging to be flatter, however the cap for the fader is unusually tight becoming. This led to hypothesis that the keenness required to push this cover down could be placing an excessive amount of stress on elements inside, opening up the merciless chance of customers breaking their very own units earlier than they even bought to play with them. I used additional warning, together with some needle-nosed tweezers to help the fader as I utilized its cap and to this point… so good?
The Okay.O. II identify tells us that Teenage Engineering considers this one thing of a sequel to the unique PO-33 Okay.O. Clearly the Okay.O. II isn’t a Pocket Operator, however its retro desk calculator aesthetic does take refined design cues from that sequence. At 12-inches diagonally, it’s in iPad territory size-wise. The Okay.O. II additionally runs on AAA batteries (or USB energy) which is one other nod to the PO sequence. It’s exhausting to say how lengthy it’ll run on these batteries and it’ll fluctuate from model to model, however I’ve been utilizing some low-cost rechargeables for over per week they usually appear to be going sturdy.
Personally, I used to be by no means notably enamored with the Pocket Operators and far choose the shape issue of the Okay.O. II. It’s nonetheless very moveable, however feels a bit extra “critical.” It’s additionally simply very good to have a look at, which is one thing Teenage Engineering is sort of good at. The mannequin quantity, EP-133, signifies that we’d see others within the line, so fingers crossed for big calculator variations of different devices, too.
In use
Fader absolutely checked and batteries in place, the Okay.O. II springs to life with a flourish of icons throughout its show. These icons are literally fastened and never made up of pixels. Teenage Engineering calls it a “Tremendous section hybrid show” which principally fuses the digital watch half with a bunch of colourful, cute customized icons to let you recognize when sure modes or options are activated. It jogs my memory of the outdated Recreation & Watch handhelds the place you possibly can see the place all of the icons are and they’re merely switched on or off as wanted. A number of the icons are fairly summary however there’s a information on the web site to let you recognize that, for instance, the crimson umbrella means undo.
One thing I love to do with music gear is to see how straightforward it’s to make use of with out studying the guide. This works for all devices after all, however with music gear there are widespread duties like sequencing, timing adjustment, automation and so forth. The way you obtain these on a drum machine could be very totally different to a keys-based synth. Teenage Engineering specifically likes to do issues its personal method however I used to be pleasantly shocked with the Okay.O. II. Inside minutes I had managed to determine primary navigation and the way issues are organized (pattern teams, accessing shift features, what the fader does and when and so forth).
Throughout this blind check I additionally bought to know the Okay.O. II’s buttons and faders. It was apparent from the launch supplies that we weren’t getting rubber MPC-esque pads right here however I’d describe those on the Okay.O. as keys slightly than buttons. Luckily they’re satisfying to click on they usually’re stress delicate so that you can provide your drum hits totally different velocities or play notes at totally different strengths, simply you should definitely concentrate on the decrease a part of the important thing as that appears to be the place the sensor is.
You most likely ought to learn the guide although. If for no different cause than it’s seemingly the prettiest one you’ll use shortly. There’s additionally a really cute software for managing your samples which works through desktop browser. For the courageous, it’s also possible to use this in your cellphone when you’ve got Android (Chrome, Courageous and Opera ought to all work). On iOS the identical browsers can’t entry Internet MIDI and due to this fact is not going to work. (There’s the iOS Internet MIDI Browser which crashes after I tried it with an iPhone nevertheless it does join so your mileage could fluctuate.) The Okay.O. II received’t present up in your PC as both a drive or an audio interface, so the primary makes use of for the USB port are energy and sending/receiving MIDI.
The workflow for grabbing sounds is fairly easy. If you wish to pattern from both a PC or cellphone or different sound-making gadget then so long as you possibly can join it to a 3.5mm cable you’re golden. For the whole lot else, you’ll be utilizing the built-in mic, which is surprisingly good. I recorded a number of quick vocal phrases and different discovered sounds they usually come out nicely, assuming you’re in a quiet atmosphere.
Don’t fear although, for those who don’t have a bunch of samples but, the Okay.O. II comes with a bunch pre-installed, they usually’re fairly nice. There’s an excellent mixture of drums, bass pads and lead sounds — actually sufficient to get you going right away. You’ll undoubtedly need to add your individual although to make your initiatives distinctive. The presets use about half of the 64MB of reminiscence, however you possibly can again them up, delete them and free the slots up in your personal. Max pattern size is 20 seconds (identical as on the OP-1 Area).
If 64MB doesn’t sound like lots, know that it interprets to about 11 minutes of samples on the 46kHz/16bit by which the Okay.O. II information. You’ll be able to halve that point for those who pattern in stereo. Even for those who go all out, over 5 minutes of samples must be lots sufficient for many songs (we hope). If there’s going to be a bottleneck, it’ll extra seemingly be because of the 12-voice restrict. This implies the Okay.O. II could make 12 sounds directly, so when you’ve got six stereo samples enjoying at one time, you’ll hit that restrict. My compositions aren’t fascinating sufficient to hit that threshold, however for those who’re a maximalist, then it’s price retaining in thoughts.
A typical method to assist keep away from hitting the voice restrict on different units is resampling — principally merging separate sounds down into one new pattern. That is additionally the method for baking in any results and modulation, which, on condition that the Okay.O. II can solely handle one grasp impact at anybody time makes the shortage of resampling all of the extra apparent. Understandably, it’s probably the largest grievance amongst customers I’ve seen to this point (after fadergate after all).
There are methods round this, however it will contain recording out into one other gadget after which sampling that again into the Okay.O. II and nobody ought to have a sampler for his or her sampler, not on this financial system. Teenage Engineering does have a good observe file of including performance through firmware updates — the corporate simply added a brand new impact to the OP-1 Area as I wrote this — so fingers crossed.
Whereas we’re on the subject of options the Okay.O. II doesn’t have, there doesn’t look like any form of tune mode. There are 4 pattern “teams” that you can imagine as tracks (drums, bass, lead and so forth). Every of those teams can maintain as much as 99 patterns and patterns might be as much as 99 bars in size. The lively patterns throughout the 4 teams might be saved as a “scene” and scenes might be triggered consecutively. However, importantly, there’s no method for that to occur robotically proper now. This implies for those who needed to tease a complete recorded tune out of the Okay.O. II you’ll need to both get intelligent with MIDI or set off scenes and patterns manually in actual time.
This performative nature could be a burden for songs, however I discovered it to be a function in different areas. On high of the grasp results you even have 12 “punch in” results that may be utilized — or punched in — by holding down the FX key after which any of the 12 black pads. Every is marked with its impact identify (Stage, Pitch and so forth). These punch-in results categorical themselves otherwise based mostly on the quantity of stress you apply, making it a really expressive expertise. The results on these keys additionally correspond to modulation instruments when used with the fader. So FX+7 provides the “Stage” punch-in impact (rhythmic gating) whereas Fader+7 will assign acquire/stage to the fader till you select one other modulator corresponding to Assault or Low Go Filter.
I swear, half of the belongings you study easy methods to use the Okay.O. II occur by chance. Sure, it’s within the guide, however I found you possibly can solo teams by urgent the FX button and the corresponding group. You too can press a number of buttons to “solo” a number of teams or sounds on the identical time. With a bunch or group solo’d you possibly can then apply punch-in results to create loads of variations in actual time. With so many touches like this, I’m beginning to assume that Teenage Engineering envisioned the Okay.O. II as a playful performative gadget slightly than a linear song-making machine.
I’ve talked earlier than in regards to the form of “magic” issue that Teenage Engineering typically hides into its merchandise. Simply small, cute and infrequently a bit hidden options that aren’t vital however are tons of enjoyable. A typical one is the inclusion of FM radio on the OP1/Area and OB Four and so forth. Or the video making software within the app for the OP-Z. There was a quick second of pleasure after I noticed “loop mode from OB-4” on the Okay.O. II’s product web page. The hope being the 2 units would work together in some way, however it seems that’s only a method of describing the looping function that’s been borrowed from the OB-4.
As I write these closing ideas, the second official firmware replace (v1.1.1) has simply been launched. There’s nothing spicy in right here like movement management or sampling the radio, nevertheless it’s affirmation of what I discussed earlier about Teenage Engineering including options after a product hits the cabinets — such because the OP-1 Area’s vocoder synth that landed over six months after launch or the pretty substantial 1.2.38 replace for the OP-Z which got here virtually three years into its life.
The Okay.O. II represents a possibility for Teenage Engineering to do the unthinkable and create a sequence of extra succesful devices that don’t value Area-series ranges of cash. As a sampler, it’s nice for newbies or those that love a extra performative type. It’s not almost as detailed and in-depth as one thing like Roland’s SP 404 or Native Devices’ Maschine, nevertheless it was by no means going to be a rival to, nicely, something actually. Fadergate apart, it is a promising product from an organization that has examined the loyalty of its followers greater than regular in recent times.
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