Teenage Engineering PO-33 Pocket Operator KO Sampler/Sequencer

I have quite a few drum machines from a maschine plus, novation circuit, kolg volva beats and the pocket operator so I I have a pretty good idea about where this fits into the mix. It's way more powerful than it looks. It's really possible to do some quite complex things on this with only the few settings that you have. For example, yes it's a 16 step sequencer so it's quantized but if you way to have something non quantized you could shift where you trim the same at for example to get it to a microstep. The storage space on it is a bit limiting so it makes you really conserve the space you have. Longer samples for example may be hard to work with. There is a way to back it up to a sound file if you want to though which is nice to have. Recording in it is very easy. The build in mic is ok but record from line in for much better results. The battery life is great so expect a few weeks of continuous use out if 2 battering. The only negative thing I have to say is that the dials are really terrible. It makes it so hard to trim a clip for donfine adjustments. Some people have soldered different ones on that are better quality but I've bit tried it. Get the outrageously expensive case to go with it since it will save your fingers if you use it a lot. Sound quality is good but don't expect high end audio. I've found that if you get a good recording of a sample on it the quality is quite good but this just lends it's self to the type of music it can create. For comparison you can do more on this than a Kirk volca beats and it fits in your pocket. It's actually really good for just jamming and playing live

Amazing litle gadget and very easy to use, hours and hours of tune making with infinite possibilities, can't put it down. The onboard microphone is pretty good as is the speaker for on the move.

Excellent high quality device that gives you almost unlimited opportunities for sampling. Source of joy

Bought for my Husband. Lasted about a week. He put it in his pocket to take outside and accidentally cracked the screen. Have been unable to get a response from the company with regards to repair. As one of the more expensive models of the range its disappointing the screen is not repairable at home. (Electronic Engineer, here, happy to replace screen if parts were avaliable). I would suggest spending extra on a case if you have the option.

If you've never used a Pocket Operator before, the learning curve is steeper than it looks but there's a brilliant community of YouTube tutorials that'll get you sequencing and chopping samples within an hour. Build quality is spartan in a charming way (exposed PCB, watch battery, calculator buttons) but the sound output is way more capable than you'd guess. Brilliant for sketching ideas on the train. The PO-33 in particular is great for sampling vocals. Worth every penny.

I have a couple of these and 9 Pocket Operators, and a number of other ‘proper’ synths. These are brilliant music machines, that follow a similar format so that once you know how to use one, they are all very similar. But each has unique features that makes them all desirable for different reasons. The PO 33 is one of two samplers, the other being the Voice Sampler. It is amazingly powerful as a sketchbook for idea’s scratching to having samples that you can use in a finished performance or song. Is it perfect? NO! But for less than £100 you get an amazing piece of kit. I have 2 because I take one out and about looking for external things to sample and the other I keep at home. The sound is LoFi but the tools it comes with give you everything you need to trim and work with the samples and then a whole load of appropriate effects too. It’s basically a lot of fun.

I did take a bit of a gamble on this after seeing a few videos on it. Pros It's so much fun! Seriously it is very fun to just muck about with this and try out new sounds, record samples and re-mix them. Very small and very portable. Easily slips into a pocket or a bag and so light you'll never notice it. Great for getting into sampling and re-mixing. It's probably the cheapest ways to get into this out there. Has some great options and you can create some really great sounds and tunes from it using even simple filtering, pitch adjust and trims. Good thing is it never erases the original recording, so if you want to go back and change the way you've tweaked the sound you can. Cons: It does have a bit of a learning curve. There are no instructions, and even the online guide is limited in that it only explains basic functions and doesn't go into detain on how they combine. I can recommend watching some how to videos on this to learn the complexities. It has a 40 second sample memory, but that's split across all the 16 samples, so you may find it a bit restrictive. The built-in ones don't count to this 40 second limit and you can overwrite them with your own. The built in speaker is very quiet. You can connect headphones that helps, but in all the videos I've seen of it they are definitely amplifying the audio. Overall I have really enjoyed playing with this and I am seriously considering getting one of the other rhythm based units to connect to it.

Quite possibly the best thing ive ever bought, im totally now going to get more of these. However go and watch a bunch of youtube clips before buying this, watch Gar Hoover, Red Means Recording, Ricky Tines, Teenage Engineering etc, there are so many videos out there that really show you how to work with this as the instruction manual is sparse, super sparse. I also recommend making your own manual, for the things you need to do but forget. I got the case for this as i wanted to protect it but its really sturdy, i maybe didnt need to being honest. Buy one, make music, share it with the world.

El producto es muy bueno , ojalá esto hubiera existido en mi infancia. Los materiales se ven de calidad ,casi no pesa si no fuera por el peso de las pilas , ni sabes que lo tienes en las manos . el sonido genial , y es pequeño incluso con las pilas sigue siendo pequeño eso es lo que estaba buscando , cabe en el bolsillo pero mejor llevarlo en el bolsillo de la camisa y no el del pantalón :) ,

Very fun. Highly recommended.

Produto muito bem feito e divertido. Uma pena nao ter no Brasil com um preço mais acessivel.

De calidad llegó a tiempo

Il PO-33 mi ha veramente stupito. Piccolo e leggerissimo, sembra un giocattolo, ma non lasciatevi ingannare... Non lo è affatto! L'oggettino è un campionatore (ha un mic integrato, un line-in e un line-out) con sequencer e permette di creare beat anche molto complessi. I 16 pad che permettono di suonare, sono suddivisi in due sezioni: "Melodic", dedicata ai suoni che vorrete suonare su una scala cromatica per creare appunto linee melodiche e "Drum" per i suoni di batteria e percussioni. La polifonia è a 4 voci, cioè potrete utilizzare fino a quattro campioni che suonano sovrapposti contemporaneamente, ma c'è da precisare che nella sezione Drum ad ogni pad viene assegnato un intero drum set composto da 16 suoni percussivi, che però corrispondono ad un solo campione; questo comporta che che non potrete, da un unico drum set, suonare contemporaneamente due suoni sovrapposti (es. una cassa e un hi-hat) per farlo dovrete scegliere il secondo suono da un altro drum set. I campioni precaricati in fabbrica non sono entusiasmanti, ma utili per muovere i prami passi con lo strumento e capirne il funzionamento prima di passare a campionare ed elaborare i vostri suoni. Per chi volesse sperimentare da subito con altri sample packs già pronti all'uso, sul sito della casa produttrice potrete scaricarne un paio niente male a questo indirizzo: teenage.engineering/downloads/po-33 Insomma, se quello che cercate è uno strumento realmente tascabile per poter campionare e creare beat ovunque vi troviate, questo è quello che fa per voi.