Teenage Engineering is an organization that follows its personal path. It’ll launch a $250 toy car one day and a full-featured groovebox/sampler for $300 on the very subsequent day. That’s what occurred this week. Teenage Engineering just surprise-launched the EP-133 K.O. II, a conveyable sampler/groovebox that's feature-rich, seems completely beautiful and prices simply $300. You learn that value proper.
The one musical devices in TE’s lineup that strategy this worth level is its catalog of Pocket Operator transportable synthesizers, so it’s no shock that it is a direct followup to the very best one, the PO-33 KO sampler. The unique Pocket Operators have been marketed as one thing of a toy, regardless of being surprisingly sturdy, however the EP-133 Ok.O. II is being marketed as a workstation. This is a reasonably large, however nonetheless transportable, gadget that extra carefully resembles an Akai standalone machine. It gained’t slot in your pocket, however will slot in your bag.
Let’s go over some specs. The Ok.O. II boasts 64MB of reminiscence, which isn’t so much, however TE merchandise sometimes include some tradeoff. It’ll be sufficient for a bunch of samples and some initiatives, although, which the corporate says was intentional. Teenage Engineering co-founder and {hardware} lead David Eriksson told The Verge that if the sampler had an excessive amount of storage it will “give the user the option to finish later” as an alternative of finishing a tune in one-go. Will no person consider the poor musicians on the market who love beginning issues and hate ending issues? Asking for a pal.
There are 999 slots for samples, as a matter of truth, and an inner microphone for making your individual. Although that is, in the beginning, a sampler, it ships pre-filled with drum hits, synths and different sounds so you may get straight to work. It connects through USB-C for loading samples from a pc or MIDI gadgets. The Ok.O. II can be transportable, operating off of 4 AAA batteries. In different phrases, there’s no inner rechargeable battery, however that $300 price ticket needed to come about by some means.
The unit includes a conventional 3.5mm headphone jack and an important buttons and knobs are orange, to assist musicians discover them throughout reside units in darkish, smoky golf equipment. That’s a pleasant contact. The gadget itself is beautiful, with a good-looking panel of buttons, knobs and connectors. The keys are clicky and, extra importantly, velocity delicate. There’s an oblong LED display up high that boasts related design language to the OP-1 and OP-1 Area transportable synthesizers.
Teenage Engineering hopes this product will entice newbies to the world of music-making, so the workflow is designed for simplicity, a trait shared with its forebear. Regardless of that caveat, it is a highly effective instrument that ought to lure in professionals and amateurs alike. It options 12 mono and 6 stereo voice polyphony, stereo/mono sampling at 46.875 kHz/16-bit, 12 pressure-sensitive pads, 6 built-in FX sends with a punch-in mode, a grasp compressor and each handbook and computerized pattern slicing instruments. It additionally seems actually cool, like an accounting calculator from the longer term.
The EP-133 Ok.O. II is offered immediately and, once more, prices $300. The day earlier than Thanksgiving is an odd time to launch a brand new piece of {hardware}, however Teenage Engineering relies in Sweden, so what does it care? It’s value noting that that is the primary devoted music-making machine the corporate has launched since last year's OP-1 Field.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/teenage-engineerings-ko-ii-groovebox-is-feature-rich-and-only-300-164933466.html?src=rss
