Teenage Engineering PO-33 K.O! Review

The PO-33 K.O! now brings sampling to the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator series. A range of sound generators, as popular as they are quirky, all sharing the feature of operating on the bare board and each Pocket Operator dedicated to a specific sonic range.

CONCEPT

The PO-33 K.O! is a four-voice sampler based on the EFM32 Gecko embedded processor by Silicon Labs. This is installed along with a speaker directly beneath the display, protected from contamination. Conversion occurs at 12 bits, giving the device a charmingly rough sound characteristic. There's 40 seconds of memory available. The PO-33 records samples either through the built-in microphone or via the mini-jack input. The mini-jack output serves for headphone connection. The input and output ports of all Pocket Operators can also be used for synchronization (in which case they operate only in mono).

Corresponding to the 16 available keys, there are also 16 sample slots and patterns available, with rows 1 to 8 intended for melodically playable instruments, 9 to 16 for percussion, with all keys assigned to a single drum sound. You can only create a multi-sample manually by creating a long sample with various individual drums and then trimming the beats for each key accordingly. The PO-33 automatically cuts one-beat drum loops into 16 slices, but these are divided only into sixteenths (and not at the transients), so manual fine-tuning is required here. This leads us to the editing options. Each sound can be edited in three characteristics: Pitch (pitch & volume), Filter (high/low-pass & resonance), and Trim (start point & length). Additionally, there are 15 master effects that can influence the overall sound if needed.

PRACTICE

The crux of working with the PO-33 (as with all other Pocket Operators) is the constant switch between Play and Write modes. Notes can also be entered directly in playback mode. However, the small micro keys are not necessarily the most precise input medium (although automatic quantization always shifts the notes to the nearest sixteenth), making step input in Write mode much more fun. The killer feature on the small box, however, is its ability to store parameter changes per step. The interplay of sound changes and insertion in step mode becomes habitual after a short time and automatically leads to extremely exciting patterns. Here, especially with melodic lines, the length of the patterns, fixed at 16 steps, occasionally has a negative impact. One workaround is to divide into multiple patterns. These can also be simply copied and played back in any order and quantity. To refine the groove, a global swing factor can be adjusted continuously.

SOUND

From the small interplay of play and write modes and the parameter changes memorizable for each individual step, the PO-33 almost automatically develops a unique, fiddly characteristic of the generated beats. There's the grainy, charming 12-bit sound, giving the PO-33 a certain "oldschool" compactness. Then there are the extremely good effects that somehow always sound "funky" and tricky. These can also be automated for each of the 16 steps.

CONCLUSION

The PO-33 K.O! doesn't replace a studio drum machine, nor is it recommended as a live sampler. Where it shines is, on the one hand, the interaction with other sound generators connected in a synchronization chain, as its grainy, quite assertive sound characteristics fit perfectly into mixes. On the other hand, as a creative beat tool if you want to add a slightly roughened, somewhat dirty groove to an otherwise sparkling, clean computer arrangement. And since the sound quality of the integrated microphone is surprisingly good, there's nothing stopping you from turning immediate ambient noise into beats.