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MagyarTeenage Engineering democratises music-making with new portable ‘budget’ synth EP-133 KO II
Swedish music and design firm Teenage Engineering has been involved in designing a range of products, including several speakers, instant cameras, handheld gaming consoles, a Pixel-exclusive app and recently, Nothing’s Phone (1) and Ear (1). However, it's best known for the iconic OP-1 synth/groovebox and its range of budget-friendly, calculator-like music-making devices, the Pocket Operators. The company has now released the EP-133 KO II, a bigger and upgraded version of the most popular P.O. model, the PO-33 KO.
The KO II is not a true synthesizer, but a sampler-sequencer – instead of generating sound waveforms, it triggers short audio samples either recorded using the in-built microphone or 3.5 mm input, or transferred over USB. This opens it up to be used as both drum machine and melodic instrument. The samples can not only be sequenced into patterns but also trimmed, stretched, re-pitched, and subjected to a number of creative effects.
While definitely larger than the original P.O. series, the KO II is still a fairly compact device, at 24 x 17.6 x 1.6 cm (9.4 x 6.9 x 0.63 inches), and portable too, being powered by 4 AAA batteries. The interface consists mainly of buttons with low-profile mechanical key switches modified to be pressure sensitive for more expressive playing, as well as an assignable fader and knobs to adjust tempo and volume and other parameters.
As with most of its instruments, Teenage Engineering has designed the interface and workflow of the KO II to be accessible to non-musicians. Various ‘punch-in 2.0’ effects, including delay, reverb, distortion, chorus, filter and compression, can be added with a single button press and even be modulated by applying pressure to the keys.
Users can save 9 projects on the device, with each one consisting of multiple groups of patterns triggering samples or controlling external MIDI devices. The KO II features 12 voice polyphony (or 6 in stereo), 999 sample slots, 16-bit 46 kHz sampling, a 32-bit internal signal chain and 3.5 mm connectors for audio input, MIDI and tempo sync I/O.
One trait that the EP-133 KO II thankfully inherits from the P.O. series is a wallet-friendly price. Teenage Engineering’s products, though never lacking in coolness, are known to be rather expensive, with the exception of the US$99 pocket operator series, which includes, among others, the PO-32 Tonic (a drum machine and melodic synth-based sequencer), the PO-14 Sub (a bass line synthesizer) and of course the PO-33 sampler.
Priced at US$299 – a fairly reasonable price not just for the company but for portable samplers, synths and grooveboxes in general – the KO II will be available soon from Amazon as well as the company website, with shipping expected to start in late December.
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