Tabla de Contenidos
Everything you wanted to know about Pocket Operators
After OP-1, the following products released by Teenage Engineering (Pocket Operators) followed in the footsteps started by Kraftwerk when in 1981 they created the song “Pocket Calculator” which contained the famous chorus “I'm the operator / With my pocket calculator” and they performed live playing with an adapted version of the Casio VL-80 music calculator. Pocket Operators are synthesizers and rhythm machines with the appearance of calculators, very low cost and that can be connected to each other to, among all, create all the functions of electronic synthesizers (drum machines, bass lines , chords, samplers and voice synthesizers). Each of them has a liquid crystal display in the place where calculators usually display the digits but POs use it to show useful information on the operation as well as an animation that rhythmically accompanies the sounds.
To further accentuate the playful nature of these machines, after the series of 9 basic Pocket Operators they created special editions of some of them with sounds from television series or video games such as Rick and Morty, Mega Man or Street Fighter.
| Name | Poliphony | * | Function | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
PO-12 Rhythm  | 6 | func | LFO (15), LPF (5,6), HPF (7,8), Delay (4), Vibrato (16), Distortion (2), Stutter (9,10), Repeat (11,12), Low sample rate (1), Bit crush (3), Note shuffle (13), Feedback (14)   | Programmable Rhythm Synthesizer Notes: NO Drumkit: YES (buttons 1-16) Poliphony: 6 — User Guide Old school Pocket Operators revisited Red Means Recording PO-12 Rhythm Introduction Hacking the PO |
PO-14 Sub  | 1+1 | key o-o | LFO (12), LPF (5,6), HPF (7,8), Delay (4), Vibrato (16), Distortion (2), Stutter (9,10), Feedback (11), Low sample rate (1), Bit crush (3), Octave up (13), Octave Down (14), Half note up (15)   | Programmable Bass Synthesizer Notes: YES, c0-d2 Drumkit: YES (button 16) Poliphony:  — Old school Pocket Operators revisited Red Means Recording PO-14 Sub Introduction PO-14 Cheat Sheet Hacking the PO |
PO-16 Factory  | 1+1 | key o-o | LFO (12), LPF (5,6), HPF (7,8), Delay (4), Vibrato (16), Distortion (2), Stutter (9,10), Feedback (11), Low sample rate (1), Bit crush (3), Octave up (13), Octave Down (14), Half note up (15)  | Programmable Melody Synthesizer Notes: YES, c3-d5 Chords: YES Drumkit: YES (button 16) Poliphony: — Red Means Recording PO-16 Factory Introduction Old school Pocket Operators revisited PO-16 Play Styles PO-16 Chords Figured out the PO-16 Chords Hacking the PO |
PO-20 Arcade  | 1+1 | chord | LPF (5,6,7), HPF (7,8), solo chords (1), solo chords+lead (2), solo drums (3), solo drums+bass (4), fill-in (9,10), retrigger (11,12), glitch (13,14), blinds (15), rising arpeggio (16)      | Programmable Arcade Synthesizer Notes: NO (only pitch variations) Chords: YES Drumkit: NO Poliphony: — 16 independient sounds: 1 bass, 7 drums, 16 chords y 4 melodic sounds. Old school Pocket Operators revisited Red Means Recording PO-20 Arcade Introduction UPDATED: PO-20 chords & keys |
PO-24 Office  | 6 | solo | LPF (5,6), HPF (7,8), aliasing (1), overdrive (2), repeat (3,4), Distortion (9,10), Retrigger (11,12), glitch (13,14), blinds (15), noise (16)   | Programmable Noise Synthesizer Notes: Drumkit: Poliphony: — Old school Pocket Operators revisited Red Means Recording PO-24 Office Introduction |
PO-28 Robot  | 1+1 | glide | Distort/retrigger, repeat, LPF, HPF, Glitch/noise    | Programmable Performance Synthesizer Notes: Drumkit: YES (button 16) Poliphony: — Old school Pocket Operators revisited Red Means Recording PO-28 Robot Introduction PO-28 robot hidden features |
| PO-32 Tonic | 1+1 | acc |    | Programmable Drum and Percussion Synthesizer Notes: Drumkit: YES (all buttons) Poliphony: — Red Means Recording PO-32 Tonic Introduction |
| PO-33 K.O. | 4 | record |    | Micro sampler Notes: Drumkit: Poliphony: 4 — PO-33 K.O! sampler quickstart Red Means Recording PO-33 Introduction PO-33 K.O! Hidden Features and Extended Manual PO-33 cheat sheet and resources Available scales on PO-33 K.O Discover PO-33 scale PO-33 cheat sheet and resources |
PO-35 Speak  | 1+1 | record |   | Vocal Synthesizer Notes: YES (c2-b3) Scales: YES, per pattern (maj, min, blues, arab) Drumkit: YES (button 16) Poliphony: 2 — PO-35 Speak in depth(draft) Red Means Recording PO-35 Speak Introduction PO-35 speak and PO-137 Hidden Features and Extended Manual True Cuckoo PO-35 Speak Tutorial |
PO-128 Megaman  | 2+1 | glide |   | Programmable Performance Synthesizer Notes: YES Scales: Chromatic, per sound Drumkit: Poliphony: — Edición especial de la PO-28 Robot creada en colaboración con Capcom Co., Ltd., una empresa japonesa desarrolladora y distribuidora de videojuegos. Create track with PO-128 Megaman How to quickly change notes and keys on a PO-128 MegaMan - transposing tips! |
PO-133 Street Fighter  |  | Micro sampler Notes: Drumkit: Poliphony: — Edición especial de la PO-33 K.O. creada en colaboración con Capcom Co., Ltd., una empresa japonesa desarrolladora y distribuidora de videojuegos. |
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PO-137 Rick and Morty  |  | Vocal Synthesizer \\Notes: Drumkit: Poliphony: — PO-35 speak and PO-137 Hidden Features and Extended Manual |
Sync Scenarios
