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: FIXME

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: FIXME

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: FIXME

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: FIXME
Drumkit: FIXME
Poliphony: FIXME

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: FIXME
Drumkit: YES (button 16)
Poliphony: FIXME

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: FIXME
Drumkit: YES (all buttons)
Poliphony: FIXME

Red Means Recording PO-32 Tonic Introduction
PO-33 K.O. 4 record Micro sampler
Notes: FIXME
Drumkit: FIXME
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: FIXME
Poliphony: FIXME

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: FIXME
Drumkit: FIXME
Poliphony: FIXME

Edición especial de la PO-33 K.O. creada en colaboración con Capcom Co., Ltd., una empresa japonesa desarrolladora y distribuidora de videojuegos.
PO-137 Rick and Morty Vocal Synthesizer \\Notes: FIXME
Drumkit: FIXME
Poliphony
: FIXME

PO-35 speak and PO-137 Hidden Features and Extended Manual

Sync Scenarios

References