Teenage Engineering PO-12, The $50 Drum Machine (Sneak Preview)

Here’s a sneak preview of the Teenage Engineering PO-12, the company’s upcoming $50 drum machine. 

The video captures Teenage Engineering unveiling the PO-12 at Norbergfestivalen 2014.

No release date has been set yet for the PO-12 drum machine, but it’s expected to be sometime in 2015.

via cuckoomusic 

54 thoughts on “Teenage Engineering PO-12, The $50 Drum Machine (Sneak Preview)”

  4. I don’t get this. They appear to have lots of built boards which are missing the LCD display (presumably because it is custom, and they haven’t ordered a production run yet). The UI is a user-hostile grid of tact switches and it’s a bare board held up by a giant paperclip stand.

    As for the sound, the device is basically an ARM processor running a virtual instrument. You could release it as a €2 iPad app and it would sound the same with a far better interface and connectivity.

    Did Teenage Engineering simply run out of money, and this is the best product they can afford to put forward now?

    2. “The UI is a user-hostile grid of tact switches”

      It seems you’re not familiar with the most popular MIDI controller in the world – the grid matrix of the Novation LaunchPad, monome and APC controllers.

      1. Umm. This isn’t a grid controller. It’s a 5*4 matrix of drum machine controls. The first row of the grid includes ‘sound’, ‘pattern’, ‘bpm’ and two blue rotary controllers.

        It’s simply not ergonomic.

    3. I love how people think that ipads are free when doing math. Why go through all the trouble of programming an ipad drum machine for a pennies-per-unit return for what, in the end, costs most users hundreds of dollars per year (depending on your device lifetime). They’ve got the electronics supply chain set up already, so why not? And this should be a massive tip to anyone looking to make audio equipment professionally – app programmers are a dime a dozen these days, learning proper embedded design and DSP on ARM or SHARC processors will be a far more rewarding skill set.

  8. Let the T.E. bashing begin….from people who just don’t ‘get’ design, aesthetics, and ‘the point’ of what these people are doing.
    MIDI? No.
    iPad app? No. We don’t need another…

    I’ll buy this. It’s FUN…it’s unique.
    Time to go thin out my beard and then take a ride on my fixie bike.

  10. Now that Reason has Recycle built in there is no need really for me to have midi. That is true for most DAW that can quantize audio. You press record, start having fun for 1 hour or two, or three, press the space bar, then start creating REX files of the best bits by the hundreds and hundreds quickly. Love what T.E. is doing. Too bad for those so called artists with such a lack of fun genes.

  13. rad! looks like kind of like a deluxe bleep drum. as long as there is a way to sync it I’m psyched, there is something about having a bunch of hardware all synced by square waves on a table in front of you that is inherently musically useful.

  16. I’m hoping this is a sign of things to come from T.E. I’m sure they’ll be following up with a case within six months of the release. It sounds raw and interesting. Going to buy two for sure

  18. we seem to be a pretty spoiled lot these days.
    too many new things and too much complaining.
    50 bucks.
    i don’t see a problem here.
    it’s weird, that’s good.
    sounds great, even better.
    i’ll buy one for the kids in my family and if they lose it or break it i don’t care.
    much cooler than a video game.

    1. People would literally complain if you gave away gold bricks, ‘it’s too shiny, too heavy, it’s not ethically smelted, couldn’t we just have an app…

  19. And for a little biit more you can buy a used drum machine with MIDI and display and case and power supply.

  21. What’s the box @ 0:35? Looks suspiciously like it might be some sort of dock with MIDI, CV and USB, or is that just me being hopeful?

  22. Me: The box you were looking at does have CV/MIDI/USB, but is designed for the OP1, it’s called an OP lab. It is plausible that it will be possible to interface the two though… Love the hat sound, I could make some tasty techno jams with this.

  24. Question: Which would you rather own… Any drum machine currently offered on the market or the multiples of the PO 12 equivalent to the price point of the aforementioned drum machine?

  26. If it has bpm, midi clock…I’m guessing it would I. Order to work with the OP-1…. And frankly I’d really like a game boy size case to be playing with it and still feel it’s protected and won’t fall on the floor and get crushed underfoot.

    1. yea, needs some kinda case, at least as on option. Sounds really groovy tho how it can mix things up. Good job, TE!

  27. wow thats one of the poorest comment ever read hear^^

    you fear that everyone could buy a certain tool hahaha

    and i bet at the end with all that expensive gear you are the one saying: no no its not my gear, its my talent 😉

    everyone should be able to use any creative tool, so the most creative one will be found, possibly

    but its very uncreative to complain like you do, as if the price would be the point of a tool

  31. How Cool. Now if they keep it at $50.00. You can’t hack an app to produce more sounds with hardware the sky is the limit. More CHEAP Hardware and Less BAD Software. Now with this, and hardware from Korg little bit synth, one now could leave the computer at home. Think about it an iPad non hackable, no way to hook up an external hard drive, no real HDMI, yes it has all but at one connection at a time…..

    Real Artist Do not need software!!!!

  35. Everybody is like this bad in the box and maybe Mancini. But then they wanted it to be $50. $50 because they learn how to say no!

  36. Give me that for fifty bucks or this thing in a calculator-esque case with display for a hundred bucks and I’m happy. Can’t wait for more info on that thingie.

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