In this video, Cuckoo takes a look at the Teenage Engineering PO-12 drum machine, a $50 minimal drum machine, set for release in 2015.
“Teenage Engineering’s new PO-12 drum machine is awesome,” says Cuckoo. “In this video I’m taking a pre-production unit for a test spin, and it’s great :-D”
Because this is a pre-production unit, features may be subject to change.
I hope this thing is huge! I want a whole series of drum machines and synths in this format.
If only they’d designed this as a eurorack module with clock in….
….it would have cost $200….
this guys is having great gun….he loves to push buttons….( please press the red one )
ooooops “great fun” I meant…..
This looks amazingly fun!
Does look like potential fun. I’m fine with the unaffected through audio, although it might be neat to be able to process sound through some of those effects. The only thing I don’t get is the BPM. For me 3 choices of tempo limits this to being a toy. I wouldn’t be able to use it with such a limitation.
AFAIK they are only going to add a small LCD screen and a wire stand that doubles as a pitch bender, but the look will be the same (circuit board, no case). Other than that, I have no idea what’s in store..
It ends up in a computer anyway. BPM doesnt matter.
UHhhh wut… If you record at 95bpm your gonna have a shit sound trying to convert that to 130 bpm
It does to me, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to set it later. Otherwise you can’t put a drum on something allready playing and jam with it, that’s what I want with something you can have with you all the time.
I’m sure banging those micro buttons will be fun too.
Love Cuckoo and his dem
Great little demo. Gave us a very thorough overview!
I completely agree, Wilson. Three tempos is pretty limited. But even if they just went in increments of 5 BPM from 50-150, that’d be sweet.
I mean, I guess it is kind of a toy (you know, but not in a bad way). There’s always better gear for doing more serious beat stuff. This just seems like a fun little fifty dollar, pop-in-your-pocket, beat machine for screwing around with– if you have $50 that you can’t think of anything better to do with.
What’s especially smart is that it will be THE stocking stuffer of whatever holiday season follows its release.
… you know the synth geeks will be giving them to their significant others, nieces, nephews– and wanting one.
for themselves, too.
Anyone have an idea how many patterns it will hold? Multiple patterns would be good, as well as >3 tempos(!) Also curious if memory is preserved when batteries are removed.
I am loving this new niche of fun little musical toys.
Those tiny little pinpoint LEDs and the form factor are reminding me of the 70s Mattel Football game
I understand its supposed to be minimal and cheap but i think they would really hit a mark if they gave it just click input. i mean the audio input is asking for it to have sync! I dream of a world where there is a whole ecosystem of cool cheap “toy” synths. I already see it in the volcas and the little bits. all anything would have to adhere to is having at least click in and maybe audio passthrough to daisy chain stuff and cut down on mixers. You could even have a cheap box that just generates a click! Link it to studio gear with little bits! it would fall right in between collecting apps and collecting a modular, and it can easily attract people who don’t “make music”. Sigh a man can dream…
Once again, sounds great, but please please make the BPM tuneable and some kind of sync option
this thing would be a lot of fun! …for about 10 minutes.
Hardware is the new software.
Live laptop music will one day be considered taboo. (If it isn’t already)
Stop calling it a toy, it’s not a finished product, as he said several times. In its current design you could call it a toy, sure. But even in its limited state, this and other machines that require a workaround really force you to be creative. Sometimes a break from the tried and true formula can yield satisfying results. And the ladies love a resourceful man with a drum machine in his pocket. 😉
and the next machine get just one knob starting a random prozess with the same result? possible, ok, but why they does it in hardware? there are many ios apps, lots of iphone, ipods, ipads, tablet pc’s. this seems to be just another plastic toy at the big trash mountain. done as an ios app, you may see, how simple and redundant this is, just worth 99ct – or less…
For me, its tottally boring. A cheap sounding “drummachine” with a poor user- interface…. Who need this nonsense? Today, you can have a full featured, good sounding drummachine on a smaller device for a lower price… your Iphone. “function” – follows – “design”….
Without BPM setting or midi clock, not really useful for a musical use. But a funny toy for less than 50$.