https://www.korg-volca.com/en/
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/12/22/569092364/...
https://www.korg-volca.com/en/
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/12/22/569092364/...
Pitch
Rate
Int.
Cutoff Peak
Compare that to the controls on the Pocket Operator: Sound
Pattern
BPM
FX
Play
Write
If you were handed one of these with no experience making music, which one would you be more likely to get started with? Heck, the Pocket Operator even has cute animations that go with your beats!I have tremendous respect for Korg, but I think Teenage Engineering is prioritizing fun and accessibility in a way that I haven't seen in my 30 years of making music. This may be a fluff PR piece, but I think they deserve a ton of credit for making something as intimidating as electronic instruments so downright fun and adorable.
If you play with a Pocket Operator, you don't learn very much of anything except how to use that particular Pocket Operator; the interface is too idiosyncratic, the details of the synth engine too effectively concealed.
For me, that's the fun part. I like traditional subtractive synthesis, too, but there are many ways to implement synthesizers, and there's no reason they all have to follow the same standards.
I think you're missing the parent's point that this is primarily a marketing piece for a company.
I guess that explains the Rick and Morty sampler they were promoting on YouTube recently
These devices are cool, don't get me wrong, but the people talking KORG up as being early leaders here have a very solid case.
This is a great follow on, and a bit different approach. Fine.
To me, anything in this direction is awesome. Sound is fun. Music is fun. Play! (We probably live longer when we do.)
If you are interested in what a deep, respectful, and meaningful relationship looks like between artist/engineers, this interview is a must-read: https://warp.net/editorial/richard-d-james-speaks-to-tatsuya...
Got it for my 6-year-old niece as her first synth. Thought a bit, and got one for myself too.
I don't think it's fair to compare it to the Nord.
While I don't trust their stuff to last, a nice modular or SH-101 ripoff for $300 is hard to compete with.
They also threaten to sue journalists for unfavorable reviews and for calling them copycats...
At first, its feature set seemed very limiting, coming from the world of software synthesis, but I quickly found the Monologue to be a prime example of constraints breeding creativity. While it’s not about to replace Synapse Antidote in my recording work, it’s still a surprisingly flexible instrument.
Yeah. As an electronic music hobbiest, this has a really odd feel to it. TE's stuff is really not all that innovative and while it has its niche isn't really blowing the doors off of anything. I've never personally liked their stuff - it seems so rigid and lifeless.
The Monotron + Monodelay were, admittedly, toys, but still very fun to play with and definitely ushered in a modern age of small, cheap fun synths.
If I did it again a I'd probably go with an octatrack or mpc live or something where I could do more in a single box.
It used to be you had a handful of audio units to emulate specific hardware synths. Now hardware is getting flexible enough to handle a lot of different flavors.
A drum machine for £110! No way! And a keys synth?! AND A BASS SYNTH?!?
Cheap, versatile and had range to the sounds you could make. Total fundamental change in the synth market.
And neither TE or Korg has "won over kids and professionals".
They just built some cool products and made decent sales. No groundbreaking phenomenon in either.
The DX7 for example changed the whole industry. Volca's and TE not so much...
[1] https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca [2] https://github.com/digego/extempore
Theres also the sonicware elz1 but it looks to be focused on being a synth.
For the music hackers out there I'd recommend checking out the Critter and Guitari Organelle M as a more budget (<$500us) and FOSS friendly alternative. The new organelle M has a Raspberry PI compute module under the hood.
(The "ultra-budget portable" option is to get a Casio SA and a digital FX pedal. Combine that with a line-in to a DAW setup, and a lo-fi instrumental album is totally within reach.)
You don't need to solder, the connectors are on a user-replaceable daughter board.
No keyboard but it’s a blast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s98te0b4bo
From a more music-oriented perspective, I might suggest the Casio SA-77 - it's a whole bunch of fun for $50.
https://www.amazon.com/Casio-SA76-mini-Sized-Tones/dp/B00Q83...
Does it get any more interesting if you hook it up to an external midi input like a keyboard or sequencer?
The Casio SA77 doesn’t seem to have any Midi out, so it couldn’t e.g. be combined with the blipblox.
As a musician and synth lover, I don’t know anyone who uses the TE gear as a serious musical equipment. They’re widely considered to be in the toy or novelty realm, except the OP-1, which is saved by being absurdly expensive for what it is.
With the Monotrons, Korg made a risky reputational bet on the idea that Pick-and-place assembly technology and tiny modern components could deliver the low costs and satisfying sound that synth nerds expected, selling the same functionality for $60 something that people were used to paying $300 to get. Any toy manufacturer could have done this of course, but Korg recreated the widely-loved MS-20 filter, making it irresistible to analog fetishists - at a price low enough for consumers to take a risk on it not sounding 'as good as the original'. Except that...it did. So then they repeated the stunt with two other Monotrons.
Then they built a larger one for double the price that had a more fully featured monosynth in it, and around the same time started dropping schematics publicly and encouraging people to modify them. By the time the Volcas hit the market the bleep squad was fully in love with Korg after a 30 year cool spell, and they had shifted the entire bottom end of the synth market. Several years on, Even Roland is making analog again and there is an absolute renaissance in terms of both classic synth clones and wild new innovations.
Teenage Engineering in contrast went the Apple route of very high quality industrial design, super-accessible user interface, and a high price - and they did very well with their OP-1 synth, which offers a unique combination of synthesis, sequencing/recording, and portability. The Pocket Operators are fine little synths that have opened up a bridge to the lower end of the market and allowed them to introduce several other products in the middle that don't cannibalize sales of their flagship OP-1, but I don't think it's accurate to say they're 'influential'; they answer the question of 'could you implement a decent synth plugin in hardware for cheap' (yes) and come from a company that's small enough to remind people of the DIY/kit synth designers while being established enough to design and ship a product that's complete without doing any actual work or waiting for software stability from a lone programmer. They also sell semi-modular analog synths whose enclosure is built out of cardboard, Ikea-style, but don't require anything like soldering or component selection - in short, delivering the DIY feel without the possibility of messing it up.
They're cool little synths, and TE is an influential company at the top end of its range, but you're the only person I've ever heard suggesting the operators' have had any impact on the market other than slightly expanding the range of stocking stuffer options during gifting season.
>Several years on, Even Roland is making analog again and there is an absolute renaissance in terms of both classic synth clones and wild new innovations.
So much of the contemporary synth market can be traced directly back to that gamble by Korg - the Volcas obviously, the Arturia Brute series, Yamaha's Reface series, Roland and Behringer's desktop modules, the IK Uno, most of Modal's products, perhaps even the modular renaissance.
Korg proved to everyone else that the market was crying out for instruments that harked back to the heritage of classic synths but at an affordable price and in a portable package. They reinvented the hardware synth for the VST generation - customers who didn't want a full-size keyboard and a tour-worthy chassis but did want a tactile experience and authentic sounds, customers who were used to buying instruments in affordable bite-size chunks. The Monotron doesn't look like much, but it started a revolution in the synth business.