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Comment by sneak | Hacker News Reader

Later, Teenage Engineering would make a series of tiny exposed PCB synthesizers called the "pocket operator" in a direct reference to same.

And a little performance with 9 of them:

They look incredibly cool. Not being a musician, are they actually useful or just fun little novelty gadgets?

Very useful for fun. I have a few of them. My favorite is the sampler, PO-33

No suprise that th success of this line of naked toy synths spawned more than just a cottage industry in cases for same. https://pocketoperations.com/pocket-operator-cases.html#case...

They're overpriced novelty, relatively few musicians would use them in an actual gig or a production.

They're fun though, so many musicians play / jam with them just for that.

I think part of the sell is that the constraints breed creativity, kind of like the op-1. Whether or not you agree is a personal value kind of thing.

The sampler is the most useful. The others have a limited set of sounds that are fun, but get exhausted pretty quickly.

funny little novelty gadgets, which are useful if you don't know any better and have too much money – the definition of hipster.

Get a cheap editor with free plugins, there are enough around. Or get a Volca if you must.

I always thought they were for chiptune enthusiasts

Most of the chiptune people are using gameboys with LSDJ or a Dirtwave m8. The latter seems to have really taken off.

What's the best place to find chiptune compositions made with LSDJ or Dirtywave M8?

For lsdj, start with bit shifter and you can find related artists on 8bit peoples, though not all of them use lsdj.

Thank you! Exactly the starting point I was looking for.