Teenage Engineering has recently expanded its range of tiny Pocket Operator Synths with Cheap Monday bringing out three new models the Arcade, Office and Robot, expanding on the three models they launched last year.  They have worked in collaboration here with clothing brand Cheap Monday with regards to the design and like last year’s models they are all battery powered and have an RRP of £49.

We will be reviewing the PO-28 Robot which like the other 5 pocket operators looks like a mini scientific calculator although each have their own unique personalities, the PO-28 Robot is a live synthesiser and sequencer with parameter locks, glide control and punch in effects.  Key features are the real 8-bit synthesiser engines for making live and sequenced melodies and leads, 15 sounds and micro drum, Live play and sequencer combo, 128 pattern chaining and the Step multiplier.

I was very excited to play with the PO-28 Robot and see what these affordable little beauties from Cheap Monday and Teenage Engineering could do, the Robot on the front has an LCD screen and 25 individual buttons with a breakaway hanger on top and at the back it has a wire stand.  The PO-28 Robot runs off a pair of AAA batteries and has a built in speaker hidden behind the LCD screen, the screen is there for style more than substance as it will tell you swing and tempo info and work as a calculator but it is more there or fun with the animations.  There are 3.5mm input and output jacks which I used as audio ins and outs but can also be used to syncing other PO’s if you have them, the PO-28 Robot offers a range of 16 sounds with 16 performance focussed effects.  There is a 16 step sequencer, with 16 slots for saving patterns and along with the step multiplier function allows you to make beat repeater style retriggered sounds.  The parameter tweaking is handled by a pair of rotaries on the top right and you can use these for editing individual sounds, editing step release length along with adjusting tempo and swing- the coolest thing I found with the PO-28 Robot was the Glide function which added expression and created vibrato in conjunction with the two rotaries.

If you don’t fancy forking out €600 for the OD-11 these little Pocket Operators are the way to go and there are certainly worse things to collect!

For Latest Price Click Below

Buy now