EP–133

https://teenage.engineering/products/ep-133

by bpierre • 3 years ago

195 119 3 years ago

teenage.engineering

tapeloop• 3 years ago

need to get me one of these

stigi3• 3 years ago

you're username suggests so :)

stigi3• 3 years ago

I don't know how they do their math, but they advertise it for 299USD but when I open the store it's sold for 349EUR which today converts to 380USD... That's a 30% difference that hurts.

6581• 3 years ago

The $299 don't include VAT.

alanfranz• 3 years ago

Prices in the US generally don’t include VAT, and maybe there’s some exchange or import fee on top as well.

ericpauley• 3 years ago

Likely this. 349 EUR is 17% VAT on 299.

donkeyd• 3 years ago

And often there's also an invisible consumer rights 'tax' on top. Since online purchases and warranty are quite heavily regulated in Europe, sellers often add some margin to cover the extra costs this might bring.

cammikebrown• 3 years ago

Gonna pick this up in Portland on Friday. $300 out the door

marginalia_nu• 3 years ago

Speaking in general, prices tend to differ between regions away from just basic exchange rate math, since shipping costs means you don't get proper arbitrage pressure, which is what would pushes prices toward (lowest advertised price) x (exchange rate).

stigi3• 3 years ago

Thanks for the pointers everybody. They make sense. The frustration of seeing a 299 price tag and then being hit with a 349 price after one click on the store link is bad.. Didn't stop me from buying though :D

achairapart• 3 years ago

Looks like the price for Europe is always 349 Euros VAT included, whatever your local VAT is (it goes from 16% to 27%).

Rest of the world is always $299, no VAT applied.

Shipping is always free.

dubcanada• 3 years ago

Welcome to most of the world outside of US. I can drive 3 hours and pay 20-30% less for everything including exchange rate.

capableweb5• 3 years ago

The pricing is surprisingly low ($299) for being Teenage Engineering, wonder if they got tired of people complaining about their pricing? I guessed somewhere around $1000 before seeing the price.

lifty• 3 years ago

It looks like it's made of plastic. Some of their other outrageously priced products are made of aluminium. Maybe that accounts for a chunk of the difference.

LegitShady• 3 years ago

Pocket operators which this is a big cousin of didn't even have a case at all. I sort of think this looks as good as 3 pocket operators. For TE it's pretty good.

My op-z is one of my favorite sequencers/grooveboxes but the case is poorly designed and prone to double inputs due to how flexible it is and the keyboard is plastic soldered to the case so not really repairable. For the money this looks like a better physical design, and unlike pocket operators can use midi for sync.

dmicah• 3 years ago

Their pocket operator series were inexpensive, at $60-100 per model, but were very basic with essentially a bare PCB and most of the electronics protected by being placed under the screen. I believe that much of the cost of their expensive products is due to a lot of custom parts like CNC machined aluminum enclosures. This product seems designed to hit a price point between the pocket operators (~$100) and their plastic OP-Z (~$500).

op00to• 3 years ago

I'll put my comment about price here. I saw "teenage engineering" and immediately thought "no way I'd afford that", but I clicked anyway. Sort of like how I'd look at a Lamborghini poster as a kid.

maxfurman• 3 years ago

From the Verge article[0] on this device, it was designed from the ground up to a) only need parts that they could actually get during the pandemic, and b) sell for less than $300.

I think this looks really cool and I want my in-laws to gift it to me for the holidays.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/22/23965528/teenage-enginee...

ketzo2• 3 years ago

Wow, that article is great -- some cool details on TE's internal processes.

alderz• 3 years ago

The store page is struggling with 502's right now.

dmd3• 3 years ago

I finally gave up and just bought it from their Amazon store. https://www.amazon.com/teenage-engineering-sampler-sequencer...

cats_• 3 years ago

Just used this link to order. Thanks!

driggs4• 3 years ago

Curious that its got a nonstandard 46.875 kHz samplerate rather than 44.1 or 48.0 kHz.

Not that it matters since its only output appears to be on the analog side of the DAC.

This is a surprisingly well-featured sampler/sequencer for the price!

porkloin2• 3 years ago

Yeah, very weird. They have a sample prep tool that converts existing samples to the correct format, and obviously the internal sampling records to that rate.

MrBuddyCasino2• 3 years ago

"93.75kHz and 46.875kHz are the sampling frequencies Bruno Putzeys uses in all his digital products for Hypex, Grimm audio, KII, etc.", as outline here[0], for the following reason:

    5.2 Clock
    The clock circuit is the same as that used in the CC1
    except that the sampling rate is set to 93.75kHz instead
    of one of the more traditional audio rates. This is specifically
    done to improve the performance of the SRC chip.
    An uncommon clock frequency reduces the odds that mix
    products between the incoming clock and the internal
    clock fall inside the PLL loop bandwidth of the SRC.

[0] https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/w...

driggs4• 3 years ago

OK, you've pasted from the #1 Google result after searching for "46.875 kHz samplerate".

What does this have to do with the Teenage Engineering EP-133? It doesn't have USB audio or SPDIF, so no standard samplerate clock to conflict with.

tecleandor4• 3 years ago

It might be because of the clock of the CPU or the dac being 24Mhz.

24MHz/512=46.875KHz

Edit: or 12, 6, 3...

  24MHz/512=46.875KHz
  12MHz/256=46.875KHz
  6MHz/128=46.875KHz
  3MHz/64=46.875KHz...

duped• 3 years ago

I've heard Lexicon used to use weird sample rates in its reverbs to make it harder to reverse engineer.

lukeh• 3 years ago

It may have to do with part availability during the pandemic, perhaps?

art-not2• 3 years ago

i use my po-33 constantly. it's one of my favourite things I've ever owned. it's crazy how good they are at making little devices feel easy to use

zoklet-enjoyer• 3 years ago

I love my PO-33. If I didn't have a SP-404 MK2 I'd be getting this. I still might be able to figure out how to justify it to myself. But really I don't need a 3rd sampler.

wavemode• 3 years ago

Beautiful device. Ugh. Coming across ads like this is like a bad drug.

I can hear the equipment in my closet that I already barely use, crying out to me "don't do it!"

mr_sturd4• 3 years ago

Ha! I'm teetering on the edge of buying a MicroFreak. There's no way I could justify the cost of anything from TeenageEngineering - though £299 isn't as steep as I was expecting from these. Stay Strong!

capableweb5• 3 years ago

on the edge of buying a MicroFreak

Just do it, it's a lot of fun! You only live once, and if you save the box + bags and regret the purchase, you can sell it for minimal loss :)

efields2• 3 years ago

The microfreak is a marvel. Buy it now. Take the time to understand it. You won’t regret it.

nekopa• 3 years ago

I have to back up the others: just buy the microfreak, it is awesome. It was my first hardware purchase, and I am so glad I got it. They keep adding functionality via firmware updates, so recently they added sample playback to it, along with granular synthesis. I added a volca drum and a multi effect pedal to my hardware line up, so now I can head out to my local pub and jam out without needing a laptop with me, and the whole setup fits in an old messenger bag.

pizzaminded12• 3 years ago

I bought one recently, and it sounds awesome, despite the fact that there are still some minor issues even after firmware update.

kstrauser• 3 years ago

Insert the meme of me turning to look at this, while the dusty Novation Launchpad sitting on my desk is looking at me with jealous anger.

I want this. I don't need it at all. But wow, I want it.

yardie• 3 years ago

Wow, compared to some of their other products $299 for a TE sampler seems absolutely reasonable and much lower than I expected.

aa-jv4• 3 years ago

64Megs is only going to get you so far.

1010Music Blackbox is by bar a much, much better investment.

Screw Teenage Engineering. They degrade everything they touch.

tecleandor4• 3 years ago

But that's 3x the price and doesn't have a pad, but a touch-screen that might be OK for changing config but not the best for playing. Nothing again the Blackbox, AFAIK it's great, but I think it's a completely different beast than the EP-133.

It could be a great upgrade for the (awful and buggy [0] that never got a firmware upgrade even when it's still being sold after 10 years...) AKAI MPX 8.

---

  [0]: It's so bad that a guy did a "hardware patch" for fixing some of it's MIDI handling problems: https://www.freshnelly.com/mpx8.htm

monkeynotes• 3 years ago

Haha, those two devices are so different it's not really a useful comparison. One is a sampling groovebox, the other is a sampler module. Use Cases are also totally different. If you want a cheap sampling groovebox with a thoughtful workflow, portable, mic, speaker, battery operated, fun to play with there aren't all that many choices other than maybe the Korg Volca Samples. It's around 3x the price, but it easily has 3x the functionality.

virtualritz• 3 years ago

What a beauty!

noman-land• 3 years ago

How do these guys manage to create such damn cool looking stuff every time? It's really impressive.

bdowling• 3 years ago

The image of Muhammad Ali taunting Sonny Liston to get back up is one of the most famous images in sports. I can’t imagine how much it cost to license.

dmd3• 3 years ago

You think they licensed it, rather than just copying it from google image search? (Speaking as someone whose spouse licenses images and sees people doing that ALL THE TIME.)

capableweb5• 3 years ago

Yes, absolutely they licensed it. Teenage Engineering is not a random mom-and-pop shop, and that image is not a photograph that most people wouldn't recognize.

ErneX2• 3 years ago

They credit the Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC in the bottom of the page so yeah they got the rights, I mean they are using boxing gloves also on the product pictures.

Edit: even their limited edition packaging has these pictures.

Night_Thastus• 3 years ago

I have absolutely no use for this, but damn I love the aesthetics. That thing is just gorgeous.

joakinen• 3 years ago

Totally on the same page! The form factor is spot on, and the vibe is just downright cool. But samplers aren't my cup of tea, so I'll wait to see what other gadgets they roll out in this series.

aa-jv4• 3 years ago

Thats Teenage Engineering - sexy looking, highly dysfunctional junk that you will regret investing in, instead of getting real professional gear.

danwee• 3 years ago

I'm a total newcomer about this, but I would like to learn and start making "music". They advertise:

MAKE USE OF THE CURATED SELECTION OF DRUMS, BASS AND KEYS THAT COME PRE-LOADED ON YOUR K.O.II.

Question: would I be stuck with their pre-loaded curated selection or is there any way I can "upload" any extra dum/bass/keys and use them?

lotsofpizza• 3 years ago

There is software included that allows you to add your own samples(audio files).

capableweb5• 3 years ago

Yes, you'd be able to use whatever samples you want; transfer from the computer ("drag and drop samples using the sample tool") or record them yourself via the input.

ErneX2• 3 years ago

It has 64MB for samples, I think you can record via the line in + microphone or with a software companion.

tecleandor4• 3 years ago

From what I see in their docs [0], you can either record samples directly from their hardware, or use a web tool [1] using Web MIDI (!) to update them. Guessing from the Web MIDI use, probably should be easy to create open tools or even load that page offline to update its samples.

  [0]: https://teenage.engineering/guides/ep-133/functions#10.1-sample
  [1]: https://teenage.engineering/apps/ep-sample-tool

MDGeist• 3 years ago

Yesterday an expensive desk toy, today a reasonably priced sampler. Not sure if TE is YOLOing or it is all part of a genius marketing plan.

tecleandor4• 3 years ago

Yep! If you showed me that landing page hiding the price, and knowing TE, I would have said that it was going to be at least double or triple the price.

deebosong4• 3 years ago

Can't help but feel it's their gameplan. And I try to remain non-reactive, but I thought it was smart.

That toy car looked ridiculous, but not completely out of line with their shenanigans in the past. So it seemed somewhat "in character."

And then to immediately follow-up with a way more useful, beautiful, functional, cool and interesting product that's "only" $50 more expensive – with all the anchoring price point tactics and such dialed-in – and is like, 3x less than their OP-1 was (maybe even more), and "only" 2-3x more expensive than their higher-end pocket operators that essentially have similar functions... Then I do think they know exactly what they're doing.

All that being said, it absolutelye worked on someone like me and I bought one lol. I was so, so ready to be offended and be presented with more egregiously expensive-but-useless doodads. But $300 for a slick sampler... That's really not bad at all. Considering the Roland 404 is $200 more, and some other audio gadgets I bought with less functions are in the $200 range.

schwartzworld• 3 years ago

This thing is an upgrade over the po33, but it's not anywhere close to the same league as the 404. This is less of a criticism of TE and more of a credit to the incredible depth of features they've packed into the 404mkii.

merelysounds• 3 years ago

Absolutely both.

They have been successfully releasing extremely well designed and extremely frustrating devices for a while now.

And if anything, they’re getting more and more popular, working with ikea or panic and both iterating on old ideas and exploring new ones.

yitchelle• 3 years ago

As I load up the website, it dithers for a moment before the full image comes up. I love this effect...Have I gone full circle from my dialup days? I think I have...

ketzo2• 3 years ago

It's so nice, actually. Great little effect that fits well with the rest of the page's aesthetic.

agloe_dreams• 3 years ago

Not only is it a nice effect.... but the Muhammad Ali landing page is downright insane. That hero image choice is pure gold. It is insanely brave to not put the product in the hero too. Utter envy.

Edit: OH MY GOD, THE PACKAGING.

mr_sturd4• 3 years ago

Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided.

— Brian Eno

frankfrank13• 3 years ago

Wow, for basically the price of a Circuit?? Insane

wintorez• 3 years ago

I love their design language.

cfr20233• 3 years ago

Teenage Engineering Syndrome, oppressive proprietary products with undeniably appealing designs. On the surface, this is their bet effort yet. Props for that, I suppose.

capableweb5• 3 years ago

Teenage Engineering Syndrome, oppressive proprietary products with undeniably appealing designs

Kind of comes with the sector/industry, not a lot high-quality, standalone gear that wouldn't be considered "oppressive proprietary products".

cfr20233• 3 years ago

And? TE is still one of the worst offenders, and they don’t even have the excuse of being an out of touch legacy musical instrument manufacturing brand.

stets• 3 years ago

What have you made?

cfr20233• 3 years ago

What do you care? Whether I've made a masterpiece sculpture or skid marks in my dungarees, people deserve powerful tools and instruments that will last.

Dudester230602• 3 years ago

Nothing to write home about in 2024:

* stereo / mono sampling at 46.875 kHz / 16-bit

* 24-bit ADC / DAC

aa-jv4• 3 years ago

Yeah, this is destined for the dusty depths of a desk drawer full of other similarly sexy-looking but ultimately frustrating, useless stuff that was designed with the principle of making it fruity-looking first, and useful to the actual user, last ..

The 1010Music Blackbox is still the pocket-sized sampler to beat ..

amelius• 3 years ago

I don't see why a laptop can't do this. This will just turn into extra e-waste.

dwhit• 3 years ago

I have a few qualms with this app: 1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software. 2. It doesn't actually replace a USB drive. Most people I know e-mail files to themselves or host them somewhere online to be able to perform presentations, but they still carry a USB drive in case there are connectivity problems. This does not solve the connectivity issue. 3. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?

dagmx• 3 years ago

A laptop can do a great many things. That doesn’t mean it’s the best form factor for doing it.

Music making devices are very much about the ergonomics of devices and the reduction of friction in workflow. This is also significantly more portable than a laptop, with much lower latency than you would likely get.

When people compare devices, they should really consider not looking at just paper /capabilities and what it means to a user.

deebosong4• 3 years ago

OK I'm commenting twice and have no affiliations to TE or The Kount.

But apparently, The Kount made a buncha sounds for this thing.

https://twitter.com/THEK0UNT/status/1727365475976216610

I'm not that good at making beats, don't have deep knowledge on tech specs, or even have good creative workflow (I'm a very enthusiastic dabbler). But The Kount's free sample packs are so good (IMHO), and the beats he makes are certified bangers (he uploads 1 min vids of them on Twitter/ IG/ YouTube). Just wanted to highlight this as well and makes me happy to know.

shoemakersteve• 3 years ago

Scrolling down, I see that they apparently also sell hoodies for $130USD (not including tax and shipping). Literal insanity

iamben• 3 years ago

Curious as to why that's insane? It's on par with / a little less than most streetwear brands. Of course you can buy a hoodie for $25, but you can also buy one for thousands. You're only going to pay what something is worth to you; it's very subjective.

simonebrunozzi• 3 years ago

The device looks gorgeous.

I did a little bit of music creation with an Amiga 500 and Soundtracker, ~30-32 years ago.

What would be an equivalent software-only thing to warm up to this again, before I decide I really need to purchase this thing?

themoonisachees• 3 years ago

I'm not really in that scene, but I know for a fact trackers are going well in their niche. One that I know of is OpenMpt (I'm not good enough to use it properly so I can't speak to how good it is), but there are more.

In general, teenage engineering devices look fantastic and are really capable in the right hands, but they look deceptively simple while they are in fact really complex to make good music with. I know of a few people who burnt $1k on an OP-1 because they thought they could make music easily with it.

least• 3 years ago

For a software sampler, I would highly recommend Koala Sampler [1], which has a very easy to use workflow and is modestly priced ($5 for the base version, with sub $5 upgrades). If you don't like it, you probably won't like the EP-133.

There's also hardware trackers like the Tracker and Tracker Mini from Polyend [2] and the Dirtywave M8 [3] that might interest you as well. Their workflow is closer to what you used in the past.

[1] https://www.koalasampler.com/

[2] https://polyend.com/tracker-mini/

[3] https://dirtywave.com/products/m8-tracker

Sirizarry• 3 years ago

Really depends on the kind of music you wanna make. Since this is a sampler though, you can probably fire up something like reaper (free) or fl studio (less free) and start chopping up your favorite songs to make something new. Teenage engineering makes some really unique hardware though. I own their OP-1 and it’s a hell of a learning curve to get efficient with it but it’s so cool.

tshaddox• 3 years ago

I'd like to see a website UI that looks like that big video.

ge96• 3 years ago

not a music producer but the aesthetic of the TP-7 is so cool.

patapong• 3 years ago

A long presentation and demo of the EP-133 is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjW6_BuXN_4

Cockbrand• 3 years ago

Stupid noob question: would I be able to control this from a DAW like Reaper?

vitaflo2• 3 years ago

It has midi in so if your DAW has midi out then yes you can control it.

9999• 3 years ago

Absolutely gorgeous and like everything else I’ve owned from them it will probably break if I so much as look at it crosseyed. Still this one is actually cheap enough that I might buy it anyway.

lq0000• 3 years ago

What is a "super segment hybrid display"? Looks cool, has VFD vibes, but I assume it's just an OLED with an overlay or something based off in the Verge article "Most of the KO II’s parts are just off-the-shelf components, including the display"

jhbruhn• 3 years ago

That's my guess as well. Either monochromatic OLED (cheap!) and colored icons (not so cheap?) or the other way around. LCD with front panel might also be fine as long as it's bright enough, and the front panel is dim enough.

codeulike2• 3 years ago

Whereas an Analogue Synth actually does something analogue that (in principle) a laptop could not emulate, a standalone sampler like this is just a digital device in a box with nice buttons, right? So it does the sortof thing you could do on an ipad by paying $5 for a sampler/sequencer app. But it does it in a nice looking physical box with some cool buttons.

I mean, thats fine, but I just want to be clear about that.

nmeofthestate• 3 years ago

Yep - in the same way that you can prepare a meal with a Swiss Army knife instead of using kitchen knives, you can play music on a qwerty keyboard instead of a piano keyboard. You can achieve the same end result, but one tool is more tailored to doing the job.

codeulike2• 3 years ago

Right, and its nice to have shiny new tools to play with. But ipads and laptops are actually pretty good for music production too. Not really like preparing a meal with a Swiss Army Knife.

jnovek• 3 years ago

For many -- myself included -- the buttons and encoders make it much easier to play as a musical instrument. When I buy a digital instrument I'm not just buying the sound engine, I'm also buying a specialized controller for playing that sound engine.

masto• 3 years ago

I can't wait for Bad Gear to do this one.

S_A_P• 3 years ago

Love that guy.

kazinator• 3 years ago

That looks too flimsy for pro audio; a month of gigging and it's toast.

No XLR or 1/4" TRS jacks.

vitaflo2• 3 years ago

I like that the old PO line looked like small calculators and this new EP version looks like a big desk calculator that an accountant would use. Nice detail in sticking with the “theme”.

EP–133

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