My very biased review of the TE KOII EP-133 sampler

hyena wrote:... i started buying an old ipad air 1st gen for peanuts (80 euros) just to check the koala sampler\sp404 integration, i was amazed by how many good plugins are still able to run on that old piece of gear. i invested some money in apps , in particular AUM and mirack(vcv rack port, full blown modular synth) , and installed a lot of crazy good freebies.

I also use a humble Air-1 atm for exactly that price, donated my Air-2 to the lady of the house for her streaming apps...
Fortunately I started early enough to aquire the PPG apps (WaveGenerator, WaveMapper, Infinite) and Wolfram Franke‘s Stroke Machine, which aren‘t on the shop any more.
Still available: iVCS3, Synclavier, Fairlight, M3000 Mellotron, iMS20, iWavestation, more recent Nambu, Hilda, ID700, Mantis, Cascade, RX950 (just to name a few).

... its crazy what you can do with a very old and cheap ipad. you just have to check which is the maximum ios update you can run on any of the old machines, and check that the apps you're interested in are still compatible.

Yes, all of the above run on an Air-1, IOS 12.5 (max version), of course not all at once.
AUM is an outstanding mixer with ad hoc fx chains and multitrack recording (including busses that can be inserted anywhere in the processing).

Some apps may offer a „last compatible version“ if the current release requires a higher IOS than (f.e. 12.5), but only if you already own the app.
In that case I‘ve bought it with a more recent iDevice, but didn‘t download it.
Next time (connected with the old iPad under the same Apple ID) you get the suggestion mentioned above and can download it.

Btw I still have my iPad 1 and 2, both batteries (original) still in good working condition.
(when charged they keep the load over months, but I only use them with a PSU/dock to avoid battery stress)

Thanks for the suggestion, I have looked at the Ipad, now with Final Cut and Logic Pro its like a power suit on the go.

I will say though I dont enjoy using apps for music production and I really dislike the sound. I know the entire industry and net trolls say that computers have caught up to analog and there are emulations of the king of analogs that sound incredible and fooled me (even doing filter sweeps) but thats a prespective of a certain part.. In short a way to explain what Im saing is that analog circuits amps, vcf even how electric modulation behaves is just different,.. the digitalis sound clean and the Ipads apps are even cleaner (I assume its due to the way they where originally designed to handle audio via lesser cpu) ..

IMO If anyone wants to argue this the most noticeable audio difference can be spectated by the use of modular apps vs their eurorack counter parts, even if you are compare digital Eurorack modules (with the same virtual ones) the difference is there and will be revealed effortsly via complex modulation, add analog saturation though varrius stages and they are far apart sonicly ..


Now I just signed up to win a TE OP1F which is not quite my thing but Im willing to try it, its close to a sampling workstation on the go. Yet in all honesty the polend play: if fixed after next update will be my future composer, I love the super quick hands on UI, the creative force of the self generating algos, the sound is detailed /reverb is hi grade and rest of FX are quality and it offers tremendous sequencing power which is its core creativity.
Of corse this is personal prefrance, if you do simple house/EDM or hiop beats the Play is justa limited bag of lights.


To me the Play is simply the most portable high end production /live performance sampler with modular type sequencing on the market. And I can power it for 12hours via my phone. Its not perfect and the OS updates are slow but Polyend have proven to be reliable /follow up on their products, their tracker is getting updates to this day and will likely continue doing so for years.

I wish Akai would address this space (love the first gen Studio One controllers thin size) ,as the new MPCs are the best in ChopFu by far. I wish NI would make a groove box based on reaktor like sequencers and sample loop remixers. Or that Roland do a Aria Vsynth sampler workstation ..

but in '24 Im looking at a relatively new Polish company with a simple sample playback, an AD envelope and a HpLp filter for audio control as these giants just seam to want to milk a user markets rather than pioneer the instruments in the filed

Also have to give props to the 404 mention..

Just watched some vid and that thing is like a portable future ASR-X resample (my 1st personal sampler, loved it dearly), The SP44 ain't no DAW but a super nice sampler/resampler ...

It even records everything you do in the background so you never miss a moment.. that and the vari time stretch have me thinking Im gonna need a bigger back pack .. thx for the heads ups

a quick update about my ios journey: i discovered drambo and it really changed my life ahahaha
it is a "modular groovebox". what does that mean? you can build your own instruments with oscillators, filters, but also more advanced stuff like physical modeled resonators etc. you can modulate EVERYTHING with everything...then you have the sequencer... it draws inspiration from the elektron boxes with advanced stuff like conditional trigs, random\probability, offset per step....but you can also use the piano roll... the sequencer step events are also treated in a modular way, where each event appears as a small device you can manipulate... then you have sequencers as modules, so you can nest sequencers... like you can nest all other modules into racks\mixers\layer managers.... its absolutely crazy! and there's a sh1tload more stuff coming in the future (i'm on the beta team). strongly suggested: one of the most advanced production\performance environments i have ever tried. oh, it can be loaded as an auv3 plugin (also on macs with silicon chips) and can host auv3s internally. trust me its next level shz

Yes, Beepstreet is a very competent IOS developer
Most of all he‘s got a unique approach to a super efficient way of „modular“ that avoids cable mess while keeping functionality.
His sound engines are top notch, too.

@Hyena Bravo what an Amazing discovery..

Its an dream environment and I agree it really sounds superb !! its like the modules all give a certain character.. like sounds/tracks have distinctive audio qualities, its doesn't sound smeared like its all coming from the same device.. very organic and pleasant sound, rich and alive .. thank you for bringing this to my attention. Also worthy of a mention: it can be set/via some patching to play true Lofi! That's to say at core playback level) ..
Plus lost of supercool modules

Im watching demo videos whenever I can ..

Two things I've not seen yet.

Can you connect OSC together via modulation (FM/PM?) .. and follow up: if so can you connect two tracks together via modulation?

Can animation lines be separate from recorded notes and can their playback rate/resolution and direction be altered?

Are all the modules that are available free?

Thx!

I'm not sure if I want to buy the calculator thing.

I keep going back and forth, but I'm not excited.

Last year, I finally bought the SP-404 because I was bored and wanted to see what all the fuss was about, but it's not my go-to; it's there, and I use it every few weeks, but it's not my must-use sampler; I'm not in love with it.

The SP-404 Kind of reminds me of a former girlfriend I had a long time ago. I liked her; she was a nice girl, and we had good chemistry, but she wasn't really important to me like my girlfriend after her, who later became my wife.

The calculator might not be wifey material, just another side chick, and I have enough of those.

Side chick metaphorically means samplers, of course.

But yeah, I'm still undecided...

@telefunky and glide: sorry for the late reply! yah Drambo is really a killer app, i'm on beta now and you don't know how many good crazy things are gonna come! i have to keep my mouth shut tho.... @glide: you have connectivity between modules even at audio rate, yes, and you have EXACTLY an fm operator module where you can choose between linear fm or phase mod, and its a grrrreat module! but the stuff he's done with the wavetable suite (an in app purchase) is pure genius! almost all is free except the wavetable goodness, a resonators\physical models bundle and another iap with formant oscillator, wave scanner and another module i cant recall, anyway the addons are cheap and super worth it!! i also bought its external Combustor auv3 plugin resonator, its amazing that too!

@BKLYN : i had mixed feelings bout the 404mk2 until i put in a week of serious study and started using it everyday. that helped me build muscle memory for the button combos and then everything switched and i fell in love. now that i discovered the ipad world i love it even more because it is my audio interface, midi interface, fx box and quick recorder for the ipad, or sometimes is the opposite, the ipad is the perfect sound design companion for the sp.

@glide about automations i have to test a few things to be able to reply fully but there are a lot of ways to modulate\automate stuff even outside the sequencer (like the graphic modulators or the sequencer module....)

Hey Hyena! Thanks so much for the replies!. It looks like a massive playground..

My only concern is that it will be clubber some on anything other than a large screen Ipads (?)

But now that 3.0 has dropped.. Im trying to find excuses to travel with extra 3kg in my backpack

heheheh
well, i have a 11" and its pretty dope on this kind of surface, but i think it will work good on a mini too. surely i wouldn't advice using it on a phone...

Tbh my only reason to avoid Drambo in all it‘s glory was to prevent another modular construction site (I already have a big DSP Modular on Creamware Scope, that gets way less attention than it deserves)
But just in case it slipped under your radar: SamplR by Marcos Alonso
http://samplr.net/
More than a decade ago it was one of the very 1st „serious“ apps and imho it‘s still leading in using multitouch at it‘s best... a true instrument.
Imho a must-have-used at least once for any developer dealing with touch screens

Will check out the Scope, never heard of it .. Creamware dis some hardware back in the day that got great reviews.. I also think Bitwigs modular environment is rather smart and sounds great just very CPU hungry

My search for the perfect portable sampler/synthesis workstation is over .. it comes from a little know company "although quite known in all serious synth cycles" marking
" no cut corners producs" A small boutique Danish hand made labeled Gotharman

You know you hear /and I was one of them" cats calling out for Dave Rossum to make a hardware sampler based on Assimul8tor or a new SP1200 with synth capabilities or a new Elektron Octatrack with super audio quality and analog filters..

Well it already exists .. and from watching videos and reading manuals this thing is easy/logical in use and as powerful as it gets . LD3 is very impressive and 16 voice .. I am aiming for a ZaTuurn myself as it fits inside my jacket is is basically a huge modular system and actually sounds like one aswell

https://www.gotharman.dk

Im still researching .. Ill just leave this post by Rids[/img] @ GS as it summed it up nicely.

The LD3 is everything you could want and way more than you ever have known a compact synth to be. You're not going to find a compact synth/groove box more feature rich than this. And I mean that. Best part is that it's super intuitive to get at all the parameters and edit. It has a ton of stuff you can do, modulate pretty much anything with anything. You can access the different parameter screens through shortcut/dedicated buttons, which is really nice. Super flexible to use. With the ins and outs, you can use it like a mixer of sorts. The analog filters he offers are really awesome sounding. He's got an nice assortment of a bunch of different types including a Tube filter and SP filters

KO2 needs a features update I reckon it will come at the 1 year anniversary of the KO2's release so late November we should expect some news, hopefully we get the resampling and or per pad FX.

Hopefully they add lower sample rates; if they add 32khz and 22khz that would be a great help to get more sounds into that 64MB

Maybe they can add USB C sampling and audio over USB, but such a simple and inspirational device, it def the king of portabe production in my book.