Teenage Engineering PO-20 Arcade Pocket Operator

This is my first pocket operator and I must say I see what all the hype is about. For something so small and portable, it feels well made and durable. I can’t wait to get some more to try out the sync feature. Out of all the units this one seemed the most melodic and I was not disappointed. 10/10 recommend as a starter unit. Learned how to use it fairly well in under an hour.

A lightweight that hits above its weight

This piece of cardboard stocked with a clock transistor is capable of blowing your mind till to the drugs wear off and then some. Like even when the drugs wear off you will still be in a mindset to appreciate the extraordinary capabilities of this tiny house piece of gear. Can you say that of all your gear? Maybe, but here you won't be let down. This is a cheap piece of portable gear that is capable of making marvellous soundage psychedelic what have you fantasmagoria Eva Longoria love and Haight all the greats can pour out of you onto the carefully arranged technical slots of which this tiny tiger has plethora: all your low/high sweeps, lfo-loo tribal mumblings, delay okay limited delay but delay feedback upfk, plus da sequencah, da sounds unlimited from your ... MoreThis piece of cardboard stocked with a clock transistor is capable of blowing your mind till to the drugs wear off and then some. Like even when the drugs wear off you will still be in a mindset to appreciate the extraordinary capabilities of this tiny house piece of gear. Can you say that of all your gear? Maybe, but here you won't be let down. This is a cheap piece of portable gear that is capable of making marvellous soundage psychedelic what have you fantasmagoria Eva Longoria love and Haight all the greats can pour out of you onto the carefully arranged technical slots of which this tiny tiger has plethora: all your low/high sweeps, lfo-loo tribal mumblings, delay okay limited delay but delay feedback upfk, plus da sequencah, da sounds unlimited from your native landscape--right it's a bloody sampler, right?--all that and all that you need is some violence and passion of soul and an extensive neural network in your noggin and you're off to the beaches with the beaches.

A small drum machine that have some Kick!

I already had a few POs, and wanted to see where it all started. This drum machine may be small, but it packs A LOT!The sound won't be clean hi-fi, but rather has some characterful dirt and grit. Despite being deceptively simple, it's quite usable, sound great and comes with interesting performance effects and features. For the price, you can't ask for more!But don't be fooled: it's not a toy, and can fit perfectly in a mix or in for your sample collection.

Actual owner

Giving a product 1 star because you haven't received it is just stupid in my opinion. It's Teenage Engineering so get used to long waits for products because they are so highly sought after and don't have the mass produced supply of bigger manufacturers. Now that is out of the way lets get to the actual review.... This product is awesome! I saw that DJ City had in store so I went and bought so as to avoid shipping delays. I love how intuitive it is to use and you can make some awesome beats after a short learning curve. I suggest cuckoo music and others on youtube as source of learning material. If you are hear thinking about it... just go out and get it, it is great fun!

Amazing foxtrot machine for plants

Whadya wan' for 60 euros? This. This lil' bee's sting right here. It'll stick a pointer up your b-ox and you will be able to set a bass line that kicks your genitalia--and everyone else's sexualised erotic neuronal pathways--like nobody's business. And ain't that what we want from music? Passion, pathos, tension/release, the whole bedroom in a box phenom, right? Yeah, if you want flowers light and breezy and clinique you can probably do that here, but if you want sex in every form from garbage to minima you would not do anybody any harm by bringing this boite with you at all times. It ain't gonna bites your breasts off like a Moog, but it will tickle your tiger in that bass chasing dog kinda way. You don't need the technical specs right? You can watch videos and boa ... MoreWhadya wan' for 60 euros? This. This lil' bee's sting right here. It'll stick a pointer up your b-ox and you will be able to set a bass line that kicks your genitalia--and everyone else's sexualised erotic neuronal pathways--like nobody's business. And ain't that what we want from music? Passion, pathos, tension/release, the whole bedroom in a box phenom, right? Yeah, if you want flowers light and breezy and clinique you can probably do that here, but if you want sex in every form from garbage to minima you would not do anybody any harm by bringing this boite with you at all times. It ain't gonna bites your breasts off like a Moog, but it will tickle your tiger in that bass chasing dog kinda way. You don't need the technical specs right? You can watch videos and boa constrictors talking all their lfo, high/low pass, Johnny cash bollox but what you wanna know at bottom is if the beast can crank out your inner child on acid. Am I right or am I right? Well this LSD driven danish dish is your death come to visit you with flowers. I know that's a bit strong, but how many machines are able to transcend the life-death barrier and come back and talk about it--or at least make a baseline out of it? You want life and death shenanigans you came to the right hole in the wall mr and missus.

Easy, fun, affordable

The pocket operators are surprisingly versatile given their affordable price. Lot's of fun to play around with and make music with.The whole product is very sturdy and made out of solid chipboard.Loads of fun, would recommend.

Great fun little device

I looked at the arcade pocket operator over and over and over for at least a year before buying it, and now I wonder why I waited so long.This pre-owned one came without a box, but everything works perfectly, buttons are good speaker great etc, so I really don't mind no box.If you're bambozled by the buttons, watch a video to get started, and within an hour you'll be writing songs, which is very satisfying. Maybe it's not as big and complex as some music devices, but that's part of its charm - its very portable (perfect for playing with on the train!) You can use the speaker (which is actually louder and better quality than I expected) or headphones, it's really fun and quick to set up a looping pattern and you can also just live play over the top. It has 16 steps ... MoreI looked at the arcade pocket operator over and over and over for at least a year before buying it, and now I wonder why I waited so long.This pre-owned one came without a box, but everything works perfectly, buttons are good speaker great etc, so I really don't mind no box.If you're bambozled by the buttons, watch a video to get started, and within an hour you'll be writing songs, which is very satisfying. Maybe it's not as big and complex as some music devices, but that's part of its charm - its very portable (perfect for playing with on the train!) You can use the speaker (which is actually louder and better quality than I expected) or headphones, it's really fun and quick to set up a looping pattern and you can also just live play over the top. It has 16 steps for your initial beat, but you can make 16 patterns which you can switch between whilst playing, so you can make a whole host of variations for just one song. You can even record from it! It's honestly just a lovely thing to play with and I'm very glad I bought it. Thank you PMT for providing a good quality refurb at an affordable price.

One of the most important PO’s

If you’re going to get a Pocket Operator, there are 3 that I consider essential. The PO-32, the PO-33, and this guy. (The PO-35 speak could get mention, but it’s vocal focused, so doesn’t quite make « essential » for everybody.) The fact that you can make chord progressions with drone notes, and then modulate the drone to give it a « ducked » feel is extremely useful. The fx on the PO-20 arcade are also unique in that some are punch-in and some are toggled on/off. Overall, it’s a really fun little digisynth on its own, and really brings other operators to life when hooked up in series.

This is the best thing I've bought in recent memory

I bought this for my younger son as a birthday gift, but we're having a hard time sharing. This thing is so capable, so fun, that we can't stop playing with it. So many great sounds and effects, along with the chord features, make this synth a powerhouse relative to its diminutive size. The design is excellent, the sound is excellent, the whole thing is a home run. Nice work, Teenage Engineering!

W TOYS!

Mine was a returned item: so I got open box, the upper tab removed and a fat discount :-); other than that the unit functions perfectly.Pocket Operators are a lot of fun and I already got a cople. I am a guitar player and I use them to build small jam along tunes or, rarely, perform small live electronic sets for friends. Once you learn to use them, they are a simple and fast way to create music without relying to a computer (wich I am not a fan of).This one is really a powerful, probably the most powerful, pocket operator. It is also the most complicated to learn (but not by much) and it has great expressive possibilities. The loaded samples are very good, and you can build full songs out of them but, of course, the fun is building YOUR samples collection and ... MoreMine was a returned item: so I got open box, the upper tab removed and a fat discount :-); other than that the unit functions perfectly.Pocket Operators are a lot of fun and I already got a cople. I am a guitar player and I use them to build small jam along tunes or, rarely, perform small live electronic sets for friends. Once you learn to use them, they are a simple and fast way to create music without relying to a computer (wich I am not a fan of).This one is really a powerful, probably the most powerful, pocket operator. It is also the most complicated to learn (but not by much) and it has great expressive possibilities. The loaded samples are very good, and you can build full songs out of them but, of course, the fun is building YOUR samples collection and then build songs. And you can back up them!They say audio quality is low... that this is only a toy... not for professional use... then they spend a fortune for a vintage casio sk (a vintage toy synth of course) just because some famous artist used it. Just let me play with my new toy and shut up.