Sweden-based Teenage Engineering makes merchandise for a really, very particular viewers. Take, for instance, the corporate’s $250 toy car or its TP-7 tape recorder with a spinning wheel to track through recordings. None have spoken to me as a lot as its newest challenge, a medieval-themed sampler board known as the EP-1320. By the look and sound of it, it could provide the very best alternative to carry on-the-fly, on-brand music to my Dungeons and Dragons classes.
I by no means thought there’d be a sound product that made me perk up as quick as a Medieval-age sound sampler and transportable, simplified groove field. The $300 EP-1320 is mostly a reskin of the $300 EP-133 K.O. II, but it surely appears designed to present the Renaissance faire reject in me an opportunity at sampling scores. If I’ll by no means cease my lazy streak and be taught to play the lute and reenact court docket scenes of the 14th-century English king Edward II, maybe that is the subsequent neatest thing.
There are samples in there for some traditional devices of yesteryear, particularly the citole, shawn, flute, trumpets, and my private favourite—the hurdy-gurdy. The board additionally accommodates foley results together with the sound of swords clashing or arrows flitting throughout a battlefield. Teenage Engineering says it accommodates sound results for a dragon you could possibly lay on prime of the 9 onboard demo songs.
The system is meant to have a redesigned suite of punch-in FX. Different stated sound features embody “torture chamber reverb,” “dungeon echo,” and “bardic ensemble.” To not put too tremendous some extent on it, the corporate’s video promoting its new product is maybe much more wild than the system itself.
The sampler is pricey in case you take into account it a mere music toy, although it’s a lot low cost in case you had been working it as your principal transportable sampler system. The EP-133 Okay.O. II was a follow-up to the Swedish firm’s $100 PO-33 Okay.O. micro sampler, itself renown for its capabilities in comparison with its miniscule measurement. The most recent medieval sampler is barely packing 128 MB of reminiscence divided up with 96 MB of ROM sounds plus 32 MB left over for person samples. The stress and velocity-sensitive keys and multi-function fader slider ought to permit for an excessive amount of versatility altering pitch, results, and time changes.
The design of the medieval sampler with its thick, textured plastic is equally historic, akin to a few of the first Mac computer systems or consoles just like the NES. The textual content on the buttons is equally on-theme. Every of the letter buttons is styled with an air of Carolingian font as if Charlemagne himself is setting as much as drop a thick beat on some heathen Saxons. As a substitute of “fader” you’ve “fædr.” Different buttons are equally rethemed, like “tempus” for tempo or “codex” as a substitute of file. Teenage Engineering is promoting the board alongside a “Medieval quilt bag” in comparison with the Okay.O. II’s shoulder strap bag.
Maybe my favourite embellishment is the lone monk sitting on a small throne like an digital piece of marginalia. The monk sits subsequent to a reasonably easy LED UI displaying you which of them devices and the assorted tracks you’ve chosen. If something, it could entice me to hit up the barber to get that tonsure look going, if nothing else than to finish the ensemble.
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