Thank you so much! I'm excited for you to begin your journey on the PO-33! Be sure to check out my other tutorials if you want to know how I create a song!
This is a great tutorial with a unique perspective and tips I haven’t seen elsewhere. I’d encourage you to make more PO tutorials as I think you add a lot to what is already out there.
I always come back to your tutorials. So inspiring your work. It‘s so astonishing what the PO-33 is capable of if you know how to use it. Keep up the good work!
.....adjusting note length...the PO-33 is just great. thanks for this tip as well! EDIT: HAHA just realized I commented before :) Overlooked that tip last time
I've only just acquired one of these so I haven't explored it much yet. BUT this is such brilliant advice about sampling the melodic scales which is incredibly useful about switching between minor and major scales. That really is a "game changer". Many thanks and please keep up the good work.
Found you from “Free beats” channel. So glad to find your videos. Thank you. Newbie with these po’s. Have a po 12 for years but will be getting the 33 tomorrow
This is a very useful vid, thank you. These little beasts are fairly simple to understand but guides like this add a lot of insight into their possibilities. It didn't occur to me that you can have more than a C major scale to your samples!
Sampling an A note is a really solid tip too. I've been playing around with that today, and it really makes composing much easier. Also, not only do you get the A minor, C major, and A minor pentatonic scales - you also get the D and E minor pentatonic. Feel kinda bad for those G# buttons though.
Tuschedz I’m glad it helped! Yes the G# tends to get ignore in my compositions but in a performance with my PO-28 that I’m going to release today or tomorrow, I show it the lonely G# some love! Haha
Wonderfully helpful. Thanks for sharing your brill, bro. I'm finally getting back to the KO from Bastl land. LOL. Even snagged a 2nd KO. Should be interesting...
This was actually super helpful... There was even a handful of features I didn't even know about. Speaking of which... I recently got into synths, and I got a Volca, Monologue, and a Crave in the past year. I just want to know... WHY TF do synth companies (specifically) not explain everything in the manual? What's the point of adding a feature if you don't tell people about it?! I can think of a lot of stupid reasons, but very few practical ones. Every manual I've ever received in my life goes into excruciating detail about every last possible function, but synth manuals are basically one sheet of paper that says "turn it on and have fun!" "ooohh... We're so quirky and fun and super cool no really you guys!"
I honestly have no idea, maybe they don't feel like listing out every function because it will look too overwhelming for a beginner using a synth for the first time? Or it could be just laziness?
GREAT tips, and thanks for the drum samples! Added: amazing what you were able to cram into this video in under 10 minutes, yet it doesn't feel rushed at all. Awesome!
Hey man, sorry for the noob question but how do you get that double hi hat sound on one step, where is sounds like there’s a roll on the hi hat, like in your trap beat? If you can help that would be awesome.
Oh no worries, I get it by holding down a step and pressing bpm at the same time. It will display Tr2 which means it will now trigger that step 2 times, hold the step and press bpm again it will go to Tr3, then Tr4, Tr6, and finally Tr8 and then it will go back to Tr1. You can get some wild trap hi hats and cool drum fills with it!
This video is awesome! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and your skills on this machine are inspiring! I'm not sure if this is something you do or not but it would be great to have a video where you can show how you export tracks into a DAW in separate channels. I know it may defeat the purpose of the PO but sometimes you just come up with something that you would like to have a little more control of and add more tracks to. This product is amazing for starting tracks.
Sia Mozaffari I haven’t thought about doing that but that’s a pretty creative idea! It would definitely be easier to mix the tracks! I might experiment with it!
Fantastic vid, all really clearly explained. Forgot about using note length to stop a sample running to the next pattern! Have sometimes been trimming a second copy of the sample instead 😂
@@walrtbstudios5430 i dont know it either lol i dont like any mainstream music old or new really (obvi i like some classic rock i suppose i worshipped iron maiden and sabbath as a child) now i like instrumental stuff djent/prog metal, electronic, symphonic or all mixed together.
Please dude could you do a vid showing all the mute & solo options (are live mutes/solos possible?). Also how you might go about tracking out stems if so need be. Many thanks for the great tutorials
Unfortunately the closest you can get to mutes and solos is turning down the volume or Low Pass filter on the tracks you want to temporarily mute! That would also be the best process for tracking out stems. I normally release record my full songs from the PO-33 in one take!
I want you to know I’m here because of your Summer of Synth appearance with Bo Beats. I love you demonstrating using Pocket Operators in various musical styles. Would it be fair to ask you to Highlight the differences between a Po-33 and PO-32? The 33 is better for this purpose, or does these things better, the 32 is better for this purpose or does these things better, here’s how to use them together… stuff like that. Especially the “here’s how to use them together…” not a lot of channels do that.
The PO-33 is versatile because it is sample-based so you can upload any drum kits you would like and other samples! PO-32 is strictly a drum machine but it is incredibly immediate! Both the PO-33 and PO-32 can only play four sounds at once but when you use them together with the 32 handling drums and PO-33 taking care of all the samples and melodies you can get fair full sounding track!
Gar Hoover Yeh! I had no idea! I thought I'd found just about everything on this thing, but that was news to me. Do you know about Retriggers and copying sounds in write mode too? If not, I'll share a Reddit link with you for it.
Actually, I'll just share the link now. Thanks again: www.reddit.com/r/pocketoperators/comments/8v2239/some_secret_tips_for_copying_sounds_and_setting/
Great practical tutorial, different than most of the others out there. How do you get the stutter hi-hat sounds (for example, during 5:20, hip-hop or trap beat)? Are you simply inputting the hi-hat rapidly, is that an FX overlayed, or some other technique?
David J Kordsmeier Thank you! What you need to do is enter edit mode and hold down the hi-hat step you want to edit in the sequence and press BPM at the same time! On the screen you will see TR 2 and it will play two hits within that step. If you keep pressing BPM while holding down the note the screen will say TR 3, TR 4.... all the way up to TR 8! This means that you can have 8 hits of the hi-hat on one step! It’s really helpful for hip hop/trap beats and fills!
Gar Hoover thats the secret!! You might consider a topic just on that. No one has really covered this as a po-33 topic, but i guess this works across all POs.
How do you record your finished songs? I would comprehend better with a video. I am a novice with these things. I have always been interested in sequencers samplers but never pulled the trigger until now. I have a ko ordered and out for delivery because it seems like it's a good way to get my feet wet. I was going for an opz or op1 but wasn't sure.
hey thanks for the drum samples and all the incredible content, another guys channel recomended you when i was looking for which po i should get first, ended up settling on ko, but how do i actually copy them in? as one continuous sound or do i just pause between and do individually? i got it yesterday and this is my first ever experience with sampling. i downloaded some synths mostly using helm (about to check out vital the guys new one) but have been struggling with those too, bc i dont have a controller for them yet. i cannot figure out how to move which keys are on my computer keyboard i get a strip of piano keys on my letter keys but cannot slide it either way. i did once by accident (my cat did stepping on the keyboard) so i have no idea how i did it but knowing its actually possible just makes it more frustrating lol.
I love this video, it help me a lot!!! If possible, can you give us a video of how to backup data on PO-33 (what do we need to use to transfer the data to a Mac that don’t have a input), right now I’m having this problem of not able to transfer my data to my MacBook since my MacBook don’t have a input and idk what product I should buy to give my MacBook a input for the 3.5mm male to male audio core that can transfer data. I want the product that I need as a input to give HIGH QUALITY AUDIO to my MacBook? If you can’t make a video. Can you give me some advice on what product I should buy for my MacBook to give it a input? (my MacBook’s headphone jack would not work as a audio input.) Thank you so much!!! I really need some help 😅
It sounds like you’re might want to get an audio interface to record the PO-33 into your Mac, you would record it into Garageband or another DAW if you have it. However, If you just want to record the backup Data of the PO-33, you get an audio interface for your phone and record it into there with iRig or Roland GoMixer!
Mine arrives tomorrow- taking in a lot of YT vids before it does. That scale trick- if you sample an A will A always appear on the 13 button? I recall someone else saying that the note sampled ended up on the 5 button- is that then an octave interval (5/13)?
Yes it is an octave between 5 & 13! The 5 button is the location is the original sampled note! You can also shift the sample up an octave and then 13 becomes the original sample which means the rest of the notes on buttons 1-12 are higher than the original sample!
Really fantastic video! This is exactly the kind of stuff I wanted the K.O. to do. I've been looking forever for a simple yet robust sampler that I could use as accompaniment and in demos. This is the first thing I've found that appears to check all the boxes.Most importantly I wanted some sort of drum machine that didn't sound like a drum machine! It's surprisingly hard to find an easy way to program rhythm tracks that are suitable for rock music. Of course the stock sounds aren't that great, but this video is surely a proof of concept. Do you think there's any way you could share what you've created here - particularly that live kit? This would help me out tremendously and I'm sure many others. A data dump would be great, but even just a recording of your playing all the sounds in sequence would work. If not, do you have any recommendations for a guy without access to an actual kit?
I don’t believe that I have the recorded data dump file anymore, but I can check! If not, I can send you a similar kit recording if you want! It should be 12 seconds or less!
Correct you cannot layer them! But you can copy paste a duplicate of the drum kit by press and holding write + sound and the select the bank where you would want to paste the duplicate drum kit!
Hey, I was wondering if this PO would be useful for making some remixes/electro-swing like-jams? Or would the PO-Speak be more suitable? While I don't think I'd be able to go wrong with either of them, I'm a big dumb idiot whose never had a sampler before. (P.S please excuse my username, it's a long story)
uncle jeffree's left testie Hello! I really like the PO-33 for its versatility, you can chop a song and remix it pretty quickly, or sample melodic sounds and just make original content! The PO-33 is great for electronic if you have access to synth samples and drum samples, I know that some people find it frustrating to record in all of the sounds that they want into the PO-33 because it can be a little tedious! However, I enjoy the process and have access to a large library of sounds from making EDM over the years. The PO-35 looks fascinating, I’ve never used one myself but from videos I’ve watched and tutorials, it seems to take an sound sample and turn it in to “vocal synthesis”. It has many different vocal synthesis styles in the PO-35 and could be great for electro-swing. The other thing that PO-35 has is a micro tonic drum synth! Unlike the PO-33 which has sample based drums, the PO-35 has the ability to create amazing drum synth sounds that I think sounds great and could be great for an Electro jam! I think what it comes down to is whether or you want to spend the time, recording your own sounds into the PO-33 and chopping them up. I definitely think that the PO-35 is more of a pick up and jam type of pocket operator, but this is just my approach to using pocket operators! Hope this helps! (Sorry for any errors, I wrote this on my phone)
I'm really enjoying your videos on the po. I'd like to ask you something : if during a playback you enter the write mode by keeping the write button pressed and, on top of a note already recorded, you modify its effect, let's say the low pass filter by turning the knob during the recording, the po records the smooth transition between the effect settings made with the knob. Is it possible to program such behavior? Another example is to introduce a sound by making it starting at low volume and progressively increase the volume during the pattern using the knob. Can this be done smoothly by programming it or shall I manually change the volume for each note in the bar? I hope my question is clear enough
Yes, its a little more tedious process but can be far more accurate! During Performance mode, shape you sound to the desired settings and then press write and sequence in the steps you would like and then enter back into performance mode and adjust the sound to the next desired setting and then press write and sequence in the steps you would like for the new adjustment! I use this technique during builds to the drop in my songs!
Thank you! I layered the drum samples beforehand in my DAW and then sampled them into the PO-33. You can download the drum samples in the description of the video!
You can copy a sample into a new bank by selecting the desired sample you wish to copy, and then hold (Sound + Write + whatever bank you desire). This will copy the selected sound and place it in the new bank! You can copy sounds from the melodic banks into the drums banks and vice versa!
@@GarHoover thanks dude. My ko is in the mail, can't wait. Btw, your beat in this video is better than 90% of the po-33 beats I check on here. Thanks again keep rockin'! :-)
It's hard to get the timing right so you get a good drum spread on all the pads any tips on that please. Thanks for all the great videos that been really helpful. Unless of course there's a different way to do it that I don't know about that's always a possibility.
Heath Wiseman Thank you! I usually keep the drum samples close together so that it does not take up too much of the sample space on the PO-33! I agree that the PO-33 does not do the best job at chopping up samples and whenever I upload drum samples it often requires me to trim them myself! The easiest solution is probably to space out the drum samples more however if they are space too far out some of them do not get chopped onto the pads automatically by the PO-33 and you need to add them in manually. It seems no matter what that manual trimming is necessary for the drum pads.
I notice on my PO-33 that I have the prebuilt in sounds taking up 8 slots. If I record and sample over top of them is there any way to get them back? It seems kind of lame that if you record over any of the built in sample sounds that you'd have to reset the whole device just to get them back.
After looking at the outputs on the Alesis sr-16, it appears that it does not have a clock sync. You might be able to send a midi clock through the converter that will send a sync message that can be received by the Pocket Operator but that can be an pricey solution
Solid. and I’ve been wondering about panning. if Po is stereo i/o it seems possible but when i sample a panned instrument it seems to get rebalanced evenly. Is there a way around this?
What db are the samples set to when you line in? I put together some on my ko but its coming up very low. Just curious what db you have it set to when recording them in and what to aim for.
Thats a great question! I honestly do not look at the db of the sample but rather what the incoming audio signal is on the PO-33! I try and adjust the levels of my incoming samples so that their peak audio level makes it to about the first Knob (Knob A). This usually keeps the sample at a loud volume without it becoming distorted! You can also adjust the volume of the sample once it is saved onto the PO-33! Sorry for the late response!
The PO-33 can only play 1 sound at a time per sample, but can have 4 different samples playing at once, as long as they are in different banks (or tracks as tend to call them). If you have a sample in a melodic bank or drum bank it will only one play one note at a time (monophonically). However, you can also have 3 different samples playing from 3 other tracks. So you could have 1 melodic bank playing a monophonic lead line on one track, another melodic bank playing a bass line on another track, a drum bank playing drums samples and another drum bank triggering sampled chords. Does this answer your question? If not I'm happy to help!
Good tutorial, You should post this on the r/pocketoperators subreddit if you haven't, I think it'll be appreciated. I for one didn't know about the note length and I've had it for a month or two or three now at least. Also a lot of the other tips reminded me of things I forgot and that filter tip will be useful, because now that I think about it I've made a couple tracks that had a lot of sounds competing for the same frequencies. Also if you managed to record a good backup of this kit, please do try and share it on site that doesn't compress, I'd appreciate it a lot.
Prompted Hawk Thanks! That’s a good idea, I’ve never been to the Pocketoperators subreddit! I unfortunately did not record a backup of this kit but I’m going to start recoding the kits of new songs I create for RU-vid!
@@GarHoover That's great! As for the backups, another way would be to actually just put all the sounds in series with like a second or two between each other because proper backups are a bit dodgy to get working if you manage to even do it. Just a suggestion.
Select that sound you want to remove (Sound + its number), select the pattern its in (Pattern + its number), then go into write mode (press Write once so the square symbol comes up). The LEDs lighting up will be that sound, you can deselect them just by pressing the number keys. if some LEDs light dimmer than others, they are either other samples in that drum kit or other pitches in that melodic kit you selected.
@@DeaBroggn Idk how I didn't see this but I figured it out on my own! Still, thank you for taking the time to reply to my comment. I'm going to copy and paste it in my notes just in case.
Press BPM and Record together and the screen will say SY1. This will send a click that is meant to keep another Pocket Operator in sync with the PO-33 if they are connected but without the connection it will behave like a metronome!
Hey I'm do you have a tutorial of how you put your samples onto the PO and split them up? I'm very new to this :) or do you know a link where I can learn this. Cheers bro! Your work is incredible by the way!
Thank you! I Intend on making a video showing how I create my samples at some point! But until then here’s video that shows a good overview of sampling on the PO-33! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eBHcNV2nWV0.html And here’s one dedicated to clean drum chops because the PO-33 sometimes struggles at chopping! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3BEKNKhLvcU.html
You cannot create choke groups but with each drum back being monophonic it will naturally choke out the other sample that was previously played in the drum group! I do mention how to adjust note length for sounds in the melodic banks!
You can remove the batteries and still have everything that was last on the PO-33 saved! That includes samples and patterns, so no worries about losing anything!
@@deniscassiere The PO-33 has a total sample memory of 40 seconds. You have 8 melodic banks that treat the 16 buttons as a scale to create melodic lines, and 8 drum banks which treat each of the 16 buttons as triggers for different portions of the sample, like a standard drum machine. The 40 seconds may not seem like much but it's worked for me and requires me to think outside the box!
Hey Gar, thanks for posting the useful tips. I once saw a tip to create a stutter effect per step, but dont remember if it was for the PO-33... you know what I'm talking about? Or anyone else?
Thank you! What you need to do is enter edit mode and hold down the step you want to "stutter" or retrigger in the sequence and press BPM at the same time! On the screen you will see TR 2 and it will play two times within that step. If you keep pressing BPM while holding down the note the screen will say TR 3, TR 4.... all the way up to TR 8! This means that you can have 8 "stutters" on one step! It’s really helpful for hip hop/trap beats and fills! This can only be done to samples in the Drum banks, this will not work for samples in the Melodic banks!
Great tips, thank you! How can you take this video with the original PO audio? I'm trying to do it using a TRRS splitter with my Android phone (OnePlus 5) and it's just impossible... my records are almost inaudible... 😔
You're welcome! I'm always happy to help! I use to use an audio interface and record into Logic X but that was clunky and not too portable! Now I use the Roland Go Mixer! It records directly to my phone and I can record several different synths at the same time! It's Fantastic!
Hey... great video... I was hoping to find a tip on replacing a sound that's already in multiple patterns. For example... What if after you made 4 different patterns, you decided that you would like to swap a snare sound? Would that be possible? Swaping a sound to replace on all in one move? I thought I saw a video that showed how to do that but I can't remember which video and now I am lost. Does anyone know how to do that?
Thanks! If you already have another snare sound store in the same drum bank as the snare that is sequenced in, you need to select the replacement snare sound in Performance mode and then switch to Edit mode and press the step with the snare you want to replace and the light for the step will shut off and then press the step again and the snare sound you selected during performance mode will Replace the former snare. This is a very tedious process and you will need to repeat it for every pattern but it is the only option for replacing the snare
Michael Cullen You can copy a pattern by selecting the pattern you desire to copy and then press Write + Pattern + 1-16 (the Pattern Bank you desire to copy the track to)! Unfortunately you can chop up and re-sample patterns and turn them into new sounds!
Hi! Sorry for the delay! I would connect your iPhone to the PO-33's input jack and then hold down record and an open drum bank and then press play on the iPhone. Once all the samples are done playing let go of record and all the sounds should be on separate pads in the drum bank! You may need to trim to be a little longer then the the initial edit but that can be done on the PO-33 in trim mode!
