David Bridges
Sweden-based Teenage Engineering makes merchandise for a really, very particular viewers. Take, for instance, the corporate’s $250 toy automotive or its TP-7 tape recorder with a spinning wheel to trace by means of recordings. None have spoken to me as a lot as its newest challenge, a medieval-themed sampler board referred to as the EP-1320. By the look and sound of it, it could provide the most effective alternative to deliver 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 moveable, simplified groove field. The $300 EP-1320 is known as a reskin of the $300 EP-133 Okay.O. II, however it appears designed to offer the Renaissance faire reject in me an opportunity at sampling scores. If I’ll by no means cease my lazy streak and study to play the lute and reenact courtroom scenes of the 14th-century English king Edward II, maybe that is the following 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 comprises foley results together with the sound of swords clashing or arrows flitting throughout a battlefield. Teenage Engineering says it comprises sound results for a dragon you might lay on high of the 9 onboard demo songs.
The machine is meant to have a redesigned suite of punch-in FX. Different said sound options embody “torture chamber reverb,” “dungeon echo,” and “bardic ensemble.” To not put too high quality some extent on it, the corporate’s video promoting its new product is probably much more wild than the machine itself.
The sampler is pricey if you happen to contemplate it a mere music toy, although it’s a lot low cost if you happen to have been working it as your foremost moveable 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 newest medieval sampler is barely packing 128 MB of reminiscence divided up with 96 MB of ROM sounds plus 32 MB left over for consumer 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 historical, akin to a number 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 could have “fædr.” Different buttons are equally rethemed, like “tempus” for tempo or “codex” as an alternative of document. 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 somewhat easy LED UI exhibiting you which of them devices and the varied tracks you could have 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.
Daniel Mercer
