Teenage Engineering - EP-133 K.O. II Review
First round knockout!
Teenage Engineering had one of the most successful releases of 2023 with their brand-new K.O. II! But also the most controversial one! To get this out of the way, if you’ve followed me for a while, you’d know I’m a huge Teenage Engineering fanboy. I understand the criticism but I still cannot overlook the creativity and out-of-the-box thinking that comes with every Teenage Engineering product.
The Ep-133 or K.O. II (we’ll call it K.O. II from now on) is the first successor to the Pocket Operators that Teenage Engineering still produces. We’re not talking though for a simple update. We’re talking about a complete redesign and essentially a brand-new product that borrows a lot from the philosophy of Pocket Operators and takes that philosophy to a whole new level.
I’ve had the K.O. II for about a month and so far I’ve been enjoying it a lot. It is, by far, the most fun piece of gear I’ve played in a while. It is immediate and performative, but still, can go very deep and become a useful tool in your studio. That’s a huge step forward to the Pocket Operators that while they were super fun too, after a while, I wouldn’t use any of them when I was writing music. So let’s go through what this thing is and what you can do with it!
What is the K.O. II?
Design & Connectivity
K.O. II is a sampler with a very cool sequencer & effects. It’s relatively small, super light, made of plastic, and just looks beautiful! The design of course reminds you of an old calculator and its clicky buttons are too satisfying to play with. Since it’s a very affordable piece of gear, it doesn’t feel as robust and strong as the OP-1 field but from my experience, everything feels great and I don’t really see it breaking on me anytime soon (yes, we’ll talk about the Fader later, don’t worry).
The K.O. II is a design masterpiece. The backlit screen is incredible and you can navigate easily when you get familiar with all the little icons. There are a ton of features inside the K.O. II - more than you’d expect - and you’ll need to check the manual (which is also excellent) in your first few jams with it. It looks beautiful, everything feels great and playful on it, and it’s completely portable as you can also power it with 4 AAA batteries (besides using a USB cable) which will last you a surprisingly long time.
As far as connectivity, on the back, you will find a USB port for connecting it to your laptop and powering it, a stereo TRS output, a stereo TRS input, a Sync input & output, and a MIDI input & output. It also has a built-in microphone to record sounds and a small speaker which is definitely not the best speaker ever, it’s quite decent.
Memory
As we already mentioned above, the K.O. II is a sampler so there are no synth or drum synthesis engines. It has quite a few samples already loaded and you can, of course, import or record your own samples however you like. A lot of people discussed about the 64MB sample memory of the K.O. II. Teenage Engineering claims that you can store up to 999 samples which is a ton of samples! I haven’t filled up its memory yet but I’ve sampled so many sounds and I had no issue so far. 999 samples are more than enough for anyone and you can always back them up and swap them using the Sample Tool on your laptop so there is no problem with its 64MB storage.
Samples, Groups, and the Sequencer
Sampling is too easy on the K.O. II. You just press Sample and press and hold a pad where the sample will be stored and then play your sound. You can control the Input Volume with the X Knob (the orange one) and the Threshold with the Y knob (the black one). And you’re done.
You can also chop longer samples and populate the slices into the pads which is a cool way to create a kit. You can set how many slices you want or even live-chop a sample into slices as it plays and then do some manual corrections to get it where you want. To be honest, I’m not really a chopping-samples type of a person (if that’s a term anyway) but I know a lot of people who do that so it’s really nice that it can do that!
Samples can be played chromatically if you choose a pad containing a sample and then press the button Keys. Now the 12 pads correspond to notes and you can record any melodic sequence. For a bassline or a very simple melody that might work but if you really want to work with melodic stuff, I would highly recommend using a MIDI keyboard alongside the K.O. II. I always have an Arturia KeyStep 37 next to it and I connect it when I want to work with synth samples. You just plug it in and you can play and record your parts way more conveniently! Oh, I should not forget to mention that the pads are velocity-sensitive!
Your samples are then categorized into 4 Groups (A-D). Each group can store up to 12 samples which means you can have up to 48 samples per project! Keep in mind that there is a 12 mono or 6 stereo voices maximum polyphony. If you’re mostly using the K.O. II for drums and a few one-shot synth sounds you might never notice it but when you start sampling longer stereo samples or playing chords with your synth samples you’ll probably run into voice stealing. In my case, I don’t really use it for pads and drones and don’t play big chords on it so I didn’t have any problems with voice stealing but that might not be your case. And to be fair, 12 mono voices or even 6 stereo voices is pretty reasonable as a limitation.
The Sequencer! K.O. II has a very neat sequencer where you can record quantized, unquantized, or use it as a step sequencer. Quantization can also be applied after you record a part unquantized to all notes or just the notes you want to quantize which is a great little touch. Each group contains an independent sequence so polyrhythmic patterns are also an option. Editing your sequences is super easy as you can go step by step and make adjustments, you can erase tracks or notes, and change the length afterward.
Scenes
If that wasn’t enough, the K.O. II also has a feature called Scenes! What this means is that you can use Commit to save and duplicate a pattern to a new Scene, add or remove stuff, or even change it up completely, and then you’ll be able to navigate through different scenes (very similar to the Scenes in Ableton Live). That allows you to create full arrangements on the K.O. II and create full tracks with it which is a very useful feature.
So to get the full picture of the architecture of the K.O. II you could think of it in levels: There are samples/ sounds, Groups with 12 samples each, Patterns or Sequences, Scenes that contain those Patterns, and lastly a Project.
K.O. II can store 9 projects and each project can have up to 99 Scenes. Not bad for a 64MB device, right?
The Fader & the Fadergate
The Fader on the K.O. II is an essential tool to control multiple things. By tapping the Fader button and one of the 12 pads you can control the Level, Pitch, Time, Lowpass Filter, Highpass filter, FX send, Attack, Release, Panning, Tune, Velocity, and Modulation of the sounds in a group. It is equally important in the studio and for playing live with the K.O. II. For example, if you want to add a lowpass filter to Group B, you have to choose Group B, press the Fader button simultaneously with Pad No. 4, and then adjust your filter’s frequency with the Fader! Be aware that the Fader changes affect all the sounds within a Group!
The Fadergate
As I mentioned in the intro, the K.O. II was probably the craziest release I’ve seen in years. The moment Teenage Engineering announced it, people immediately started ordering them and all units from Teenage Engineering were sold out during the same day! But once the units started to arrive at people’s studios, a lot of them noticed that their Fader did not work at all. The K.O. II comes in a beautiful 10” box that’s pretty slim so when you open it, you’ll have to install the 4 knobs yourself. There is the white volume knob, the black and orange parameter knobs, and the - now infamous - grey Fader knob.
It is very true that you really have to push the knob cap to make it fit the slider beneath it so a lot of people assumed it was the pressure that caused the Fader to “break“ and not work anymore. Many of them didn’t install it all after they saw all the complaints and there were even some 3D printing designs online to create a much-easier-to-install cap. After a while, Teenage Engineering officially addressed the problem and their co-founder David Eriksson explained that the Fadergate was caused by transport damage since the box was quite slim and transport treated it like a vinyl record and didn’t use sufficient padding to protect it through shipment.
To their defense, Teenage Engineering replaced all damaged units and they ensured that the next batches would minimize the problem which is true because I didn’t see any complaints with any later batches except the initial one. But I have to be honest with you. When I first opened mine and saw how much pressure I had to put to place the knob in its place I sent a message to Emil from Teenage Engineering saying I was too afraid to push it! His answer was laconic and confident - “Do it!!” he said, so I did it and it worked just fine and still does!
My two cents on this case are that during large manufacturing processes and worldwide shipping, a million things can go wrong. The most important thing is how you address them. Teenage Engineering did replace a ton of devices immediately and also fixed the problem for the next batches so I’ve got to give them credit for that.
Effects & Punch-In Effects
There are two types of effects on the K.O. II. Master Send effects and Punch-In effects.
Master Send Effects
The Send Effects can be accessed by pressing the FX button. In there, you’ll find a Delay, a Reverb, a Distortion, a Chorus, a Filter, and a Compressor. If you’ve played with any Teenage Engineering devices, you’d know that their effects are always amazing and so are the effects on the K.O. II! For each effect, you can change a couple of parameters by using the X & Y knobs. I’ve got to give some extra praise to the Compressor though. It’s such an amazing compressor - especially for drum parts - that will squash and thicken your sound in an incredible way.
To use the Effects you have to go to each group and use the Fader to adjust how much of the group’s sound will go through the selected effect and the mix is then sent to the master compressor. So you can only have one master effect selected that will be applied to all groups by using the Fader on its Group.
Quick Tip: You can also use the Effects on the K.O. II to process incoming signals from the Input connection on the back!
Punch-In Effects
The Punch-In Effects on the K.O. II is the most fun and amazing thing about this device! I honestly cannot explain in words how fun they are. You cannot adjust or print them to your sequence - you can only perform with them live. To access them you simply hold down the FX button and then press any of the 12 pads. Each pad has a different effect on it and all the Punch-In effects are pressure-sensitive and that also plays a huge part on how you work with them. For example, if you use the Punch-In Effects on numbers 4 & 5 that have a Lowpass & a Highpass Filter the more you press down the pad the more the filter closes. Besides filters, there is a Bitcrusher, a Beat-Repeater, another FX Send, Pitch, an effect where it replaces the samples used with other samples, and more.
Where the fun really begins is that you can simultaneously combine any of the Punch-In effects and apply different pressure to each one of them at the same time. The combinations and the wild sounds that will appear after doing that are pretty much endless and you can spend hours experimenting with them.
It’s a bit tricky to perform while also pressing the FX button but I found out that if you press FX and then press any Punch-In effects you can then remove your finger from the FX button and still control their pressure. But you can’t add any more effects or remove one and then bring it back in. The only thing I would wish to change would be to find a way to enable Punch-In effects and don’t have to hold the FX button to play around with any of them. You’ll find out that it can get hard to hold the FX button and also apply pressure to the pads while performing. I’m sure this is a software thing that could definitely be changed by Teenage Engineering if they want to!
Overall Experience
I’m seriously blown away by how exciting the K.O. II is! There are a lot of samplers out there with a different set of features and philosophy and I’ve tried quite a few of them but the K.O. II fits my workflow and needs perfectly. It just ticks all the boxes I look for on a sampler.
It’s simple enough to get you going with it while still having a lot of features under the hood and you can lay down a few patterns extremely fast. Its workflow is intuitive like on every Teenage Engineering product and the fact that you can get so hands-on with it and perform your sequences and effects makes the whole process fun and inspiring. Even on Ableton Live (or any other DAW) I always preferred to map my effects and perform them live while recording instead of using automation and with the K.O. II, I can do that on a hardware device!
When I’m making tracks I rarely use samplers to chop loops or sample other songs so I don’t actually need a powerful sampler like an MPC or an Octatrack. I mostly use samplers for drums, vocal chops, sampling synths, and playing them through a keyboard. That’s why I love samplers like the Casio SK-1 and the OP-1 field. While the OP-1 field will still be my first pick for sampling synths and creating new instruments out of them, the K.O. II is now my best pick for sampling one-shots. It’s a lot easier to import a few drum sounds or sample them and create a pattern than on the OP-1 field in my opinion. So those two have created such a power combo for me!
The Punch-In effects are incredible to play around with and create transitions and breakdowns and the fact that you can have up to 48 sounds on a single pattern is so freeing. The limitation on how many sounds I can use at the same time was the primary reason I stopped using my Digitakt that much. And even on the Digitakt II, you can now have up to 16 audio tracks to work with. There are a lot of things that the Digitakt can do and the K.O. II can’t but, for my own workflow, I find working on the K.O. II much faster and it’s a much more enjoyable experience.
If someone asked me to design a sampler, it would look a lot like the K.O. II.
Conclusion
I recently read something in a pedal forum saying that we should not use phrases like “It’s good - for its price“ when we review instruments or effects. I somewhat agree with that. Though in reality, people are always looking to get as much power as they can for their money. So, if we also consider its very affordable price, the K.O. II is one of the most value-for-money instruments you can buy - no question about that.
But even if we forget about its price, the K.O. II is an excellent piece of gear and can easily be compared to other more expensive devices. It certainly has replaced my Digitakt and a few things I used the OP-1 field for so you understand that it’s not just a hipster toy sampler. If you’re like me and like to use samplers for drums and vocal chops alongside a few melodic parts, the K.O. II is perfect! If you are using a sampler to chop long samples and play around with them, you can also do that with a K.O. II but if you’re a hardcore sampler person you might want to have something like an MPC.
After reviewing hundreds of instruments I think I demystified what is the deal with Teenage Engineering and why it resonates with so many people including myself. It’s not the features, it’s not the incredible sound coming out of their devices, or their plethora of products. When they create a product in Teenage Engineering, they take user experience, workflow, and functional design as their top priority. You won’t find a single Teenage Engineering product that does not have an intuitive design, a great workflow, and does not creatively solve a problem. Yes, their designs are always beautiful but not just for the sake of being beautiful. There are brands that only focus on having a top-notch analog sound, or really competitive prices while Teenage Engineering focuses on the interaction the users will have with their devices.
So, regardless of its very affordable price, the K.O. II is an awesome sampler! If you’re looking for a sampler that can do a ton of things and let you get super creative with it, this is the one for you! So go for it!
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