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Your cart is empty.Jacob Penrod
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2024
One thing I wish I knew before I bought it is that the frequency range is low enough to effect your nervous system, and some symptoms include nausea, anxiety, and stomach pain. Personally, this is a huge plus! If you're having stomach problems, playing this really loud right over your abdomen then this will make it much worse, and is something I'm really excited to test out on a large group of people.Also really love the retro look, it brings me right back to the GameBoy era. The screen acting as an audio visualizer is pretty sick too, and it's really easy to master this after tinkering a bit, assuming you can hold your lunch down while doing so
Nicolas
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2024
Easy to use! Beautiful sounds
jon
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2024
Im definitely impressed with the PO-14, easy enough to learn from a you-tube video or 2 to have fun with, Nice Noisy bass sounds an pre loaded patterns to start with, Quite fiddly with it being so small so avoid if you have fat fingers, not really for me but i will try out the PO33 too, sent it back
Daniele Carbone
Reviewed in Italy on October 20, 2023
Ogni tanto lo uso ancora, ma all'inizio ho avuto una fissazione pazzesca. Le infinite possibilità che offre nella usa configurazione compatta e piccola garantiscono ore di divertimento.
dude mon
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2021
My girlfriend got me the Mega Man one for my birthday and I’m kind of hooked. When I found out the Street Fighter one was a sampler, I got it. Then though I’ve pulled great bass out of both having a dedicated bass line for the pocket band seemed proper. That’s the rabbit hole you should be careful of, once you’ve purchased a few of these you could have gotten something nice without so much limitation. For the value of one though, you’ll be hard pressed to find something that makes sounds like this at this cost. Maybe batteries and finger pinching buttons aren’t great for stage performance but make no judgment of this books cover, they are studio companions. Some of the acid bass I’ve pulled out is comparable to my 303. Not to mention some real funky deep sub lines (sometimes it’s hard to get rid of static, but not impossible and as a lo-fi cat, sometimes I like it). The drum machine might be the cheesiest of all pocket operators but it is there so you can make a jam with only it, but I highly recommend this one as a backup instrument to other pocket operators or a Korg Volca. A tiny interface that gets ahead of you sometimes, lots of functions require pressing two or three buttons at once so that can be a pain. All in all if you love electronic music and the fact that circuits make sound that can be morphed into notes, these are dope!
Susan
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2021
I can easily see a person spending way too much time messing around with this!!! I already have, and I don't even know how to use all the features yet!!This device is a small palm-sized synthesizer which, while including bass features, does not focus exclusively on them, despite its name. It's about the size of a small calculator, so it's tiny.The variations and permutations you can create on this thing are truly remarkable. I've been trying this out for a couple of days, and it has not substantially repeated itself. At all. A few notes may rarely be similar, but it hasn't actually repeated itself! So there's little chance of using it up or getting tired of it.quickly.On its own it is immensely entertaining for a sick or confined person. While you can't compose with it, exactly, you can play around, thereby generating lots of ideas. A worthwhile though expensive purchase, particularly if you're sick or convalescing!
Steven
Reviewed in Australia on June 29, 2020
Delivered.Works.
Scott Hughes
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2019
This little synth packs do much punch and value into a travel sized handheld. I've always wanted to experiment with electronic instruments but price can a daunting factor when you have no clue what you're doing, I've had my eyes on these for years and finally pulled the trigger. The device itself takes some time to get familiar with but once you do it's easy to use. There are so many features layered in how each button works or changes as you press them. It's helped me understand so much more about sounds being able to play with noise on the go.
shelby
Reviewed in Canada on January 12, 2019
Right on
Ryan
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2018
I found out about the Pocket Operators a couple of months ago and have since become a huge fan of these amazing instruments. They're fun, but serious enough to be used live and in the studio and not as flimsy as you'd think. The variations of sounds you can get from each of the 15 bass sounds (And 1 micro drum kit) is huge by combining the A and B parameter controls with the 16 play styles (How the note is played) and 16 effects. (Sounds 12 - 15 seem like they should come from a much larger, expensive device!)A seemingly major down point is that they're chromatically locked to C major, so if you want any sharps/flats you need to use the semi-tone bend effect on fx number 15. I thought this was going to be a problem, but I haven't had any issues with it at all, in fact, it enables me to think up more creative basslines. Another thing to point out is that I thought my device was broken straight out of the box as it would not turn on when the batteries were inserted. However, I discovered on a forum that by bending the battery connection points in a little, the problem was solved. I don't think I'll bother getting a case as it looks cool and is pretty sturdy - as long as you don't sling it loose into a bag or leave it lying around on the floor somewhere...Recording lines live can be a little tricky, but once you'e used to it, building up and chaining pattern sequences is quite intuitive and powerful, especially when synced to other Pocket Operators and similar devices. A lot of people have described these as 'Toys', which is a slightly misleading thing if you haven't 'Played' with them; it's small and fun, but so is a Harmonica or a Ukulele, and this can do SO much more.Oh... and there's a little dude running around on the screen while you play things that goes back to bed to sleep when playing is done!
Providential
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2018
This is the most limited of all Pocket Operators, but that doesn't make it bad. Lots of fun to play with, plenty of fun to jam on, but not great for your only unit. You need to combine this with another PO, such as the PO-28 Robot which would be the lead guitar to this bass. This review will be for people already familiar with POs since it is meant to work in combination with the rest. If you're totally new to the Pocket Operator line I'd say start with either the PO-22 Arcade for 8-bit chiptunes, or the PO-12 or P0-32 which are more complete drum sequencers that work well on their own. On to the Bass...Pros:Thumping basslines. Other Pocket Operators have bass, but this one is specifically tuned to make really awesome bass grooves. I put on some good-quality headphones and in a few minutes with this and a PO-28 Robot hooked up I was making such rocking tunes that I was dancing in my seat. Fun fun fun. This thing will get a room full of people on the dance floor.MSRP is $10 less than POs, so the price is in line with the reduced function as a bass-only-unit.Like all other POs, can chain sequences and sync to other POs allowing for all sorts of play options. Also has a mini drum sequencer in place of sound 16, so you can make full-fledged tunes (or at least drums and bass) on this one unit.Cons:Monophonic. Other POs tend to have up to 4 voices, split between their drum machine and other functions. The sub only has one voice for its throbbing bassline, meaning that trying to do things like punch in extra bass on the fly will just cut out the current voice. This limits the live play options a little, you can't really harmonize this unit at all in live play. However, like all POs it contains plenty of options for effects and bending your notes so you can play with it- just in a specific and limited way compared to other units.Overall:This may be the second unit you need to have alongside any other PO. As I said, I hooked this up with the PO-28 Robot and used the Robot as a lead synth. The combination had my head bobbing and my feet tapping. I'd set the Bass to a good bassline pattern (maybe 3x rhythm patterns and 1x break) than jam out lead on the Robot. When I finish a phrase with the robot I could switch to punch in some live effects on the Bass. Back and forth a few times, and I had a killer live set going. For this price and easy of play, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything on the market that can compete. The closest is the Korg Volca line, where one Volca can cost as much as two Pocket Operators.The Bass is the perfect unit to explain the PO line. Sure, it's limited. There are lots of things you can't do with it. Then again, the unit allows so much expression for so little investment. Pair the Bass with another cheap PO, (and look up some YouTube videos because the included manual is worthless), and you'll be making some record-worthy tunes in minutes. Professional musicians may quickly be annoyed with the limitations of a unit like the Bass, but for me, this is just SO. MUCH. FUN. Would you rather invest a lot more money and time into a unit like the Volca or beyond, or do you just want a portable Pocket Calculator you can take on the train and jam out on your tray table? That's why I love a Pocket Operator like the Bass. I can whip it out on the bus on my way to a destination, spend 5 minutes messing around with patterns, and by the time I get home I'm running to grab an audio recorder to capture my creations. Love the POs. Get one today.
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