@@subfifthó Audio plz is the best reviewer on here, not even close. Everyone else is either getting freebies or have obvious conflicts of interest, such as working for companies which sell the products they review. For example, how can anyone sit there with a straight face and pretend as if someone could actually use any of those effects in a track ?
That's a really beautiful piece you composed at the end Nick. And well done for another kickass and honest review. Very informative and enjoyable. Pace is right. Everything you want to know (and more) is there :)
"I have a very low tolerance for obscure workflows... It's kind of almost like working with a looper, but more flexibility and more tracks." - That's exactly how I feel. I don't really like any grooveboxes, but this thing is a good groovebox and an awesome MIDI controller. And it's 100X better build quality than a PO (I have a PO-35 / PO-133, and they both have broken screens, and I've barely touched them). But for $300 it's still uncomfortably bendy. I feel like I need to glue a piece of metal to the back or something. But it's so cool how this thing can play across all 16 MIDI channels from any pad. For controlling external synths, I really like this thing for polyphonic stuff and the Polyend Play for percussion. With this thing and a JV-2080 you could just about make all the music that ever existed.
But for more complex stuff the sequencer doesn't play nice with other sequencers. It doesn't send MIDI start messages. It only sends MIDI SONGPOS and RESUME messages (Bar 2 == SONGPOS 16 I think). So some devices won't start. Some will start at the beginning of the pattern. I think my 707 starts where it last stopped, wherever that is. And it's kinda cool that it sends ALL NOTES OFF whenever the sequencer stops, but that doesn't play nice with my MBase11.
Just got mine a few days ago and im having a blast with it. Its simple and direct workflow is so refreshing. And I agree Nick, it sounds GREAT - and the new sample tool for backup and restore and loading new samples is very handy. My fingers are crossed that song-mode is in developement, not that its a deal breaker for me - the thing is just too fun to let that get in the way. Great review. 👍👍 BTW... you can get finer tuning of the sample edits by holding shift and turning the the start/end point knobs ( shift works that way on sever other functions, giving you fine control). :-) Cya Wednesday mate!
Unlike most TH-cam music gear channels, Sonicstate are interested in actual reviews of gear, rather than caring about being 'first' and farming for social media points.
Damn! You are a very likable and relevant reviewer. But foremost a great musician. Thank you Sir! Love my Ep133, the limitations are as inspiring as when I got to explore my Novation Circuit.
Had a go on one in my local shop - it’s great. Went home and gave my NI Machine a good talking too. Told it you need to pull your socks up buddy or it’s EBay for you. KOII is affordable, usable, and sounds brilliant. This will sell loads.
its coasts 349 euros. i have mine for 4 months now. its an amazing device. but the first batch had its problems. i needed 3 of these to get one which fully works! 2 had fader isuues and 1 had pad issues. all in all great device to make great music on fly. i use mine as sort of sketchbook.
I bought mine just over a week ago in the UK for 299 sterling from Amazon UK. I’d be surprised if it was 349 Euros on the continent. But hey, it’s a life of surprises.
I feel like people who dont know anything about gear mainly go for looks and then fall for the TE trap. To me its a 300 toy because no sd card and only 64mb memory.
I got this when it first came out (luckily I had no fadergate on my end) But I realized after a while that I need some way to export stems, so back it went. Every time I see a new video on it I want it again
Nice! I ordered one the moment they were available. Unfortunately, mine arrived with a busted fader, so I ended up sending it back in and haven’t repurchased. Might snag another in the future at some point though. I liked it in the short time I played with it, but the broken fader made me worry about the longevity of the device based on build quality.
At this point ive no intention of using mine to make songs but rather as a (fairly expensive for my purpose) old school sampler. I must admit it's great fun which has been missing from the last couple bits of kit I picked up.
lot of fun, great just to pick up and have a quick jam with. You soon get used to the controls if you don't overthink them, just experiment away. There's been a couple of firmware up dates too
Q. when you change scenes as it's playing it's immediate...do.. how does it work in practice though? Does it jump to bar 1 beat 1 of the new scene or just swap in the middle of where ever you are in the previous scene.. like beat 3 for example?
@@sonicstate yes.. but what happens? 1. launches the next scene at bar1 beat 1 no matter where you were in current scene. 2. launches scene at same bar beat of 'immediate' 3. launches scene at same next bar number ie- bar 3
Nick i don't see the boomstar se80 in a while, i remember you saying that it was the only synth that shaked your room and you loved it! have you sold it?
@19:32 ,noticed no pre-count for record. Okay for a few bars maybe 🤪, just thinking of missing that first beat and waiting to get to measure one again in extended patterns. Any options for pre-count, or even delete & add measures to patterns?
Agreed. The "toy" argument is silly imo. I've started saying "everything is a toy and nothing is a toy". The idea that music making tools must be 100% serious and plain - or the opposite, that fun devices can't be used to make music - is such an antiquated mindset bordering on gatekeeping.
One can make "music" with a stick and a rock. "Toy" and "Music" aren't mutually exclusive. Yes, it's a "toy", and yes one can make "music" from it. Nothing in this video changed any of that, or proved anything different.
The most fun review of this unit on TH-cam 🙌 I thought about this, but fadergate & owning some very solid older hardware grooveboxes took some energy out of the GAS for me. Maybe at a later date. One question: is there a limit to the polyphony on external MIDI devices, or is that part of the 12 note total limit?
Interesting. I don't have much tolerance for obscure workflows either , and this does look like a smoother experience than other boxes costing much more. It'd be nice if they had some real-time midi based effects to tweak, like one of my older grooveboxes.
When you have it hooked up to a bunch of synths or multi timbral instruments such as a jv1080 it’s a really inspiring tool for building instant song ideas
@ropewalkingelephant oddly enough I had a fully maxed out jv1080 in my studio for years (diff expansion boards, including the brilliant vintage synth board), and would use it with the aforementioned grooveboxes many a time for production work. Good grooveboxes always inspire you to come up with the goods far quicker than using a DAW, imo .
I love mine, and it really does sounds great -(although I ended up wiping all the factory content and loaded in my own samples). I just wish that I could control it properly via midi. Even if all they gave us was putting each group on a different incoming midi channel then that would make it work. Currently I sequence it from a Squarp Hapax, and that limits me to really just using it as a single-group sampler. Of course, if they could also allow us to automate the effects control via CC, and even trigger scene / project changes that'd be the ultimate.
It's an amazing paradigm-shifting machine that I'd love to see a "pro" version of, with two octaves of offset pads like on OP-1 or Sonicware liven series, resample, reverse sample, more versatile send effects, and plenty of memory. Charge me double the price. If you want to write songs on this one the scenes are cool but it's very silly that you can't chain them. You can write a 99-bar song on a single scene but it's not a very satisfying workaround.
The KO II is really nice but why no LFO or sample looping with control of start and end point. I bought it before the Lofi XT 12 release. I think that the Lofi 12 XT is the only sampler that gives you all the options in an small package and a reasonable price.
I see youtube up to its usual tricks then. Been subbed to Sonicstate for years. Wondered why I hadn't seen any videos for a while so search for the site. Only to find I'd been unsubbed! TH-cam REALLY is a disgrace!
Damn Nick! ....now you've given it a go you just know Florian will be doing another KOII Bad Gear episode! He's already hit us with all the calculator memes already! Maybe you could do the Korg KO I instead Florian?
In a world full of human infomercial-droids and fanboys. I would love to behold your "very low tolerance" on the Digitakt2 😅 We are many who can’t decide if it’ll be fun or a total headfu*
Still the best reviewer in the game.
And Daniel Fisher.
And loopop
@@jimsime1 no
@@subfifthó Audio plz is the best reviewer on here, not even close. Everyone else is either getting freebies or have obvious conflicts of interest, such as working for companies which sell the products they review.
For example, how can anyone sit there with a straight face and pretend as if someone could actually use any of those effects in a track ?
For performing with it without overwriting your work, hold MAIN when turning it on to enable Lock Mode, which will prevent changes from being saved
Oh nice thanks for that
vey good to know.. nice one.
Oh damn! I was wondering about that. Non destructive tweaking
That's a really beautiful piece you composed at the end Nick.
And well done for another kickass and honest review. Very informative and enjoyable. Pace is right. Everything you want to know (and more) is there :)
Thank you kindly!
"I have a very low tolerance for obscure workflows... It's kind of almost like working with a looper, but more flexibility and more tracks." - That's exactly how I feel. I don't really like any grooveboxes, but this thing is a good groovebox and an awesome MIDI controller. And it's 100X better build quality than a PO (I have a PO-35 / PO-133, and they both have broken screens, and I've barely touched them). But for $300 it's still uncomfortably bendy. I feel like I need to glue a piece of metal to the back or something. But it's so cool how this thing can play across all 16 MIDI channels from any pad. For controlling external synths, I really like this thing for polyphonic stuff and the Polyend Play for percussion. With this thing and a JV-2080 you could just about make all the music that ever existed.
But for more complex stuff the sequencer doesn't play nice with other sequencers. It doesn't send MIDI start messages. It only sends MIDI SONGPOS and RESUME messages (Bar 2 == SONGPOS 16 I think). So some devices won't start. Some will start at the beginning of the pattern. I think my 707 starts where it last stopped, wherever that is. And it's kinda cool that it sends ALL NOTES OFF whenever the sequencer stops, but that doesn't play nice with my MBase11.
For recording realtime controlling other synths full midi ‘that other calculator’ might be much better suited 😅
@@RaquelFosterIs it easier to slave to another sequencer perhaps? Also, does the 12 voice polyphony apply to MIDI or just the internal sounds?
Ye quality so great they ship with broken sliders and buggy firmware as standard
It’s way less bendy than the OP-Z which is twice the price, so we’re getting somewhere…
Just got mine a few days ago and im having a blast with it. Its simple and direct workflow is so refreshing. And I agree Nick, it sounds GREAT - and the new sample tool for backup and restore and loading new samples is very handy. My fingers are crossed that song-mode is in developement, not that its a deal breaker for me - the thing is just too fun to let that get in the way. Great review. 👍👍 BTW... you can get finer tuning of the sample edits by holding shift and turning the the start/end point knobs ( shift works that way on sever other functions, giving you fine control). :-) Cya Wednesday mate!
I didn’t think there was going to be a sonic state review, especially after seven months.
Unlike most TH-cam music gear channels, Sonicstate are interested in actual reviews of gear, rather than caring about being 'first' and farming for social media points.
I'm glad they took their time to get the review out. I feel like hotfixes & firmware updates can be accounted for in these later reviews
Integrity is always worth waiting for. Besides it’s always smart to give wonky first batches a miss with any new device. This one in particular 😂
Loved the outro piece on this, Nick--per usual! 😄💙
Great to see the EP133 getting a sonic state demo. Amazing device. 🎉
That outro piece was incredible Nick! Thanks for this review! I don't think this is something for me, but you showcased it incredibly well :)
Looks really cool. Great demo.
I doubt i could figure out how to use it though.
This offers a great portable solution at the price point. I am very tempted to purchase this as a sketchpad. Great review Sonic state!
Damn! You are a very likable and relevant reviewer. But foremost a great musician.
Thank you Sir!
Love my Ep133, the limitations are as inspiring as when I got to explore my Novation Circuit.
Thanks!
Had a go on one in my local shop - it’s great. Went home and gave my NI Machine a good talking too. Told it you need to pull your socks up buddy or it’s EBay for you. KOII is affordable, usable, and sounds brilliant. This will sell loads.
I wonder how it's doing. Be curious to know
They just need a way to do song mode and export the stems
Great video on the uni! Would love more videos with this. Great one would be to watch you do a track using some PC software!
Looks cool, I really like the sequencing ability. I'd love to see this only sequencing several synths with a splitter.
Sounds amazing. Looks like you could also do your taxes on it.
Desirable product. I think Nick should keep it, he sure rocks with !
its coasts 349 euros. i have mine for 4 months now. its an amazing device. but the first batch had its problems. i needed 3 of these to get one which fully works! 2 had fader isuues and 1 had pad issues. all in all great device to make great music on fly. i use mine as sort of sketchbook.
Thats disappointing , not had any issues with this one, but it hasnt been bagged and carried - would certainly pack it well
I bought mine just over a week ago in the UK for 299 sterling from Amazon UK. I’d be surprised if it was 349 Euros on the continent. But hey, it’s a life of surprises.
@@StatetrooperBillyBill Eloquently put and correct. I apologise. I have not been following the exchange rates recently it appears :).
I feel like people who dont know anything about gear mainly go for looks and then fall for the TE trap. To me its a 300 toy because no sd card and only 64mb memory.
@TheChameleon2008 it still makes music though. Why would it need an SD card when it has built in memory?
i almost bought one but went with the sp404 instead. i dont think i made the wrong choice.
Ah Mr BaTT, you make sweet jams
excellent review, well done.
Excellent end piece there maestro!
Thank you kindly! It's great fun to use
Hold shift for fine sample editing Start/End
I got this when it first came out (luckily I had no fadergate on my end) But I realized after a while that I need some way to export stems, so back it went.
Every time I see a new video on it I want it again
Nice! I ordered one the moment they were available. Unfortunately, mine arrived with a busted fader, so I ended up sending it back in and haven’t repurchased. Might snag another in the future at some point though. I liked it in the short time I played with it, but the broken fader made me worry about the longevity of the device based on build quality.
Shift + turning the knobs gives you fine control when trimming samples.
Thanks
And clicking plus and minus, have to turn knob first though sorta
Oh hey I just picked up one of these in a trade last weekend! Been enjoying making goofy little beats on it while I learn it.
Nick, you are cool!
currently using this live as my only sequencer, it's very good
Wow. Great demo!!!
At this point ive no intention of using mine to make songs but rather as a (fairly expensive for my purpose) old school sampler. I must admit it's great fun which has been missing from the last couple bits of kit I picked up.
Ok reviewers! Make way for Nick the real reviewer!!
Was hoping this was the new update review...please do one Teenage!
I'm not sure there's much major change aside from backup/ restore which was mentioned
This is handy, I’ve got one coming tomorrow. 🎉
lot of fun, great just to pick up and have a quick jam with. You soon get used to the controls if you don't overthink them, just experiment away. There's been a couple of firmware up dates too
@@enochroot9438hey cheers 👍🏼
If they expand storage this thing is perfect. (maxed it out with a really low amount of my go-to stereo samples)
64mb in 2024 is just rediculous. This company could sell you floppy disk storage as a "emulates vintage authentic experience"
Will you review Digitakt 2?
Q. when you change scenes as it's playing it's immediate...do.. how does it work in practice though?
Does it jump to bar 1 beat 1 of the new scene or just swap in the middle of where ever you are in the previous scene.. like beat 3 for example?
You can set it to be either.
@@sonicstate yes.. but what happens?
1. launches the next scene at bar1 beat 1 no matter where you were in current scene.
2. launches scene at same bar beat of 'immediate'
3. launches scene at same next bar number ie- bar 3
Nick i don't see the boomstar se80 in a while, i remember you saying that it was the only synth that shaked your room and you loved it!
have you sold it?
@19:32 ,noticed no pre-count for record. Okay for a few bars maybe 🤪, just thinking of missing that first beat and waiting to get to measure one again in extended patterns. Any options for pre-count, or even delete & add measures to patterns?
It has all those! I use pre count 1 bar
You can set the count in
Folks calling it a 'toy'.
Nick demonstrated clearly here that it can be used to MAKE MUSIC.
So there.
Agreed. The "toy" argument is silly imo. I've started saying "everything is a toy and nothing is a toy". The idea that music making tools must be 100% serious and plain - or the opposite, that fun devices can't be used to make music - is such an antiquated mindset bordering on gatekeeping.
One can make "music" with a stick and a rock.
"Toy" and "Music" aren't mutually exclusive.
Yes, it's a "toy", and yes one can make "music" from it.
Nothing in this video changed any of that, or proved anything different.
The most fun review of this unit on TH-cam 🙌
I thought about this, but fadergate & owning some very solid older hardware grooveboxes took some energy out of the GAS for me. Maybe at a later date.
One question: is there a limit to the polyphony on external MIDI devices, or is that part of the 12 note total limit?
No midi is actually one of the superpowers. Also just the sound of it is very vibey
Interesting. I don't have much tolerance for obscure workflows either , and this does look like a smoother experience than other boxes costing much more.
It'd be nice if they had some real-time midi based effects to tweak, like one of my older grooveboxes.
When you have it hooked up to a bunch of synths or multi timbral instruments such as a jv1080 it’s a really inspiring tool for building instant song ideas
@ropewalkingelephant oddly enough I had a fully maxed out jv1080 in my studio for years (diff expansion boards, including the brilliant vintage synth board), and would use it with the aforementioned grooveboxes many a time for production work. Good grooveboxes always inspire you to come up with the goods far quicker than using a DAW, imo .
They absolutely do and the workflow of the KO2 is a perfect fit for the way I love to piece together compositions. Never been more productive.
Anyone know how to hop to a specific bar in a longer sequence without having to spam shift & +/- ?
I love mine, and it really does sounds great -(although I ended up wiping all the factory content and loaded in my own samples).
I just wish that I could control it properly via midi. Even if all they gave us was putting each group on a different incoming midi channel then that would make it work. Currently I sequence it from a Squarp Hapax, and that limits me to really just using it as a single-group sampler. Of course, if they could also allow us to automate the effects control via CC, and even trigger scene / project changes that'd be the ultimate.
It's an amazing paradigm-shifting machine that I'd love to see a "pro" version of, with two octaves of offset pads like on OP-1 or Sonicware liven series, resample, reverse sample, more versatile send effects, and plenty of memory. Charge me double the price. If you want to write songs on this one the scenes are cool but it's very silly that you can't chain them. You can write a 99-bar song on a single scene but it's not a very satisfying workaround.
I think it should be relatively straight forward to add scene chaining - perhaps they will?
The KO II is really nice but why no LFO or sample looping with control of start and end point. I bought it before the Lofi XT 12 release. I think that the Lofi 12 XT is the only sampler that gives you all the options in an small package and a reasonable price.
Hello. Does it include all sounds/ functions from the smaller pocket operators. Thank you.
Not that I know of, it's based on the original KO
Good review. Please review the sonicware Lofi12-XT and the Sonicware Elz-1 Play. Also, some reviews of Twisted Electron gear would be very helpful.
Where did the lead brass sound of the outro jam come from? Was that an MC-101-patch or K.O.II? Or even a Preset of one of these?
Yep mc101 was it
Just bagged one. Have been meaning to do that for ages. Your vid just reminded me. Ta!
No song mode? Ok, now thats a deal breaker 😂. Great machine tho.
PO-33 KO had a pattern chain mode. A really good one
I see youtube up to its usual tricks then. Been subbed to Sonicstate for years. Wondered why I hadn't seen any videos for a while so search for the site. Only to find I'd been unsubbed! TH-cam REALLY is a disgrace!
"We like that, for some reason" 😄
too menu divey for my liking. So I bought a Vongon replay, please review it Nick.
Damn Nick! ....now you've given it a go you just know Florian will be doing another KOII Bad Gear episode! He's already hit us with all the calculator memes already! Maybe you could do the Korg KO I instead Florian?
Wow one that works
Most of them work fine
Why?
Remember fun?
Because companies that make products release products.
Tuyệt vời 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Can’t think of anything worse to make music on, than this device.
Did the fader cap come preinstalled on your review unit?
Nope we put it together
@@sonicstatethanks!
They made something for poor ppl!! What a weird move. Hope it doesnt hurt their brand identity!!
300 for a toy isnt cheap lol drop a 100 more and get a real one like the sp 404 mk2
Hmmm u may have change my mind brother… 🤔
In a world full of human infomercial-droids and fanboys. I would love to behold your "very low tolerance" on the Digitakt2 😅 We are many who can’t decide if it’ll be fun or a total headfu*
Great review as usual, but the Sonicware SmplTrek and LoFi 12 XT are way way better, unless you like obscure workflows and cheap plastic…
Both also way more $$
@@brianwilliams4686 In Euros: 499 SmplTrek vs 339 KO II
Huh?
Who?
@@annother3350Wha?
Juh?
@@InnerReach Duh
@@annother3350 ❤️😆🤣