Sweden-based Teenage Engineering makes products for a very, very specific audience. Take, for example, the company’s $250 toy car or its TP-7 tape recorder with a spinning wheel to track through recordings. None have spoken to me as much as its latest project, a medieval-themed sampler board called the EP-1320. By the look and sound of it, it may offer the best opportunity to bring on-the-fly, on-brand music to my Dungeons and Dragons sessions.
I never thought there’d be a sound product that made me perk up as fast as a Medieval-age sound sampler and portable, simplified groove box. The $300 EP-1320 is really a reskin of the $300 EP-133 K.O. II, but it seems designed to give the Renaissance faire reject in me a chance at sampling scores. If I will never stop my lazy streak and learn to play the lute and reenact court scenes of the 14th-century English king Edward II, perhaps this is the next best thing.
There are samples in there for some classic instruments of yesteryear, namely the citole, shawn, flute, trumpets, and my personal favorite—the hurdy-gurdy. The board also contains foley effects including the sound of swords clashing or arrows flitting across a battlefield. Teenage Engineering says it contains sound effects for a dragon you could lay on top of the nine onboard demo songs.
The device is supposed to have a redesigned suite of punch-in FX. Other stated sound features include “torture chamber reverb,” “dungeon echo,” and “bardic ensemble.” Not to put too fine a point on it, the company’s video advertising its new product is perhaps even more wild than the device itself.
The sampler is expensive if you consider it a mere music toy, though it’s plenty cheap if you were operating it as your main portable sampler system. The EP-133 K.O. II was a follow-up to the Swedish company’s $100 PO-33 K.O. micro sampler, itself renown for its capabilities compared to its miniscule size. The latest medieval sampler is only packing 128 MB of memory divided up with 96 MB of ROM sounds plus 32 MB left over for user samples. The pressure and velocity-sensitive keys and multi-function fader slider should allow for a great deal of versatility changing pitch, effects, and time adjustments.
The design of the medieval sampler with its thick, textured plastic is similarly ancient, akin to some of the first Mac computers or consoles like the NES. The text on the buttons is similarly on-theme. Each of the letter buttons is styled with an air of Carolingian font as if Charlemagne himself is setting up to drop a thick beat on some heathen Saxons. Instead of “fader” you have “fædr.” Other buttons are similarly rethemed, like “tempus” for tempo or “codex” instead of record. Teenage Engineering is selling the board alongside a “Medieval quilt bag” compared to the K.O. II’s shoulder strap bag.
Perhaps my favorite embellishment is the lone monk sitting on a small throne like an electronic piece of marginalia. The monk sits next to a rather simple LED UI showing you which instruments and the various tracks you have selected. If anything, it may entice me to hit up the barber to get that tonsure look going, if nothing else than to complete the ensemble.
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