20 chars of TE :heart:

it’s from Tobias Von Hofsten’s instagram. He works for T.E.

I personally enjoy complexity and weird design in modular synths but I absolutely understand and admire the approach TE is taking here to create simple, straightforward and fun system for the ppl who are just entering to modular. Something like the 400 can fit perfectly for the ppl with different skills and perception (except maybe with banana cables instead of TRS 3,5mm jacks) and can open up the modular world for totally different crowd. That is a wonderful thing.

EDIT: but 3,5mm TRS patch cables, seriously???

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I think Baseck made this machine shine with his first patch:


Makes me want one

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Definitely the best demo of it I’ve seen.

This seems great for learning and teaching modular. Within reach as a system for teaching kids/youth.

(Not that it couldn’t be a full-on valid system for any level/use… just an initial thought.)

Good demo. I’d like to hear some percussion out of it too.

Are they actually using the ring for anything? If they’ve just used TRS jacks so that people can use easily acquired cheap aux cords instead of different module maker’s inconsistent jack wiring which makes them may-or-may-not work i’m all for that

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not sure about that. Generally, I would prefer banana plugs for educational synths as the simplest approach for patching. Also, distinctive colour coding of inputs and outputs would be advised.

Edit: Kilpatrick Phenol got it right.

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TE take note! THIS is what we* want from Teenage Engineering Modular.

*me and maybe others

Haha ! I’m vague. I would love a po oplab, and I hope that is one of the modules slated for their expansion.

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The op-z cv module is branded as opLab in a few pics that have popped up, not sure if that’s the final name for it. I’m hoping that means they’ll re-release the motion sensors.

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Email from TE “we have located a manufacturing problem with the keyboard module, since this affects both the 170 and 16 modular synth and keyboard, we have to cancel all orders and you will be issued a refund… We can’t promise a new date for the 170 and 16…”

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Better now than when they are in your hands…

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Interesting. I was wondering why I just got a refund on the keyboard. Thanks for the info

At the risk of unnecessarily bumping an old thread, did anyone ever get any of the TE modular stuff? It seemed to drop off the radar quite quickly, apart from a few youtube reviews I saw. I feel like the consensus was pretty negative overall, although I might be getting that mixed up with the TE magic-radio-speaker from last year.

Honestly after that first push I’ve never seen it mentioned, used, or talked about anywhere. It think it just kind of fizzled.

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i have all of the modular stuff they released. i use it for my modular work and love it. but i’m not deep into modular or doing anything particularly fancy with it. for what its worth, i love how self contained it is, very easy to move around and the design is super fun for me. building the kits i thought it was well made and nicely put together.

oh yeah, also i should add- they did the initial release of the product line and quickly sold out (they did not produce so many units at first). upon the release i think there were a few things they needed to redesign, perhaps something about the power but i’m not sure. however, the team member who had initiated and made the modular line within TE left the company so they had no one working there who could do the redesign. that’s why it went quiet for a super long time on the project. finally they could organize to tweak the new units and those were released with a much softer fanfare than the initial launch. i think the new little tweaks were all good, and as far as i’ve seen they’ve mostly been sold out of stock many times in the past year. no idea how the product line is going overall, but at least from the outside it appears to be doing fine, moving units and with no more negative reviews that the first generation brought. though it is true you don’t hear anything about TE modular from anyone anywhere hardly ever, good or bad these days.

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Yeah the battery PSU was a disaster. I had them ship a replacement because mine instantly smoked and parts melted (I even burnt my fingers trying to disconnect it). The replacement didn’t seem better so I gave up on the fun idea of a self contained battery modular. Instead I adapted another power supply to get it working.

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good point- i should mention i went straight for using a power cord and no batteries! i haven’t tried the batteries yet, and as i have the first gen design, guessing i most likely won’t try batteries ever just to be safe. i had one of the modules doubled in my 400 kit, and missing another one. they promptly replaced it and even sent me a couple of extra modules just to be safe. it was very easy to deal with the mistake.

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