Two Powerful PO-33 Drum Sampling Tips (Works for PO-133 Too!)

Two Powerful PO-33 Drum Sampling Tips (Works for PO-133 Too!)
Today I'm showing two very powerful PO-33 and PO-133 drum sampling tips! While you might think that the best way to sample drums is directly into a drum slot, it's actually better to sample into a melodic slot first, then take that sample over to the drum slots. This gives you much more control over where you place the sample in the kit, and allows for some fantastic customization! Second, don't forget to sample different parts of your kit together, thus negating the PO's limitation of monophonic kit play. I hope these tips help, enjoy the video :)
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Teenage Engineering PO-33 KO (not pictured): amzn.to/3raMsnW
Teenage Engineering PO-133 Street Fighter: amzn.to/3HTo3Ki
Zoom Livetrak L-12 (audio recorder): amzn.to/3qlWpzV
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[@nvillar]

This is by far the clearest explanation of this trick that I’ve seen. I finally get it! Thank you!

[@RaverOperatorGeeza]

Same. He did a fantastic job on this video!!

[@FreeBeat]

Thank you both so much, happy jamming!

[@RianTrost]

Been watching for a long time, just wanted to say that it's really nice to see more of 'you' in these videos, and not just in the literal sense. You're an incredible teacher, and I've learned a whole lot from your videos, but seeing your personality start to grow into the videos has been really fun to see. Keep up the hard work dude, it's definitely noticed!

[@FreeBeat]

Thank you so much! It's one of the major reasons I worked so hard to get into an actual dedicated studio room. Even if sometimes I'm only on camera for 15 to 30 seconds, I found that it's so much easier to connect with my audience now.

[@NormRasmussen]

This is amazing and changes my workflow tremendously! I was a bit bummed that it doesn’t transfer the sample with trim/effects applied, but that just makes it all the more important to get the best/cleanest sample you can

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks for watching!

[@anthonyscott16]

I never knew this was possible. This method is far superior to sampling into a drum slot. Thanks for making me aware of it!!!!

[@FreeBeat]

Absolutely, thanks for watching!

[@cresshead]

Excellent tips - i JUSt bought a ko-33 and a speak - ace!

[@FreeBeat]

Awesome, enjoy!

[@AppAxis]

Im still not entirely convinced that u r NOT a computer program 😂 #deepfake #face #avatar #metaverse

[@FreeBeat]

I guess you'll never know 😂

[@tendingtropic7778]

Thank you, learned a lot here. are the other PO's like the PO-12/rhythm also monophonic and max 4 sounds per step?

[@FreeBeat]

The Rhythm is not monophonic at all, you can play any of the sounds on any of the steps :)

[@TheChameleon2008]

Great video and never knew about the 16 slot trick but still so much work tho :( Im thinking of picking my sounds on the PC and then put them in koala sample app and then stitch them together with like a 1 second of no sound in between.

[@FreeBeat]

It's actually pretty fast once you get it down haha. Thanks for watching!

[@CNTRRNDM]

Thanks for sharing this!!! When I first stumbled on this "trick" I was absolutely blown away! Oh how I love pocket operators!!!

[@FreeBeat]

Right? It basically allows you to create your own custom kits sound by sound. The fact each kit can have 16 sounds, and you can have eight kits total on a device this small is crazy!

[@Kaidiak123]

Is the po 133 exactly the same as the po 33? I've realised that the po 133 actually seems to be cheaper and I don't know if that is for good reason or not

[@FreeBeat]

Yes, they are essentially identical :)

[@poly-pheme]

YES!, exactly what I needed. Thanks!

[@FreeBeat]

Glad to help!

[@Sarahbuildsstepsequencers]

My one gripe: claps sound awful. Why not sample maybe two people actually doing a clap? It would be so much better, no? Anyway! Great tips! I ordered a KO just today and you’re really great at explaining things. Much appreciated, sir! Thank you! Btw. How do you come up with something every single day? Do you feed from a massive pile of cocaine? 😉

[@jofmiddleton]

Great video, how did you find this out?? Is there a list of hidden features somewhere?

[@FreeBeat]

From experimenting and watching others! Technically everything is in the manual, but they are kind of hard to read.

[@MrRob33]

This is gold! Your channels going to be big man, keep plugging away!!

[@FreeBeat]

I'm really hoping so, thanks so much for watching!

[@lu4enp]

More PO133 videos PLS!!!!!!! Thanks

[@FreeBeat]

I will keep them coming, don't worry!

[@brainguy5132]

Super useful tips! I just got a PO-133 (my first pocket operator) and will be putting these tips to use right away. Thanks man!

[@FreeBeat]

Glad you enjoyed them, thanks for watching!

[@lougaru2445]

I needed to learn about a polyphonic work-around .. that was hyooge thank you

[@FreeBeat]

Glad to help!

[@DonCorson-c7b]

Perfect! Thank you...

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks for watching!

[@bigbizz118]

What happens when I use the number 1 slot so many times it says full how to erase everything it sampled and continue using slot 1

[@zacmeganck1906]

Just got hit with a brick with this one. Phuck.. Thank you for this video.

[@sidneiribeiro3883]

My po sub suddenly overheated Could It be the batteries ? Thx !

[@FreeBeat]

Oh no! It could be the batteries, although I haven't really heard of that happening before. I hope everything's okay with it.

[@sidneiribeiro3883]

@@FreeBeat the heating was the batteries/ a doubt : in Po35 when record something the factory sounds turn off ? Thx !

[@PHeMoX]

It would be very interesting to see if you encounter anything that's different between PO-33 and PO-133 as you own both now (albeit, one cracked screen PO-33). Probably exactly the same, but the screen layout of things is different.

[@FreeBeat]

So far the only big difference I can find is that the trim feature is visually much easier to understand on the po133. Expect a video in the near future though!

[@SonicVibe]

@@FreeBeat great vid and good to know about trim seeming better, i think the difference in the 33 and 133 i hear is in fx also 33 is listed as having 16 fx and 133 only having 15 fx listed idk

[@bigbizz118]

So i chopped the sample the same way copy each sample and it still plays just the first note not even the whole sample one freaking note one sec

[@darkraft1020]

Great, thank you!

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks for watching!

[@jmanfishh]

Ohh finally someone who can accurately explain what the PO-33 does. Thank you!

[@FreeBeat]

Glad you liked the video, thanks for watching!

[@bigbizz118]

Kinda got it but it was completely complicated

[@bovinicide]

This is sick! Thank you so much!

[@FreeBeat]

Glad to help!

[@werex3]

omg, bruh.. I was thinking about how it would be great to be able to record the sounds for a kit individually or partly, but I've never tried to look it up lol. These 'hidden' PO features are always mind-blowing. It's insane, how much the small naked machines can actually do, especially with so little.. (if you can find it or even remember it, lol). If TE makes a new PO series, hope it will have on/off switch, tho (rip to all the drained batteries during traveling/moving) Thanks a lot, keep grinding, 3B't 🦾your stuff is so enjoyable 🤌

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@theoneselve]

this is an amazing video

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks!

[@huntergalloway3944]

I’d gotten a 133 as well during the blowout sales. Man, what a surprising powerful lil’ sampler!

[@AppAxis]

As soon as Freebeat shared the B&H special I bought 2. Maybe more next pay period. Great stocking stuffers and I am convinced that they r the next baseball cards, beanie baby, or retro tech collectable.

[@FreeBeat]

Glad you were able to score one, I wish you only the happiest of jams!

[@antoniostephano]

Even more so than only 4 voice polyphony overal, I am troubled by monophonic in the drum sample banks. What would have been an otherwise great hack is only a pretty good one:) Thumbs up for the video though!

[@FreeBeat]

You can sample chords into melodic banks, then move them into drum banks! So it takes a little bit of prep work, but you can have an entire drum bank (or more) of chords if you want :)

[@joeeverton7019]

Nice explanation of this approach (copying from melodic to individual drum samples). I've done it myself, and it works. It's time / labor intensive, though. I would like to see a way to make the auto-slicing workflow work right consistently. I once saw a youtube video that played the 16 samples perfectly timed, such that the PO-33 sliced it right every time as long as you started/stopped recording at the right times. I've only seen that once, though. It's probably more work for the video-creator, but what a timesaver for the consumer! At different points I've had the understanding that the slicer is listening for start/stop of sound (and gets this wrong a lot of the time, so you have to go adjust trim), and it's really just slicing the sample in to 16 equal slices. Whichever it is, it would sure be nice to know what must be done to have it work well.

[@FreeBeat]

Honestly I found that the technique in this video winds up being a lot less labor-intensive than trying to trim everything perfectly after an auto slice goes wrong 😂 The problem with auto slicing for me is that no matter how perfectly spaced the sounds are, it's still up to the user to hold the record button and play everything at the right time. Maybe it has gotten a little easier on the po-133, I'll have to give it a shot.

[@joeeverton7019]

@@FreeBeat I remembered where I saw this effective auto-slice, and I forgot a detail -- you sample the whole thing into a melodic slot, trim it just once there, and then copy it into a drum slot. It divides it evenly into 16 samples, all perfectly trimmed, rather than detecting peaks or whatever the usual auto-slice does. I wish this trick would catch on on youtube sample videos. It's a bit more work for the producer, though. Here's the video I was thinking of: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGfaan5rf9uWm6s

[@Srcsqwrn]

I've been using my PO-33 since it released and finally came in the mail. But I never knew about that drum trick. Thank you! Now to figure out how to use less space per sound lol

[@FreeBeat]

Glad to help!

[@gapster77]

I didn’t know this!!! PO-33 was my first bit of electronic music kit. Love the PO-32 also, but have yet to use the Tonic software.

[@FreeBeat]

You gotta try it out, it's super powerful!

[@hugefood]

GREAT trick. Thx so much for the vid! This is going to make playing drums in live record mode so much easier.

[@FreeBeat]

Have fun!

[@rshawninc]

How is the memory storage of the sound handled after you copy it into the drum kit and then remove the melodic original? Are they linked or individual? Can you adjust the trim of the new drum banks to include the other copied melodic bank samples now that that they are in the drum bank?

[@FreeBeat]

I'm not completely sure, but I believe when copied into another slot, the PO-33 treats it like a brand new sample. When you do copy into a drum bank, you can trim to include the other areas of the sample. Hope that helps!

[@OpenFilmmaker]

I got the PO-33 today and I'm going through all your videos! It's easy to understand and you do a great job at explaining it!! Thank you!! -Manny from Dallas!

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks so much for the kind words, glad to help out!

[@OpenFilmmaker]

@@FreeBeat Btw, are you aware of any devices that can combine PO-33 + Delay + Synth for standalone (w/o a DAW). DAW option is fine, but can't be DAW only...

[@arkaholicn1456]

Made my own custom drums on Kong and sampled them from Reason onto PO33. Sounds so sick. Thanks for all the tips mayne!

[@FreeBeat]

Awesome!

[@JonnyProperly]

you can do this exact same thing directly into a drum bank, just choose record 9-16 then press the slot number you want it in and play your drum sound and it goes into that slot, saves the time of doing it in a melodic slot first.

[@FreeBeat]

Hmm, first I've heard of that, I couldn't get it to work either. It just starts recording as soon as you press 9-16.

[@gjworthington]

Awesome vid! Thank you! I've been trying to figure this out for ages! 💜

[@FreeBeat]

Glad you liked the video!

[@op-z]

thank you!

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks for watching!

[@coronelsakura2841]

Brilliant!

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks for watching!

[@gooneybird808]

thank you

[@FreeBeat]

Thank YOU!

[@JonnyProperly]

hello

[@FreeBeat]

Hi!

[@mephistosprincipium]

didn’t knew you can copy a sample into a specific slot - that’s amazing

[@FreeBeat]

Super handy!

[@returnofthegoth2220]

Some strategic sample placement between various percussion slots and melodic slots also allows for some layering of drum sounds. But good call making layered sounds in one sample😁👍

[@FreeBeat]

Yeah, due to how basic the sampling is on the 33, it actually feels really open-ended when you start to think out of the box about layering!

[@EmceeRad]

This changes a lot for me! Thanks so much!

You got drum kits?

[@FreeBeat]

Not sure what you're asking haha. I own a few acoustic drum kits and an electronic one?

@@FreeBeat do you have drum kits for sale...?

[@esquinaroma]

What kind of sorcery is this?

[@bigbizz118]

Your amazing 👏 ✨️ ❤️

[@RealSapHead]

No joke. Slick tips. That first one is gold. Think an audio file could be laid out, timed to the po drum slicing & be able to one-shot the samples with the precise trim?

[@zooblestyx]

That's how I used to do it before I learned this trick. If you don't get the timing exactly right, only the first sample will be timed right, with the rest increasingly off. The copy-into-drum-slot method is a bit more laborious, but the result is always better, in my modest estimation.

[@RealSapHead]

@@zooblestyx I also know that the samples can be exported. Where can I find some po-exported sample packs? TE offers a couple downloads themselves, but I'd think they'd be more prevalent.

[@zooblestyx]

@@RealSapHead I'm not the person to ask, I've never explored that sort of thing, but I'm thinking there's got to be lots

[@FreeBeat]

I honestly haven't found too many people uploading their po-33 content, at least compared to the amount of people who upload custom po-32 kits. Not really sure why!

[@Mark_Sodapopinski]

Oh thank you for this, also not only does it work for melodic but also drum. Just became super useful for reorganizing single kits instead of jumping across kits.

[@SamPrince]

Great video. I was aware of the melodic to 16 splits trick, but hadn't cottoned on to this one. Do you know if sample memory is recovered if you take the time to trim the melodic sample before copying to the drum slot (then delete the melodic)? I might do a test on my po133. I tried creating 16 beat samples for the autoslicer, but its algorithm for slicing is not very predictable. It would be great to know exactly what it is doing to detect the beats so I can manipulate the samples to ensure clean slices. I even tried inserting short bursts of sine waves at full volume but it ignored the damn things!

[@FreeBeat]

Unfortunately I don't think it saves any sample time, but I could be wrong, it's been a while. Thanks for watching!

[@SamPrince]

@@FreeBeat I checked and you're right that it doesn't recover the space sadly. When you change the trim points after it's in the drum slot, you can still include parts of the sample that you had trimmed off in the melodic section. I guess they did that so it didn't use up any extra memory if you had the sample in the drum and the melodic section at once. Effectively the sample just gets loaded into a chunk of memory and the melodic/drum slots are pointers to sections of it. When all pointers are removed it will delete the sample.

[@bigbizz118]

What's does L34

[@stan_solo_ill]

That's a really cool and helpful tip thanks so much ❤

[@FreeBeat]

Glad to help!

[@PAAmsterdam]

Thanks a mil! Loved your model cycle vids. Nice to be able to put a face to the voice btw😊 I’ll buy this little 133 now. It seems like a really fun piece of gear to sample stuff that I don’t have time or experience to try to recreate in order to play with ❤

[@otraperspectiva]

Really cool tips, nice on making space with the double sound in each sample slot (kick+snare) go free up space for other samples. Sampling the volca drum is cool, I do that at home as well

[@bjamminsincebirth3494]

I just got my first PO33. Thank you for your help!

[@FreeBeat]

Welcome to the world of PO's! Glad you found the video helpful, I've got a lot of other PO tip videos (some specifically for the 33 as well) on the channel, feel free to ask any questions :)

[@bjamminsincebirth3494]

@@FreeBeat How do you get swing on those hats?

[@normqa]

Amazing!

[@TheMortyvicar]

Perfect explanation of a powerful work around 👍🏻

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks so much!

[@dorijoe]

This is a life saver! Soooo much better & easier than trimming them. Well done for figuring this out!

[@RaverOperatorGeeza]

Fantastic video, thank you!! ♥️✔️💯

[@FreeBeat]

Thank you for watching!

[@RaverOperatorGeeza]

@@FreeBeat thank you for the sharing of the knowledge!!!!!!!

[@buckflowens]

Great tip! I will be implementing this

[@FreeBeat]

Awesome, have fun!

[@wiggesobk]

Yes that feature is super nice 💪

[@FreeBeat]

Yeah, I wish more people knew about it because it completely transforms what you can do!

[@ErictheGreat707]

I'm number 2 💩 lol

[@FreeBeat]

Gotta be faster next time!

[@heybail8466]

Nice run through of that tip. Could you do a demonstration of sampling say a 2 bar drum loop sample ( jazz?) into the 33/133? Lots of videos showing that, but many are too long/complicated. When using the copy paste trick used here, it slices the loop into 16 even slices doing away with needing trimming if the timing is on.. Be cool to see your take/tips on this method to make custom kits!

[@Arnotski_]

Would like to see this as well!!!

[@RaverOperatorGeeza]

@@Arnotski_ Same!

[@FreeBeat]

I can definitely do a video on that, although it's not my preferred method of working. I generally prefer to use sampling to make new instruments, rather than sample already completed music into my tracks. Hopefully that makes sense haha, thanks for watching!

[@mikejpounder]

Great tutorial brother!

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks so much!

[@kgbstudio]

the ultimate PO channel in YT!

[@FreeBeat]

What a compliment, thank you!

[@kgbstudio]

@@FreeBeat man I have my po33 1 year, and I have kinda learnt it a lot, very rhtymic attitude , I have watched many PO videos of yours around the PO igot and even before I got some... someone asked for good PO33 videos and I gave you channel but I too came back and watched this learning this tiny detail and this and the other ... I wonder why they are so cryptic with their instructions , TE, .... I also have a PO-20 and PO-28, got them together.. dont know them as much.. awesome live machines but all 3 I have are all very different ... Cheers and thanks for you awesome content and making content about how to actually do music with stuff in the practical sense :) !!

[@964746568]

these tips are pure gold! thx

[@raytbrown2]

Had a PO for a (very) short time. This video reminds me that I really don't want to fuss with them. Watching you fiddle with it to keep it steady while you tried to get samples on the keys was enough for me. Thank you for the reminder. Love your channel - as its always a big help. The Korg looked like a cool think to check out - btw. I have a few (too many) Volcas but don't know that one.

[@TheChameleon2008]

true and even them phone apps like koala sampler can do the same.... maybe even more.

[@FA-Q]

I am number 1.

[@FreeBeat]

I mean technically I uploaded the video so.....

[@DrymouthCWW]

Sorry i gave this the 70th like

[@FreeBeat]

It's okay I'll still give you a "nice" 😂

[@nosejobfad]

Great tip!

[@FreeBeat]

Thank you!