Instantly jumps to halfway through the next scene
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Thatās a tough one. The MKII in general is way more fully featured (DI guitar recording, resampling, loads more effects). In particular, the sequencer is more advanced, offering the ability to bounce your patterns down to a single pad, a variety of time signatures, and a song mode that lets you chain patterns together easily.
That said, the sequencer was simple and elegant on the 404SX, but is a bit of a mess on the MKII. There are problems/bugs like the sequencer forgetting the pattern bank you were on as soon as you hit record, the use of like the full RGB spectrum for different pad states (with confusing effect), the automatic switching off of effects after you resample.
The EP-133 is less ambitious, but just excels at what it tries to do. If the EP-133 engineers sat down with the MKII engineers, the MKII would probably be the sampler of my dreams.
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Dear fellow Elektronauts, I just canceled my order with the following text:
**I would like to cancel my order number ā¦
The reason for this will come as no surprise to you if you have been following recent developments on platforms such as the Elektonauts/Modwiggler forum or certain YouTube channels #fadergate #speakergate.
I seriously doubt that all of these failures are due to shipping, and I urge you to act quickly on your end to save what you can (I work as a product manager myself and I know when a product launch has kind of failed).
If you are planning to replace more of the older Pocket Operator units (which would be the natural thing to do) with the larger form factor, you should now test each one for at least a few days before sending them out, or delay the release after you have produced a second batch with more robust (and of course expensive) parts. You may also want to QC your production line in Spain again if that helps.
That said, I am a huge fan of your products, own several and have always been an early adopter, but this one just went bad very quickly.
I will certainly buy one EP-133 after you have fixed all the existing bugs and made some attempt to win back the community."
I guess I have somehow lost faith in this device due to the fact that neither a new nor a used one (at least from this production batch) will work flawlessly for weeks/months or years - until proven otherwise, of course. Obviously, some adjustments need to be made, and these should not come from the community.
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Does this thing normalize when it samples? Thereās something about the gain I canāt quite figure out, and donāt like, that Iād like to better understand.
Private Heyes reporting here.
My wife definitely made 2023 a wonderful GAS year.
So, today, I received a brand new EP-133 at home.
And, you guessed itā¦fader doesnāt work.
Thanks for the thread (and both Facebook groups), I knew what to check and what not to do.
So Iām gonna contact TE asap and ask for a RMA on behalf of my reseller and hope they are on point with exchanges.
The outer package had a bump where the fader was - so I knew even before opening that it was probably dead on arrival.
All in all, thanks for the heads up.
TE is still TE. I would have been crazy surprised to have a fully functional EP-133.
As soon as I saw the box, I told my wife that I was in for a RMA. Sheās way more disappointed than I am, tho!
Anyhoo.
Guess Iāll keep refreshing this thread more often now that Iām part of that weird release!
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The samples are not normalized. Increase the input gain when sampling or increase the gain in Sound mode.
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I just collected my KO2 from the UPS point. I ordered on the day of announcement at 18:00CET from TE. I am from Europe, The Netherlands. It was actually packaged good, filled up with paper.
Everything works, mic, fader & speaker. I first used some lego technics from my kids to open up the holes of the knobs. They got stuck real good in the technics lego, I had to use some pliers to release them. After that, I did not have to use much force to put them on the KO2.
I put the fader low and put the knob on.
The picture on the package is really beautiful and the ko2 is just so āretroā I love it
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I started digging into my SP-404 mk2 again, as my EP-133 has to be returned. My reseller apparently does not swap or arrange repairs so I had to get a refund. I think I might keep just the SP-404 in the end, though Iāll really miss the battery life on the EP-133.
The SP-404 mk2 to the EP-133 is like the Octatrack to the Digitakt. The workflow feels clunky and strange but if you submit yourself to itās logic you can get much more experimental than on the EP-133. All the stuff I came up with on the SP-404 was largely the result of messing around. Itās hard to plan your exact destination. The EP-133 is much better for getting down an idea you have in your head.
The SP-404 is more frustrating but also more surprising. The SP-404 is more work but can also be more rewarding. Idk what other tired cliche to put here but I hope you get the picture 
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My sp offers more but the ep is far more enjoyable to use.
The sp though is very well built and my ep is going straight back so itās the sp for now
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From someone that loves the sp ā the ko2 is way more intuitive from a UX / navigation standpoint. Itās one of its most impressive aspects imo. After you learn the button combos, theyāre easy to remember because they generally just make sense based on the button labels and consistency in behavior throughout.
Whereas with the sp, itās more difficult to make that connection; Sometimes the button labels donāt give any hints as to what they really do. Sometimes buttons donāt do what they say they do (Exit wonāt exit pattern mode for example).
To be fair TE is exceptional at this imo. When people say TE is a design company first, they need to understand design is much more than just aesthetics.
Many, if not most, of the music hw companies that have a long history (Akai, Roland, etc) are sound & features first / design last
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Can the EP-133 do other time signatures than 4/4? I donāt own it and Iāve only seen people increase pattern lengths in full bars so far.
Yes
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There are [1-3]/2, [1-6]/4, [1-9]/8 time signatures
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Was there a device you were thinking of while struggling? For me it was the OP-Z, since Iām more able to see the song layout because of all the visual feedback.
I am starting to get the song structure and love the possibilities, but Iām not the most keen on boxes that make me keep more things in my head without some visual support (more than A.01, A.02, S.01, etc)
I know you crazy kids havenāt had this gorgeous little thing for long but anyone getting a feel for the actual battery life? Is the 20hr claim in the ball-park?
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Great, thanks for the detailed reply. So I guess these can be configured per group and run independent from each other?
Unfortunately, the time signature is set per scene, and all groups within it share the same time signature.
Okay, bummer. Still cool that other signatures are possible though!
Anyone care to make a new poll on a separate thread to get an indication how many units are fine/less than fine? (as I donāt know how).
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