I ordererd the Töörö, and yesterday I was about to order the Micromonsta2, but today I feel that this would probably be a bit to much of more or less the same, right ?
Presets will be created by Espen Kraft 
Töörö is a very funny name for a Finnish speaker 
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Moi (that’s all I know in Finnish)
What does it mean ?
It doesn’t really mean anything but it sounds like it could, so kind of like a word a kid would come up with. Törrö is a surname and törö is a fish, gudgeon in english I think.
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I get that all the time with my name here in North America.
Fred’s Lab the maker of this fine synth, likes funny names. They also sell the Buzzzy.
Crowdfunders in general like to use silly names:
Birdkids, Implexus, Anyma, Aodyo, the Erae from Embodme, Striso, Joyst, Torso, and last but not least Timetosser.
Well it’s only very funny b/c of those umlauts, Tooro would not elicit any finnish vibes and thus not be particularly funny.
That sounds like an Australian bird.
It’s actually a kingdom in Africa, ruled by the Omukama of Toro, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV of Toro.
How’s that for unusual names.
Interesting but not really that amusing!
No it’s not !
This synth looks fun! Could make an OT user quite pleased.
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Could we stay on topic, please?
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It looks like they’re on schedule, and are in process to ship soon.
I’ve listened to several demonstrations, like the one in their latest update, and thought the sound kinda dated, though I’m sure that has to do with the people making the video more than the synth itself.
But the specs on this are good:
Six voice, four part multitimbral, digital with customizable wavetable and FM, with an analog filter, stereo delay and individual outputs.
Here’s the manual;:
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For Germans too. We have a kids cartoon here which is called „Benjamin Blümchen“, and Benjamin is at least half a dozen times tooting in the show with a sound that sounds like this name. „Tööröööööö!“
Here watch it…
I guess, Fred liked the Show and his Synth can sound like Benjamin tooting „Töröö“?
Back to topic:
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This video is a great place to learn about surface mount automation technology. I always like to see the guts on a product, but i’m a nerd and i know it. Also note that this video dates back to February 2nd, and the technical problems talked about are history now.
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The wavetable part sounds just incredible, imo. If this is really guy from Waldorf, this is visible…
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Sounds really good!
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I impulse-bought a Töörö last week, when they announced on Instagram it would be available at a regular big German online music store. I’m usually more on the old-school analog side of things, but I found Espen Kraft’s demo very very interesting and convincing (more so than any other demo). I really like the vintage angle he adopts there.
For those who might be interested, here are my thoughts.
It sounds absolutely lovely. The combination of the wavetables and that special filter is just gorgeous.
Sonic and modulation capabilities are enormous. This little thing can do so much stuff.
However, and sadly, I will most likely return it.
The main reason is the UI. They did a great job given the space and the minimal controls and numeric display. It’s self-explanatory once you get the ideas and you do get to the parameters quickly without looking into the (long and detailed) manual. However, for me it still isn’t fun. I constantly found myself not trying stuff because of the back and forth of mini-button presses, alt mode, etc. And that’s really a pity, as the Töörö offers so much to explore. But if it’s not fun to do so, it doesn’t work for me. Of course this is subjective, but I’m just very much a knob per function kind of person. Also, while the encoders look super sturdy, I’m a bit worried about life expectancy of the very tiny mini-buttons, which remind me of Eurorack modules.
Second reason is noise. There is a very clear click whenever I press a key, almost as prominent as a simulated mechanical noise in the orgran or e-piano program of a stage piano. I managed to tame it to some degree with the attack envelope, but for sharp attacks it’s always present and too much. Even worse, there is some “zip” kind of nose on key press, even when the click is tamed with a very slow attack. It might just be my unit, of course.
Minor point: No headphone out. Not a deal breaker, but I find that strange since the instrument is marketed as your little synth to take in the park, fed with a USB power bank – they even ship it with an absolutely lovely little transport case.
I encourage everyone who is less of a knob addict than I am to give it a try. It really sounds so lovely, and it can do so much. If you are more of a computer musician it might also work, as it has a remarkably complete MIDI implementation. It might also be an option if you have a MIDI controller lying around with dozens of knobs. But for me as a hardware guy with little space for additional controllers it does not work, so I’ll cry some tears and send it back.
Töörö really made me curious about wavetables, especially in combination with analogue filters. I’ll have a look at other offerings on the market, but I’m afraid that both Korg and Modal only have simulated filters.
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This is interesting because the micromonsta 2 has a UI with similar constraints (big exception, it has much more on it’s display) but the way it’s done it’s so easy to hop back and forth between the modulator (LFO or ENV) to modulated (VCF or VCO) with just a single button press. I wonder what you’d make of it. For that matter I wonder what I’d make of that aspect of the Töörö … how similar they are.
FWIW I considered the Töörö but decided that two character display would not work well for me.
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Interesting question! I think the Töörö would benefit greatly form a small dot matrix display that can convey a bit more information. Still, not sure that it would be a game changer for me.
An example from the Töörö that drove me nuts: I’m in the modulation edit mode to set up destination and mod depth for an LFO (or env) but I need to go to the LFO mode to set up shape and frequency and to the destination’s mode (e.g. filter) to set the base value. And, depending on my modulation source and target, possibly combined with the “alt” mode to access the second level of functionality. For all of this, the only thing I see is a hex (!) number of the one parameter I edit. A display would at least allow to show all relevant parameters at the same time.
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