Comparison: SEQTRAK, EP-40 Riddim, Volca Sample

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I’m taking a break from the toys to compare:

All four machines are deep so you’re not going to get an in-depth analysis of features and so forth. I’m going to concentrate on immediacy and fun. Each box has its own best uses and I will offer my opinion.

A word about manuals

Wait! You were going to talk about immediacy and the first thing you mention is manuals?

All four machines support direct production of a single pattern. Sooner or later, you’ll need to learn about song structure, chaining, etc. and you will need to do menu diving. That’s where a good manual can help because if you can find information fast, you won’t lose the buzz.

In that regard, the AN200 manual is the best. Not only can you read and search the manual in PDF, the AN200 came with a nice thick paper book. In terms of content, the AN200 manual was written when Yamaha obviously cared about manuals and good technical writing.

Today, not so much. The SEQTRAK guide covers the usual front panel and button pressing stuff, but is woefully short about the SEQTRAK app. You are expected to puzzle out app functionality. Unfortunately, some app features are not obvious like click and hold on a step to reveal step parameters. It took me forever to discover that one.

The Teenage Engineering EP-40 user guide is at roughly the same level as the SEQTRAK manual. The EP-40 is more intuitive to use right out of the box. Once you want to get into customization, though, you’ll be looking into the guide. Unfortunately, TE does not provide a PDF manual and you’ll need an Internet connection to keep the guide by your side. Can’t really search the on-line manual either.

The Volca Sample 2 owner’s manual is the worst. The paper and PDF versions are broad sheets. Text is shown in mice type — too tiny for humans. I do paper origami and blow up parts of the manual onto regular 8.5″ x 11″ paper. Korg, this is ridiculous. Also in the ridiculous department is the poor readability of TE’s and SEQTRAK’s app text (tiny size, low contrast). As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I literally read the 4K 24″ monitor screen with a magnifying glass. Inexcusable.

Yamaha AN200 Loop Factory

The AN200 is the OG. It’s big (13″ x 8″) and lights up like a pachinko machine. Therein lies the magic. Ya get big back-lit buttons, big knobs, and clearly readable legends on all of the controls. There isn’t any guessing about where the SHIFT button will take you.

Yamaha AN200 — the OG

AN200 is vintage and you pay market price. Unlike the three modern machines in this comparison, the AN200 factory content is fixed and you cannot add your own samples. The factory patterns are stuck in the late 90s and if that’s your thing, good. You won’t find much downtempo or chill.

In terms of immediacy, it’s hard to beat all of those controls and lights. If you want to do more with help from a PC or Mac, you’re stuck with legacy software (the AN200 editor) from 2001.

The AN200 is fun. I enjoy working with it again. I’m capturing patterns and converting them to SEQTRAK. [I’ll leave that topic for another post.] You get five analog physical modeling voices on one synth track and three AWM rhythm tracks. People still pine for Yamaha AN of yesteryear, so I ain’t complaining.

Korg Volca Sample 2

The Sample 2 remains on the undercard. For $150 USD, you get a pretty decent sample-based beat box. The Volca can’t sample new sounds itself, so you need to load the Volca via Korg’s sample librarian.

As to immediacy and fun, the Sample 2 has a lot going for it. The front panel has a bunch of well-labelled, back-lit mini-knobs and buttons. If someone knows a little bit about beat boxes and sample playback, hey, one-two you know what to do. Like the AN200, the Sample 2 has a four digital LED display meaning feedback is limited and often cryptic.

Korg Volca Sample 2

Memory capacity is way low — too small for long loops. Even if you toss all of the rather nice factory content, you won’t be loading a lot of mix stems. I just want to tell the Sample 2, “You’re a beat box and you will always be a beat box.” Never-the-less, I don’t regret owning the little pup.

Teenage Engineering EP-40 Riddim

The TE EP-40 gets my vote as “Most fun right out of the box.” Those big buttons demand pushing and the control legends are easily read and understood. You do need a clue or two from the included Getting Started card. For example, you need to know that the “instrument” buttons select one of the four tracks, how the fader and knobs affect parameters, etc.

The funnest element is being able to perform a full song right from the git go. The Riddim says “Original Layering Machine.” That’s an apt description. You can make beats, but the ability to play and perform from long loops that stay in sync hits my sweet spot. It takes more reading to know how to drop in effects and navigate projects. The effects, by the way, are right on point. The built-in Supertone synth is not bad although you need to read about sound editing to expand its somewhat limited range.

Teenage Engineering EP-40 Riddim

I hope EP-133 K.O. II users have as much fun. A fair bit of my enthusiasm comes from the Reggae content and styling theme. TE recently upped the K.O. to 128Mbytes of sample space — just enough to be dangerous. Riddim has the ability to sample on the fly and it doesn’t take much to fill up the 32MB or so of free space. Kicking content out of Riddim is like deciding which of your children to leave behind on the loading dock. Ouch.

The EP-40 has a three digit display. It also has a large bank of Swedish hieroglyphics. I still don’t know what half of those symbols mean. 🙂 The symbols are useful when you know what they mean (e.g., MIDI activity).

I know it’s possible to make beats with this thang. OK. I am not a beat maker and prefer long loops. Thus, EP-40 suits my use case (AKA production style). I’ve been rummaging through reggae loops trying to get new “songs” together. I wish there was an easy way to audition a few loops together to see if they fit without going through the download process. Oh, well, there is always Ableton Live for that… Eventually, I will venture into downtempo and chill; I don’t see any technical barriers.

Sample 2, EP-40 and SEQTRAK have built-in speakers. The EP-40 has the best of the lot, although none of the speakers is good enough to use stand-alone for very long. All are “courtesy speakers” and you’ll be plugging into monitors anyway.

Yamaha SEQTRAK

When folks first saw SEQTRAK, they gasped, “Yamaha is trying to copy the Teenage Engineering OP look.” Yep, Yamaha’s industrial designers shot for a sleek minimalist look and hit the mark. After playing EP-40, though, my next impression was, “Gee, Yamaha achieved the look, but they left out the fun.” TE tries to build in playfulness as well as modernist industrial design.

I had waited a long time to jump on the SEQTRAK wagon because I am not a beat maker. Beat making is SEQTRAK’s primary use case. I will let the Interweb’s argue the case for and against on that basis.

I will use SEQTRAK as a sound module — no doubt about it. This module has a huge internal library of AWM2, sampled and 4-op DX sounds. (The DX sound set could be a little beefier.) The AWM2 sound set is “MX+” (or “XS+” depending upon your reference point). None of us should have trouble putting the factory sounds to work modulo the MIDI channel restrictions.

As a standalone beat making tool, I can see how the SEQTRAK is somewhat unapproachable. There are small side buttons and connection points. Purpose is sometimes clear (e.g., USB. phones, VOL+, VOL-) and sometimes not (e.g., PAGE, DELETE, PROJECT). Plus, what is that quasi-display in the middle with words that light up? SEQTRAK does include a multi-lingual “Quick Operations Guide” with about 20 pages of instructions and tips. Thank goodness.

I didn’t really get into SEQTRAK until I fired up the SEQTRAK app. Now we’re talkin’. The app is far more relatable and it provides a longer user guide. Thanks to the app and its guide, I understand the track layout, effects structure, project management, etc. I have a long history with Yamaha gear and immediately “got” SEQTRAK as a sequencer and synth.

When I saw MIDI import and export, I decided to convert a some of the old DJX-II patterns to SEQTRAK. After a few minor stumbles, I got reasonably familiar and competent at SEQTRAK conversions. Now my SEQTRAK has several jazzy songs, each song (project) with six different pattern (sets) up to eight bars (the SEQTRAK max) in length. Most importantly, they sound danged good for the money. I could see loading (up to) eight songs and performing a live remix standalone.

SEQTRAK prices have dropped to where a punter shouldn’t hold back — if beat making is your thing. I don’t think SEQTRAK would be the best engine for long, stem-like loops. TE’s EP approach is a better fit for that production process.

Is there a champ?

Is there a champ? That depends on your musical process. Beat makers should be happy with SEQTRAK once they climb the learning curve. Us kids who just want to have fun and are inclined toward stem-like loops will be happier with a TE EP-40 or EP-133 K.O. II. Gratefully, neither device is beastly expensive (about $300 USD each). Both are good value.

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

Review: Yamaha Seqtrak

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Yamaha Seqtrak went on sale last month — at the fantastically low price of $250 USD. OK, that got me. 🙂

By now, there are a mess o’ Seqtrak videos on-line. You’ve probably watched and heard the demonstrations and tutorials. Therefore, I will concentrate on my personal experience and reactions. It will be hard to avoid comparisons to Teenage Engineering EP-40 Riddim and Korg Volca Sample 2. I’ll save comparisons for another day.

Gotta say up front, I am not a beat maker. My beats sound like a 1960s home organ and I ain’t proud of them. That’s why I waited so song to get a Seqtrak. It’s primary advertised use-case is beat making, so I decided to wait until the price fell to impulse level.

The Seqtrak has four very high quality noise making sections; five, if you count the excellent effects. You get:

  • Seven parts (channels) for AWM2 drums/percussion,
  • Two parts for AWM2 synth voices,
  • One part for 4-op FM (a la Reface DX)
  • One part for sampler playback.

If you have the latest updates installed, the seven drum parts can be reassigned to either AWM2 synth or drum kit. That means you can turn Seqtrak into a 9 channel AWM2 sound module with a channel of DX FM.

The factory AWM2 sound set is no slouch. I compared the Seqtrak waveforms against the Motif XS and XF. I would call the Seqtrak an “XS+” — some desirable additions from the XF, but minus Megavoices (like the MX) and the S6 acoustic piano. Seqtrak also gets some of the later digital effects like HD reverb, guitar amp simulators (REAL DISTORTION), compression (UNICOMP), and EDM, hippity-hop sound bashers.

250 bucks is roughly the cost of a mid-range software synth. You would be very hard pressed to find a MIDI sound module with Seqtrak’s capabilities for $250. Forget the General MIDI module crap out of China. Buy a Seqtrak. [Seqtrak is manufactured in Malaysia.] You give up a few channels and you need to live within the Seqtrak’s channel structure. Read the manual.

Seqtrak has a frightening amount of connectivity: USB C, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, MIDI. The MIDI dongle is very weird. Its 3.5mm plug has five (5) contacts; good luck finding one of these things. The dongle works fine and I had Seqtrak working with my Arturia Keylab Essential in nothing flat. Should work fine with the Novation Launchkey, too. Using the Seqtrak app, I programmed nine AWM2 channels and DX with my favorite voices. I then selected among the faves by changing the MIDI send channel on the Keylab Essential.

Another approach is to tag sounds as favorites through the app. Then use the SOUND knob to scroll through your favorite sounds.

Seqtrak as a sound module — check!

The Seqtrak app is a brilliant piece of work. It provides basic AWM2 “quick edits” and full access to effects and effect parameters. The app also has a beautiful FM editor. I intend to build a translation app in order to use the Seqtrak app as an editor for Reface DX. The SysEx is similar between both units.

As I mentioned, I am not a beat maker. That is Seqtrak’s intended market, however. Yamaha shot for a Teenage Engineering aesthetic and hit the mark. On the other hand, the rather sparse appearance of the front panel and buttons left me uninspired and lost. The unit is super-light, which is great until you press those side buttons and Seqtrak slides away. I quickly learned to steady the unit with my thumb, second hand, whatever. Also, I never got into multi-button combinations — why I never played Street Fighter…

This is where the app is not only brilliant, but essential. I spent the last two weeks converting a few DJX-II patterns to Seqtrak and I cannot imagine working without the app. The latest updates (now v2.0) make Seqtrak what it should have been on day one. With only eight project slots, back-up and project management is an absolute necessity.

A few app features got a heavy work-out when converting patterns: MIDI import, mixer, sound assignment, effects editing. The Seqtrak app is very well integrated with the hardware and you can move between on-screen controls and hardware controls without thinking about it. Kudos. As Yamaha recommend, start working with the app and you will eventually learn how to use Seqtrak stand-alone.

My biggest niggle is the same as Teenage Engineering’s Riddim software — font size and contrast. I work on a 4K monitor on Windows 11. By default, Windows wants to display everything at native resolution. Yeah, you can change the scale factor, but that changes the scale factor for all applications. Like TE’s software, I’m reading text with a magnifying glass. Software developers, have your grandmother use your app. If she can’t read the text, fix your app!

Seqtrak is a lot of tech for not very much money. If Seqtrak fits your work-flow and use cases, go for it.

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

Review: HP OmniDesk AMD Ryzen 5

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Sooner or later, it happens to everyone. Your main computing machine won’t boot.
It was a self-inflicted wound in my case. We have had a series of power outages. Each time, I had to turn off the UPS, forcing the old HP Slimline desktop to cold boot. Each time, the CMOS (BIOS) memory got wiped.

After 7+ years, the CR2032 coin cell battery had given up its ghost. I tore down the chassis — way too involved if you have ever been in an HP Slimline — and tried to pry the coin cell out of its clip with my fingers. No joy, so I tried needle nose pliers. One slip and the motherboard was toast. 🙁

Be careful with that axe, Eugene, when working around electronics. My bad.

Fortunately, I had just performed a major back-up during the previous week. Double lucky, the HP hard drive was and is still intact. Although I wouldn’t lose data, I knew that it would take some time and effort to get productive again.

I want it now

If you want a desktop home office computer today, there aren’t many brick and mortar retail options. I let my fingers do some shopping and settled on an HP OmniDesk M02-0224 Windows 11 PC. Best Buy had them in stock and on sale.

I didn’t want to go into Win 11 cold turkey, but now I didn’t have much choice. It pleased me to give two of my former employers a taste: HP and AMD. The OmniDesk has an AMD Ryzen 5 8500G (6 cores, 12 threads), 16GB DDR5 RAM, 512GB SSD and Radeon™ 740M graphics. That’s quite a step up from the old i5-8400, PC4 RAM and magnetic hard disk. Improved performance is palpable. No regrets, there.

The OmniDesk is a larger form factor and takes up more desk space. Compared to the Slimline, the OmniDesk is spacious inside and should be easier to work within. The OmniDesk is a bit short on expansion options. Open RAM slot, OK. The second MV.2 slot, though, is occupied by the network Ethernet interface. I will add a second drive using a PCIe adapter card — once memory prices stabilize or go down.

And holy smokes. Solid state memory prices! I browsed through the shelves at Best Buy and nearly had a heart attack. The AI bubble is driving end-user retail prices through the roof. I will wait until the bubble bursts [you know it will] and vendors start dumping DDR5 and SSDs.

Restoring files and apps

The Windows transition was quite smooth. HP and Microsoft have done a good job with the initial PC set-up. Windows retrieved my user account settings from my Microsoft account.

I was able to get going quickly because the original hard drive had not failed. I installed the hard drive in a Vantec NexStar external SATA hard drive enclosure. The Vantec enclosure is several years old. Vantec still makes enclosures and they know their business. I copied a zillion gigabytes from the old hard drive and restored some files from a Crucial X6 portable SSD.

The Windows 11 user interface is not too difficult to get used to and I now feel comfortable with it. No matter what version of Windows, I spend a lot of time in the Windows command console using Linux look-alike tools (e.g., ls, more, cd, pwd, etc.) After doing a ba-jillion installs at AMD, it’s second nature to install the Linux- and GNU-like tools including emacs (text editor) and MingGW C/C++ compiler.

Then it’s on to the apps. I decided to go slow and to install apps as I need them. The old hard drive was bloated with unused applications, samples and other media. A good purge is healthy. Up to this point, I’ve installed:

  • Adobe Acrobat Reader
  • Google Chrome
  • Magix Sound Forge Studio
  • Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio 6 (the original!)
  • Apache OpenOffice
  • Audacity
  • Ableton Live 12

Sometimes app configuration (i.e., getting things just the way you want them) is a royal pain; I’m looking at you Adobe.

I do a mess of stuff in Windows Paint and I was glad to see Paint in the Start menu. Windows 11 pulled the plug on Wordpad. Tsk-tsk. I copied Wordpad from the old hard drive and moved on. Yes, I work like a geezer, but I don’t have time to fumble around in overly complicated software tools.

External media

Cakewalk Home Studio 6 is from 2007 and for MIDI, it just works. My only copy installs from DVD. Uh-oh, the OmniDesk does not have a DVD drive. Pull out the old Apple external USB DVD drive. Uh-oh, it won’t accept disks. Windows 11 recognized the drive when plugged in, but the drive mechanism is busted.

I thought about cobbling together the old Slimline DVD drive and the OmniDesk. It just didn’t feel right. So, I bought an HP USB external DVDRW drive (F2B56AA) from Amazon (overnight delivery). It worked like a charm although this particular drive smells “grey market”. It is genuine HP even though the seller’s price was much less than HP, CDW, etc.

The old hard drive still has 300 GBytes free and will make a good back-up device. With the Vantec enclosure thus occupied, I scammed a Sabrent USB 3.0 SATA hard drive flat docking station. Open the top door, slide in a 3.5″/2.5″ drive, plug in, turn on and go. The plastic construction is not a deal-breaker; I won’t be using it as a wheel chock. I have several drives in storage and the Sabrent gives me an easy way to browse through them.

Conclusion

There you are. Overall, I’m quite happy with the surprise upgrade to the HP OmniDesk Ryzen 5. I didn’t lose any data because everything was backed up and the original hard drive was ship-shape. A drive dock is a very handy tool in an emergency.

The big take-away: Stay backed up. Your time is valuable and your created content is your time. Don’t lose it.

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

Pop demo styles for Yamaha

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The new Yamaha PSR-E483 and PSR-E583 have new styles which have not yet been released for Genos and the SX series.

Since folks might be interested in hearing the new styles, Mark Wilburn and I teamed up to create a few quick and dirty Yamaha arranger styles based on the new E-series styles.

Please think of these styles as “demos“. They are far from perfect:

  • Two MAIN variations just like the E-series
  • One INTRO and one ENDING just like the E-series
  • E-series voices not the stellar Genos/SX voices
  • No effects beyond the basic E-series chorus and reverb
  • No chordal variations for INTRO/ENDING

If you have ever attempted style creation, you know how much work it is to add these features. That’s not an excuse — just admiration for Yamaha’s style developers! We expect Yamaha to bring these styles up to Genos/SX quality in the future. Thus, these styles today are “demos”.

If you would like to try the demo styles, here is the ZIP file (E-pop-v1.zip).

The ZIP extracts into a directory named “E-Pop”. E-Pop has three subdirectories:

  • Styles: What you have been waiting for (.STY files)
  • Source: Raw MIDI files and Cakewalk projects
  • MIDI: More raw MIDI song files (SMF Type 0)

If you want to try the styles, copy the .STY files to your arranger, load them up and play. The README.TXT file has some suggested chord progressions.

People who want to try their own hand at style creation will be interested in the Source and MIDI subdirectories. These subdirectories contain the raw MIDI files which we used to create the demos. Be sure to read the README text files for additional tips and information.

As to suggested song names, we drove ourselves crazy trying to match songs with the demo styles. Sometimes everything matched up, sometimes not. Please post your guesses on the Yamaha Musicians Forum where we lurk. 🙂

Have fun!

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

Anavi Macropad8 QMK MIDI code

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Two years ago (March 2024), I posted an article about using the Anavi Macropad8 for MIDI control. Everything worked, however getting there was a complete bear. The QMK (Quantum Mechanical Keyboard) toolkit is a huge download and it is difficult to use.

Thus, by way of the Yamaha Musician’s Forum, I received a request from another frustrated user. In response, here is a ZIP file containing my code: anavi_macropad8.zip.

The Anavi Macropad8 is Arduino compatible. Going forward, I will shift to the Arduino IDE and save myself many gigabytes of unused storage. This comment is not a slam on the Anavi hardware itself — quite reasonably priced for what ya get. The QMK toolkit, on the other hand, is massive and unwieldy.

Where to put the code

I found the source code in:

    qmk_firmware\keyboards\anavi\macropad8

If I remember right, this is where the QMK Toolkit keeps the default keymaps and code for Macropad8. The subdirectory:

    qmk_firmware\keyboards\anavi\macropad8\keymaps\pc

has the keymap source, config, and rules files:

    config.h    keymap.c    km.c        rules.mk    yammex.txt

I think the km.c file is the original default keymap code.

The ZIP file contains everything from “macropad8” on down. You should take care to not overwrite anything that you want or need!

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

EP-40 Riddim: Jammin’ (1)

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Teenage Engineering labelled the EP-40 Riddim “Original Layering Machine.” The Riddim lives up to its mission — jammin’.

The first question I asked is “How are the factory songs?” The EP-40 comes pre-loaded with nine projects:

 #  Abbrev   Artist         Sub-genre                   Key  BPM
--  --------------------------------------------------  ---- ---
 1  JAMMY    King Jammy     Dancehall                   E     85
 2  MPROF    Mad Professor  Dub                         Fmin  86
 3  DRSKL    DRE Skull      Dancehall and electronic    Amin  81
 4  MFLUX    Mafia & Fluxy  Dancehall and reggae        Gmin 134
 5  MPC                     MPC layout                  Fmin  82
 6  RIGO     Rigo Fuego     Electronic dancehall/Latin  A     94
 7  CROWN    Mighty Crown   Reggae and dancehall        Dmin  88
 8  BABY G   Baby-G         Dancehall                   Dmin  71
 9  PO                      Pocket Operator             D     81

TE credits several other artists, but doesn’t associate their names with specific samples or songs. At least their contributions are recognized.

EP-40 has a few different major modes. One of these modes — LIVE STATE — is made for jammin’. You get into LIVE STATE by pressing the [SOUND] and [MAIN] buttons together at the same time. You’ll see “LIV” in the display and the icon next to the MAIN icon will flash.

Teenage Engineering EP-40 Riddim

It’s easy to change the project: Press and hold [MAIN] and a numbered button from [1] to [9]. Hold that number button down! I was “clicking” the number button and then wondering why the project didn’t change. 🙂 If you’re successful, the display will show “P” and the selected project number.

Eventually, you’re going to want to mix and match or play a melody on an external MIDI controller. Here is a table with project key, tempo and chords:

 #  Abbrev     Key  BPM  Chords       Loop sample #'s
--  --------  ----  ---  -----------  ----------------
 1  JAMMY        E   85  | E  |       824 to 835
 2  MPROF     Fmin   86  | Fm | Eb |  849 to 861
 3  DRSKL     Amin   81  | Am | Em |  812 to 823
 4  MFLUX     Gmin  134  | Gm | Dm |  862 to 873
 5  MPC       Fmin   82  | Fm | Eb |  874 to 885
 6  RIGO         A   94  | A  |       886 to 898
 7  CROWN       Dm   88  | Dm | C  |  836 to 848
 8  BABY G      Dm   71  | Dm |       800 to 811
 9  PO          D    81  | D  | G  |

Feel free to mash things together. Reggae/dub typically uses simple chords — no jazz extensions, so don’t get too cute.

Project 9 is kind of a ringer. It’s meant to be a placeholder for your first project (assuming that you don’t want to throw projects 1 to 8 away). The project imitates the sound of a TE Pocket Operator (PO).

You have to take the BPMs with a grain of salt. MFLUX at 134 feels like 67 BPM — it certainly doesn’t feel like trance or garage!

The four basic layers are selected using the [DRUM], [BASS], [MELODY] and [PLATE] buttons on the left hand side of the button matrix. Select a layer and then play the other nine buttons in the 4×4 matrix. You’ll quickly discover a common layout across factory projects. (MPC is an exception and follows the MPC layout.) For example, here are the pad assignments for each layer in the JAMMY project:

Drum Pads
   JAMMY DRMS A 85   JAMMY DRMS B 85    JAMMY DRMS C 85
   JAMMY HH          JAMMY OH           MUD TOM B
   JAMMY KICK        JAMMY RIM A        JAMMY RIM B
   JAMMY FILL A 85   JAMMY FILL B 85    JAMMY FILL C 85

Bass Pads
   JAMMY BASS A 85   JAMMY BASS B 85   JAMMY BASS C 85
   SUPERTONE 6       SUPERTONE 6       SUPERTONE 6
   SUPERTONE 6       SUPERTONE 6       SUPERTONE 6
   SUPERTONE 6       SUPERTONE 6       SUPERTONE 6

Melody Pads
   JAMMY MEL A 85    JAMMY MEL B 85    JAMMY MEL C 85
   SUPERTONE 4       SUPERTONE 4       SUPERTONE 4
   SUPERTONE 4       SUPERTONE 4       SUPERTONE 4
   SUPERTONE 4       SUPERTONE 4       SUPERTONE 4

Spin Plate
   SUPERTONE 8       SUPERTONE 8       SUPERTONE 9
   RIGO FX A         WHAP              DRSKL FX C
   SYREN             WIRE              ONE
   BACKSPIN M        XPLOSION          FOGHORN

The top three buttons are loops. The bottom three drum buttons are fills. The inner bass and melody 3×3 pads play tones. The spin plate 3×3 buttons trigger one shots like sirens. You can use any custom layout, of course. I’ll stick to TE’s convention in order to keep my mind straight.

The looping is neat. The EP-40 keeps loops in sync, so you can switch in and out of loops without dropping the beat. If you prefer to fade a layer in or out, press and hold the layer’s button ([DRUM], [BASS], [MELODY] or [PLATE]) and move the slider.

When the drum layer is selected, you can add extra hits (and fills) while playing a loop. Simply hit one of the lower 9×9 pads.

You have two options when playing a melody: KEYS mode or no KEYS mode. Press the [KEYS] button to enable (or disable) KEYS mode. When KEYS mode is enabled, all 12 number pads play a tone. Disable KEYS mode and the pads behave according to their assignments (e.g., loops, one shots, Supertone, etc.)

If you’re with me so far, everything is kind of dry-ish. We need to add effects and dub this motha out. Drop everything out except the drum layer. Press and hold the [FX] button along with one of the number pads. The display visually animates an effect when the effect is triggered. The default effect is delay (DLY). You’ll hear stutters, repeats, pans and the stock-in-trade deep echo reverb. Some of the effects mess with the stereo field so patch into stereo monitors when possible!

I hope that’s enough to get you started.

TE EP-40 Riddim: Opinion

I’m having fun and I’m happy with the EP-40. Mostly, I’ve played and jammed with the factory projects.

The factory content is pretty darned good (cleanly recorded). One might say, it’s tame when compared to deep, heavily processed dub (fully expressed commercial tracks). On the other hand, simplicity gives us the opportunity to add and mangle as we see fit.

The performance workflow is free and easy. If you like the sound of reggae or dub, you will enjoy the factory songs. You will also appreciate the ability to interact with the prerecorded loops, sirens and other sounds. A reggae enthusiast should be happy if they don’t mind splashing out $300 USD for eight songs.

A reggae or dub song is often built on one or two chords, like the Riddim factory loops. Be prepared to do serious work, however, if you want to write and record more complicated chord progressions. For example, Psalm 95 If Today by Trevor Thomson.

Stay tuned for my experiments with Supertone and Ting. Check out the Riddim and Ting unboxing.

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

TE Riddim and Ting outta the box

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My version of an unboxing video… [Minus the boring video]

Thanks to the folks at Alto Music, I’ve got a brand new Teenage Engineering EP-40 Riddim and EP-2350 Ting bundle.

Unzip that strip!

Both Riddim and Ting arrive in a brown box. Opening the brown box is like tearing into an overgrown Pocket Operator. It feels the same way.

TE EP-40 Riddim and EP-2350 Ting bundle

Riddim and Ting are taped together. The “Free Ting” tape is cute and I saved it. I’ll find something fun to do with it. 🙂

Free Ting and let it loose

Strip off the tape and there you have Ting in its own shrink-wrap. Riddim is shrink-wrapped, too.

TE EP-40 Riddim

The EP-40 ships in a box of its own. No secret, Teenage Engineering is an industrial design studio as much as it innovates consumer electronic devices. The EP-40 box is an example of TE’s sustainable formed paper packaging. Printed graphics reproduce quite well on this stuff.

TE EP-40 formed paper box

TE freely admit that the initial EP-133 packaging led to shipping damage. They learned their lesson. The EP-40 package has pass-through holes for the pot and slider knobs. The holes provide a lot of support around the knobs.

The paper case is good enough for light duty. If you take Riddim out of the studio into a club, you’ll want something stronger, padded and more protective. Still, the packaging is a nifty, visually attractive innovation.

The EP-2350 Ting packaging — printed brown cardboard — looks a bit spartan in comparison. None the less, Ting is well protected during shipping.

The bundle has an R. Crumb inspired reminder to update. Updating Riddim is relatively painless. Connect Riddim to your PC, run Chrome, open the Web-based TE Update Utility, allow the tool access to the Riddim via Web-MIDI, and the Update Utility does the rest.

The Web-based EP Sample Tool is easy to use, too. Like the Update Tool, you must grant access to Riddim over Web-MIDI (USB). This is a great way to explore the factory samples and pad assignments.

The EP Sample Tool does project-specific and full backups. I made a copy of everything because I will eventually toss some of the factory content and install my own construction kits.

The EP-40 Riddim is pre-loaded with nine projects. Eight projects are reggae/dub. The ninth project is a hyper-active P.O. style project — readily tossable unless you are really into P.O. Oh, yeah, the initial factory content occupies 92MBytes leaving 36MBytes free.

My one gripe — TE needs to increase the font size throughout the EP Sample Tool. I have to read sample sizes and free space with a magnifying glass on my 4K monitor. Please.

Love the written word and pictures? Much faster than watching a ten minute unboxing video. 🙂

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

TE and Alto Music: Success!

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Today’s post is a positive customer service story — the kind that I like to write!

I purchased a Teenage Engineering EP-40 during the last few days of 2025. Alto Music was having a holiday coupon sale and I said, “What the heck?”

This was my first order from Alto Music. They pop up in product searches and they are one of the few Teenage Engineering (TE) reps in the USA. The stars aligned, so why not?

Alto’s fulfillment was swift. Unfortunately, the EP-40 suffered a hardware problem. I was able to investigate the problem by measuring voltage at the battery terminals without opening the case and voiding the warranty. I reported the issue to Teenage Engineering who determined that the hardware issue is covered under its warranty.

According to TE, warranty issues in the USA are handled through the retailer — in this case, Alto Music. Alto quickly set up the return procedure. Alto kindly covered return shipping in accordance with their policy. I now have a replacement EP-40 in hand and it is working fine.

The staff at Alto Music are very friendly and helpful. I will not hesitate to place an order with them in the future.

A word about patience. Yes, it took time for everything to play out. Most of the delay was due to shipping, weather, and the holidays. For example, the replacement was delayed several times by the atrocious winter weather in the Midwest. In an age of instant communication, we forget that physical objects don’t just materialize. Please be patient and courteous with customer service staff.

I want to conclude by saying “Thank you” to both Alto Music and Teenage Engineering.

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha PSR-I510 and PSR-I610 keyboards

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Yamaha sent the PSR-E583 and PSR-E583 to India to find themselves. Like the Beatles, they came back changed.

You must check the PSR-I510 and PSR-I610 introductory video. Holy mother of funk! 🙂 Damn, I want more of that. More Indian demo tones.

The overview video with Karthick Devaraj has some sweet moments, too. [Dude can play.] Could you imagine if we had this ting during the 60s? Let me hear your sitars ringing out!

Yeah, yeah, I know. This is cultural appropriation on my part. 🙂

Now the PSR-I510 and PSR-I610 plug:

  • 887+ Voices, including 40+ Indian Voices
  • 382+ types of auto accompaniment Styles, including 60+ Indian Styles
  • 40+ Riyaz (Tabla/Mridangam & Tanpura) patterns
  • 65+ Songs, including 25+ Indian Songs
  • PSR-I510: 2×6 Watts; PSR-I610 2×12 Watts
  • Pitch bend wheel
  • Modulation wheel (PSR-I610 only)
  • Looper recording
  • Auto Chord Play
  • USB to Host (Type C), LINE OUT, MIC IN

Some of the Indian voices are Super Articulation Lite, e.g., S.Art Lite Santoor, Swarmandal. My friend Bharadwaj will be happy to see the Riyaz patterns.

This is the first time I had fun listening to demos all week.

Yamaha Global have posted a new MIDI Song to Style introduction video.

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski

NAMM 2026: For those who wait

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Interesting products are still streaming out from NAMM 2026.

Hammond XK-7/XK-7D organ

As teased, Hammond Suzuki have a new top-of-the-line flagship — the XK-7D.

  • Multi-contact keyboard (6 physical contacts below each key)
  • New XPK-250W mk3 pedal board (3 contact system)
  • Four sets of harmonic drawbars
  • Touch response percussion with vintage response
  • Updated Leslie speaker models
  • Half-moon Leslie control switch
  • Enhanced combo organ division (Acetone, Farfisa, Vox)
  • Enhanced pipe organ division (Classical and Theatre)

Listening to the demo, the XK-7D can get pretty snarly. Demo sounds nice although, when is the internal speaker sim engaged versus the external Leslie speaker? What’s live? What’s sim? Modeski will like the crazy effects.

Hammond XK-7D organ (NAMM 2026)

Tain’t cheap or light. The single manual XK-7 organ is $4,925 USD (39.6 pounds). The two manual XK-7D is $7,295 (68.3 pounds).

Casio sampler SXC1 (preview)

[Update] The Casio sampler has a name: SXC1.

Casio SXC1 sampler (NAMM 2026)

Casio are previewing a prototype stand-alone sampler. The sampler looks like a handheld retro game with a 4×4 matrix of playable pads. Preliminary specs:

  • Sixteen pads (selectable backlight color)
  • Two rotary dials
  • 16 voices
  • Built-in sequencer
  • 16-bit 48kHz sampling (WAV format)
  • 64GByte internal memory
  • Ten banks with 16 samples per bank
  • 1.3 inch OLED display
  • Built-in microphone
  • Built-in speaker
  • Audio input, main audio output, headphone socket
  • Two USB Type-C ports (one data, one power/data)
  • Battery power (AAA)

Nothing else known about it except having “classic Casio sounds” in the factory content.

JBL Bandbox Solo and Trio

Upfront, let me state, I am an AI skeptic. I’ve seen too much Silly-con Valley hype over five decades… However! AI-based stem separation does work.

Riding the hype wave, JBL have incorporated AI-based stem separation into the new JBL BandBox SOLO and JBL BandBox TRIO portable speakers. It’s a new take on vocal suppression, separating audio into vocal and instrumental stems, letting you dial the stems in or out during playback. Both models also offer digital effects.

JBL BandBox SOLO (NAMM 2026)

The JBL BandBox SOLO is essentially a little Bluetooth boom box with smarts. Whatcha get:

  • 30 Watts
  • Single 2.25 inch full-range speaker, 73Hz to 20kHz (-6 dB)
  • Bluetooth and USB (type C) connectivity
  • 60 second digital looper (with overdubbing)
  • Metronome, tuner
  • 1/4″ input with MIC and guitar modes
  • 3.5mm headphone output
  • Rechargeable Li-ion battery (6 hours playing time)
  • JBL One app control
  • 4.25″ H x 8.31″ W x 3.07″ D
  • 1.72 pounds

The JBL BandBox SOLO streets at $250 USD.

I’ve successfully used small Bluetooth speakers like the Bose SoundLink Color II as throw-in-the-bag personal monitors. It’s difficult to get a non-boxy speaker this small, however, so we will need to wait, see and hear. EQ presets (Musician Type) are Singing Guitarist, Guitarist and Singer — no “Keyboardist” and, thus, I’m nervous.

JBL BandBox TRIO (NAMM 2026)

The JBL BandBox TRIO is, of course, the bigger sibling.

  • Separates vocals, drums and guitar in real time
  • 135 Watts
  • One 6.5″ woofer and two 1″ tweeters, 50Hz to 20kHz (-6 dB)
  • Four channel mixer
  • Top-mounted LCD display
  • Bluetooth and USB (type C) connectivity
  • 60 second digital looper (with overdubbing)
  • Metronome, tuner
  • GTR 1/4″ input, two XLR-1/4″ combo, 1/8″ AUX input
  • 3.5mm headphone and 1/4″ pass THRU outputs
  • Rechargeable Li-ion battery (10 hours playing time)
  • JBL One app control
  • 10.43″ H x 13.54″ W x 8.98″ D
  • 14.68 pounds

The JBL BandBox TRIO sells for $600 USD (MAP).

The TRIO is a serious beast. At almost 15 pounds, it’s a bruiser. Ain’t gonna sling this one into your gig bag. Still, one expects much better fidelity through its sound system than the super-portable SOLO.

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski