Tag Archives: EP-40 Riddim

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

Korg Volca Sample riddim?

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Teenage Engineering wisely got out ahead of everyone and released the EP-40 Riddim and Ting combo just before the holidays (and January 2026 NAMM).

I went absolutely berzerk when I heard the EP-40 and quickly pulled out the Korg Volca Sample 2 to see what I could do. There’s a lot to love about the Sample 2. Its USB port and the Korg Volca Sample Librarian make sample management a snap. The step programmable sample parameters supply a lot of dynamic messin’ along with the tempo and swing knobs. The controls may be small, but I love their immediate accessibility.

The analogue isolator controls are a kick, too. You can dynamically kill or boost the low and high ends. Korg provide similar capabilities in their Volca Mix. That and the compression and stereo field effects are the reason why I keep the Volca Mix in the toolbox.

I wanted to create long-loop grooves as though I was working in Ableton Live. One of my favorite entertainments is to launch Live and drop in a few samples and hear what comes out. The Sample 2 workflow is not as smooth as Live since everything needs to go through the Volca Sample Librarian. Oh, well.

Other issues arise when using long samples (e.g., two or more bars). Lack of sample space is a major issue. The Sample 2 has only 8 megabytes — yes, 8 megabytes — of sample space. The Sample 2 operates at a 31.25kHz sampling rate and it’s not clear if down-sampling saves any space. (The Librarian does sample rate conversion.) An old trick to save space is to “pitch up” incoming samples and then slow them down during playback (returning the sound to its original pitch). This technique adds yet another prep step and buzzkill.

The Sample 2 comes with great factory samples. That’s both good and bad. The factory samples occupy roughly 80% of sample memory leaving you with 20% free. That’s roughly 26 seconds of available user sample time. Sure, you can wipe the factory samples, but really?

I smacked into limited memory capacity immediately. I trimmed several dub loops into 2 to 4 bar loops. None the less, drum, bass, skank and fill loops hit 100% right quick.

Loops longer than two bars trip another issue. Longer loops continue to play after hitting the stop button. This is known behavior and it is annoying. Next, if you want to play a two bar loop, you need to adjust the tempo down to half. That way, one can trick the Sample’s sequencer into thinking it’s a two-bar sequencer. Of course, this spreads the 16 sequencer steps across two bars thereby cutting your time resolution in half (eighth notes). Go for four bars and the resolution is cut to four quarter notes per bar.

Overall, I think Korg conceptualized the Sample 2 (and its predecessor) as a digital beat box to which a user can add short one-shots. In that regard, Volca Sample is quite successful, especially at its price point. It’s not designed for long samples.

I always like to give the gear I have (Sample 2) first shot and buy if necessary. As to EP-40 Riddim and Ting, I’ll have more to say after UPS gets here. 🙂

Teenage Engineering, by the way, are showing Field System Black in time for NAMM 2026. If you want to hear more about TE’s development process, I strongly recommend WVFRM’s interview with David Eriksson, co-founder and lead engineer of TE. If I were teaching today, it would be required for class.

Copyright © 2026 Paul J. Drongowski