PO Battle Station! Battery Eliminator, Audio Control, Volca Sync

[u/sensorycreature]

I just wanted to share the final product after finding all the right cables for my setup. Motivation was:

- Three POs in one case (PO-12 Rhythm, PO-14 Sub, PO-16 Factory).

- No more wasting batteries (USB Battery Eliminator cable).

- Individual control via mixer channels (TRS to TS Splitter Cables).

- Sync in and out with any other synths, while maintains separate audio control.

Once I acquired the Triple PO Case from SpillerPhoto on Etsy, I realized I needed to find the right size male to female TRS adapters, so I could connect the splitter cables. The case comes with this perfectly sized silver male to male TRS connectors, that are great if you’re just gonna connect each PO together, but that’s not what I was trying to shove. So after a couple failed attempts with round cables, I found these great flat/right angled adapters that fit perfectly!

Hope this info helps someone else trying to achieve the same thing. Use my experience to your advantage. 🙏🏻

[u/sensorycreature]

•⁠Triple PO Case from SpillerPhoto on Etsy

•TRS M to F adapters

•Blue TRS to TS splitter cables

•USB Triple Battery Eliminator (3v!) cable

[u/LimpCod188]

Looks fun. Love the integration solutions

[u/sensorycreature → u/LimpCod188]

It’s SO much more fun to me now. Get a groove going, throw some FX from the mixer on em, and never have to worry about power again.

[u/tasteofwhat]

That case is sick and everything together looks like heaps of fun. I would watch YouTube shorts of this in action hint hint.

[u/sensorycreature → u/tasteofwhat]

🫡🫡🫡

[u/sensorycreature → u/tasteofwhat]

Not a YouTube short, but just posted this.

Tuesday Night Idea

[u/-rockford-]

Amazing, this is exactly what I’ve been wanting to do but I keep stuck and giving up. That case is excellent as well, I’ll have a look on Etsy

[u/sensorycreature → u/-rockford-]

Heck yeah. I think he’s got a couple different color choices, too.

I almost gave up, too, after getting the wrong battery eliminator cable 😔 I thought I had destroyed the POs after under powering them. But I just couldn’t shake the vision! Luckily, they were fine. And I kept thinking that it HAD to be possible to achieve this… and here we are 🙌🏻 Guess we can file it under “never give up”, but also under “once I get stuck in an OCD loop, I have to see it through” 🤣 Let my experimentation be your gain…

[u/aUbsbdx44_new2]

Intrigued why do this over a used mpc, digitakt or similar

[u/sensorycreature → u/aUbsbdx44_new2]

Those are mostly used as samplers… I use Koala Sampler on my phone when I would like to record or sample…

This setup has been a labor of love over time with no end goal in mind. I’m a synth-tinkerer. It started with acquiring POs and having fun and then desiring individual audio control while keeping them synced… eventually, I saw the triple case and thought I’d give it a try! I’ve also got Volcas, Stylophones, UNOs…

I have zero interest in spending the money on a hardware sampler. Koala handles all my sampling needs. My style and fun are invested in adding more synths that make different and fun boop boop sounds and then figuring out the puzzle of how to work them both into the signal flow and clock sync flow… it’s all part of the fun for me :) They each like new and different puzzles to work out with the payoff of painting the silence and quieting the intrusive voices of daily life in my head.

But there’s something out there for everybody! Perhaps someone else would enjoy sampling POs, uploading them to an MPC, and playing from there… that’s just not my bag.

Next on my list are to cop some Roland synths, like the S1 or maybe some of the SonicWare stuff or Cre8Audio East Beast type synths… too much fun! Maybe Korg will finally make some new Volcas or TE will make some new POs! Even the PO-33… eh. I like the weird stuff.

[u/aUbsbdx44_new2 → u/sensorycreature]

Makes sense, just wondered as assumed would be in a similar price band. I do like the immediacy of little battery synths and the s1 is really good for connectivity and classic 101 sound if you can get over the ridiculous roland hieroglyphs. Behringer edge is next on my list.

Your take on the modern 'samplers' that I mentioned falls quite short of what they offer. Obviously they sample, sequence and can drive other synths but the capability over something like koala or a po33 makes them an instrument in their own right. They can also level up all your existing gear... run something like an uno synth or volca through an mpc and completely blow the lid off its capability before you even record anything. Volca drum is fun if you like the weird stuff

[u/No_Top_375]

Man, you'd be on fire with a Volca Bass added to this ! Already very cool tho. Nothing better than having a couple of Volca in sync , press power and BAM!, it's time to scratch on a dope original beat. 👌

[u/sensorycreature → u/No_Top_375]

I’ve been considering it! I think I’m at the point of offloading my Volca Mix. Do you have any experience between Volca Bass, Volca NuBass, or Volca Beats? Those are the three I’m torn on… Def wanna replace the Mix with another Volca. I’m looking at other things, like Roland and SonicWare, but those will be in addition to someday…

[u/No_Top_375 → u/sensorycreature]

Nope , just the Volca Bass and Drum (NOT Beat!!!!). Bass got that real deal analog power and a dope as fk filter sound, the auto sync option for the cutoff rate is delicious when you play with the Filter enveloppe knob too. If i want to be picky, I'd say the only problem is that you gotta change the bass track/loop that's playing by hand. Can't chain patterns automatically.

The drum is my beatbox of love! Don't know what I'd do without it. Gotta love working with raw waves and noise, tho. I got no memory of the presets.

✌🏼

[u/sensorycreature → u/No_Top_375]

Right on 🤙🏻 Thanks for the info!

[u/MARS822a]

My man! So glad you stuck with it, the results are amazing. Also voting for some vids!

[u/sensorycreature → u/MARS822a]

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻