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Teenage Engineering has announced the first major OS update for its EP-133 K.O. II sampler, released in 2023. The free update bringing resampling, song mode, sidechaining and increased polyphony to the instrument.

Dubbed the “Champions” update, OS 2.0 significantly expands the capabilities of the K.O. II with some commonly requested features that’ll undoubtedly put a smile on the face of this calculator-esque sampler’s fans. First up, we have expanded polyphony: EP-133 can now handle 16 mono and 12 stereo voices, a healthy increase from the 12 mono and six stereo voices it offered on launch.

EP-133’s new resampling function lets you record stacks of multiple samples with effects into a new sample, opening up a host of creative possibilities for reimagining existing patterns and making it possible to free up space for additional tracks and effects by bouncing down multiple tracks into one. Now, you’re also able to sample hands-free.

OS 2.0 also brings with it Song Mode, a feature that allows you to chain multiple scenes together to craft structured arrangements. 99 unique song positions can be stored, each made up of scenes containing multiple patterns of up to 99 bars. Teenage Engineering points out that this means you’re now able to create a song that’s up to 9,801 bars in length, making EP-133 a more useful tool for extended live performances.

Good news for fans of pumping techno, as EP-133 now offers MIDI sidechaining, meaning that you’re now able to use kick drums to trigger ducking on bass sounds to create a cohesive low-end with no hassle. The length and shape of the volume ducking can be tweaked as well.

Here’s the official video intro:

That’s not all: OS 2.0 brings MIDI Thru support, so the sampler can now pass MIDI information on to other machines in your set-up, along with a host of other MIDI improvements that’ll make it easier to hook up EP-133 with other instruments and gear.

New in K.O. II version 2.0:

• Resampling: Stack effects, make a beat from a beat or combine samples, all using the new resampler.
• Song mode: Song mode lets you chain scenes together to make complete compositions.
• Hands-Free Sampling: Sometimes you need both hands to play an instrument, and you want to sample it. Just hit shift and hold a pad, and the K.O. II will do the rest.
• MIDI side-chaining: Sidechain will duck the volume of the bass when the kick comes in
• Increased polyphony: The K.O. II goes from 12 mono/6 stereo sounds to up to 16 mono and 12 stereo sounds.
• Larger note intervals: The K.O. II now supports 1/1, 1/2 and 1/4 timing intervals.
• MIDI Through: The K.O. II now supports MIDI Through, so it can pass notes along to other machines.

To download the update and for details, visit Teenage Engineering site.

At the 2025 NAMM Show, held Jan 21–25 in Anaheim, CA, Ketron introduced the Fusion Real Arranger, an arranger workstation keyboard that supports international musical styles.

Arranger workstations are synthesizers that focus on letting you perform live with a full arrangement.

Key Features:

• Full Audio Styles
• Live Drums, Real Bass & Real Chords Style Modeling
• Massive Audio Library Customizable Real Styles
• Top Professional Sounds
• Unique Real Solos Twin Organ
• 240 Gb Disk Storage

Specifications:

• Polyphony: 216 notes, multitimbral.
• Keyboard: 61-note light weighted action with velocity and aftertouch. 4 Dynamic curves.
• Controls: Aftertouch. Portamento. Legato Mono/Poly. Transposer +/- 24. Octave +/- 2. Sustain pedal. Volume/Expr.
• Pedal with 6 curves. Joystick with Pitch and Modulation. 2 Articulations. Ribbon controller: Arabic Scale. Arabic Set.
• 10 sliders with rgb led.
• Display: 7” touch capacitive display. Brightness control. 5 different skin colors.
• Factory Sounds: 10 Voice Families : Piano, Strings, Organ, Brass, Sax, Pad, Synth, Guitar, Bass, Ethnic. 464 Factory
• A single Preset can be made with up to 5 different sounds. Second Voice. High quality multilayer sounds with a great selection of Real Solos ® and a large variety of oriental instruments. Advanced Voice Editing. Factory overwrite and restore. Up to 1.280 User Voices available. Preset programmable Arabic scale and key shif.
• User Sounds: 4 GB non-volatile Flash memory for additional sounds ( 2 GB for Sound Banks and 2 GB for User Samples ). Sample Editor : up to 32.768 samples ( max 6 seconds per sample ). 128 stereo instruments ( Voice or Drum Set ), up to 4 layers per instrument and up to 64 splits per layer. Advanced editor with Split, Octave, Level, Range,
• Tune, Cut off, Velocity, Adsr. Sample Loop utilities. User Drum kits.
• Adsr/Filter: separate controls for Attack, Decay, Sustain, Lfo, Cut Off and Resonance.
• Drum Set: 44 Drums kits. 18 Oriental Kits. 32 User Drum kits with Remap, Filter, Tune, FX controls. Drum Mixer : 9 sections with separate controls for level, pan, reverb, pitch, velocity compression. 86 Midi Drum styles ( Pattern )on Grv1_Loop section.
• Arranger : More than 550 International Styles. Audio, Live and Midi styles. Freeze real control. 260
• Live Styles. Over 64 Oriental Styles. 10 groups : Ballad, Pop, Dance, Rock, Swing, Latin, Country, Folk, Party, Ethnic. 3 Intro, 3 Ending, FIll to End, ABCD, 4 Fills, 4 Break. Reintro, Count In, Pause, Key Start, Key Stop, Variation. User Styles with unlimited store capabilities.
• 5 Midi Chords and Bass. Close, Parallel, Logic mode. 3 x Lower with Mono/Poly function. Chord Variation. Varitone. Voice to ABCD. Auto Fill, Fill to Arrange, Fill to Aftertouch. Chord modes : Easy1, Easy2, Easy3, Fingered 1, Fingered 2. Orch. Variation Morphing. Rootless mode. Manual Bass, To Lowest, To Root. Bassist and Pianist mode ( Standard/Expert ).
• Live Drums: over 500 Live Drums with a complete Arranger structure ( 3 Intros, 3 Endings, ABCD, 4 Fills, 4 Breaks ). Oriental and Latin Percussions loops. Reverb and 3 band Parametric Equalizer with 10 presets, programmable on each style. Drum Boost. Possibility to load external User Live Drums.
• Drum Pad: real time control for percussions.
• Grooves: 3 x independent Groove sections. Huge library of more than 780 Latin percussions, Electro and Acoustic
• Drum loops, Single percussion hits. Groove to Variation. Separate volume and EFX controls.
• Live Guitars: 216 sliced Guitar patterns including Long Chords. Separate volume and EFX controls.
• Real Chord: Real audio accompaniments covering a full chord range ( up to 13 different chords ). A big variety of electric, acoustic and jazz guitars patterns and other orchestral sequences synchronized to Midi. Dedicated Insert EFX with full editor, programmable for each style. Possibility to load external User Real Chords. Possibility to modify the Style voices with Adsr, filter and Q.
• Real Bass: Real audio Basses.Twin Bass. Support to external User audio Basses. 3 band Parametric Equalizer with 10 Presets, programmable on each style.
• Style Modeling: navigate and choose Drums, Grooves, Bass and Chords from the massive Midi and Audio Library. Multichord and Multibass templates.
• Style Edit: advanced pattern recording and editing. Copy, Quantize, Velocity, Octave functions. Special quantize available for oriental styles ( 7/8, 9/8, 13/8, etc. ). Single GM voice edit with ADSR and Filter.
• Registrations: 4 Banks with unlimited Registrations controlling the global set up of the keyboard.
• Performance: fast access to Styles, Registrations, Mp3, Wav, Midi files and Subfolders. 7 Sets with unlimited file storage.
• Play Mode: Master, Accord/Style, Accord/Classic, Organist.
• Phrase: real time recording and play for Style chord sequences.
• Footswitch: 20 programmable Set. Assignable to the most relevant machine functions and features.
• Arabic Scale : 16 sets. 6 scale memories.
• Dsp: Reverb, Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Overdrive, Distortion, Tremolo, Autopan, Equalizer. 2 Stereo EFX Inserts (one dedicated to Voice and one to Style/Midifiles). 64 Single Presets and 64 Chain Effects. Deep editing. Dedicated reverb and EQs for Drumsets. Dedicated reverb for Arranger section.
• Stem: 4 Scenes. 5 audio tracks per scene to be played simultaneously. Lead track, Transpose, Time Stretching, Loop, Solo, Mute, Autoplay. Fixed pitch for Drum section. Support for external User Stems.
• Player: Transpose, Audio Time stretching, GM, Jukebox, Playlists, Drum Remix, Markers, Lyrics, Cross Fade, Search, Midi Mix, Karaoke Backgrounds. Support for wav, midi, mp3, mp4, avi, mov, flv, cdg, jpg, png, txt and pdf files.
• KTune: audio Wav files can be assigned to keys. Synchronization with Style (Bar, Beat).
• HD Recording: 1 stereo audio track. Midi and Song Style recording.
• Audio Multitrack: 5+1 audio tracks with separate track control.
• Micro: 2 x Micro inputs. Micro 1 ( XLR ) with gain control and phantom power. Effect with Reverb, Delay, Equalizer,
• Pitch shift. Micro 2 ( jack ) with volume and reverb control.
• Voicetron: 3 voice vocalizer. Assignable to Arranger or Midi file with Presets, Equalizer, Mode functions.
• Video: HDMI connection for displaying lyrics, pictures and videos. Mirror mode. Up to Full HD Resolution. Support for external touchscreen displays.
• Bluetooth: Streaming audio input ( ad2p profile ).
• WiFi: remote control via VNC.
• Storage: 240 GB internal SSD disk ( Up to 60 GB reserved for System ). Optional external SD Card ( up to 512 GB ).
• Side Connections: 2 x USB device. USB Host. HDMI.
• Rear Connections: Main Out Left / Right. Headphone/Aux. Sustain pedal. Volume pedal. Footswitch. Midi In, Midi Out. Micro 1, Micro 2.
• Optional: Volume pedal normal or deluxe. Sustain pedal normal or piano type ( available also with Footswitch connector). Footswitch 6 or 13 switches. Midi Pedalboard 13 notes ( K8 ). Soft bag. Trolley for bag. Hard case.
• Dimensions: 99,5 x 36.6 x 11,5 ( 39,1 x 14,41 x 4,53 inch. ).
• Weight: 11 Kg ( 24,2 lbs )

Details are still to come at the Ketron site.

Ahead of the 2025 NAMM Show, being held Jan 21–25 in Anaheim, CA, RAD Distribution has announced a new partnership with Music Tribe – the Philippines-based holding company that owns Behringer, Midas, TC Electronic, TC Helicon, and other brands –  to expand distribution in the US.

In recent years, Music Tribe has focused its distribution efforts on online retail ‘super partners’, like Sweetwater & Amazon.

Industry watchers may have anticipated that a change was coming, though, because Behringer had announced plans to return to the NAMM Show this year. The NAMM Show is an industry event that’s designed to help music retailers and manufacturers connect, so Behringer’s return signaled interest in expanding distribution.

“This partnership ensures all retailers – big and small – can access Music Tribe’s innovative products,” said CEO Uli Behringer. With this collaboration, Music Tribe will now be making its products available to every retailer across the country.

In the last few years, Behringer has disrupted the synth market, introducing dozens of inexpensive synths, drum machines and Eurorack modules. Most musicians have not been able to try these instruments at local retailers, though, or to try gear from Music Tribe’s many other brands.

This barrier to purchase may be reduced by the fact that the majority of Behringer’s products are designed and marketed as affordable copies of well-known gear. The company’s plans for expanding distribution, though, should make it easier for musicians to ‘try before you buy’.

Will ‘bricks and mortar’ distribution expand the company’s focus beyond copying established products? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Interested dealers can contact RAD Distribution.