16 pocket
operator
modular
user guide
ガイド
V.2.0
notice. read this first. the product is esd sensitive and is sold without casing.
battery information:

install only new batteries of the same type.

failure to insert batteries in the correct polarity, as indicated in the battery compartment, may shorten the life of the batteries or cause batteries to leak.

do not mix old and new batteries.

do not mix alkaline, standard (carbon-zink) or rechargeable (nickel cadmium) or (nickel metal hybride) batteries.

do not dispose of batteries in fire.

batteries should be recycled or disposed of as per state and local guidelines.

fcc statement:note: this equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a class b digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the fcc rules. these limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. this equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. however, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation.; if this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined but turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures;

reorient or relocate the receiving antenna

increase the separation between the equipment and receiver

connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.

consult the dealer or an experienced radio/tv technician for help.

this device complies with part 15 of the fcc rules. operation is subject to the following conditions;

this device may not cause harmful interference, and

this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

caution: changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void user’s authority to operate the equipment. teenage engineering warrants that this product will be free from defects in material or workmanship for a period of 12 months from the date of teenage engineering’s shipment of the product to you, the customer. in the event of a defect covered by this limited warranty, teenage engineering will, at its option and free of charge to customer, repair, replace or refund the purchase price paid.
TEENAGE ENGINEERING MAKES NO OTHER EXPRESS WARRANTIES EXCEPT AS PROVIDED HEREIN, AND ANY AND ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE SHALL ONLY BE IN EFFECT DURING THE 12 MONTH WARRANTY PERIOD PROVIDED HEREUNDER. TEENAGE ENGINEERING'S LIABILITY ON ANY WARRANTY CLAIM SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE ACTUAL PURCHASE PRICE PAID. TEENAGE ENGINEERING SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE TO CUSTOMER OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR INDIRECT DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA, REVENUES, SALES, BUSINESS, GOODWILL OR USE.
what does this limited warranty not cover?
teenage engineering has no obligation to repair, replace, or provide refunds in the following instances:

if the alleged defect arises because customer has altered or repaired the product without the prior written consent or authorization of teenage engineering;

if customer did not follow any applicable instructions for proper storage, usage, or maintenance of this product;

if customer has failed to notify teenage engineering of any defect where the defect should have been reasonably apparent on inspection; or

if customer fails to notify teenage engineering of the defect within 12 months of teenage engineering's shipment of this product to customer. this limited warranty does not cover the cost of shipping the defective product to teenage engineering for repair, or the cost of shipping the repaired or replacement product to you. how do customers receive warranty service? please call your teenage engineering customer service representative for details on how to raise an issue in relation to your product.

1. module assembly installation bend the top faceplate [A] and slide the keyboard ribbon cable through the slot as indicated.
remove the backing tape and carefully affix the keyboard to the surface of the top plate.
bend the bottom plate [B] as indicated and insert the rubber feet.
insert your batteries and attach the pcb to the bottom faceplate [B] via the rubber feet.
carefully attach the ribbon cable to the pcb. make sure that the ribbon cable is firmly affixed.
you can now attach the two pieces together with the four included screws. finally mount all the knobs.
2. interface overview the pocket operator modular 16 is a sequencer with 16 slots, 4 tracks per slot and 1 pattern per track.
store up to 64 independant patterns, where each pattern can be up to 64 steps long.
the 16 slots are labeled by the numbers 1-16, which also represent keys on the keyboard.
the 4 tracks are labeled T1-T3, as well as TK, where K stands for keyboard.
play notes and program patterns using the keyboard and use the knobs to control cv.
patch the cv / gate outputs to your other operator modular units or to any other compatible device.
use po sync to synchronize pocket operators, and use the midi out to control any midi gear.
3. power options power your device using 4 x AAA batteries, or by using a power adapter
. when using batteries, we recommend using high quality rechargeable batteries. you can also power the MK-16 from the power distro of a 170 or 400 with the included power cable.

power on / off auto power off turn on the unit by flipping the switch towards the connector, and flip it back again for off.
the unit auto powers off after five minutes of inactivity when powered from from batteries.
4. play notes press key 1-16 to play notes.
5. transpose transpose note transpose octave to transpose a note by one semi tone while playing: hold + or - while pressing the note.
to transpose octave across five octaves, from 0 to 5v / 1 volt per octave: hold oct and press + or -.
reset octave transpose current track to reset octave transpose on the active track: hold oct and press clear
to transpose current track: hold oct and press 1-16. 1 is the root key. the left led will be bright when holding oct if transpose is active and dimmed if not.
transpose all tracks reset all transpose settings to transpose all tracks: hold oct, trk and press 1-16.
to reset all transpose settings on all tracks: hold oct, clear and trk together. the left led will be bright when holding oct if transpose is active, and dimmed if not.
6. tracks select track mute track hold trk and press 1-4 to select different tracks
keep holding trk and press the same number again to toggle mute track.
solo track hold trk and hold S1-SK to solo tracks. solo is deactivated when the button is released.
7. pitch adjust turn knobs 1–16 to adjust pitch. on the first three tracks (T1–T3) the cv output pitch for each key (1–16) is determined by the corresponding knob (1–16).
the pitch values of the knobs are separate for all tracks and patterns. when switching tracks, the position of the knobs will not always correspond to the current pitch.
to adjust a saved pitch value, turn the knob until it aligns with the actual value, to catch the value and allow adjustment.
8. scales the keyboard and midi out can be ordered according to one of four scales.
hold trk and press 13-16 to select keyboard scales. on track 1-3 this will set the knob cv values to selected scale. the scales affect the cv outputs and midi. on the fourth track (TK) the keyboard overrides the knobs. the scales are:
natural: white piano keys
accidental: black piano keys
chromatic: both white and black keys
arabic: a type of arabic scale
9. pattern programming run mode press run to toggle run mode and start the sequencer. the right led will blink in time with the tempo, with a bright flash indicating step one. your pattern will be playing and looping after the last step. press run again to stop the sequencer.
9.2 program mode program a new pattern to program a new pattern, first, select the desired slot and track then press and release program. the left led will light up to indicate program mode is enabled.
press keys 1-16 to program note steps into the pattern.
press clear to add an empty step.
hold + or - and press a note 1-16 to program using semitones. use oct and + or - to offset octave and allow programming of notes across five octaves (-2 to +2).
the default octave offset when entering program mode
is 0.
set pattern length hold program and press 1–16 to set pattern length in steps. keep holding program and press two digits for 17-64. use 10 as zero.
edit pattern length by holding program and + or -. the maximum amount of steps in a pattern is 64.
exit program mode by pressing program again. the led will switch off.
10. live programming when programming while in run mode, pressed notes are recorded live, potentially replacing existing notes.
the length of the programmed notes will be set to how long the key was held – in steps.
minimum note length is 1 step and maximum is 4 steps. this can be changed later by editing the pattern.
holding clear while live programming will clear any pattern notes in time.
replace programming if pressing and holding program while in run mode, pressed notes are programmed into a new pattern that will replace the current pattern once the program key is released.
edit pattern to edit a pattern, again press program to enable program mode.
cycle through the pattern steps by pressing + or - repeatedly.
replace a note at current step by pressing any key 1–16.
clear notes by pressing clear. this will silence the current step.
edit note length in ticks by holding hold and + or - , or by holding hold and pressing keys 1–16. there are 4 ticks per step. default note length per step is 3 ticks. minimum note length is 1 tick and maximum is 256 ticks. long notes will add legato to following steps, meaning notes will jump between each other until the initial note is finished.
clear pattern hold program and press clear to clear the current pattern.
you can also hold trk and clear for the same functionality.
clear all patterns hold program + clear while turning the power on to clear all patterns on all slots. user settings will be kept.
the left led will flash two times.
11. tempo / sync turn the tempo knob to set internal tempo, from 30–300 bpm.
hold run and clear to reset the track tempo multiplier. the different multipliers are: x0.25, x0.5, x1 (default), x2 and x4.
external sync if a jack is inserted in the clock input, the device operates in external sync mode.
the first time clock input is connected it is expecting
two external clock pulses, to adjust the internal tempo. run the external clock source to sync.
if you change tempo while stopped you may have to resync again.
when using external clock, the position of the tempo knob sets incoming clock divider as follows:
left: 1/4 division
center: 1/2 division
right: 1/1 ratio
the range for clock input between pulses is from 12.5 ms to 1.5 s. the internal tempo multipliers for each track still works when using external clock. with user setting 12 these dividers are 1/12, 1/6, 1/3.
timing as described in the user settings section, by default, tempo multipliers and pattern switches will be applied instantly. this setting can be changed to a delayed, synchronized response, if preferred.
swing hold trk and press + or - repeatedly to adjust swing setting for the active track pattern. from 50% (no swing, default) to 75% swing can be applied, across 12 steps.
reset input whenever a pulse is received at this input the sequencer will reset the patterns to the first step. with user setting 12 this input is used for din-sync start/stop.
effects each track can have one active effect, which is toggled on or off by pressing trk and FX1 – FX4.
press and hold trk and press FX1 – FX4 to add an effect to the active track. repeat to disable it.
when playing live notes on the keyboard only available effect is glide.
FX1: short
FX2: chop
FX3: legato
FX4: glide
13. arp each track can have an arpeggio with its own arp pattern and tempo multiplier. press arp and hold notes on the keyboard to activate it.
when arp is active, it will play any held notes in a sequence. play notes on the keyboard and add them using the hold button. the left led will glow bright to indicate held arp notes.
remove notes by using hold and pressing already held notes again. the left led will be dimmed for these notes.
press hold and clear to clear any arp hold notes.
press arp again to toggle arpeggiator off.
when arp is active while in run mode it will play the selected arp pattern and transpose it based on any notes in the track pattern. after each arp sequence it will advance one step in the track pattern.
if a step in the track pattern does not contain a note, the arp will play without transposing.
note that the arp will be silent if there are no keys played on the keyboard or stored in hold.
hold arp and + or - to to set a tempo multiplier for the arp on the current track.
hold arp and clear to reset the arp tempo multiplier. the different multipliers are: x0.25, x0.5, x1 (default), x2 and x4.
arp patterns 1. up
2. down
3. up and down
4. ping-pong
5. ordered
6. ordered and back
7. up double
8. down double
9. up and down double
10. ordered double
11. duplicate octave up
12. duplicate octave down
13. octave up and down
14. octave down and up
15. random
16. random with mutes
hold arp and 1–16 to select an arp pattern.
14. save / recall pocket operator modular 16 features 16 slots with 4 fully programmable track patterns per slot. these patterns can be saved and recalled using the save / recall button.
save slot 3 sec! press and hold save / recall for 3 seconds until the right led starts blinking rapidly, indicating the unit
is in save mode.
when in save mode you have three options:

release save / recall to save the

keep holding save / recall and

note: this is the data saved in a pattern slot: knobs values, pattern notes, octave, track tempo multiplier, scale, fx, swing, track transpose, arp enabled, arp type, arp tempo
multiplier, arp hold notes.
recall slot press and hold save / recall and any number 1–16 to recall a slot and load its settings from memory.
clear slot 3 sec! hold clear and save / recall for 3 seconds, until the right led flashes quickly, to clear the currently selected slot.
15. po sync pocket operator modular 16 is compatible with po sync for syncing tempo across multiple pocket operators. po sync uses a straight 1/8 note pattern (2ppqn) at 2.6v, which also may work with other syncable devices.
po sync out modular 16 as master:
connect a 3.5mm trs stereo audio cable between po sync out of the 16, and the input of your pocket operator.
press and hold the function button on the po and press bpm until it is set to SY2. press play on pocket operator. press run on pocket operator modular 16.
po sync in pocket operator as master:
use a 3.5mm trs stereo to dual 3.5mm ts mono audio split cable and connect the stereo end to the main out of the master pocket operator, the right side of the dual split to the clock input of the pocket operator modular 16, and the left side of the dual split to a mixer input.
press and hold the function button on the pocket operator and press bpm until it is set to SY1. press play on pocket operator. press run on pocket operator modular 16 when you want it to start.
please refer to the pocket operator guides for more info on sync.
16. midi midi information trs-midi type a midi pin 5 midi pin 4 midi pin 2 (gnd) the four tracks T1–TK are mapped
to midi channels 1–4 respectively.
all notes sent to the midi output are based on the selected scale and not the cv knob values.
each track will operate in monophonic mode, meaning only one note is active at the time (per track).
the midi output (trs-midi type a) uses a standard 3.5mm stereo audio jack to send the following midi messages:

clock

start

stop

note on

note off

17. user settings

instant timing mode*

synchronized timing mode

free adjust of cv values*

cv values quantized to note values of chromatic scale (2 octaves)

use accidental scale setting for black keys*

use accidental scale setting for minor scale

midi clock normal tempo*

midi clock double tempo

po sync out normal tempo*

po sync out double tempo

normal external clock divider*

din sync external clock divider

reset input as reset*

reset input as din sync start stop

no function

reset all settings to default

hold 1–16 while turning on the power to select different user settings. the left led will flash 3 times to indicate that the change was made.
these settings are stored in memory so you don't have to do this every time you turn the unit on.
* = default settings