Modular Pocket Operator

Teenage Engineering builds zany music machines. Their synthesizers create all manner of sonic mayhem and they’re weirdly beautiful objects to boot.

One thing I particularly admire is TE’s anti-emphasis on usability: their devices are intentionally — almost gleefully — obscure. A good deal of brute exploration is often required just to figure out what the buttons do. It feels like music-machines-as-puzzle-box shouldn’t work, but it does: there’s a certain delight as serendipitous discovery gives way to mastery.

The upcoming modular pocket operators look ridiculous:

If you haven’t seen them, the original pocket operators are also wacky fun. They look like a crossbreed between old-school four-function calculators and Nintendo’s handheld Game and Watch devices from the early ’80s:

What’s not to love?