Teenage Engineering's approach to the PO-24 was refreshingly unconventional: instead of chasing traditional musical sounds, they sampled the acoustic world of vintage office equipment—printers, disk drives, keyboards, mouse clicks—and turned them into a fully playable percussion and synthesis instrument that somehow feels both nostalgic and genuinely musical.
The PO-24 is built around 16 office-sourced sounds paired with a 16-step sequencer, 16 real-time effects, and parameter locks for creating variations within patterns. You get two knobs for real-time control—one handles pitch (which isn't quantized, so you can play freely across any key) and the other morphs between timbral variations of each sound. The sequencer supports 128 pattern chaining, and there's a step multiplier function that lets you program stutters and repeats for rhythmic detail. Solo functionality lets you isolate individual sounds during playback, and you can even trigger effects independently without the sequencer running. The unit measures 5 inches by 3 inches and runs on two AAA batteries for roughly a month of use. It has a built-in speaker, a folding wire stand, and both audio in and out via 3.5mm jacks for syncing with other gear or processing external audio.
The community has embraced the PO-24 as one of the most playable and expressive Pocket Operators in the lineup. Its unpitched, noise-based character makes it feel less constrained than melodic-focused models, and the ability to play all 16 sounds simultaneously without dropout gives it surprising sonic depth. The office sound palette, which could have been a gimmick, actually translates into genuinely usable percussion and textural elements that are difficult to replicate elsewhere.
