Welcome to the Dato forum! We’re curious as to who you are and what drives you. Tell us about yourself in this topic.
I’ll start by introducing myself: I’m David, one half of Dato. I’m a designer by trade and inventor at heart. I love applying technology to make complex things simple. I’ve been into electronic music making gear since I was about 12 years old but only got my first synthesizer 10 years later.
After having received my Master’s degree in Industrial Design at the Technical University of Eindhoven I started my own consultancy bureau for interactive product design, Nut & Bolt. I did a lot of industrial design and electronics design work for a variety of clients before joining Toon in pursuing my dream of designing musical instruments, which is what I do now.
My name is Toon, the other half of Dato. Ever since I graduated with honors from the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, I kept on developing unique and unusual designs for my clients at Studio Toon Welling. This search never stops and the out of the ordinary shape of the Dato DUO is a direct result of this.
Before I met David a while back I was already fascinated by electronic music but never thought I could be making it myself. Playing around with his synths, I soon discovered that my musical inability wasn’t keeping me from having fun with these instruments. Before I knew it this developed in a small but fun collection of Synths and a desire for making our own. The DUO is our first instrument and we have plans for many more….
I’m David, neither half of Dato. I started making music seriously about 20 years ago, and soon after I started I began building a modular synthesizer from kits–the Synthesis Technology MOTM system. I took a few years off in the middle, but I’m now working in my studio again, surrounded by various vintage classics as well as new synthesizers.
My eight-year old son is an avid user of my synths, and I look forward to seeing what he and his friends (and me) can do with the DUO.
My name is Roger. I studied electric bass, but now mainly play double bass. After my studies I started working at a public library where we now have a makerspace. About two years ago I dived into synths and electronic music gadgets. I love experimenting with littlebits synth kit, Korg Volcas and Monotribe, OP-1, Patchblocks and other similar stuff.
For me, things are starting to get especially interesting when I start combinig these gadgets with acoustic instruments. For now, it is all a huge playground and I’m trying to see through it all (or some of it).
The Dato Duo will be (I’m sure) a great addition to my collection of musical things…
Hi I’m Calle Sjoenell, and have been making electronic music for 20 years. I recently started Meet & Beet, a way for electronic musicians to jam together without sounding like shit. See more here, https://www.facebook.com/meetandbeet/ I can’t wait to incorporate Dato in our sessions because this instrument I think really get the collaborative juices flowing. If budgets (and maybe rebates?) allow, I would love to have 3 or 4 Datos and do the sessions with young kids, preferably girls who want to get into music but find the tech intimidating.
We build large format modular synthesizers.
I also have a young son who is into making space cricket sounds and the Duo really appealed to both of us. Really looking forward to the final product!
Hey all, I’m Chris. I`m from the land down under and can’t wait to use the Dato Duo with my two boys. I feel this is a great way to introduce them to music.
I’ve been playing bass since I was a kid, and have a few ideas to team the Dato Duo with to create some awesome tunes.
Hi everyone, I’m Sean and live in Atlanta. I bought my Duo for my 1 year old twin daughters and I to have fun making music together. Basically from birth they’ve been music lovers and love playing with djembes and cajons, pianos, and my DJ controllers. So awesome seeing them expressing themselves musically at such an early age as I didn’t get into music until my adult life… a huge regret of mine.
I just purchased a Pocket Operator Rhythm PO-12 and the Sub PO–4 and am exciting to sync them. Having some issues and am wondering if anyone can help me?
In this type of setup is it best to have the Duo as the Master in the beginning or have it last in the chain?
Is someone able to tell me how to connect these three units with cables, how to connect the audio to a simple speaker, and the sync settings on the Pocket Operators?
Thanks for the introduction. Having kids get into music early is definitely a good idea!
What are the issues you are having? The DUO works fine as master or slave. Please note that the DUO does not daisy chain the audio, like the Pocket Operators do - the sync in and outputs are only used for synchronisation of tempo.
You will have to set the pocket operators to either send or receive a sync signal. You can find the sync modes in the pocket operator manual: https://teenageengineering.com/guides/po-12/en
The DUO and the pocket operators have built-in speakers, but if you want to run them through larger speakers at the same time you will need a mixer.
Edit: with a PO-14 sub, setting sync mode to SY2 or SY3 and using the DUO as a master works with either a stereo and mono cable. If you want to use the PO as a master, you will need to set it to SY1 and use a mono jack cable to plug into the DUO.
Thank you David! The main issue I’ve been having is with the audio so that makes sense since you said the DUO doesn’t daisy chain…
I plan on using these three units in the following two ways:
DUO (Master) -> PO-12 Rhythm -> PO-14 Sub
PO-12 Rhythm -> PO-14 Sub -> Duo
For scenario 1, how to I connect these with cables? Do I just run a Sync Out cable from the DUO to the PO-12, then another from the PO-12 to the PO-14, then one from the PO-14 into a mixer along with an audio cable from the DUO into the mixer?
Do I need a Sync In cable going into the DUO for this scenario? Or just the Out?
For scenario 2, how to I connect these with cables? Do I just run a cable from the PO-12 to the PO-14 then from the PO-14 a split cable going to a mixer and also into the Sync In on the DUO? Then an audio cable from the DUO into a mixer?
Hmm not sure if the forum is still very active but my name is Kelly and reside in Sydney, Australia. I am learning to make music as adult. I’ve recently purchased an MPC Live 2, SP404 Mk2 and just purchased the Duo for my kids who are 4 and 1 (under my supervision) for a joint birthday present. I thought it would be an awesome present to them to start the fascination with sound and music.
Hi Kelly,
Welcome to the forum! The MPC, sampler and DUO sound like a fun combination to get into making music and should work great for your kids as well. Feel free to post your questions and findings here.
