Teenage Engineering EP-1320 Medieval Review: The Sampler That Brought Out the Bard in Me

That’s it; I’ve officially multi-classed into Bard. I say this because I’ve become completely enamored with Teenage Engineering’s latest sound product, the $300 EP-1320 Medieval. It’s a sound sampler and groove box—pretty much the same as last year’s EP-133 K.O. II—but with a Middle Ages twist. You can drop your own sounds into the device, but it’s so packed with age-old instruments and medieval iconography I’d argue you’re better off reveling in the built-in theme. I’ll never “go medieval,” as the phrase seems to imply, but I will drop a thick Gregorian chant into my upcoming TTRPG campaign.

Not to bore you with specifics and the arguments of historical scholars, but the 1,000 years from the fall of Rome to the early 16th century was an incredibly diverse period full of culture— from art, to music, not to mention incredible feats of architecture. “Medieval,” as a term, is often pejorative, but in modern days, it’s an aesthetic. The EP-1320 acknowledges that in subtle and overt ways despite its silly nature. The device’s text is very indicative of Carolingian script. The little icons on the screen displaying your pitch or instrument choice include little shields, wings, and alchemy flasks. My favorite is the tonsure-bedecked monk sitting on a throne holding his sampler, like a piece of manuscript marginalia transported to the modern age.

This device isn’t just a joke product, even if the company advertises that the number keys smell pleasingly of cocoa. Yes, really. You really have to get your nose close, but the scent is there. Although I’m the only one who caught the scent in my office, even the smell of the device is divisive.  

It’s also a more difficult device to parse than the K.O. II. The text is more ornate and harder to read. Even the handy instructions sheet that comes with it and the extensive guide you find online include enough “thous” to confuse a Renaissance fair re-enactor. The extra icons have also eliminated some helpful icons you would typically use to judge punch-in effects or tempo levels. They weren’t precise before, but now there are fewer ways to judge their current audio level other than hearing them and playing around.

If you’re especially keen on the theme, it will become your favorite little device for playing around with tunes. No, it won’t be your top-end device for true creation—it may be worse than even the K.O. II—but at $300, this device quickly has become my instrumental sandbox. It will tide me over from my dreams of learning to play hurdy-gurdy, at least for now.

Teenage Engineering EP-1320 Medieval Review: Design Quality

How Different is the EP-1320 from the EP-133?

I can’t get enough of its look (or smell), even if the EP-1320 Medieval is a reskin of the $300 EP-133 K.O.-II. We were keen to find the key differences that don’t relate specifically to aesthetics. The EP-1320 has 128 MB of storage. That’s 64 more MB of memory than the EP-133, though samples take up 96 MB and the demo tracks found on-device. The limited memory isn’t helped when there’s no easy way to check when you’re about to run out of storage when developing your tracks. 

We dug into the device’s files and found that around 64 MB of memory houses the onboard samples. Teenage Engineering’s web-based sample tool shows that all sounds are locked to the device. If all you wanted was the sampler with twice the memory, there may be another way to remove them, but you can’t with the default software.

Just as an example, here’s me playing around with some chants on top of one of the device’s demo tracks, with added “bardic ensemble” and punch in effects.

Effectively, the Medieval is an EP-133 with the added 220 default medieval instruments and sound effects. You can still load your own sounds and samples onto the EP-1320. We found that we could also easily download medieval sounds onto the EP-133. If you don’t want to spend an extra $300 on what’s effectively the same sampler, find a friend who bought the Medieval and ask if you can download the sounds for your use. If you have the Medieval, you can still install any of your samples to the device, though you’re limited by both the lack of memory and the sound’s tonality. More on that later.

The benefit of it being so close to the EP-133 is that all the how-tos and reviews you’ll find online apply directly to the Medieval. There’s a lot of controls to learn, especially when your “altero” shift key adds an entire layer of new controls. But once you understand what you’re doing, you’ll be able to do most tasks without constantly translating that “sonus” means song selection and “claves” means keys. 

Teenage Engineering EP-1320 Medieval Review: Sound and Usability

 The EP-1320 Is Less Tool and More Instrument

The EP-1320 is an instrument. It’s still a sampler and groove box but so centered around its internal slate of instruments that it’s not as much of a universal music tool as the K.O. II. It’s so portable with relatively simple controls that I could go from knowing nothing about Teenage Engineering’s sampler to creating a simple track from scratch in less than an hour. Either way, you’ll want a better setup than the in-built speaker if you’re hoping anybody will listen to your tunes.

The demo songs included with the Medieval are useful for a quick burst of inspiration, but only nine are built-in. I enjoy all the different samples that come on the device. Even the silly Foley sword clashes, or witch screams have their uses when you break them up with punch-in effects.

There are a few added benefits for the Medieval than the K.O. II. Teenage Engineering redesigned the punch-in and other sound effects for this release. The different renamed effects—now called “pocus”—include “bardic ensemble” and “dungeon echo,” but the sound you hear is equivalent to the similar impacts like “chorus” on last year’s device. The effects have a different sound and tone than the EP-133. More than before, these seem especially built for the pre-installed samples. There’s also an added arpeggiator mode that you usually find on synthesizers that will repeat chords rather than individual notes you currently don’t have on the K.O. II. 

If you compare the effects side by side, there are stark differences between them. “Dungeon echo” has a darker sound with less high frequencies than the comparative “delay” on the 133. The distortion works very nicely on samples like Gregorian chants. Various punch-in effects also behave differently than the K.O. II. I wouldn’t say any effect is necessarily worse than the other, but you would have to have both side by side to see if one of them fits your needs better.

It seems to me this device was tuned especially for the on-device mixed samples. I’ve tried importing the sounds from the K.O. II and some other high-quality samples on hand. The effects were so much better on the instruments installed with the Medieval. They had more range and supported more frequencies than those that came from without. That presents a dilemma for most amateur music makers more interested in combining old and new on one device.

In the end, your choice of device comes down to looks. The plastic has a nice finish to it, almost Lego-like, and the color reminds me of old Macintosh computers. I prefer it to the gray of the K.O. II. It’s still a sturdy device, especially for its size, but some parts still feel cheap, such as the knobs you find loose in the device’s packaging. The center of the body also sinks slightly if you push too hard on the keys, but I’ve carried it around in backpacks with other cargo and had no issues with scratches or breaks.

As much as the text and display make it harder to use, I would like this device less if all the controls were written in boring 21st-century English. The device is a mish-mosh of anachronistic and semi-historical terms, but that’s the entire theme of the 1320. You’re not creating a legitimate Gregorian chant with a section of soprano monks and a background organ, you’re generating a monk mixtape of chants underlaid with a quick war drum beat, a hurdy gurdy baseline, and the occasional cackle of a passing witch. This is probably the most fun I’ve had with any device in a long, long time.