Update: The Windows apps already have been fixed, they're working now. See my video update, ruclips.net/video/WDx0b2mEaYo/видео.html Update 2: Ok, from the comments and stats I can see you're a busy folk and you don't have the time to watch a 9 minute video. So here's the last minute of the video summarized: Compared to that fruit-shaped groovebox you mention a lot in the comments, the MEDO brings the following improvements: Song navigation (skip forward / backward in your recording and start overdubbing at a specific point), arpeggiator, song export, a sampler with a microphone, 16 buttons, more "on box" setup possibilites, a slightly better speaker.
It's a very clever and innovative piece of engineering. People have been trying to figure out the right way to shrink a full music production suite to the smallest size possible and this is a noble attempt worthy of a company with more of a pedigree in synth production
I agree, but things can always be improved. In this case, it would be nice to be able to add more measures to a loop, either in the app or on the machine itself.
Ive had one of these for months now and to be honest I can't fault it although all my life being a windows user i recently started using Mac and the software works perfectly with Mac. The android app works great and I was one of the fist people to submit samples etc to the app community which is a lot of fun!
Yeah definitely this has potential - when you can make your own sounds use the sample voice - you could really build an interesting track either on the train or taking it somewhere on holiday... Thank you for sharing 😎
Hello, Thanks for your video. Could you please tell how you connected the midi out of the MEDO to your PEAK synth so that apparently you can send midi out to the PEAK, playing the PEAK with MEDO ? Thanks
Hello! If've used a 5pin MIDI to USB converter: ruclips.net/video/iV4OSRG6Kio/видео.html Or direct link: www.hobbytronics.co.uk/product/usb-midi-converter It used to be cheaper ;-) You can build this yourself using a Microcontroller for roughly half the price.
Oh, definitely - I also said exactly this in this video - but it brings enough own ideas to the table to be more than just a knockoff product. (That's what I think)
@@ichibandude If you use the affiliate links that are all over social media, it's not substantially more expensive (maybe $5 to $10 more). I'd love to make a comparison video, but I can't justify buying an Orba 2 just for that. (Also, the Orba 2 I once bought suffered from that power on switch failure a lot of users experienced)
The similarities are obvious (as I said in the video), but I think it brings enough own ideas to the table to avoid such a thing. Maybe the competition "inspires" both companies to polish their apps? ;-)
Does the bluetooth app connect with Android 13? Orba and Chorda need usb-c to connect to the app, and that defeats the purpose of a super portable groovebox imo. I am also curious if the song length is longer. Again, the orba and chorda top out 40 sec loops. And finally, Medo has a touch button for menu select instead of the slow click Artiphon button, so you can navigate quickly. Could all of these factors put it ahead of Artiphon?
As I said in the video ;-) 128 bars of music, that's around 8 min at 120 bpm. Songs can be saved to your phone. The apps have been patched in the meantime, to both USB and Bluetooth do work.
It comes with presets preinstalled, but I'll be frank, those don't sound _that_ great. The synth is capable of much more (and luckily, they've fixed all the apps in the meantime, see my new video ruclips.net/video/WDx0b2mEaYo/видео.html )
In theory, the Donner play app downloads another plugin for the MEDO which then lets you import and export sounds and sequences, and share them online. This kind of works on Android, but only over USB, and it doesn't work at all on Windows at the moment (August 2024). Transfering sound sets mostly works without hickups, transferring single sounds (Pads, Basses, Drum Kits...) often freezes the App. If it someday in the future works as expected, it's going to be a very nifty little thing ;-)
As I said in the end of this video, this box here adds some more features (the sampler, the arpeggiator, the forward/backward-seeking, ...) so on paper it's better. But the supporting software isn't there yet so in reality, Orba 2 has the edge, until Donner fixes the software!
Woovebox is a more controlled experience, you can edit things more precisely and rearrange them when needed. The MEDO is more like a "play some stuff and see where that leads you" box.
Haha! Well yeah after the software updates, I think this is worth it. You can get some cool sounds out of the synth if you dig in a bit, and it's a 16 voice VA synth with multitimbrality and a sequencer if you think of it that way. That's really not that bad. The effects are a bit underwhelming.
Hi, thanks for watching! I had the Orba and Orba 2 on this channel, and this box is much easier to play thanks to its 4x4 grid layout (which also gives it twice as much notes to play). I never tried a kaossilator. :-)
@@mr_floydst I have a kaossilator and a kaossilator pro+ and they're so easy and fun to use. They're amazing and sound great but due to some limitations maybe more like toys than true professional instruments
Hi, my apologies, but so many people obviously don't watch the whole video. Please do, and if you still have questions then, please ask again and I'll answer them :-)
You can use it that way if you want to (support on both Windows and Android is shaky at the moment, but from my experience with other bluetooth MIDI devices I'd say that's more a problem of those OS)
Donner should have made B-1 and D-1 in one box, add some digital polyphony, sell it for 350-450 and that's about it. This here is a toy (i'm still buying it, don't get me wrong).
Thanks for watching - yes, I don't think this is aimed at the professional market. But there's some fun to be had here - like with TEs pocket operators, for example.
True, and Donner will even release yet another mono analog synth next year, weird......I think po-33 can easily beat MEDO in functionality, MEDO is still fun but is not suitable for making full song. I have them both.
@@djkanyon yeah I saw it on an expo, it's mono analog and has a vintage look, the keyboard part and the modulation part are seperated which can be assembled together. Oh I just found information about it, it's named Donner L1 and is a replica of Roland SH-101 ruclips.net/video/6vGFIQ2-MC0/видео.html
Thanks! As I said in the video - this has the potential to be so much better once we can create our own sounds. As it is, it's great for creating drum and bass loops quickly. (Those sound quite good depending on the drum kit / bass sound you choose)
Ah, yeah. Very nice hardware that lacks on the software side, just like the Orba. I would use mine (I have the Orba 2) more if the software wouldn't lock up, lose connection and be a general p**n in the *ss to use. And updates are only to add more features, never to fix anything. I dunno if they just slap an Android app half-done and center themselves on the iPhone app and that's the case here too. But yeah, I was hoping this could replace my Orba but fails in just the same place. Alas!
Thanks for watching - you're hitting the nail on the head there. I'll immediately post a follow up video once those apps start working. (As I've owned Donner products previously, I'm cautiously optimistic here ;-) )
I briefly did, in the end of the video ;-) similar, but also has arpeggiator, sampler, track navigation (you can skip forward and backward in a recording and thus change parts), has easy to use quantisation.
$162 on Amazon and I thought that was an over pricing mistake. Even at half that I'm not sure it would be worth the time, even without the huge software issues
I was _really_ looking forward to try this, I don't know why, I just love gimmicky gadgets ;-) One thing this is really great for is creating drum and bass loops quickly. That part is fun, definitely, and I think for that, this device sounds quite nice and punchy. I mean, you'd need to buy two or three Volcas (another beloved gadget synth) to achieve something similar, or maybe I'm wrong here? ;-)
it looks cute i like it, concerned about the shift commands a bit chorda seems more my thing but this looks good now make a little mechanical midi keyboard version... add a screen... op1...bruiser?
@@mr_floydst have you tried koala sampler? its both on android and ios. workflow is different but i think i can do most of it which shown here in the app.
After backing dozens of kickstarters, this was by far the worst. Doesn't help that the device burst into fire after a few days use. I'd recommend avoiding this one, especially if expecting support.
Uh, wow. That's bad. Personally, I like it, though, it's a nice box for cobbling together a backing track quickly. But I'd propably change my mind as well if it caught fire in the process
yet another "too complex" gadget which will die shortly after release :/ yeah, 5000 features and a sampler ... but you still need 15 steps to reach earch function and another 10 steps to activate a function. there is no spoon! and sadly, no workflow at all! Trotzdem Danke für das ausführliche Video :) Hoffe hier kann jeder mit Kritik umgehen :)
Thanks for sharing your opinion - my viewers have been quite critical on this gadget so far ;-) I thought this box is quite easy to use, though - it takes a maximum of 3 presses to use the more "arcane" functions while all the musical stuff takes one button press to reach. There's nothing to be memorized as all the keys are labelled (well, apart from the fact that the scales chooser starts bottom left)
That's their MSRP, in reality, you will more likely pay something like $160 to $170. A version with mechanical buttons would be nice. The membrane buttons have that slide and move function for pitch bending and modulating that's possibly hard to implement on mechanical buttons.
![ROSÉ (로제) - number one girl [더 시즌즈-이영지의 레인보우] | KBS 241129 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A9oByH9Ci24/mqdefault.jpg)
Update: The Windows apps already have been fixed, they're working now. See my video update, ruclips.net/video/WDx0b2mEaYo/видео.html
Update 2: Ok, from the comments and stats I can see you're a busy folk and you don't have the time to watch a 9 minute video. So here's the last minute of the video summarized: Compared to that fruit-shaped groovebox you mention a lot in the comments, the MEDO brings the following improvements: Song navigation (skip forward / backward in your recording and start overdubbing at a specific point), arpeggiator, song export, a sampler with a microphone, 16 buttons, more "on box" setup possibilites, a slightly better speaker.
It's a very clever and innovative piece of engineering. People have been trying to figure out the right way to shrink a full music production suite to the smallest size possible and this is a noble attempt worthy of a company with more of a pedigree in synth production
I agree, but things can always be improved. In this case, it would be nice to be able to add more measures to a loop, either in the app or on the machine itself.
best and most informative tutorial so far Floyd, thanks.
Thanks for watching!
Ive had one of these for months now and to be honest I can't fault it although all my life being a windows user i recently started using Mac and the software works perfectly with Mac. The android app works great and I was one of the fist people to submit samples etc to the app community which is a lot of fun!
(In the meantime, I put out an update video as most app problems have been fixed)
Yeah definitely this has potential - when you can make your own sounds use the sample voice - you could really build an interesting track either on the train or taking it somewhere on holiday...
Thank you for sharing 😎
Thanks for watching! ;)
Love your demo! I think I need to buy one to use with my Roland Go-Keys 3!
Thanks! That's a great combo. In the meantime, more sounds for the MEDO are available, and they sound quite nice.
Inexpensive device with a lot of potential - if Donner support it with updates and fixes. Very interesting!
This is roughly how I see this. There's some fun to be had here and it's really not _that_ expensive compared to other synth gadgets.
Best plot twist oif the year yet! Looks fun! Thanks for the review Floyd!
Thanks for watching! Yes, this is a fun box. Really waiting for a working version of the synth editor... ;-)
Hello,
Thanks for your video.
Could you please tell how you connected the midi out of the MEDO to your PEAK synth so that apparently you can send midi out to the PEAK, playing the PEAK with MEDO ?
Thanks
Hello! If've used a 5pin MIDI to USB converter: ruclips.net/video/iV4OSRG6Kio/видео.html
Or direct link: www.hobbytronics.co.uk/product/usb-midi-converter
It used to be cheaper ;-) You can build this yourself using a Microcontroller for roughly half the price.
Thanks again Floyd, that’s awesome!
Thanks for watching!
Medo, Donner's Orba
Oh, definitely - I also said exactly this in this video - but it brings enough own ideas to the table to be more than just a knockoff product. (That's what I think)
And it's more expensive than Orba 2. Maybe we need a comparison video.
@@ichibandude If you use the affiliate links that are all over social media, it's not substantially more expensive (maybe $5 to $10 more). I'd love to make a comparison video, but I can't justify buying an Orba 2 just for that. (Also, the Orba 2 I once bought suffered from that power on switch failure a lot of users experienced)
Oh, here we have something for lawyers at Artiphon to chew at! But yes, looks cooler than my Orba!
The similarities are obvious (as I said in the video), but I think it brings enough own ideas to the table to avoid such a thing. Maybe the competition "inspires" both companies to polish their apps? ;-)
@@mr_floydst Or, perhaps Artiphone licensed some of their tech to Donner?
Does the bluetooth app connect with Android 13? Orba and Chorda need usb-c to connect to the app, and that defeats the purpose of a super portable groovebox imo. I am also curious if the song length is longer. Again, the orba and chorda top out 40 sec loops. And finally, Medo has a touch button for menu select instead of the slow click Artiphon button, so you can navigate quickly. Could all of these factors put it ahead of Artiphon?
As I said in the video ;-)
128 bars of music, that's around 8 min at 120 bpm. Songs can be saved to your phone.
The apps have been patched in the meantime, to both USB and Bluetooth do work.
Interesting! Thanks Floyd.
You're very welcome!
Do you absolutely need the app to change presets or does it come with a few of them built-in?
It comes with presets preinstalled, but I'll be frank, those don't sound _that_ great. The synth is capable of much more (and luckily, they've fixed all the apps in the meantime, see my new video ruclips.net/video/WDx0b2mEaYo/видео.html )
Cool! Can you tell me how this interfaces with the donner play app and app function and capabilities?
In theory, the Donner play app downloads another plugin for the MEDO which then lets you import and export sounds and sequences, and share them online. This kind of works on Android, but only over USB, and it doesn't work at all on Windows at the moment (August 2024). Transfering sound sets mostly works without hickups, transferring single sounds (Pads, Basses, Drum Kits...) often freezes the App. If it someday in the future works as expected, it's going to be a very nifty little thing ;-)
@mr_floydst Cool!
Any suggestion that bluetooth transfer or manipulation will be possible with app in the future?
Welcome to bad gear...
;-)
😮😮😮 Bravo, Floyd!! 😍😍😍
Thanks for watching! :-)
What about compared with the Orba 2 ?? Which is best from your point of view ?
As I said in the end of this video, this box here adds some more features (the sampler, the arpeggiator, the forward/backward-seeking, ...) so on paper it's better. But the supporting software isn't there yet so in reality, Orba 2 has the edge, until Donner fixes the software!
I’m not sure it can compete with the Woovebox but it looks interesting.
Woovebox is a more controlled experience, you can edit things more precisely and rearrange them when needed. The MEDO is more like a "play some stuff and see where that leads you" box.
These new fangled tiny machines! What'll they think of next?
I guess we'll see :)
"Welcome to Bad Gear, the show about the _world's_ most hated audio tools!"
Honestly I'm gonna get one.
Haha! Well yeah after the software updates, I think this is worth it. You can get some cool sounds out of the synth if you dig in a bit, and it's a 16 voice VA synth with multitimbrality and a sequencer if you think of it that way. That's really not that bad. The effects are a bit underwhelming.
Sounds pretty good. Idk from the looks of it maybe a kaossilator or an orba would be more intuitive to use
Hi, thanks for watching! I had the Orba and Orba 2 on this channel, and this box is much easier to play thanks to its 4x4 grid layout (which also gives it twice as much notes to play). I never tried a kaossilator. :-)
@@mr_floydst I have a kaossilator and a kaossilator pro+ and they're so easy and fun to use. They're amazing and sound great but due to some limitations maybe more like toys than true professional instruments
there's no quantize on the looper mode?
Hi, you can set up quantizing in the app before recording a loop (the MEDO will remember this setting until you change it)
@@mr_floydst mm ok but if not the track will be slightly out of time. ok. thank you
Isn't this just a square Artiphon Orba??? What makes this different? The looper?
Hi, my apologies, but so many people obviously don't watch the whole video. Please do, and if you still have questions then, please ask again and I'll answer them :-)
@@mr_floydst Sorry. I commented before I watched the full video. My apologies
What I would give for a tiny velocity sensitive Bluetooth midi keyboard like this.
You can use it that way if you want to (support on both Windows and Android is shaky at the moment, but from my experience with other bluetooth MIDI devices I'd say that's more a problem of those OS)
Remember Andrew Huang's app?
Andrew is so productive - which ohne of his many creations are you referring to?
@@mr_floydst I mention it because this device looks very much alike with one of the apps' tabs.
MEDOn't want it.
;-)
Lol. Well... unless it's for free like. Hehe
Donner should have made B-1 and D-1 in one box, add some digital polyphony, sell it for 350-450 and that's about it. This here is a toy (i'm still buying it, don't get me wrong).
Thanks for watching - yes, I don't think this is aimed at the professional market. But there's some fun to be had here - like with TEs pocket operators, for example.
@@mr_floydsttrue! still buying it tho... don't get me wrong, i would love to have this
True, and Donner will even release yet another mono analog synth next year, weird......I think po-33 can easily beat MEDO in functionality, MEDO is still fun but is not suitable for making full song. I have them both.
@@haotian6379 they will release another mono synth? wow that was news to me! i bet it's going to be a banger.
@@djkanyon yeah I saw it on an expo, it's mono analog and has a vintage look, the keyboard part and the modulation part are seperated which can be assembled together. Oh I just found information about it, it's named Donner L1 and is a replica of Roland SH-101 ruclips.net/video/6vGFIQ2-MC0/видео.html
Donner Orba right?!
Thanks for watching a part of this video! ;-)
Pretty interesting device, but the form factor really looks like a really weird and not fun thing to play.
It's relatively easy to play drums, bass and chords, melody is a matter of memorizing the notes. I thought it wasn't too bad, honestly.
Impressive for the price. Very woovebox. Had I not upgraded to an MPC one six months ago I’d probably be buying one now after seeing the video 😀
Thanks! As I said in the video - this has the potential to be so much better once we can create our own sounds. As it is, it's great for creating drum and bass loops quickly. (Those sound quite good depending on the drum kit / bass sound you choose)
Sorry i’m not speak english,uso traductor. Thank thank you for compartir experiencie, i have one one week and hapy ..
The German accent!
... is really charming? ;-)
@@mr_floydst Aber natürlich! Lediglich unerwartet. Danke für das erstklassige Review!
I’m biased cause I had a bad experience with Orba lol
Out of the box, it's better than Orba, but I'd really recommend waiting for the bug fixes on Windows and Android. I can't check on IOS.
Oh, that was quick: The apps are already fixed on Windows, and the synth editor is working now!
@@mr_floydst interesting 🧐 thanks for update
Ah, yeah. Very nice hardware that lacks on the software side, just like the Orba. I would use mine (I have the Orba 2) more if the software wouldn't lock up, lose connection and be a general p**n in the *ss to use. And updates are only to add more features, never to fix anything. I dunno if they just slap an Android app half-done and center themselves on the iPhone app and that's the case here too.
But yeah, I was hoping this could replace my Orba but fails in just the same place. Alas!
Thanks for watching - you're hitting the nail on the head there. I'll immediately post a follow up video once those apps start working. (As I've owned Donner products previously, I'm cautiously optimistic here ;-) )
Compare with orba2
I briefly did, in the end of the video ;-) similar, but also has arpeggiator, sampler, track navigation (you can skip forward and backward in a recording and thus change parts), has easy to use quantisation.
$162 on Amazon and I thought that was an over pricing mistake. Even at half that I'm not sure it would be worth the time, even without the huge software issues
I was _really_ looking forward to try this, I don't know why, I just love gimmicky gadgets ;-)
One thing this is really great for is creating drum and bass loops quickly. That part is fun, definitely, and I think for that, this device sounds quite nice and punchy.
I mean, you'd need to buy two or three Volcas (another beloved gadget synth) to achieve something similar, or maybe I'm wrong here? ;-)
it looks cute i like it, concerned about the shift commands a bit
chorda seems more my thing but this looks good
now make a little mechanical midi keyboard version... add a screen... op1...bruiser?
Those commands shouldn't be too complicated - they're all printed onto the keyboard (apart from the note names, that is)
199€ is way to much for that thing.
That's their MSRP - there are discount links everywhere so the real price is more like $160 to $170.
quantize
yes
Better to just use your phone and an app, cheaper as well
Which app would you suggest using to replace this?
It can be replaced by an app, I wonder who are the target audience.
Thanks for watching - which app would you use to replace this?
@@mr_floydst have you tried koala sampler? its both on android and ios. workflow is different but i think i can do most of it which shown here in the app.
After backing dozens of kickstarters, this was by far the worst. Doesn't help that the device burst into fire after a few days use. I'd recommend avoiding this one, especially if expecting support.
Uh, wow. That's bad.
Personally, I like it, though, it's a nice box for cobbling together a backing track quickly. But I'd propably change my mind as well if it caught fire in the process
What Kickstarter? Donner is a huge company.
yet another "too complex" gadget which will die shortly after release :/ yeah, 5000 features and a sampler ... but you still need 15 steps to reach earch function and another 10 steps to activate a function. there is no spoon! and sadly, no workflow at all! Trotzdem Danke für das ausführliche Video :) Hoffe hier kann jeder mit Kritik umgehen :)
Thanks for sharing your opinion - my viewers have been quite critical on this gadget so far ;-)
I thought this box is quite easy to use, though - it takes a maximum of 3 presses to use the more "arcane" functions while all the musical stuff takes one button press to reach. There's nothing to be memorized as all the keys are labelled (well, apart from the fact that the scales chooser starts bottom left)
Just get a KAOS instead
Hi, thanks for watching! But... those are not really comparable, or am I getting something wrong here?
€ 199,99 Not a Donner price 🤔
Also I would have liked better physical buttons instead of membrane ones.
$99 at most
That's their MSRP, in reality, you will more likely pay something like $160 to $170. A version with mechanical buttons would be nice. The membrane buttons have that slide and move function for pitch bending and modulating that's possibly hard to implement on mechanical buttons.