Perfect Sound Forever: Teenage Engineering's Synthesizers and Altium's CoDesigner

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Teenage Engineering, a Swedish company, specializes in creating compact, powerful synthesizers, including a series of small, battery-powered synthesizers known as pocket operators. These devices, which are roughly the size of a pocket calculator, can be connected together to produce and record a variety of music genres. The company's mission is to make synthesizers accessible to everyone, with a simple interface, animated LCD displays, and affordable price points. However, the design process of these devices presented a challenge. The company handles everything in-house, from electrical and mechanical engineering to industrial design and software development. The main challenge was getting the balance right between ECAD and MCAD software tools. The company's designs usually start on the MCAD side, building up the overall electromechanical look and feel. An ultra-tight tolerance chain was key when bouncing designs back and forth between Altium and MCAD.

Teenage Engineering is a Swedish company that specializes in creating lightweight, compact, and powerful synthesizers. Their innovations include a series of small, battery-powered synthesizers known as pocket operators. These devices, which are roughly the size of a pocket calculator and barely thicker than a printed circuit board, can be connected together to produce and record a variety of music genres. The company's mission is to grow the synthesizer population, making them accessible to anyone. They handle everything in-house, from electrical and mechanical engineering to industrial design and software development. The company's co-founder, David Eriksson, explains that they aim to create products that are accessible to anyone and can be used right out of the box.

Teenage Engineering used Altium Designer for the development of the pocket operators series. Altium’s CoDesigner capability, built into Altium Designer, bridges the gap between ECAD and MCAD software tools, allowing for effortless collaboration while addressing pervasive file transfer and conversion issues that hamper the design process. The CoDesigner capability can help make Teenage Engineering’s MCAD/ECAD designs flow even easier between disparate software tools using just a simple plug-in that can be installed in their MCAD software. This effectively eliminates the need for importing, exporting, or converting file formats between disparate MCAD and ECAD systems. Everything is built into Altium Designer and effortlessly accessible via Altium 365, the world’s only cloud platform for printed circuit board design and realization. The MCAD CoDesigner extension is included in the standard Altium Designer installation, so the CoDesigner panel is always in the PCB editor, automatically converting files so designers can focus on projects without downloads or data loss.

• The use of Altium’s CoDesigner capability has greatly simplified the design process for Teenage Engineering. It has allowed for effortless collaboration between ECAD and MCAD software tools, addressing file transfer and conversion issues that previously hampered the design process. The CoDesigner capability has made it easier for Teenage Engineering’s designs to flow between disparate software tools, eliminating the need for importing, exporting, or converting file formats between different systems. This has allowed the designers to focus on their projects without worrying about downloads or data loss. Furthermore, the simplicity of Teenage Engineering’s designs, including the pocket operator series, allows them to live on far longer than most devices at the same price point. The devices are designed to be durable and long-lasting, with a minimal use of plastic and avoidance of aging parts like lithium batteries.

• Pocket operators are priced as low as $49USD, making them affordable for a wide range of customers.

• The pocket operators only require two AAA batteries to operate, and can last up to two years in standby mode.

• The devices can be connected together using simple 3.5mm aux cables, allowing users to achieve full, lush sounds.