Teenage Engineering’s K.O. Sidekick is here and it looks like a very fun little sidecar for the KO II
Teenage Engineering has officially released the EP 136 K.O. Sidekick, a compact new unit that sits inside the K.O. family and feels almost purpose built to park right next to the EP 133 K.O. II. At a glance it looks like a tiny sidecar, but the idea is a lot broader than that. This is a two channel stereo mixer, USB audio interface and effects processor aimed at people building small, portable setups around samplers, synths and other compact gear.
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The feature set is surprisingly stacked for something this small. You get two stereo channel strips, a stereo aux input that can double as a third session input, a main output, cue output and USB connectivity, with the Sidekick also working as an 8 in, 4 out USB audio interface and MIDI controller. Teenage Engineering says it can run on two AAA batteries or USB C, which only adds to the appeal for anyone trying to keep their setup light and mobile.
What helps it stand out is that Teenage Engineering has not treated it like a boring utility box. The Sidekick includes three EQ styles, individual compression on both input channels, six performance effects, beat match per channel and their Motion Control effects sequencing. There is also a high resolution custom LCD colour screen, a pressure sensitive force pad and a high resolution mod stick, which all push it further into that playful Teenage Engineering world where function and fun are meant to sit side by side.
That all makes the K.O. Sidekick feel less like a traditional mixer and more like a performance tool for live remixing, sketching ideas and reshaping beats on the fly. Teenage Engineering itself describes it as something that started life as a mixer for the K.O. II before becoming more of an effect box with a built in sequencer, and that tracks with the overall design. It is clearly meant to complement the rest of the EP line, while also being flexible enough to work as a standalone desktop piece in its own right.
There is also a price point here that makes the whole thing more tempting than you might expect from Teenage Engineering. The K.O. Sidekick is listed at €189 on the company store, which puts it in a zone where it feels much more like an impulse creative add on than some huge investment. For producers already in the K.O. ecosystem, that makes a lot of sense. For everyone else, it might be the first time this kind of tiny, character heavy mixer has looked genuinely hard to resist.
