Pocket Operator Sheet Music

I recently became the proud owner of a Pocket Operator 20: Arcade. I really enjoy it, and it’s already finding a home in new projects, for instance: the Selling Out theme music.

However, it has a limited amount of memory for loops, and I’ve noticed myself using it a little bit less now that it’s getting full and I have things I don’t want to delete. Unfortunately, there’s no way to store a loop and read it back in later. The only ways to save your work are to play it into a recorder, or to take some careful notes.

So last week I made myself some PO-20 Sheet Music. You can download a PDF for yourself here. It has space to note the rhythms of each instrument, as well as your chords and tempo. As far as I can tell, there’s really no good way to see what a given note’s pitch and bitty-ness are set to without ruining them, but I figure you could probably at least jot notes in the circles if you’ve got a melody going.

It all feels a little bit like trying to write down your password for River City Ransom, but I figure if I can pretend I saved Pattern 9 (that I don’t even use in anything anyway!) then I can feel okay about wiping it out.