Is there any worse feeling than throwing a fistful of dead batteries away (at the proper disposal facility, of course)? Just a short time ago those very same batteries were shiny, standing at attention in their cardboard display, so full of life, vigor, and voltage. And now…dead. Useless, except for maybe in use in some terrible art installation or as part of a display for rechargeable batteries (they’re still batteries, people!). While we as synthesists, music makers, and sound sculptors can’t single-handedly banish batteries from the planet yet, we can be more conscientious of our battery usage and myVolts have a pretty good solution in their ReVolt kit, which consists of fake batteries and a cable to plug in for power. I’ve been rocking them for use in my Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators for a while now and I love the fact that I don’t need to recharge—or worse—use conventional batteries anymore and while I’m not able to go running through the neighborhood waving my PO 12 above my head, annoying neighbors with my killer beats, it’s been a nice way to say goodbye to the batteries. With their Ripcord system that connects to the fake yellow myVolts batteries, it enables you to plug them into any USB-C port, which makes them universal and universally awesome. There are so many devices—and modules (Five12 Vector!)—that have USB ports you won’t need to look far or run a long cable to power your stuff up. They have replacements for batteries of all sizes, even giant D batteries for powering…heck, what takes a D battery anymore? A1970s camping torch?
Speaking of Pocket Operators, myVolts also sent over some of their TAPS Audio Flow adapters. These are cool add-ons that make it easier to adjust some of the parameters on Pocket Operators. They can be used in other devices too, basically anything with a stereo 3.5mm audio jack, but they seem tailor-made for POs. Their Pots & Pans device plugs into the POs and let’s you easily adjust the volume or pan (via a small selector switch) as well as quickly and easily mute the sound, and their Beat Splitter model has two switchable channels and is a single to dual stereo splitter. It isolates your channels and allows you to choose where they go, and is one of those two-way things where, since it’s passive, it can merge inputs by plugging Beat Splitter into the input or copy outputs by plugging it into the output of your Pocket Operator. This is a great way to route your signals and solve some problems, like if you’ve ever been annoyed at not being able to split a stereo signal for sending each channel off to different places, or if you want to isolate or combine channels. They’re pretty handy, especially if you’ve got multiple Pocket Operators and are using them simultaneously, and these also can be used with the compact 5-channel myVolts MickXer (Waveform, Issue #6).
Lastly, myVolts sent over some of their Halo mults to check out and these—surprise!—mult your single signal offering up two outputs in a small, convenient illuminated adapter. These are really handy, a nice way to quickly copy your signal without needing a module or split cable or whatever to do so. They plug right on in your module, and while you might have to finagle some cables out of the way, I didn’t find too much of an issue with that, and was impressed at the build quality. I’m always afraid that something like this, anything with a 3.5mm plug, will accidentally break off in a jack, but these are nicely made and the positive/negative green/red lights that flash with your frequency/tempo are a sweet touch.
myVolts basically defines what it is to be problem solvers, and have made life a little bit better and easier—and with less battery waste—something I’m appreciative of.

Prices starting at $10

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