How to Transfer Sounds to the PO-32 Tonic

The PO-32 has no USB data connection. It moves sounds and patterns as audio, through its microphone. PO-PatchStudio turns what you’ve made into a short burst of sound and plays it into the PO-32, which decodes it. This happens in Transfer & Import.

Transfers are made for the PO-32 Tonic. Also sends drum sounds to the PO-35 Speak’s built-in Tonic channel.

Send a Kit, Sound or Pattern

1. Open Transfer & Import. Under Send to PO-32, choose what to send:
   • Kit: all 16 sounds, both A and B. They replace sounds 1 to 16 on the PO-32, and its patterns stay as they are.
   • Sound N: the sound you picked in the Studio. Sound 5 replaces sound 5, and so on.
   • Pattern N: the current pattern, with its steps, fills, accents and per-step morph. It goes into the same pattern number on the PO-32 and also sets the tempo, swing, every sound’s morph and a chain of just this pattern. Other sound settings stay as they are.
2. Select Send to PO-32…. The next screen shows the keys that put the PO-32 in receive mode, and says what the send will replace.
3. Press acc + sound on the PO-32.
4. Place your speaker or phone close to the PO-32’s microphone, turn the volume up and select Play Transfer.

You don’t need to stop a pattern first. Play Transfer stops the Studio’s pattern and any preview before it plays. It can’t pause other apps, though, so stop any music playing on the same computer or phone.

A kit transfer takes tens of seconds. Once it starts, let it finish. Stop ends it early, and you press acc + sound on the PO-32 again before playing it again. The PO-32 doesn’t send anything back, so the app can’t check what arrived.

To send a kit, a sound or a backup you’ve saved, use the item menu in the Library. Transfer opens with the item ready. A sound sent from the Library goes to the sound selected in the Studio. Send Something Else puts the usual choices back.

If you delete that item in the Library after Transfer opens it, Transfer won’t send or export it. It tells you so, and Open Recycle Bin takes you to where you can restore it.

Export a WAV Instead

Select Export WAV, on the Transfer page or the receive-mode screen, to save the transfer as an audio file (on desktop it goes to your Downloads folder). Play it into the PO-32 later, from any device.

Tips for a Clean Transfer

• Loud and clean works best: turn the volume up until just before it distorts.
• Turn off effects, EQ and audio “enhancements” on the output, including spatial audio on phones and headphones.
• The PO-32 can also receive through its line input: connect a 3.5 mm cable from your computer’s audio output to the PO-32’s line in, then press acc + sound as usual.
• Keep the room quiet while the burst plays.

Since version 1.0.2, long transfers keep the same level all the way through. Before that, the end of a kit transfer could reach the PO-32 more than 8 dB quieter than the start. If you had trouble with full kits on an older version, update and try again.

More fixes are in Troubleshooting Transfers.