u/AndreasKing

I saw a post recently of a browser tool someone made to quickly load samples so that they can be imported onto their PO-33. I've been using a similar tool that I built for a while, but seeing that kicked my butt into actually making it accessible for other people since I think it has some pretty cool features that really help to save precious sample space on your Pocket Operator.

You can download it from the releases page here, just choose the right version for your OS:

https://github.com/andreaskinga-lgtm/POTool

The general idea is that this lets you create a 'Project' for each of your drum kits, and combine them all into a single audio file that you can load into your PO in a one go. That way, it can be sliced up on the PO and use the smallest amount of space possible for each of your kits. If you've ever tried to individually load samples onto the PO-33 you know that doing it like that wastes a TON of space.

The overall flow is:

1. Import your samples - either to each pad individually or from a file with multiple samples inside. You can manually slice, auto slice, or even use the built in slice points from OP1 samples (like you can find on OP1.fun)
2. Customize your pads. You can drag them around to adjust their order, change their volume, playback speed/pitch, and even merge them together (To do things like have a mixed bass drum + high hat sound on a single pad to allow you to save space for other simultaneous sounds when making a beat)
3. Save your project so that you can keep the kit exactly as you have it set up - or even open it later to modify it
4. Plug in your PO to the computer, start recording on one of your drum pad slots, and then click the play button to play the entire sequence of your pads into the PO. Ideally, the PO will then auto slice the samples onto the pads for you (Unfortunately I find I usually have to do some tweaking after the import depending on how distinct each transient is)
5. If you want, you can even export the sounds into a single WAV file so that you can have an easy library of drum kits on the go with you. I just have a folder on my phone with a ton of them so if I ever want to swap something out I can easily.

I've mostly tested this on my Mac because that's what I generally use for programming, but I've also done some basic testing on my PC to make sure it works there as well. Linux users you're on your own for now but if you have issues let me know and maybe I'll install a linux partition on my PC to do some proper testing. The code is all hosted on github so feel free to look it over before you download.

I've (almost entirely) used claude to build this, but I am a programmer by trade so if you find any issues I should actually be able to understand and fix them properly. Electron apps are a little new to me but I have plenty of experience in react-native so this wasn't anything crazy new to me.

Hope you all enjoy and if you have any questions/concerns or feature suggestions let me know!

Did a trip earlier this year from Cedar Lake all the way down to Opeongo and had a great time, but had one rough experience in this portage in particular.

If I have the option between a flatter but longer route I usually take it, so looking at this portage I figured I'd take the cart trail over the middle bit even though it was substantially longer.

Unfortunately it looks like this wasn't mapped accurately on both Jeff's Map and Algonquin's own maps, and I ended up getting myself a little lost - turned a 4.5k portage into something more like 6-7 by going up the logging road that's marked on the map as the dashed grey line.

For anyone who's on this route in the future, I've marked a roughly accurate version of how the path actually goes. The 'correct' but unmarked path is marked in green, and the red X marks a portion that doesn't actually exist. I don't know if maybe that section existed at some point, but if it did the forest has completely overtaken it and you'd need to do some pretty serious bushwacking for a few hundred meters to link up with the part that is there.

Below is a description of the path coming from Hogan lake - obviously if you're coming from the other direction you just have to reverse all the instructions.

1. Once you finish the first 990m, you can turn left to go onto the flat path, as is marked on Jeff's Map.

2. About halfway down that section (pretty close to where the distance marker is) there's a path on your right side marked "cart trail" by a sign that isn't listed on the map. You want to follow that - do not continue straight. If you do, eventually you'll get to the intersection where the dashed line meets the cart trail and find that the cart trail doesn't actually continue as the map indicates it does.

3. Eventually you will meet up with the logging road that is marked on the map with the dashed grey line. You'll want to turn right down that road.

From here you have two options.

a) As you walk down the logging road the first path you will run into will go off to the left and be marked cart trail. This meanders up to the northeast until it links up with the cart trail that is marked on Jeff's map and continues downwards. It is a pretty flat path although you're adding a lot of extra distance going north.

b) Your other option is to continue down the logging road until you hit the 1560m section of the portage that is marked on the map. Turn left onto it and it's mostly steady uphill until a super steep drop at the end.

In the end, coming from Hogan lake I still think the first part of the cart trail is worth it, but since the last half doubles back so far north I would just get on the second half of the 1560 meter one. The uphill isn't too bad as it's pretty steady and the steep downhill bit is fine as long as you're not carrying too much gear.

However coming the other direction I would definitely take that cart trail the whole way - that steep incline at the start of the 1560m portion beat the crap out of me even with no gear (I was doubling back to carry the canoe separately because I'm just not hardcore enough to do pack and canoe at once).