teenage engineering OP-1

[rené]

hey taylor... thanks! I am really tempted...
the sampling ability makes it really interesting but can you sample and loop "live" or what exactly do you use it for in a live context?

[haesslich]

the soundengine has some flaws, like being easy to clip etc.. also i find that e.g. the fm engine is hard to use for me, because the ui is quite cryptical, compared to the other engines.
i use the op-1 for both, live and studio work. in a live context i make use of nearly everything: drumsampler, synths and tape with prerecorded athmos. i considered using the tape as a live looper, but the ehx2880 just outperforms the op-1 tape...
in studio i use the sequencers and the one or the other lo-fi sound.

i must admit that after a few weeks, the machine lost some of it's glamour. but what remains is what it is: a powerful collection of features packed in a handy and beautiful box. though it does not sound really good (it's still not an access virus ; edit: or any other modern VA, i'm not advertising here ..), i absolutely love it.

[taylordeupree]

i agree with most of the above... mostly that they synth engines do not sound as rich or deep as most other synthesizers.. but i use it mostly for sinewaves (which DO sound good.. they're just sinewaves after all).. noise and samples/field recordings.

rené... the "live looping" you're wondering about can pretty much be handled by the 4-track tape. it's quite like a 2880.. in that you have 4 tracks with volume and panning... you can record any of the synth or drum engines into it.. or external signals.

there's a lot of power in the quirky little device and there is a lot of undocumented features/functions that you have to learn by word of mouth sort of.

i'm not sure it's worth the full price.. but if you can get one used for a bit of a discount and if it fills a gap in your gear.. it could be well worth it.

[rené]

I am broke now for sure. But since both two people in a room and pillowdiver have a festival gig lined up in july in austria and I purged most synths I had (mostly also of the digital cheapish variety, cz, tg, etc.) before I moved, I had to fill the gaps with the bonus of the small size of this thing.

[billygomberg]

if yr daunted by the budget, I recommend MFB

it's definitely more analog than the OP-1 and yr not getting the bells and whistles of looping and sequencing, but the small units are teeny tiny.

[taylordeupree]

the mfb stuff is cool and small... but completely different from an OP-1. these are analog mono synths (mono? or are they poly?) with knobs... OP-1 is digital and polyphonic with sampling, multiple synthesizers, drum machines, etc. a "mini workstation" really. really depends what you're looking for.

i was about to sell my waldorf Blofeld until i used it in a live show with sakamoto. the size is great for live and will probably accompany me to my shows now. it's redundant in my studio but fills a gap live since i don't use a laptop.

[rené]

Thank you all!

I once owned the mfb kraftzwerg and I sometimes miss it but had to sell it. I always get a bit frustrated with monophonic synths and also usually prefer sinewaves. I also owned the mopho for a while but did not find use for it and usually rather work sample(r) based (sampling guitars or other noises on boxes like the sp 303, etc.)

In that regards the op-1 seems to have the things I want from synths (no preference for analog, rather simple sines, polyphonic) and lofi samplers in one smaller box. I got a minor discount but I really doubt it is worth more than 500 EUR (I paid still much more...), but hey! you only live once...

[haesslich]

congratulations! is it already there? what's your impression?

i've problems with sinewaves on mine; when i play chords, it starts clipping quite early. i've less problems with more complex waveforms. question to the other op-1 users: how do you handle this?
i already deactivated the master compressor and set main output levels in the mixer to 75%, but the clipping happens in the individual channels, way before the output mixer, so that does not help.

[rené]

hey, quite enjoying this little thing, the workflow really grew on me. I only wish the click issue with the tape loop would get fixed as I'd love to layer over the start and end point without annoying clicks... also my first patches seemed to clip the output easily. At the moment I finally started organizing my own presets/samples in that machine and hope that future os updates fix the click issue. I sample the op-1 a lot into my boss sp 303 and get some nice stuff out of this combination. the effects on the sp 303 is quite useful if you want gritty/dirty lofiness. All in all, I am happy I have the op-1 but still feel it is overpriced.

[puggo]

I sample the op-1 a lot into my boss sp 303 and get some nice stuff out of this combination. the effects on the sp 303 is quite useful if you want gritty/dirty lofiness. All in all, I am happy I have the op-1 but still feel it is overpriced.

pardon from the off-topic, but I´m using a lot my sp-404 as a multitrack recorder lately (that thing can store-trigger lots of minutes on a single pad). not sure if the sp-303 has the "lo-fi recording mode", funny feature.  I found the sp´s really useful onstage too..and they´re cheap!

[mdoudin]

My OP-1 is about to arrive... I'm really wondering what I bought here...

[mdoudin]

Kinda weird because I really don't have a clue how my settings actually affect the sound.. but.. nice so far. Let's see how/if it really works out for recordings...

[taylordeupree]

the OP1 is a strange beast and the synth parameters, as they are not really labeled like standard subtractive, or fm or additive parameters, are really arbitrary.. you just tweak until it sounds good...

enjoy!

[mdoudin]

I am definitely surprised by its power. You would not expect a small thing like that to sound like a Juno... Very happy with it - and the parameter-control is - fair enough - incredibly innovative.

[oootini]

$800