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OP-1 field

teenage.engineering

51–60 of 251 posts

Re: OP-1 field

#51

The problem with TE is that they are building top quality toys, not tools. Maybe those toys can be used as tools in some niche context, but as a non-musician I wouldn't know. I'd love to see them selling a more general purpose pocket computer, with the same high quality design and even the hefty price tag. A pocket computer made for hackers (the tinkering kind)

In a creative context/process I think it is a good thing if you can toy around with a device/instrument in a playful way. I'd definitely love if they would make their devices hackable though, that would unlock so much potential and the community is there.

Re: OP-1 field

#52
post #35

The people complaining about the price tag: I get it. But the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song. Why has no one else figured that out? With all these groove boxes etc, why has no other music gear taken the step of being portable and all-in-one. Show me another way to write a song in an airplane, and you can have my money.

I guess you're not yet familiar with the Synthstrom Deluge:

https://synthstrom.com

Far better than the OP-1, by miles ..

See also the 1010music BlackBox:

https://1010music.com/product/blackbox

Easily set up on an airplane seat-table for production.

Re: OP-1 field

#53
post #35

The people complaining about the price tag: I get it. But the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song. Why has no one else figured that out? With all these groove boxes etc, why has no other music gear taken the step of being portable and all-in-one. Show me another way to write a song in an airplane, and you can have my money.

The Polyend tracker makes for a complete portable music-making tool as well.

https://polyend.com/tracker/

I'm sure there's others, but it's true that the OP-1 offers an impressive feature set for portable production.

Re: OP-1 field

#54
post #35

The people complaining about the price tag: I get it. But the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song. Why has no one else figured that out? With all these groove boxes etc, why has no other music gear taken the step of being portable and all-in-one. Show me another way to write a song in an airplane, and you can have my money.

Depends on how you define "a whole song", but I'd say theres plenty of other options. In fact I'd go so far as to say the polyend tracker is even better than the op-1 for that purpose. Even better than that, a standard laptop with a standard DAW. Or even an ipad for that matter, which has a great selection of its own software.

There are many things the OP-1 does that nothing else can do quite the same, but I wouldnt say thats one of them.

Re: OP-1 field

#55
post #35

The people complaining about the price tag: I get it. But the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song. Why has no one else figured that out? With all these groove boxes etc, why has no other music gear taken the step of being portable and all-in-one. Show me another way to write a song in an airplane, and you can have my money.

> But the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song

I could take a pen and some paper and write a whole song. Or take my laptop and write, record & mix a whole song. Or an iPad. Or the MPC as others have said, the Synthstrom Deluge... It's a fun toy, but not unique in that regard.

Re: OP-1 field

#56

It looks nice and I may consider buying one for research purpose. But I know the price tag can be quite high for many. Maybe that's partially the reason that I believe free and open-source software is a form or music democratisation. I would like to invite those who are interested in this idea to try my live coding project in the browser: https://glicol.org I have been taking this project to different workshops and t…

To make it more democratic, could you add a gui that records interactions as glicol source code? That way it would be possible to immediately start making music without having to learn the language first.

I do want to make hardware one day.

Re: OP-1 field

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's quite obvious to me that it's a keyboard instrument from the first picture alone. The copy gives plenty of information on the synthesis and sampling capabilities.

Yeah I can see it has a keyboard, presumably some kind of synthesiser. It also appears to have some recording facility, but not clear how to get audio into it - can't tell what ports it has. Is the recording feature just for sequencing internal sample and synth sounds? Or... they highlight the new version now has a 2.4ghz antenna - do you stream audio in/out over bluetooth? A little explanation of basically what it c…

I think both of your questions are answered on the page. Maybe not in the direct manner in which you have asked, but my understanding is that recording is possible with the mixer accessory mentioned towards the bottom, and the antennas are for the Bluetooth MIDI feature heavily emphasised towards the top.

Maybe they do need a FAQ with a basic Q&A format, though. e.g.

Why does it have antennas?

How do I record?

What do the knobs do?

How many instruments are included?

How do I transfer recordings to my computer or phone?

etc.

Re: OP-1 field

#58
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, that's not at all true. Being able to recall state is something that has been solved for a long time, but not all synths have that functionality, I'll give you that. As two examples of synths I own that can do this: - Moog Sirin supports Program Change MIDI messages, so I save the state of the current settings via MIDI on my Octatrack, and can recall that same state whenever I want without touching the hardware o…

> Not sure how you arrived to the conclusion that saving state is "extremely difficult, or downright impossible". I was thinking about modular synths mostly, and patching cables (also: Volca Modular). Yes, individual synths can save/export settings, but if you want to save a whole combination with different machines it's a big headache; whereas in a DAW it's so trivial you don't even think about it. But ok, we are sl…

> I was thinking about modular synths mostly, and patching cables (also: Volca Modular).

Ah yeah, I don't use modular synths myself (and that reason is one of them, patching cables manually seems like a hassle).

> Yes, individual synths can save/export settings, but if you want to save a whole combination with different machines it's a big headache; whereas in a DAW it's so trivial you don't even think about it.

As mentioned earlier, Program Change MIDI messages solve this. I have about 10 hardware devices I use for music making, and all of them responds to Program Change messages. Everything is driven by the Octatrack, so changing the project/pattern on the Octatrack makes every device in my studio load the right patch instantly. Once you've setup the audio/MIDI routing with your hardware, it's actually pretty easy to use.

> But ok, we are sliding into the "hardware vs software" debate, which won't be solved here or there, or ever.

Agree :) For some, hardware is better, for others software is better. Truth is probably somewhere in-between and/or both depending on context.

Re: OP-1 field

#60
post #35

The people complaining about the price tag: I get it. But the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song. Why has no one else figured that out? With all these groove boxes etc, why has no other music gear taken the step of being portable and all-in-one. Show me another way to write a song in an airplane, and you can have my money.

What’s lovely about this post is that it follows the rule of bold claims producing interesting counters. Here’s my hat in the ring: I have had a really good time with the Elektron Model: Samples. It’s among the cheapest grooveboxes and comes with all the effects, parameter locks, and preloaded samples you need to do some great things.
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