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OP-1 field

teenage.engineering

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Re: OP-1 field

#161

Post by 323 »

yunwal wrote: post #157
323 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> see TE become this lifestyle company TE always was a lifestyle company. All their products, including their gaming device, are about looking cool. Which is why device thinness is extremely important and the first thing they talk about. Just like Apple. You don't buy a TE device to actually make music, you buy it to impress people about how creative you are, how you are not a pleb consumerist.

I feel like looking cool is definitely a factor, but the OP-1 is also about being portable and fitting into your lifestyle. Photographers will tell you that "the best camera is the one you have with you", and the OP-1 is like the phone camera of music. It's like a step up from singing into a voice memo. You can use it to capture ideas reasonably accurately whenever you feel inspired, and refine them later at an actua…

But the distribution is important.

The fact that there are some cyclists which actually need a $20k bike doesn't mean that the majority of $20k bike buyers are not doing it just for status (the famed dentist cyclists).

Re: OP-1 field

#162

Post by blairbeckwith »

paxys wrote: post #140
iamricks wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Weird thing to say considering all of their designs are clearly influenced by an American company (Apple).

As a non-designer, I don't have the skills or the vocabulary to say whether this is true or not, but at first glance Apple and Teenage Engineering seem to share little in common. Can anyone who knows better enlighten me?

Re: OP-1 field

#163

Post by evo_9 »

tmountain wrote: post #154

I owned and sold an OP-1. It is a beautiful piece of hardware and its analog controls and mashable buttons provide a more tactile experience than an iPad does. That said, the sounds it ships with really leave something to be desired. My subjective opinion is that anyone who's played with a best in class software synth (i.e., equator2) is going to find themselves feeling pretty limited by the blippy tones that you get…

Yeah I agree, it's not really a great choice as your 'main synth'. I think it's really meant to be a self-contained portable 'music sketchpad'. I owned 2 at one point thinking maybe that was the issue, I like to double up my gear (for example I like to use two TB-303 layered); when that didn't work out the way I hoped on the OP1s I sold them and both were bought separately by traveling musicians that wanted something to noodle with/ sketch with while on tour buses, or killing time at the hotel.

So I think it's a funny product that has a lot of 'nerd appeal' but at its heart it's a pretty powerful devices, maybe often miss-used.

Also - having played with both 'hardware' and VST's I do prefer VSTs because of the ease of use; aka you can reload a track in seconds in Live versus spending 30+ repatching your gear, swooping out gear, etc (and then it's still not quite the same, but that's part of the magic of 'real hardware' I suppose).

But at the end of the day the music I created with VST's versus real hardware wasn't different at all sonically so I am 100% in the camp of VSTs are awesome.

That said, you need to be careful selecting a VST.They go 'stale' and become a liability, so for example if I open up projects from 5+ years back, almost none of them work now. So going forward, I'm going to be more careful, and probably buy VST's only from companies I expect to be around for the long haul.

Re: OP-1 field

#164

Post by geoffeg »

stephc_int13 wrote: post #33

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)

I wouldn't go so far as to call the OP-1 a toy. The interface is definitely limiting but it's also whimsical. I use mine as a kind of stress relief tool. It's small, self-contained design means I can put my laptop away and focus on playing around and creating music.

Re: OP-1 field

#165

Post by blueblob »

As someone not in the field of audio engineering, I had no idea what this product is. The website focused on describing all the features without giving a simple 1-2 line description of what the product even is.

Re: OP-1 field

#166

Post by nzoschke »

ciroduran wrote: post #145
NikolaNovak wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song. Apart from... * Laptop with your favourite DAW * iPad with GarageBand or Android Tablet with Caustic * I would put Novation Circuit in similar category though depends on your definition of whole song * Synthstorm Deluge * Digitakt Elektron? * Some of the Roland grooveboxes and systems * Some of the Akai APC/MPC…

Let's add the Nintendo Switch. I can get the KORG Gadget for 30£ and make some sweet tunes. Sure, to get the tunes out into something I can export sound from I'd need to get the KORG Gadget for iOS or Android, and from there to Ableton Live. But I've tried out the KORG Gadget on Switch and it's really fun to use.

Another vote for KORG Gadget. I’ve been more successful making music with the iPad app than anything else.

The app is simple and constrained and makes it easy to write down sketches.

Re: OP-1 field

#167

Post by neoCrimeLabs »

The newly announced Polyend Play and Teenage Engineering OP-1 Field are great examples of very different UX and very different workflows to solve a similar problem - making music without a computer, creatively, ideally with a flow state.

It's very interesting just looking at how they do it.

Dunno if I will get either one, or both. Either way, I do appreciate the direction they are going in. :-)

Re: OP-1 field

#168

Post by luckydata »

blueblob wrote: post #165

As someone not in the field of audio engineering, I had no idea what this product is. The website focused on describing all the features without giving a simple 1-2 line description of what the product even is.

it's the kind of thing that if you don't know it's not for you. very hipster product for weird electronic musicians, more of a fashion statement than anything else really.

Re: OP-1 field

#169

Post by creativeembassy »

JoeyJoJoJr wrote: post #88
aa-jv wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yep, Deluge is the one and only desert island groovebox IMO.

I ended up getting a Dirtywave M8, but the Deluge was a VERY close second. If I ever get tired of the M8, I still have my eye on a Deluge.

Re: OP-1 field

#170

Post by rasz »

paxys wrote: post #140
iamricks wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Weird thing to say considering all of their designs are clearly influenced by an American company (Apple).

Last time I checked Dieter Rams never worked for Apple, so Braun it is.
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